Chapter 102: Back In Floor 1

Theo spent two days at home before he went back, and they were good days, and he would think about them a great deal later.

He cooked. He fixed the gate motor, which had been sticking since the day they moved in. He carried four hundred pounds of rice, flour and dried meat up to the treeline in six trips and handed it across the boundary, because they were not allowed past it, on Estea’s terms, which they had accepted without argument the moment Asterion heard them. By the last trip the sack cord had worn a line into his shoulder that was still there at dinner.

’She was right, of course. She’s always right about this sort of thing and it is deeply irritating.’

He gave Sesan her ointment in the mornings and massaged Estea’s legs, and on the second morning, Sesan pushed his hands away and did the last of the ointment herself, badly, working it over her arms in thick uneven streaks, and looked at him afterwards to check whether that had counted.

"That counted."

She went back to her candy.

Asterion came to the house on the second evening, which was the only time the boundary rule was broken and it was broken by invitation.

Estea received him in the front room with the lamp behind her, which Theo suspected was deliberate, and she looked at the elf for a long moment before she said anything at all.

"Sit."

"I would rather stand."

"Isn’t that because your shoulder will not let you get up again once you are down." Estea gestured at the chair. "Sit. I am not going to enjoy watching you fall over in my house."

Asterion sat.

What followed was not a conversation. It was an examination, and it went on for forty minutes, and Theo stood in the doorway and kept his mouth shut and learned more about his own woods in that time than he had in two days of carrying rice.

At the end of it Estea folded her hands.

"You will have three of your people watch the lake road at night. The road, from the second bend, where a car has to slow down. My husband will pay for whatever they need to sit out there comfortably, since cold watchers fall asleep."

Asterion’s eyes came up.

"...You have done this before."

"Yes, with my husband’s departmental store before it went bankrupt."

She glanced at Theo.

"He wrecked it all feeding mouths."

’That’s so untrue! I’ve never owned a departmental store!’

Then she looked back at the window.

"You may go."

Theo saw him out and came back to find her facing the window, exactly where he had left her.

"You liked him."

"I did not."

"You gave him a watch rota."

"I gave myself a watch rota and let him carry it out." She did not turn round. "He is competent, he is frightened, and he has reasons not to betray us this month. That is not liking. That is arithmetic."

’Sure it is.’

Theo went to bed grinning and did not say another word about it, which was, he felt, the single most restrained thing he had done all year.

He left for the Tower on the third morning.

The goodbyes were shorter this time, and that was its own kind of milestone. Odette handed him a bag at the door and did not tell him what was in it. Uthed came with him to the Tower.

’I should consider buying a car maybe?’

For now, he had to make do with a taxi.

Before they left, Sesan came out to the car in her coat and hat with the bag of candy under her arm and stood there until he was in it.

And Estea did not come out at all, which he understood, and then the front room window opened four inches as the car pulled away, which he also understood.

The customs hall was different when they knew your name.

The officer at channel three looked up before Theo had finished getting the card out.

"Sky’s Husband."

’Oh, wonderful.’

"That’s the leaderboard, not me."

"Sir, there’s a queue of forty people behind you who would give a year of their lives for a leaderboard entry." The man ran the card and grinned at him. "First floor’s cleared for you, no trial required. You’re through."

Theo came out into Alderkeep at nightfall, and the city was already lit, lanterns strung in long coloured rows over the streets and the market lanes below.

As soon as he was through, he went up to the Castle, where he met Captain Dunn’s tall assistant.

"You’re searching for the Captain, Champion."

Theo answered late. For half a second he had been busy cursing the man out in his head for every strike he took in the Trial.

Then he spoke, kindly enough:

"Not particularly. But I want to be escorted to my estate. If anyone can do the job, I won’t mind."

The soldier smiled. It was a bright, uncomplicated thing.

"I can most definitely be of help in that regard, it is one of the finest regions in Alderkeep after all."

The man put out a slender arm.

"My name is Illbrec, I’m a Spear Knight."

Theo chuckled, and muttered.

"Oh, I know."

As Theo took the hand, Illbrec leaned in slightly.

"Sorry?"

"It was nothing, nothing at all."

The Knight straightened, and the two of them started walking.

"Can you ride a horse, Champion?"

Theo sighed.

"You can just call me Sky’s Husband."

"I think that will be found to be quite disrespectful."

"Then shall I call you a Legatee?"

"Sorry?"

Theo shook his head.

"Never mind. Yes, I can ride a horse. At least, I took lessons back in school."

Horses were still the basic form of transportation in the Tower, so riding had been one of the courses a student could select, and Theo had taken it because it was fun. Perhaps that just had to do with the fact that he considered animals fun.

Illbrec led them to the stables, where he took his own horse and Theo took an obsidian stallion. Then they passed the side gate of the castle and rode out into the green plains, further into the Alderkind Woods.

In the centre of the woods the road straightened and ran a long way without turning, and at the end of it the manor came up out of the trees in dark stone, ornate towers standing over lawns cut short enough to hold the last of the light, and the formal gardens past those still keeping their squares and half circles.

Beyond the iron gates the land kept going, dense woodland and then rolling country, further than he could follow from the saddle.

What greeted Theo inside was emptiness. Every piece of furniture wore a white sheet, and every sheet wore dust, and his boots left prints across the floor going in.

Knight Illbrec studied the place.

"No one has dwelt here in a hundred years, a hundred years since Duke Harry passed without a Heir and his Duchy returned to the Royal family."

Theo took the room in again, slower.

"I was given such an important place?"

That seemed to please the Knight.

"I’m convinced the King considers you a very important person."

Then he turned back to the covered furniture.

"Perhaps, you need help cleaning this place. I can—"

Theo waved a hand at all of it.

"Oh, that’s alright. Don’t worry about it. I’m not doing that yet."

Illbrec let it go. He bowed, and left him to it.

Then Theo was alone. He went up the stairs, into the first room he came to, and sat down on the edge of the bed, and the dust came up off the sheet in a slow grey cloud and settled again.

The panel came up in the dark.

[CLASS TRIAL] [Candidate: THE SKY’S HUSBAND] [Realm: Mundane — Early] [Note: This candidate is five Realms below the recorded minimum for this trial] [Note: The trial does not adjust]

’...Right.’

’Right, that’s fine, that’s completely fine.’

[There is no failure condition] [There is only what you are]

The dark in front of him thinned, the way it thinned in a street when something moved under it.

And Theo, who had walked into a dead city with a cheapskate sword and had come out of it alone, put his hand on the grip of a blade an old man had made him, and found that he was not frightened, which he would examine much later and did not have time for now.

’Alright then... show me what I am.’