107. Invitations (2)

(Sorry about the late release. I put the wrong date on the delayed publish and did not realize it until today.)

The couple left the duke's manor and started to head towards the Lyon's manor. As they walked he had already spotted people from two of the other nobles in the city running away to go and report what they had seen with their own eyes. They wanted to verify what was reported to them. They were not trying to reach out and find out everything they could about Shannon to include sending messages to the people that they had planted in his town since the last noble meeting.

Novum knew that this was coming and he wanted to make sure that Shannon was partially protected from the scrying that was going to come towards her. He was not to worried about himself since he was pretty cautious all the time and his manor was well protected from things like that. He did not discuss anything like plans outside of the manor. He also assumed that the system would protect their initial conversation to protect the realm as a whole. He would slip out and talk to the old lady and work something out with her. Hopefully she had calmed down since one of her granddaughters lived at his manor with her teacher.

"Do you want to pick out your ring today or would you like to wait and see what catches your fancy?"

"What is the difference?"

"I mean did you want to go to a store and directly pick it out or have them design it or did you want to just look around and see if you found something you liked. I am going to have it enchanted either way I just did not want to get to far ahead of myself."

"I will keep an eye out today and if something catches my eye we will get it and if not we can come back in a few days and start deliberately looking."

"I can guarantee you that if you go with the Lyon's ladies you will be in at least one jewelry store if not all of them. And they will take you into the ones that have the best quality as the best prices. They might be nobles but they were common people that were elevated to nobility and they are good people."

"Aureus seemed like she was very down to earth. Although she also looked at me like I was a snack."

"Can't say that I blame her for that." He nudged her a little to the left. "It is that way." They continued down another side street and Novum felt that something was wrong. That was when he spotted a guy that he knew did not belong on this street. So, now he had a choice to make, did he left Shannon deal with the issue and show what she was capable of or did he hide her strength.

Novum leaned down and whispered to her. "There is a guy up here that is going to try and attack you. Would you like me to handle it so that they underestimate you later or would you like to take care of it and show them you are not to be messed with?"

"Oh, that is a good question. Let's keep them guessing for now."

"Okay." A few seconds later the man stepped out of the crowd on Shannon's side and had a small dagger in his hand. As soon as he got in range he lunged forward. Novum casually moved Shannon out of the way and grabbed the man's wrist. The man immediately knew that he was in big trouble. Novum felt the bones in the man's forearm start to give so he adjusted his grip and twisted.

The twist was enough that not only did it drop the man to his knees to try and relieve the pressure but it was not enough. There were two loud popping sounds and both the man's elbow and shoulder came out of place. The man screamed in pain and quickly passed out as it was to much for him to take. "Did you have to hurt him that bad?"

"I needed to make sure that any and all thugs around this area saw this to ensure that they understood the severity of attacking or even threatening you. And they were not breaks they simply came out of the joint. The clerics will take care of it with minimal after affects. There is the possibility that he has trouble with it for the rest of his life but that is not a lot and he should not attack someone."

"I guess you are right in that he should not attack someone. Honestly I am surprised that he passed out that quick, they should have sent someone a little stronger to attack me since they knew that I was with you. What kind of idiot would do that kind of thing?"

"There is always the possibility that he was not sent and that he thought I was an easy target because I was a noble. A lot of the nobles in this area are inherited titles and not earned titles. The Lyons Family have earned the title of Earl. Earl Lyons was a knight that was granted the title of Baron for his actions and then he was promoted to Earl as the same time that I was promoted to Baron."

"And I am guessing that an inherited title is someone that gets it from their daddy without doing anything."

"In a way yes but that is not always the case. And another thing to keep in mind is the title had to start somewhere. The Earl's title is hereditary but given their upbringing there is little doubt in my mind that either of the children would be capable of earning the title if the situation presents itself. If I am not mistaken there is also a clause that if the holder of the family title does not make any significant contributions every few generations that the title will be downgraded and eventually stripped."

"That makes sense. But what signifies, significant contributions?"

"In this day and age mostly money. The current head of the family will donate a lot of money to the duke of king and get them to concoct some obscure reason for the title to be retained."

About that time the Lyon's family guards came running up. "Greets Baron Novum. Would you like us to take responsibility for him or turn him over to the city?"

"If you guys would do it. Just inquire as to which noble he is working for and then get him healed up. I will leave the rest of it up to the Earl when he gets around to it."

"Of course Baron." The guard gave him a deep bow of recognition.

"He seems to be pretty impressed by you."

"I impressed a lot of the guards when I saved Aureus. It was not an easy thing to pull off and they respect me for it."

"Let me guess you did it and it involved a huge feat of strength and then you handed it off to someone else and they had trouble?"

"I, yeah, how did you know that?"

"I read your books remember. Chances are that, well let's just say that chances are good that something like that happens to you."

"Yeah okay." Novum shrugged his shoulders and the couple kept walking. This time Shannon also noticed that a lot of the street urchins that would be here were a lot better dressed than the rest of them. Novum was right they were here watching the nobles and in this case Novum since he was a noble visiting a noble.

The guards at the gate just waved them through like he was part of the family and did not even question who Shannon was since she was with Novum. More than likely Aureus told them he would have a guest. When they got to the house Aureus and her mother were waiting on them.

When they got close Novum pretty much got shoved out of the way as the two noble ladies pounced on Shannon. Shannon was caught off guard by the beauty of the women as well as the way that they greeted her. She was not expecting so common of a greeting.

Aureus started. "Shannon this is my mother. Mother this is Shannon, Novum's fiancé."

"Wait you said mother? I thought she was your older sister. I mean wow."

A little bit of color actually flooded her cheeks as she was hit by how authentic Shannon was in her comment. "You flatter me. What did the big lug with the stupid look on his face due to deserve you?" The three ladies laughed at him.

"Hey." Then he shrugged his shoulders and went to talk with the Earl.

"Now, let me get a good look at you. You are so beautiful. I know just the lady to take you to for a dress. She is a little higher priced that some of the others but her quality is well worth it."