Arcanum - Chapter 185

“Nope.” I smiled, finding her desperation amusing.

“It’s not all that bad Daisy.. we know they aren’t together.. so maybe they never go together at the end.” Helen replied.

“You never know.” I shrugged to Daisy, making her a little more frustrated.

“Hey guys.. there’s something you all might want to see.” Morgana shouted to all of us in the back.

One by one we all stuck our heads out to see what’s going on. “Is that a checkpoint?” I asked noticing a bunch of adults in front of us with a make shift rode block haphazardly nailed together.

“Yup but that’s text book bandits trying to take our stuff.” Helen said pulling us all in.

“Bandits? what the hell?” I questioned.

“They are probably just desperate.” Jay informed us.

“Well.. Im sure they won’t be stupid enough to do anything to Atlantis students.” Daisy answered.

Our caravan came to an eventual stop. “Hey there.” A manly voice shouted out to us.

“Hello.” Morgana replied calmly.

“May I ask what you’re doing so far out?” The man questioned Morgana.

“We are visiting Thralkeld.” She answered him.

“Oh? how many friends in total.” He asked, his voice sounding intrigued and slightly excited.

“Six of us including myself.” Morgana answered.

“Can you ask your friends to come out?” he requested.

“Guys they’d like to see you.” She requested, making us all exit from the back coming around the side to see them. They defiantly looked like bandits trying to look as menacing as possible, if I came across them 2 weeks ago I would have defiantly been intimidated. Their shoddy looking leather armour, degraded crossbow that’s barely functional and weapons that look more like farming or blacksmithing tools then actual weapons did little to unnerve me now.

“No adults?” The man at the front asked seeing us.

“No.. We’re Atlantis students, it’s out time off.” Daisy answered, making one bandit in the back have a sword with their leader.

“Fine.” He begrudgingly accepted, “You may all pass.” He said turning back to his men giving them a signal making them open pull the blockade to the side.

“Thank you, sir.” Morgana said with a smile as we all went back in and began making our way to Thralkeld. We all still held our breaths watching closely as we slowly rolled pass all the bandits looking at us like a missed opportunity.

“Jeez I thought that would go sideways.” I let out a sigh of relief.

“Yeah same.. but just a small reminder, remember Paul told us that we can’t just start trouble and under no circumstances can we cause fatalties..” Jay reminded us.

“There was nothing to worry about anyway.. their equipment was in bad condition and extremely worn.. I guess they were trying to intimidate people into giving them money.” Grace answered.

“We should go do something.. you know, stop them doing this to someone else.” I said, feeling angered at the injustice.

“Let’s not start something this weekend and just have a relaxing time.” Jay insisted taking s more relaxing seat.

“Fine for now.. but is something big happens we’re not letting it slide.” Daisy argued.

“You guys and your moral compass.. going to get us in trouble” Jay sighed.

“Hey Jay, how long till we arrive?” Morganna shouted, making Jay peek out the front.

“Oh, we should be there soon, maybe 30minutres.” Jay smiled.

“Finally!” Daisy smiled in absolute glee.

“Coming from a different world it’s kinda refreshing to have journeys like this.” I laughed.

“What is your world like?” Helen questioned.

“Its different… much like an enormous city but large with very tall buildings.” I answered.

“That doesn’t sound all that bad.” Daisy answered.

“I know.. but the green, the fresh air the peacefulness is truly something.” I smiled, looking outside, absorbing the scenery.

“Feeling excited to see your parents?” Helen asked Jay with a raised eyebrow.

“A little.” He smiled.

“Do you think we’d ever get to see your family?” Daisy asked Grace or Helen.

“I really doubt it… First we live in an Elven city and secondly.. we are kinda exiled.” They both confessed.

“Woah Joining Atlantis was a big deal, huh?” Jay asked.

“Yes.. joining a ‘human’ school was apparently a huge disgrace to the family name.” They answered.

“So how do you both know each other.. since you guys aren’t the same type of Elf and from different families?” I questioned.

“Our families are very close, Helen came over often to visit and mess about, that’s when we decided to ….. run away and join a Human school.” Grance explained.

“Wait what, you guys literally ran away?” We questioned.

“Yup, we had some help, but we got away.” They smiled.

“But why?” Jay asked.

“Like we said before we want to choose our own destiny.” They answered.

“So your lives were like Emilia’s? family pushing you into a certain relationship?” Daisy questioned.

“Kinda like we said before when Elves are born their status and name dictates what they will do in life for the good of the ‘society’, being the daughter of a wealthy and important house, we were born to be diplomats and our families would marry us to broker relationships and forge alliances. Grace explained to us.

“Damn… that sounds restricting.” I commented.

“Yeah, so that’s why we both ran away.” They answered.

“Aren’t they looking for you?” I questioned.

“Most likely but they have no power to take away a student of Atlantis.” They both answered.

“Oh I think we arrived.” Morgana said shouting to us.

“We all popped our head out in excitement to see a tiny village. It was a lot smaller than most other cities we’ve been to, with several roads leading into the city and very small outer wall surrounding it made of stone.

“Halt.” a pair of ill-equipped guard stopped, our caravan and began peering inside.

“Just a bunch of Atlatnis students visiting family.” Morgana answered with a smile, causing them to look at all of us closely.

“Atlantis students?” They asked curiously.

“Yup that’s us.” we replied.

“Odd we don’t know anyone child that got into Atlantis.” They questioned.

“I’m Jay Carvell, you probably havn’t heard of me.” Jay introduced himself.

“Oh Carvell? the local bakery owners?” they questioned making Jay look at them in shock. “everything looks fine.. come right in you will need to leave your carriage at the stables, just follow the wall.” They instructed Morganna.

“Umm could you point us to the Carvell bakery?” I asked them politely as we pass them.

“Sure beside the city square, impossible to miss.” He smiled as our caravan pulled away.

Staring back at them, they watched us curiously as a Guard came up to them to talk. “Hey Jay I thought you was unknown in this town.” I questioned.

“I was..” He answered, staring back at the guards.

Arriving at the stables, a pubescent stable boy greeted us. We paid 8 silver for him to take good care of our caravan and horses, then began making our way to the city square. Jay looked around with a genuine smile like his memories was all coming back to him.

“See that Tavern over there.” He pointed out to us, “That is where I would hear stories of adventures and new outside the city.” He smiled, “and over there the butcher was very nice to us giving us any scarps of meat that wouldn’t sell and was going off.” He smiled remembering the kind people here.

“What’s that building?” I asked pointing at a very large nice looking mansion.

“That is Vancliff house.. the family and lord of the city.” He explained.

“This must be it.” I said pointing at a very nice almost new build bakery, with a plenty of nice fresh loaves on display at the window.

Jay peered inside and took a step back in shock as if he couldn’t believe his eyes making us all peer in. “Jay, Wrong shop? Daisy asked.

“No, that’s them…” He uttered in complete shock.

“Let’s go in.” I said, pushing open the door.

“Hi! Welcome to Carvell bakery!” Jay’s mother welcomed us with a genuine smile but looked in shocked as she saw Jay behind us. “Honey! Our baby is home!” She yelled in complete shock to his father, on the verge of tears.

“Mum? Dad?” Jay asked in shock, also tearing up at the sight.

“My baby boy how are you?!” His mum ran to him embracing him with an enormous hug in tears.

“But how?” Jay questioned, looking at her in complete shock.

“Our mark? and all this?” She looked around with a genuine smile.

“Yeah..” Jay replied.

“Jay?” Jay’s father appeared, looking at him in shock.

“Dad as well?.. How?.. I thought it was impossible.” He questioned his mum in shock.

“It’s a lengthy story honey.. let’s find you and your friends some seats and some food and we can talk about it all .” She smiled within absolute happiness, making me miss my mum.

“Honey clear a table.” Jay’s mum instructed, “So baby, why don’t you introduce us to your friends.” She smiled at the rest of us.

“Yes, yes sorry.” He apologised and processed to introduce the rest of us.

“I hope you girls are taking good card of my baby here.” She said with a big smile.

“They are.” Jay nodded with an enormous smile, still staring at his mother.

“Come on in take a seat you must be tired, did you travel far?” Jay’s father instructed wiping the table suface with a damp cloth removing residues of flour.

“Yeah, we took a caravan from Maynard,” Jay answered while the other placed their weapons neatly in a free corner.

“Oh, so a small journey.. hope nothing happened on the road.” Jay’s father questioned before seeing the rest of us. “So son! which one of these pleasant ladies is your girlfriend.” He grinned at his own joke.

“None of them, they are like family.” Jay smiled, taking a seat.

“Mum dad.. how was all this possible? You didn’t take a loan, did you?” Jay asked, looking worried.

“You know your dad and I will never take a Vancliff Loan.” They both answered.

“But how then?!” Jay asked, looking around in absolute shock like all of it was unbelievable.

“We couldn’t believe it ourselves at first.. but it’s been half a month and our guardian Angel has asked nothing from us.” She smiled.

“Guardian angel?” Jay questioned.

“It’s a nickname your mother calls him.. his name is Mr Wayne.” Jay’s Dad answered making me chuckle.