264: Interlude
Frederick sat in his office, frustrated with the turn of events that had played out, and furious with his staff member Cain, who instigated this whole ordeal. He’d tried his best to mitigate the damage by sending multiple people to the orphanage to try and clean it up, but they took it upon themselves to still be there when he arrived.
Of course, an orphan turned Lord was going to spot someone who didn’t fit into that system immediately; the level of incompetence almost felt like they were trying to make him look bad.
Frederick also knew this wouldn’t be the end of it either. He was asked to pay back the sixty-six gold, which he would this week in full, but he doubted it would end there. That was no normal group, and it wasn’t even the fact that Lord Ashmoon was pretending to be an adventurer.
The power levels coming from the group were incredible. There was obviously the cat, who was clearly holding back, but every glare felt like his very soul was being pierced. There was the fire elemental, who just had an incredibly intimidating aura.
Then there were the other two. The mage made sense, likely a powerful mage and scholar there to handle the paperwork for Lord Ashmoon. The other one, he’d since found out, was another member of the Ashmoon household.
The final person’s aura wasn’t the strongest by any means, but it felt incredibly familiar, and it had an air of undeniable authority, something he’d only ever experienced once when visiting the palace in the capital.
Added to all of it, Gilain Redblade was travelling with them, who was famous in his own right. Importantly here, Redblade was travelling with them; they were not travelling with him.
No Lord alone would command that presence. There was something he was missing here, but it was far too risky to snoop around; it was far more likely he was being watched, even right now.
He clicked his fingers, and his head steward Dravo entered the room.
“Sir?” he asked, bowing.
Frederick let out a sigh, knowing the trouble in finding good staff, but this had to be done.
“Dravo, we need to let Cain go and have him replaced immediately,” Frederick said.
Dravo frowned but nodded, clearly understanding this was coming.
“We should also send word to the neighbouring towns about the arrival of Lord Ashmoon,” Frederick said, already looking for some parchment.
Looking up, though, he saw that Dravo clearly wanted to say something, but was holding back.
“Speak your mind, Dravo.” Frederick sighed.
“Well, if I may… is that wise, sir? What if the messenger is intercepted, or they are caught as actually corrupt and then it looks like you’re trying to cover for them? Is there anything to gain by alerting them?” Dravo asked, clearly not sure if he really should say it.
“I just would have liked a heads-up myself if it were me, was all,” Frederick countered.
Then he immediately wondered if they already knew and just had the same thought as Dravo.
There was silence between them, before Frederick continued,
“Very well, I won’t send off a message, though I don’t think this will be the last of it. We need to ensure all our paperwork is in order and up to date. Do we know what they are doing at the orphanage yet?” he asked.
Dravo nodded. “Yes, we just got a report on that. Lord Ashmoon has submitted a job at the adventure guild, recruiting a mage, healer and fighter to teach at the orphanage. His group has also organised two teams to do immediate repairs.”
Frederick’s eyes were growing wide. “We need to give the orphanage sixty-six gold as well, as soon as possible. Just how much investment is he making in it?”
“Though we don’t have an exact amount with the adventure guild job, I would guess at least one hundred gold, maybe more depending on the job at the guild.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Frederick sat there stunned into silence. Why wouldn’t he have taken the gold owed then? Instead, he was getting that sent to the orphanage as well; that was over ten years of funding for the orphanage…
“What in the world is he planning? Do you think this has anything to do with us being unable to touch the dark forest?” Frederick said.
***
Outside the Ashmoon residence, the pillar of fire that had been an ever-present feature in the sky vanished as warmth flooded back out into the surroundings.
Archie, who had been enjoying the last couple of weeks of calm, figuring out ways to avoid all the pilgrims who had set up outside the manor as close as the guards would allow, and meeting up with his unexpected friend he found in Clifford and his wife Valorie, felt the warmth return to the house like a wave.
Though he had no time to process it before the front doors of the house slammed open and a shrill voice came from the lobby.
“That damn sea lizard, I will boil the ocean! Let’s see how he likes that! Give Trevor some seafo…”
The voice trailed off, heading towards the opposite side of the house, likely towards the library where Sylverith had been staying. As he stuck his head out of the living room, he caught the tail end of the phoenix as she entered the door leading to the library, large burnt footprints on the floor, and even a char on the woodwork leading down the hallway.
Though he’d never dream of reprimanding her, what he did need to do, however, was quickly warn everyone else to keep some distance. He couldn’t feel it anymore with the new class, but something told him she wasn’t holding back her aura right now, and it was unlikely anyone in the household was going to deal with it well.
This became apparent almost immediately as Archie discovered two struggling house guards who were barely conscious outside the front door.
Grabbing the first man under the arm, he didn’t hold anything back as he practically dragged the man away.
“Let me know when you can breathe properly,” Archie said as he was dragging him down the stairs towards the burning tree.
It wasn’t until halfway across the path, past the stairs, that the guard croaked out,
“I should be able to crawl away from here; get Kay.”
Archie let him down on the ground gently and rushed back up the stairs, seeing the other guard had now passed out. He really hoped the staff out back would not enter the house. Micca at least seemed to have some resistance to the auras, so he wasn’t as concerned for her.
Archie dragged Kay all the way back to the tree, getting help from the first guard once he made it across the path.
“When he wakes up, move closer to the front gate. Under no circumstances do you or anyone approach the house, unless it’s Micca herself, but warn her to be careful.” Archie ordered.
“What is going on?” the guard asked, worried.
Archie let out a cold laugh. “I think we’re seeing what happens when mythical creatures get angry.”
Archie practically jogged through the house, noting the wood surrounding the hallway was still smouldering, so he’d need to put that out, and he really hoped that Sylverith would protect the master’s books, but people first.
Thankfully, no one else was in the house at the time. He found everyone looking terrified from the front door of the staff’s barracks.
“What is happening?” Cameron said.
“Angry powerful entities, you all need to stay far away from the house. If you need to get past, go as wide as you can. Is that clear?” Archie commanded.
Everyone nodded, no one daring to question it.
“Is everyone okay?” Vanessa asked.
“Kay and Joe are recovering. I think they approached the house to see what was happening and got caught. I’m sorry I can’t say more; I need to run and ensure the house doesn’t burn,” Archie said.
He was already gone while the chorus of “What”s came from behind. He didn’t think Alira would actually burn down Trevor’s house, but she likely wasn’t aware of what she was leaving in her wake.
He also didn’t want to cause any trouble, so he jogged back to the kitchen, getting a bucket and filling it with water before heading to where he saw the smouldering wood, first attempting to just splash it with water, but it was turning to steam instantly, so he instead dumped the whole bucket on it before running back and grabbing more.
It took three trips to put everything out. Luckily, the fire was not spreading at all; it seemed to be contained to where the wood had been turned to burning embers. But the final one was getting close to the library, where he heard both Sylverith and Alira talking, but couldn’t clearly make out what was said.
That was until he put the last one out.
“Oh, Alira dear, you didn’t set the house on fire, did you? Poor Trevor will be most unhappy,” Sylverith said.
A shrill, still incredibly angry sound came from the other side. “I did not!”
“I can hear young Archie out there putting it out. You need to calm yourself down. Banawa turned around; we certainly cannot boil the ocean,” Sylverith said calmly.
Archie didn’t want to linger or be caught eavesdropping so he quickly ran away, noting the burnt footprints on the floor were likely not getting scrubbed out this time, as they appeared to be burnt into the stone itself.
On a positive note, however, Valorie’s painting he had hung up in the hallways seemed to be unaffected.