Hydro trailed the Garian to the lobby. The oaf had said nothing to him since the last trial. Hydro didn't blame him; he knew the Garian hated owing their advantage in the Trials to him. Likewise, Hydro hated earning a point for him.
When the hallway spilled out into the circular lobby, Hydro noticed the senile servant, Colin, bracing himself against one of the two marble columns that stood at the base of the staircase.
Upon seeing them, Colin readjusted his posture. "Are you both ready?"
He is always leading everyone anywhere. He must be Guardian Eska's favorite. The man yawned and used his white-gloved hand to cover a mouth with missing teeth. Probably past his bed time. Hydro clicked his teeth.
"Yes," the Garian replied.
Was the Garian ready though? How many interviews had he ever done? During his schooling at Finesse Academy, Hydro had won five tournaments of power against other schools on Onkh. Each time he was interviewed, Hydro never lacked anything to say. The Acquavan Attribute, Hydro had named it. He knew words were water, taking form to whatever situation was current. That is why he never stumbled on a question.
Hydro and the Garian followed the butler up the winding marble steps to the second floor. The expansive library greeted them as they stepped onto the dark-blue carpet with red and white intersecting lines and black borders. Colin maneuvered them to the left. Two silver statues stood at the front of the hallway. Long, loose-fitting cloaks covered the idolized men. Stars and sentences Hydro could not read patterned those cloaks.
Farther down the hall, they arrived at a closed oak door. Inside was a room, as Colin explained, where Eska met with lords and ladies and his council if urgent matters ever arose. Had Hydro's own father spent any time on the Core?
To the right was another door. When Hydro had explored the estate earlier in the week before, he was told that the room was especially for visiting sages of Gladonus—the beings who helped Guardian Eska banish Deimos to the Chains of Chaon; they were tasked by the Twelve to regulate the flux of power amongst all the people in the universe. When Hydro had cast his first spell, his father told him he would need to cast in front of the sages to be declared blessed. That was the only time he had seen them. There were four of them, but only one talked—an old man with one blue and one amber eye. Hydro could never forget eyes like that.
At the end of the corridor, they turned right. Soon after, Hydro saw Senator Numos waddle out of his room, leaving the door open upon seeing them.
"Senator Numos, your guests," Colin announced.
"Ah, excellent. I was just going to come and find you."
The butler left, and Hydro strode past the senator, who was adorned in a white silk robe. A red sash held up his breeches just under his large girth; however, the robe did little to conceal it. Gray breeches—the color of the mockingbird sigil located on a badge to the upper left of the overflowing robe—expanded fully around his legs.
"Please, come in and have a seat on the couch."
Hydro still smelled the food on the senator's breath. Although the man showed the mockingbird sigil of Lady Liliana, Hydro thought such a sigil was too regal for him. Instead Numos should use a lesser sigil—like the curly-tailed pig showered in mud used by the Talhend family of the Crunx province for Cresica.
He entered the room, and the first thing that he noticed was that there were no windows. How strange. Instead, ivory walls surrounded them. The walls were portraits of great sand dunes and Ancient golden temples and pyramids. The room had its own bathroom, like his father's. A glass table, large enough for a family of four, stood to the right of the black couches. Hydro took his spot on one of these couches, sinking into the leather.
After the Garian took the seat next to him, Hydro reached for the stemmed glass full of water, which sat upon an ivory table veined with blue and red. Atop the table was a metallic two-handed device. In between the handles was a speaker and an indent large enough for a finger. Senator Numos took a spot on the couch in front of Hydro.
Wasting no time, Numos grabbed the device and turned it on. "Quite the device, this is. It will record, write, and save this interview so I can transcribe it later. No doubt you will see these events in writings and reenactments after the Trials are concluded. In order for it to recognize you, however, each of you will need to insert your thumb or finger here." The senator pointed to the groove by the handles. "And state your name clearly into the speaker located here." Numos fidgeted with a gold band on his pudgy finger.
The Garian took the device without question; he inserted his thumb and spoke his name. "Ouch, that thing bit me." The Garian retracted his thumbs.
Sure enough, two slight indentations had appeared on the side of his thumb.
"You didn't say that thing be biting me."
"I forgot to mention that; in order to fully recognize who you are, it will extract a small blood sample and store it in a tube located inside the device," Senator Numos explained.
Hydro reexamined the device. He had never seen one before. The acquisition of his blood and fingerprint worried him. "Is not our voice the only thing you wish to be tracking?"
Senator Numos didn't respond at first. Sweat populated the folds of skin as he gripped his goblet of dark-purple and sipped, dabbing his lips before answering. "It is. But with events such as these, there has to be undeniable authentication. Anyone can alter his voice or use someone else's fingerprint; but blood, that is unique to each of us. Why I recall a story from one of my friends in the senate from Kuyan in Chaon. He told me the lord there, Zalos Kapache, is bonded with a chameleon. Do you have any idea what kind of power it gives him?"
Hydro shook his head. From his studies at Finesse he knew bonded power was rare and only useable by those who formed a bond between something essential in their life, something they couldn't live without. Because of that, it was also the most dangerous; typically if one entity dies, the other will shortly after. But, together, they are able to draw on each other's strengths and attributes, allowing it to be the greatest of the three powers, depending on the animal bonded with. There was an animal out there for every person, but it was not guaranteed you would ever cross paths. Even if you did, you still need to decide whether or not you wanted to bond.
"It gives the lord the ability to shift his body to his surroundings. Imagine that. It is because of that, that I now, and most senators along with me, require blood sampling as part of the interview process."
Hydro put his thumb onto the screen, uttered his name, and waited for the prick. Once it occurred, he set it down on the table. Immediately Senator Numos pushed a small red button on the screen and reclined, settling back into his couch. Hydro glanced at his thumbs and saw little traces of blood. How does this affect me but not the peenetar? What kind of blessing did Pearl give me?
He didn't have time to ponder more, for Senator Numos asked his first question. "I wish to provide the future audience with some background. So, before the Trials, what was your training like?"
Hydro delved into his training before the Garian could open his mouth. . . .
"Quite impressive. You manage to train with three acqua guards at once?"
"Hardly impressive. My father fights all five of them at the same time."
"Your father's acqua guards are unlike Lady Aprah's elites," interjected Cadmar. "Each individual elite could rival three of your acqua guards."
"And how would you know?" Hydro rebutted.
"My father is second in command for the elites. He be acquainted with one of the guards."
"Who?" Hydro asked.
"Cassius Frauster. He tried being an elite with my father, but he couldn't handle it. He packed his pride and set sail for Acquava."
That was news to Hydro. Everyone knew Frauster to be from Gar—but to be denied becoming an elite and then come to be an acqua guard? Such a disgrace to the Paen estate. I wonder if Father knows.
"Tell me of your training, then, Cadmar," Senator Numos said.
"I've trained hard with my aul man ever since I could hold an axe. I've always wanted to become an elite, but have failed twice. I've climbed mountains, worked mines, and studied power with one of my aul man's friends."
"If you cannot even become an elite, what says you can become guardian?" Hydro asked.
"I . . . Certain instances . . . prohibited me from becoming an elite. . . . Surely I would be though . . . and now . . . now this is the only thing left to keep my family's honor. . . . 'When a man is pushed against a mountain, he climbs it.' That is what my father used to tell me."
"What instances were those?" Numos pried.
"I do not wish to say, if that be all right," the Garian said.
Hydro looked at him with more interest. What is the oaf hiding? The knowledge that he fought for his family's honor spoke a little to Hydro. But, they weren't equals. Nor would they ever be. Hydro was royalty and carried more skill than the Garian ever dreamed of.
"Well, let us change subjects, then." Senator Numos scrolled through his list of questions. "Now, tell me what you thought of the trial."
"The trial be interesting," Cadmar continued. "Slabs of earthen sandstone surrounded us, and creatures coated in the acidic peenetar attacked. All of which I cut down."
"The Garian may have cut them down, but when he did, they stood still like trees. You were no better than a lumberjack, in my opinion."
Senator Numos chuckled. The Garian tensed and turned his neck, glaring at Hydro.
Hydro locked gazes with the Garian. "Well I only speak the truth." Hydro turned his gaze back to Numos. "After he cut them down, I faced a two-headed creature entirely alone. That one fought back."
"Where were you at this point, Cadmar?"
"The Garian was incapacitated." Hydro stole the words from his partner's mouth. "He did have enough sense to throw me his axe so I could finish the job though."
"And you left it in the creature while it dissolved!" the Garian shouted.
"It was not much of an axe. I am surprised you managed to retrieve it."
"Go on. About the scroll?" Senator Numos leaned in.
"I found it in a central chamber. I was the first one there and took it and stowed it away so the others could not have it. Then a man appeared."
"And what did the man want?"
"To kill us and protect his prize."
"The scroll?"
"No."
"What was it then?" Numos leaned forward in his chair.
Hydro looked into the gray eyes of Senator Numos. There was a long moment of silence. "I do not know. . . . He never told us. . . ." Hydro said. "The man would not let us leave though. So I killed him."
"You say us. Who else was with you?"
"Zain and the commoner. Gabrielle was there for a short while."
"The commoner. Who is that?"
"The poor fellow."
"Eirek Mourse is his name," the Garian said.
"Are you two man lovers now?" Hydro turned away from the Garian, observing a grin forming across the senator's lips. "Yes, it was us three."
"Interesting. . . ." Senator Numos scanned his question. "Did either of you find fear present?"
"I'll be the first one to admit my fear," the Garian said. "There is a motto on fear my people have: Fear is only natural; those who do not fear are ignorant to weakness and, thus, are their own enemy. My father acknowledges his fears as an elite; by doing so, he knows he is only mortal, which therefore makes him less reckless in battle."
Hydro snickered. "If you were not reckless, you would have been able to face that two-headed creature with me instead of being incapacitated."
The Garian's fists clenched. He always had to have the last say. Always.
"So, you did not fear, then?" Numos asked.
"No, I did not," Hydro quickly said. "I knew my steel would shield me, and it did. It plunged straight through the man's heart. There is a saying by my family—who have ruled Acquava for more than three hundred years, since Lyonell Paen: Fear not what blade can slice or what magic can touch."
Senator Numos grinned. "So you are telling me that not even these acidic creatures, or this nameless monstrosity, struck an ounce of fear into you?"
Hydro eyed the senator cautiously. What is he trying to get at? "No."
"Most interesting. . . ." Senator Numos pushed the red button in the center of the device. The screen shut off with a beep. "Those are all the questions I have for tonight. I would ask you how your partnership faired during the trial, but I see it already in your answers. You both may leave now. Thank you for your time."
Even after the senator's dismissal, Hydro stayed. He refused to walk down to the lobby with the Garian. The senator stared at him through circular glasses, fiddling with the golden band on his finger. Hydro squirmed, waiting for the swine to say something. When he didn't, Hydro stood. He had allowed enough time since the Garian's absence. As he exited the chamber, the senator's voice stopped him at the door's threshold.
"Do not worry what he says about fear. My father told me when I was attending Fleetist Academy: Fear the powerful, because the powerful do not fear. Power only perpetuates itself. Because he fears, he is weak and will stay weak. That is how it has always been. That is how it always will be."
Hydro did not answer. He left the senator to himself and his wine.