Faysal knew he made a mistake, the King of Ryse was strict and would not agree with Hyro’s lineage, let alone his magical aptitude, or lack thereof. Hyro should not have been allowed to live. He never agreed with the King's views though and knew someone at sometime had to try and make things at least a little more right. The ordeal with the Selk's made Faysal think of his sister and the problems and prejudices they faced as human and an Elf… It seemed like only yesterday but it was close to a year ago now.
“Harper, I know you love him but the king is getting more strict with interracial couples having children, this will put a target on your back, as you have seen. Many of the citizens share the king’s views sadly.” Faysal was standing in a dimly lit room, a magical light on an end table the only thing fighting back the darkness. At the table across from him was a female that had the same golden hair and blue eyes that Faysal had, she was a tad shorter but nearly identical to her brother. Tears were running down her face as she finished cleaning the tomato residue from her hair. Harper replied with a hint of anger and frustration in her tone, “We have talked about this Fay, Jeatrue and I are not going to change our minds, no jerks throwing food will change it either. The ceremony has been completed. We may have the means to afford it but still it was not cheap, we paid for the help because this is what we want. We already have more love for our child than we ever will for King Palmer.”
“Do not say such a thing out loud!” Faysal quickly interrupted his sister, “You never know where our great king may have eyes and ears, especially here in Ryse.” Harper gave Faysal a look of disgust and replied with heavy sarcasm “Oh yes, our GREAT KING, my mistake… Fay I don't know what to do but I promise you this child will be entering this world, hopefully a better version of it. Please help us.” Faysal was speechless for a long moment not sure how to help, then it came to him, the answer that he did not want, “I know a better place, go south, east of the Terraqua academy, I have a Colleague, Garry In Faras, a nice town there. I will send A message to him ahead of time so he knows to expect and help you get adjusted there.”
“It will be hard to leave home, to leave you but we do not belong here. Thank you Fay.” Harper replied.
“Someday, someday I will see you again and meet your child…”
“Enris.” Harper spoke the name allowed to the world for the first time with tears still rolling down her cheeks, “Enris Ramey.”
While thinking about his final moments with his sister, Faysal's mind drifted back to Hyro and his parents. Something about this newborn mothers plea reminded him of his sister and he could not take away that child, though now he has started regretting that decision. He thought he had the paperwork covered, labeled the boy as only ‘Half-elf, Half-Human’ as opposed to ‘Half-elf, Quarter-Human, Quarter-Dwarf’ which he was. Faysal even listed his magical aptitude as ‘basic self enhancement, power, endurance, perception,’ nothing too threatening on the power scale but enough to warrant at least an adventurers’ destiny. Everything he could think of to cover his own, and the Selk family’s tracks he did, and yet here he was, barely a month after he told the Selks’ to leave, he had a meeting with the Duke of the Village of Hazen, Duke Preft, no description of what the meeting was about just that he had to attend.
The Duke's estate was nothing compared to the King's castle in Ryse but that was to be expected, Hazen was only a fraction the size of Ryse, one of the smallest territories the King has control over in the area. Compared to all of the other buildings in the village, the estate easily towered over them and had about as many guards as were set for the town watch as well. Faysal entered the Large stone double doors and was being guided by three guards up a spiraling staircase; they stopped after only going one floor up though the staircase continued. Being led down a wide hall filled with pictures of past Dukes, Kings, Queens, everyone important in the known history, they eventually reached a wooden door blocking the entrance to the room at the end of the hall. Opening it the one guard spoke up “Wait in here, The Duke will be in to see you when he is ready.” Faysal could not help but chuckle to himself despite his predicament, his nurses would say something similar when he was not ready for a patient.
This was a fairly odd room for the type of meetings he is usually brought in for. There were still pictures hung up on the wall though all of these seemed to be of different, especially skilled individuals in Duke Preft’s employ, top rank soldiers, crafters, enchanters, weathermancers, healers, almost every group was accounted for. There was a large rectangular table with ten chairs, one at each end and lining the sides of the table; a few extra chairs were around the entrance to the room, presumably for guards. Knowing better than to take an end seat, Faysal took a seat in the middle of one of the sides and waited, and waited, and waited. After what had to be at least an hour and a half of waiting the door finally opened, Faysal’s stomach dropped as the uneasiness of having the most powerful man in town right in front of him set in. Duke Preft was a pretty normal man, Short brown hair messily tossed around, he was shorter than Faysal by at least a foot but had an intimidating presence to him. The Duke entered with four guards, two took the chairs by the entrance, the other two stayed behind him, and two other people both about as tall as the duke but covered in black robes with hoods that made most of their features indistinguishable.
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“Ah Faysal, I am glad you were able to make it” the Duke said, taking a seat at the end of the table, his two advisors took seats next to him opposite of Faysal. “When our Capital city of Ryse sent you to us I was told to expect great things from you but I must ask, do you know why I asked you to this meeting today?” Not being an idiot Faysal knew he should not admit to anything until he knew what the Duke knew so he simply responded, “I am sorry I have no idea why sir.” The Duke frowned at that response and spoke up again, “Let me ask you this then, do you respect me, our King Palmer in Ryse, the laws he has set forth that has made his kingdoms and the lands he rules over so great?” With that question Faysal knew his suspicions were correct, not that there was much he could do about it now, “Of course I respect you, our great king and all the laws he has set forth.” Grinning like a cat that caught a mouse the Duke stared right into Faysal’s eyes, “Good then you will tell me everything I need to know about a birth that took place about a month ago, one that has your signature on all of the paperwork, including the delivery report, I was not aware we had you doing anything besides assigning destinies.”
Over the next few hours Faysal was questioned doing his best to explain what he could without incriminating himself or the Selk’s in any illegal actions, it was clear by the questioning that someone that night had spoken up. It is not too surprising, but he was hopeful that telling the other medical staff there that night that he would ‘take care of the grunt work’ would be enough to stop any of them from thinking about the outcome. To Faysal’s somewhat relief almost all of the questioning was about the childs’ lineage, the fact that he was not just a ‘Half-elf’ like described in the paperwork and nothing really too deep in the magical aptitude. He was questioned why the aptitude test was done so soon, which Faysal responded the same way he did for the question regarding why he was there in the first place, ‘experienced medical staff are in short supply, especially at night in such a remote location as where the Selk’s lived, since he was there already he figured he would save a return trip and get everything taken care of at once.’ He tried to blame the mix up of races on the dark and late time as well until he remembered the Duke had access to his magical ability list, which includes race identification, a number of life sustaining abilities, a night vision spell and a magical flow sight. Faysal did his best to avoid topics where his own spells could get him in trouble, he tried to blame a lot of his faults on his incompetence and being tired, in hopes that would keep him out of trouble. And it just might have until Duke Preft started the final line of questions.
“Lastly I would like to hear your input on the boy's magical aptitude, surely with self enhancement a few destinies could have been better for the young, mix bread, than ‘Adventurer’.” Faysal was quick on his feet with this one, “The boy's parents requested it, there was a great adventurer in his lineage apparently and when there are not that many choices I like to let the parents help decide their childs’ destiny.” He lied.
“Understandable I suppose,” the Duke paused for a moment, one of the Cloaked figures whispering in his ear before continuing, “Oddly enough though another doctor that claims he was there that night swore to seeing something different, that the boy was different.” Faysal froze, he was finished, no lying or clever talks could help him now, the newborn and his family are nowhere to be seen, a sworn statement from another doctor means there were those with the magical ability to sense lies when he gave it, and one or both of the advisors were probably doing that here or now. Faysal looked down in defeat and just tried to avoid execution at this point, “I was weak, I apologize for my actions, I will accept any punishment you have for me, my Duke.” Head still lowered, Faysal hoped it was not too late for an apology. “So it is true then? This mongrel child had no magic lines, no magic in him at all?!” The Duke asked with a bit of worry and anticipation in his voice. “None that I was able to find Duke Preft.” Faysal wanted to say more but knew in this moment less would be better for him.
“Do you know where the boy and his family have gone?” The Duke pressed. Faysal noticed the other robed man move slightly, they were definitely spell checking his answer this time, at least he did not have to lie, “I am sorry my Duke, I do not know.” The Duke slammed his hand on the table, “Abyss! You are lucky you are so liked in this village, an execution without reason might start a riot and I can not very well tell everyone what you have done. Guards lock him in the dungeon, we will see how long he can survive down there, and start a search for this ‘Hyro Selk’” The Duke said tasting his name in his mouth for the first time,” I want him and his family dead or alive” Faysal was drug out, down many stairs to a dark, damp dungeon with only one thought left in his mind ‘Why did the Duke care so much about a magicless mixed breed…’
