Chapter Thirty-eight
Gydion sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. If there was anything that he did not miss it would have been them. Twelve maids, six on one side of the hall and six on the other, all bowing to him as soon as one of them noticed his entrance into the great hall of warriors. Each and every one of them stopped whatever task they had previously been busy with and rushed to their previously spoken positions with great haste. Speaking in Unison, they greeted their young master, much to his dismay.
"Welcome home Young Master!"
Gydion pressed the base of his thumb against the side of his nose, rolling his eyes behind their lids. If at all possible he would have avoided him, but approaching the Ceremonial hall of his ancestry meant that many alarms would have alerted them to his presence. Truly an unavoidable happening. Each one of them wore a face of glee as they stared at Gydion, waiting for him to say something, anything.
"I'm home."
The battle maidens of Sidhe all, once again in unison, jumped forward, tackling their Young master down to the ground.
Gydion had expected this outcome once they had detected him and simply resigned himself to taking their love. To him, since he was caught anyway it would be a small price to pay given that these women raised him from his youth, teaching him the bulk of his relevant knowledge and manners. Underneath the mound of women that were quite literally crushing him, if only slowly, Gydion asked for them to get off. What came out was jumbled to the point of it being nearly incomprehensible, but as this was a tired routine of a few centuries, the point was delivered. After giving their young master some space they all spread out into the formation of a royal procession, bowing on one knee in a show of fealty.
Gydion dusted himself off and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to bring some semblance of normalcy back to it.
"How have things been since I've been gone?"
One of the maidens close to him spoke up.
"In the past four hundred and twenty-five days, there have been seven instances of physical conflict within the confines of the capital. All encounters resulted in the shattering and disposal of all dissidents."
Gydion simply nodded his head. He hadn't actually asked because he wanted to know, but simply give off the impression that he wasn't here for one purpose. Not that that would be a bad thing of course. It's just that he didn't want unnecessary inquiries into his current assignment as it had been kept quiet at the behest of his father to the King. Of course, anyone with eyes and enough time, which most of the denizens had in spades, could take a moment to realize what was actually happening. Thankfully the majority of the populace was too taken by their own imaginations to lend attention to the affairs of the main domain.
"I see. Is the Warmaster home? I have something I'd like to ask him."
The Maidens looked at one another, shaking their heads.
"I see. I'll go to his chambers then and wait for him. You all are free to leave, I'm sure you have many duties to attend to now that you've been freed from teaching me."
A collective giggle with whispered words between one another was all Gydion could hear from them in the aftermath of his statement which caused his ears to turn red out of embarrassment.
"You say that is if it was a burden on us to raise you. Sometimes you still show yourself to be a Foolish child… While it may have been a significant departure from our duties as the Old crows of the Queen of demons, we loved you as you were created from the fallen heroes enshrined here in this hall and so were not at all displeased when Master Lugh asked us to nurse you into being. Well behaved and studious, you proved to us that you had and have what it takes to honor our people."
"Hmph…"
With his head down, Gydion skirted away from them.
~Don't say things like that assuming I'll know how to respond…!~
"I-I'm headed off to my father's chambers!"
The Maidens bowed courteously as the Young master departed, only breaking apart their formation once he left their sight.
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The Warmaster chambers were just as Gydion remembered them. A bed large enough to comfortably fit five of him draped in the trophies of many hunts, a forge on the opposite side where the finest weapons of all the Tuatha were made, and finally a Mirror that spanned the entirety of the farside wall that showed the world that they had been excised from. The true world where his ancestors tended to the land in a now unthinkable state of peace.
"It's like I didn't even leave…"
Gydion walked over to the forge, touching the various tools as if recalling fond memories of old. It was here where he forged his first weapons. Though they were failures, it taught him the importance of not giving up. He smirked at the thought and left the area for the bed. In one leap he landed belly first on the covers. There he lay, feeling the magical comfort of the sheets seep into his body.
The Fairies had no need for things like sleeping, breathing, and eating, but these things still provided a plethora of benefits to them not unlike a hobby. So it's no wonder that the bedsheets themselves were actually imbued with natural energy, something that Gydion could only now realize after spending his time with Suzuka and Tryamon.
"I don't know when He'll be back so I suppose I'll just nap here."
Gydion yawned and closed his eyes, drifting off into a dream state in but a moment afterward. The world of his dreams was just as lawless as the abyss with the many and varied paths leading to thought strings, and unconscious thoughts. It was like floating through a river that had streams flowing down from a thousand tiny pools, each with its own unique instances that set them apart. At the center was the greater unconscious that operated underneath the surface of Gydions personality.
In the center of it, all scenes from the past played out one after another. In the current scene…
"Keep your stance proper! Failing to have proper footing during combat is like an invitation for your opponent to strike a lethal blow!"
A residual memory from when One of the maidens instructed him on the importance of grounding one's self in combat.
And in another…
"This is the world we've lost, Gydion. Those of home you composite fought and perished trying to defend this land, and you will be the one to reclaim it back from the savage beasts who dared to bite the hand that fed them."
In this one, Lugh showed Gydion via the Mirror inside his chambers the true outside world. The one that lies outside the abyss and the hidden domains that the Fae still held onto dearly.
~This is when I learned of the atrocities committed by the Demon species that Suzuka belonged to. The destruction of the earth; the slaughtering of billions of both human and Fae origin. The fact that she and her kind were made of a vile union with a foreign entity whose nature was that of ruin.~
His mind lingered in the stream of thought a little longer than the rest as remembrance forced the point to stick.
Another memory tied to the last…
"So you will fight, you will kill, and you will die for our people. In your death, you will lay the ground for the revival of not only our species but the planet itself."
In whatever place that could be equated to the heart, Gydion shuddered at the idea. His life mission had been so clear before the most recent events. The demons of the plague star union were to be destroyed, yet now it was his sworn duty by the highest authorities to guard one of them.
~...Why then! Why is she everything but the enemy I've been told about! If it weren't for my thoughtlessness, she wouldn't even harbor any suspicion toward me!~
The calm river turned red like his flaming hair, frothing to the boiling point and beyond, spilling over into the calm void of his mind. The contradiction ate at him like so every time he closed his eyes. So much so that he avoided sleeping entirely until this point.
Physically, his body began to heat up to such a degree that the sheets of the bed had caught fire, rending both the bed and his clothing naught but ashes.
Still, his body raged in his unconscious state, coming to a point where one of the maidens who routinely maintained the chambers had to restrain him for fear of his body causing any further damage to his father's priceless items. By this time, however, he had unknowingly destroyed the entirety of the bed and all the surrounding items of low durability.
The Maiden called the rest of her companions and wrapped him in a multilayer blanket seal that would undo itself once the natural energy imbalance within him stabilized itself.