Chapter 133 - One Week Before Sylvamir

Chapter 133: 133 - One Week Before Sylvamir

The question sounded more complicated than it actually was. Margaret had never owed Adrien complete honesty.

They knew each other, had spoken several times and had helped one another when circumstances threw them together, though their relationship had never reached the point where either was expected to lay out everything they were doing.

That was not what bothered him. The real question was: why had Margaret been helping Aurelian?

She knew the royal family better than anyone outside the palace ever could, having grown up surrounded by her father, her brother, her sister and the King’s wives, living every day inside the same castle where those loyalties, ambitions and rivalries took shape.

If anyone understood Aurelian it was Margaret, and she had warned Adrien about him herself. He still remembered that conversation clearly.

Margaret had never called her brother an enemy or accused him of anything specific, yet the message came through plainly enough: be careful around him.

Aurelian was dangerous, and Adrien’s own instincts said the same. His previous life had taught him to recognise people who were always thinking several moves ahead, and Aurelian had given him that impression from their first real conversation.

The man came across as calm, reasonable and often helpful, which made him harder to read rather than easier. Now he was removing houses that had drifted from the Crown, and from Clairmont’s position that was not necessarily bad news.

If some of those houses had taken part in bringing Alaric down, Adrien had no reason to complain while they vanished one after another. Still, Margaret helping her brother after warning Adrien about him was worth filing away.

Maybe there was no contradiction at all. She could distrust parts of Aurelian and still believe that what he was doing now served Valleroy. Families were rarely simple, and royal families were probably worse than most.

Adrien could ask her the next time they met, though he doubted she would suddenly explain herself. If they grew closer over time she might tell him more on her own, and for now the question led nowhere useful.

The conversation beneath the pavilion lost momentum after that. Aetherion’s invitation had been pushed aside by the news about Montferrand, and the lightness from earlier went with it.

Even Evelyne’s tea had gone cold. Adrien noticed when she lifted the cup, paused, then raised one finger beneath it. A small Flame appeared at the tip, controlled tightly enough that it barely wavered while she held it under the porcelain. Within seconds faint steam rose from the tea again, and the sight reminded him of something far simpler.

"Right. Mother, I learned Pyro recently too. Flame Aspect."

Evelyne looked over the rim of her cup. "You did?"

"I picked up two spells a few days ago. Fireball and Flamethrower. I’m still terrible with both, though."

Ariane turned toward him again, plainly remembering their conversation at the training field, and Adrien kept going before she could get a word in.

"Could you teach me sometime too? Since you’ve already been helping Ariane, I’d like to learn properly instead of figuring everything out by trial and error."

Evelyne put her cup back on its saucer. "Any time. I was wondering when you’d ask."

Adrien nodded toward the last of the Flame fading from her fingertip. "I probably should’ve asked earlier."

"You’ve had other things occupying you."

Evelyne glanced at the invitation on the table, then seemed to remember something else. "And you’ll want the practice before Sylvamir."

Adrien paused. "That’s already coming up?"

"One week."

That caught him off guard. So much had happened since they agreed on the date that the trip had slid farther back in his head than it should have, and Evelyne seemed to notice.

"Yes, that much time has already passed. We agreed the date recently, but you’ve hardly had a quiet day since."

Adrien leaned back in his seat. Sylvamir meant the Ancient Tree material, the craftsman Vael knew and, with luck, pushing Umbral Root to S rank or beyond. It also meant leaving Valleroy again.

"We don’t have a teleportation port connecting directly to Sylvamir," Evelyne continued. "For obvious reasons, neither kingdom is interested in allowing unrestricted movement of that kind across the border. You’ll have to use conventional transport for part of the journey."

"That’s fine."

"It will take longer, that’s all. We can go over the route before you leave."

Adrien nodded. One week left plenty of room to prepare, especially now that Greymoor ran steadily and nobody needed him every hour of the day.

Evelyne picked up her tea again. "Then tomorrow morning. If you want to improve your Flame spells before leaving, I’ll see what your control looks like first."

"Works for me."

Ariane’s expression changed at once. "Mother, that’s not fair."

Adrien and Evelyne both looked toward her. Ariane folded her arms before continuing. "I’ve been practicing with you while he was busy. If you start teaching him now, he’ll catch up again."

Adrien studied his sister a moment before answering. "You were the one who showed me your Fireball yesterday."

"Because I thought I was ahead."

"You were."

"Were?"

Adrien let the word hang just long enough for Ariane’s eyes to narrow. "I haven’t trained with Mother yet. Enjoy the lead while you still have it."

Ariane stared at him, then turned to Evelyne. "See? This is exactly why you shouldn’t help him."

Evelyne gave them both a tired look, though it came out far softer than anything she had worn during the conversation about Montferrand. "I’m teaching both of you. What happens after that is your problem."

Adrien leaned back again, satisfied with that. Ariane clearly was not, but the heaviness from a few minutes earlier had finally lifted.

For the first time since Vikir arrived, the pavilion felt like a place for tea rather than a room where another crisis was being unpacked.

Tomorrow Adrien would start training Flame properly with his mother, and one week from now he would leave for Sylvamir.