Unseen Blades

Confining himself in either the study or the workshop, Kalman was a man fully immersed with his work, so much so that he far too often neglected to care for himself. As such, his daughter, Fiana, had to take up the role of being his caretaker, making sure that his belly is filled and his living space clean.

With Theodore coming into their lives, Fiana found herself another person to take care of. Fiana didn't mind the additional burden. In fact, she found Theodore a joy to be around. Unlike her father who was often far too absorbed in his work to notice her presence, Theodore offered a much-needed noise upon the grounds of this workshop. To add to that, Theodore wasn't a fussy child either, making him rather easy to take care of, though Fiana certainly wouldn't mind if he were just a bit more of a trouble. Be it plants or people, Fiana had a knack for taking care of living beings.

Upon finally returning from the tower after the long interrogation she endured from the tower guards, Fiana found Theodore laying his head atop the kitchen table, one of his arms lazily dangling over Peter by his foot.

"Sorry I'm late. There was some trouble in the tower you see," said Fiana. "You must be hungry. I'll fix something up real quick. Just give me a minute."

Between the workaholic elderly and confined child, naturally, the task of cooking fell upon Fiana. Of course, Theodore was more than capable of cooking a few simple meals of his own, but he preferred Fiana's cooking overall.

As Fiana began to prepare dinner, Theodore sat quietly behind her, lazily lying about. The two were completely relaxed around one another and their guards looked to be down. With Fiana having left her heavy robes somewhere in the living room, if Theodore were to, say, plunge a knife into her back, it ought to be an easy task. Likewise, Fiana could spin right around at any time and easily turn the knife currently in her hand towards Theodore. With his current posture, Theodore's neck was open and defenseless, and Fiana could chop into it at any time she wanted.

None of that happened, however, as a mage worth their salt would not be so easily killed by such wounds. If they were to fail in inflicting a fatal blow on their first move, it would only give their opponent the proper justification to defend themselves and deploy deadly force against the instigator without blame. Such was the purpose behind the supposed defenselessness displayed by the two, to bait the other into taking action so that retaliation of any degree could be justified.

In time, dinner was ready and the night went on peacefully, for the moment.

***

"You may eat first. I'll join you after I bring some to my father."

Having served dinner, Fiana went on upstairs to the study. During this time, Theodore probed the food with his threads of Aether. It was only after confirming that nothing was done to them did he dig in. Even so, he ate carefully just in case there was a poison that he could not detect. He reasoned that if he ingested only a small amount of it, he could still do something about it. Of course, he could feed some to Peter for extra precaution, but he refrained from doing so. Rather, he refused.

The dinner ended up being delectable and without poison as Theodore sensed nothing wrong with his body some time after having his fill. Fiana as well only asked inconsequential questions and talked about things of little importance as they chatted over the meal. However, the apparent tranquility did not comfort him a single bit, as it simply meant that his opponent had yet to make her move. The night was still long and Theodore could only hope that it would play out in his favor.

After dinner, Theodore returned to his room. Preparations had to be made if he expects to survive the night. There was not a single chance that Fiana was just going to leave her suspicions about Theodore be.

Soon, Fiana knocked on the door to his room. As expected, the night was far from over.

"Theodore, I made some tea. It's not exactly healthy to be drinking Aetherglow tea all the time, after all. Why not try something else once in a while?"

"Sure, why not?" Theodore replied curtly.

Rising from his desk, Theodore emerged from his room, his feet taking him to the kitchen. His gait was relaxed, but deep down, he felt as if he was walking into a duel, one in which both participants exchanged blows with unseen blades.

***

End of Chapter 64

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