Unstable Walls and a friendly Grandpa

"Unlikely." The Duke didn't really believe it. "If Luminos had an earthly mage appear, we would know about it. The royal family has power, but they cannot hide something like that for long."

"Your Grace, do you remember the information we got about some foreigner girl visiting the capital that we got some time ago? I asked some people who were there and not only did she say her name is Myra, but she also told them she came from beyond the sea of nightmares."

"Didn't that examination confirm her name is Aer though?" Now with all these things brought up, the Duke wondered who this girl really was.

"It's not like there are no other divine bloodlines in other kingdoms, it's just that none are known close by. She might very well have a name of Aer and not be part of our royal family."

Duke Pharrell pondered over the situation for a moment.

"Whoever she is, if the royal family supports her, she is not someone we should offend without a very good reason."

--

Not far away in a waiting room, that now seemed to have an extra-large sized 'window' where a wall had been not too long ago, several young people were having a discussion.

"How did you even break that wall?" Nell furiously whispered to Myra. "Do you want to make them angry or something?"

"Oh shutup! Who would know that testing those fortification runes juuuust a tiny little bit would make them crumble? It's just shoddy craftsmanship that caused this. I'm sure it would have fallen apart even if I did nothing, … in a century or two."

"Is that why you told them it broke on its own? Your acting is horrible, who would believe that a wall would just collapse on its own! They likely think that you are here to cause trouble now."

Their argument did not last long, as after a few minutes the servant came back to bring them some refreshments. It was easy enough to see, that he was rather nervous after the little mishap with the wall. As if to confirm Nell's words, the servant fled the room shortly after he dropped off the tea and biscuits.

They just wanted to focus their attention on the tea and food, when the door opened yet again and a grey haired old man with a short beard came inside, closely followed by a woman. Myra immediately recognized the woman as Lady Amelia, who she had already met at one of the shops in town. The older man did resemble the woman somewhat and had the looks of a nobleman, along with a certain air of authority.

"Welcome to our Heliphos estate your highness. I don't think we have met yet. I am Duke Pharrell the current leader of our Heliphos family. This is my niece Amelia."

"Nice to meet you! I'm Myra." As she had never interacted with nobility like this before, to Myra it was not very different from meeting their neighbours in the village. Just the cookies and tea were a lot better.

"Princess Myra, if I may be so blunt and drop the formalities and just ask you right away. What brings you to our home today? I heard you were looking for my niece?"

Pharrell was growing up with nobles all around him. Not only would he usually recognize someone's intentions, if they were sincere or wanted to use underhanded means, but he also quickly realized that Amelia and this princess Myra knew each other.

He did not have the time to ask her about the situation in detail before and all Amelia could tell him was that she never met such a princess. Obviously this did not seem to be true.

'What did Amelia do to anger the girl? Why would she even lie to me that she didn't know the princess?'

If it were just something harmless, Amelia would never lie to him, Pharrell obviously expected that stubborn and headstrong niece of his to have caused some more trouble. Even worse, his skill at reading other nobles completely failed him this time.

'It's good that this Duke person said to drop the formalities, I wouldn't know the proper way to speak this strangely anyways.' Myra could not help thinking about how great it was, to not be bothered by all of this noble stuff while talking. She smiled at the Duke and tried to explain the reason for their visit.

"Grandpa Pharrell, I came today to ask for advice. As I've met sister Amelia before while shopping, I hoped that she would have some answers or ideas that could help me."

Myra seemed happy with this discussion so far. 'The old people in the village always seem happy when I call them grandpa, as he said he doesn't like formalities I'm sure he is the same. Calling his niece sister also seemed like a good idea. I heard those townsfolk are rather proud and being young and pretty is very important to them.'

She did not realize the slight frowns on the faces of her friends. Nell's eyebrows even twitched slightly. Even the Duke frowned a little bit for a moment, but as he was really good at acting, he soon smiled even more.

'What grandpa Pharrell! Does she want to make fun of me?' it became really hard for the Duke to keep his calm and fake a smile. He drank some tea to relax and to have some more time to think about what to do next.

'As expected something happened and now she's here to cause trouble. Is she here to blackmail us?'

"What kind of advice are you looking for? Do you need help with runeworking?"

Many people came to their clan to request help with runework. Heliphos' rune masters were known throughout the empire and even beyond.

"No thanks, I'd rather make my own runes, that way they don't fall apart when I do some training or something." Myra quickly answered without giving her words much thought. Honest to the extreme, without any hidden intentions, Myra never had any hidden meaning or any bad intentions. The Duke however didn't know that.

'I wasn't sure before, but she's definitely making fun of me! You'd rather make your runes yourself? Do you think a little kid like you could compare to the skill of even a little apprentice of our great rune masters?!' Pharrell was livid. If he had seen the variety of expressions on his niece's face who stood a little bit behind him, he might have known there was something odd, but used to the twisted words of other noble families he would never have believed that Myra was just honest.

"I am actually looking to start a business. Some sort of trading company or something. As I have no experience with any of this I wondered if you might help us getting started."

'He likely needs some time to think about it. Maybe I should not just stare at him and wait for some answer that might be rude.' she picked up one of the biscuits and wolfed it down quickly.

"These things are really yummi. They are even better than the ones you find at the market square."

Myra tried really hard with starting some small talk, but she was not really good at it and instead of helping the situation it just got even more tense.

Seeing the 'princess' Myra and her way of speaking with her uncle was at first shocking and then just outright amusing to Amelia. Unlike Duke Pharrell she had a bit of an idea, that this girl was not at all trying to cause problems, but looking at her uncle's face, it didn't look as if he realized that as well.

She quickly sat down next to the Duke close to Myra and started 'taking over' the conversation.

"What kind of business do you want to start little sister? There are many types of business and all have their own requirements and benefits. Of course I don't know about all the different varieties one might find. Some specialize in raw resources, while others trade finished products. Some sell a service while others make their profit with items."

"Oh, I see. I don't know about any of that yet. I guess it would be a good idea to start something related to smithing though? I am good at it."

"If you want to open a business that is related to metalwork, then I am sure we can find someone to help you with the basics of setting it up. As for making it become successful, you will likely have to hire a lot of workers and skilled craftsmen. While I don't doubt your own skills, I am sure with your standing you will have other things to do and cannot focus on making items all the time."

Duke Pharrell just stared at his niece and the ongoing conversation. This princess didn't even frown, let alone use Amelia's disrespectful way to cause a ruckus, instead she happily chatted about various topics related to opening a blacksmith shop and seemed to ignore him, as if she was stopping by at a friend's place to chat.

Where did all the respectful titles and forms of address go to? Why would she discuss business with his niece, when the leader of the family was sitting right next to her? He didn't understand how this situation turned out all wrong, but he was smart enough not to interrupt when his niece obviously had a much better grip on this situation than he had.

After several hours of discussion, not only about business, but also about small talk like clothes, jewelry and the latest fashion trends in Silverspire, this group of youngsters finally took their leave, after Amelia promised them to send some experienced craftsman over to help them with their shop.

In return Myra gave her a hug and then handed her a little box as a gift.

"Thanks for the help sister Amelia, thanks for having us grandpa Pharrell!"

When they were finally alone again, Pharrell looked as his niece with an strange expression.

"Would you be so kind and tell me what just happened? I still don't really understand what is going on."

"Well … how should I phrase it." Amelia didn't know what to really say.

"Don't even start mincing words, since when did you start to be mindful of what you said to me? If teaching you etiquette would have worked in the past, I would likely have a lot less grey hair than I have now! Out with it and say what's on your mind!"

"Well uncle. If you want the simple answer, then the thing is that with your etiquette and noble ways of speech, you really missed that this princess Myra does not seem to have any idea about formalities at all. If you look at it from a different perspective, she likely wanted to be nice and get close to us."

"She also seems to have an excellent rune master in her family, who would likely see even my master as nothing more but an apprentice. He told me not too long ago that if Myra, … well it seems to be princess Myra now, had more power, her skills would likely even dwarf his. She's still so young, when she grows up she will surely be an exceptional rune master. If even the young girl has such great skills, I don't even want to know about the person who taught her."

"Asking her if she needed help with making runes was probably more of an insult than the answer she gave you was. You were lucky that she did not take offense. She seems to be a really carefree and friendly kid."

Finally Pharrell realized what had gone wrong and where he was mistaken. His stunned expression quickly cleared up and he nodded. "So that's how it is. I see."

Before Amelia left the room, she could not resist making yet another comment.

"Just hope she doesn't tell everyone at the academy how the friendly grandpa Pharrell helped her out with her little shop!"

Only after Amelia was out of the room, did the Duke of the Heliphos family realize what type of calamity had just visited their estate. "We're going to be the laughingstock of the town for a whole month if that ever gets public."

Curious what gift the little princess had left them, he opened the box to take a look. His eyes quickly turned as large as saucers and he closed the box again and took a look around, as if scared that anyone could have seen what's inside.

While Duke Pharrell was no rune master himself, being the head of a clan that was known for its rune working skills he had an exceptional understanding of runes. He could quickly tell, that the little harmless looking pieces of metal inside the box, would far outclass any runes even their best experts could forge.

"Maybe having this little kid calling me grandpa isn't as much of a calamity as I had expected." he smiled happily, before he took the box and rushed off to their treasury to make sure this gift they just received would not be stolen.