31 C31 - Triumphant Return

The next day Fazio and I awoke with the first bell. We dressed and playfully sparred until Mona came to check on us. She advised Fazio on how to dress me, huffing and harumphing throughout. We descended the stairs for breakfast which, for me, was that unidentified mashed fruit and mashed peas. After finishing our meal, we gathered in the villa's entryway

Anna said, "Goodbye, and safe journey." Her facial expression was tense, as if trying to hide her true emotions.

Our parents embraced her, and our father said, "Stay strong Anna. You will also return when your time at the Academy is finished." Anna nodded, her expression a mix of sadness and resolve.

Anna looked at me, she said stiffly, "Goodbye brother." I beamed a wide smile at her to hopefully cheer her up. But she remained stiff.

We left the villa and boarded a carriage. Our guards were vigilant as we traveled again towards the palace district. We passed the large wall and gate into the area we came when we first arrived. This is where I was confused, I thought we were returning home. Our group, consisting of my parents, Selahe, Mona, Fazio and a handful of guards, all approached the palace again. We passed the twenty or so royal guards at the entrance to the foyer. They all held shields and spears. After a brief conversation with the royal guard, we entered the opulent foyer. The wow-factor was somewhat diminished this time as we had already seen it. Not stopping to admire the art this time, we continued on through the palace. Clearly however, we were heading somewhere other than the throne room which was closed. Today was Mortalday, and apparently a near universal day off. There was no open court today.

We halted before an unassuming door in the palace. The only difference between this and other doors we had passed was this one had six royal guards posted before it. With my better, older eye sight I could examine the royal men better. Their armor was clearly hundreds of very small, interlocked rings forming a slash-proof layer, historically (to me at least) called chainmail or ring mail. They held medium-sized, round shields and had sheathed swords at their hips. Clearly, they grasped the strategy of the right weapon for the occasion. I wouldn't expect cavalry to invade this far into the palace either.

Selahe spoke with one of the guards briefly who waved us in. Once the door opened, I immediately sensed the density of mana. It almost gave me a headache it was so dense and thick. There were dozens of stone arches in this room. Each arch had multiple gems embedded in them with runes carved into the arch support stone. Each arch was labeled, unfortunately I couldn't read the language of this world. We navigated to one about halfway into the room. It bore an unreadable label.

The Duchess pressed her hands on the stone and fed it mana. I realized she was forming another gate spell. Just like before, I could see the light from behind the portal getting stretched and split. The light twisted around and around until a black void formed in the center. Eventually, after even more mana went into the arch a speck of light formed in the center and grew until we saw the familiar stone of Calo City. I noticed a lack of mana crystal like we had used while gating to Gravden, the capital.

The arches must facilitate the gate spell but at an exorbitant cost. I noted more than twenty fist-sized precious gems per arch. I could also feel the mana thrum in the room through the arches. Unfortunately, I could not tell what type of mana made up the arches or the spell.

We stepped through the portal to our home. It was heavenly to smell the fresh, ocean air again. I immediately recognized the place in the city we gated to. It was a small square with a fountain in the center, near the castle villa. Having seen it several times, when we rode to and from the port, I only now realized it was a copy of the square in Gravden. This must be to improve the visualization phase of the gate spell.

We set out on foot towards the castle, flanked by our butlers and guards. Crossing the castle wall, we collectively sighed in relief, glad to be home. Earlier, the Duke had explained to Mona and Fazio, plus Selahe, would set out to Sampagnanoli. We'd leave via ship at the second chime of the city bell, at sunrise. Because we were fairly equatorial, the winter and summer didn't affect the time of the bell very much. I surmised that Gravden was heavily affected by the length of the light hours because it was over twelve hundred kilometers north of us apparently. I wondered if the citizens noticed the effect on how much time was in the day due to the shorter periods of light.

We entered the familiar villa and were greeted by the villa servants. They reported to Selahe that nothing of note had happened while we were absent in the capital. I was taken to my new room with Fazio, which was in the family area of the house. He went slack jawed when they saw the room.

He exclaimed to Mona when we entered, "This is more than double the size of my room the last time!"

Mona chuckled and replied, "Remember this is technically the young master's room." Fazio nodded in realization. She continued, "I heard Selahe and the Duke discussing this would be the young master's room as he ages and the nursery would be turned back into their study, like it used to be."

Fazio said, "That makes much more sense than me being granted this big room. I keep forgetting Dam will be rooming with me here and at the island as well."

Mona said, placing a hand on her son's shoulder, "You'll get used to it. I can already tell you two have a strong bond." Fazio smiled and nodded. We lazily played daggers, as Fazio started calling it, for the rest of the day. Right before we were about to quit for the day, I received a notification from the system.

Congratulations!

By repeated training, your Dagger Basics has increased to Rank 2!

I celebrated internally and decided I had enough training for today. I crawled into my crib and Fazio flopped himself into bed.

Before drifting off to sleep, he murmured to himself, "Why do you like me so much?" He shook his head, as if trying to shake off the emotional turmoil he was under. My heart ached for my retainer as I remained silent, unable to really comfort or console him.