Meeting the Teacher (1/3)

Madam Prella is currently sitting at her desk, leafing through a stack of letters to her left. Ever since the Duchess had died of old age, due to only being a 2nd gate mage, the Duke had passed on all of his late wife's duties to his sister about a century ago…

… hence, the reason why Prella is currently looking through all the proposal letters for all of the Duke's children – her nieces and nephews.

'I must say. This stack is pretty small,' Prella thinks with a frown. Quite honestly, she's tempted to scoop up the pile and throw it into the fireplace behind her. 'They're all coming from low-class families. Tch. Well, there's no helping it.'

Just as she's wondering what to do, she hears a knock on the door.

"What is it?"

"It's Palandri, Aunt."

"…Come in."

The door opens, and the blonde young man steps through. He doesn't seem as tired as he was the last time she saw him. Just from his face alone, Prella can tell that something good has happened to him recently.

As soon as Palandri takes a seat, Prella puts her hands on the desk and asks, "Is it about Eli again? You know I can't do anything about it. You're both brother and sister now."

Prella and Palandri had had this conversation dozens of times now, and Prella doesn't want to waste her time running this same circle again. "I told you, the fact that you and Eli are 6th cousins doesn't mean you can marry her. You've both been adopted by the Duke, and such a thing is horribly improper."

Palandri doesn't even flinch at these words. Instead, he smiles and nods, "Of course. I came here with news. It IS about Eli, coincidentally."

'Oh,' Prella thinks with a raised eyebrow, 'he came prepared this time, huh?'

"All right," she says aloud, "Tell me what you've got. It had better be good."

Palandri gives a bright smile, "I found a Spirit magic teacher for Eli. This man happens to be well-versed in Rehkin arts. If that's the case, then won't the Duke want to keep her talents within the family instead of marrying her off?"

Prella frowns at this. She knows quite well that very few people know real Spirit magic, and she has a hard time imagining that any of these people would be willing to stay in a fallen family like theirs.

With this thought, Prella immediately starts to think that her nephew has been tricked by someone. This is quite possible, since many mages at least know a little Spirit magic. Anyone who's slightly more talented than the rest might claim to be as great as a Rehkin. Since people like Palandri have nothing to compare it to, they might get tricked!

After all, the easiest people to trick with fool's gold are poor peasants who've never seen real gold. Just the same way, people like Palandri have never seen a real Rehkin. They won't know a real Rehkin practitioner from a fake one!

And so, Prella sighs with disappointment, "Palandri…" Her voice trails off, and she doesn't finish her sentence. "Uh… Fine. Invite this teacher to dinner when we have our family gathering."

"Umm… Aunt? Don't you want to know who the teacher is?" Palandri can tell that his aunt is being dismissive, but he's not surprised by this.

"It's fine. It's fine," she waves him off. "I prefer to judge people with my own eyes."

Unexpectedly, Palandri suddenly smiles, and in a moment of self-consciousness, he covers his mouth and suppresses a chuckle. Still, he can't hide the mirthful glee in his eyes from Prella.

Suddenly, the old sorceress gets a bad feeling, but Palandri is already scampering out the door.

---------------------

The spring air is crisp, and the sky is just cloudy enough to give the ground a tinge of grey. In every way, it's the perfect morning for a walk, in Duke Vanteri's opinion.

So, he follows his impulse and takes a walk around his estate. He has no real direction in his walk, so he's rather surprised when Prella rounds the corner and waves him down. "Good!" she says, "I found you so soon. We need to talk."

"Sister!" the Duke coughs, "How'd you find me so fast? My walks are pretty random."

Prella rolls her eyes. "I've known you for over a thousand years. I know your walking habits better than you do. Anyway, come over here. We need to talk."

"What's this about?" the duke asks his sister as she puts up a sound barrier. Clearly, she doesn't want the servants to hear what she's about to say.

"Palandri started talking about Eli again," Prella says sternly. "You should really have a talk with him. I'm not his mother, but that kind of desire is completely unacceptable."

"Oh, he did?" the Duke says as his tone starts to get an icy tinge.

The only time Palandri had seriously voiced his desire to wed Eli was when the adoption process was underway.

Under normal circumstances, Palandri and Eli are distantly related enough for their marriage to be acceptable. (When you're 6th cousins, it's doubtful you even share the same genes anymore…)

Anyway, Palandri was so against the idea of Eli becoming his sister that he fought tooth and nail with the Duke. The two of them got into many fights over this issue.

On the Duke's side of the argument, he's more than used to seeing his descendants as his own children. In a way, this is how all Brancotte nobles are trained to think. Heck. Even his own sister Prella is his distant cousin as well, yet he can't see her as anything but a sister.

This is just how noble families are, right? They're big, extended families.

So, the idea of two of his descendants marrying each other was so sickening to the Duke that even now, Palandri's requests still seems ludicrous.

"Ugh," the Duke scowls, "He hasn't said anything in decades. What brought it on this time?"

"Well, Palandri said that he found Eli a Spirit magic teacher."

"So what? I can hire a better one," the Duke huffs.

Prella rolls her eyes at this. "Yeah. Palandri also said that this teacher knows Rehkin techniques."

"HA!" the Duke barks out a laugh. "Really? I don't think that brat is stupid enough to fall for a scammer. Or…" The more he thinks about it, the more his smile fades.

Rapid thoughts flash through the Duke's head.

'If Palandri isn't stupid enough to fall for a scammer, then why did he invite a stranger into the house? Did he betray the family? Did he invite a spy here?'

'No, there's nothing really left for rival nobles to pick clean anymore. What could a spy possibly find here? Well… I AM a landowner and a Duke. I'm sure there's something.'

'Anyway, I doubt Palandri would actually do something like that. Maybe he really did find a great Spirit magic teacher?'

'No. That's unlikely. No practitioner of Rehkin magic would come here.'

'Yeah… Most likely, Palandri is intentionally exaggerating things because he's desperate to keep me from arranging a marriage for Eli. It WOULD be stupid of me to gift a practitioner of Rehkin magic to another family.'

Realizing that this is all an immature ploy from his youngest son, the Duke suddenly loses interest in this whole situation, and his anger cools.

"What were you planning on doing?" the Duke asks his sister.

"Oh, I told Palandri to bring this teacher to our next family dinner. I was planning on testing him with Spirit magic, then sending him packing the next day," Prella explains. "I pulled you aside today because I needed your signature on the dismissal papers."

She also wanted to talk to him about this personally instead of submitting a written report. It's untactful to write about dirty family affairs like this, since written things are recorded by nature, and it's not good to record embarrassing things.

"Very well. Come to my office later this evening, and I'll have the signature ready."

Prella bows her head deferentially, and she goes back the way she came.