Noble arrived at the gateway in Ravenheart none too soon. She was exhausted, and her heart could not take one more student's desperate questions.
Noble understood their immediate concern. If someone as powerful as Lady Nephis could be attacked in broad daylight like that, then no one was safe.
If only they knew the long-term implications, they would be even more frightened.
So as Noble felt the crisp air outside the Jade Palace, she breathed in several times to cleanse her lungs and emotions.
The sentinel from Song gave her a strange look.
"Everything alright, ma'am?"
"I just needed some clean air." Noble forced a smile. "Just came from the NQSC. You know how it is."
"Indeed." The guard nodded slowly, then returned to his original stance.
The professor walked toward the bridge, trying not to let the anxiousness show in her movement.
'No one here knows,' she reminded herself.
Even in the NQSC, most people would still be finding out about the attack in the next few hours. Thanks to the large variety of people there, the Academy often got news before anywhere else. It would take a few days before everyone in the waking world knew.
The word would begin to spread to Ravenheart soon enough, too, but it would take a little longer to take hold in the Dream Realm.
Awakened would bring the news with them, and then word of mouth would take over from there.
Noble wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad about that fact.
She was happy that the city would be in blissful ignorance for a little longer…
And sad that she would be the one who had to ruin that innocence, at least for her husband.
The house was empty when she arrived, but that was to be expected. Noble had needed to come home early anyway since it was her night to cook dinner.
The mother instinctively felt for Rain's emotional signature. It was there, distant, but present. Noble wanted her daughter home, but today it felt like the safest place in two worlds was out in the wilderness.
Noble called on her small transport box and pulled out the wrapped meat that she had bought before class earlier that day. She had found a while ago that foodstuffs didn't spoil inside her Memory, and although it didn't hold much, it contained more than enough room for the protein for dinner.
Soon, the sound of sizzling meat filled the kitchen as the slabs were laid out over the cookfire on a metal pan. Noble chopped some vegetables to add to the dish and tried to distract herself with happy thoughts.
'I wonder if Mom ended up planting any vegetable seeds in her garden?'
The distraction only worked momentarily because Noble then remembered where her mother lived. Lena resided in Bastion. How would she fare in the upcoming war?
Julius had resided in Bastion part-time for all of his adult life. Even if they could leave, Noble was pretty sure that they wouldn't. At least she didn't have to worry about her stepfather going off to war. His affiliation with the government and his age would not make him an ideal recruit.
He was an academic and a survivalist, but had little taste for battle and even less for the shedding of human blood. Unless Clan Valor got desperate, Julius would be safe from leaving to join the battle lines.
That was assuming the battle lines would be away from Bastion and Ravenheart. Both sides seemed intent on getting to Godgrave, but that didn't mean altercations would be limited to that area. If Bastion were attacked, her mother and stepfather would be in danger, and while neither would go on the offensive, both would fight until their dying breath to defend their home.
For that matter, Noble would defend Ravenheart against attack to save the innocent civilians in her home as well.
'May it never come to that!'
Noble's grip on the knife tightened, and it warped like putty in her hand.
"Oh!" It clattered to the ground.
At least she had been almost done. With a sigh, Noble dumped the vegetables into the pan and bent down to pick up her mangled utensil.
"Mom!" Brock burst through the door and tossed his bag on the couch.
"We're home!" Blaze finished his brother's call, lowering his bag to the ground and hanging his coat by the door.
"Welcome home!" Noble floated the knife to the counter and hugged her sons as they joined her. "The food is almost ready."
"What's that?" Brock noted the mangled metal.
"A casualty of dinner," Noble winced.
"More like a casualty of mother," Blaze examined the piece. "You did that with your bare hand?"
"And a little bit of stress," the woman's eyes swirled. "I'll get a new one at the market tomorrow."
Actually, she would need to stock up on a lot of things. A war made prices skyrocket. The attack on Nephis alone would be enough to upset the economy.
Noble would do what she could to prepare.
"Someday I'll be able to crush metal in my palm." Brock picked up the knife and smiled widely. "Can I keep this?"
Noble raised an eyebrow at him. "If you like."
"Thanks! I know just what to do with it. This will go great on my desk next to my pile of finished work pages."
Brock ran his new paperweight up to his room while Blaze set the table. It was very nice for him to do so without being asked. Working in the restaurant had given him a sense of what needed to be done, and now he chipped in almost automatically.
"Thank you, Blaze." Noble nodded toward him.
"Happy to help!" The young man pulled five plates from the cupboard and paused. "Oh…" He returned one dish and shut the cabinet with a sigh.
Noble glanced at him with a small smile. "I miss her too."
Blaze skipped over his sister's chair as he laid out the plates at the table.
"Do you think she will be able to come home soon?"
"I hope so."
With the war, Song would be occupied with much bigger issues than one mundane girl who might have witnessed something she shouldn't have. If Rain were able to come home, it would be the only good thing to come out of the war at all.
Noble tilted her head. "Are you alright?"
"I have a lot I want to tell her, that's all." Blaze shrugged.
Noble left the pan and embraced her son. "Me too…me too."
They stood like that for a moment before Noble cupped her son's cheek and looked up into his blue eyes.
"I should get some news on her very soon. I'll share it as soon as I get it, I promise."
If Sunny wasn't too preoccupied with whatever had caused him to leave with Saint Kai and Lady Nephis, he might already be sending an incarnation to her with the information she sought.
Noble sent Blaze some calm, but the boy frowned.
"Sorry! Was I too forceful?" After crushing the knife, the mother was questioning both her physical and emotional strength.
Blaze shook his head. "It's not that." He squinted. "I hope you won't take this the wrong way, Mom. But I think there might be a piece of PTV in your hair…"