And now he would be leaving it.
There was a small ache in his heart as he looked around the room. He may not have had the best time in the Ascean Knight Academy. Few friends and lack of a social status left him floundering, but he had still considered the place home for several months.
He slowly picked up the clothes that had been scattered around the room, slowly folding them like his mother had taught him to and placed them inside the suitcase. A few dress shirts and pants, with a couple shirts and shorts and undergarments along with them. A few trinkets followed suit, remnants of his time in Athsbane.
Small toys he had won in the Harvest Festival, one stuffed Crattlerat lying on the small desk where he did most of his schoolwork on reminded him of his time with his family back home. Several rocks with glowing runes on them produced by his mother lay by them as well, and Craeft felt his chest seize for just a moment before he grabbed them and shoved them in the suitcase.
One piece though made him pause.
It was a picture of his family, a photo to take with him before he had left for the academy. His mother, Aethel Proudhill smiled brightly in her bright red dress, her sunny blonde hair gleaming in the sunlight. She was a titan compared to her husband next to her, Rayan Proudhill, the man having taken her name after they married, towering above the redhead. Though, he didn’t seem concerned about the height difference, his eyes glimmering with happiness as his arm snuck around the woman’s waist, a bright smile on his face.
Beside Aethel was his younger sister, Bijoux Proudhill, her hair just as sunny as his mother’s and her eyes the same emerald green. The five-year-old was tall for her age, but she bore the same blood as him and his mother, so that was to be expected. In his mother’s arms were his two-younger brother’s, the babies of the family with the same standard blonde Proudhill hair and green eyes, the one-year old twins Eadger and Godric. He remembered that they had squiggled and squirmed as they stood to take the picture, and a brief smile appeared on his face at the thought.
Craeft stood in the middle of his mother and step-father, a smile on his face as he looked at the camera. Hiding slightly behind his leg was his three-year-old little sister Hild, the only other one in the family who had been born with Rayan’s bright red hair. She was a bit shy as she stared at the camera, trying to stay hidden behind her big brother Craeft.
The smile that had been slowly crawling along Craeft’s face quickly turned into a frown as he noticed the one person who was not there.
Mona.
His mother had formally adopted the girl after Ms. Alcott’s demise, taking her in and treating her like a daughter. The pinkette had seemed to enjoy herself there, playing with Craeft all the time when he had been younger and studying runes underneath his mother.
She had always desired to become a healer.
But Craeft, as young as he had been, had not truly understood that would mean she had to leave eventually.
He had learned it the hard way when Mona had left to go to Healer School. Craeft’s frown deepened at the thought. Logically, he knew that it was good for her, and he had heard from her in a few letters but it simply wasn’t the same as her being there.
Craeft knew that he couldn’t let it get him down though. She had…she had merely gone her own way, just like he was going his.
But that didn’t mean that it didn’t still hurt.
He sighed, before he placed the photo frame to his lips and kissing it. “I’ll make you all proud.” He whispered as he delicately placed the photo on top of the clothes before closing the suitcase. He quickly latched it with a pop, feeling a sense of finality as he walked out of the room. He took one last look at his old room, the stone walls indented with his memories of his time at the Academy.
He turned and didn’t look back as he quickly walked away, his armored boots clicking against the ancient floor beneath them.
It took him a few minutes before he arrived at the cafeteria. It had the same stone walls that belied its age, but the tables were a bit more modern, made of some sort of shiny iron. The place was bare, practically a ghost town besides one which hosted his new teammate and the knight that would be teaching them the ropes.
He walked over towards them. Sir Finguine looked at him, before holding up his right hand. The amulet jewel glowed on the back of it, a slight wisp of magic filling it as the man muttered “Tempraesens.” A few glowing white numbers appeared in front of his hand for a brief moment before they disappeared, the magic fueling the spell dissipating. “Ah, you’re thirty minutes early. Good. I like someone who has the decency to show up on time. Though, your teammate seems to have taken the initiative and shown up ten minutes earlier than you did.”
Craeft looked over at Veliane, as did Sir Finguine, and the girl looked back at them with annoyance clear in her eyes. The blonde turned his attention back to Knight Finguine. “I’m sorry sir. If I had known tha-“
“It wasn’t an insult.” The knight sighed, seeming to take note of Craeft’s nervous posture. “By Miion, you’re stiffer than a Spazzlebird at the crack of dawn. Just relax. I know you’ve got that bit of tension, but trust me, you’ll be fine. Hey,” Sir Finguine stood up, offering Craeft his seat. “Why don’t you take my seat and get to know your teammate? I’ve gotta go grab our assignment from Master Berwyn, so I’ll be back in about,” He paused for a moment to scratch his chin, contemplating how long it would take, “about twenty minutes.”
He walked away, leaving Craeft alone with Veliane.
Craeft thought that, perhaps, what the knight said has some merit. It would be a good idea to associate himself with his teammate before the mission, so as to know her skills better.
And he was very lonely, having not had a real friend for years. A few acquaintances to be sure, mostly children from his mother’s clients, but no one that he really hanged out with and talked with.
Maybe that could change?
He sat next to the girl, Veliane seeming to have found the Amatan soup in front of her intensely interesting, padding the small green orb shaped vegetable with her spoon.
“So,” He extended his hand out, “My name is Craeft Proudhill.”
She looked at his hand for a moment, as if debating whether to shake it or not, before deciding to do so, tightly gripping his hand with her right hand.
“Veliane Tishan.”
“Pleased to meet you Veliane.” Craeft said. It was awkward for a moment, Craeft trying to scrounge up something to say. It had been a while since he had actually had a friendly conversation with someone, as the other students weren’t too keen on making friends with the bastard of the Proudhill family. Especially with Cenric around. “So uh…I see you like that soup.”
It came out more as a question than a statement and Craeft felt like smacking himself for that. He was going to ruin the relationship before it even began!
“Yeah, it kind of reminds me of home. Not enough spice in it though,” Her voice was still low, but it was a bit livelier than it was the previous day. “And not enough fish.”
“Yeah, stuff from the mainland is like that.” Craeft said, deciding to go with the bit of small talk. It seemed he hadn’t messed it up. “Personally, I think it should have something more like the Crattlerat I used to have back home in it. It had a nice salty flavor to it, kind of like Swine, but not as tough.”
“Really?” She quirked her eyebrow up, her violet eyes filled with a bit of intrigue. “Where are you from?”
Craeft wondered how he should answer her. He had been born on the mainland of the Ascean Empire, Ascea, and had lived in the city of Rubrary for eight years. But it wasn’t his home, not like Athsbane had been.
“Athsbane. It’s a small farming village on the Island of Fleabar.” Craeft replied.
“Didn’t that place used to be part of the frontier?” Veliane asked, a hint of incredulity in her eyes while Craeft nodded. “Don’t you worry about the Lusus attacks out there? I mean, even though Iquizon may not be the most well defended pl
ace in the Empire, we still have some defenses to ward those things off.”
“They don’t usually come around.” Craeft said. It was the truth. Those abominations usually stuck to attacking larger settlements due to them having more souls to feast on. “There’s occasionally a few that show up, but we have a knight enclave on the island, so they usually take care of them. Still, they usually don’t mess with us because it’s mostly just a small community of farmers. Not much for them to eat.”
“Interesting.” Veliane’s lip curled slightly upward in a miniscule smile. “Kind of reminds me of back home. Though, we don’t farm so much as we fish on the islands, though we do have big fish farms, bigger than the eye can see.”
“Fish farms?” Craeft raised an eyebrow at that. He didn’t see how anything but crops and animals could be farmed, and animals were hard enough. “How does that work?”
“I don’t really know. My brother works on one of them, and he showed me how they bred the fish by squeezing eggs out of the female and fertilizing them…” She seemed to drift off for a moment, as if wondering what to say next. “You’d really have to see them to know about it. It’s just one of those things you can’t really describe.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Craeft said. “Still…fish farms…Iquizon must really be an interesting place.”
“Well, it’s one of the smaller islands in the Marliana Archipelago. Finiw, Jaque, and Yuiq are a lot bigger, and a lot more well known. But it’s still got a pretty big village on it, almost a small city really. The water is always nice and warm, and the beaches…” She let out a sigh, like she was relishing and old memory. “they’re just covered in beautiful black sand.”
“Black sand?” Craeft asked. “I’ve heard of white and yellow sand, but black?”
“We’re one of the few islands in the empire that has it.” She remarked, seeming to take pride in that little fact. “It attracts a lot of tourists too, though I don’t think they appreciate it as much as I did. Just feeling it underneath your feet as the sun comes down on you and the warm waves splash onto your knees. It’s wonderful.”
“Sounds like the closest thing to paradise.” Craeft said.
“Not exactly. There are plenty of predatory fish, some of them really…” She gulped. “Really big. Like the leviathans that occasionally come around. But at the very least, they also attack the Lusus, so we don’t have many problems with them unless they’re the more vicious variants. And that’s not to mention the pirates…” She tilted her head slightly. “But enough about my home. What about yours?”
“Mine, well…” Craeft put a hand on his chin. “It’s pleasant. It doesn’t have any of that fancy black sand or many defining features. It’s really just a small farming community with a couple hundred people in it, and Fleabar isn’t the most populated place. Only a few places like Athsbane and Shanbar, the only city on the island. Still, I wouldn’t give it up for anything.”
“Oh?” Veliane questioned.
“Yeah. It’s not the greatest, but not the worst either. Just nice green fields as far as the eye can see, perfect for planting crops. A few species of big rats running around the place like the crattlerats-“
“Crattlerat?” She asked. “What is that?”
“Oh, it’s a kind of big rat that was domesticated there. Really big. The ugly things can grow up to ten feet long, from head to tail. But they’re actually kind of sweet. Love being petted, and they provide a lot of meat and milk too.” Craeft said.
“Wait…milk? Meat?” A frown crossed her face. “That was what you were talking about earlier? You…eat those rats?”
“Yeah. They’re pretty tasty too.” Craeft said. She looked a little disgruntled by what he had said. “What?”
“Er, nothing.” Veliane replied. “Just uh, just go on.”
“Okay.” He replied, an eyebrow raised at her strange behavior. Why was she acting like that? It was just crattlerat meat. Granted, he knew that growing up poor, he had really appreciated any food he could get, but still, he didn’t know why she was reacting so poorly to his dietary habits. “Yeah, there’s the crattlerats, and even a few predatory species, but fire scares them away easily enough. That and the pride lions, really big dogs,” He spread his arms apart to emphasize the size, “with big bushy manes on their head.”
“Sounds…wonderful.” Veliane said.
“It is.” Craeft smiled, his eyes alight with joy. It had been so long since he had a friendly conversation with another person. “Perhaps we’ll be able to go there if we get an assignment.”
“Speaking of assignments, do you have any idea what Sir Finguine is going to assign us?” She asked, a hint of nervousness in her voice. Craeft shook his head in reply. “I just hope whatever it is, it’s not in the frontier. No offense.” She quickly spoke.
“None taken.” Craeft would admit that the frontier wasn’t the best of places. The Ascean Empire consisted of the mainland with a couple islands off the coast, and two archipelagos. The empire did it’s best to clear the areas and make them safe for people, killing off any Lusus or other monsters, but once the colony was set up, they were only given a meager security force. It was all that the empire could spare since it had to protect its borders from pirates, and other invaders, both human and non-human.
A single Lusus invasion usually spelled the end of a settlement, and Craeft was just thankful that there was a port system active and ready to go in Athsbane, along with a knight enclave. If not, then Athsbane could’ve ended up like the ghost town of Norman, a testament to the ruthlessness of the empire’s enemies.
Craeft chatted with her for a bit longer. She was a bit of a stoic girl, showing a little bit of emotion when she talked about home, but as he spoke to her, she began to open up bit by bit. Not the first person he’d pick to be his friend, but he was just happy to have one, even if they were just starting off.
“And I’m back.” Sir Finguine strode forth, interrupting the conversation between the two squires, a piece of paper in his right hand. “And I’ve got our assignment.”
Craeft felt his excitement well in his chest. Would they be guarding a person of high value? Maybe travelling across the empire to go explore a new island for colonizing? Or something else equally as impressive?
A ping of nervousness wracked his heart but he shoved that deep down. He couldn’t let himself get scared now that he finally had the chance to prove himself.
“We’ve been assigned to guard a train shipment.” Sir Finguine rolled up the bit of paper, the small crinkling noise filling the barren cafeteria as he stuffed it into a pocket on his armor. “Should be an easy one to get through.”
Craeft was silent for a moment, before he spoke up. “That’s it?” His tone was coated with disappointment. The only train systems that ran across the continent of Ascea were located in the areas that were already heavily protected.
Which meant no fighting, and no glory as well.
“Well it’s your first mission. More along the lines of testing the waters.” Sir Finguine said. “Think of it kind of like learning to swim. Would you want to be just thrown in and told to figure it out, or would you like to be taught how to do it?”
“The second one I guess.” Craeft still couldn’t hide the disappointment, but it didn’t seem to dampen Sir Finguine’s spirits.
“See? You’ve just got to figure out this whole squire deal a little bit at the time. There’s no rush for knighthood, and those who do usually end up as Lusus food for taking on bigger things than they could chew.” Knight Finguine said. “Besides, guarding trains may not be the most exciting mission but it is still a noble cause. While we don’t have many bandits anymore as the military made sure to make examples out of those who tried, there’s still some of the meaner animals who can mess with the tracks, and someone needs to take care of them.”
“Yeah…” Craeft muttered out.
“Where exactly will the train be heading Sir Finguine?” Veliane asked.
“To
the east, to Krasnolovka, the birthplace of Miionism.” Knight Finguine said. “I’ve been there a couple times. Nice place, but can’t possibly hold a candle to the capital city. Now that place is…” He let out a whistle. “it’s amazing. But I guess Krasnolovka has a beauty of its own.”
“My father traveled there once. He said it was a mixture of ancient and new, with towering buildings with rounded tops and decorated architecture.” Veliane said. “It sounds so different from back home.”
“And your father was right.” Sir Finguine said. “It’s one of our oldest cities, but has gone through a few renovations from time to time. But enough about that. I’m not a history teacher, and you both look ready to leave, so let’s get going.”
The two stood up from their seats and walked behind the man as they traversed the Ascean Knight Academy. It took several minutes before they arrived at a large runic construct. It was in the shape of a rectangle, much like a very large door, and made of gleaming steel. Large runes had been carved into it, gleaming a bright blue with magical power, the magical symbols connected to each other to complete their purpose.
It was a port system.
Craeft knew his mother had always loved the things, calling them a marvel of engineering, and Craeft could see why. Those runes allowed it the power to violate time and space and create portals that allowed instantaneous travel. It was those same principles, though with different runes, that allowed their ancestors to arrive on the world of Kiximos and leave their old world behind, along with the prejudices of old and their non-magical brethren. Such power, coming from such small runes.
Craeft may not have been as much of a Rune lover as his mother, but he still marveled at the system all the same.
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