Capítulo 39: Chapter 39 : Changes
Vega woke up feeling refreshed when the morning sun caressed his face. He felt an intense pleasure during his sleep and finally remembered his dream and blushed. It was weird. Usually, his heart of stone prevented him from remembering any of his dreams and repressed the memory straight away. Any thoughts relating to his emotions were starting to disappear. He had a faint smile, hoping he didn't forget any of his dreams.
His friend, Dion, was still lying on the bed, faintly snoring. Parting the orange hair slightly away from the noble's face, he stood up slowly and immediately rushed into the bathroom. He convinced himself that everything was channeled by the steamy warm water around him and cleaned the spot on his robe.
It was only a dream, but it felt real. It had been a long time since he experienced pleasure, or any pleasure at all. He remembered everything vividly and while he was concentrated on the memory itself, the mana turned the sigil on, and cold water trickled down, washing his hair, face, and finally, his body.
Waving his hand a little, the moisture on his body gathered and it went straight to the hole in bathroom.
In the room, the noble already sat on the bed staring at him. He had to remind himself again that everything was just a dream, swallowed, and finally found his voice and asked, "Good morning. How was your sleep?"
"Good, thanks for your help." There was still a little sadness in his friend's eyes, but at least the noble sat there with a normal smile on his face.
His help? Did he talk about last night? No, but that was just a dream.
"I meant your music." Dion blushed.
"Oh, that. Sure."
A knock at his door saved him from acting weirdly. He headed toward the door and opened it seeing his mentor standing outside the door.
"Here." She took out something resembling a chair with wheels replacing the usual legs.
"What?"
"For Dion. I'm sorry I can't do much." She glanced at Dion, who was starting to look normal and nodded. She assumed correctly. Asking Vega could, in fact, help the boy get back to his real self.
"Thank you for your help, elder. I can't thank you enough. I didn't feel any other pain in my back."
She nodded and smiled faintly. "Meet me downstairs after breakfast. We finally got everyone here and have something to tell about our future."
Vega nodded and closed the door behind him.
"What do you think that's for?"
Dion shrugged. "Probably talking about the whole coup and what we're going to do after? But," Dion looked down and slapped himself. "No! I can do this."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing." He stared at Vega resolutely. "I'm going to learn spells again to make up for this. I hope I won't be a burden."
"I'm sorry for that. I'm just glad that you're still alive and well. I will be there for you." Vega shook his head and blushed. "I mean, helping with your spells and stuff." Erm, let's just go have breakfast first."
Dion tried to make some joke to stop any more awkwardness around them. "That's so you. Let's go. I can hear your stomach crying for food already. Help me down, will you?"
Vega carried Dion, put him in the wheelchair, took out his map, and found where he could eat. The map listed a grand hall down below.
After taking the moving platform to reach the second floor. But the canteen was empty. The apprentice there guided him to go back to the first floor.
The first floor was the grand hall. It looked smaller compared to the first time he arrived because the room was now filled with people chatting while consuming a tasty-looking food. Several different groups filled the hall wearing different colored robes. Some people wore their comfortable hanfu and he noticed how their face was too similar to his mentor. He spotted Elder Yichen and Lian but didn't recognize the others.
The practitioners.
The apprentices and some practitioners stood further behind the room and made a group of their own. They distanced themselves from the adepts and the second-level adepts who gathered in smaller groups.
Some adepts didn't join the coup but gathered in a circle. Some still emitted a strong aura around them, obviously just advanced and still couldn't control their own power. A shimmer of an invisible barrier that Vega was convinced was coming from the tall apprentice wearing a bright blue cloak. It lessened the effect of the pressure helping the apprentice to be able to stand straight without feeling strained.
Finally, he saw someone he was familiar with and waved his hand when they also caught his eyes.
Philip and his mentor were together. It was a little funny because Phillip's mentor only reached the apprentice's waist. He nodded toward the elder and got a smile in return.
Nora was also there and waving her hand toward him. Her bright orange robe complemented nicely on her dark skin. Her mentor was a dark-skinned woman looking in her thirties. She wore a comfortable-looking green tunic and a scarf draped from her shoulder, reaching her legs. She also returned his greeting and went back to talking to Nora.
Some of the low-level apprentices waved their hands at him when they noticed his eyeing them. Charlice and Marc. They stood in the corner with some other low-level apprentices that started to bob their heads down after they noticed him observing them.
Vega parted the sea of people heading toward the group of practitioners and stood next to Elder Yichen, who stood gracefully even with slight fatigue in his eyes. His paper fan waved at him after he noticed the boy.
"Thank you." He started the conversation first. "I'm sorry I can't do much, Dion. I hope there's a time in the future you can practice again."
Lian frowned, hearing that feeling a little guilty.
"Thank you, master, senior. It would be unlawful if I didn't show my gratefulness toward you two. I can't help much as a practitioner, but I could try to learn spells again."
"That's good, that's good. Go eat before the event starts."
Vega and Dion bid goodbye and headed toward the long table filled with several different kinds of food. A sigil on the table kept the food warm and it emitted a smoky flavor in the room. He gulped a little and devoured the meat, the bread, and the other snacks showing a twinkle of joy in his eyes. Dion chuckled when he kept filling his stomach with all the food on the table.
"It's always enjoyable watching you eat like that."
"What because I'm a commoner?" He joked, knowing full well that Dion wouldn't do anything to hurt him.
"No! That's not what I meant. It's just that... it's… it's--"
Vega felt a little guilty looking at his friend's lack of words. He had never seen this side and put his hand around the noble's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I was just trying to make a joke. Anyway, this reminds me of the first time we met, and you offered me the humunaels."
Dion finally laughed at that. The scene was weird, considering the noble had to explain himself, similar to what just happened to them.
Together they enjoyed the meal when suddenly a clear sound of a bell rang in the grand hall, and the hall turned quiet. Even the second-level adepts and the nascent elders tried to contain their pressure when they felt a growing sense of dread approaching everyone in the room.
Professor Addilyn sighed and walked slowly, separating the crowds in the middle.
Even without her different features, she stood the most regal, bearing the mark of a Westerner. Her hair was styled into a bun on her head, making her eyes look even sharper. She wore her light-green hanfu. Even though she was adept, she let herself to represent the practitioners. Her long sleeve was adorned with an elaborate stack of different colored clothes. Several ornaments decorated her hair. With her young face, no one would even think she was the oldest figure in the room.
She stepped on the dais and took the corner most chair, scanning the crowd.
Following her, another elder stepped forward, wearing the most colorful robe Vega had ever seen. The robe looks simple, with several different color patches sewn neatly to the garment.
Another second-level adept stepped forward, at least that was what his manasense told him. White dress made with several different feathers sewn together into the white dress. Her skin was weirdly pale but a little dark, with some spots on her face. To his surprise, the feathers created an intricate design of a vine, complete with its leaves.
The third man walked toward the dais. He stood at the back with his blue cloak draped over another blue robe. He was holding a staff with a glowing yellow orb. The cloak had several golden stars encircling a crescent moon. His long braided hair reached his waist.
They all sat on the chairs, overlooking all the elders in the room.
"The time has come," the woman in white said. "We, En'eidan, represent our people with the Dragon of the East. Including the other representatives of the human adepts." She eyed the people sitting before her. The guy who wore the most colorful robe and the other one with a shimmering blue robe
"All the other races agreed to join their hands to stop the useless bloodshed around the humans. Our cousins in the west have fallen under the guild's handiwork."
She eyed the smaller group of people standing on the back, standing together with Elder Yichen and similar-looking people wearing their hanfu. But instead of their usual proud look, everyone looked downcast, remembering the scene where their hard work turned into ruin under their own noses.
Dion was also looking down when the fresh memories came rushing back to him.
"Thank you, Queen Alayna," Professor Addilyn stood up, overpowering the strong pressure emitted by the queen.
The queen nodded a little and sat back down.
Professor Addilyn tsked and looked around the audience. "It's not time to divide ourselves into several different boxes. We don't have Westerners and Easterners in this tower. Today marks the day when we are going to work together to build a new place where adepts and apprentices are the same."
"Yes. I know we have different ideologies, but why? One forgets their ways in the old tongue, and their sigils are only useful for recreating the same spells they learn. The other was so focused on training their own body that they did not learn other auxiliary knowledge, such as potions to help their disciples from dying fast. We can't live in that sort of world anymore."
"Outside, the apprentices and the disciples are still at war, killing one another in the name of revenge. But instead of gaining, we're losing. Some of our members lost their ability to fight just because one side couldn't produce the correct potion to prevent any problem. Some had problems defending their lives just because their sigil broke in the middle of the fight while exhausting their mana."
"This has to stop." Addilyn gave off pressure making even the second-level adept flinch. "I thank the elders and the En'eidan, the dwarves, and the sirens who helped build a new place where no one is going to be equal under the tower. But our journey is still long. Before we actually reached the equality, we hoped for. We have to work together to stop a useless war."
"This tower is built under the banner of four races combining their own power, but we still won't win against the authority of the guild."
"So, apprentices and disciples, use all the resources you can get from the free library to go outside and explore. You don't belong to the tower, but you can use our library freely. Share it with any friends you make along the way so that we can live together as one."
"All the elders can't go out from outside the tower because the guild will send a stronger force to retaliate, but you can."
"The elders have their own understanding of their own paths. That goes to my point of how the tower works."
From the speech, Vega learned the tower adopted similar measures like how the practitioners guarded their knowledge. But unlike them, the points system replaced the original coins, and only the apprentices that contribute can get their knowledge.
Professor Addilyn talked on and on about some of the rules and divisions in the tower. Vega promised himself to explore the outside world without limit.
After the speech was over, the tower buzzed with murmurs.
Vega returned Dion, and they went back to their room to discuss his future.
In the room, together, they discussed the whole range of changes happening because of the coup.
Dion looked at Vega with a serious face. "Vega, I know the changes are hard. But are you serious about helping me when we explore outside? Because if not, I could stay here until I learned to take care of myself. I don't want to be a burden on you or your path. I'll take up spells again and learn how to move with my own power. So what do you think I should do?"
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