TRUST

Fennel rushed through the fast lanes of the bridges that connected the towers of the kingdom, accompanied by a vivid orange sunset on the background. His hoverboard was at its speed limit, which was a rare sight inside the city. Most citizens either walked by idly, or drove their hovering vehicles unhurriedly.

Anise used to tell Fennel, that before the Chrysalis Treatment was implemented in Rossmaria, people seemed to be busy and stressed all of the time. Everyone had somewhere to go or something to do. But now, with all the conveniences that had been developed in the past two decades, made possible by the abundance and accessibility of energy, most people had a lot of free time on their hands.

This thought made Fennel wonder about how Rossmaria might have looked like in the past. He also wondered if guardians were raised in the same way before her mother’s invention, or how much things had changed over the past decades for them.

This morning, as he was walking down in the depths of the palace with Inai, she explained that guardians were greatly benefited from the energy stored inside the city, since it was directly used to power up their tools and weapons, such as the orbs and the vigilants. This was the reason why the rooms of the palace lightened up whenever Aelia started using her orbs during training sessions. He could also witness from afar, how the lower floors of the palace glowed as Ataoro made his demonstration to Aelia with the vigilants.

Inai also explained that this energy stored inside the city made the floating orbs possible. Just like his hoverboard, the orbs used by Aelia made use of the electromagnetic fields that surfaced the treated salt to control their height and move without any direct contact.

This meant that guardian tools were only functional as long as they were close to the buildings of Rossmaria. Vigilants seemed to have a broader range of action than orbs. Just as they consumed massive amounts of energy in comparison, they could also use energy from a greater distance, but they were still limited, probably up to about fifty meters from its source. So if that was the case: how did guardians function before the Chrysalis Treatment was invented?

Fennel’s mind was rambling as he surrounded The Keep through its lateral roads, until he noticed the large solitary tower where the library was meant to be, connected only to The Keep by a single, relatively small bridge. This tower however, seemed minimal in comparison to the royal palace that emerged from the sea right behind it.

As Fennel was hovering around The Keep to reach the library, passing by the bridge that led to the palace, he thought he heard someone calling his name somewhere close.

Fennel slowed down, and stopped to look around. The sound came from where the sun was setting, so it took him a while to notice who was calling, since he could only recognize a silhouette far away, covered by the blinding sunlight.

"Fennel!" Could be heard in a feminine voice that was struggling to be loud.

Fennel could finally recognize Inai’s voice, whom had probably left the palace a few minutes ago and was heading back home. Fennel approached her quickly as he grabbed his hoverboard with his left arm.

"Inai, are you heading home?" Said Fennel. "Nice timing."

"I am." She said unsure of her answer, after listening better to Fennel. "Or was."

"I’m sorry for bothering you, but could you help me with something?"

"It has something to do with Lady Aelia, right?" She said. "I was thinking about what happened today, and came up with some ideas."

"That’s great! Do you want to talk it over while we head to the library?" Asked Fennel in a hurry.

"Do you mean the old library over there?" She replied with a question. "Is it still working? I haven’t been there in more than twenty years, when I was a kid."

"I’m not sure, but let’s find out."

Since Inai didn’t have any sort of transportation, and Fennel’s hoverboard didn’t have enough space for two people, they started walking through the bridge that led to the library.

"Please don’t tell Miss Elia what I'm going to say, but I don’t think her approach will get us far next week." Said Inai introducing the conversation.

"I agree." Replied Fennel without any second thought. "But why do you think that?"

"No matter what evidence we gather, or what arguments we use to defend Lady Aelia, the facts are all against her." Developed Inai. "She’s too far behind on her training, and Lord Ataoro, who until now had been her only sponsor, is now convinced that she’s useless as a guardian."

Fennel looked down to the white floor of the bridge they were walking on, as he reflected on the situation.

"I think the first thing is to try and change Lord Ataoro’s mind, and that’s not something any of us can do." She continued. "We need Lady Aelia to do something that regains Lord Ataoro’s trust. And only if that happens, we might be able to do something about the audience."

"That makes sense." said Fennel. "Or maybe, even if Lord Ataoro isn't convinced, if Aelia makes enough progress this week, it might be enough to demonstrate her value to the king."

Inai looked at Fennel with a hint of curiosity.

"You two have become quite close, it seems." She said with a serious expression.

"Wh- what do you mean?" Asked Fennel without understanding where Inai was coming from.

"You no longer refer to Lady Aelia as Lady." Said Inai with a curious face.

Fennel’s expression couldn’t hide that he noticed he messed up.

"It’s not like I care, but you need to be careful with that." Continued Inai, trying to make Fennel feel safe.

They both kept walking for a few seconds, until a thought crossed through Inai’s mind.

"Could it be that you’ve been talking with Lady Aelia behind our backs, right after Miss Elia told us not to?" Asked Inai inquisitively. "I mean, without counting today when I left the bedroom to go find her."

Fennel stopped walking. He hadn’t straight up lied until now, but he had hidden the fact that he had a conversation with Aelia up in The Haven yesterday. In any case, he hated lying, and knew he wouldn’t gain anything from doing so.

"I did." He said slightly ashamed.

"Have you been putting any ideas on Aelia’s mind?" Continued Inai, as she uncomfortably confronted Fennel, avoiding eye contact, but determined to uncover the truth. "Anything that might have made her act like she did?"

This question forced Fennel to think about his recent interactions with the guardian. He hadn’t thought about it until now, but maybe, Inai was onto something. Could it be his fault that Aelia had spoken up to Lord Ataoro? It happened right the day after he met her at the Haven, so it was very likely that both things were related.

"I don’t think I have, Inai. Not consciously at least." Said Fennel worried. "I only answered a few questions she had about The Keep and life in the city." He continued, as Inai was now looking at him in the eyes with a serious expression. "But now that you ask, it might have triggered something I wasn’t aware of."

Fennel was getting nervous as Inai stood in silence.

"If that was the case, I really didn’t mean for this to happen." Stated Fennel grabbing his hair with one hand, while the other one held his hoverboard. "I’m really sorry."

Inai crossed her arms and closed her eyes to think. She took a moment to arrange her thoughts, as Fennel’s anxiety was increasing.

"There’s a reason why Miss Elia gave us that order." She said while maintaining her thoughtful pose. "Lady Aelia’s temper has always been on the fragile side, so it took a lot of trial and error to find a way to keep her in balance." She continued as she lowered her arms to her hips and looked up at the library that was right before them. "I haven’t been in Miss Elia’s team very long either, but I could see from up close how they treated Lady Aelia, almost like a utility pet- or maybe more like a lab animal."

Fennel stared at Inai with a sense of frustration as she spoke.

"To be completely honest, I’ve been worried about Lady Aelia since day one." Said Inai. "So when you suggested that we should treat her with more humanity, I really wanted to support you. I had been thinking the same thing all along."

Inai looked at Fennel’s eyes, with the same serious face as before, but this time, less tension could be felt.

"I won’t say I approve of your disobedience, but I don’t blame you." Said Inai, after a sigh. "Just let me know I can trust you, so we can work together to get out of this mess. I'm also playing with fire right now."

"I won’t hide anything else. I promise." Said Fennel with a sincere but vulnerable expression.

"Fine. You can trust me too, Fennel." Concluded Inai as she made a subtle gesture of approval. "Let’s continue our conversation inside the library."