Elias, used to her stoicism, sighed and tried again.
"But why not? It's not fair that I've never seen the city."
"And so? You're asking this so you can skip out on training aren't you?"
"No it's not like that."
"Then what is it like?"
"Oh com on big sis don't be like that."
"Be like what? You asked me to go with you since Uncle and Auntie can't due to work and I refuse so what the issue."
" But sis, it'll just be the two of us exploring the city. Don't tell me you're not interested in exploring as well?"
Aina, her back still to him, was not as calm as she appeared. A faint blush had crept across her cheeks, a fierce, internal battle raging behind her composed exterior. The thought of her 'darling little brother' wanting to spend the day with her sent a flutter through her heart. A part of her, the small, seven-year-old girl who just wanted to play with her brother, began to spin a beautiful fantasy. She imagined the two of them walking through the bustling city, visiting the noisy food stalls, him trying new things, their hands brushing as they navigated the crowded streets, perhaps even buying him a small toy she'd seen in a store window.
' A real date,' she thought, in a moment of pure, romantic naïveté.
This idyllic daydream was quickly, and violently, shattered by a wave of overprotective paranoia.
'What if he tripped on a loose cobblestone and scraped his knee?' He was so clumsy sometimes.
'What if the food from a street vendor didn't agree with his sensitive stomach and caused him to fall ill?' She'd probably torch that specific stall.
'What if someone looked at him "funny," or worse, what if a strange merchant with ill intentions tried to take advantage of his innocence?'
The thoughts tumbled one after another, an unending cascade of potential calamities. 'Or, or, or… '
Her mind raced, conjuring a thousand dangers that Elias, in his supposed naiveté, would not be able to handle.
Finally, with a mild tremor in her voice, she turned and fixed him with a stare, her expression a careful mixture of seriousness and thinly veiled concern.
"What is your reason for wanting to go? Give me a good one, Elias."
He, oblivious to her inner turmoil, simply shrugged.
"No reason. I'm just curious. And besides, I can't be cooped up behind these manor doors forever. I'll go out eventually. It's better I go out sooner rather than later, right sis?"
Aina's expression softened imperceptibly. She still had a deadpan expression but was genuinely moved by the mature sound of his words, even as she called his reason "flimsy" in her mind. She gave him a small, almost imperceptible smile.
"A flimsy reason for wanting to leave the protected walls of the Keep," she said, her voice now a little softer.
"But if you truly want to go, you will have to prove that you can take care of yourself out there. Even if the people respect your father as their Lord and ruler it's not all of them who have the best intentions. Some of them would love nothing more than to hurt the great Lord Alaric but he's powerful beyond thier reach but how do you think they'd react to his four year old son prancing around?"
' I knew this was gonna be difficult.'Elias thought. Attempting to be clever, he countered her point with one of his own.
"In the unlikely but apparently possible event that anything happens, I can always use Flow Suppression to run away from situations I can't handle. It'll be a great experience since I can test out a nd demonstrate what I've learned so far. And besides," he added, his voice full of childish sincerity.
"You'll be with me, so there's no problem. Right big sis?"
That simple statement, "you'll be with me," struck Aina with the force of an arrow, piercing her heart and shattering the last of her emotional defenses. Overwhelmed by his innocent trust and affection, she began to turn, slowly outstretching her arms, her intention clear: she was going to hug him, right there in the middle of the hallway. It was unknown whether she'd let go or not.
Just as her arms reached their full extension, a deep voice broke the moment. "Oh,what do we have here?"
It was Roric.
Aina instantly caught herself. She froze in place, her arms awkwardly raised in the air as if she about to stretch her back, and Elias, misunderstanding her movement, flinched and shrunk back, believing she was about to attack him. The scene was one of pure, silent comedy. Aina, her face now a furious shade of red, instantly bowed her head, hiding her face in the shadow of her hair.
"It's nothing," she mumbled, her voice barely a whisper.
Elias, ever straightforward, took up the mantle of explanation.
"I was trying to get Aina to go with me to the township."
Roric, completely missing the subtext and emotional devastation, simply nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Hmmm.Well, as part of your training we will be going to the forests more often So you'll get the opportunity to get a look at how Blackhaven is. I'm surprised,has Alaric not taken you around his city?"
Elias shook his head. Roric scratched his beard.
"I see"
" Will we really be going out into the forest?" Elias asked.
" Where else? If you though I was gonna sit you down in a classroom and lecture you on this and that then you're mistaken. What you need is practical knowledge and you won't get that from sitting on a chair all day and listening to an old man rant about bull-ahem, irrelevant information." Roric replied.
Aina, meanwhile, was in the midst of a full-blown internal crisis. Her cheeks were burning, and she was mentally berating herself for almost hugging him.
' How embarrassing!' she thought.
'What if she had been seen?'
Thank the gods Roric showed up when he did. With a final, silent, and grateful prayer to the universe, she took a deep breath, raised her head, and firmly put on her mask of cold indifference. She looked at Elias, her expression devoid of any emotion, and said in a calm, flat tone,
"If that's the plan then I suppose we could stop within the city a couple of times."
Elias, utterly confused by her sudden shift in demeanor, simply stared at her. He wondered for a moment if seven-year-olds were subject to puberty and mood swings, a fleeting thought he quickly shook out of his head before turning his attention back to Roric.
"Alright,let's go." Roric said leading the way as they left.