Chapter 1:

  Later that afternoon Eli surprised himself with his sudden urge for paternal affection. When he wrapped his arms around his father’s waist, he could feel just how stiff Lord Gabriel Rodrigo was. Give the man a weapon, and he had complete control of his body, give him an affectionate embrace however and suddenly Eli’s old man had no clue just what to do with his limbs. Out of the corner of his eye Eli could see his father’s large hand twitching in indecision – it made him want to grin. Instead of peeling him off, however, his ever-stoic father simply cleared his throat and ushered Eli away.

  “Back to your seat, son,” he said.

  When Eli looked up, Gabriel was staring over his head at his mother Sela, who only smiled and carefully readjusted the placement of her goblet. Eli took that moment to slip into his chair with practiced posture, cheeks warm. Who cared if he had the memories of his adult self in his head, he was also a seven-year-old boy, and a son who hadn’t seen his father, his mother, his family, in years. Decades. He allowed himself to bask in the moment, in the warmth and security – flimsy as he knew it to be – of his parents. His home.

  Home. How many years had it been since he’d had a place to call home. Not a house, or some base. But a real home, filled with warmth and love, and that ever-present sense of security that only came from knowing in your heart that you are welcome, and wanted in that space. That your presence completes it.

  Dinner was set formally, as always: silver polished, napkins folded, three courses served in sequence, with the first two eaten mostly in silence, and only occasionally interspersed with polite conversation and commentary on the meal. Eli held his posture properly, ate with propriety, and only speared the appropriate portion sizes onto his fork. The routine, so familiar, and yet so nostalgic made him want to smile and cry as he basked in the scents and tastes of nearly forgotten flavours. Instead of smiling like an idiot, he played his role to perfection. He was, as ever, the diligent attentive young scion of House Rodrigo.

  It was as desert was being placed in front of them that Gabriel began to speak.

  “How did your day progress.” Eli’s father asked him. Ah yes, the dinner-debrief. Eli remembered this part of the day. For as long as his parents had been away from the battlefield, some habits were hard to quash, especially considering that his father had been raised in the much more martial house of Alvaro before he split off with Eli’s mother to form their own noble house.

  Eli was diligent in recounting to his father the contents of his day. He spoke of his lesson with his mother, expounding the methodology behind some of the more interesting meditation in detail. His father listened patiently, face unreadable, until Eli finished speaking.

  “You had a good lesson, then?”

  Eli blinked, then realized Gabriel was no longer talking to him, but was instead addressing his mother, Sela.

  “He’s done remarkably well today,” she said. Her tone even and dignified. “Honestly, he picked things up much more quickly than usual.”

  Eli smiled at her. “I listen to you, Mother,” he said. Dutifully reciting his expected lines like he was a character in a play he’d long ago stopped acting but had never forgotten.

  Sela arched a brow. “If it weren’t for that breach of decorum this morning, I might actually believe you.”

  Ah, noble propriety, where running to hug one’s mother was considered ‘improper’. Eli huffed a laugh and shook his head.

  “Breach of decorum?” His father asked. Eli pressed a hand to his chest and affected a look of exaggerated suffering.

  “To think, being overcome with affection for my mother would be considered undignified.”

  At this Sela laughed in earnest. “Who even taught you to speak like that,” she shook her head. Eli glanced to the side of the room where his governess stood, affected an exaggerated pout, then very deliberately refocused on his dessert. The action had Sela laughing even harder and even his father let out an amused huff.

  Sela picked up her dessert spoon to begin on her wild berry mousse. “Make better use of that sharp tongue of yours and finish your food.”

  That earned a nod from Gabriel, though if he squinted hard enough Eli would swear he could see the faintest smirk on his father’s lips. No matter, he thought, might as well dig in, after all, sharp tongues deserved soft foods. And truly he had missed good food. He tried to repress the memories of hard rations choked down against harder ground. Of stale water, and hungry hours spent holding his breath as he huddled underneath the rubble of long abandoned buildings in ruined landscapes. The scent of ash in the air mixed with the ever-present dust of cities long dead. He was pulled out of his reverie by the sound of his father’s voice.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “Will you be in the residence tomorrow?” Gabriel asked his wife.

  “Yes,” she sighed. “There’s that merchant house from the capital that’s been trying to expand south for a while. They were recently raised to 3rd Step by Cerso and have used that fact to successfully pressure their way into some of the mid-level territories in the west while they still have a modicum of the Family’s protection. They’ve gone after the Marina family.”

  “Foolish,” Gabriel stated simply. Eli couldn’t help but agree. Grand House Cerso was the 1st step house that oversaw the Canilla empire and one of the five Grand families. What this merchant was trying to do was foolish for several reasons. While the Marina family were a 3rd step house as well, they were firm allies of the Aguire house, a 2nd step house of immense power. The Aguire healing houses were the Empire’s premiere healing houses and were ubiquitous throughout the territories. This newly uplifted merchant house probably thought they’d get away with it because they currently had the favour of the Cerso Family, but it was never a good idea to get on the wrong side of the Aguires.

  Sure, the house was mostly neutral, and every major house head had made an oath of pacifism and to the Divine Spirits, yet that didn’t prevent them from strategically denying service, or providing less than ideal rates and results. Just because they had made it a mission to provide healing for everyone within the empire equally, did not prevent them from denying service, or worse, providing malicious services instead.

  Eli’s memories of battle healers were some of the ones he’d firmly locked away, never to be reviewed or contemplated. Whoever this newly raised house was, foolish was an understatement. Considering he couldn’t dredge up any memories of a major trade conflicts in the Adler territory from this time it was highly unlikely that whatever it was they were trying to do had escalated. If his family was getting involved it was much more likely that the houses had come to some sort of mutual agreement.

  However, talk of the Aguire Family brought one of his long-term goals to mind. Healing proficiency. He had a minor affinity in nature that he’d neglected the first time around. No neglected wasn’t the right word. It would be better to say that he’d not taken proper advantage of the highly versatile and moderately rare affinity.

  Its flexibility was part of the problem though. Much like his spatial affinity, there were simply so many ways to use it that he had decided to focus his efforts there. Unlike his spatial affinity, there were many more capable nature or nature adjacent mages willing to guide him. He made a note to get in touch with some healers. It was an affinity he’d shamefully neglected in his last life, and he would be sure to rectify that. There were also his other affinities to consider. Yes, he would need to properly explore them if he wanted any true chance at a better future this time around.

  “Considering we’re on friendly terms with the Marinas, and that some of our trade deals may be impacted I’ll be corresponding with them most of tomorrow. Then I have the quarterly with the House Adler representatives to discuss allowance, and of course, Eli’s lesson in the morning.” She smiled at her son, and he automatically smiled back, but in his mind, sparks had gone off.

  House Harlin. He knew House Harlin, or at least knew of them. They were subordinate to 2nd step House Jinzi. There was a connection there. Something to do with trade and mutual defence? Harlin weren’t subordinates to Jinzi, at least not directly, but they were connected. He knew they both served Grand House Corso directly. But how?

  Eli froze. The smuggling route. Of course. The original house that had been managing the Adler territory wasn’t House Rodrigo, but the now fallen House Adler. The official story for House Adler’s downfall had been all about mismanaging taxes and bungling important trade in the region, which in all fairness, was the truth. However, the real reason had been that Lord Harlin Adler had become greedy. He, a mere 4th Step noble, had attempted to blackmail the 1st Step Grand Imperial House of Cerso. Foolish in the extreme. They’d threatened to reveal the smuggling operations the Cersos had been using that passed through the region. Despite more than generous bribes, the clueless Lord had tried to use extortion to squeeze out more. His reward had been a swift death, after the timely adoption of Eli’s commoner mother, and the complete eradication of his entire direct line. Now only scattered 5th Step branch houses, previously satellites of House Adler, not subordinate to House Rodrigo, and those descendants with no claims to nobility remained.

  However, the pathetic sob story of the previous administrators of his family’s territory wasn’t what had caught his attention. No, it was the smuggling. The smuggling of what Eli knew to be alien goods. Goods that would be coming directly through his family’s territory. Goods that might just mysteriously be re-appropriated for Eli’s own use. He’d lost himself in thought until something his father said caught his attention.

  “I’ll be at the western quarry.” His father was saying. “I’ll need to check on the new rift that opened yesterday. The miners followed protocol – pulled back and waited – but production cannot halt indefinitely.” He nodded once to himself. The western quarry? Why couldn’t Eli remember managing a western quarry after he’d taken over as head of House Rodrigo?

  As far as he could remember that area was overrun by high level beasts, and even after it had been cleared, nobody had seen fit to restore the quarry when all funds had gone into rift-harvesting efforts. Something was strange here. Something he’d been either too young or too ignorant to understand in his first go around.

  Eli seized the moment. “May I accompany you, Father?”

  Gabriel studied him for a long breath before nodding once. “Good initiative, but if you come, you follow orders. Understood?”

  “Of course, Lord Gabriel.”

  “And you’ll not think this excuses you from lessons,” Sela added, sharp as glass.

  Eli looked at her, smiled genuinely. “Never. I love our lessons.”

  For a heartbeat, only warmth passed between them.