The first day after they were back home Ciaran wanted to show off his new skills to his mentors, but they were very adamant about him and his familiarity with taking it slow for at least a few days.
With nothing else to do the boy decided to head to the Library. Whit so much free time on their hands, they might as well read something interesting. The knowledge they got from there was far more useful than any magic they were capable of anyway.
When the kids went into the Library, the two dryads were left alone.
Verdania still felt guilty when she looked at the now-regrown limbs of her younger siblings. She was hard on them, but in her heart, she had already accepted the boy and his familiar as family. She couldn't even look at Eleftherios, fearing she would see hate in his eyes.
"I don't blame you Verdania. Your role in their upbringing is to push them to success, mine is to rail them in and keep them from hurting themselves. I wanted to do that while still keeping that promise from so long ago. I made my choice; I hope you can respect it." He said his eyes sad but determined.
Verdania forced herself to look at him and then to go near him. Consciously, he wasn't angry with her, not anymore, but deep down he was still quite pissed.
"If you aren't angry yet, let me fix that." She said as she gave him a hug.
"Centuries Eleftherios, that's how long you stayed a willing prisoner here. I made a mistake, I almost got the kids killed with my negligence, but the fact that broke your self-imposed restraints is what keeps me from hating myself. You left once, and you will do it again, maybe for them, maybe for me, maybe even for yourself, but this gardening job will come to an end soon." She said and squeezed harder.
The amount of joy she felt when Eleftherios left the Academy was equal if not higher to the self-loathing that manifested after she witnessed Ciaran and Ari at that mountain, with six missing limbs and half of their bodies covered in burns.
The man didn't know what to say. He couldn't be angry at his sister, not really. Her morality was questionable even by dryad standards, but she cared for her family in her own way.
"Fine, I get it you want the punishment to ease your courteousness right? I have just the thing for you." He told her.
" They look alright, but they have gone feral. You can feel it too, they are constantly looking for a danger that isn't there. Before the boy goes back to school, they need to be reintegrated into human society, and that is your problem now." He said, this time with a little less repressed anger.
Verdania was happy to make amends. The only problem was, for all her connections, and all her knowledge she was very disconnected from the human species. She was very ill-equipped for the job he had given her and she knew it. Before she said anything he picked up his new dog in his hands.
"Take an example from Roxy and make some new friends. Say for example, some very rich, very connected to Ciaran friends. And be nice about it this time."
"Start by first bringing only Camille here. The boy could use some time with his mother."
Verdania grimaced, she hated humans to her very soul, but her brother had spoken, and she would bend this once.
She teleported to the Clades' mansion once again. The servants inside were put to sleep, and those outside were none the wiser.
"Hello Mrs. Verdania, Lovely of you to come to visit," Camille said. The dryad looked at the woman and was sure she had found where Ciaran's courage had come from, as well as his recklessness.
The Archmage could level this whole place to the ground in seconds, and the woman in front of her was taunting her to do it. In any other circumstance she would teach the arrogant human a lesson, but not now, she was needed elsewhere and pettiness could wait for another day.
"Ciaran needs his mother. It's bad, really bad, and it was my fault. No need for the under-the-counter hostility, feel free to curse me out. Believe me, I deserve much worse." Verdania said, and the slight crack in her voice worried Mrs. Clades to no end. She agreed to go, and in seconds they were back.
She saw the male dryad, who she had learned was called Eleftherios playing with a mutt in the grass. She had learned a few things about her son's caretakers. The more she learned of Verdania, the more she wanted to rush in and get her boy out before it was too late. On the other hand, the more she learned about her brother the calmer she felt, the man was practically a saint. A very wild, prone to anger warmongering saint, but a saint nonetheless.
He looked at the two women and let the puppy down, telling it to behave.
"Mrs. Clades, I would like to change the arrangement you have with the Emporer. Ciaran still lives here and he will still not be a Clades, but you are now free to visit him whenever you want. The rest of the Clades need both his and my permission to do the same though." He said.
"Don't worry about the politics of it all, I already handled it. Well, I scared the whole continent and I got a few feathers ruffled, but it's essentially the same thing."
She looked at him and didn't say anything. The fact this man, who was strong enough to frighten three whole nations by himself, was barely holding himself from apologizing had her heart racing. The absence of her son was an absolute nightmare for her, she was already thinking the worst.
"Ciaran is at the Library with his familiar right now," Verdania said as she read what Camille was thinking.
The woman allowed herself to breathe before she registered the word 'familiar'. She looked at the two dryads in horror.
"They bonded even before he became a Novice. Verdania is still in shock over it. They have a very special connection Mrs. Clades, not one bad word about our Ari, or it won't us, you would have to worry about. The last thing that harmed her was left in pieces, and it was Rank Two." Eleftherios said.
Camille was utterly horrified at what she heard, but she kept her calm.
"Tell me everything. I need to know how to help my son." She said and listened. The more she heard, the paler her face became.
At sundown, Ciaran was walking home. Today he was learning about, all sources of light and where they could be found in the wild.
'If we ever need to live underground again, we will at least have some vision. It will come in handy, as I would be able to craft without the need of fire, so no need to waste brainpower on Wind manipulation.' He told Ariadne via their mind connection.
The spider asked whether it
would be more practical to have separate zones connected by tunnels in which only the zones would be lit, or if they were expanding their scheme by planning for future minions. In that case, they would have to provide them with more light, as they couldn't use her threads as a recognizable marker.
The spider had learned to engage her partner in a debate so they could consider more possibilities in their schemes. Their little mind debate was interrupted when they felt an unfamiliar aura in the Maze. It was stronger than them, and it was near.
Ariadne quickly came out and Ciaran climbed on her back. In less than a second their presence vanished, the Air stopped carrying their scent and as they hid in the leaves of the maze it was like they were never there, to begin with.
Camille wanted to test how bad their condition was, but seeing them hide in less than a second, and already preparing for a counterattack, her heart bled.
She was proud of her son, and even tho she hadn't met his familiar yet, she was proud of her too. Their stealth was ridiculous. No Rank One should be even remotely this good at it. It wasn't just that Ariadne was good at staying hidden. She was moving and setting in traps.
Her son was supporting her by removing the scent and the sound of the moving leaves. When it came to stealth they were probably as good as someone who specialized in it and was Rank Two, and even then that person had to be at the top of his rank.
She was proud of their achievement, and sad because she was told what they had to do to get to where they were.
She did what she must. She dashed at them, and in seconds disabled all of their traps and tossed them to the ground, all while keeping herself unnoticed.
They were badly startled, but worse than that they couldn't even tell what hit them and where it went.
Then they felt a hand on each of their heads.
"Hello, children it's time to have a talk," Camille said, and Ciaran cursed out his luck.
'Why couldn't it just be a deadly threat?'
The boy recognized that his mom had been clued in on his recent adventures.