An Expected Betrayal |TBATE

Chapter 12

GREY

Caera and I walked downstairs to see Seris sitting on the couch sipping tea. "Hello Grey, Caera," said Seris as she put down her tea. No one else was in the room and I assumed no one was nearby because they wouldn't dare disrespect a Scythe.

"Hello Scythe Seris," greeted Caera as she bowed. I followed suit.

"Judging by the sudden bloodlust I assume Grey got wind of the marriage offer?" Seris teased. My face turned red and I noticed Caera's did too.

"Why are you here?" I questioned, trying to deflect the teasing.

"Aww, you're no fun. Anyway, I just came to check up on you." Seris said. "I wanted to see how your skills are progressing Caera."

"I'm doing great! Grey has helped me a lot! From swordsmanship to book smarts to being constantly paranoid that he'll attack me out of nowhere for 'ambush training'' said Caera with a bit of hostility at the end. I laughed sheepishly.

"That's good to hear. I'm glad you're taking care of my disciple while she's at school," said Seris as she eyed me down. "Define 'taking care of'' said Caera.

"I was teaching her the basics of basic survival," I said confidently. Caera gave me a weird look, "'Basic survival?' You keep ambusing us!" Caera exclaimed.

"It worked didn't it?" I asked teasingly.

Seris laughed slightly at our dispute. "Are you ready for the bestowment ceremony next month, Caera?"

"I'm excited! I'm hoping for an emblem." said Caera excitedly. "I wonder if it's possible for Grey to get one."

"No, it's not possible," responded Seris as she shook her head. "And why is that?" I asked, not that I wanted a spellform but I was just curious. "It just isn't," Seris said, refusing to elaborate. I knew it went deeper than that but I wasn't going to be able to get any more info from her.

This got me thinking, was something happening under the surface here in Alacrya? I still have yet to go to a town, I spent my entire time here with Caera in high society so I don't know how the common person is treated. Nor did I know much about the history here. I tried but it seemed everything was filtered, from simple transaction records to public events, some things didn't add up. There were events that happened at the same time and same place but records show no trace of that happening. Of course, the more public something was the "realer" it looked, to the point that I couldn't tell what was real or not.

I knew something was up but I didn't look into it farther than what I could find in the library. Since this was happening for decades–at least from what I could tell–there was probably a really powerful organization behind the scene that I didn't want to mess with. While I probably held some power from living with the Denoir's and my connection to Seris–albeit a weak one–something told me it would be a bad idea.

I talked to Caera about it but she brushed it off, saying I was crazy. The other reason I didn't push farther was because of Caera. I didn't want to drag her into anything I might find myself in.

My first suspicion was the sovereigns. They could be behind it and if they were I stood no chance as I am now. Everyone seemed to worship them since according to legend they gave us "mortals" magic. It was also a possibility that the one who killed Sylvia was one of these sovereigns.

"-ey, -rey, Grey!" Caera's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "Yeah?" I asked.

"Are you ok? You just stood there staring into space. Seris also left." said Caera as she waved her hand in front of my face. "Yeah I'm fine, just a bit tired." I replied.