Chapter 140 - Preparing For Sylvamir

Chapter 140: 140 - Preparing For Sylvamir

Adrien reached Elyndor.

The city looked as always, spread through and around enormous trees with roads, platforms and buildings woven into the forest. He went straight toward the largest tree in the city, the one holding the Edevane residence at its very top.

The guards at the entrance recognised him this time and let him through without delay. Adrien stepped onto the circular lift platform inside the trunk and felt the runes wake beneath his feet. Floors, windows and landings slipped past while the platform climbed until it reached the upper levels.

The Edevane home spread across branches broad enough to carry entire buildings, high above most of Elyndor. Adrien crossed the familiar wooden rooms expecting to find everyone ready to leave, and found almost the opposite.

Amelia was moving between two rooms with enough urgency to suggest somebody had told her they were departing in five minutes rather than having the whole morning.

Clothes lay spread across one of the sofas, an open case sat on a nearby table, and another bag rested half full on the floor. Amelia stood in front of it holding two different travel outfits, looking between them with visible frustration.

Vael sat nearby, entirely unmoved by any of it, while Lucien stood at one of the windows checking the contents of a much smaller bag.

Adrien stopped at the entrance. "Am I early?"

"No," Vael said. "She’s been doing this since sunrise."

Amelia looked over at once. "I’m almost finished."

Lucien did not raise his head from his bag. "She said that an hour ago."

There was no amusement in his voice. He sounded as though he were reporting the weather. Adrien put his suitcase down and walked closer, taking in the scattered clothes.

"What are you missing?"

"Nothing. That’s the problem."

Amelia held up the two outfits. One was a dark green travelling set with fitted trousers, a high-collared top and a light outer coat. The other ran lighter, mostly cream and pale blue, with a longer coat that looked more formal without being impractical.

"Which one?"

Adrien looked between them. "For tomorrow?"

"Yes."

He considered the question more seriously than he had expected to. "The green one."

Amelia looked at it, then at him. "No."

Adrien paused. "Then the other one?"

"No. I don’t think I want that one either."

She turned and disappeared into the next room with both outfits still in her hands. Adrien watched the doorway for several seconds before slowly turning toward Vael.

"Has she always been this difficult with this?"

"Yes."

Lucien finally closed his bag. "Clothes, luggage, what to bring, what not to bring. It gets worse when she has time to think about it."

From the next room Amelia called that she could still hear them. Neither Vael nor Lucien reacted, which told Adrien they had lived through this more times than they cared to count.

A few minutes later she came back carrying a third outfit, darker than the others, with black trousers, a fitted grey-blue coat and a simple travelling cloak folded over one arm.

"This one."

Adrien looked at it. "You’ve decided?"

"Yes."

"Then why did you ask me about the other two?"

Amelia was already fitting the new clothes into a separate section of her luggage. "I hadn’t decided then."

Adrien stared a moment before accepting that no better explanation was coming.

Lucien picked up his own bag. "I’m going to check the vehicle and make sure I haven’t forgotten anything."

He left at the same unhurried pace he did almost everything else. Amelia kept moving between her luggage and the adjoining room, reorganising things she had already packed once, and Adrien’s attempt to remind her that they still had time slowed her down not at all.

Vael eventually gestured toward the table. "Let her finish. We should go over the route."

Adrien sat opposite him while Vael unfolded a large map showing the roads out of Elyndor and several routes continuing toward the Kingdom of Sylvamir.

"You’ll travel by long-distance mana vehicle for most of the first stretch. The one outside has reinforced suspension, two mana engines and enough stored crystals to cover several days before needing a proper recharge."

"How long until the border?"

"That depends on the roads and how often you stop. Don’t rush it. There are sections where the mana density interferes with older engines, and checkpoints before you enter Sylvamir territory."

Vael traced one route with a finger. "Once you’re inside the kingdom, Amelia knows the way to the capital better than either of you. Follow her judgment there, and don’t argue with her about it in front of their guards."

Adrien followed the line farther along. "And the craftsman?"

Vael moved his finger toward the capital. "His name is Orven Talris. He works in the capital and doesn’t take ordinary commissions anymore. I’ll send word ahead. Show him Umbral Root and tell him I sent you, and he’ll at least open the door for you."

"Can he actually raise it to S rank?"

"He can tell you whether the material you brought back is enough. If anyone can improve that staff without ruining what makes it useful, it’s him."

That was exactly what Adrien wanted to hear. Amelia crossed the room again with another folded cloak, and Vael barely glanced her way.

"There’s something else," Adrien said. "I was invited to Aetherion Institute of Magic."

Vael showed no surprise at all. "I expected something like that."

Adrien frowned. "It was that obvious they’d invite me?"

"Not obvious. Predictable, once someone there noticed you."

Vael leaned back before continuing. "You may not know this, but Aetherion has eyes on every continent. They watch for unusual mages, rare Paths connected to the mage one, strange spells and anything else that might matter to magical research."

Adrien thought at once of the black wax on the letter and the raven pressed into it.

"If you see a crow watching from a roof or a branch," Vael went on, "don’t assume it’s only a crow. Sometimes it is. Sometimes someone very far away is looking through its eyes."

Adrien stayed quiet for several seconds. Maybe the raven on that seal had never been decoration, and if Aetherion kept observers across every continent, learning about him had cost them far less effort than he assumed.

"Thanks for telling me."

Vael nodded while something heavy shifted outside, Lucien working over the vehicle. Amelia reappeared with her luggage closed, though her face said she was reconsidering half of it.

Adrien stood and picked up his suitcase. The route was set, the vehicle was ready, Umbral Root finally had a destination, and Aetherion had turned considerably more unsettling.

Tomorrow morning, they would leave for Sylvamir.