Chapter 3:

  “Hello,” Eli said, very pointedly ignoring his father’s carriage that remained blocking one side of the thoroughfare. In response to his greeting the little girl’s head jerked up from where it had been trained on the ground. Probably making sure not to trip or stumble over any uneven stones as she carried her heavy load. As her head raised warm hazel eyes meet Eli’s.

  “Hello,” the word on her lips s both a whisper and a question.

  Eli wanted to help her, so he doesn’t bother to ask, he’s pretty sure he already knows what she’ll say if he offers her any assistance. So instead, he steps forward, slides some of the heavier, well-wrapped packages out of the basket on her back and into his arms, and begins to walk along side her.

  Aria gasped. “Mister, you don’t—”

  “That’s alright,” Eli cut her off. “You looked like you could use some help.” Eli let his mana run through his limbs. The fortification steadied him as he hefted his heavy packages, though it was a reminder of how small he still was. Even with reinforcement, he could definitely feel the burden in his arms. |Just how in the infinite abyss was this tiny girl hefting all this weight. Sure, there was a minor weight reduction rune on the bag, but it was not one of the major ones.

  For all his immense knowledge, he was still just a boy. A long way from his prime. How in the rift-formed abyss was the truly tiny little girl beside him managing. The girl was the same age as him, he knew, at least physically, but her obviously thin frame and hunched stature had her looking more like a five-year-old than seven.

  “I’m fine,” she said, reaching feebly to take the packages in his hands from him.

  “Yep, totally fine,” Eli sidestepped her attempts before settling back in beside her. “So, where are we heading to next?” He asked. The girl tried one more attempt to reclaim the burden from him, but his effortless evasion had her pressing her lips together in the most adorable frown of resignation instead.

  Besides, Aria thought, the boy looked highborn and there was no reason to offend one of them. The horror stories she’d been fed by the townsfolk about the nobility and their temperament were reason enough not to insist on arguing with the boy. Besides, he really was helping, and he seemed nice enough. For now. So, with her words caught between refusal and survival, she chose what she hoped was the safer option. Acquiescence.

  “Ari- Are you alright, miss?” Eli prompted, immediately correcting his near slip. He’d have to be more mindful about things like that. He hadn’t slipped up yet, but this wasn’t the first time he’d had to catch himself since he’d returned either.

  “Miss?” He asked. That was the second time he’d called her that, aria noted. Miss. Who did he think she was? The little lady of some high-town family? Eli just looked at her, a kind smile on his face, waiting… Waiting? Oh, right, he’d asked her a question.

  She stared, wide-eyed. After a long hesitation, she gave an embarrassed smile.

  “What dd you say, again?” She asked, he just grinned.

  “I had asked if you were alright,” he said, and she gave a tiny nod.

  “I’m alright,” she said, her voice quiet and nearly lost in the midmorning bustle of Mainstreet.

  “That’s great,” he enthused. “And where are we headed?”

  Eli watched as her light brown, freckled cheeks flushed a vivid shade of red before she squeaked out an apology and announced, entirely too loudly, “The Brewer’s.”

  “Ah, the Brewer’s Inn.” Eli stated pausing before he laughed and gently nudged her arm. “Hey, miss?” He said, his voice low and conspiratorial. “The inn is down that way,” he gestured to the intersection a few steps back and watched as the already flushed girl turned an alarming shade before stopping fully and ducking her head.

  This time, when she raised her eyes to meet his once again her cheeks were puffed out and her eyes watered in the most honest, comical pout Eli had witnessed in his lives. He laughed so hard that Aria was forced to join in. They bumped into each other in the way that friends sometimes do, the hysterics overwhelming both of them enough to let down their guards. Even if it was only for a moment.

  The laughter was a good distraction for Eli. It helped him to keep his mind off the moment that he and Aria had brushed arms. He’d felt it then. Her mana signature. It was familiar, achingly so. It brought back memories of his final moments. Her tiny tendril of mana freely offered had been the last good thing he’d felt before the agony. She had been a constant companion through battle after battle, centuries of war. In al that time, her mana was like the sun. Close enough to feel, ever-present and radiant, but always out of reach. Never his. Like a fireplace through a window. The flickering warmth so familiar, the heat so close and yet forever denied by that invisible but very real barrier. She was a comfort from the past that never was, and a compass to the future that could be. The thought anchored his resolve.

  He knew one day, she would be bonded. Weather by choice or by force. She hadn’t deserved what had happened to her in his last life, but now wasn’t then. He had the power, and the knowledge to save them both the agony. As Eli looked ahead to the uncertain future, he was desperate to reforge, he knew there would be unimaginable trials and hardships, but this – Aria – it was one good thing they could both have. Each other.

  ~

  The tavern was their first stop. Eli knew the mornings were here were spent in evening prep for the kitchens. The tavern-keep, a no-nonsense woman with strong arms and a stronger voice, directed the meat delivery like one of the better military commanders Eli had served under. No fuss, no pleasantries, no real hassle either.

  Aria set the basket down, checked the order, sorted out and handed over the packages. Once the delivery was done, payment was made, and the service entrance was closed with a grunt, a nod, and a mumbled, ‘remind your pa we’ll have a runner by tomorrow’ directed at Aria. When Aria bent down to pick the basket back up, she was mortified to find that Eli had shouldered it before she even had a chance to protest.

  Yep, he confirmed to himself. This thing was painfully heavy. Literally. He squinted at Aria, waning to cast a spell that would allow him to peek at her mana channels and see if her body was somehow passively boosting her, or just how she was handling such a heavy burden. Unfortunately, the spell would require a quantity of mana that would be hard to manage discreetly with the state of his channels as they were. He’d always prided himself on his mana control, but now that he was back in a younger body, pre-expansion, he was beginning to realize that he still had a lot of work to do. He added ‘practice mana control with smaller mana channels’ to his ever-expanding list of things he needed to work on and mentally refocused on following his sheepish companion through the town.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  The townspeople noticed. Of course, people noticed. Nearly everyone they passed seemed at least somewhat familiar with Aria. For those who recognized him, who wouldn’t be curious about the Rodrigo heir carrying a basket nearly two thirds his size through the cobbled streets of Lira Town. Those who didn’t know who he was were still interested in just what this obviously well-born child was doing with the butcher’s daughter.

  Eyes followed them, Eli ignored them, Aria struggled to do the same. Her gaze darted constantly, shoulders tight and gait stiff. She hated being the object of so much attention, she had no idea how to act, or how to behave. However, for some reason the presence of the boy beside her made the scrutiny just a little more bearable. She sidled ever so slightly closer. Better the stranger you know, she figured, eyes darting this way and that.

  The next few stops blurred past. Eli occasionally filling the silence with questions, trying to learn more about her as they walked. Sure, he’d known who she was in his past future, but she was always reticent to share about her childhood. He’d never pushed, but he’d always been curious. Just who had she been, and now, more interestingly to him, who might she become? He’d started out easy, at least he’d thought he had.

  “How often do you make these deliveries?” He’d asked. Aria’s mouth thinned and she pulled ever so slightly away. Okay, he thought, touchy subject maybe? Though he couldn’t understand why.

  So, he shifted, digging into his mother’s many lessons on the art of conversation. They were lessons he’d fallen back on more than once over the centuries, and they’d once more proven their worth today. People loved to talk about themselves; the things that frustrate them, the things that they like. It was always easier to get someone talking when approaching with that in mind. It helped that he was genuinely curious about his tiny companion’s life.

  “Which stop’s your favorite? Who’s the nicest?” He asked.

  That earned a blink. Then, cautiously, she said, “Sometimes the confectioner gives me candy.”

  Eli grinned. “Lucky. I’m not really allowed to have candy,” he sighed wistfully, thinking of the mana dense beast-meat jerky he had tucked away as a dubious ‘treat’ and of the mana dense but flavour deficient ‘recovery bars’ he’d been forced to scarf down under his father’s watchful eye. He was convinced his father only gave them to him as a punishment when the taskmaster didn’t think he wasn’t pushing hard enough in training. With a sudden dawning horror, he remembered that he was back under his father’s attentive tutelage. For all that he’d considered the benefits of really taking advantage of training under a weapons master, he’d forgotten just who his instructor was. The Lord Rodrigo.

  “Hey, you okay? I can share my candy.” Aria’s quiet voice cut through Eli’s reverie. Her quiet generosity had a smile forming on his face. It was contagious enough that Aria mirrored it. It was small, but real. Progress, he thought.

  “That’s okay,” he said. “You should keep your candy, you’ve earned it. Tell me which candies are your favourite instead.”

  He coaxed her like that between stops, light, playful questions spoken amongst the press of people and commerce as the sun rose higher into the morning sky.

  “Say,” he began, “this is a long route. Do you like delivering?”

  Aria shrugged, though the action was more of a forwards twitch than anything else, considering the weight of the basket she’d managed to reclaim at some point.

  “You don’t like it then?”

  “It’s fine,” she said.

  “So, if you could quit, you would?”

  “Oh, no” she said. Her denial was quick and the accompanying head shake, emphatic.

  “Why not?” He probed when he saw she wasn’t going to say anything more. Aria looked at him, lifting her head just enough to peer up at him from underneath her eyelashes. He could see her lips tucked into her mouth, deliberation in her eyes. He didn’t coax her with words, just his steady presence, and as open a countenance as he could make it.

  “It’s nice to be outside,” she finally admitted. “And nobody cares when I go back,” Her voice was small, and her eyes were once more trained on the road ahead of her.

  Eli pinched his lips together, physically suppressing his need to ask follow up questions, but entirely unable to suppress his silent vow to get her out of her house as often as he reasonably - or unreasonably - could. He was a young lord. What was the advantage of knowledge, status and power after all if he couldn’t even bend circumstances to his benefit.

  They walked in silence for a while before the view around Eli became more familiar. He was slightly embarrassed to realize just how much of the lower city he had no real memory of outside of academic and economic knowledge. In in hast life, he’d not left the keep much before the Awakening Ceremony when he was ten. He’d never really had a real need to. After the ceremony he had headed off to The Academy, and then there was his additional training followed by a stint in the military before he took over the territory from his father. By then not only had the town changed appreciably, and even been elevated to a city, but Eli had even less incentive, and free time to simply wander the roads.

  Despite his circling thoughts, he couldn’t mistake the active change in the air that delineated the different sectors of Lira Town, and that wasn’t just a metaphor.

  The wards used in the different districts served different purposes. Here in the residential area, the wards served primarily cosmetic and security functions. He’d studied wards with his mother, and more at the academy. Much like enchantment, they were a form or runic manipulation.

  If Eli hadn’t had hyper-awareness ingrained into him through hard won experience in life and on the battlefield, he might have missed the change of scenery. Houses grew taller, shutters cleaner, streets broader. They were in the wealthier quarter now, pacing their way to high town. To be fair to his former – present? – self even if this was before he’d returned without the centuries of knowledge, and the decades of honed instincts; even if he’d been completely blind, his mana sensitivity would have told him more than the scenery ever could.

  ~

  The service door of a merchant’s house swung most of the way open before it abruptly froze. The young servant opening the door spotted him instantly and hurried to simultaneously fumble the door the rest of the way open while curtseying and offering Eli a formal address. In her haste, she did both adequately, though neither particularly well. “Young Lord Elijah,” she said, her head lowered, eyes on the ground. It was as though her words were an incantation.

  Aria froze, then gaped, and tried to offer the same polite address as the servant. It was not nearly so coordinated. Only the soft brush of his fingers against the back of her arm prevented her from attempting an even clumsier version of the maidservant’s actions.

  Eli flipped his social mask without pause. His posture became subtly straighter, his bearing more refined; years (decades and centuries) of gentility slid into place like the well-crafted bolt on an impenetrable vault. Immediately all of his emotions, and feelings were locked behind his well cultivated persona of nobility.

  He inclined his head just so, a subtle tilt that indicated acknowledgement of deference received without showing deference in response.

  The servant bent even lower, flustered by his response, and Aria followed the woman’s gaze both of their eyes now trained to the floor.

  “Rise. I’m simply accompanying my companion on her rounds,” Eli said. No need to call the master or mistress of the house, and heaven forbid they have offspring, he thought as he once more nudged Aria into action.

  Once the delivery was finished, Aria basically dove for the nearly empty delivery basket.

  “My- Lord,” she said, her voice breathy and almost desperate, the word lord squeaked out more than spoken. She hugged the basket awkwardly against her chest, her arms unable to wrap fully around it, her eyes still fixed on the ground. They departed the manor in tense silence.

  Later, in a quieter street, she muttered, “I heard there was a celebration when you were born. Rodrigo? You’re Lord Gabriel and Lady Sela Rodrigo’s son. This is your town. Your province.”

  “My family’s responsibility,” he corrected not unkindly. “But yes,” Eli scrunched his nose, glanced at the sky, then back at her. “Yes, I am Elijah Rodrigo.”

  Her head jerked up. “Then why? What?” She gestured around herself, nearly dropping the basket in her haste. He caught it and helped her resecure it. She was stiff and the entire time. “Why are you helping me?” She finally managed to ask.

  He stopped in front of her and looked steadily at her face, coaxing her lovely hazel eyes to meet his own. “You looked like you needed help.”

  When her eyes finally flicked up and caught his - searching, uncertain - Eli just smiled. His expression was relaxed, steady.

  She blinked, then gave the smallest nod. “I’ve only got one more delivery. If you want to come?”

  “Of course,” Eli said, and meant it. “By the way, I don’t think it’s fair that you know my name but haven’t given me yours.”

  “Oh!” Aria exclaimed, truly surprised and strangely delighted by the statement. She smiled again, and this one was so achingly familiar, even on her much younger face. The genuine expression had some of her tension ebbing away. Eli held his breath, wishing it was her instead.

  “My name is Aria.”