Cataclysm War | Chapter 60: Teacher and Student (First Draft)

Thursday, August 4, 4 S.E.

Leonidas awoke the next day with a fresher perspective.

Aylar had come to see him after Synthra had eventually taken her leave, and the dinner he’d had with the Queen had been both reaffirming and romantic. There’d been no ratcheted sexual tension, given she was still grieving, and by the end of the meal, he’d been willingly holding her while she quietly wept into his shoulder over the self-created death of her only sibling on Terra.

When Aylar had eventually taken her leave, late into the night, it had been with regret. Matters in the palace required her, and she had insisted he remain in the estate while recovering, so he’d bid her farewell and watched her depart with a full Lance of the Royal Guard as escort for her carriage.

His sleep had been peaceful, and for the first time in a while, no nightmares haunted him—only the memory of clashing blades, and the wild euphoria of flying without limitation.

Now, having woken, bathed, cleaned his mouth, and dressed, Leonidas found his way out of his quarters and toward Ceruviel’s office, nodding in polite greeting to the various servants he spotted.

“Ace!”

Leonidas paused at the sound of a young man’s voice and turned with a smile, spying John hurrying down a corridor toward the main connecting hall of the Estate, a flushed Sonya at his side.

“Hey, John! Hey, Sonya!”

The teenagers grinned when they arrived before him, and Leonidas eyed them both assessingly.

John had definitely changed: even in the short two weeks or so he’d been with Ceruviel, he’d put on visible muscle, seemed to have found his physical rhythm, showing a more confident set to his shoulders and a greater awareness of his own body with every movement.

Sonya, meanwhile, had become a perfect Lady-in-Waiting.

She wore a soft, long-sleeved blue blouse paired with a cream skirt down to her knees that morning, with white stockings vanishing up her legs and a pair of elegant lady’s flats that seemed more than comfortable enough. Her auburn hair had been styled into large, elegant ringlets that draped over her chest and back when she curtsied in proper greeting.

“Where have you been lately?” John asked him, the boy’s blue eyes plaintive. “I’ve been wanting to spar with you, yanno?”

Leonidas smiled wryly at the question and stepped forward, reaching out to ruffle the short boy’s hair—even at 5’11, John was notably smaller than him still—with a chuckle.

“I’ve been dealing with marriage and coronation prep,” he explained calmly. “Speaking of, are you two fully aware of what you need to do?”

Sonya nodded enthusiastically alongside John and spoke excitedly.

“I have to hold the Queen’s train and make sure it doesn’t drag, while also ensuring she doesn’t get snagged by it or held back, and make sure that John keeps pace while making sure that he doesn’t lag, because oh-my-god-Ace-he-can-be-so-bad-at-timing.”

Leonidas blinked at the same time as John when Sonya launched into her rapid-fire explanation, shared a glance with the boy that transcended age gaps into pure man-language, and then turned back to Sonya with a wry smile.

“Yeah, that sounds right,” he said encouragingly, while giving her a nod.

“She’s excited,” John said in turn, glancing at Sonya with fondness in his eyes before looking back to Leonidas. “Speaking of! I think I’m close to evolving my Ambition, or at least, figuring out how to. It’s been feeling kinda weird for me lately.”

“Hey, let me stop you there,” Leonidas said wryly. “I’ve got zero understanding of that process. That, kid, is definitely a Ceruviel question.”

John sighed but seemed to expect that.

“Yeah, I guess Sovereign doesn’t really evolve…”

“It is a Supreme Ambition,” Sonya said primly, blushing faintly as she happily demonstrated her knowledge. “Ambitions are ranked from Supreme, to Greater, to Strong, to Baseline, and then Lesser. John’s Ambition is currently considered Baseline.”

Leonidas blinked at that and then nodded. “Sounds right,” he said encouragingly.

“I’ve been reading a lot,” Sonya said primly.

“I take it you’ve both been working on your Cores, too?” Leonidas asked with fondness.

“Yeah! My [Psicore] should reach peak Formation in the next week, according to Ceruviel, but I have to evolve my Ambition first, she said. Sonny—”

“My [Heavenlight Core] is already at peak Formation!” the Saintess candidate interrupted with an excited bounce of her feet. “Ceruviel says I can start studying Compression with Her Highness once I reach level 9!”

Leonidas raised his eyebrows at that detail and looked between them.

“I heard you’ve both been taken out to hunt Manabeasts already.”

“Yup!” John confirmed with a proud puff of his suited chest. “Since you keep deferring a protector squad, Tarnys has been taking us out. We’ve been hunting Initiate Manabeasts!”

“What about your mom and dad?” Leonidas asked with genuine interest.

“Oh, they’re doing Adept-tier stuff,” John said with a grumble. “Ceruviel’s been accelerating them since their Alphas are already fully stabilized. Dad hit Initiate two days ago, and Mom is close, too.”

Leonidas grinned in response to that.

“Cheer up, kid. That’s a good thing,” he said bracingly. “Especially for me, but I’ll explain that later. I don’t want to be rude, kids, but I gotta go see Ceruviel. I’ve got coronation stuff to discuss.”

Both of them reacted differently to that news: John looked sympathetically terrified, while Sonya’s eyes widened in wonder.

“Oh, so, you’re really gonna be King, huh?” John asked quietly. “Doesn’t that mean you’re gonna have to leave the Mansion?”

Sonya glanced at him when he said it, and her expression fell a little before she looked back to Leonidas as well.

“Yeah,” Leonidas said finally. “I’ll be living in the Palace, but don’t worry, you two are my favorite Terrans by far. I’ll be here getting my ass kicked by Ceruviel plenty.”

Both teenagers lit up at that and then nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, of course,” John said quickly. “That makes sense. You’re still a Squire, right? Heh. Of course you’ll be around.”

“A-and we can visit you!” Sonya said eagerly, a small blush lighting her cheeks. “I-if that’s okay.”

Leonidas smiled at them both wryly and nodded.

“Yeah, I think that’d be great, actually.”

Both youths gave him pleased smiles, and then Sonya grabbed John’s arm.

“Come on, we should let him go see Ceruviel. You promised me ice cream.”

John glanced at Sonya, glanced at Leonidas, and then smiled wryly and waved as the Saintess-to-be dragged him off, already excitedly exclaiming about what flavors of savory sweets they would be trying.

Leonidas shook his head in amusement, turned on his heel, and promptly set off for Ceruviel’s office again—this time with every intention of not being halted. When he reached her doors a few minutes later, thankful his determination hadn’t actually been challenged, he paused to knock loudly and waited until he heard the standard “{Enter!}” from within.

Leonidas opened the door to his Mentor’s office warily.

When his eyes quickly surveyed the interior, he found it empty of anyone but the Duchess herself, standing near her window, and Leonidas sighed in relief, smiling faintly in thanks to the Divines and making his way to join her at the window.

“Mentor,” he greeted her politely, as the silver-haired Duchess glanced back at him with a nod.

“Squire,” she said in turn, before turning her gaze back to the window and the Duskguard training in her private arena outside.

“How was the Watch?” Leonidas asked, leaning against the right-side window frame and looking out at the drilling Haelfenn in turn.

“Uneventful,” Ceruviel answered mildly, her lavender eyes glancing at him. “Though that’s not why you’re here, Achilles.”

Leonidas smiled ruefully when she said it and faintly shook his head.

“I still haven’t unlocked [Psionic Communication], but hells if I don’t wish I could.”

“It’ll come,” Ceruviel said confidently, while keeping her gaze fixed on him.

“Very well,” Leonidas said quietly, and met her gaze with his own. “I wanted to check in on you, given what’s going to happen this week.”

“You mean your marriage to Aylar,” the Duchess didn’t so much guess as read in his mind as easily as perusing an open book.

“Yes,” Leonidas confirmed without need. “I’m worried about you.”

“Worried?” Ceruviel asked with an arch of her eyebrow. “Don’t be—”

“It’s not ridiculous, Ceruviel,” Leonidas cut in, his tone firm as his eyes drifted back to the window and the silver-armored Haelfenn outside of it. “We’ve only been together a month, but the experiences are as profound as if it’s been years. We’re family, Duchess, whether you want to address it or not—and in that month, I’ve gone from bumbling idiot to nascent King, and I still have no goddamn idea how we got here, let alone at this pace, which feels downright insane.”

Ceruviel pursed her lips and then smiled faintly in his peripheral vision.

“Destiny rarely cares for our concepts of relevant timeframes, Achilles. Empires have fallen in shorter periods. Why can a King not rise in the same?”

“I’m not ready,” he said to her steadily, voice devoid of nerves, but resolved with certainty. “We both know I’m not, but I’ll do it anyway.”

“Because that’s what Duty demands,” Ceruviel concurred simply.

“Yes,” Leonidas agreed, “but that doesn’t change the fact I’m worried.”

“About what, exactly?” Ceruviel finally asked.

“You can’t just read my mind?” Leonidas asked wryly.

“There’s a time and place for that,” Ceruviel said resolutely.

“Fair enough,” Leonidas replied and let out a sigh. “You’re lonely, Ceruviel. No, don’t object,” he said when she opened her mouth, and then closed it thereafter. “I’ve been your Squire for a month, but I’ve known you for an eon in my heart. You’re lonely, Ceruviel, and without me, all you’ll have is Jefferies, the staff, the Duskguard, the Matthersons, and the occasional poor bastards you drag to bed.”

The Duchess sighed at his words and folded her arms, leaning on the opposite window frame and meeting his gaze when he looked at her again.

“You’re going to be the King, Achilles, and a husband. You can’t live with your hedonist Mentor.”

“I know,” Leonidas agreed simply. “But I can worry about her.”

“Achilles—”

“I know, you’ve lasted three and a half centuries, another few won’t kill you—but family is family, Ceruviel, and you are my family. I don’t know how many times you’ve saved my life without me ever knowing it, but I do know it’s more times than you’ll ever admit.”

Ceruviel blinked at that, and then cleared her throat and turned back to the window.

“...I’m not ready to let you go, just yet,” she admitted more quietly, after a long moment of silence. “But the wheel of time rarely cares for what we are ready to do.”

Leonidas fell silent at that, for a time, and nodded quietly—watching then sparring as the Duskguard engaged in a ritual practice of blades on shields and tested their paired combat formations.

Finally, he spoke again, after letting her words percolate.

“I’m still your Squire, Ceruviel.”

“Perhaps, but that isn’t all—not anymore, Achilles. You’ll be my King.”

“Maybe,” Leonidas conceded calmly, “but that doesn’t mean I stop needing a teacher.”

Ceruviel frowned faintly and turned back to him with a grimace.

“I cannot be the Dusk-Lord and be your Teacher, Achilles.”

Leonidas snorted at that and glanced back at her.

“Try again,” he said wryly.

“I am not jesting,” Ceruviel said more sternly.

“No, you’re just avoiding crossing a line that separates us by tradition—I know what you’re doing, Ceruviel. You may rail against the Traditionalists, but in your own way, you’re as fanatic as any of them. I know you, Duchess. You taught me more about your mind than you ever did about mine.”

The Last Archon of Altera grimaced at that and turned back to the window yet again, watching the Duskguard in turn before, finally, releasing a sigh.

“You’re too clever for your own good, sometimes,” she murmured.

“Well, someone told me to invest in Intelligence,” he pointed out.

“They must have been a fool,” she said with faint amusement.

“Quite wise, actually,” Leonidas said with a small grin, “but definitely too self-assured by half. Speaking of, let’s cut to the chase, okay? I don’t want to lose my teacher, Ceruviel, any more than you can afford to lose your Squire. We still have a Quest to complete.”

“The Quest can be completed with John,” Ceruviel said with certainty.

“Yeah, in five years, maybe,” Leonidas said with a chuckle as she glanced at him, and then back to the window. “No, Ceruviel, that won’t work. You can’t relinquish me any more than I can relinquish you.”

Ceruviel’s lips compressed into a line at his words, and she grunted in annoyance.

“It’s a violation of tradition,” she said with a grumble.

“A King doesn’t stop being a student, Mentor, he just becomes a more complicated one—but one that needs steady guidance more than ever. Your concern is that you’ll violate my agency as a leader, but do you really think that’s possible short of dominating my mind?”

“That would be treason,” she answered flatly.

“Precisely, so there are no concerns. I’ll ask you for advice on statecraft, and you’ll learn to accept that the decisions are mine in the end—but that doesn’t mean I don’t still want or need you as my teacher. This world is too different from the one I left, and I’d be a downright idiot to discount your wisdom. I need you, Ceruviel. It’s not a request. I’ll command you to be my Teacher if I have to.”

Ceruviel’s lips twitched at that, and she glanced at him shrewdly.

“Stronger Monarchs than you have tried, Achilles.”

“None of them were hailed as the second coming of your Master,” he pointed out mildly.

“Oh, now that’s gone to your head, has it?” she asked with a chuckle, and then sighed after a moment. “This will be difficult to navigate. You’ll have far more time constraints when you take the Throne.”

“I’ll have Aylar to deal with the statecraft day-to-day,” Leonidas said confidently, turning to her as she turned back to him. “I won’t let her handle it all alone, of course, but she’s way more suited to it than I am. What this Kingdom needs is a King that can lead it, not just from a Throne, but on the battlefield as well.”

Ceruviel’s eyebrows arched at that, and she pursed her lips.

“I never took you for a gloryhound, boy.”

Leonidas shook his head in response.

“I’m not, but both of us know that this world isn’t a place that welcomes weakness, and where the branch of peace fails, the sword of war must answer.”

Ceruviel paused at his words and then smiled faintly.

“Alurien said that,” she noted shrewdly. “You’ve been reading my recollections.”

“Well, waste not, want not,” Leonidas said slyly and turned back to the window. “I’m going to make a lot of changes, Ceruviel. The first thing I’ll be doing is disbanding the Duskguard and Dawnguard.”

His Mentor stiffened at that, and her eyes narrowed dangerously.

“That would be—”

“Foolish? Irresponsible? Arrogant beyond measure?”

Ceruviel snorted after a moment and her humor returned.

“I was going to say idiotic and shortsighted, in fact.”

Leonidas nodded and then gestured outside the window as he spoke.

“This worked, Ceruviel, because of necessity—but it created a breeding ground for resentment. The Dawnguard became the political baseline for Dawnhaven, and the Duskguard became the spunky irregulars. I won’t allow that sort of divide,” he continued firmly. “The Dawn and Dusk Watches will remain, but I’m merging both forces into a single unit, and you and Uriel will continue your positions while commanding the united force, with rotating unit allotments each week.”

Ceruviel frowned at his words, but didn’t object immediately, and instead swept her gaze over the drilling Haelfenn, her expression faintly obstinate but nonetheless intrigued.

“You want to break down the separation to avoid factions, and wield Uriel’s personality with mine to shape them,” she murmured. “It is… less of a foolish idea than I thought.”

“I have a good Teacher,” Leonidas said calmly.

Ceruviel’s gaze turned to linger on him after that, calculating away as she watched him. “You realize the Traditionalists will choke on this.”

“I’m counting on it,” Leonidas said evenly. “If they’re choking, they’re not organizing some disaster to mess with Aylar and me.”

Ceruviel paused, and then nodded at that in grudging acceptance.

Leonidas smiled to himself at her acknowledgment and then continued.

“I already know what I’ll call the newly integrated force, too.”

Ceruviel raised her eyebrow again in silent question, and Leonidas smiled.

“The Aegis of Avalon.”

Ceruviel blinked at him, and then abruptly laughed.

“Well, it’s good to see one thing hasn’t changed: your naming conventions remain terrible.”

Leonidas only smiled wider. “I’ll live.”

“You will,” Ceruviel said, and when she continued, her voice was softer than it had been. “Now that you’ve made me agree with you, I suppose I’m still your teacher.”

“And I’m still your Squire,” Leonidas said definitively.

Ceruviel’s eyes held his, and then she turned back to the window.

“…For now,” she allowed.

Leonidas nodded.

It was enough.