ALL-IN

After meeting with Aelia, Fennel thought long and hard about how to get Aelia a combat training partner.

As he went back to the common room, he noticed Inai was working hard inside a cubicle, and approached her to seek for advice. Luckily for Fennel, what he thought was a complex request, was solved in the time it took Inai to find Niole inside the palace.

The elite royal knight herself couldn’t train with Aelia, since she had other duties she had to take care of at all times of the day. But she did have an apprentice named Kaina she recommended immediately.

Kaina was a scout who worked inside the palace within the black division - the same Niole had belonged to before becoming an elite royal knight - and she was training to become a knight as well. She wasn’t as strong as Niole, nor did she have the nearly inhuman dexterity of Lex, but she did know how to properly use a Lance, and could help Aelia try out ideas at night.

During the following few days, Aelia and Kaina trained every single night, using her tiny training orbs, and a rubber lance used for light sparrings. They used a room with Niole's authorization, preventing anyone to question their whereabouts.

Even though the lance strikes were not anywhere near as hard as they could be with Lex’s lance, Kaina didn’t have the skill to stop her attacks right before hitting Aelia, so she started to progressively reveal bruises on her skin as the week advanced.

Fennel couldn’t assist the guardian’s nocturnal training sessions, but just like they had done during the first two days, they met in the haven every single day in order to track Aelia’s progress.

However, Aelia’s now obvious bruises, her unnatural motivation boost, and the rumors of training rooms lightening up at night, had made Miss Elia suspect something irregular was going on with the guardian, as only two days remained for the Audience with the king. She decided to investigate this matter on her own.

Just like every other day, Elia left Inai and Fennel to take care of putting everything on its place after training with Lex, and decided to keep an eye on Aelia.

She followed her usual routine, going back to her bedroom after training, probably taking a shower and changing her clothes to go meditate at the haven. Elia kept her distance as she saw the guardian walking through the outer pathways of the upper floors, and was impressed to see how Aelia was carrying one of her personal training orbs, to practice walking and controlling it as she did. Since she was walking at the sun, it wasn’t easy to notice how the floor below her lightened as she walked with the levitating marble.

In any case, this was considerable progress for a mere week of practice. Elia couldn’t help but think that maybe she had underestimated her guardian, although it wasn’t enough to get her out of this mess.

What really activated Elia’s alarms though, was when she saw Fennel, walking stealthily towards the haven as well. She had been suspecting he was somehow involved, but since he had been working hard on the preparation for the defense on their case, she had assumed he didn’t have any time for anything else. This proved she was completely wrong about that.

Elia calmly followed Fennel from a distance, with her mind as cold as ever, getting ready to see what kind of treason she would discover as she reached the haven. In reality, she wasn’t wrong.

Elia climbed the outer stairs that led to the haven, and sat down at a step, right before her head could be seen from inside the garden. Aelia and Fennel weren’t too far away this time, so she could perfectly listen to them talking.

“You know what, Aelia. I think you truly might pull this off.” Said Fennel from a distance. “We still have two days for the audience. Do you think you’re ready? I can make all the remaining moves tomorrow.”

A short silence reigned for a moment, suggesting that Aelia wasn’t fully convinced.

“To be honest, I don’t think we have any more time. So we need to go all-in.” Replied Aelia. “But you know what Fennel? I believe we’ve made everything within our reach. If your plan fails and I get demoted, at the very least we’ll know we put everything we had into this… everything up to the last drop of sweat.” She continued. “And in any case, I know you’ve been working really hard with Miss Elia and Inai too. So we have a backup plan. I truly can’t understand how you’re even breathing after overworking yourself to this point, though.”

“Having very little respect for my own well-being.” Responded Fennel with a sarcastic giggle. “Please don’t you ever copy me.”

“Well, I have been taking some coffee from one of the royal common rooms, in order to train at night, so I think your bad influence has already reached me.”

“Are you allowed to go in there?” Asked Fennel.

“No.”

As Elia listened, she began to reflect on their current state as a team. She could have gotten mad at Fennel for disobeying her, and at Aelia for keeping her training as a secret, but it was obvious that both of them had been working down to tears, in order to increase their chances of succeeding at the audience. At this point, their chances of getting a favorable outcome only from presenting Elia’s plan to maintain Aelia as a mediocre guardian, were close to zero. This made Elia realize that in reality, she had given up on her guardian long ago.

Aelia and Fennel, however, were fighting until the bitter end. She could feel Aelia’s energy, like she had never felt since she was a kid. And this made Elia notice that there was one thing that she hadn’t managed to do in fifteen years of supervising Aelia. Something that Fennel had clearly succeeded in, with just two weeks of entering the royal palace: push Aelia to do her tasks out of intrinsic motivation, just like Anise did over ten years ago.

It felt as if she had once again been defeated. This time, not by Anise, the legendary researcher hero of the kingdom, and her previous team leader - but by her son.

Elia knew she didn’t need to eavesdrop any more. Doing anything at this point would most likely just get in the way of Aelia's and Fennel's plan, and ultimately be a burden. It was a hard choice, but it made sense to her: Elia would step aside, put her trust in both teenagers, and hope for the best.