Chương 373: 9.5

"She took the world away from me!" Evren tried to explain again to Fizzbunches what he had felt, what the countess wyrm had done. Yet every time he tried it seemed to come out wrong. Failed to convince his 'little advisor' the betrayal, the violation she had done to him. The cat, who was not a cat, butted Evren's elbow with his head and yowled in agitation." Yes, yes, so you have said young Shepherd, repeatedly, but did not the world return to speaking to you when she departed?

Did you not hold your own against her even when pressed? Were you not able to push back against her?" Evren wanted to growl, to snarl how Fizzbunches made his complaints seem so small and petty! But he kept his lips stiff and unmoving, he held the roar of the wind from his voice. He was the son his mother wished him to be.

"Brother, as funny as it is to watch you lose an argument to a silent partner, could maybe the wizard speak in a manner us mere mortals can understand?" His brother's words were said with a relaxed laugh, but there was an undercurrent of fear to them, a stiffness to his ears that showed the strain to keep his expression bright and 'alert'.

"It is just as well, for we are about to have my expected guests. Now I must make myself scarce, they trail attention I can ill afford at this point." Fizzbunches responded in the language of Evren and Hazim's family, but it was not in the throat of the black cat which was sitting comfortably just shy of touching Evren. Nor was it from the white one that had been keeping an eye on Hazim.

No, it came from the mottled splotched fur of a third cat walking into the room, who was present for barely a moment and then as a trio all three of the felines walked to the window and one by one leapt out of the room. Nevermind the height of the guest room his brother was kept in. Hazim turned to look at Evren, his head tilting in confusion.

"Guests?" And then a very rough and sharp voice cut into the room. The room that Evren thought was empty. The voice had the distinct thickness that the Countess spoke with—wide-worded and overly-forward in the mouth, but it was in the Magarskan courtly language." Stupid cat, bringing us here and then leaving us on our own." Evren turned towards the voice and found the two figures that were standing precisely where he and Hazim's attention had not been. One was half the height of the other.

They looked strange, clothing seeming well made, but far too dark and drab for any noble in Magarska. He took a deep breath through his snout and found the scent of two women, one perhaps a bit younger than his mother; overly pale for one without fur and with a manner-of-speech that seemed on the verge of a growl, hardly notable.

The other was confusing, she was definitely a very young girl only ten summers old by the scent, a snub faced one too, but also with an aroma he'd only ever known coming from a grown woman. The face was covered entirely, a black veil so thin it had to be elvish silk from the east. Two women?

or at least one woman and a girl, despite their foreign attire and voices the two of them seemed normal, not even a hint of magic seemed to cling to them as Fizzbunches had been teaching him how to sense, nor any touch of a miracle. They were simply just there! The taller of the two continued to speak, meeting Evren's face without even a flinch, staring into his eyes before the scowl softened into a smile." Apologies, Wolf Prince Evren of the Vanand.

I am Adelyne, Mistress of the Lady Jewel's guild of Beggars, Orphans, Elderly, Infirm, and abandoned. And our mutual feline friend has asked that we speak together." Even as she spoke, the woman's voice was shifting, the rougher parts of her way with the court's tongue falling away. Hazim huffed hard, struggling to follow the deeply accented words. The Magarskan Court's language was mostly legible to Evren's brother, but they still needed to practice. And Foreigners strained even Evren's skill in the words.

"An apology will be accepted, only if both a mistake has been made, and a trespass not repeated." The woman burst into chuckles, not in a cruel or judgmental way. But in a sudden mirth that relaxed belting of breath.

"Oh stars above, there are two of them! Tell me Wolf Prince? Is it a wyrm thing, or a noble thing to speak in poetry like that?" The so-called wolf prince shook himself out, the desire to bristle and raise his hackles and spread his wings there. But he held to his restraint, however the glitter to the stranger with visible eyes suggested she caught it anyway.

Before he could speak, her words spilled into the space between them, but her tone was even more gentle now, the harshness of the foreign tongue almost inaudible.

"Oh! That was insulting? I sincerely apologize for that. It was a mistake this time and it won't happen again! Didn't see it before, you see, your act is a good one, fooled even me and Fizzbunches boon. But there it is, The Prince is a mask, then? A lie? A trick?" Evren tried to hold his composure, it very nearly broke, but his wonderful brother chose that moment to press into the conversation with a voice and tone slightly unsure with the courtly tongue, but earnest all the same.

"My brother IS the Prince of Vanand!" The two- When did the little girl end up behind Hazim like that?! Adelyne raised both hands towards Evren and Hazim alike.

"Now, now, I didn't mean it like that. But the Countess, you see? She was born and raised to the nobles with all their nonsense! Why to her? All of this is a matter of course!" The hands waved around Hazim's guest room, drawing Evren's brother to turn enough to notice the small figure all covered in black and gray cloth behind him and flinch away.

Adelyne carried on, as if there was nothing of note as Hazim inched a bit closer to Evren's side and away from the relaxed figure with a body that was almost like a child.

"But that's not you, is it Prince of Vanand? Even as young as you are, you weren't noble to start with, still aren't noble even now." Evren considered the two strangers, that kept slipping around his attention, that arrived without him noticing. Except, he could feel them, as he focused he realized that it was not all that different from how Fizzbunches walked in some parts of the palace. Shifts, steps, sways, they were moving only when Hazim or Evren were not turned towards them.

But even as he focused on them, the shrouded figure froze and turned to face him.

"Little miss, it is rude to sneak up behind another like that." Gently but firmly, he spoke as he would to Dorka when she was younger and doing something wrong. For some reason, that caused the child to snort and laugh with a very put upon gravel to her voice. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Adelyne, for her part, outright laughed, at yet another mistake of the boy's, though he couldn't fathom what.

"Oh Stars! It's not just our Countess who can't tell the difference!" Something was passing between the two, but Evren did not know—a joke, or shared experience? The child just nodded and shrugged, letting Adelyne continue.

"Still, you learn fast, Prince of Vanand. Havel, stop skulking around, you won't catch a place to slink through the Prince's attention again. But am I right then? You were no noble reared wyrmling?" The now-named Havel walked over to stand once more beside the `Guild Mistress` Adelyne. Evren wished Fizzbunches had stayed close for this, but instead he'd left them alone. But then again?

"You said Fizzbunches gave you a boon?" Evren asked. He didn't smell anything being done that moment or feel the settling threads Fizzbunches had shown him to look for. But the cat wizard was far better than Evren at hiding things, one of his boons probably would be hidden! The woman smiled wide, something in her teeth and eyes reminded the wyrm of the wizard cat. Or perhaps something even more dangerous.

"That's not how that game is played, Young Prince! But I'll answer first. Yes, for a service far and in excess of rendered to the smug cat, I've received a boon, a spell of Wizardry I've been free to pass onto others. Such as Havel here." She spoke truthfully in scent, heart and voice. Which meant she should have a proper boon from Fizzbunches? If his friend and confidant felt these two foreigners deserved his magic then maybe they could be trusted? This must be why his advisor sent them!

"My family are shepherds, yes, not nobles." Adelyne nodded to him, keeping her gaze on him as she spoke, even if it involved craning her neck a bit.

"Don't know my ma or pa, but I was raised by my grand dad Ginter on the streets and stole silver to fill my belly most seasons. Finally got caught and threw myself at the Countess' mercies before she was a countess, that turned out well for me." The woman named Adelyne planted her knuckles against her hips and did something with her posture, it looked almost like she was slouching against a wall but there wasn't one there.

"Still I knew you weren't noble, you don't look at people the same way as they do. Even Jewel has that way to her eyes. You are looking down your furry muzzle and you still see a person, same as me looking up at you." Evren squinted at the woman, the foreigner who he could not place as either a keeper or a servant for the Countess. Every word she said seemed to be true, at least as far as Evren could place it. Nothing in her scent, the sound of her heart beat or the feeling of the world around her spoke of a lie.

And yet was she insulting the other wyrm? Was she warning him of unknown lies?

"Adelyne of the-" She practically barked like his father with the laugh that broke through his words.

"Drop the fancy words Shepherd, neither of us are nobles, I'm a thief who tricks rich idiots to pay to fill the bellies of starving children and broken men. I'm Adelyne between us, here and now." He furrowed his brow and put his ears back.

"Then call me Evren. Now then, Adelyne, why are you here? You've not said a single lie to us, but why? Why are you here? you are certainly not supposed to be in my brother's room." She offered a smile.

"I've served the Lady Jewel for over ten years, Evren. Only fools fail to learn you never try to lie to a dragon to their face. Tell me I'm wrong?" He could only shake his head, but if that was the case, if it was known, why had the late 'regent' lied so blatantly to him?

"And I am here for two reasons." She raised her right hand with a single finger.

"One, our mutual acquaintance of the streets and fur made a very pointed plea that me and Havel meet and speak with you, on whatever topic we should like." Evren hummed at that, then shared a glance to Hazim.

"He didn't say anything about your brother even being here, just told us where to find you." Adelyne raised another finger.

"The second, is that my lady Jewel, the Countess of Viznove has asked me to take your measure so that I can advise and possibly mediate for her in future dealings with you." Evren blinked.

"What? But why would she—" Adelyne barked again with laughter, then shook her head.

"Oh stars, Again, the both of you!? if you wyrms were not so difficult to slay, I'd fear for your kind! Did you perchance feel something peculiar when you met the Lady Jewel? Something that left you feeling blind and deaf?" He froze at the words.

"Did you even consider, young Evren, that the Countess was feeling the exact same thing as you were? You utterly terrified the poor girl!" The vision of the implacable metal snout and unreadable black gems for eyes rose in his memory. It sounded absurd!

"She... did not seem frightened at all." The Guildmistress giggled, like a child at that, it seemed incongruous to her stature and strange dress. It fit ill with the lilt of her northern tongue and the menace it seemed to practically bleed with every syllable.

"She was raised as a Noble, Of course she didn't show it, she grew up suckling the teat of a schemer and was raised to live with lies behind every face! She is standing with a pittance of soldiers in the heart of her land's ancestral enemy! And suddenly something she's had for her entire life vanished out from under her!" Hazim gaped, looking between his brother and the foreign woman.

"She felt it too? I silenced the world for her as well?!" Adelyne threw her hands up in the air.

"The boy can learn! If you weren't a wyrm I'd say it was a heaven sent miracle!" Evren blinked in confusion at the turn of phrase, then glared at Adelyne.

"Wait, what about being a wyrm has anything to do with the heavens?" Adelyne grinned.

"Oh my boy Evren! Did no one tell you?" She clapped her hands and grinned in a way that was far too similar to Fizzbunche's own smug glee then he was comfortable with.

"Wyrms are Untouchable, Inviolate and Immune to the work of the heavens and stars." She looked up at him beaming, eyes glittering.

"If you don't even know that, I think there is a lot we have to discuss about just what you are, Shepherd Wyrm." Havel reached up and pulled down the sheer black silk that had covered her features.

"For example, The Shining Wyrm Cursed me into the shape of what she thought was that of a young girl!" She still spoke while straining her voice with an overly deep growl out of sorts with her scent and figure. Evren stared down at her utterly perplexed.

"What do you mean? You look just like a young, flat faced girl?" Havel growled in her throat at that and sighed out in exasperation.

"I'm a man, She made me into this with her own ill-conceived words!" Evren stared at the figure, the little face indistinguishable from a child, but twisted into a fierce determination and intensity not even Dorka could manage. The countess had done this to a grown man? Wyrmish sorcery could do this? Jewel was raised like a lord? But a kind one somehow? What would that even look like?! When has he ever seen the lords, ladies, princes and kings be honestly kind to anyone? Only to those that were like them...

So, like how the king treated his people better than Evrens, that must mean!? Jewel was here for him! But why hadn't she simply taken what she wanted if she was as powerful as Adelyne and Havel were saying? Why wouldn't she break the peace? Jewel judged Havel and adelyne as her own people somehow, so perhaps her domain ended at her own borders? As he talked to Adelyne and Havel, he knew what he needed to do, the plans were already unfolding in his mind!