Chapter 102 - Olwin

Olwin let out a sigh as he glanced around the wide and spacious room. He'd been waiting for fifteen minutes. After the book had awoken he'd quickly made his way back to the inner layer, and to the prime court, where he'd been placed into a waiting room and told that he would be seen too soon enough.

Honestly, he'd expected more, especially since the book had only ever opened early once before and that had led to the end of the fourth court and the beginning of the second divine war, so he was surprised that he was being made to wait. Truthfully, he didn't even want to be here, but if he had stayed in that mortal realm then they would have sent someone to him and unlike most others of the court, he still had value for mortal life and didn't do things so carelessly. Why take a shortcut that could kill a few thousand people when he could just take the long way round. It wasn't like he would the dying anytime soon, he was immortal after all.

There was also the fact that they might have sent her after him, and creator knew, that would not end well. He was always in control of his emotions as was expected of a neutral ascended, but if she showed her face, then anger and rage would take hold. He didn't know if he would be able to defeat her, but he would try.

The only reason he hadn't done anything was because of his control, but that was a thin wall that could crack at the mention of her name and would mostly break at her presence. It was well known not to speak it near him, and he was thankful for that, but even so, he wanted to get this over and down with so he could leave.

"Olwin?"

Olwin had known who it was before she had even appeared, but it was poor manners to speak or react as though he had. He turned to see his niece.

She was the spitting image of her mother, though, unlike Shadra, Lumin eyes and hair glowed with the light of twilight and she was still a teenager.

"Are you the one who'll be seeing me," He said, only half-joking. While she was only half ascended, she was one of the youngest to have ever reached the stage, and would probably reach full ascended at a younger age than he had.

She let out a laugh. "As if. Let me guess there making you wait? The moment your book awoke we all felt it and the court was set alight with rumors."

"You know how it is," Olwin said. "They won't show me the same respect they'll show the others. After all, I'm a rulebreaker."

She scoffed. "We all break rules, they just don't like the fact that you were chosen as Mendev's heir but then reject him. I still remember the look on Mother's face."

"I don't understand why she was surprised," Olwin said, remembering the look of shock his mother had shown when he'd rejected the black thorn throne. "Im completely neutral, I've always been neutral and will remain neutral for as long as I live."

"Yeah," Lumin said, a dreamy look appearing on her face. "But just imagine the power you would have had. Olwin, lord of the Freydlands, King of The Fortear."

"And here I thought you knew me," Olwin said. "I don't care much for power. I only became full ascended so that mother would stop pestering me and I could reject father's offers without fear of him killing or corrupting my friends."

Lumin opened her mouth to reply but was cut off as a large bell sounded, followed by the two large doors to his right opening.

Olwin rolled his eyes at the theatrics.

"Olwin El-"

"It's just Olwin," He said, cutting off the divine servant. "Just Olwin, I'm not part of the family anymore. Now lead the way so we can get this over with."

The divine servant nodded and vanished. Olwin turned to Lumin and gave her a smile and nod before he too vanished.

Seconds after Olwin had left, Lumin smiled. She hadn't thought he would fall for it, but to her delight, the shroud had worked perfectly.

With a thought, her entire form blurred, and where once had stood a teenager with eyes and hair for twilight, now stood a naturally tall woman with black and white eyes. A long gown reached the floor and trailed behind her.

Vecra let out a chuckle and opened a portal to her personal space, using the shroud she'd used to fool Olwin to hide her action. A small portal of black mixed with white opened and Vecra let out a sigh of relief as the face of the real Lumin appeared, along with the rest of her body.

"I have to say you look far better like this," Vecra said. "And far less annoying."

Lumin couldn't respond as her entire body was trapped within a sphere of ice, but even so, she could still hear and see everything around her, she was half ascended after all.

"Don't worry," Vecra whispered. "Just a few years then I can let you go."

The portal closed, just as Vecra finished her sentence.

"And devour you whole."