HBWnovel Chapter 28: Cilia and Leda
Chapter 28: Cilia and Leda
Chapter 28: Cilia and Leda
Chapter 28 Cilia and Leda
We spent three days incorporating Aelyn into our daily training. She seemed deeply motivated to not only impress me but also to outdo Gareth. Unfortunately for Aelyn, other than flexibility, Gareth only took a few hours to surpass her when he committed. I was actually extremely happy that Gareth had someone pushing him so hard. I had failed in that role as his friend.
We were eating dinner on the third full day after Aelyn’s arrival when Callem announced, “Sebastian is here.” Aelyn was puzzled but Gareth and I rushed outside forgetting the meal. I wasn’t sure how Callem knew the skyship was approaching. To me the ship was silent.
All of us were eventually outside to greet the arrivals. It was still amazing for me to see the Wind Splitter moving so gracefully without sound. It was a beautiful ship and scored high on my aesthetic scale. After landing the ramp descended and Sebastian walked down the ramp shortly followed by Nisil. A minute passed and then two young women exited the craft as well. The woman on the right was tall, almost six feet (182 cm). She had rich blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. My focus was on her as they approached. Her eyes were a light brown, almost golden. She had a square build and was obviously well-muscled by her movement. Her hips were narrow and her chest was mostly flat. Her face took away from her potential beauty though. It was hard and she pursed her lips tight. Her eyes, even with their intoxicating golden color, had a fury written into them.
The woman walking next to her was much shorter, maybe 5’5” (165 cm), and her hair was a shiny black. Her skin was dark too, closer to the Mediterranean in color. She was the darkest-skinned person I had met on Skyholme. Her eyes were a dark brown but had a liveliness to them that the other girl lacked. She was also curvy with an ample bosom and hips. She did have an athletic grace to her walk but didn’t strike me as overly athletic from my observations so far.
As they approached we were sizing them up as they were us. Callem and Sebastian had already retreated inside the farmhouse to talk in private, leaving us to introduce ourselves.
“We have six trunks on the ship boys. Bring them to our quarters,” Cilia commanded us. She was the tall one.
Gareth and I looked at each other and then at Aelyn. None of us moved. The smaller young woman spoke next, “Hi! I’m Leda and this is my friend Cilia.” She elbowed the stern blonde young woman. “Perhaps you can give us a tour of the...” she looked around at the small farm, “fields?” She was attempting humor and not making fun of being in the middle of nowhere by her demeanor.
This was not off to a great start and Cilia made it worse, “If you boys are not going to get the trunks you can have the servant girl get them for us.” My temper flared.
“She is no servant, and you will treat her with respect! Aelyn is our friend and you came here to learn, not to boss us around!" I swung to focus on the short girl ignoring the tall one, "Leda we would be happy to give you a tour while Cilia decides how much of a stuck-up bitch she wants to be.” I spoke in a low tone but with inflection. I turned and started to walk away with Gareth and Aelyn following. I could hear the two young women whispering back and forth before they eventually followed us.
The two were quiet as I led them to the clearing where the obstacle courses were. We explained the three different obstacle courses and answered Leda’s questions. Cilia was quiet but still looked like she had a rod shoved up her ass. Leda asked if Gareth was really 12 and actually went into his personal space to squeeze his biceps and grasp his shoulders. He had the body of an athletic adult man and just his youthful face betrayed him as being young. If I met Gareth I would definitely guess him to be at least 17, maybe as old as 19. He flushed as Leda got a little handsy and I caught Cilia rolling her eyes at her friend's forwardness. Leda just got a few handfuls of muscle before separating from Gareth so we could continue the tour.
Our next part of the tour was the part of the stream we used as a bathing spot. This had both women incredulous. No showers like at the academy? We returned to the training yard and the new large drying shed that we had built with Callem. The shed was actually being used to store farm tools right now. Callem had been extremely happy with Edel’s drying work on the tobacco leaves and planned to use her in the future so the shed we worked so hard to build was being repurposed. The old drying shed was now storing training dummies and training weapons. Leda went to the rack with the staves and picked a short one and challenged Gareth to a quick spar. He agreed immediately. As they walked to the center I moved next to Aelyn. Cilia was on the opposite side of us.
“Aelyn what is going through Gareth’s mind,” I asked. She looked at me questionably. “I know what I said not to read people but I am just curious.” She focused on Gareth as he limbered up.
“He is thinking of ways to get behind Leda and pin her with his staff. Ugh, he is going to reciprocate her handsy action and try to cup her breasts.” She said with some disgust. Oh, this was not good. I didn’t think Gareth knew Cilia had been raped and manhandling Leda would ruin his reputation with the two new arrivals.
I yelled, “Hey Gareth it isn’t right that you get the first crack at the newbies. Let me take the first! Come on brother!” I said stressing brother. That was our sign for him to retreat. He looked about to protest but did relent and walked to me handing me the staff. I whispered to Aelyn, “Please tell Gareth what an idiot he is in no polite words.” Aelyn smiled at my request.
I walked to the engagement circle and squared off with Leda. The smirk of superiority on her face made me not want to give her anything easy. In our first engagement, I managed to catch her ankle with my staff and get her down and retreat from her quick recovery sweep with the staff. Her smirk was gone at least and a fiery determination was now firmly in its place. I tuned out the others who were cheering me on and Cilia was cheering her friend on. We had a minute of quick exchanges with neither gaining the upper hand as we sized each other up. She was good with the staff but not that good. I actually felt pretty confident but remained solidly on guard and kept giving her the same opening. When she ran out of patience she finally took it I put her on her back and pinned her to the ground on her back before she could recover. We recovered and she was smiling now. She was enjoying herself even though she was losing. It took me six minutes to get her down again and pin her, this time face down. After that, she relinquished the victory to me.
Leda had smiled but Cilia was not happy. I checked on Gareth and he looked miserable so Aelyn had put him in his place. Cilia spoke, “Grandfather and Callem have been watching us. We should head inside.” I looked and yes they were over by the farmhouse door watching.
We put away the staves and Leda walked next to me. “You are pretty good. But now I am as filthy as are you. Perhaps we should go wash up in the stream?” I looked at her and she was definitely a nymph with a look of lust in her eyes. She was 18 I think and fairly attractive. Eighteen in this world meant she was physically the age of a 20-year-old. If my aether core heartburn wasn’t ever present I was sure my own libido would grow to match Gareth’s at her advances. Fortunately, my aether core had masked my hormonal overdrive so far.
“I am fine but you can go with Aelyn before bed tonight if you forgot where it was,” I cast my cleanliness spell on myself and she gaped at me as the dirt, sweat, and grim melted from me.
“You wasted a slot on that spell? Well, I guess I should say I am a little jealous. And what is that scent?” She moved to get closer to me but I managed to get Aelyn between us before she could sniff me. With Aelyn between us, she focused on the girl. “You are a pretty one. Who commands you here? Callem?”
Aelyn to her credit didn’t miss a step, “The boy who just dominated you in the ring.” I think Leda licked her lips as she was once again eyeing me like a piece of meat.
“Dominated? Yes, I suppose so. Does he dominate you as well?” Her tone was playful.
“Don’t show it to anyone. It is worth quite a massive sum and many people would kill you for it whether to use themselves or sell it. I haven’t used it because I don’t have any space left to imprint spells. I was hoping I could make enough space over the next decade to imprint this very spell but you can make much better use of it than I can and I have lots of other options. And I expect you to protect my granddaughter.” I nodded. “Ok one more choice.” Sebastian said.
I thought about the Harbinger book. I had no aspirations of building a Harbinger ship but having all the runic script for building a skyship... Sebastian seeing my eyes on the silvery-covered tome spoke again, “I think I know a book you may want.” He went to the back of the shelves and pulled out a book. He handed it to me and the cover was an image of the Wind Splitter. I eagerly opened it and it was similar to the Harbinger book but detailed the Wind Splitter construction and runes. It was mostly loose pages neatly placed inside and not in an organized way. “I have been compiling that book myself. That has my copied notes, research, and everything I have found out during my restoration of the Wind Splitter. I was hoping to eventually get a new class of ship into the Skyholme fleet, a fast transport for troops and supplies. I doubt I will have much say in things anytime soon...” He tailed off, clearly disappointed with his role in the Skyholme navy. “I have copies of these notes anyway. If you prefer this over a third spell I am ok with your choice.” I nodded.
“Ok Storme," he motioned me out of his dimensional space. I looked at the massive collection as the entrance disappeared and hoped one day I could match such knowledge in my own space. “I have one other gift for you,” he went to the desk drawer and retrieved a marble. “This is an anti-scrying item. It is also a dungeon-created magical object obtained from a prize chest.” He handed it to me and I took the black marble. “All you need to do is continually channel a minor amount of aether into it and it will prevent anyone from remote viewing you. It has an effective range of about 55 yards (50m). It is actually a gift from Callem. I obtained it at his request. He thinks either you or Gareth may have need of it in the future.” Sebastian sighed for the umpteenth time.
Sebastian led me down and out of the Wind Splitter. The fourteen books were heavy but a prize I was not going to let go. We had spent over two hours inside and as we walked to the farmhouse Sebastian continued, “I wish I had time to mentor you Storme but Callem is certain only bad things would happen if it was known I was tutoring a promising young mage. My last two apprentices were kidnapped by my old family to try and get leverage on me. Yes, they are bad people. If you run into anyone with the Riffolk surname definitely don’t trust them. They control most of the seedy underworld in Skyholme and are heavily connected to the Bricios.” He didn’t say what had happened to his apprentices but the pained look on his face was enough for me to guess.
We entered the house and everyone else was in deep conversation. Cilia still had her hard look and Gareth looked so uncomfortable that I almost laughed. Callem spoke, “Ah good! Sebastian, did you give the boy the bauble you wanted to give him?”
Sebastian laughed, “Yes it just took me a little to find it and he wanted to see the bridge and for me to explain the controls for the Wind Splitter.”
“Well, it is all good we have just been detailing the new training schedule. We are going to focus on unarmed combat for the next few weeks before incorporating sword work.” Callem said. Was that why Gareth was looking miserable and uncomfortable? Callem continued, “Sebastian we will need your skills to expand the bunkhouse. It has been determined it would be best to add a third loft with two beds for Cilia and Leda. Aelyn has apparently taken a rather protective big sister role in regards to Storme.” A look of jealousy was on Gareth’s face and Aelyn had a smirk on hers. I was curious about the extent of the conversation that had occurred. “Boys why don’t you go and get the young woman’s chests on the Wind Splitter while the rest of us go and work on the bunkhouse upgrades.”
Gareth jumped out of his seat and to the door. Aelyn made to follow us but I waved her off. Gareth needed some ego soothing it appeared. We both went up the ship’s ramp and found the crates before I spoke, “Gareth we are brothers, closer than brothers. You never have to fear I would place you second under any circumstances.” Gareth looked at me and he wasn’t wearing his usual grin.
“Storme I have the charisma trait but I can't seem to get any of the girls interested in me! Well maybe that Leda girl but she scares me a bit now. What the hell is wrong with me? Did you know Aelyn can read minds? She berated me for what I was thinking about Leda before we were about to engage with staves.” Gareth had never been so upset before. His hormones must be raging even at 12. Maybe it had something to do with his rapid growth pushing him through puberty.
“Gareth you have nothing to worry about. Aelyn has been abducted and branded by Skyholme and has trouble trusting people. Cilia was sexually assaulted and probably wants nothing to do with men. And Leda... scares me too.” This seemed to make him feel a little better. “You will have absolutely no problem getting as many women as you want in just a few years. Just give it some time.” We started moving the chests in silence.
Inside the bunkhouse, Sebastian was shaping lumber from outside into a new loft. It didn’t flow like water like my metal shaping ability but seemed to warp the wood. The new loft was a cantilever on the far side to give it similar space to the other two lofts. The new loft was similar set up with the furniture. By the time we got all the girls' chests inside Sebastian was done. One of the chests had mattresses and bedding for the wooden bunks in the new loft, I asked Sebastian to put a panel divider between my bed and Aelyn’s. Aelyn nixed that saying there was no reason for Sebastian to waste his aether on such a thing. The look of amusement on Sebastion's and Callem’s faces was not to my liking so I insisted on the upgrade to my loft. Sebastian relented and added a wood panel, stretching a log into the panel, and he added small shelves on each side of the separation panel, expanding the storage for my books. I smiled because it finally felt like I got the win.
Instead of helping Cilia and Leda unpack I went to my loft and started studying. Aelyn was up in the loft shortly after with a plate of food. When I said no food in the loft she just icily said that was the rule for my side of the loft. Her side of the loft had no such rule. She had said it loudly enough that everyone heard. It drew everyone’s eyes to us. I just rolled my eyes at her antics. I never understood women in my past life and had made no progress in this one. I ignored everyone and studied my spellbook for the obfuscate spell and its evolutions. I needed this spell before I could focus on the dimensional closet spell.
I did my aether core exercises and spent two hours spamming my cleanliness spell. It only used up half my aether stores and I was so tempted to make coins but held back with all the new additions to the bunkhouse. Maybe once all the aether lights went out. Everyone else was in their bed and I heard Aelyn whisper to me.
“I am sorry Storme I lied to you.” She was quiet enough that I didn’t think anyone else could hear.
“What about?” I asked sounding unconcerned.
“My read surface thoughts is an ability. I have been using it on the others. Sebastian has some type of shield against it. Callem’s discipline makes him hard to read but the others...” She said sounding sorrowful about her actions.
“What do you want to tell me?” I was overly cautious.
“Cilia is angry. She is angry at everyone around her for what happened to her. She respects Callem and loves her grandfather but she is extremely angry and wants revenge on her attacker. She is associating you and Gareth as being similar to him.” She paused and when I didn’t ask a question she continued, “Leda is in love with Cilia. Everything she does is to protect her. She was trying to draw Gareth’s and your attention to her away from Cilia. Cilia tends to get overly aggressive against men so she was trying to temper her a bit.” Well, Leda's actions made some more sense now.
“And Gareth?” I asked now committed but not really wanting to know the answer.
“He is a typical male. I have read many men in the past and his thoughts are focused on fornication. He thinks a lot about what he has seen farm animals do and that spurs him to think about women in the same way.” That was more information than I needed. Gareth was 12 but was acting like an 18-year-old. I would have to talk to Wynna. Maybe she knew something that could help him. “Wynna is an overprotective mother hen. She is very fond of Callem and you two. She hasn’t made up her mind on me yet though. She asked me if I would let her do a reading on me and I declined.” Another long pause. “Do you want me to let her do a reading?”
I thought for just a moment, “She has a method that allows only you to see the results of a reading. It is up to you but it may help her build trust with you.” I said.
“Ok,” she said. She seemed done but then said, “I haven’t read you again Storme and I never will unless you ask.” That seemed to finish the conversation. I went to sleep with many thoughts having forgotten about making coins. My first thought was how could I make sure Freya and the rest of my family would be safe if the Sadians attacked Titan’s Shield.