Luckily, when Valeron and Elysia were moderately upset, they would waste a lot of time and energy trying to explain Surin their problems. Too bad she had no Dragon scales, didn’t speak Dragontongue, and had the brain of a six months old child.
She would just look at them, make senseless sounds, and eventually fall asleep. At that point, Elysia and Valeron gave up and followed her lead. From their point of view, Surin lacked empathy and communication skills but was a great listener.
With the children safe in Bytra’s Doomslayer crib, Kamila could finally relax a bit before helping Elina prepare lunch. It worked as cooking and magic lessons since Tista’s and Lith’s servings needed more food than could be prepared with conventional means.
“Thank the gods you are an Awakened, dear.” Elina let Kamila carry a whole butchered cow and the giant pot where to put it along with the broth with Spirit Magic. “Don’t forget about Tista’s serving.”
“I didn’t.” Kamila kept the cow in mid-air with chore magic and then cut it into smaller pieces with controlled air blades. Now the meat fitted the cauldron and it would be cooked evenly. “I’m not good at multi-tasking yet.”
After preparing a second giant pot, it was just a matter of stirring the various dishes from time to time and waiting. Kamila could do everything from a distance, sitting outside the house to enjoy the breeze and checking the kitchen with Fire Vision.
Elina loved both the help and the company, feeling like she had another daughter to whom she could teach the family recipes. They moved the crib outside with them to keep an eye on the babies now that they were done with the house chores.
Elina was explaining to Kamila how to calculate the right amounts of spices needed for each serving based on the size of a guest when they received an unexpected visit.
“Hello, sister. Long time no see.” Kaz Retta, Kamila’s older brother, tried his best to give the two women a warm smile but even a seasoned businessman like him found it hard to hide the depth of his disappointment.
After everything he had heard and read about his brother-in-law, the so-called Supreme Magus of the Griffon Kingdom, Kaz had expected something better than a countryside cottage.
The Verhen house was a nice and cozy two-story tall building with solid stone walls and a sloping roof of high-quality tiles. Yet it was nothing compared to the luxurious mansions that even the small nobles of Xylita could afford.
Kaz had pictured Magus Verhen having a small Royal Palace in Lutia, with a finely landscaped garden that extended as far as the eye could see and droves of servants catering to his every need.
Reality was that he could see the whole house even from up close, there were cultivated fields instead of a garden, and farmhands and animals in place of the servants.
Kaz had never seen so many brutish, sweaty, and dirty men in one place in his entire life. To make matters even worse, not one of Raaz’s employees seemed impressed by Kaz’s fine clothes.
They didn’t even look at him with the respect that his status as in-law demanded. The farmhands just glared at him with eyes filled with spite and suspicion.
‘Why do I feel like my head is on the chopping block?’ The head of house Retta thought. ‘Everyone stares at me as if they are going to kill me the moment I make a sudden movement. Even the dogs are overgrown and have something feral about them.’
Of course, Kaz was right about everything.
The men of the Queen’s Corps were hidden and had followed him since his arrival through the Gate of the Lutian branch of the Mage Association. His ID had triggered a red flag which in turn had prompted a deep background check on Kaz and everyone on his contact amulet.
Before he reached the farm, the Crown knew everything about him and three snipers had his head and heart in their sights. Two of them were ready to blow him up with two long-range spells and a third sniper lay in ambush with a barrier-piercing explosive arrow already nocked.
The farmers were normal men, but thanks to their hard work were so physically fit that one of them was enough to kill Mister Retta with one blow of his farming tool. As for the dogs, they were Rys and the smell of cooking meat made them hungry.
“Kaz? What are you doing here?” Kamila jumped up from her recliner chair, too shocked from the surprise to make the proper introductions.
Elina had heard little about him, but after meeting Kamila’s parents and almost being fooled by their good manners, she felt no warmth towards her guest.
Kaz Retta was a man in his mid-thirties, about 1.75 meters (5’9″) tall, with short raven-black hair waxed just enough to not be ruffled when he removed his top hat or by a sudden gust of wind.
He had a gentle face that reminded Elina of Zinya and the slender build of someone with a sedentary job. His clothes were neat and ironed. The only trace of dirt on them was a bit of mud on his shoes.
He wore a blue jacket over a white shirt and blue pants. They were actually a couple of years old, but they were well kept and the decline of the Retta Household was too recent for them to show signs of wear.
“What kind of question is that?” He asked with a wounded expression and a pained voice. “Can’t a brother be worried about his little sister? I didn’t expect a warm welcome considering the circumstances we parted ways but I hoped that time and happiness would have softened you a bit.”
‘What the hell is going on here?’ He actually thought. ‘Kamila looks like she’s back in her early twenties. That woman is Verhen’s mother but how can she be in her thirties when he’s twenty?’
Kaz had seen the pictures of the Verhen family on the interlink, but he had always assumed they had been edited or at least that the people depicted wore heavy makeup since the photos were taken during galas.
Yet the two women wore no makeup now and there was no way they were as old as they were supposed to be.
“What brother? Kamila said with a sneer. “I remember well the few times we interacted outside meals and social events. You were a housemate to me and a condescending prick to Zin.
“I rarely asked you for help yet you always turned me down when I did. Like when I begged you to convince your parents to let me continue my studies. To let Zin out of the house so that she could meet someone who would give a damn about her.
“Or when I cried for not being forced to choose between an arranged marriage like Zin or be kicked out of the house. You were no brother to me. A brother is supposed to care for his siblings and help them. Not wash his hands of them whenever they are not useful to him.”
