Mythshaper

Chapter 60: Duel

Immunis Lucien hesitated on his way out, when Mum called after him,

“Not you. Sit down.”

The Immunis froze on the spot, while Mum rested on the couch after a thorough check on me. Finding nothing amiss, her gaze shifted to Lucien once more.

Lucien swallowed his breath and, like an obedient child, quickly sat on the couch, hid posture was too rigid.

“Pumpkin, do you want to go to your studies?”

I shook my head vigorously and sat next to her, clutching her arm. She stroked my head and finally leaned back, closed her eyes, and relaxed.

On other occasions when Lucien came to settle the commissions, Mum had offered him beverages, even going so far as to guide him through a few questions he had about runesmithing. But right now, she showed no indication of acting the polite hostess.

"Tell me,” she said, her eyes still closed. “What is all this mess about?”

Lucien tried to explain, saying that it was at the very last minute that Tribune Alexis decided to join him, as other times he mostly came by himself along with a couple of auxiliaries. Being from a middling Equites family, with merely the post of Immunis, Lucien had no way of defying a Tribune of high Patrician class. Even still, he overtly tried to steer Alexis from acting too imperiously, oblivious to what schemes were brewing in the young tribune’s head.

"I even asked Centurion Arata for help, hoping he’d warn Alexis from acting recklessly, but that bullheaded man laughed it off, merely saying 'good luck’.”

That told us he was completely aware of what would happen.