Capítulo 6: Chapter 5: Everbright (1)
Noble Everbright, the west duke of the Six Stars that safeguard the kingdom of Aletera. Each star represents a vast fortress city that surrounds Aletera's inner capital, and House Everbright ruled over Amaranth. Vassals of other nobility pledge their swords to Everbright ranging from local Marquess, Earls, Viscounts, and Barons.
All follow the Duke and practice Noblesse Oblige as enforced by law. To be a noble was to carry the power to shield the last dredges of humanity against the encroaching black fog and the blighted denizens, the monstrosities, that roam within.
From the moment she was born Annette Everbright understood the burden of responsibility. It was her family's duty to maintain Aletera's west front, and that meant a steep upbringing as a member of her family's direct line. She was the youngest child of two older brothers constantly participating and gaining experience at Amaranth's front line.
Her eldest brother was deemed the successor of House Everbright, but that didn't mean no expectations fell on her and her second eldest brother.
Training was harsh, and childhood memories consisted of many bitter days, but not all.
Thoughts of a bedridden father filled Anette's mind.
Father was the one who doted on her most while mother took the family's reins. Father's health had declined from a near fatal battlefield injury he sustained from saving her mother from a moment of carelessness. Mother blamed herself heavily and grew stricter and stricter as father's condition deteriorated with blight, a disease carried by the denizens of the black fog. The best efforts of healers could merely slow the process, not cure it.
It's been ten years, and Annette could never recall her mother smiling since. Rather, she drove her children to be the best without exception.
Duke Everbright had been the lynchpin and anchor of Amaranth as a whole. His strength was sorely missed, and Duchess Everbright had to do her best to fill the void until their children could grow up and take their father's place.
Annette thought differently.
After numerous years of failure, mother had already lost hope in father recovering from blight, but Annette was stubborn to the point of obsession to seek out a cure. She was fourteen years old and her antics had often got her scammed, the most recent of which had her under house arrest. She'd tried to feed her father an all-purpose healing tonic that did little more than wet one's palate. Needless to say, it was a concoction of normal water mixed with the nectar of an exotic and yellow fruit. It was an utter waste, and mother had been far from pleased with its exorbitant price.
Annette pulled the hood of her cloak down further over her head.
She'd snuck out of House Everbright with her handmaiden Mary.
Her father's condition was at its worst, and the healers agreed that it wouldn't be long before death would claim him. Everyone acted as if the end was inevitable, and that's why Annete couldn't bear it. Any chance she'd get, she'd take.
She avoided Amaranth's central areas for fear of her mother's aides catching wind of her breaking house arrest. She inevitably tried her luck in the north market area closest to the slums. Her mother would never think she'd go there to search for a cure as it was unlikely that anyone skilled enough lived there.
Expectedly, the request she'd posted on the market board was left untouched. That was until Noah came along and didn't hesitate to take it. He was wearing worn rags with holes at the seams, but he was clean and smelled pleasantly earthy rather than foul.
Clean or not, Noah was a slum boy. That much was for sure, and Annette's escort Mary could not just let someone clearly ignorant take up an infeasible request.
Mary grabbed him, but far from showing abject fear and panic at Mary's sharp gaze, Noah appeared unruffled.
Annette found it all too suspicious.
Noah was well spoken, perhaps educated? It was something you wouldn't expect from the lower class, and more importantly, there were no inflections in his tone when he indicated that he would take her request.
Intrigued, and pressured by time, Annette indulged Noah, but was interrupted in the process while coming to a suitable terms. What was worse was that Noah made off with her sole request letter!
As Annette was under house arrest, she'd lost access to her family's resources. That request paper was all she had, so it was no wonder that she and Mary trailed after Noah and the young girl clinging to him.
Everything changed from that point on.
The series of events that transpired occurred in a flurry, but that wasn't what was important.
Annette had seen something that no one present could explain.
A magic that was like a curtain of warm light poured down on an injured boy that should have died.
Annette shuddered all at once.
If it was the magic of that light then…her father too?
Annette thought back to how Noah had taken her request paper, and it dawned on her that his words became exceedingly credible if he were a rare gemstone and holder of a unique magic.
"Mary," Annette said urgently when Noah collapsed over John, and Leah came running towards them.
"Understood," Mary said, stepping forward.
For the first time, Mary too had seen a possibility, and that was why she narrowed her eyes to something fierce when she noticed a group of vagrants moving towards Noah.
A thin sheen of blue aura encompassed Mary's legs, the telltale signs of magic augmentation. With a step, she appeared between the vagrants and Noah.
They paused, staring at Mary in bewilderment, but it didn't last long.
Mary resolutely pulled off her cloak and revealed the symbol of the White Wolf emblazoned on the plate armor she wore beneath.
"This is a matter of House Everbright," Mary declared, directly warning the vagrants off. The silver of her sword's blade glinted as she drew it half-an-inch from its sheath. "Do not test me. I detest the smell of blood, but I am not adverse to spilling it."
The vagrants no longer hesitated, and resolutely fled back into the slums. Magic users who imbue power into their swords and bodies were known as Knights, and Knights were humanities foremost powers.
A Knight on his or her own could easily slaughter dozens with a flick of an aura sword, let alone Mary who rose through the ranks to become Annette's handmaiden.
Mary grunted as she sheathed her sword before turning her attention back to Noah.
Noah was the primary target of interest, but Mary knew that Annette didn't want her to just secure Noah alone.
For her frosty exterior, Annette was surprisingly soft hearted. You could blame it all on her upbringing. She'd inherited her mother's icy expression, but retained her father's warmth.
Mary smiled subtly. She'd turned sixteen this year and she practically viewed Annette as a younger sister. She understood Mary's intentions even without words.
Mary moved to acquire Noah and John, but was quickly met with an awkward standoff.
"NO!"
Leah ran between Mary and her brothers with bloodshot eyes and panicked determination.
Frowning, Mary tried to think of a proper course of action, but was met with even more resistance before she could even get a word in.
"Leah said no!" Leah shouted again, tensing more and more at Mary's approach.
Mary knit her brows before she shook her head. She didn't have the patience to negotiate with a child when she and her lady were in the midst of an unsanctioned outing. She was already risking quite a bit by exposing Everbright's symbol, but her lady's wishes came first before anything else.
"No touch! NO TOUCH!" Leah screamed desperately.
Leah shoved Mary, but was unable to even budge Mary's leg and only ended up pressing her face against Mary's thigh, cheeks flushing with effort. Still, Leah kept fighting in vain.
Mary's consciousness chipped at the pitiful sight. Finally, she spoke.
"We're just trying to help-"
"Bad! Bad!" Leah would have none of it. She was sobbing now, Mary evidently a villain in this bizarre spectacle. "Away! Away!"
Mary became more and more aware of the judging looks on her. Her eyes twitched, flustered at the blank look Annette was sending her. The embarrassment gave rise to a moment of inattention.
Without warning, Leah suddenly climbed onto Mary's arm and aimed at Mary's unarmoured hand. She bit down on Mary's fingers, causing her impassive features to break as she yelped like a little girl.
"She's feral!" Mary threw Leah off.
Leah snarled and bared her fangs.
"Do words not get through to your head?!" Mary grew red-faced, staring dumbfoundedly on the teeth marks over her fingers. "Can't you just listen?!"
It wasn't as if Mary and Annette were going to abandon Leah after taking away Noah and John from her.
Mary glared and finally just ignored Leah. Considering Leah's stubbornness, Mary wouldn't be surprised if Leah followed after them. In the end, all three would come anyway.
So, if words are useless, just act.
Mary pushed past Leah and finally managed to lay her hands on both John and Noah.
"LEAH SAID NOOOO!"
The hairs on the back of Mary's neck suddenly stood on end, a great force smashing into her side and throwing her though the air. In her shock, she'd released John and Noah, but she quickly found the source of her rapid acceleration.
A geyser of water had abruptly formed in the air around Leah and attacked her, a silver aura flickering like a torch around Leah indicative of a magic awakening.
Mary crashed into the brick wall of a building, and was quickly buried under rubble when the wall collapsed on top of her.
"Another gemstone…?" Annette said blankly, looking from Noah then to Leah. Now that she looked closer, the resemblance between all three was uncanny. A family?
Leah wobbled and woozily made her way to Noah and John, stubbornly murmuring 'no touch' even as she collapsed from an onset of magic exhaustion; a commonality among first-time magic users.
"Mary, are you okay?" Annette turned and called out to the rubble of the destroyed wall.
With a burst of her own magic energy, Mary wordlessly climbed out of the rubble, tossing a gold coin at the building's owner who came yelling at her. The building owner shut his mouth, stared at the gold coin, and nodded his head.
Mary didn't even bother to react when the owner saw the symbol of the White Wolf on her armor and realized he'd yelled at a Knight of Everbright.
Right now, Mary was too dizzy and ashamed. To be pushed back by a little girl, she had no face left in front of her lady.
"I-I'm fine," Mary replied with a stammer, voice small and embarrassed.
Quickly grabbing John, Noah, and Leah into her arms, Mary secretly escorted Annette back to House Everbright with a blushing face.
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