Chapter 86 - Six (Patreon)

Before they finally settled in the garden behind the restaurant, another fifteen minutes had passed. A wide parasol shaded the large glass table at the center of the spacious patio, and the girls still had to finish ordering their meals.

Arien nearly burst into tears when the waiter promised that all the dishes would be served at the same time.

What had he done to deserve this? Even Will looked a little defeated.

While Arien mourned the delay of his meal, the girls quickly found common ground with his sister, mostly by complaining about him.

He listened with only half an ear, increasingly convinced that his stomach had begun digesting itself.

"So, what was little Arien like?" Reyna asked.

She laughed along with the others at a story Pori had just told. At the beginning of their fourth year, he had overindulged on wine in the Port District and had been found the next morning wandering through the Labyrinth, unable to find his way out of the maze-like corridors.

In his defense, he had still been somewhat drunk, and he had found it hilarious that every staircase seemed to end in a bricked-up wall.

"He was the sweetest child I've ever known," Sari replied dreamily. "Always quiet. Never cried without a reason. And those bright eyes of his..." She sighed wistfully. "I don't know what happened when he started growing up."

She shot him a meaningful look, provoking another round of laughter from his friends. Even Will the traitor was laughing.

"The only real problem was his constant attempts to run away. When he was two years old, he always wanted to know what was around the next corner."

"Maybe I was trying to escape from you..." Arien muttered dramatically.

"Can you imagine those green eyes staring up at me and begging to be picked up?" his sister asked.

A collective sigh escaped the girls.

Before he could make a sarcastic remark, he finally spotted waiters entering his peripheral vision, carrying several large trays loaded with plates.

Food!

The moment his plate touched the table, Arien attacked it without even waiting for Will, the last person to be served, to receive his meal. He had devoured most of the dish before regaining enough self-control to pay attention to the conversation again. Only Will had managed to eat more than half of his food. The girls were still so absorbed in talking that they had barely touched theirs.

What a waste.

Fortunately, the conversation moved on to their purchases, with the girls comparing bargains and complaining about shops that had failed to carry whatever they had been looking for.

When the subject finally began to run its course, Reyna turned to Sari.

“Sari, how is your sister Alia doing? Arien mentioned that she's studying with the Order of Mal in Jakar to become one of her Priestesses, but he never said how it was going.”

“Why would I tell you that?” Arien asked with a shrug. “Besides, I barely know myself.”

Pori raised an eyebrow. “Arien, she's your sister.”

“The last reply I got from her contained three Psalms to Mal, with several lines underlined to suggest that I should pray more often,” he said, shrugging again.

Sari snorted with laughter. “I got five, along with a suggestion that I should have married years ago.”

“Oh, I pray for that every day,” Arien said, sticking his tongue out at her.

Sari merely sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Your family is rather... unusual,” Reyna observed.

“And yours is normal?” Arien asked before he could stop himself.

Reyna lowered her head.

“Arien, don't be rude,” Sari scolded him before turning back to Reyna. “Alia is a little obsessed with religion, but after what happened, I can't really blame her...” She paused. “Besides, serving in a Temple is a good Profession.”

“Priestesses of Mal are highly respected,” Pori agreed. “In some regions, even more so than those of Sul. They also have access to some unusual Blessings.”

Sari nodded. “Alia never writes about her own accomplishments. She only says that she's happy in the light of the goddess. I asked a merchant I know to find out how she's actually doing, though, and apparently the instructors there hold her up as an example to the other students.”

“Knowing Alia, she probably stays after class to discuss how wonderful the Luminous Pantheon is with the instructor,” Arien said with a laugh.

“So, the exact opposite of you,” Pori remarked.

“That's not true!” Arien protested, placing a hand over his chest. “I've stayed after class with Serloy plenty of times.”

“And the other classes?”

“Those were mostly boring theory that didn't even involve magic.”

“I’m really glad I got to meet all of you,” Sari said, slowly turning her wineglass between her fingers as she looked around the table. “Knowing Arien has friends like you makes me feel a lot better. I’m sure nothing bad can happen to him at the Academy.”

"Oh, the Masters aren't that bad," Mel said softly.

"I wasn't talking about the Masters..."

"Not the Masters?"

Pori chuckled. "She means us, Mel. Sari was worried we'd eat her little brother alive. That's the kind of thing people say outside Wayhold. Am I right?" she asked with a wink.

“Yeees,” Sari admitted with a giggle. “I knew he’d be fine because he had several years to train all that magic beforehand, but you hear all kinds of stories about those Fract—”

She stopped.

Nobody at the table was smiling anymore.

Arien buried his face in his hands.

"Did I say something wrong? I'm sorry, I—"

"Several years of training beforehand?" Reyna interrupted.

"Well... yes." Sari looked nervously at Arien. "Everyone says the earlier someone awakens magic, the easier things are at the Academy."

“Arien!” Reyna exclaimed. “You told us you were an Eight.”

“I’m registered as an Eight,” he mumbled, staring at Sari.

“But?” Reyna pressed.

“But I may have unlocked the System when I was six.”

At this point, it mattered far less than it once had, but Arien still preferred keeping certain details about himself private.

The girls exchanged shocked looks.

"I'm sorry, Arien. I didn't know it was a secret," his sister said.

Pori had just taken a sip of wine and promptly sprayed it across the table.

Naturally, Arien was sitting directly opposite her.

Part of it landed on his face, which sent everyone else into another round of laughter.

“I’m sorry,” Pori managed, cheeks reddening as she tried to compose herself. “I really didn’t mean to. It’s just... the whole situation is ridiculous. Sari, Arien is going to be fine. Besides, this isn't the first time he's hidden something like this from us." She grinned. "Not telling us he was a Six? That's completely in character for him.”

"But that's a good thing, right?" Sari asked hopefully. "That he's a Six?"

"It is a very good thing," Reyna admitted. "Besides him, I'm the only other Six in our class. But I come from an Old House, so it's... more expected. Why didn't you request a correction to your records?"

"It didn't seem particularly important," he said. "I didn't want to make a fuss." He glanced meaningfully at his classmates. "And I still don't."

"A Six," Mel muttered under her breath. "That explains a lot..."

"In a way, it's actually a relief," Pori said with a laugh.

"It really is," Reyna and Mel agreed simultaneously.

"A relief?" Sari asked.

“Your brother is very talented. He’s currently second in our class,” Pori explained. “It’s true that he trains hard, but everyone trains hard. At least everyone who managed to stay. Knowing he had a head start with magic gives us hope that the difference isn’t simply natural talent we can never match, but partly the result of starting earlier. Of course, we had advantages of our own, like private tutors, artifacts, and elixirs, so it wasn’t exactly fair to Arien either.”

"You're really second in your class?" Sari asked, visibly delighted.

"You didn't tell your sister?" Reyna scolded. "Arien, you're hopeless. What else are you hiding?"

"Plenty of things," he replied with a grin. "I just haven't had time to tell her. She only arrived yesterday."

"Of course, everyone has the right to keep their levels and Skills private," Pori said. "But, Arien, you don't have to hide good news because you're afraid we'll be jealous. Every success within our group motivates the rest of us."

I wonder how motivated you’d be if I told you I’d already reached my second class advancement, a Rare one at that. Or that I’d discovered eight Aspects.

Even after what had happened at the Voltorey estate, Arien still trusted his friends. Their families were another matter entirely. That distinction was becoming increasingly important. He had no intention of ending up kidnapped by people who decided it might be worth experimenting on him to find out why he kept discovering so many Aspects.

As he grew stronger, he planned to hide less and less of what he could do. The fact that he had once lived in another world was different. Someday, he intended to tell Will and Sari, but only when he was certain he could protect them from whatever consequences might follow.

The Temples might not have free rein in Wayhold, but the organization was still powerful, with armed orders of its own. The mere thought of a squad of Sul's Paladins showing up for him one day sent a chill down his spine.

"You're right," he said. "Next time I accomplish something sufficiently motivational, I'll be sure to let you know."

The girls rolled their eyes.

"So the earlier someone starts using magic, the better?" Sari asked curiously. "Is that why Arien is doing so well?"

“Yes and no,” Mel replied. “Starting early helps, but only if you’re actually taught properly. You still need good teachers and at least some talent. Someone can awaken years before everyone else and waste the entire advantage if they don’t know what they’re doing.”

She paused.

“But generally, yes. Earlier is better.”

"Unless it's too early," Reyna said with a laugh.

"What do you mean?" Arien asked, suddenly interested.

"Haven't you heard of Lucan?"

"The Emperor? What's he got to do with this?"

"Everything," she replied. "Why do you think most people wait until a child's first birthday before giving them a name?"

"I always assumed it was some superstition connected to the Abyss," he answered.

"Arien, for the gods' sake, what exactly were you doing during the History of Wyndor?" Mel asked.

"You all know I was sleeping. Those classes were first thing in the morning, and Master Mathel could bore even the most passionate historian to death."

"I thought you were taking notes," Reyna said, giving him a strange look.

"Bud was taking notes. He had those fancy pens that copied whatever another pen wrote if they were linked together."

He smiled at the memory of their arrangement. They had done the same thing in Magical Ethics, Wyndorian Law, The Role of Mages in Wyndor, The Wyndorian Code, Introduction to Trade, and several other painfully dull courses during their first semesters.

Bud usually handled the morning lectures, while Arien covered the final classes of the day.

Not a single Master had ever caught them.

"That's why you always borrowed my notes before exams?" Pori asked, then paused. "Wait, but that means—"

"Pori, there's no point dwelling on the past," he interrupted quickly. "What about Lucan?"

He turned back to Reyna.

She gave him a long look, then sighed.

“Fine. Lucan...”

As for tomorrow’s chapter, some of you probably remember the short story/mention of Lucan from near the beginning. That was the folk version Terry told. Tomorrow, we’ll get a more detailed account. That doesn’t automatically make it true, though. As I’ve mentioned many times before, characters can be wrong, or they can lie.

The story is important because it both answers some earlier questions and slowly starts leading us toward the main plotline.