The journey back home went without any meaningful event and was mostly filled with silence. Given how long the trip was, they had both run out of things to say after telling each other how their fights had gone. Their exhaustion didn't give them any desire to think of any topics, creating a unique environment in which passive laziness to talk thrived.
Lord Canning talked about what had happened outside the gate in very little detail, skipping most parts because he was either too lazy to explain or he just didn't understand them too well. He lied about the conversation he had with the bandit boss in an attempt to conceal the little involvement the latter had in developing Elsie's poisons.
When asked about the slaves, he mentioned a 'group of friends' having picked them up to take them to a nearby town. There, they would receive education, housing, and protection until they were strong enough to stand on their own. He did not reveal who the 'group of friends' were, or how they had been the ones that sent him to dispose of Lord Salazar and Lord Ollie back in the day.
Annabeth gave him a summary of the fight with the nightmare wolf but she didn't include what happened inside the slaves' building or how she lost control over her body. She lied about how the nightmare wolf knocked the girls out, saying she couldn't remember how he got injured so badly afterward because she lost consciousness. Annabeth was able to fabricate her story while Canning was explaining his side of things.
Canning was slightly surprised that she did not mention the dark energy he had felt during the fight coming from the campsite. A lot of things didn't add up, like how her body had moved all the way to the inside of the building if she had supposedly collapsed outside. The thought bothered him for the rest of the trip as to what that darkness was and why he couldn't sense any of it when he arrived inside the campsite.
"Either she is lying and hiding something from me, or she too doesn't know what is happening to her body," he thought.
Ironically, the only person who had no reason to lie was the only one who didn't tell the story of his fight because he was outside driving the wagon. Menzine, Annabeth and Lord Canning traveled for a whole day to reach Alpane City. They had passed several towns where they bought refreshments before continuing their exhausting journey back home.
The following day after their arrival, Lord Canning called for Annabeth into his study. He had a few things to discuss with Annabeth concerning her fight with the bandits before establishing an alternative training plan. It was early in the morning but everyone in the house was already up and well-rested.
Everyone except Annabeth that is.
Every time she had closed her eyes to sleep, her dream was about waking up in her bedroom with the rain pouring outside. Just like the first time she had this dream, she would find no signs of rain or wind outside and the ground would be pitch black. The knock on the door would come but she would immediately wake up. This had happened 3 times during the night, each dream surprisingly lasting an hour in real-world time.
Annabeth walked into the study with dark sleepless eye bags and the expression of a gluttonous monkey with a hangover after a night of free beers. Canning's study room was very spacious and had many books neatly organized on the shelves near its walls.
Each shelf had books arranged by authors, and then by color and shade from the darkest to the lightest. The books were all magical books and the color on the outside represented the element the book was about. The books that had darker covers belonged to lower level Tiers while the lighter covers which almost looked white belonged to higher Tiers.
The books mostly contained information ranging from the spells the author had developed during their time to what challenges they had faced. Some offered guidelines on elemental battle strategies and training, while others were about how the authors lived their lives at particular Tiers.
The writing system in the Alibarnair kingdom was established a thousand years ago but was very effective even till Canning's time. Every author that wrote a magic book had to follow a set of very specific guidelines for safety and security reasons.
The author could only write about their primary element and the spells they created, and each book could only be about one Tier. The publisher of the book embedded arrays such that only a person in that Tier or above could open the book.
This rule was established when a mage developed a series of spells that any Tier could use but then, later on, regretted his decision. A whole school filled with students burst into flames when a class tried to perform one of his spells for the first time. Most spells that belong to a higher Tier fail or only cause harm to the individual trying out the spell. The fire spells that were created for everyone to use worked though, but worked too well, spiraling out of control and causing a chain reaction like nothing ever seen before.
The kingdom was forced to set the rule, allowing those that belonged to the Tier or were above it to open such a book. As a precaution, the kingdom added that publishers should develop arrays for which those with a matching affinity with a book could be the only ones to open it.
Canning had a sort of mini library with at least 40 books on each element. There were several empty shells, however, that he said belonged to books on special elements their authors had probably not written yet. Other shelves contained various beautiful boxes and large orbs that would make anyone want to take them even if they didn't know their use.
The number of basketball-sized orbs was numerous and were stacked on one side of the wall opposite the books. The orbs represented a number of elements and just like the books, each element was represented by several orbs. The fascinating part about them was that there was actually movement inside the orbs. The fire orbs had different types of raging flames inside and would feel hot to the touch, while the water orbs had waves and water tsunami's violently moving about.
Near the large window that faced the door was a large table and Canning sat behind it. The room was spacious enough but Canning had only put two chairs in it, one for himself and another for a guest. There were a few plants here and there but they looked more like super dwarf trees than small plants. They gave the room a pleasant green natural feel, despite constantly staring at their deceased tree cousins that had been turned into books.
Canning's table was a clean mess of open books, scrolls, and various quills. He was just a few books, some orbs, one plant, and a few disorganized quills away from being called a nerdy hoarder.