Beno was standing outside the doors into the real drawing room.
I addressed him as I walked down the hall, "You didn't take it upon yourself to shackle him with magick restraints, right?"
A slight smile crept onto Beno's face before disappearing in a flash. He responded in a quiet voice once I reached the doorway.
"I considered it until I spoke with the man on our way here. Annaeus is the name he gave me. He's been the estate's steward for a few years."
"I wonder what the steward of the Brooks' estate wants to talk to me about."
"A Renaultian conspiracy to overthrow the town, perhaps?"
Beno's expression remained serious but I shrugged his comment off, "If there was, I'm sure your tingly sense would've already been set off. You read too many books in the Church."
Beno opened the doors for me and announced my arrival to the occupant, Annaeus, the blue-haired and frail-looking steward.
Hmmm. Doesn't he look just like Dell?
No—not all elves look alike and they don't all know each other.
Well, maybe that last part could be true actually. If I was over three hundred years old like Adellin it wouldn't be too far-fetched to know every important human in a city.
"Greetings and welcome, Your Majesty. I am called Annaeus, and I have the honor to serve as Steward over the estate and township of Brookshaven."
My mind wandered off track but I corrected myself and returned the man's greeting—a tidbit of Ikuye's constant cheerful greetings slipping in.
"Hail, Steward Annaeus. My attendant informed me you had something important you needed to discuss. Please, take a seat."
I sat down and Beno positioned himself behind me with enough distance to not appear as if he was taking part in our discussion.
"Many thanks," he replied as he sat, "I'll get straight to the point to not waste your time. The baron dispatched me to aid your soldiers find lodging for the night and I couldn't help but notice a great many Aestori in your ranks. I had thought to inquire with the soldiers themselves but was turned away by a group of knights—which I understand, of course, I am an outsider and they are busy on duty. Please tell me, how did you come to enlist so many of my kin?"
I could tell where his story was going before he'd gotten halfway through it. And I understood the unnerving feeling that question would leave if unanswered.
To everyone in Axio, we assumed the entire southern expanse of the Empire and anywhere out past the Strifelands to be overrun with demons.
"It's a simple enough answer," I started, "And one I believe you'll be glad to hear. I've been to Umbraedomis and reunited the Aestori under the Empire's banner."
Annaeus' brows furled tightly.
"The ancestral enclave village? Are the Aestori here with you all that survived?"
I let out a mix between a laugh and a sigh.
"Haaah. It certainly isn't a village anymore. That place could contend with Axio in size. And, no, there are a few thousand Aestori knights in the main army along with arcanists, artificers, waystriders—ah, you get the idea. Umbraedomis remains a fully functioning city while we're away to make war as well. I don't have an exact number on the top of my head, but the number of surviving Aestori is in the tens of thousands."
Tears swelled in the elven man's eyes and his body slumped in his seat.
"A-Ah," His voice wavered, "Simply amazing."
Annaeus wiped his eyes dry with a small cloth, hidden away in an inner pocket of his coat jacket, and knelt down before me.
"Egi Annaeus Seneca fidelitaer Vo—swear my allegiance to the Empire of Light. I make this honor-bound promise to defend the Empire against all that desire to do it harm with word, deed, or force."
» PROCESS SUCCESSFUL: AUTO-TRANSLATION ENABLED
» ALTAERIAN TO IỌ-TON'IC
Annaeus' unexpected start in reciting an oath of fealty, in elvish of all things, caught me by surprise. I kicked the chaos magick-enabled translating effect on because I still wasn't fully confident in my elvish without it.
I'd spoken with Adellin in great detail about the importance the Aestori gave to this kind of oath—spoken is too kind of a word. I was lectured by Adellin about these oaths because I was taking Lady Sara's oath as Archmagus too lightly. Swearing one's honor was basically saying you'd serve someone until the end of your life. Which for elves was a long time. Lady Sara had served hundreds of years alongside the Vanixian royal family and would continue to do so until she passed on.
In short, Annaeus was being overly dramatic here. But I couldn't take his decision lightly.
"With a representative of the Church of the Consecrated Light as a witness, I, Empress Airis Vanixi, hear and accept your oath of fealty."
I responded in elvish then switched back to imperial common, "Arise, Annaeus."
He looked up at me with a solemn face.
"You are a shining light in a sea of blackness. As people fled north so many years ago I had hopes the bad times would be brief, as they had always been. But decades passed and that hope of mine dwindled. And upon the notice we received that the heirs of Vanixia had been killed…"
A twisted grimace of grief and torment spilled across his face as his words trailed off. Annaeus took a deep breath and steadied himself
"But those days of dread are over." He said confidently. "By chance, out of all the people you met in the enclave village, was there a man who looked like me and went by the family name Seneca? He's an author, and scholar like me."
I for sure met a man who looked like you.
But Adellin never mentioned the name Seneca… but being an author and scholar is a dead ringer for Dell.
"It crossed my mind the moment I entered the room. I know a man called Adellin who looks just like you, he was serving as Lord-Magistrate in a governing council of sorts they called the Tribunal and now serves as my Head Minister."
Annaeus' face was a whirl of emotions again.
"Ahh," He drew out listlessly, "He never did care for our father or family. They had wished the both of us to be knights and bring honor to our House. I'm not surprised he would abandon the name."
"While I would love to reunite you two, I don't have any escorts to spare for a trip back to Tolin and I still need experienced people to stick around Brookshaven until the war is resolved."
"I couldn't possibly ask for more than you've already given me, Your Majesty. I shall do everything in my power to support a decisive victory over those Rena vipers. That forsaken Kingdom will regret betraying the Triumvirate and bearing their fangs at the Empire!"
Annaeus was now full of zeal and vigor.
"Oh, I was wondering," I began, "Do you have any special talents or hobbies? Dell's history knowledge is second to none and he's the best minister I've ever met. I know you're managing the estate and town, but are you also a dedicated scholar?"
Annaeus smiled and produced a crystalline dagger from his hip, "It isn't much, but I've mastered a dozen offensive Tactical class—and over thirty Operation class— spells. The magick defenses on the walls are all mine and about half of the magick-based traps around the perimeter are based on my own formulae."
That isn't much?
What Annaeus had claimed was a power level greater than most of the Astral Mages and well above any of the paladins we had in the divisional units.
I hadn't gotten into a habit of inspecting people now that I could see statuses through chaos magick instead of the obvious Aethermist-based runic interface spell.
- - - - - - - - - - - - {TARGET} - - - - - - - - - - - -
[ANNAEUS]
[HEALTH]: (60/ 60) | [STAMINA]: (70/ 70) | [MAGICKA]: (1225/ 1225)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What. In. Aver'teria.
I thought Lady Aisling's stats were high.
Beno was right. Annaeus would've definitely needed anti-magick bracelets if he was hostile to us in the slightest.
Annaeus was in a whole other world.
"Can I just say, I'm really you're on my side, Annaeus. If I encountered you alone on the battlefield I might have a panic attack."
-✵-
I remained in the drawing room after Annaeus left, figuring that Hailey would probably wrap up with Haaric soon. Also, I was enjoying the short break from all the craziness.
Beno had vanished into the kitchen a few times, finally returning for good with another batch of his bright citrus-colored concoction.
"I like this a lot, Beno." I said offhandedly, "Why haven't you made whatever this is before?"
"I'm pleased you enjoy it, Your Majesty. It is something I made often in Axio, but my limited access to sugar and ginseng made it difficult to brew before today. The Baron's supplies are abundant and were made available at his insistence."
"Oh. That makes sense I guess. With our rations being mostly hardtack and foraged fruits, it'd be hard to get refined sugar and specialty spices. Wasn't it hard to get sugars while at the Church? From what I've heard even some laynoble families had trouble stocking their estates."
Our manor in the city never had issues with stocking whatever spices, salts, or sugars needed for baking—but there was a great difference in the archnoble founding house of Vanixi compared to a failing remnant house of the old empire or the new upstart families of the Republic. Not to mention the many resource disputes between the Triumvirate Republics.
I'm not even sure what expansion zones and towns made sugar… Mental note: Ask Dell to figure that out if he hasn't already. I believe one of those awful ministers back in Tolin was the head of agriculture.
My mind trailed off to thoughts of unknown supply lines and questions of how we'd get food and necessary resources to Tolin after the war.
When I snapped back to my senses Beno was patiently waiting with a smile and answered the question I asked him some time ago.
"On occasion, the greater nobles would make donations that had sugar and other luxurious spices. But I simply cultivated a few stalks of cane grass in the gardens for my own use."
"Huh. That's neat. Did you try selling these in the city at all? If you grew your own sugar the cost to produce mustn't have been that high."
"One time I made a few bottles for the Primarchs or interested Grand Magisters in exchange for research funds or materials. It went well until the tonic ended up with a terrible name. Nobody would buy them from me after that."
"A terrible name?" I leaned forward in my seat with a grin. "What sort of name could prevent sales altogether?"
Beno grimaced. "Devil's Juice."
I swished the yellowy-orange liquid around in my cup and considered how great I felt since drinking some this afternoon.
"I don't get it. Why would it garner such a name?"
"Well. How do you feel right now?"
I tilted my head at the question. How did I feel? I felt great. Honestly, I haven't felt this energized in days. Even after a pretty tough day—getting ambushed by an actual horde of demon dogs and being attacked by Hailey's father and a band of free-knight adventurers.
"Never better actually. I feel pretty awesome today." I replied.
"That feeling will last the remainder of the day, and then some. The tonic doesn't stop you from sleeping but does inhibit your tiredness quite a bit. More than one of the clergy who had bought a batch from me found themselves up late in the night transcribing, reading, or otherwise wrapped up in other hobbies."
"Wait-wait-wait! Is this some kind of super energy juice?" I raised the cup in the air at Beno. "Can we give it to our soldiers? Does it increase your STAMINA regeneration? Oh, I can just test that myself!"
I jumped up from my seat, carefully placing the cup filled with super fluid down, and ran out of the room with the intention of running a few laps around the estate's garden.
"Your Majesty!—"
Beno's cries faded as I sped through the halls.
I willed up a set of tiny status bars into my vision with OMNISIGHT to watch my stamina recover.
Two thoughts came to mind at the same time.
One, it had been some time since I sat down and looked through my detailed status. Sparing almost daily with Ikuye had made me numb to the constant bombardment of status increase notifications so I found a way to mute them entirely.
I should probably undo that so I don't miss anything important.
And two, I think I misspoke to Annaeus earlier. He was definitely strong in AETHER-related attributes, but if I encountered myself on the battlefield I'd for sure have a heart attack.
By the Goddesses, my stats are starting to look crazy high like Aisling's.
- - - - - - - - - - - - {STATUS} - - - - - - - - - - - -
[AIRIS]
[HEALTH]: (500 / 500) | [STAMINA]: (552 / 670) | [MAGICKA]: (730 / 730)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I don't think I need to go all out or dip into exhaustion—this should be good enough!
Normally, a person's STAMINA dictates how long they can do something physical at full strength, whether that is fighting, running, lifting, or other strenuous exercises.
Since developing OMNISIGHT with my chaos magick, the status screen has given more detailed descriptions about how each attribute affects me and STAMINA provides about one second of full-force exertion per point.
At my level, I could sprint or fight for a little over eleven minutes before beginning to feel winded and suffering from exhaustion effects.
Regeneration-wise, the rate is about ten times the amount spent to recover.
So if it took me about two minutes to run down here and I dipped down a little over one hundred points, I'd recover almost all of it in ten minutes of rest.
With the attribute bar expanded in my vision, I watched the values tick up quickly. Twice as fast as normal—At this rate, I'd be fully recharged in five minutes or less.
A flashing light on my left broke my gaze away from the green bar.
I pulled up a notification screen the normal way and a mist projection appeared in front of me.
» YOU HAVE GAINED IN POWER, YOUR ATTRIBUTES HAVE INCREASED:
» STAMINA HAS INCREASED TO 63
Oh, nice!
As I swiped the notification away another light flashed and the projection displayed once more.
» YOU HAVE GAINED IN POWER, YOUR ATTRIBUTES HAVE INCREASED:
» STAMINA HAS INCREASED TO 64
Oh! Double nice!
The hastened regeneration rate must have also kicked the attribute gain into overdrive.
A wicked grin spilled across my face. "Heeeey, Beno." I called down the hall as I heard the patter of footsteps, "We're gonna need a lot of that energy tonic! Oh, and it's gonna need a new name."