Blunt the Blade | Plotted starter for @catrices
Surrounded by Obsidian
"Do you understand the task?"
"I do."
"Good. Your response?"
"I submit myself to serve until completion of the task as was outlined."
"Very well."
Under the Early Summer Sun
Vere was much closer to the equator and much warmer than Vern for it. Which as much as he didn't want to, Alex did, in fact, appreciate. It meant that he didn't feel as chilled here. However, while it made up for the months of sea travel, it did nothing to change the way his body ached after a week of travel from Port au Mal to Arles on horse back without his sunfires to help.
At least he had long mastered the ability to hide the truth of his thoughts and body; he was after all a Sunblade. The strongest in generation, the fastest trained ever according to the records, so he had no reason not to believe he was capable of seeing this task to completion. He would serve his people in the ways he'd been taught.
"Don't look so glum, boy," A hand clapping to his back drew mahogany eyes to the man riding beside him as they entered the Veretian capital. "You've not lost your will have you?"
Shaking his head, Alex smiled at his father's best friend. "No, sorry, was just thinking, Lord Robert."
"Oh?" Robert squeezed the young Sunblade's shoulder, rocking the man in his saddle. "About anything important?"
"Not really. Just about Garrett..." The dark brow that Robert raised at him had Alex chuckling softly, shrugging. "The fool's going to get himself killed without me there to remind him to behave around all the nobles."
"No, he won't." Warmth coated the Duke's voice as he joined the conversation, having been listening to his dearest friend's check in on his son, but only now shifting his weight to slow his horse to match pace with the other two Sunblades. "We won't let him cause disrespect."
Had Alex been truly worrying about his best friend, his only friend, he would have been much more worried about that particular statement. Garrett had been, after all, born beneath thatched roofs not stone, he only had a few years of classes to call on to remember how to behave among nobility even if he held such a prestigious title as the Knight Paramount. Alas, there was little Alex could do about it now. He'd have to just trust that his father would not let Garrett be felled in his absence.
Hopefully, the fact the Oracle Mentor had finally claimed young Garrett as his son would offer more forgiveness should the man falter in how he treated his betters.
"Then I don't need to worry, do I?" Lips curled in an easy grin at the reassurance, Alex looked ahead, back straight even as he rolled with the motion of his steed.
"Indeed not." One more squeeze to the young man's shoulder and then Robert's hand was falling away from Aaron's son. "Looks like we've made it."
Nodding quietly, Alex glanced around as they rode through the city. Though he was very careful to ensure that he didn't do so too fast, that his gaze didn't linger any one place for long, looking for all intents and purposes a silly nobleman awed by the Veretian city. His breathing was counted, three in, three out, a half second pause before the direction of airflow changed. Body relaxed as he rode, he prepared himself for the things he knew he was about to hear. The whispers that would likely spread and surround his entire existence within Vere.
But he would see his task to completeion.
He was a Sunblade through and through.
As the party slowed before the castle, he settled his mind and readied himself for his time here in the Veretian capital. Until he was reclaimed by Vern, he would be on his best behavior. He would be exactly what was needed of him in service of Vern and her Star.
