Chapter 112: Zachary and Lucas
The Next Day
nah reached her hand out and moved the window curtain to the side. Outside, in her private courtyard, Avery was instructing two boys. If Ste was her left hand, then Avery would be considered her right.
After her conversation with Derek about the ss system, nah had sent Avery out to scour the cities for candidates. nah was very strict in her choosing.
She would not choose anyone who had a loving family, nor a person hellbent on revenge. The child must have not unlocked the Great System yet, either. This already narrowed the search to orphans and beggars. Avery knew the type well, as he was picked up by nah when he was a young orphan.
The child must also be driven. Usually, that was hard to find in orphans. Most of the children would give up and ept their fate instead of fighting hard to make a better life for themselves. No matter what life throws at them, the child must not break. That alone made the task she had given Avery almost impossible.
However, to her surprise, just two weeks after Avery set out, he brought back a pair of boys, Zachary and Lucas. They were best friends who called themselves brothers. nah was skeptical at first, but after hearing their story, she was convinced.
Zachary and Lucas were from a vige outside of yton. They grew up together, their parents were best friends, so they spent a lot of time with one another. That was before a Void Beast attacked their vige.
It was a surprise. Nobody had heard of anyone opening a portal at that time, so when the beast appeared, no one was ready. The vige was decimated before the beast turned towards yton.
With thebined strength of the guards and adventurers in the city, they were able to wound the beast and drive it off. After that, the King sent an elite team, including his own son, to track and kill the Void Beast. It took days, and the team lost two members, but in the end, the Prince was able to strike a fatal blow before the beast could disappear back into the void.
While everybody else was celebrating the defeat of the Void Beast and the Princes aplishments, Zachary and Lucas were mourning the loss of their parents and most of their vige.
It wasnt long before the new vige Chief decided that there werent enough people left to maintain their vige. Soon after, the Chief disbanded the only home the boys had ever known. Some of the remaining vigers migrated to other viges while others chose to move to yton to try their luck.
The boys decided to follow thetter group. So, for weeks, the two boys had been living in the slums of yton doing what they could to survive. They told han tales of running errands for bread and getting beaten by nobles for being dirty.
They never resorted to stealing. In fact, when Avery asked them about it, the thought had never even crossed their minds. Apparently, their parents instilled a strong sense of right and wrong into the boys. Of course, nah knew that it would have only been a matter of time before they did something like stealing. It was only natural.
They had only been in the city for a few weeks, so nothing too terrible happened to them, but she knew that if one of the boys had gotten sick, with the way they treated each other, there was nothing that the other wouldnt resort to doing. She was d it didnte to that, and that Avery was able to find them.
Avery hadughed about how hard it was to convince them toe with him. It had only been a few weeks, and a few bad nobles had already caused a natural distrust in the boys. It took Avery telling them about the story of nah finding and raising him up before they would even consider it.
What sealed the deal was when Avery took the boys to ytons Crown Restaurant. Avery always said that a great meal made all negotiations easier, especially if you were the one paying.
The boys also held no grudge against the Void Beast, as it was just a mindless beast. When asked about the person who summoned it, they had said that they knew that a Void Beast could only be summoned by ident. They didnt even seem to care when Avery told them that the King found the noble who created the portal and that the man had already been punished.
The thing that seemed to bug the boys the most was nahsck of speaking. Avery and nah held their private crystals, and Avery did all the talking with the boys. When Avery told them about nahs condition, though still confused, they no longer asked questions about it.
That was two days ago. Now the boys had settled in and were being tested by Avery. Currently, nah was watching the man conduct a weapons test, as Derek had exined to do in their conversation.
Once the right weapon was chosen, it would be time to pick their elements. This would be the boys personal choice. Currently, nah could provide the boys with water, wind, fire, earth, lightning, ice, metal, and darkness. Technically, she could also provide them with poison, but she preferred not to do that.
After watching the boys train with Avery for a while, nah closed the curtains with a smile on her face. She hoped everything would work out like Derek had theorized, but even if it didnt, she had no problem raising the two orphaned boys. They were good kids.
She walked back to her desk and sat down with a sigh. This could be considered both her favorite and least favorite part of her day,municating with her Deathsworn. She could link up and chat telepathically with those close to her, but for the others, like the one that was watching over the city of Torith, she had tomunicate via crystal, just like she would with anyone else.
Of course, if anything big happened, or if she gave an order to report certain matters at any time, she would receive amunications request. Usually, no news was good news.
nah pulled out her first crystal and began receiving her daily reports. It was mostly normal matters, like Savannah hosting another auction next week, a noble doing something stupid, or even the asional bandit group attacking caravans or viges. None of that was any of her concern, but she still tucked it away for possible future use.
She changed crystals and received more reports from her Deathsworn. After receiving a certain report from her Deathsworn stationed in Torith, she put the crystal down, sighed, and smiled wryly. <em>Well He didnt kill them I hope.</em>
ording to the report, Derek had created quite themotion at the City Lord of Toriths manor. Her Deathsworn wasnt able to get many details, but apparently, Derek walked in with a guard. Not long after entering, the Deathsworn felt an enormous pressure that even caused those nearby to panic. Then, Derek walked out with a smile while whistling.
After that, the manor went into lockdown and allowed no one in or out. Even the trainee guards were filed into the manor. After Derek left, the entire outside of the residence became a ghost town.
<em>What exactly did you do? </em>She couldnt help but wonder. <em>And how strong are you, exactly? </em>She got the feeling that Derek was much stronger than he led on, even though he imed that he was strong. <em>To create that kind of pressure on my Deathsworn while being that far away </em>She thought.
She sighed and went on with her reports. She would contact the man when she was finished with them if he didnt contact her before.
It wasnt long before she was finished. The previous day was just like almost every other day. The only thing exciting that happened was with Derek, but that hade to no surprise to her. These days, news about Derek was the one thing that always seemed to bring her something interesting.
nah tidied up her office before making a cup of tea and trying tomunicate with Derek.
<em>nah! Good morning. How are you? </em>The mans voice came through clearly in her head.
<em>I am doing great today. What about you? I heard you paid the City Lord a visit yesterday. </em>She replied.
<em>That I did It went better than expected. There was barely any talking back to me. All things considered, Id say it went well. And I didnt kill anybody important Actually, I didnt kill anybody at all. I think I went above and beyond. </em>He said.
<em>Oh, thats good. That means I wont have to deal with that deadbeat advisor, and can focus more on the Void Beasts and helping train my two new wards. </em>She chimed.
<em>Oh yeah, you mentioned the other day that you had picked up a couple of prospects. Thats good. I hope everything works out with them.</em>
<em>Me too. Avery seems to like them, and he has been very excited to try out your training methods. I have to admit, Im anxious to see the results. </em>nah said.
<em>Me too. </em>Derek replied.
<em>I </em>A knock sounded on her door. <em>One moment, someone is at the door. </em>Sheid the crystal down.
Enter. She said.
The door opened and Avery walked in and closed the door behind him. After receiving nahs nod, he spoke, nah He smiled oddly. Gerald Torith is on the first floor demanding an audience. Hes making quite the ruckus.
nah rolled her eyes, held up two fingers and nodded. Avery gave her a nod in confirmation, turned, and walked out the door.
nah picked the crystal back up off of her desk. <em>Derek, dear What exactly did you do yesterday?</em>