The Call to War

Chapter 14

She wasn't at all surprised when Arthur stepped into the light, revealing he was the one who defeated the retainer. However Tess did shake her head as she internally laughed at herself for not knowing when she started hearing the rumors. She did suspect it when she first heard, even more so when she thought about his injuries, but when she asked for more details that morning while Ellie was with her tutor, he told her nothing new. She wondered why he couldn't have told her, and decided she would have to ask later.

Arthur stood before the crowd silently as they watched him expectantly. Instead of human formal wear, he wore a black elven robe with gold trim, and a snow white fur pelt over one shoulder. One would have mistaken him for an eleven noble if not for the ears. Tess blushed as he had never looked so handsome to her in her entire life. As she gazed at him, for a brief second their eyes locked and he gave her a half smile before he began his speech.

The one thing Tess did find surprising was how well Arthur addressed his captive audience. Since she would one day be queen of Elenoir, from a young age Tess was taught how to address and speak to people properly. She was taught everything from proper body language, eye contact, posture, even how to speak to keep people's attention and focus. She wasn't perfect, but she was effective enough, Arthur however was a different story. Despite his young age and never receiving proper tutoring, Tess saw every lesson she ever learned being displayed perfectly, even the pauses in his speech were perfectly timed to keep everyone hooked. Tess knew his speech could have been written for him, but she knew there was no way he could have learned all these lessons perfectly in such a short period of time.

Arthur finished his speech and stepped off stage as the light emitting artifacts came back on. Commander Virion then invited everyone to take a closer look as several guards replaced him. The council were the first to approach the frozen retainer, their first expressions confirming this was their first time seeing the body as well.

Bairon and Varay guided the group to the body, both wanting to get a closer look at one of the best Alacrya had to offer. After seeing the body Varay focused on the ice. Being considered the best ice mage in Dicathen, she examined Arthur's work and compared it to her own. Even though most wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Arthur and Varay's ice magic, Varay could tell that she was still superior, but not by a great margin.

Seeing that Arthur and her grandfather hadn't returned yet, Tess decided to look for them.

"Claire," Tess said, getting her attention from the retainer. "If Varay asks, tell her I'm going to look for Arthur."

Claire acknowledged her, only half paying attention as she couldn't take her eyes off the frozen corpse.

Tess walked along the stage to the curtain, behind it she saw a guard blocking a spiral staircase. After easily duping the guard, she made her way down the stairs to a wooden door. Seeing as Arthur and her grandfather had extremely sharp senses, she restricted her mana flow as much as she could. Relying on only her sharp elf hearing, she sat there listening carefully to every word.

She could hear her grandfather and Arthur, then Gideon. They were talking about Lord Rahdeas, and images taken of him during the presentation of the retainer. Tess quickly covered her mouth to keep from gasping, as she learned Rahdeas was suspected of being a traitor.

Arthur was talking when everything suddenly became silent. Carefully Tess inched closer to the door, hoping to hear something, but still nothing. Remembering Arthur could use sound magic, she realized they must have realized she was there, and quietly stood up to get away.

"Well," Arthur said, getting her attention. "Look who we have here."

Tess turned around to see Arthur with an amused expression.