Legend of Ransera

Kala gave him an appraising squint, but she smiled. She wanted Baudric to be healthy, not just an optimized weapon. But while she had been trained by nurses who took charge and Freya called her Star Mother, it was important to her that everyone have free will. She wanted to support him in making the best choices for himself.

"Oh," Kaus vocalized, looking to Kala. She nodded, and stood up to walk to the door. "We will educate you, then."

Kala returned to her seat quickly. She had just put in a quick order for the kitchen. With a smile, she nodded.

"I've been working as Vice-Minister of Finance for a while now. I have an office in the palace. The Silver Wings—ah, a mercenary venture that House Leukos has invested in—has been handling security. Their captain and his husband run it. They are both Avialae. We met them on our Warren March, which... is a Synnekar rite of passage we can tell you about if you haven't heard of it. Anyway, you are welcome to do the rounds with them, with us. I don't keep them nearly busy enough so you could conceivably train with them, too."

She couldn't bring herself yet to share her divine status and how they had become a bit of a knightly order under their own direction, but perhaps that time would come.

At mention of Reaving, Kaus very pointedly pulled a poniard out of thin air and played with it, flipping it up and catching it, alternating between hilt and point.

"I'm sure I can teach you a thing or two," he said with a smile. Being a runt with a normal-sized elder brother, he did like to show a larger opponent just how dangerous someone small could be. Thankfully, it was no longer a chip on his shoulder. "Although, if you intend to become a Dawnmartyr, you might want to wait for Lord Talon to initiate you in Reaving. It holds special meaning to them, and I believe he, ah, adds something to the Rune for his faithful."

"I could certainly prepare you and initiate you if you wish," Kaus hastened to clarify. "'Tis only—the Dawnmartyrs—I believe he gives them his divine fire and ties it to the rune. At least, now that Arcas has taken flesh again and walks among them. But I am not a Dawnmartyr, so I could be speaking out of ignorance. Tomorrow, training at arms and we can talk about the Rune, at least."

"At dawn?" Kala asked quietly. Kaus groaned.

"If I must."

Kala's smile turned from twin to guest. "I have to be up early for my work. I am trying to keep Kaus disciplined."

"I just love sleep, all right?"

As for the Warren March...

"No. Violence between Synnekar is kept to training. We make each other stronger by striving against each other in that sense, but we don't kill our friends and allies. A stark difference from what you are used to, I suppose." Her smile was faintly sad, but she didn't belabor the difference, not wanting to make him more uncomfortable than that cognitive dissonance might. It was that feeling of wrong that she had tried to foster when first they met that, she thought, might have led him down this path of seeking his own agency.

She knew it was painful, but she had faith that it was right and good and worthwhile in the end.

Between the twins, they told him the story of their coming-of-age adventure along with the other Avialae seeking to prove themselves adults. Kala had been the only young woman, and even considered ornery or feisty for demanding the rite of passage as her right.

They told him about meeting Ceran and Indric, and others, like the Orkhan Avialae Caden. When one of the boys who would eventually become a Silver Wing was injured, the other wouldn't leave him, but couldn't proceed. And so they had failed, but the twins had befriended them afterward, and eventually, they had succeeded. The twins, however, had harvested their own storm gems and brought them back to the surface, proving themselves adults and capable of facing danger.

Now the dragonshards were parts of artefacts that empowered them.

When the tale was done, though, Baudric seemed sleepy after his travels, the hot bath, the emotional reunion and sharing of difficult stories, and, of course, the food. They left the leftover crèmes brûlées with him to enjoy.