We stepped through the portal that led into the Floating Castle, when my vision came to, we were in a circular room with the portal frame we just walked out of. There was a door that went out of the room with two guards in silver armor guarding it. As soon as the guards noticed Elder Virion, they bowed to him.
"The Council is waiting to see you all." Elder Virion told my mother, then slowed down to match my pace. "I want to speak with you afterwards, I heard what happened, and I want more details from you."
"Alright." I responded as the guards opened the doors, and we walked through.
"Why does the council want to see us?" My father asked Elder Virion.
Elder Virion turned down a hallway and we followed. "We want to apologize, and to let you know that your family will be staying in the castle from now on for safety purposes. This is for your sake and Arthur's."
My father looked at the ground when he said Arthur's name. "I see."
"We get to stay here!" Ellie exclaimed.
"You do." Elder Virion sent her a smile, one he would lose over the next couple years. "Here." We stopped in front of a giant golden door, and the two other guards waited for Elder Virion's orders. "Open it, they are with me." They nodded and opened the doors.
As we walked into the room Elder Virion made his way to his seat, and we walked up to the royal families of Dicathen. In the room sat the King and Queen of Sapin, King and Queen of Elenoir, the three eye Pantheon race Asura, and standing behind them were the five lances.
"We welcome the Leywin family." King Glayder said as we stopped in front of the council members.
"Your majesty." My father said as he bowed to him, my mother and sister did the same by bowing along with him.
I turned toward King Eralith and bowed to him. "Your majesty."
"How dare ---." Lance Bairon shouted but was cut off by King Glayder.
"It's fine, Bairon." He waved him off, as I stood back up, I sent King Eralith and Queen Eralith a smile.
"I'm sorry, your majesty, my son doesn't know the customs of our people, we'll make sure to teach him them later." My mother grabbed my shoulder.
"It's fine Mrs. Leywin, I understand." The King responded.
"That's incorrect, I know the customs, ---." My mother covered my mouth, and I stopped talking. I removed her hand and said calmly. "I won't talk."
Elder Virion spoke up. "Alice, Rey, I would like you to meet Lord Aldir, he is an Asura sent here to help us." He motioned to the three eye Pantheon. Aldir's third eye was glowing purple, kinda freaked me out.
We all bowed to Aldir. "It's nice to meet you." My father said, Aldir nodded, and I noticed he was staring at me.
"We have decided for everyone's sake that your family should reside inside of the castle, like I mentioned earlier it's for both yours and Arthur's safety." Elder Virion told my family, then a serious expression crossed his face. "A war is starting, as you know, and your son is going to be a key player in it."
"I see." My father said with a sorrowful tone. "Well, thank you for letting us stay."
Aldir rose to his feet. "Little Leywin boy." I tilted my head to him, still adjusting to the sight of someone having a third eye. "I hear you are a Blood Deviant." I turned to Elder Virion.
"Everyone knows, Virion, the night of the attack, some of your professors saw what you were doing, and even a student said you told her." I figured that; Elder Virion didn't seem worried by this.
"I have already decided to train Tessia Eralith, and I have now been instructed to train you by Lord Indrath." Aldir wants to train me? "I'll train Tessia and you at the same times every day, is that understood."
I shook my head. "I'm sorry, but I'll have to pass." I bowed to the god, my mother still gripping my shoulder. I gave Elder Virion a meaningful look. "Is there any way I could make a request?" Everyone was looking at me in the room with either surprised, concerned, or confused gazes.
"What is it?" Aldir spoke with a calm voice.
I turned toward the shadow in the room, where the Lance I wanted to train under was. "I would like Lance Aya's guidance." Everyone seemed surprised by this, Lance Aya stepped out of the shadows, if I didn't sense her blood, I wouldn't have known she was there.
"Why is that?" Aldir spoke calmly still.
"I need her guidance in Sound Magic, I don't use it, because it doesn't really fit my fighting style. However, Lance Aya can help with that. If you want to train me Aldir, I'll still train with you, but I would love to learn under Lance Aya as well." There was something she could only teach me, that I forgot about until recently.
"Hmm, Lance Aya would you be okay with taking on Virion as your disciple?" Elder Virion asked the Lance that was standing proudly.
"I would love to train him." She sent me a smile. "With your permission of course."
"You have it." Elder Virion nodded. "Virion, you will also train with Tessia and Aldir."
"Why does he have to train?" My mother said as she let go of me. "He won't be fighting in the upcoming war, it seems like a waste of time for the Lance, and Lord Aldir."
Elder Virion gave me a weird look. "Alice, with his abilities, it would be wise to train him in case something bad ever happens and we need him to fight. You have my word that he will not fight in the war unless you agree to it, but if worse comes to worse, we may need him."
My mother didn't like it, but she knew it was the truth. "Okay."
Lance Bairon was looking at me with disgust, I know he will become a better person in the future, but I wanted to call him out in front of everybody. Your brother killed students, because my brother made him feel inferior.
"Your training will start as soon as you are back to full strength." Elder Virion told me. "Tessia is still recovering as well."
"I'm back to normal." I said plainly, as soon as I started to recover my mana, I started to use blood healing on myself.
"How?" Aldir spoke up.
"One of my blood abilities is blood healing." I told the god. "You know, gramps, I could just use that on Tess."
"If you wouldn't mind." Elder Virion knew my capabilities, so he trusts me. "Lord Aldir, maybe you can help Virion discover some new abilities, even if this is a new power you don't understand, I'm sure you can figure something out."
"I will indeed." Aldir was probably instructed by Kezess to figure out if I was a threat or not, at the moment I definitely was not. However, training with Lance Aya and Aldir will hopefully get me to silver core. That alone should unlock some new skills for me, with my ability to manipulate mana at a better rate increasing. "That is all then." Aldir spoke, and my family bowed to him and the council.
"Virion, stay back." I gave my mom and dad a smile as they started to walk away.
"Veer, don't be disrespectful." My mother added before exiting the doors.
I placed my hand on my heart. "I won't, you have my word." I said jokingly, and she just shook her head, I think my dad laughed a little. Ellie was still too fascinated with Boo to even realize I stayed back. I turned to Elder Virion. "What is it?"
The doors shut behind me. King Eralith spoke up. "I wanted to thank you, Virion, for protecting our daughter, we are in your debt."
"There is no need for that, King Eralith, Tess is like a big sister to me." I spent two and a half years with her, and she helped train me, so I've gotten pretty close to her.
"Nevertheless, we still thank you." He smiled at me, and I smiled back.
"We would like for you to recall the night of the attack, a couple of reports say you personally talked to Draneeve, the leader of the attack." Aldir spoke for everybody, so this is what this is about.
"I did, I wanted to test my luck with him, see if I could take him down, but it didn't work." I paused and shrugged. "It was probably for the best because I was running low on mana, and Lucas Wykes was able to defeat me." I made sure to say his full name, to see Lance Bairon's reaction.
"I see." Elder Virion said. "Challenging Lucas in your state wasn't the best choice either."
"I beg to differ." I tilted my head. "He was doing a lot of damage to the people around me, so it was either let him continue doing that, or slow him down until Arthur got there."
"How did you know Arthur would get there?" Queen Glayder asked me.
I shrugged again. "Why wouldn't he show up? I was there, his younger brother, Tessia was there, and there were other people he cared about there, like your daughter Kathyln and your son Curtis, who were on the Disciplinary Committee with him."
"You're right." The Queen smiled. "I want to apologize again, Virion, we didn't have much of a choice." I wanted to say that there is always a choice, but I didn't want to be rude to her anymore. It probably wasn't even her choice, it was King Glayder's.
"It's fine, your majesty." I told her with a smile, I still had no plan to bow to them, for at least a while. "I'm assuming there is more."
"There is." Elder Virion said grimly. "Virion the war is not starting in a couple of years, it's already started." I knew that, so my face didn't change. "I see you knew that, or guessed it, but I know you want to fight in the war, I can tell by how you act when I bring it up."
King Eralith cut him off. "We don't want you to fight in it, until we need you too, like your mother agreed to. You are only a boy, Virion, it is too dangerous for you to be out there right now. So, we ask you to listen to us."
I didn't respond right away, but I took a deep breath and did. "I understand." I lied, I will be fighting in the war as soon as Lance Aya helps me with what I want, training with Aldir is just an added bonus. "Where is Tess? I'll use my blood magic on her."
"I'll escort him." Lance Aya spoke up, and Elder Virion nodded.
"Virion, if you get hurt while Arthur is gone, he won't forgive himself." Elder Virion knew I wanted to join the fight as soon as I could. "You are only eight." I turn nine in four months but saying that would prove his point. "But I know what you can do now, I've heard the stories about Xyrus. You were taking down enemy mages left and right, it was a dangerous action that I don't want you to have to experience again until you are older."
Lance Aya stood next to me as Elder Virion finished. "I understand." I never said I was going to stay, I just told them I understood, so I'm not lying.
"Lance Aya, you can take him to see Tessia." Elder Virion said, and we both bowed and left. I have to admit, bowing was still weird for me, nobody did that in my old life.
The guards opened the doors, and we walked through. "It's an honor to meet you, Lance Aya, and I am happy you agreed to train me."
"Of course, I would love to train someone with your talents." She sent me a smile. "I do question why you want me to train you though if Sound Magic doesn't fit your fighting style."
I followed her as she made a slight turn. "I want you to teach me, Illusion Magic."
As we walked, images of my interaction with Lance Alea popped into my mind, the Lance I let die, then all the death that occurred at Xyrus, it all happened because I was too afraid to do my own thing, no more. Anger flared up in me, I didn't enjoy killing, but if it protects my family, it must be done. That means killing as many Alacryans as necessary.
I was told to abandon my beliefs by Elder Rinia, that is exactly what I'll do.