Vylt: The New Dawn

Chapter 30: Belaury's Decision

"What made you change your mind?" I asked, glancing at the small hourglass on the table. Another ice pebble fell from my hands into a green plastic bucket. I had done a great job training in silence up to that point, yet the curiosity had soon become unbearable.

Realising the last grain of sand had finally gone down, Belaury reached for the eight-shaped object and turned it upside down. "Shouldn't you be concentrating, child?" she asked, returning to her original sitting position.

We were alone on the terrace. One of her conditions for accepting Dr. Blake's request was that it would be only the two of us from now on. She would frown and look at the windows from time to time, making sure nobody watched, but I could tell her mood had improved because of the absence of a certain vampire. Her new toy was probably playing a big part, as well.

A magic wand. One that looked quite different from anything I'd seen on any media. To begin with, it was metallic. Mythril, apparently. While metal wands weren't that rare in video games, this one's length definitely was. At sixty centimetres, the plain-looking rod was way longer than the box it came in. How did it fit then? Well, it happened to be telescopic. It was divided into three segments, reminding me of an old radio antenna, although much ticker.

The handle, which was the widest section, was around three centimetres in diameter, and it had two small buttons near where the user's thumb rested. Last, but not least, the wand had a small pommel made with a pale material. Keith mentioned a magic alloy with that cream colour, but I couldn't remember its name or what it did. I wondered if this was that metal. This pommel wasn't fully connected to the rest of the handle, leaving a rather thin, yet annoying for my taste, gap between the two materials.

I lifted another bit of water from the blue bucket and separated a bit to form the first sphere. "Weren't you the one who said I needed a bigger challenge?" I countered with a smirk.

My current task certainly proved this. It involved creating at least four ice marbles per minute. That, to my teacher's misfortune, turned out to be too generous to me. With nothing to distract me, the help of my previous training, and maybe even my blessing, I was sure I could do at least six spheres within that time. Although talking to her did drop my efficiency, I was confident in my ability to keep up with the minimum requirement.

Belaury chuckled and put the wand on the table. "You got me." She sighed, planting her elbows on the table to support her head as she adopted a slumped posture. "Honestly, there were many factors that influenced our decision. In order of occurrence, the first was a not-at-all heated discussion I had with Vik a few days ago. Funny enough, it was about what we would do if humans ever found us. I never imagined that the hypothetical moment would become a reality so soon. When Allison told us about the accident, Vik and I were already mentally prepared to make contact."

My eyes widened. "You knew it would be like that?"

"We saw it coming. As much as I hated the thought of it, we were well aware that such a fall could end up with a bigger audience than what we would've liked, especially when the one to fall was Anna. Her being the daughter of the one person in charge never escaped our minds."

I frowned. "If those were your thoughts from the start, why did you threaten to leave?"

"Oh, come on, child. It hasn't been long since we met, but you know very well how stubborn I can be. I won't deny the fact that anger clouded my judgement and made me try to escape the situation. In the end, I needed Vik to remind me that, after all these years, we had a new purpose in life. Something we shouldn't abandon, even if it means putting our own lives on the line."

Hearing this from her, I smiled. It was true that we hadn't known each other for long, but Belaury was kind to me, and she accepted everything about me without questioning. That said, there was still something that worried me from what I saw earlier. "What about Keith?"