Meanwhile, Jonathan was speaking with Diana about Darian being able to read, and how much of a well-behaved boy he was compared to his niece and nephew.
Darian had now been left alone for a few hours, and so the two decided to pay him a little visit.
Diana was curious about whether or not what Jonathan was saying was true, she had never taught Darian to read, but always considered him to be a special case since he could walk and talk earlier than most of her friends' children.
Going upstairs to Jonathan's office, she opened and went through the door first.
"My baby, how are you?" She smiled warmly. "...Darian honey, Mr. Heidor over here told me you can read, is that true?"
"Read?" I repeated after my mother trying to act as innocent as I could.
I decided to play the clueless card. I was a fool to expose that I could read, but could you blame me? I didn't know what the norm was or what was supposed to be right! I was an 18 year old in a child's body.
Besides, I was tired of spending everyday being treated like a regular child. This was a good opportunity for them to take me for a genius, and being treated like so would give me all the excuses I needed in the future.
'This is good.' I kept trying to convince myself.
Splitting me from my thoughts was my mother's voice.
"Dari', it's okay you didn't do anything wrong." She tried reassuring me
Walking over to the bookshelf from the entrance, Jonathan made sure to not step over the books I left on the floor. Carefully and swiftly picking one out from the top of the shelf, he came over to me and opened it at a random page.
"Read this, child."
Glancing at my mother, I wanted to make sure it was alright.
"Go on, you have nothing to be afraid of, you're not in trouble," she said, egging me on.
And so I did, reading aloud what was written on the page in front of me word for word with some intentional mistakes in-between.
…
"By the gods, we may have a future genius!" Blurted Jonathan, his lips curling into a mischievous smile, he could smell money! A good investment, if everything went as planned!
"I'm so proud of you, my baby boy." She said, hugging him in a tight and warm embrace.
Diana, unlike Heidor, wasn't as shocked by his abilities. Her son had always seemed more mature and developed despite his age. From being able to crawl and walk earlier than her friends' children, to his attitude. Darian never really cried, and when he did she always assumed something serious had happened to make him do so.
And to her, it wasn't that difficult to understand since Darian was–.
"I'm not really surprised anyway, Jonathan. I've always been reading him that book you gave us. If anything it's thanks to you." she complimented him, picking Darian up into her arms who still had the tattered book in his hands from earlier.
"Please Diana, I gave the book only as a gift. If we were to give anyone credit it would be you for being such a good parent, and your son's abilities! He might really be a genius, send him to me when he grows up haha." He said in jest.
"Haha, you might have to wait a long while for that to happen." She nudged Jonathan jokingly.
Noticing the book Darian had in his hand.
"Oh what's that you have there young man?"
"Book! It has pretty drawings." Darian replied, trying to seem as childlike as possible.
"Anyway Jonathan, I'll be off now," Diana said. Her shift was over for the day, and Darian needed to go home before it was too late. "Darian return Mr. Heidor's book."
"But I like the pretty pictures…," he said, pouting.
"Darian, return his book," she said in an authoritative tone.
"But…"
"You can come by tomorrow and read it again." Heidor said, patting the little boy on his head with a smile.
"Ok…" He pouted.
"In fact, you can come by my office and come read during the day as many times as you want." Heidor added.
"I couldn't impose such a thing Mr. Heidor." Said Diana.
"Please, it'll be my pleasure if such a talented young lad were to give me company."
"Thank you, sir. Say thank you my dear."
"Thank you mister!"
"Waa, such a smart young boy, you must take after your parents well! Hoho!" He laughed.
Darian reluctantly gave the book back. He wanted to read more at home when both his parents were sleeping as it would have been the perfect opportunity to practice his newfound magical abilities.
"Alright, we'll see you tomorrow Jonathan, have a nice day," she smiled and left the room along with Darian, walking down the stairs.
Jonathan waved them goodbye, leaving him to rearrange the books back on his bookshelf.
…
Meanwhile downstairs Irene was having a nice meal with her companions and escorts.
Abruptly turning her head around, she noticed a presence, rather a smell.
'There's one of us here, why are they so blatantly showing themselves?... But somehow they're also different', she inwardly thought, scanning the room for where the smell came from.
She looked, left, then right, then left again. She couldn't tell where it was coming from.
"Irene, what's wrong?" one of her companions asked.
"Nothing."
Still scanning the room, the scent was slowly moving away until it was gone.
At that moment, Diana with Darian in her arms had exited through the front door.
'The scent's gone!' She thought.
Getting up off her chair, she excused herself.
"You two eat without me for a while, I'll be back."
"My lady, where are you going?" One of them asked.
She didn't reply, focused solely on tracking the scent.
Exiting through the entrance of the inn, she finally figured out where the scent came from, it was the child in the woman's arms. Following them for a while, she watched as the woman bought food, supplies and among other things.
Then, suddenly Irene's pendant rang, signaling to her that her companions were looking for her.
"Tsk."
Taking off the pendant from around her neck, she answered the ringing. A holographic projection of light appeared atop the pendant with the face of one of her companions, the woman.
"Lady Irene, we're worried, could you please tell us where you are?"
"There's no need to worry, I was just curious about something. I'll be back in a bit." She replied before shutting off the pendant's magic.
However, the two she was following were gone. They were nowhere to be found. The call had only last for a moment but that was enough for Irene to lose sight of the two.
"Tsk."
Not willing to expend any more time or energy on her curiosity, Irene went back to the inn to her companions.