“I see that you have finally decided to return.” Father Odom said as he saw Nela instructing the servants to prepare for her to leave. For the past few weeks she had been staying in the temporary residence that had been built for those working on the construction along with the Father. As the school would be built a bit away from Midbury, this had been seen as a better solution than getting people to move backwards and forwards between the town and the site.

“Even if I wanted to stay longer there is almost nothing left for me to do. The planning has all been done, all that is left is for the construction to finish. And I trust that with your oversight, there will not be any major mishaps, Father.” In reality, they both knew that she could have left with that reason at least a week prior if not longer. Father Odom was not going to mention this, however, lest Nela feel discouraged about wanting to meet her father out of guilt.

“I do not profess any great knowledge on construction but I am sure that I can manage. If I need any help, I will send word to you immediately.” As they were talking, they heard the sound of horses arriving outside. Since only knights and messengers rode horses in Braydon’s territory, they both came out to see what the issue was.

“Just the person I was looking to see.” A voice came from on the horse, one that Nela was not expecting at all.

“Lani? What brings you here?” Nela knew that there were many lords gathering near Mapjess, since the King’s army was there, but Lani? To her knowledge, Lani would never choose a side in a factional conflict. And she never had. Sitting in between two powerful factions meant that choosing a side would not benefit her, let alone siding with an entirely different faction. But that she was even in Braydon’s territory at that moment spoke volumes to who she had sided with. Even with all of that, Nela felt that there was something else that was slightly odd, but she could not quite place what it was.

“I came to see you of course, is that wrong of me?” Lani put on a faux pitiful face, before giggling shortly after. She knew that that excuse would never fly with Nela. It was at this moment that the other person on the horse started to get restless.

“Nela, come back with us!” Mireille exclaimed, showing the real reason why they had gone out to meet her. Nela had been surprised enough at seeing Lani that she had not even noticed that Mireille was riding with her. Lani and Mireille had never even met before, and now they were riding a horse together.

“I see that you two have made great friends then. In fact, I was planning on returning today anyway. You caught me just as I was preparing.” Nela could not help but smile at seeing Mireille, it was only now that she realised quite how long she had been away from the castle. Normally she would see the girl everyday, but she had spent more than two weeks at the construction site.

“She even asked me to teach her to ride, I was wondering what you think about that?” Since the conversation had moved more in the direction of Mireille, Lani brought up what they had been discussing a couple of hours ago on their journey. And when she mentioned it, Nela finally realised what she had felt was odd but could not put her finger on. Lani was riding a horse. For somebody so well versed in what the nobility found trendy and what they found off putting, Nela was surprised that she had not noticed it sooner.

“You do know the implications of that right?” Nela guessed that Lani knew but considering her disregard for almost all of the nobility, she could not be so sure. It was rare for noble ladies to learn to ride, and even rarer for common women to for much the same reason. 

“Of course I do, does it matter?” Lani did not care for what the other nobles think, much like what Nela thought. And given her lack of memories, she knew that Mireille cared even less. Even if she did not know that the sparkling eyes that were looking down at her were enough to show that Mireille really liked the idea of learning to ride.

“It doesn’t matter much I suppose…” Nela was fine with going against the noble’s trends, it was just so out of left field that she did not really know how to react to it.

“Then it is decided, I will teach Mireille how to ride.” Lani concluded. Mireille too held a contented smile, a welcome change from her usually neutral expression. And from how happy she was, it did not look like she would lose that smile for some time.

*cough*

Roan decided that it was the appropriate time to remind the women that they were not the only people present, both himself and Father Odom having been forgotten since the start of the conversation. No matter how adorable Mireille’s happiness might be, he had been sent to escort Lani and ask Nela to return fairly quickly.

“Ah yes, Braydon also asked me and Roan to come to see what was going on. Your father had to return to Mapjess at the King’s request, but he told us that he had not gotten the chance to see you.” Lani finally got around to the main point of why they actually came to see Nela. She would have gone to see her friend at some point regardless, but it was true that she had been specifically asked.

“Ahhh… yeah. About that…” It was clear as day that Nela felt guilty about not having gone to meet her father at all. And that was more than enough to confirm to Lani that it had been intentional, all that she needed to figure out now was why.

“Stop hiding, come back!” As Lani was thinking how to broach the subject, Mireille came out swinging. And it was obvious from the bright red face of Nela that it had been on point. She had been hiding and had no way of denying it.

“You should probably come with us to Mapjess, you know you would regret not seeing your father before the true civil war breaks out.” Since Mireille had blasted the topic wide open, Lani decided that there was no point in tiptoeing around it. And she was right, the civil war might have technically started but there had been no major battles or skirmishes yet. But that would not last forever, and Cinar would have to head out to battle.

Darkwood

Hi Hi. 

And this will be the last chapter before the end of  the adventum contest. It has been a great experience so far, and I thank all of you for sticking it out with me so far. I may not have gotten any prizes (unless I suddenly spike more than my entire readership in a day) but it has been great fun just picking up writing as a hobby in itself.

Since the contest is ending the day after this chapter is released, I am going to stop posting chapters for the next week. That is not to give myself  a break (that would be too kind on myself), but to increase the number of chapters that I have stockpiled as next month university will be starting up once again for me. And considering my current stockpile is about 4 chapters... I am making sure that I have enough of a backup for when I am getting back into the groove of uni life. I will also start uploading chapters to other websites during the next week, since that requirement of the contest will no longer apply, though it will take a good while for them to catch up with the updates here even with the week's hiatus.

^This will also be put up as an announcement chapter the day after this chapter is released.

Come join me and others on my discord server and have fun chatting together! You can come and talk to me about my thoughts on the novel or point out any mistakes I made in my chapters. Or if that doesn't suit your taste then just talk about whatever random stuff is on your mind.

And if you are willing and able, you could always show me some love by contributing to my snack fund over on Kofi. =P

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