Chapter Eight

~

He's been waiting so long, so long, ever since his mother got her pain this morning. They, him, and the Helstea, have spent the entire day waiting for the baby to arrive. His father was allowed to be with his mother, as support.

The baby was already born about thirty minutes or and hour ago, he didn't keep track, but he did hear the baby crying. He shifts on his knees, impatience for the door to open.

It feels like forever until the door to the nursing room finally opens.

Alistair staggers to his

feet, his legs tingling after sitting on them for too long. But he can't wait to go inside. His

mother is waiting. His new sibling is waiting.

His mother was looking tired, sitting in her chair, when he was finally allowed to to enter. She's holding a bundle of

blankets in her arms as if it's something precious, and Alistair realizes that somewhere

within those folds is his baby sibling.

"Good evening Ma," he greets excitedly, "Da!"

"Good morning." She smiles. "Come meet your little sister."

Alistair nods eagerly, with a bright smile on his face, nearly tripping over.

His mother lowers the bundle of blankets that contains his baby sister so that he can see,

"She's so tiny!" he giggled,

His mother smiles. "You were this tiny once, too."

He stares at the

baby in absolute wonderment. He never held a baby or has ever been this close to one in his past. He never had an interest, but things were different now. This baby is his sister, he is her older brother. It was his duty to protect her, until the end of time.

"She's pretty"

His new little sister has

long eyelashes that brush his little cheeks, and a small, rounded nose that Alistair felt absolutely compelled to kiss. "Can I carry her?"

"Just be gentle when you do," his mother says, nodding.

Technically, Alistair reaches out with one hand and tenderly runs his finger along the curve

of his baby sister's cheek. She's so squishy and soft, and warm, Alistair thinks.

He slides his arm at around the back of her neck, supporting her. He took his another arm and carried the rest of her body. He pulled her towards him and his mother slowly left go.

Thanks to his training, carrying his little sister was like carrying a spoon to eat.

Alistair with a familiar grin, moved towards his sister and gently bumped her little nose with his, as if he has done it before, a thousand times.

"Hey Princess. Hurry up and grow up so we can train together. I have a couple of trick to teach you." he whispered, but since he was next to his mother, she heard him and his father generally has enhanced senses.

"Like father, like son." Alice sighs in defeat.

"What's her name?" Alistair asked, bumping her nose again.

"Since it's a girl, your mother gets to name her."

"Why" Alistair asked absent minded,

"It's a deal we have when I was pregnant with the you and Arthur. We were conflicted on the naming your two, so we decided that I'd you and Arthur were girls I'd get to name you, but if we were boys, you fa-"

Surprised, Alistair looked at his father, "Wait? You named me and Arthur?" he whispered at a high tone.

"Yes I did and there's no need to look surprised."

Alice looked at her husband teasingly, "I, too was surprised with the names he came up with but Alistair and Arthur Leywin were just perfect" she smiled.

"Alistair, the one who repels men, a warrior's name. Arthur, meaning Bear Guardian or Guardian of the Bear."

"So what's my sister's name?" Alistair asked, looking at his mother.

"I was initially thinking of Aénor, but I like Eleanor. It's cute and simple. And she could be little Nora, or Ella."

"It's perfect, Princess Eleanor of the Leywin house." Alistair joked, "Ellie, hi. I'm your older brother, Alistair. It's nice to finally meet you."

---

Since they moved to Xyrus, the Twin Horns frequently visit them after their long adventures. It was about a week after Eleanor's birth that they visited again.

They were aware of Arthur's survival. Alistair straight up refused to pretend that his brother was dead and Alice agreed with him, Reynolds was out voted unfortunately. So the Twin Horns and the Helstea know of Arthur's survival but not where he was, that the Leywins kept secret. They had questions but decided that Arthur himself would tell of his survival or why he didn't need rescuing.

At first, when the Twin Horns visited, it was awkward and they felt a lot of guilt, thankfully Alistair managed to give them a little speech to cheer them up. It helped, but the guilt still lingered on.

When they arrived, Alistair and Reynolds were not home.

"Alice! Honey" Angela called out as she entered the house.

Normally Alice would have call out back, coming to receive her guest but all that greeted them was a loud pitch crying.

The Twin Horns winced, "Is that normal?" Adam asked.

"I'm not sure, I've never dealt with kids, let alone babies." Durden said closing the door behind them,

"Well then, let's go" Angela pulled Helen and Jasmine toward the screams of death.

Jasmine instantly started panicking, she knew she wasn't great with kids and she was still feeling guilty about Arthur, despite Alistair constantly assuring her.

Helen must have seen her internal panic, because she nudged Angela and looked at her, communicating through their eyes.

"Fine" the blonde whined, "You can go"

Jasmine wasted no time going back downstairs to the rest of her party.

"She needs to socialize"

"She will at her own pace and honestly Angela, I don't consider talking to a crying baby socializing."

"Anyone is better than no one."

...

The tension between them was so thick Alistair could almost taste it on his tongue, could almost hear the crackle of electricity in the air.

He

felt his focus being drawn forward, lulled by the bewitching chant of his mana, zeroing on

his masters form as it tried to take control and unleash its chaos. Unfortunately Alistair wasn't going to do that anytime soon, but he welcomed its heavy presence in his two

hands, ready for battle.

Alistair sprung forward, fast as a bullet, his master was already in movement, blocking his

punch expertly. There was a blast sound as Alistair gave his next blows, his master was dodging him, not easily, he had to coax his body with his mana just to remain unharm.

Through

his laser focus on each and every moves his master made, Alistair could see expertise, years of

training to achieve near perfect form. His strikes were precise, calculated; where he lacked

forced, he compensated in finesse, despite the fact he was retire for so many years.

Alistair was more than capable of defending his ground, repelling and dodging charges after

charges while trying to make his own with mixed success.

They danced around each other for a while, panting and grunting with effort, before Alistair felt his guard was starting to come down; his body still wasn't to fighting while using mana. He was hoping he would quickly get the grasp of it.

Alistair knew it was his chance to make a move that would no doubt make the fight even more fun, because it was obviously over for him.

When an opening presented itself, Alistair smirked – maybe a bit dementedly – and suddenly increased his mana usage and cast a simple spell.

{Terra Emission}

His master did not bother to shielded himself because it too late, instead he decided taking a step back and hit the earth balls sent to him.

In that split second he took his eyes off Alistair, the boy used this opportunity to get one punch in, so he used another spell...

{Areoportation}

Teleporting in front of his master, instead of behind him. There was a huge chance his first spell would hit them, but hmhe wanted just one punch to the old man.

Although before he could blink, the old man grabbed him and shield him from his first spell. He didn't even wince when he got hit.

"Why did you do that for?!" Alistair asked, as he was being placed down.

"You do realize that you could have gotten injured by that spell, badly injured!" Reign snapped, "I don't know about you but I'd lik- I doubt your parents would be happy with my bringing your half-dead body home."

"I-"

Reign school his face and with a cold tone, he dismissed Alistair; "Class is over. It's time for you to go home." he walked away.

'Did I do something wrong?'

...

Alistair somethings walked home instead of using the hired carriage he rode. Too sometimes clear his mind about a past memory that awakened itself during training or to sometimes appreciate the moment before it dies.

Tonight though, he's thoughts where about his training session and master. Did he release accidentally some of his killing intensity? Maybe his master felt his chaos magic, but he did feel a thing?.

Maybe he should start socialize with people. After all he barely knows anyone outside his family, the Helstea and The Twin Horns.

"Alistair?" some honeyed voice called out to him, pulling him back to reality.

"Jas?"

Indeed it was the black head girl, with those cayenne eyes of hers. They remind him of blood, his blood. His blood that left his body as they be-

"It's Jasmine, not Jas."

"It's Alai, not Alistair."

"..." Jasmine didn't answer, but Alistair kind of understood her.

He followed her where she stood by the bridge. In front of them was a Sunset; the same Sun, the same sky, different shades but similar to those he observed as a baby with his brother.

It was red, orange, made of yellow rays that hid in that ocean so dark

and deep that it reminded him of a someone.

"I love seeing the sky change its colors."

Jasmine observed the sky before nodding, "Beautiful" she agreed.

They sat in peaceful silence, until Jasmine looked at the little boy.

"You've grown a bit, and the air around you has grown."

"Yeah, and I'm eating twice as much food. Training always makes me hungry." he said, rubbing his stomach already feeling hungry.

"Yeah, I heard your dad and Mr Helstea finally got you a teacher you like."

"It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I suppose the wait paid off." he said, displeased the how long it took

"Who is your teacher?"

Alistair simply shook his head, "I'm pretty sure I not allowed tell anyone his name."

"I suppose that's fair."

"How's adventuring?"

"It's fine."

"No funny Adam stories? No dangerous wild unknown beast?"

"No, things have been slow and quiet."

"Wait for me to become an adventurer. You'll be hearing about me discovering a wild, unknown, and dangerous beast."

"Then I'll call your mother on you."

"Then that wild, unknown, and dangerous beast will look like a puppy compared to my mother, especially when she's angry."