How many could dare to interrupt the pair?
Oh.
“Papa!” the girl cried, reaching out to the half elf’s shalwar, clutching it tight within her thick hands.
“Amalrot! Did you miss me?” Adam wrapped his arms around his younger sister, who was apparently still not even two years old, but almost swallowed his entire chest whole in her embrace.
“She was crying for her elder brother,” Sonarot stated, his ears still ringing, though thankfully the girl had mostly calmed.
Adam’s eyes burned. “What? This brother of yours, how could he be so terrible to let you cry? Sorry, Amalbaby, sorry!”
Bael’s eyes slowly slipped to the side, towards the half elf who was terrifying, and yet also acted just like this. He let out a soft sigh and thought about his great grandfather, who was probably just as much of a fool, though at least five times stronger.
“You can sleep with papa tonight, okay?” Adam called, rubbing the girl’s back gently, who continued to clutch his shalwar while sucking on her thumb. The girl’s heaviness kept the half elf’s feet firmly planted on the earth, and his heart too.
The day had been long, especially for the Malawi, whose heart continued to thunder within her chest. Before he had left, the two had conversed lightly.
“You do not have to worry,” the one they called Majid said. “My promise to this temple remains, and the Lady shall send another. Thankfully, the Sword of the Lady has been knighted in this generation, and there is another who remains close with the Lady nearby. If there is an issue, you may call for one of the other brothers or sisters and they will appear too.”
The Malawi’s thoughts remained on the ancient secrets. She had no idea that someone like him was one of those allied with Lady Arya, but then again, didn’t all the Divine have their own agents. However, someone this powerful? Even if he was completely relaxed she could feel the great aura emanating from him, beyond the likes of even the Lion King or Sully the Mountain, this figure who surpassed the title of Paragon almost a millennium ago. Did all the Divine have figures like this?
“Is there no one within our temple who catches your eye?” the Malawi asked.
Majid laughed. “It is not that they do not catch my eye, but that the Lady already has great plans for them, so they do not need these blades.”
The Malawi held his gaze for a long moment, while Majid continued to smile fatherly. “Very well, Alluard.”
“Alluard? At the very least call me Mo.”
“My apologies, Mo.”
“You do not have to worry, for though you are the Malawi of this grand temple, even you do not know of its greatest secrets,” Majid said, as though that would ease her heart, but all she could think about was how she should know all the secrets. “I will leave you with only one piece of advice.”
“Yes?” The Malawi’s heart skipped a beat as she stared at the man’s finger, as though he was accentuating his point with an exclamation mark.
“Do not make him into your enemy.”
“Him?”
“The one they call Adam,” Majid said gravely, only to pause a moment, and then his brows furrowed. “No. Even if he is your enemy, he will not go too far, so instead… do not push him too far, and instead, do not make him your enemy, the one called Bael.”
“The… half dragon?” the Malawi stated.
“Yes. The… half dragon.”
The woman assumed it had something to do with his azure scales, but she bowed her head, for if it was someone even he mentioned, Adam was dangerous beyond her thought, but Bael was dangerous beyond her imagination?
The Malawi blinked. “Yes?”
“At this point, shouldn’t you ask me what you should do?”
“If the great Mo wishes to advise me, I will open my heart and my ears, but if the Mo has other thoughts, I will respect his opinions,” the Malawi replied, revealing her wisdom.
Majid laughed. “Then, one more word of advice. Do not forget, you and Black Mountain share the same root, and the same heart. Never forget.”
“I thank you for your advice,” the woman replied, her heart pounding so heavily that it threatened to deafen her. She held his gaze, the old man’s glare evident, and the guilt filled her from head to heel, and the woman bowed respectfully to him, and after moments continued to pass, she looked up to find he had disappeared. ‘The Lady truly sees all…’
As she turned, the Malawi almost screamed.
“Also, do not trouble those demons,” Majid said, recalling his promise to the girl who had shown him mercy.
As the sun began to descend across the horizon, the purple of twilight painting across the capital, Majid’s light steps carried him through, moving with such swiftness, he almost blurred from shadow to shadow. As he floated outwards, climbing up the city walls and then outwards, the two guards staring up at him as he cleared the wall in a single leap, and continued along the road with the audacity of a man who could personally make his way to the Shen and slay him.
“How many more monsters are we going to see this year?” the guard whispered.
“Be quiet! If we can still see them, they can hear us!”
“Right, right, sorry.”
Majid continued to speed away, even as the sky darkened to blue and black, the stars in the sky sparkling. Atop one of the many hills, he settled himself, sitting down to meditate, the old man yawning, and as he cracked his neck from one side to the next. Once he was done with regaining his inner strength, he cracked the other side of his neck.
“I hope I didn’t make you wait for long,” Majid said, opening his eyes to stare out towards the trees in the distance, in which a shadow was thicker than the others.
“…”
It stepped out.
“Have you come to allow me the chance to defeat you?” Majid mused, his tone playful.
“…”
A long moment of silence passed between the pair.
“I don’t want to cut down the trees, so approach closer, elder,” Majid called out.
“I have not come to fight.”
Majid let out a sigh of relief. “I will come and seek you out in the next century to see how much I have grown.”
“…”
“What is it that you need?” Majid finally asked, since it didn’t want to speak about this.
“The Anomalies…”
“They’re cute, aren’t they?”
“…” Archer thought perhaps it regretted the fact it had come to meet with Majid. However, they needed to speak about that.
Majid, meanwhile, was glad Archer was the kind who didn’t like to fight. ‘I’m not confident even now. I should spend the next century training to face it. Ah! I should train someone over the century and my final day can be a fight against the elder!’
It was under these stars in which two figures who were considered the greatest across the lands met, there was one who stared towards the stars.
“I am going to conquer the world,” they said, staring up towards the stars with eyes full of conviction.
“If you conquer the world, I will be so lonely,” came a response.
A gasp filled the air.
“I am not going to conquer the world!” the girl said, pouting up towards her mother, who continued to brush her brother’s hair. “I am going to learn alchemy and-,”
“Jirot, could you call your kako Lana?”
“Of coas, mummy, of coas,” Jirot replied, leaping onto her feet, and as her mother let her brother go, the two rushed off to find their aunt.
“Sister! I have come!” the girl declared a moment later, her shoulders raised, her fists clenched. “Is brother bothering you? I will beat him up!”
Adam, who returned with Amalrot after taking the girl to the bathroom, blinked. “I didn’t even do anything.”
Lanarot narrowed her eyes towards her brother. “Even if you do not know what you have done, you have done it.”
Kal Uli watched their comedy routine, though his lips did not form a smile. He stared at the group, who were going to sleep under the stars, with a small army of Iyrmen all around them, and though he thought about taking them to the Amira’s estate immediately, since they wished to stay here today, he decided not to bring it up. Thankfully the Amira would understand, as the half elf was not the kind who liked others to tell him what he could and could not do, especially nobles, especially royalty.
However.
Couldn’t he remained one way or another?
Preferably the fool that he was with his family.
He had seen far too much to fall for this facade, but at the same time, he had seen too much to not consider it the real him.
He looked towards the sky.
‘Lord Noor. Lady Arya. Please.’
He hoped nothing terrible would happen in the capital, in which to some of the figures, he was but a kitten.