14 10

Calibri sat up immediately. "Father, what are you saying?"

"You're ill, Calibri." Trinity said. "You look partially deceased as is. It's not a wise idea for you to go to that school."

"Father, you know how unintentionally dramatic I can be. My body has the same issue, it's making this illness seem worse than it actually is. I feel perfectly fine now, I needed some sleep." Calibri said, holding his father's hand.

"You say this, but you don't even know what's making you sick or how to stop these sporadic attacks." Kreian said.

"Your brother is right Calibri, for all we know, sending you off in the state you're in could worsen your symptoms," Trinity said.

Calibri pursed his lips as they turned orange. He had a fever and his thoughts weren't flowing as smoothly as he needed them to. It was stressful. Coming up with responses for their well-thought statements was getting increasingly difficult.

Another person entered the room.

"Oh, he's awake. That's what I like to see. How are you my Buttercup?"

"Felix, you're back." Trinity greeted as his son went around the room to greet everyone with the customary kiss on the cheek. The handsome man in question greeted his father and then deposited himself right next to Calibri, pulling the feverish teenager into an smothering hug.

"Yes, the meetings went splendidly. I hurried back when I heard of the incident. But back to you."Felix said, looking at Calibri. Felix looked very much like his twin brother, Kreian, but they were not identical twins. He was also quite tall compared to the rest of the family, standing at 187 while the others ranged from 176 to 182.

"You're quite warm." Felix said, feeling Calibri's neck. "And stressed out." He added, eyeing the twitchy orange swirls on his younger sibling's forearms. He glanced towards Alexei. "What are we discussing?"

Alexei's eyes flicked to the other inhabitants of the room before traveling back to Felix.

"His Majesty is against Calibri going to train at the Cultivation school." Alexei said.

Felix raised a brow and turned his gaze to Trinity. "Why?"

Kreia sighed. "Is that really your question?"

"Yes, because I find this idea particularly idiotic."

Kreian and Kreia both raised their brows and looked at each other. "And besides, I have a hypothesis that you might want to hear before making any drastic decisions." Felix said, absently patting his miserable brother's head.

Trinity stared at Felix for a moment. "Well?"

Felix exhaled and began to stand, pushing Calibri back onto the pillows as he did so. "We'll discuss this elsewhere. The noise may be troubling for him."

Trinity nodded and stood too.

"We'll be back soon." Kreia said to Calibri. Calibri watched them with furrowed brows. "Alexei, please remain with him till we return." Felix said.

Alexei nodded with a respective bow, and all the members of the royal family left the room. He looked back at Calibri's face.

"Are you alright?" He asked the prince. Calibri's eyes flicked to the servants walking in and out of the room and then back to Alexei. "We should eavesdrop."

Alexei's eyes widened. "Your majesty, you're not in a state to move, and there are too many people watching you right now. Besides that, your fever is incredibly high, I don't think you should be moving around."

Calibri whined. "Please Alexei, the curiosity is making my blood pressure spike."

Alexei sighed. "Your majesty, I think you're slightly delirious from the fever. You need to rest and wait for the healers to come back."

Calibri stared at him for a moment, then he kicked back the covers and jumped out of bed.

"Your majesty!" The servants in the room and Alexei shrieked as Calibri darted out of the room. In terms of agility and stealth, the prince was second to none. Of course, that didn't mean that he was invincible, and he slammed into several walls as he escaped.

"Your majesty! Come back! You're going to get in trouble!" Alexei shouted as he sprinted after his friend.

"I won't get in trouble; I only need to get close enough to have their conversion in my hearing range."

"Your majesty, you silly goat, if they're in your hearing range then you will definitely be in theirs!" Alexei explained, knowing Calibri was too feverish to think properly. Calibri stopped running and turned to face Alexei who was running towards him.

"That's a valid concern. I know a few sound nullifying enchantments, but I haven't practiced any as of yet." Calibri said, reaching up to fiddle with his earring in thought. Alexei panted, finally catching up to him.

"Yes, it is. Now let's not be too hasty. We can wait for their verdict. If we use the enchantments and blow up a part of this tree, or accidentally lose a few fingers and toes, we'd be in a world of trouble, your majesty."

Calibri sneezed, and a wad of clear, runny, oddly sparking mucus flew onto Alexei's robes. Calibri who meant to cover his nose had actually covered his mouth instead in his deliria.

Alexei looked down at the mucus and then back at Calibri with a heavy sigh. "Your majesty let's return to your room. You're in no state to be wandering around. We've run too far from your room. If you collapse it would be difficult to carry you back."

Calibri waved his hand. "We'll be fine-"

As he spoke, they began to hear voices. The boys realized who the voices belonged to and looked at each other with wide eyes.

Alexei looked at Calibri with a 'What do we do now? If we can hear them, then if we speak they'll hear us!" expression, pointing in the direction of the voices and then back at the two of them.

Calibri made an apologetic face and then a hushing gesture. Slowly, he lifted two fingers and started writing down an enchantment. Alexei's eyes widened and he looked between the gold glowing letters floating in the air and then at Calibri a few times with a frantic expression.

They'd only learned the very simple and basic enchantments at school, and the enchantment Calibri was performing wasn't one of them. He must have read it somewhere, but one look at Calibri's face told him that the prince had never actually cast it before.

Just as Calibri was about to slap the enchantment on his own chest, Alexei grabbed his wrist with an exasperated look, as if to say, 'Are you insane?' , and Calibri rolled his eyes and moved his body forward so the writing touched his chest.

Alexei's eyes widened when it disappeared, and he looked at Calibri worriedly. Calibri said something but no sound came out of his mouth. His violet eyes widened at this and he clapped his hands. Again no sound was heard.

Alexei sighed in relief when Calibri did not blow up or lose an appendage, and resignedly let his mischievously grinning friend place the enchantment on him too. Calibri then grabbed his hand and the duo snuck closer to the voices they'd heard before. It was coming from the dining hall.

Calibri began to waddle during the walk, so they sat down, listening to the conversation.

"- out of my control. That school is the only place I'm not allowed to meddle with. How can I sit passively not knowing his condition?" Trinity said.

"Father, both Kreian and I have been chosen as demonstrators for those students. While we can't be around him every second, we can stand by if anything happens." Felix said.

"Even then, Felix, what can you and I do? We don't understand his condition either." Kreian said.

"We know it has to do with his Soul Flare, isn't that enough to warrant the possibility that proper cultivation training may fix whatever is happening?"

"And what happens if he gets worse Felix?" Trinity asked.

"If he gets worse, then we cross off the possibility." Felix said.

"What if he can't recover?" Kreia asked.

"He's not that much of a weakling." Felix said.

"Oh? Really? He fainted because the water was too cold Felix! His constitution is terrible." Kreian said.

"It wasn't because the water was too cold, it was because his body is too weak because his powers are degrading it." Felix said.

"And how do you know that brother?" Kreia asked.

"With all due respect sister, I know much more than you do about his condition." Felix said. "And if I'm proven wrong, there's no loss or gain, but it's far better than assuming that honing his cultivation will make his condition worse."

"No loss? I'm quite certain that becoming comatose of having his body fully shut down and stop breathing because it can't take the stress on it anymore can be considered a loss." Kreian said to his twin.

Trinity exhaled slowly. "Felix, we understand that you want Calibri to train because you want to support his choices, but we don't know what this could do to him. I've been thinking of asking his mother to take him into heaven for a while."