Green! Trees!Plants and water!
Immediately my soul dragged me closer to the gates. All I wanted to do was stretch my arm and leg through the gaps in the iron and caress the green with my skin.
“Wait.” General d’Alvey threw out a hand to stop my body from colliding with the gate. My feet stopped moving and I shot him a disgruntled look. “The gate can detect a magic signature. If it’s not an authorized signature, the gate will zap you. Literally.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline.
What kind of magic was this?I couldn’t wait to sit down and examine the engineering behind it.
“I’ll have your signature added today by Art or Gene, but for now, you need to stay with me.” He seemed both pleased and disgruntled that I would be his personal shadow until my magical signature was added.
When he touched the gate, it swung open with an audibleclick, the Mages on guard duty giving him a nod of respect and recognition before turning wary yet curious gazes to me. I gave a small wave as we passed.
As soon as we were in the yard beyond the gate, I practically ran with joy until I could feel the grass under my feet. I closed my eyes and sighed in relief as my toes wiggled into the dirt.
Heavenly.
“Why do you do that?” I opened my eyes to see the General staring at me in blatant curiosity.
I shrugged my shoulders.
“I don’t know. I’ve always felt pulled to living things—grass, trees, flowers. It grounds me, clears my mind and settles my soul, Isuppose.”
“Are you an Earth Mage? A Creation Mage?” His brow was furrowed like I was a giant puzzle he needed to piece together.
I gave him a small, wistful smile and tucked an errant curl behind my ear. “Neither,” I said. “I actually never Awakened.”
He was silent and I twisted my hands in front of me.
“Impossible,” he finally stated. “Everyone Awakens. Everyone.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Well, not me, apparently. There’s an exception to every rule, General.”
He hummed in thought before spinning on his heel and gesturing for me to follow. “We will table that for another time, Faylinn. For now, I will get you settled in your room. Your bag will be brought up in short order. I need to debrief with Lord d’Refan, first, before I send for you to meet him.”
I reluctantly pulled my feet from the grass to follow him into the house.
“This is where Lord d’Refan lives?” I asked as the large wooden doors swung wide to reveal dark stone floors and plastered walls. The entry was expansive, with two large curling staircases framing either side. The ceiling seemed to extend forever, or at least all the way to the top of the house, and sunlight poured through strategically placed windows. It was beautiful and I reluctantly tore my gaze away from the entryway to follow the General as he confidently strode through Lord d’Refan’s home.
“Yes,” he answered as we climbed the staircase and then turned right down an impossibly long hallway. The same orbs that decorated the long poles in the streets were attached to the ceilings and I gazed at them in wonder. “As well as myself and some of our staff. Their quarters are in the other wing of the manor. Your rooms will also be set up here, on this floor. And Lord d’Refan is expecting another guest at some point in the near future.”
I stared for a minute before replying. “I’m going to live . . . here?”
He stopped at the end of the hallway just in front of a large oak door. There was yet another strange orb on the wall next to the door, and the General placed his hand on it. The orb glowed a bright white before the door unlocked with an almost inaudiblesnick.
“Yes. As our guest.” He pushed open the door and the sight behind it nearly sent me to my knees. The room washuge, larger even than the entire inn back in Isrun. There was an ornately carved fireplace with a variety of chairs scattered in front of it just to our left. A small table and set of chairsrested against the wall to our right. Also to the left were massive glass windows with wrought iron inlays that bathed the entire room in sunlight.
“This is . . . stunning, General, truly. But where will I sleep?” I gestured to the couch that sat in the middle of the space.
A ghost of a smile played on his lips before he strode across the room and opened a second door, which revealed an even more opulent bedroom with the largest bed I’d ever seen. There was yet another fireplace in this space with an elegant settee that I just itched to lay out on while reading. A door off the bedroom revealed my own private bathroom, complete with furnishings and technology I didn’t even have the faintest idea how to operate.
“Your bag is already here.” He pointed to my worn canvas bag, stretched to its limits by all of the books and journals I brought with me to Vespera. The thing looked sad and completely out of place in this room of luxury. “I’ll give you some time to make yourself comfortable and become acquainted with the space. If you need anything, please just pull this lever here.” He placed one of his large hands on a small iron lever in the sitting room. “This will signal the staff. If there’s something they can’t help you with, please write down your requests and needs on a paper and have one of them deliver it to me.”
“You’re going to fetch me things, now, hmm?” I teased, still in awe of the space.
He gave me a tight-lipped smile, his whole body radiating tension. “If it has to do with your job, then yes. Books, bookcases, an extra desk or parchment, those types of things.”
“Right,” I said, trying to keep the edge of disappointment out of my voice. For all of his quirks and decided inability to carry on a lighthearted conversation, I enjoyed the General’s company.
