As the night slowly started creeping in, Vuloc and his sisters decided to excuse themselves not wanting to overstay their welcome, Markar was the next to leave with Fraudren whom he had decided to escort back home just to be on the safe side.
The two of them had spent plenty of time drinking and eating side by side and enjoying one anothers company, the only ones left behind in the room at that point were the three children of mana.
As the maids and butlers cleaned away the table they sat in silence and waited until they were completely alone before Zalbas snapped his fingers a few times and yawned, "Well I must say I am thoroughly impressed, you are indeed as strong as the rumors say!"
Samuel flinched and gave him a questioning look. "Rumors?" He asked, Zalbas nodded. "Rumors spread about how you defeated a dragon all by yourself, spread by the little lass whom you were fighting for today."
Samuel realized she probably heard about it from Sonya for sure and sighed.
Vuldara game him a big smile, "You didn't fight for your honor, you didn't fight for Khazans sake, but you fought for someone elses sake entirely, and you didn't kill anyone stopping only with an inch of their life intact." She leaned back in the chair and sighed.
"They say that actions speak louder than words, and yours certainly did!"
"Those among our kind that are still around believe more than anything else in the cause, to once again rebuild our homeland. To create a utopia of peace and prosperity for our kind!" Vuldara spoke up and Samuel realized she was sharing more about herself.
"The entire Ravenhill household is a household of children of mana that believe in this dream. What about you? Do you have any dreams for the future?" Her question made Samuel smile.
"My village was destroyed by dark cults only a few years ago, but I survived thanks to my bloodline ability, my dream is to crush the evil cults that did this and to kill the people responsible for it." Samuel sighed when he realized he wasn't actually close to finding the ones responsible.
"But..." He spoke up again after a while, "I also have a dream to find out more about what happened to our people, what drove them to be slaughtered and what great wonders they used to build. I was told that children of mana originally were not warriors... but builders."
He turned to look at Vuldara and was shocked to see tears gracing down her cheeks. She wiped them away with her hand, "I am sorry... But yes you would probably be correct."
"Our ancestors were builders, not used to fighting with their abilities, which is why so many of them died probably." She wore a sad smile as if reminiscing old times, or in her case old stories.
Samuel gave the two of them a generic rundown about his story, how he had been just a simple farmer at first and that he had been saved by his mothers older cousin. How he had struggled but found his path forward, how he had found a new family.
Suddenly the door opened and a butler came in looking distressed and scared. "What is it Clice?" Samuel instantly stood up and asked. "Well sir there are two intruders that suddenly entered the manor from somewhere that are demanding we let them in... one of them wears a noble robe I do not recognize."
The butler looked at Vuldara and gestured towards her, "Sorry sir, actually it looked like hers." The scared butler spoke, Samuel quickly looked at Vuldara that opened her mouth, "Oh shiiite that must be my father!"
Samuel gave her a questioning look but she simply shrugged so with a heavy sigh he told the butler to let them in. Two men walked in the first one holding himself with great pride, he was an almost spitting image of Vuldara except he had slightly darker hair and more calculating eyes.
Zalbas saw the other one walk in and quickly stood up and knocking his chair down. "Master!?" He exclaimed. The slightly older man wore travel robes but had plenty of satchels and books strapped to himself and scoffed. His completely bald head devoid of any hair anywhere that had plenty of scars and mean green eyes.
He looked like an old grumpy combat veteran more than anything else. "So thats how the two of you are friends?" Samuel asked Vuldara and Zalbas whom both nodded.
"I welcome thee lords to the noble estate of house Gillfall! What pleasure do I owe to receive this vist?" Samuel spoke like the lord of the house because currently he was, since the head of the house was away it was up to him.
"Unfortunately we didn't come here to exchange plesantries!" The older man spoke and looked at his apprentice, "We came here because of what my apprentice sent me for magical letter, with the details of a blood test." The man huffed and looked at Samuel and then Zalbas.
"Is he the one?" He asked his apprentice with scorn, Zalbas nodded. "I should beat the living crap out of you, I allowed you to read so many of those books and you hardly remember any of them!"
Samuel sneered at Zalbas who had told a different story and smiled. "We had to come here to confirm the test ourselves." Vuldara's father spoke and took a few steps forward before giving a small bow.
The older man wasn't a noble but Vuldaras father was and he knew the importance of showing better respect, "I apologize for my brash friend here, my name is Tyhval Ravenhill!"
"It is an honor to meet another of our kind, and I apologize for this intrusion into your home!" Tyhval spoke and the older man started to laugh. "Alright, let's just get this over with so I can go back home, I am certain my dumb apprentice just saw the wrong thing so let us go!" He spoke and started walking towards the side of the table, but Tyhval held his ground and shook his head.
The older man took out a book and started turning page to page while walking closer, thats when the door swung open and a flutter of wind made the candles dance and no one saw the arrow fly through the air.
But the arrow hit its intended target with precise aim and in the next few seconds over everyone stood surprised as they saw the book with an arrow sticking out of it lying on the floor. "WHO DARES ruin MY WORK!?!" The man shouted and turned toward the door and so did Lord Tyhval.
Tyhval had a sword drawn but he froze up the moment he saw the figure standing still in the opening and so did the older man. "Lo.. Lord Shard Concord?" Tyhval stuttered after a few seconds as he saw the full cloak and pulled down hood of a very angry Alsian.
"What if my cousins child does not wish to be enforced upon by your tests, lord Harkley?" Alsians question aimed at the older man who clenched his fists and stood tall. "Cousin's child?" Lord Tyhval questioned out loud and looked at Alsian and then Samuel.
There was indeed something slightly similar about them, the chestnut brown hair, their eyes although different color had the same feeling behind them. Lord Tyhval quickly gave Alsian a bow, "I am sorry, it was just that Lord Harkley's apprentice did the blood test of Lord Gillfall and in the report he stated seeing more than one color!" Tyhval stood tall and looked at Samuel and then Alsian again.
"He perfectly described the color that matches with your ancient household Lord Alsian, but he also described there being another. Harkley thought the colors he mentioned were those of the Xaxiaz bloodline." Lord Tyhvals words made Alsian stretch and look confused.
"I am quite alright with testing it now that you are here!" Samuel said and looked at Alsian who looked at Lord Tyhval first and then rested his eyes a bit longer on Lord Harkley and spoke to him directly. "Any funny business and I will not hesitate to take your head, your shenanigans are not appreciated here! Also any information on this matter does not leave this room, make a blood oath."
Samuel looked at the others clearly confused but they all seemed to know what was going on, sometimes Samuel wished that Alsian would tell him a lot more, but Alsian always insisted that he should find the path for himself.
Lord Tyhval took a dagger from Alsian and muttered some ancient words Samuel didn't know, then he cut his hand enough for a few blood droplets to be absorbed by the blade. Then he handed it to Lord Harkley who although reluctanct did it with a sigh, the funny thing is that Samuel seemed to understand what the language meant the second time he heard it.
Lord Harkley handed the blade to Zalbas who did the same and lastly Vuldara who also didn't hesitate and Samuel suddenly realized he knew an entire language, it was like it had been locked away deep inside him and hearing it made him understand it.
"First time learning it?" Vuldara asked him quietly and he nodded, Samuel's eyes felt like they were shaking from the sudden information intake. "It gets better fast don't you worry!" She gave him a small smile and she handed back the dagger to Alsian.
There was no need for the one being tested to make any oath, after all it would be his personal information to give out if he so wanted to. "So may I go ahead now?" Harkley asked with a pretentious bow to Alsian.
Alsian gestured towards Samuel whom nodded, Harkley walked up next to him and put a tiny metal bowl on the table cloth. Then he took out a large needle and gestured for Samuel to give him his hand, he sighed before giving him his hand with some reluctance.
Harkley was quick and pricked his hand once and then twice and a small strand of Samuel's blood floated out of the small pin holes, almost following the needle as if it was on a thread. It was quite an uncomfortable feeling, but Harkley quickly filled the tiny bowl with only a little bit of blood and when the connection was removed the small holes were healed.
Harkley then got out several small stones and placed them around the bowl and Samuel backed up a bit to give him some space to work, Harkley started chanting and the stones resonated as runes started glowing on them and they started floating around the bowl.
Samuel's blood resonated and seemed to lift into the air into different shapes, first came the yellow color dredged in a bit of black. "See I told you the color was right!" Zalbas said with a smug grin. But then realized the other color he had seen was not there.
Harkley stopped the ritual and the blood and stones slowly set back down. "You dumb idiot probably just had your mind playing tricks on you!" Harkley spoke and turned around to face his dumb apprentice, but Lord Tyhval pointed at the bowl, "Look!" He said with a gasp.
The stones started rising on their own and now the blood shone in a light teal color had replaced them, sometimes shifting to a darker blue. "It can't be can it?"
Harkley looked dumbfound with his mouth agape.