(One Week Later)
"The Council wants to see you, Virion." Lance Aya said to me, as she walked into my room. "I believe Lord Windsom is there as well."
"Really?" I thought Windsom was watching over Arthus, but at the moment I guess he would be with Kordri.
"Yes, so let's go." Lance Aya motioned for me to follow her, so I left my room with her. "How does it feel to be in silver core?" She sent me a smile.
"Pretty good, I can already feel the difference in my mana control." I told her honestly as we turned a corner. "Soon, I'll catch up to you."
"I don't doubt it." Lance Aya was in her Lance uniform, while I was in my training gear, which was just an all black uniform with built in armor.
"Why do they want to see me? Did it seem important?" I asked her as we passed two guards who bowed to her.
"I don't know." I wonder if Windsom is here to tell me how Arthur is doing. I knew he was going through hell with Kordri, being killed over and over again.
"I didn't do anything to get in trouble, right?" It didn't matter now, as soon as I figured out illusion magic, I was out of here.
"I hope not." She rubbed my head. "You are my student, so I would get in trouble as well."
"True." We stopped in front of the doors that led into the Council room.
"Open them." Lance Aya told the guards, and they quickly turned around and opened the doors, inside was Aldir, Windsom, Elder Virion, and King and Queen Eralith. The Glayders left to do something, which I wasn't informed of, probably something with Darv. The only Lance here was Aya, which either meant they wanted this to be private, or the other Lances are busy. I know Lance Varay and Lance Bairon are training the Glayder children.
"Virion, come in." Elder Virion said, and we walked up closer to them all. Lance Aya and I bowed to Elder Virion, and then looked to him for an answer on why I was summoned here. "Virion, Lord Windsom would like to speak to you."
I nodded my head and turned to Windsom. "Virion, I heard from Aldir that you used a blood ability to advance your core to the next stage, is this correct?" Windsom was looking at me very seriously.
"Yeah." I said wearily.
"Can you keep on doing this?" He asked, but I was confused by his question.
"What?"
"Sorry, let me rephrase, can you keep on advancing your core?" He asked me again, I still had a minor burning sensation around my core, so I haven't been using blood magic. Why would Windsom be worried about this?
"Virion?" Queen Eralith chimed in and snapped me out of my thoughts.
"I don't know, I still am in a little pain from when I advanced into the initial silver stage." I told him, and Windsom shook his head, I sent him a confused look. Why was he shaking his head?
"You aren't in Initial Silver; you are in Mid Stage Silver." My eyes widened; how didn't I know that? I just assumed that the first silver that showed up was the initial stage, but if he is telling me the truth, that is amazing. "So, you haven't tried to advance any further?"
"Nope, and I probably won't for a while, Lord Windsom." Something felt off to me, either he was worried like I thought, or he had a plan up his sleeve for me, possibly something Lord Indrath put him up to.
"I advised him not to do it again, Windsom." Aldir spoke up.
Lance Aya was silent by my side, but when I looked at her, she just smiled at me. "Virion, have you discovered any new abilities since entering into silver core?" Aldir spoke to me, and I shook my head.
"Nope." Why was he questioning me? The only reason I could think of was that the gods were scared by this sudden increase in power, but that wasn't a good thing. "Is there something wrong?"
I turned to Elder Virion who was looking at Windsom the same way I was. "No, you are fine." He said plainly, then looked at Lance Aya. "How is his training with you going?" Didn't Aldir tell him all of this already? "I would like to hear what you think of him Lance Aya."
Lance Aya stepped up for some reason. "He has been progressing way faster than I could even imagine, his grasp on mana manipulation far exceeded my expectations. I believe in about two months he'll be able to master illusion magic."
"Two months?!" King Eralith stood up, in surprise. "That's impossible, even for the Leywin boys."
"I don't think it is." Windsom spoke. "He is the first ever Blood Deviant, possesses affinity for three elements, and has two other deviant forms." Windsom gave me a weird look. "He is similar to his brother in ways I don't understand."
I bowed to him, sarcastically. "I thank you for the compliment." I sent him a smile, and Lance Aya hit my head. "What was that for?"
"Virion, we have training in ten minutes, how about you go down and get ready for me." Aldir instructed me, and I nodded. "Lance Aya you can go with him."
"Yes, Lord Aldir." She bowed to him, and we walked out. "Dude, you can't be rude to them." Did she just dude me? The doors opened and we started to the training hall, we passed a portal room, and I just stared into it. There were four guards guarding it, I could handle them. It was only a matter of time.
"I wasn't rude, Lance Aya." I leaned into her and pushed her. "See, that was rude." I smiled at her.
"Come here." She grabbed my arm as I backed away from her and pulled me into a head lock. "You think you are all big and tuff but look at you now." She said jokingly into my ear.
"Stop." I told her as I pushed myself away from her. "That wasn't necessary, Lance Aya." I moved to the opposite side of the hall.
"Awww, is someone pouting." I just shook my head and smiled. "You know you don't have to call me Lance Aya every time you refer to me, I told you before to just call me Aya, Virion."
"First, I'm not pouting, and Second, fine but you have to call me Veer." I got closer to her and held out my hand. "Is that a deal, Aya?"
She took my hand. "It appears so, Veer."
---
After my training with Aldir and Aya, I decided to see how Ellie was doing. I was going to be leaving soon, and I wanted to be as strong as I could be, but Ellie was right, I should be spending more time with my family before I left.
"Hey, Ellie." I said as I exited to a balcony overlooking the Beast Glades. She was shooting arrows at a plank.
"Veer, I heard you had a meeting with the council." She pulled back her bow, and let it loose, she hit the target dead center.
"I did." I turned my head, and sitting in the corner was Boo, asleep. "He seems to be pretty tired."
"Yeah, he is." She pulled her bow back again. "What was the meeting about?"
"It seemed like Lord Windsom was just confused with my abilities." I told her honestly as I sat down next to Boo and started to pet him. "All I did was explain what happened, and how I got to silver core."
"I still can't believe you got to silver core at our age." She let the arrow go and hit the target dead center again. "I guess your training has been paying off."
"Same with you, Ellie, you don't miss." I scratched behind Boo's ear, and he rolled into my body. "Where is mom and dad?"
"We are right here!" My father exclaimed as they entered onto the balcony. "How was your training today, champ." He sat down next to me and patted my head.
My mother said beside him, she was still struggling with the whole Arthur thing, my father was taking it a little better. "Good." I told them as I leaned onto my father's shoulder.
"That's good, sweetie." My mother said. "Ellie, how long have you been out here?"
"I don't know, maybe two hours." She shot another arrow and hit the target.
"Lies, she's been out here longer than that." She pointed her bow at me.
"Ellie!" My mother shouted.
"I wasn't going to shoot it, and it's not like it would do anything to him anyways." She held the bow at her side now. "I've been out here for a while, more than two hours."
"See." I laughed. "And she's right, the arrow wouldn't have reached me." I would have brought up a wind wall or ice wall. "You guys accuse me of over training."
"You slowed down when you hit silver core, but before that you were going nonstop." My father told me honestly.
"I guess." I did stop pushing myself slightly.
"I still can't believe my son is a silver core at his age!" My father was in shock when I told him, everyone was though to be honest. "You are going to be a powerful mage, just like." He paused for a second. "Just like your brother."
"I know." I told him straight faced.
"When will Helen be back?" Ellie asked my parents. "I want to show her how much I improved."
"The next time the Twin Horns are done with their mission, they'll be back, just have some patience, Ellie." My father told her. "I think there in a dungeon at the moment, clearing out mana beast." Which meant sooner or later they were going to run into Alacryans.
"I hope they are back soon." Ellie turned back to the target and lifted her bow up. I quickly raised my hand and shot an ice shard at the center of it. Ellie turned around slowly and stared at me. "Mom, dad, permission to shoot Veer."
"No!" My mother exclaimed again.
I stood up and walked up too Ellie. "Can you show me how to shoot a bow?" I never aimed one or shot one before. I was just curious to see if I could do it or not.
"After what you did, I don't know." She turned away from me.
"Ellie, come on." I grabbed her shoulder. "Big sister, please."
She spun back around, with a smile on her face. "Fine, as your big sister, I'll teach you the basics." She handed me the bow and started to instruct me on how to hold it and shoot it. It was a fun time, our little family just gathered on the balcony, spending time together. It was going to make me miss times like this, but I knew what I had to do was important.
I released an arrow and hit the target dead on. "This isn't that hard."
"No fair, how are you good at everything you do." I grabbed another arrow, aimed it, then released it. I missed the target by at least two feet.
"It's time for dinner, you two." My mother told us, and I handed Ellie the bow. "Let's go."
"Veer, you weren't bad." My father told me. "But I would stick to the sword."
"I was planning on it." I laughed.
We entered back into the castle and made our way to the dining hall. "Ellie, are you going to leave Boo there?" Turning back, Boo was still asleep on the floor where he was laying next to me.
"Yeah, he is pretty tired." She told me as we went back to walking normally.
I ran a hand through my long ashy brown hair that reached down past my ears. "We should really cut your hair, Veer." My mother told me as I walked next to her. "You don't want to look like a slob in front of the royal families."
"Yeah, my hair hasn't been cut in forever." I really did need a haircut.
I smiled as we walked down the hall as a family.
My departure was arriving, and nobody knew.