Craith

The ship approached the coast at an increasingly slow pace which agitated Charlie greatly. The minutes leading up to landfall were excruciatingly long but they gave Charlie a chance to observe Craith from a distance. The coast went almost immediately from water to forest with a small area of coarse, pale sand dividing them. The trees were impossibly tall and only got taller as they went farther back, had ivory white bark and dozens of tufts of cloud-like groups of small deciduous leaves that almost looked cultivated. In comparison, Craith seemed underwhelming. A gap in these trees was where one could find a long dock stretching out of. There were some larger ships of a similar size to the galleon that were for trade and some small ones that were likely used for local travel and fishing.

If Charlie looked through the gap in the trees very closely, he could catch a glimpse of houses and roads but the trees blocked most of them from view. He'd just have to see when they landed.

—

As the ship came closer to dock Charlie became more and more excited, both his mother and father had been here before so they merely looked on in anticipation but Charlie had never travelled before, in this life or the last. It was an unprecedented situation for Charlie.

The ship had finally docked and been fastened when Adrianna picked Charlie up before they disembarked onto the dock. For a moment, Adrianna swayed as she readjusted to walking on dry land but only for a moment. She then proceeded to inhale deeply before walking forwards with William. The view of Craith slowly improved as she walked forwards, revealing a slowly inclining road lined up directly with the dock. The road was wide enough for a bit more than two carriages and was newly cobbled. On the sides of the road were thin sidewalks bordering what looked to be shops and houses. These buildings reminded Charlie of the outskirts of the town that he'd departed from, which he later learned was called Gillingham. The houses here were seemingly new though and were made entirely of wood instead of a mix with thatch. Luckily, the smell found in the outskirts of Gillingham was not present here which was a relief.

When Charlie's family reached the end of the dock they stopped and searched around. As they were searching, some crew from the ship they'd ridden on brought over their luggage and left it next to them. Eventually, Giselle and Geralt rejoined the group and waited with them until a carriage came from the town and stopped in front of them. The driver got off of the carriage and bowed in front of William saying, "Welcome back my lord" before beginning to load the carriage with the luggage.

After the carriage was loaded, the driver opened the carriage door and ushered them inside. It was a tight fit this time with three adults—Geralt stayed—and a child but if they spread it out more, the carriage would have to take three trips total to get the tutors and Geralt who were now waiting at the end of the dock. The carriage carried them up the road, past increasingly well-made buildings. From the original wood, to a wood and stone mix—some with glass windows—and finally, the carriage approached a fully stone building with blue tile roofing and tall windows. The building was smaller than the Byron estate but it was without a doubt big enough for a family of three, not to mention a family of twenty.

The house was made of pale greyish-beige stone and had two floors. In the middle, jutted out what looked to be the main entrance which was covered by a pointed roof. From its sides came wings,—in an architectural sense—one from each side. On the wings, the second floor windows were gabled. In front of the house was a round about of cobblestone for carriages to enter and exit. The carriage driver followed the path counter clockwise and deposited the passengers and their luggage at the front before leaving to pick up the second batch. Charlie looked to the large imposing double doors that adorned the house's wall. As Charlie looked at the doors, they suddenly opened, releasing a swarm of uniformed attendants who grabbed the luggage quickly and returned with it inside.

As they walked into the foyer, Charlie and Giselle were the only ones looking around in awe. It was similar to the Byron's estate in being wooden and its general design but seemed more welcoming. It was a large square room with staircases on the left and right walls that led up to a landing which had a door in the middle. There was also a door between the staircases and before the bottom of each stairway. What differed was that while the Byron's foyer was largely empty, this foyer had carpets leading from the entrance to the door between the stairs and the doors that presumably led to the wings that were before the stairs. This foyer had skylights as the other did but it also had numerous windows on the walls that lit up the room with sunlight. The four chandeliers were replaced with one very large one that was centred above a small circular table in the middle of the room that had a porcelain vase with fresh flowers in it.

"Welcome home" said Adrianna to Charlie while cradling him in her arms.

—

If facing the main entrance from inside, the right wing was where Charlie's room was, on the second floor. It seemed as though the house hadn't been told that they'd be housing a baby since the room had a bed but Charlie didn't mind it so he didn't say anything. When Adrianna entered the room with Charlie in her arms she placed him on the ground so she could look around. Charlie was more than confident with walking around to inspect the room as well but he decided to feign difficulty for his mother.

Charlie walked around the room at a slow pace to see everything. The room was much bigger than his nursery had been and looked as though it was prepared for a young lord. The room was rectangular in shape; when entering, the door would be on the bottom left side of the rectangle. There was a large bed lacking sheets or pillows backed onto the opposite wall from the door with four tall windows, two on each side of the bed. At the footboard of the bed, was a large wooden dresser. There was a desk on the left side of the room—when looking in from the door—with a comparatively large chair and one empty bookshelf on either side. On the right side of the room was an open door to a simple bathroom. In the bathroom, there was an empty basin of water on a cabinet under a simple square mirror. There was also a tub and what looked to be the ancient predecessor of a toilet. The walls of these rooms were dark board and batten wood, the floors and ceiling were smoothed planks of a slightly darker colour.

Charlie was impressed with his room but it felt like he was being grossly spoiled in comparison with his previous accommodations. Charlie decided that he was either unknowingly shunned at the Byron estate, coveted here or both but he didn't have an answer so he moved on. After finishing his inspection, Charlie saw his mother gazing out one of the windows that revealed the wild forest, past a manicured garden. She had a nostalgic smile on her face until she noticed Charlie at her feet, she then, crouched down to hug him from her side with one arm and kiss his cheek with a different smile.

—

By the time everyone had settled into their rooms it was late in the evening so Adrianna brought Charlie to the main dining room that was located through the door between the two staircases in the foyer. The dining room was a long hall with windows that looked out to the garden on either side. It had the same walls, ceiling and floors as Charlie's room which Charlie began to see as the default for the house. Centred in this hall was a long embellished wooden table with many legs to support its size. William was standing near the head of the table on the far end of the room and smiled when he saw his family. Adrianna walked down the hall, placed Charlie on the chair covered with pillows—to compensate his height—to William's right before taking her seat across from him on William's left. During this time, William had also sat down.

The food was brought out soon thereafter and they began to eat. Light conversation flowed between William and Adrianna freely during dinner until they'd all finished and Charlie was returned to his room. There were some changes from how the room had been before. The once empty bookshelves were now around half-filled with books, starting from the bottom shelves. This led Charlie to wonder if they either didn't have enough books to fill the shelves or only filled the shelves that Charlie could reach but it wasn't super important.

Secondly, Charlie's bed now had sheets and pillows which he promptly tucked himself into. Before sleeping, Charlie wanted to cultivate which led to a discovery. "Why is the mana so dense here?!" When Charlie had begun to focus, he noticed that the mana around him was easily thrice as dense as that in Gillingham. At first, Charlie saw this as a wonderful thing but he quickly became frustrated upon realization that he still couldn't take full advantage of this until he was alone.

Fuelled by frustration, Charlie began to brainstorm how he could overcome being noticed while cultivating or performing any kind of mana manipulation. Thinking back to when Geralt had almost caught him cultivating, Charlie recalled that he had started pulling in all the surrounding mana to his location. Maybe the reason Geralt had been able to sense Charlie's cultivation is because he could feel the mana current as it was being rapidly sucked in. If that was the case, then if Charlie isolated the mana he would absorb before cultivating, then he could finally cultivate or even perform magic finally.

With a plan in mind, Charlie cautiously began to cultivate in his physical body.