~
It wasn't the slight breeze gliding along his face, reminiscent of his Invocation, that woke Ashton from his slumber, it was the heat in his eyes. The sunlight beaming into his bedroom that turned the black void of unconsciousness red as he floated awake.
As he awoke the night before raced across his mind, like a reenactment he saw his trial from many perspectives. Perspectives he had tuned out in his focus.
But striking Ashton the most was not what he had accomplished, but the damage within his body that was screaming.
It felt as if ants were eating away at the channels that his mana flowed along.
They were numb. Felt narrower than before.
His muscles weren't much better. Over the soreness in his legs, his upper body was the most uncomfortable. As if they were being pierced by heated metal, simply rolling to his sides felt as if he was being crushed.
He was too weak and too damaged to move, even if he had wanted to.
So, he didn't. With his eyes still unopened and despite his mind being in motion, he laid still.
Moving his head from the sunlight, his neck feeling as stiff as a tree, he melted into his linens trying to find the way back into the void.
But a voice, calm and cold had caught him. Uncaring whether it got a response or not, but the voice was recognizable. "Good afternoon, Master Ashton."
It was Chamberlain Olaf, posturing at the end of his bed.
His eyes were still closed, but his mind was washed of the thought to rest.
Ashton could sense the look on Olafs face, dark and awkward despite his usual stoicism. "What is it?" He demanded.
"Hush, don't speak, don't strain yourself." In a blink, Olaf crossed the room and returned with a glass of water, the one a maid had poured earlier, untouched. "It is 3pm, you have been asleep for 15 hours. Well knocked out seems more fitting."
His arms were shaky as he reached for the glass, but he powered through. The ounces within the glass felt like pounds and the water in his throat felt like rejuvenation.
"I asked you a question." Ashton again demands, but this time with authority that could not be dismissed.
"Well, the countess wanted to be here with you when you awoke." Taking the glass from Ashton, Olaf steps back across the room as he speaks. "All guests have already left by now, including the tower master. All but Duke Raine and his family."
Ashton didn't respond, this was one of the realities he envisioned.
As he laid in his bed looking at the Aether System, Chamberlain Olaf asked the question every witness had. "What was it like, Master Ashton?"
"It was lonely..." Ashton finally meeting Olaf's eyes, he takes the second glass from Olaf.
"I was everywhere, I was not just the combative I was also the audience. It's how the religious believe their gods see, I could feel the breath within the crowd's lungs, see through their eyes, even know what they were thinking before they did. I was not just in command of nature, I was nature itself. I had to focus, much greater than I ever had just to see through my own eyes."
-
While Ashton was awakening from his drained state, the duke was making moves, gathering his family into his chambers and holding another meeting.
The duke had not said a word since Ashton was given Honorary membership to the tower.
His children, sitting at a round table under glass and marble chandeliers are expecting and preparing for their father's rage.
Gathering their wit and readying themselves, yet the duke opens the meeting unexpectedly. "He is much greater than anyone hypothesized."
His calm tone and composed demeanor, strike the siblings. Their father's words were a little less than admitting defeat.
Waving the white flag was the obvious choice, at least for now.
"You both know I wanted him under me like any other mage of our house. It would have been perfect. A mage with potential unheard of, along with the southeast."
The duke leaned forward, joy was almost read on his face for a moment, before being washed away. "But now that this house is linked to a magic tower, it is immune to political pressure. All we can do is wage a war with cause, and lobby other towers to support it."
It wasn't a surprising statement, it was the kind of thing anybody that knows George Raine would expect. His children even more so, but the duke continued "Isebell, once again you have proven yourself to be a leader greater than me. Your insight, judge of character, cunning, all paired together with your magical talent makes you my most worthy successor. You saw Ashton Whey's depth the first time you met all those years ago, you are the one that ensured he became known throughout the empire."
Duke Raine took a pause, gauging his children's reactions.
Aaron was livid, silently boiling over and about to erupt.
Isebell was quiet. Conservative, as if she expected this moment.
His silence was a tool, but it was taken by Isebell when she broke her own silence.
"Father, you must not give up yet. You have many years left, your heir is chosen and decided. But what is undecided, is if Whey County will bow to you, father." Her words were like a breath of life, blown directly into the duke.
It was confidence restoring.
Rationality eroding.
Her words were a poison to her family, and she enjoyed it.
"Yes, you are right." The duke responds, "I must continue to think on the matter, you two are excused." Waving his hand as he stands, his children exit the room almost in a sprint, the both of them thinking vastly different things.
Aaron had matured slightly, only at the end of the sword. His father was considering stripping him of his inheritance and it caused something in his mind to click.
Isebell on the other hand was feeling nothing short of bliss, as she walked down the hallway. [You cannot give up father. Your 60 long years of effort, your sacrifices and bloodshed have finally led us to this moment. The time for Ashton Whey to topple and take everything you have built ~ I cannot wait to see it]