Unbound Book 1: The Failed Duke

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE: THERE WAS SOMETHING THERE THAT WASN'T THERE BEFORE

Stella was in the training room of Castle Nordheim.

She stood in the center of the training area, blindfold on and sword in hand.

As Stella took a deep breath to help her concentrate on reinforcing her body with magic, Alva charged at her.

She pulled her arm back and swung her fist at Stella's face.

The strike landed, but because her attack wasn't reinforced with magic, it only knocked Stella's head backwards a bit.

Stella groaned before she swung her sword to where Alva was.

The attack missed, as by the time Stella swung her sword, Alva had already repositioned herself.

Lucan, who stood to the side with his mother's sword, slammed the tip of it against the ground and said, "Stella, stop striking where she was. See where she is by sensing her magic."

Stella grit her teeth and turned to face Lucan.

She raised her balled fist into the air and began to shake it at him. "That's easy for you to say! You've already mastered this!"

Caleb threw a knife at her, which caused her to moan as it bounced off her.

Stella turned and said, "Can you stop trying to hit me in the head! It fucking hurts!"

Alva, who appeared behind Stella said, "That's why we're targeting you there."

Stella turned and swung her sword at Alva.

It missed, as Alva got down on her haunches before she lunged forward and drove her fist into Stella's chest.

She managed to hit her with so much force that it knocked her off of her feet, which in turn caused Stella to slam onto the ground.

Alva got back to her feet and said, "How's that? Better?"

Stella groaned as she slowly got up. "Not . . . what I meant."

Alva extended her hand and said, "Here."

Stella smiled and said, "Thank you Alvi."

Once Stella grabbed Alva's hand, she felt Alva grab her wrist with her other hand, lift her off the ground, over her shoulder only to slam her into the ground.

Alva got down onto her haunches and said, "Hasn't Lucan taught you that you can't trust an opponent during a battle?"

Stella was a bit dizzy, and because of that, stopped reinforcing her body with magic, which meant that when she hit the ground, she took the full brunt of the attack.

Off in the distance, a voice could be heard "Do try to not hurt her too much. It would be horrible for my potential daughter in law to have her face busted up."

They turned to the doors, and saw that two people stood there.

One was a man with hair that had nearly turned completely white, while the younger man standing next to him had silver hair.

The man saw Lucan's sword and said, "You must be Lucan Darian."

Lucan rested his sword on his shoulder and said, "I am."

He narrowed his eyes and said, "Who are you?"

Alva, who made a motion at her neck with her finger said, "Lucan. Lucan. Stop."

The man walked over to Lucan and said, "Ah yes, you only recently joined The Deck of Devils. Makes sense you wouldn't know who I am. My name is Silas Silvertounge, executive over at the Obsidian Hills Banking Federation."

Immediately Lucan gulped and said, "E. Executive?"

Silas smiled and said, "I take it you recognize the title."

Lucan begrudgingly lowered his head and said, "I'm sorry for not showing proper respect."

Silas smiled as he said, "Lucan, don't worry about it. You have corrected your mistake, and that's all that matters."

Alva walked over next to Lucan and said, "If you don't mind Executive Silvertongue, why are you here? I don't remember hearing about any meeting between you and Duke Nothgard."

Silas made a gesture with his hand and said, "It's nothing special. I already had business with Duke Nothgard, and decided to arrive early in order to get it all dealt with before the event."

Alva raised an eyebrow. "Early?"

After a moment, she realized what he meant and said, "Wait, your son is one of the marriage candidates?"

"That he is."

Silas patted his son on the back and said, "Silvester, why don't you introduce yourself to everyone?"

Silvester nodded and said, "Hello everyone, it's nice to meet you."

He bowed and said, "My name's Silvester Silvertongue. I hope we can all get along."

Stella, who managed to finally get onto her feet with the aid of Caleb, looked at Silvester and said, "Hold on, how can you be a marriage candidate? I thought only the duke's marquesses could put forward candidates?"

Silas raised a finger. "No, the only two rules are that marriage candidates can only be put forward by people selected by the duke, and that a family can't marry into the duke's for one generation after being selected. Only tradition says that it has to be a marquess under the duke."

Stella scoffed and said, "You were able to convince my father to break with tradition? How did you manage that?"

Silas walked over to Stella and said, "Stella, you're young, and don't understand how the world works yet. See, no matter how strong a man's convictions are, it can always be changed with the right incentives. We're taught from a young age not to covet, but the desire never goes away. People will always want more, and that desire will end up causing them to do things others thought impossible of them."

He smiled as he turned around and began to walk out the doors. "Come Silvester, there's much we need to discuss with Duke Nothgard."

Silvester nodded and followed his father out of the room.

*

Lucan and Stella broke off from the rest of the group and headed towards the secret cave only the two of them knew about in order to have some time alone.

The cave changed a bit from last time, as Lucan had brought in a crate with some supplies to make their time together more enjoyable.

They sat next to each other on a blanket, and watched as the crystals on the walls glowed brightly.

Lucan remained quiet for the most part, as he didn't know what to say.

Eventually he looked at her and said, "Stella, I. I know I'm not the best with words, but."

Stella rested her head on Lucan's shoulder and said, "Lucan, to me, this is better than anything you could say right now."

After he heard that, Lucan placed his hand on her thigh and said, "Then I'll sit here with you as long as you want."

The two remained silent for a moment before Stella said, "Lucan, I've known that this day was coming for a long time, but now that it's almost here, I have these emotions swirling around me, and I don't know what to do."

Lucan patted her thigh and said, "Stella, if I've learned one thing in life, it's that the best way to deal with confusing emotions is to let them all out."

Stella looked down and said, "But what if I make a mistake? What if letting out my feelings just makes things worse."

"Stella, when it's just the two of us, you don't need to worry about making a mistake. Just let out all your feelings and we can work them out together."

She looked at Lucan and said, "Are you sure?"

"Of course. I care about you Stella. If there's anything I can do to-."

Stella placed both of her hands on either side of Lucan's face before she bent forward and kissed him on the lips.

She pulled back and looked him directly in the eyes. "Lucan, I love you."