Chapter 10

  The three of them continued to watch the training, mostly for Cailean’s benefit. Eventually, they were discovered by Eli’s governess, Mme Okoye.

  “Breakfast is ready. Young master, the lord and lady await in the family dining room.” The older woman’s eyes flicked to Aria briefly before returning to Eli. Her expression was impassive, but Eli knew her enough to feel the brief tension that had flooded her when she looked at the girl.

  Eli didn’t address it.

  “Thank you,” he said, nodding for her to lead the way as he gave Aria a reassuring, if slightly more subdued smile.

  “I spoke to Cook early this morning, and he promised he’d make something special for breakfast today.”

  “Cook?” Aria asked. It was the second time Eli was mentioning this person, and she couldn’t help but be curious. Eli just laughed, Cailean snickered, and a brief smile flitted unseen on the governess’ face.

  “Yeah. He’s our kitchen’s head chef, and his name is Cook. I guess his family’s been doing it for years and years. He’s a mundane, but you’d swear he was an awakened with the magical food he can make.” Eli stared dreamily, his gaze so distant that one might believe he was watching the sky through the ceiling. These past couple days since returning had been the best he’d eaten in years. How long had it been since he’d savoured food, how long since he'd eaten just for pleasure? A person could get used to cafeteria servings, war rations and catch-&-cook meals, but there truly was nothing like good food, cooked well, in a warm home.

  Eli suddenly stopped, turned to Aria, and pressed his face close to hers.

  “Promise me,” he said.

  “Promise?” She squeaked, startled both by the sudden intensity, and the proximity.

  “Promise you will not like him more than me.” It was mostly a joke, but partly not. Cook was good, and Eli’s relationship with Aria was tenuous at best. At this stage, even calling it a relationship was generous.

  “What?” “What?” “Lord Elias.” Came three simultaneous yet distinct responses from the people in their tiny entourage. One confused, one shocked, and the last exasperated. Eli paid it no mind.

  “Cook. You’re not allowed to like him more than me.” Eli insisted. Aria blinked, furrowed her brow, then nodded.

  “Okay.” She agreed.

  “Promise,”

  “I promise,” she promised. Eli leaned even closer to her, eyes squinted, expression as stony as he could make it with the roundness of youth still softening his features.

  “Good, you were my friend first.” Then he nodded once to himself, pulled back, and resumed walking before anyone could fully process what had just happened.

  Aria blinked rapidly a few times before quick steps put her back in line with Eli. Her new friend. Her friend. Her lips curved upwards entirely of their own accord, and Eli watched from his peripheral as the smile blossomed across her face like a wildflower in spring.

  “Young lord,” Cailean’s voice was careful as it traveled to Eli from his place behind and to the right. “Are Cook’s specials really that good?”

  “They really are.”

  “Young lord,” it was nearly a whisper this time. A veiled plea Eli was much too kind a person to ignore.

  “He usually makes extra. I’ll request some be set aside for the manor staff.”

  “Thank you.” Eli didn’t feel the need to reply. Today was a special occasion after all.

  The atmosphere around the breakfast room was much lighter than the dining hall at dinner. Where in the formal dining room, they all sat at an the exorbitantly long stone table, the breakfast room instead has a moderately large, round, wooden table with no clear ‘head’ or formal seating expectations. The exposed stone walls and vaulted ceiling were replaced by large glass windows that let the natural morning sunlight cast its warm glow across the room. It also provided a gorgeous view of the courtyard gardens that were just beginning to bloom.

  Though apart from Cook’s food, Eli’s personal favourite part of breakfast was the company. At breakfast, while his parents still expected decorum, there was none of the formality and etiquette expected at dinner. At breakfast, they were just a family, spending the morning together.

  When Eli entered the room the quiet conversation Gabriel and Sela had been having paused as they tracked him, and his much smaller, much shyer friend.

  “Good morning my little star,” his mother said.

  “Morning,” he responded nodding to his parents before he pulled out a chair and seated Aria to his left, effectively sandwiching himself between her and his mother.

  “Is this the friend you were telling us about,” her voice was teasing, and Eli couldn’t help but match her tone, grinning up at her as he responded.

  “This is Aria,” he said turning to face the girl who was slack jawed staring dumbly at the Lady.

  “Beautiful,” was all she managed to say, before her eyes bugged out, and she turned in panic to face Eli, who simply raised his brows in response, unconsciously mirroring his parents’ expressions of amusement.

  Eli supposed that his proximity sometimes made it easy to forget just how striking his mother was. She had perfect golden-brown skin, and thick tresses of wavy dark hair that cascaded around her like glossy curtains framing a delicate face. However, it was her eyes that were the most captivating. Her eyes were a nearly black blue with a ring of dep violet around the outer edge demarcating her spatial affinity. If one looked into them closely enough, they would be able to see tiny sparkles illuminating her irises like stars in the night sky as tightly controlled mana densely saturated every part of her being. If his mother ever lost control the devastation that would be wrought would be catastrophic. Eli had the same violet ring, but it was a faint, nearly transparent thing, that would get thicker and more pronounced as he got stronger, and his affinities developed.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Despite his long life, Sela Adler Rodrigo was, without a doubt, one of the most striking women he’d ever had the pleasure of knowing. He was proud of his mother, his father too, but his mother had been born a commoner and had still risen to heights nearly unheard of in the empire on talent and dedication alone. Hence why instead of rescuing his clearly embarrassed friend, Eli doubled down.

  “She’s powerful too,” he said nodding as he began to fix himself a cup of fruit tea sweetened with honey for himself and his guest. His motions nearly faltered when his father’s deep rumbling chuckle interrupted the comfortable silence of the room.

  Sela just shook her head as she looked at her husband, and then her son, before she turned back to regard a now slightly confused Aria.

  “Thank you, dear. You’re quite pretty yourself,” was what she said before the table devolved into easy conversation. Aria’s quiet thank you, and shy smile not going unnoticed as the little girl tucked her chin into her neck and played with her fingers in her lap.

  The trays arrived shortly thereafter, and Aria’s breath caught as the food was brought in. There was fruit, and some greens, but the room was overtaken by the delicious aroma of the main spread. There was a type of flatbread Aria didn’t recognize, still warm and slightly steaming. Served with it were a variety of foods.

  Aria watched as the Rodrigo family loaded different items onto the flatbread before rolling the collection up and into a neat little bread-wrapped bundle and then eating it. With their hands. Aria couldn’t believe her eyes.

  “When was the last time Cook made anything from Varrar?” Sela asked her husband, mentioning the region he grew up in, and the province where the Alvaro – the 5th step noble house he was born into – resided.

  Gabriel simply shook his head as he bit into the burrito, savouring the familiar flavours and thanking his lucky stars that Cook’s family had agreed to move from the region’s capital, Adler, to the town of Lira when Gabriel and Sela had decided to raise their family outside the city.

  Noticing Aria struggling with the unfamiliar process, but entirely unwilling to ask for help, or acknowledge the struggle, Eli chuckled. He recognized a side of her that apparently remained consistent, no matter how old she was or which timeline she lived in.

  “Would you like some help?” He whispered. The affronted, almost betrayed look she gave him turned his chuckle into a full-blown laugh before he put down his own burrito to help her wrap her meal.

  “Here, like this,” Eli said patiently showing her the steps, and having her complete them after him. Her smile was radiant as she stared at the slightly misshapen lump that sat on her plate. Then she was offered a variety of dips and add-ons that made her wonder if the family had some sort of magic that kept their hands clean with how sticky hers seemed to be getting. She did her best to follow along, and though she knew she was making a mess, nobody scolded her or made her feel stupid.

  Aria watched them all in wonder. The warmth, the gentle teasing. So, families could be like this too?

  Sela leaned in with maternal interest, asking Aria polite questions: about her age, her schooling, her work with deliveries. At first, Aria’s answers were clipped, cautious. But the warmth never wavered, and slowly, her reserve melted.

  Eli sat back, grinning at the sight.

  As they munched on fruit in the aftermath of Chef’s masterpiece, conversations were light and the atmosphere peaceful. Such good things weren’t meant to last for Eli, however.

  “A handcart was delivered,” Gabriel said. His words cut into the silence of the morning. The comment words nearly had Eli choking on his fruit as he glared up at the man.

  “That was supposed to be a surprise,” he said, looking at Aria, and sighing as she seemed to be absorbed in her own thoughts. Sela laughed softly.

  “We’ve had it delivered for you. If what your father tells me about yesterday morning is anything to go by, I’m sure it will be well received.”

  Eli had never been particularly prone to blushing or bashfulness, but something about the way his mom seemed to see right through him made him feel strangely self conscious.

  “Yes, well,” he fidgeted, looked at her, and smiled back. “Thanks.” Then he was forced to hide a wince when he thought about the delivery logistics. Would that be coming out of his allowance as well?

  The family wasn’t poor by any means, but he would need his own money, unattached from his family’s wealth, in order to fund some of the projects he had in mind for the future. He added ‘make money’ to his growing list of things he needed to start working on right away. Right up there with, gain world defying physical and magical strength, procure and reverse engineer clandestine alien information and technology, secure Aria, and ‘build an army’. The list went on.

  He sighed as he thought of the long path ahead of him. Well, there was nothing for it, he just had to chip away at one thing at a time.

  “Father,” he called. “Could we start training in the evenings?”

  The table went silent as his father’s heavy gaze peered into him.

  “Instead of mornings?” His father’s tone was neutral to the untrained ear, but Eli could hear the hints of disapproval at the edges.

  “No, before breakfast and after dinner?” He half asked, half clarified. There was another timeless silence as his father digested the words. Then he nodded once.

  “Not everyday. You’re still young, and I have duties,” Gabriel agreed.

  “Thanks.” Eli grinned. “Also, there’s someone I want to show you.”

  Gabriel’s expression didn’t change but his eyes flicked from his son, to Aria, to his wife, then back to Eli before he nodded once more, and resumed his contemplative silence while he finished his tea.

  As plates were cleared, Sela gave Eli a knowing look. “You didn’t forget about your extra lessons, did you?”

  Eli shook his head. “Of course not. Aria can stay, right?”

  Aria, very full, and barely paying attention was startled from her absent musing when she heard her name. She just stared at him with those big, hazel eyes.

  “Study with me,” he prompted. “It’ll be fun.”

  “You want me to… study with you?” he pointed first at herself, and then at him. Eli nodded.

  “Mother?” He asked. Sela smiled.

  “Yes, of course she can stay.” She shook her head at her son’s antics, but truly she didn’t mind. She would use it to help Eli review his basics. Eli smiled at his mom before turning back to the speechless girl sitting beside him.

  “I promised we’d spend the whole day together, didn’t I,” he said.

  She had remembered him saying something like that the day before. But she hadn’t understood what he’d meant by it. And deep down, she hadn’t really believed him. She blinked hard, her mind spinning as she tried so process exactly what was happening. Would they really let her study with the young lord of the Rodrigo Family?

  “I know my letters, and my numbers,” she said.

  “I’m sure you do.” Eli smiled gently. “Do you know anything about magic?”

  Aria froze, an expression of wonder flashing across her face despite herself. “…Magic?”

  Eli leaned close. “We’re going to the magic room.”

  Her attempt at composure failed and a twitchy grin refused to leave her face as she whispered, “Magic room?”

  “Mother, Father?”

  “You’re dismissed.” Gabriel excused them, his wife also getting up to lead the two eager children out of the room.

  As they left, Gabriel’s attendant arrived, watching the procession exit the room, before offering the lady a short bow, and bowing once more when he reached Gabriel.

  “My lord, it is refreshing to see the young master acting so… young.”

  Gabriel pushed back from the table, attendants moving in to clear his place. From his seat, his eyes followed the children’s retreating forms.

  “My son has been quite isolated,” he said evenly. “Perhaps this Aria will be good for him.”

  He touched the edge of Sela’s empty seat, fingers lingering and voice low. “It is good to not be alone.”

  The aide inclined his head. “Wiser words, my lord,” he said before gesturing to the door. “Shall we?”

  “Let’s.”