Alexander finds his way to the bathroom. Past the center stair way on the first floor towards the back side of the manor. The bath isn't necessarily tucked away but acts as a shared space. When it isn't being used by the staff, it's being used by the family.
Alexander passes the kitchen and dinner hall on the way aswell as several maids dutifully cleaning the property. The manor was usually far calmer than today but it was a big occassion. The staff has lots to do preparing the carriages for the trip in the morning and making sure the few guards attending will have what they need as well.
That also means Alexander makes it to the bath without many questioning looks.
The bath room was seperated into two; a large tub that spans twenty feet in length and width, and an area to clean your body. It seems like something someone would find in a community bath house. However instead of wood the bath house was comprised of a faded white and grey stone.
Alexander knows the manor has a rich history, far before their family was forced into this poor region, it was a fronteir for war.
Hundreds of years before the Vi Terande family moved in and during the first few generations of the Valrahn Kingdom before it had become an Empire; it was a territory belonging to another kingdom. A kingdom known for their shared culture as they customarily bathed together.
The kingdom might be dead but this manor remained over the centuries.
Alexander feels the porous stone, that was mined from the mountains behind the estate, underneath his feet as he begins stripping. He tosses his clothes in a basket by the enterance feeling the steam hit his face.
The water was always warm from the natural mana stones residing within the bath something Alexander will miss at the academy.
'So much has happened in the last few weeks. Duke is stuck in training. My Father seems to despise me. Verila.. Verila is something else.'
Alexander sighs and throws a pre-filled bucket of water over his head covering his angular features and chiseled chest. He quickly washes his body rubbing off the weight of the last few weeks. The grime that collected on his body as he worked harder than he ever has.
Alexander still feels the coursing violent energy under his skin flowing through his body. A reminder that he succeeded his tiptoe of death and life.
'I'm now a mage, An apprentice, ten years behind my peers but a mage nonetheless.' Alexander thinks to himself.
The last two weeks runs through his mind as he contemplates the future. Alexander sinks into the warm bath feeling it rise to his chest as the water washes away his stress and thoughts under it's pressure. Another sigh leaves his mouth as he sinks deeper and deeper into the water.
Somehow he didn't die. Somehow his work paid off and now. Now it was only forward. However in this moment of rest all he can think of and feel is that coursing energy now flowing through him.
And the coursing energy he saw around him when he first awakened. Now his vision is faded. The mana that lives in the air is just a buzz under everything he sees, but as he looks deeper into the water it clears. A faint red buzzing under the water coursing through the mountain stone as if it was alive.
Tap Tap.
Alexander feels two fingers tap his shoulder. He slowly turns back a smile on his face when he sees her. Although he knows immediately from the touch of her fingers.
"V. You're back!" Alexander looks into her black eyes smiling beyond the mask. Verila waves the mask off and she smiles lightly. Verila takes a small peek beyond the steam and water down at Alexander.
He quickly crosses his legs. "No peeking, How was the trip?"
Verila shrugs and passes him a note.
"I heard you were missing? What were you up to alone?"
Alexander smuggly smiles. "I haven't even told Duke yet, but I guess you got to me first."
Alexander feels the warm coursing energy under his skin and through his flesh and bone flow. He pushes it through him channeling it to his fingers. He presses his pointer finger and middle finger into his thumb and hold it between the both of them.
A faint purple energy expresses from his finger tips into a small ball of energy eating the steam between the both of them. The air clears around them until it dissipates.
Verila opens her mouth in shock and slaps him on his back. She had thoughts that maybe there was more to the experiments than just discovery. She heard rumors of his mysterious mana signature. Unheard of Torres said, but what does that matter if they didn't know the rune.
'He did it. By himself. By himself.. Why didn't he ask me?' Verila thinks to herself before remembering her position. She is still at the beck and call of her master. Her shock quickly turns into a frown.
The steam makes it hard for Verila to write, but she does so anyway.
"You could have died." Verila looks at Alexander as he reads the note. His naked body in her full few. That strong chest she missed laying beside in the days she was gone.
Alexander sees the worry on her face and he smiles trying to assure her. Knowing how close he had gotten. " I didn't. I was safe. I had the right potions and did not rush. I am okay."
Alexander begins to get up out of the bath moving past her. Verila turns slightly trying not to see too much, not when she's this frusterated, she can't let him weazel out of it.
She taps him again as he tries to walk away and pushes another note into his hands.
"It doesn't change the fact you could have died and no one would know anything. Not duke. Not me. Then if we find you dead somewhere what could we say."
Alexander huffs and turns to her now wrapped in a towel his chest glowing under the orange light in the bath room. "V. I didn't die and I had no one to tell. I've never had anyone to tell. My father looks down on me just as much as the rest of the world. Mother she's stuck more as a servant for him than his wife. You and Duke.. Still work for my father at the end of the day."
Alexander sees Verila's face fall as he lets the final words leave his lips.
"I'm sorry It's not that I don't trust you. You weren't here and You couldn't help me even if you were, because the moment my father calls. You have to follow, V." Alexander sighs and dries himself off.
Verila doesn't write anything more. She can't write anything more and she just feels the hurt of her mistakes. Verila thinks of the moment that put herself here secretly wishing she could take it all back. However there is no going back.
They both made their decisions and going forward Alexander will make more and more he can never take back.
Alexander thinks about how harsh the things he said were as he puts on a fresh change of clothes. Alexander doesn't know what is in store going forward. However he wants her to be apart of it.
"Hey V, I'm sorry. I promise…" He slowly turns behind himself to find that she is no longer there. Alexander looks among the shadows focusing his sight, hoping to see a trace of her but she is already gone.
Alexander sighs hoping he can apologize to her tonight.
'The Academy is my only hope to save her and myself from this world. From this empire that feeds on the egos of nobility to sustain itself. My father is only lucky that I am not strong enough to take his place from him. When I have the resources of the Academy no one will be able to stop my wrath and spite from acting on the world.'
Alexander loses himself in thought as he moves his way to his room before dinner.
'The first step is to create a foundation of power within the academy. Using anything at my disposal. I will have to fight the prejudice of being the shame of the empire, but that will only be for so long. I will catch up to their level, exceed them and then exert power over those that looked down on me. The second step is to create a force of my own. Loyalty is power. Duke is a start. I will make him stronger than any knight.
Whatever it takes to never be looked down on again.'
Alexander stumbles into his room and sits down at his desk. He takes out his research journal and begins to lay out a plan. A plan to develop himself, his control, his power and develop a force to act on the world. So he is never in a place where he is looked down on again.
"V. Mother. Ana. Duke. I will grow strong so no one can control us. Look down on us. Where even the Empire fears, respects me, bows to me."
Alexander chuckles as he flicks a small orb of mana from his fingers into a nearby lamp watching it eat away a piece of the glass and then dissapearing from existence.
'Just the beginning.'