Alanah reached her hand out and moved the window curtain to the side. Outside, in her private courtyard, Avery was instructing two boys. If Stella was her left hand, then Avery would be considered her right.
After her conversation with Derek about the class system, Alanah had sent Avery out to scour the cities for candidates. Alanah was very strict in her choosing.
She would not choose anyone who had a loving family, nor a person hellbent on revenge. The child must have not unlocked the Great System yet, either. This already narrowed the search to orphans and beggars. Avery knew the type well, as he was picked up by Alanah when he was a young orphan.
The child must also be driven. Usually, that was hard to find in orphans. Most of the children would give up and accept their fate instead of fighting hard to make a better life for themselves. No matter what life throws at them, the child must not break. That alone made the task she had given Avery almost impossible.
However, to her surprise, just two weeks after Avery set out, he brought back a pair of boys, Zachary and Lucas. They were best friends who called themselves brothers. Alanah was skeptical at first, but after hearing their story, she was convinced.
Zachary and Lucas were from a village outside of Clayton. They grew up together, their parents were best friends, so they spent a lot of time with one another. That was before a Void Beast attacked their village.
It was a surprise. Nobody had heard of anyone opening a portal at that time, so when the beast appeared, no one was ready. The village was decimated before the beast turned towards Clayton.
With the combined strength of the guards and adventurers in the city, they were able to wound the beast and drive it off. After that, the King sent an elite team, including his own son, to track and kill the Void Beast. It took days, and the team lost two members, but in the end, the Prince was able to strike a fatal blow before the beast could disappear back into the void.
While everybody else was celebrating the defeat of the Void Beast and the Prince’s accomplishments, Zachary and Lucas were mourning the loss of their parents and most of their village.
It wasn’t long before the new village Chief decided that there weren’t enough people left to maintain their village. Soon after, the Chief disbanded the only home the boys had ever known. Some of the remaining villagers migrated to other villages while others chose to move to Clayton to try their luck.
The boys decided to follow the latter group. So, for weeks, the two boys had been living in the slums of Clayton doing what they could to survive. They told Alahan tales of running errands for bread and getting beaten by nobles for being ‘dirty.’
They never resorted to stealing. In fact, when Avery asked them about it, the thought had never even crossed their minds. Apparently, their parents instilled a strong sense of right and wrong into the boys. Of course, Alanah knew that it would have only been a matter of time before they did something like stealing. It was only natural.
They had only been in the city for a few weeks, so nothing too terrible happened to them, but she knew that if one of the boys had gotten sick, with the way they treated each other, there was nothing that the other wouldn’t resort to doing. She was glad it didn’t come to that, and that Avery was able to find them.
Avery had laughed about how hard it was to convince them to come with him. It had only been a few weeks, and a few bad nobles had already caused a natural distrust in the boys. It took Avery telling them about the story of Alanah finding and raising him up before they would even consider it.
What sealed the deal was when Avery took the boys to Clayton’s Crown Restaurant. Avery always said that a great meal made all negotiations easier, especially if you were the one paying.
The boys also held no grudge against the Void Beast, as it was just a mindless beast. When asked about the person who summoned it, they had said that they knew that a Void Beast could only be summoned by accident. They didn’t even seem to care when Avery told them that the King found the noble who created the portal and that the man had already been punished.
The thing that seemed to bug the boys the most was Alanah’s lack of speaking. Avery and Alanah held their private crystals, and Avery did all the talking with the boys. When Avery told them about Alanah’s ‘condition,’ though still confused, they no longer asked questions about it.
That was two days ago. Now the boys had settled in and were being tested by Avery. Currently, Alanah was watching the man conduct a weapon’s test, as Derek had explained to do in their conversation.
Once the right weapon was chosen, it would be time to pick their elements. This would be the boys’ personal choice. Currently, Alanah could provide the boys with water, wind, fire, earth, lightning, ice, metal, and darkness. Technically, she could also provide them with poison, but she preferred not to do that.
After watching the boys train with Avery for a while, Alanah closed the curtains with a smile on her face. She hoped everything would work out like Derek had theorized, but even if it didn’t, she had no problem raising the two orphaned boys. They were good kids.
She walked back to her desk and sat down with a sigh. This could be considered both her favorite and least favorite part of her day, communicating with her Deathsworn. She could link up and chat telepathically with those close to her, but for the others, like the one that was watching over the city of Torith, she had to communicate via crystal, just like she would with anyone else.
Of course, if anything big happened, or if she gave an order to report certain matters at any time, she would receive a communications request. Usually, no news was good news.
Alanah pulled out her first crystal and began receiving her daily reports. It was mostly normal matters, like Savannah hosting another auction next week, a noble doing something stupid, or even the occasional bandit group attacking caravans or villages. None of that was any of her concern, but she still tucked it away for possible future use.
She changed crystals and received more reports from her Deathsworn. After receiving a certain report from her Deathsworn stationed in Torith, she put the crystal down, sighed, and smiled wryly. Well… He didn’t kill them… I hope.
According to the report, Derek had created quite the commotion at the City Lord of Torith’s manor. Her Deathsworn wasn’t able to get many details, but apparently, Derek walked in with a guard. Not long after entering, the Deathsworn felt an enormous pressure that even caused those nearby to panic. Then, Derek walked out with a smile while whistling.
After that, the manor went into lockdown and allowed no one in or out. Even the trainee guards were filed into the manor. After Derek left, the entire outside of the residence became a ghost town.
What exactly did you do? She couldn’t help but wonder. And how strong are you, exactly? She got the feeling that Derek was much stronger than he led on, even though he claimed that he was strong. To create that kind of pressure on my Deathsworn while being that far away… She thought.
She sighed and went on with her reports. She would contact the man when she was finished with them if he didn’t contact her before.
It wasn’t long before she was finished. The previous day was just like almost every other day. The only thing exciting that happened was with Derek, but that had come to no surprise to her. These days, news about Derek was the one thing that always seemed to bring her something interesting.
Alanah tidied up her office before making a cup of tea and trying to communicate with Derek.
‘Alanah! Good morning. How are you?’ The man’s voice came through clearly in her head.
‘I am doing great today. What about you? I heard you paid the City Lord a visit yesterday.’ She replied.
‘That I did… It went better than expected. There was barely any talking back to me. All things considered, I’d say it went well. And I didn’t kill anybody important… Actually, I didn’t kill anybody at all. I think I went above and beyond.’ He said.
‘Oh, that’s good. That means I won’t have to deal with that deadbeat advisor, and can focus more on the Void Beasts and helping train my two new wards.’ She chimed.
‘Oh yeah, you mentioned the other day that you had picked up a couple of prospects. That’s good. I hope everything works out with them.’
‘Me too. Avery seems to like them, and he has been very excited to try out your training methods. I have to admit, I’m anxious to see the results.’ Alanah said.
‘Me too.’ Derek replied.
‘I…’ A knock sounded on her door. ‘One moment, someone is at the door.’ She laid the crystal down.
The door opened and Avery walked in and closed the door behind him. After receiving Alanah’s nod, he spoke, “Alanah…” He smiled oddly. “Gerald Torith is on the first floor demanding an audience. He’s making quite the ruckus.”
Alanah rolled her eyes, held up two fingers and nodded. Avery gave her a nod in confirmation, turned, and walked out the door.
Alanah picked the crystal back up off of her desk. ‘Derek, dear… What exactly did you do yesterday?’