Absolute Mana Dominion: All My Talents Are SSS

Chapter 38: 38 - Lucien’s Warning

The invitation had been for the house, not for him, which Adrien did not work out until his mother told him.

"Elyndor is thanking House Clairmont," Evelyne said over breakfast, in the voice she used when a thing had already been decided. "That means the invitation is for all of us."

Ariane looked up from her plate. "I have to dress up, don’t I?"

"You do."

"I’d rather fight the wolves again."

"I’m sure you would. You’re still wearing something decent, you’re going to be pleasant to everyone there, and you’re not bringing up the cage over dinner."

"What if somebody asks?"

"Then you may answer. Briefly."

Ariane went back to her food looking personally betrayed.

Garrick and Vikir stayed behind, which nobody argued about. Garrick because he had a training ground to lay out and was insufferable about it, and Vikir because he had made it fairly clear that he had no intention of leaving Greymoor unwatched.

They rode most of the way and walked the last stretch through the trees, and Adrien spent all of it thinking about something other than the scenery.

’I have to talk to her.’

’I know I have to talk to her. What I don’t have is a single useful thing to say.’

Elyndor had put on more of a show than he expected. There were lamps strung between the trunks at three different heights and half the city out under them, and somebody had cleared the whole of the lower square for tables. Nobody stopped them at the road junction this time, and one of the guards from the first day actually inclined his head as they went past.

Evelyne took the entire thing in stride, because she had spent years being the woman who arrived places, and she had Ariane by the elbow inside a minute to stop her from standing behind people.

Vael came down to meet them himself, which by the reaction of the elves nearby was not a small thing. His attention went straight to Evelyne, and for a moment neither of them said anything at all.

"It’s been a long time, Evelyne."

"It has."

He looked older than the last time she had seen him. Evelyne did too, although Adrien suspected neither of them needed reminding of that.

"I wish we were meeting again under better circumstances." Vael’s expression softened. "Alaric..." He paused, and seemed to reconsider whatever he had prepared. "I’m sorry. Truly. I should have come to Greymoor the moment I heard."

"You had your reasons."

"I did. They don’t make me feel any better about it." He lowered his voice. "He was the closest friend I had for nearly thirty years. I always knew there was a chance he’d get himself killed doing something stupid, and I never once imagined I’d hear he’d been executed as a traitor."

Something shifted in Evelyne’s expression. "He wasn’t one."

"I know."

The answer came immediately, and Vael did not look away while he said it.

"I know what kind of man your husband was. Whatever happened in Valebrand, I don’t believe for a second that Alaric sold his kingdom for money."

Evelyne breathed out slowly. "Thank you."

There was more weight behind those two words than Adrien expected. Most people had spent the last few weeks either avoiding his father’s name or talking about him as though the Crown’s judgment had put the question to bed. Hearing somebody throw that judgment out without hesitating clearly meant something else entirely to her.

Vael offered his hand. "I’m sorry for your loss."

She looked at it before taking it. "And I’m sorry for yours."

That stopped him for a moment, and when he did speak he gave her hand a small squeeze first.

"Yes. I suppose it was mine too."

They let go, and Vael glanced past her at Adrien and Ariane before coming back to Evelyne.

"Alaric used to complain that you were the only person alive who could win an argument with him."

The corner of Evelyne’s mouth moved. "He only said that because admitting I was right offended him."

"That sounds more like the Alaric I remember."

"He spoke about you as well."

"Hopefully with some respect."

"Occasionally."

Vael laughed, and this time Evelyne almost joined him. It was brief, and the sadness underneath it never really went anywhere, and for a moment Adrien could see the whole history between them. Two people who had known each other for years through the same man, neither of whom had expected the next time they stood together to be after his funeral.

That was the point at which Adrien decided this conversation was going somewhere his mother would handle better without him, and stepped back.

Ariane had already vanished toward one of the tables, having apparently decided that food was safer than remaining within reach of their mother.

Adrien looked around the square and found Amelia almost immediately.

She was thirty paces away on the other side of two tables, wearing a dark green dress he had never seen before, her pale blue hair loose instead of tied back.

She saw him too. Adrien knew because her eyes landed on him for barely a second before moving somewhere else, and she said something to the woman beside her, shifted slightly, and somehow managed to turn away without making it look like she was turning away.

’Right. Good start.’

He had spent the entire journey to Elyndor thinking about what he was going to say to her, and apparently none of those thoughts had included the part where he walked over.

’Just apologise. It shouldn’t be complicated.’

Unfortunately, years of avoiding conversations like this had left him somewhat underprepared.

Adrien made it halfway toward an empty table with the intention of acquiring a drink and pretending he had gone there on purpose, and Lucien walked past him.

The blond elf gave him one look, carried on straight toward Amelia, leaned down and said something into her ear. She looked instantly annoyed. Lucien put a hand lightly against her shoulder and steered her toward the opposite side of the square anyway, and she went with him wearing an expression that suggested he would be paying for it later.

Adrien watched them disappear behind a group of guests.

’That seems suspicious.’

Five minutes later Lucien came back alone, straight toward him, and Adrien put down the glass he had finally managed to acquire.

’There it is.’

They ended up under one of the smaller trees at the edge of the square, out of the light, where the noise from the tables arrived as a general sort of hum. Lucien turned round and folded his arms.

"She barely slept last night. Her room has been across from mine since we were children, so I’d know." His mouth tightened. "I’ve known Amelia my whole life, Adrien. I can tell when she’s angry and when she’s upset and when she’s pretending to be neither, and last night was the third one. She told me almost nothing, which is how I knew it mattered."

"Lucien..."

"Do you remember what I was doing when you first met me?"

"Putting arrows into dead people."

"They were slavers and I was checking." Lucien unfolded his arms. "If you hurt her badly enough that she starts regretting whatever this is between you, I’ll be considerably less thorough about checking with you."

"Was that a threat?"

"Yes. I wanted to avoid any confusion."

There was something deeply unsettling about a man discussing murder in the tone of somebody giving directions to a bakery.

"Understood."

"I don’t think you do." Lucien leaned one shoulder against the trunk. "What do you actually know about her?"

"She’s a healer. She’s your closest friend, she’s Vael’s granddaughter, and she’s related to the royal family somehow."

"That’s what everybody knows, and it isn’t wrong so much as it stops too early." Lucien looked out toward the square. "She’s a distant branch of the Sylvamir royal house. Close enough that everybody remembers the connection, far enough that it counts for nothing the moment a decision is being made. At court she’s family when they need to be polite, and the instant something important happens she goes back to being Vael Edevane’s granddaughter."

"That sounds unpleasant."

"She’s used to it, which doesn’t make it better, and if you pity her about it she’ll never speak to you again." He carried on before Adrien could answer. "And because her grandfather belongs to no kingdom, there was never going to be an arrangement waiting for her either. No title to inherit, no alliance worth chasing, and nobody gets a province out of marrying Amelia."

"So she gets to choose everything."

"Everything. Which is better than what most people in her position get, and it also means nobody in her entire life has ever expected to be responsible for her. She takes care of herself, and then she turns around and takes care of everyone else, and she has been doing it since we were children."

Adrien said nothing.

"And then you turned up." Lucien looked directly at him. "A human whose own kingdom tore his family apart, who walks into dangerous places alone because he decided a long time ago that relying on people is a bad idea. Do you honestly think she didn’t recognise that?"

Adrien went quiet.

Yesterday came back to him.

I’m trying to get closer to you, Adrien.

’Ah.’

’That’s what she was saying. That’s exactly what she was saying, and I answered a completely different question and then took my shirt off about it.’

Lucien watched the whole thing happen on his face.

"There it is."

"Don’t look so pleased."

"I’m not pleased. I’m wondering how a man clever enough to kill a Three Star with beginner spells manages to be this stupid about this." He pushed off the trunk. "Go and apologise, and mean it, and then stay quiet long enough to let her answer. You strike me as somebody who could turn an apology into an argument halfway through."

"That’s annoyingly possible."

"I know. That’s why I said it."

Lucien started heading back toward the lights.

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