Once we made it back to the house, I was surprised when we entered because it felt alive. The new staff were already working as Archie welcomed us back, again with more scrolls of parchment in his hand.

  “Welcome back, Trevor, Sir. We’ve had several more messages delivered to the house in your absence,” Archie said, handing over the papers.

  “Thanks, Archie,” I said, looking at them.

  I really didn’t understand what to do with them all. I didn’t want to attend any of the dinners or parties I was invited to, and I didn’t know any of these people, and couldn’t see any reason to see them.

  “Trev, could we speak with you privately for a moment?” Hari said.

  Both Jen and Liane wandered off, just leaving Milo and Hari there.

  “Sure?”

  “Come to the study. That’ll be best,” Hari said as he led the way.

  I caught sight of Micca in the library on our way, but only managed to give her a wave before we entered the office and Hari shut the door behind us once Milo was inside as well.

  “This is about all those messages you’re getting,” Hari said, pointing to the papers in my hand, while he took a seat.

  “I’m sure you have a lot more?” Milo said.

  I just nodded.

  “You can’t ignore all of them, not while we’re in the capital anyway,” Hari said, sounding serious.

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “You’ve accepted this house, you’re tied in royal politics, and you’re no longer hiding your connection to Lily or any of the other mythical creatures, so your days of hiding and being unnoticed are over,” Milo started.

  “We can help guide you—houses to avoid, events to avoid, and traps you may fall into—but you’ll need to do the bare minimum while we’re in the capital,” Hari said.

  “Can’t we just lie low and relax until we leave?” I said, looking between them.

  “No. If you do that, the political pressure will fall on Micca and the household. You might avoid it because other people want to avoid upsetting you, but it’s going to make their life harder,” Hari said.

  “How many messages do you have so far?” Milo asked.

  I pulled out all the ones I had. In total, I was up to twenty-three messages, and I placed them all on the counter.

  “Hmm, this one…” Milo said, pointing to it. “This one is not a message from a noble. It’s from the guild.”

  Hari reached out, taking it in hand, before reading it.

  “That’s concerning… It says here there are rumours that an adventurer party was attacked close to Grey Rock. It’s not clear exactly what attacked them, as they appear to be traumatised, but they’re saying it’s an unknown large black cat?” Hari said.

  “Lily?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t say it directly, but clearly they think it’s a possibility or they wouldn’t have sent this to you,” Hari said, passing the note to Milo.

  “When though? Why would she?” I asked, confused. If Lily attacked someone, would they even still be alive?

  “Hmm, I’m not sure. I don’t exactly know where they were; the information here is sparse.” Hari said.

  “We could probably ask Lily, but I would think if she attacked someone they likely wouldn’t have survived,” Milo added, confirming my suspicion.

  Looking to Crisplet, who was just observing, “Crisplet, you don’t know if Lily attacked anyone, do you?”

  Getting a single ember in response.

  “I’ll ask her,” I said. I couldn’t see any reason she’d attack anyone.

  “Right, the rest of these messages,” Hari groaned at how many there were in the stack.

  “Any of these large parties or large dinner events you can ignore. They are traps for the unprepared, and you are not ready for them at all,” Hari said, separating half the stack, as Milo went through and double-checked them all.

  “These private meetings over tea might be best, but we’d need to send someone with you, as there will be no chance we can leave you one-on-one with these people. If they don’t try to take advantage of you and bargain out favours, I’d be shocked; I feel like they’d be more likely to turn it from a rumour about Lily attacking people to reality,” Hari said.

  “There are some houses I think we’re best to avoid: any of the military houses, and likely House Valrith since they are tied to the Alchemist Guild, and that’s one we want to keep our distance from,” Milo added.

  While they went through the scrolls in detail, I took the opportunity to ask about the butchery room.

  “Also, I wanted to build a large butchery room. I have several large beasts we need to butcher and no proper room to do it unless I did it in the open, so a very large butchery room would be ideal,” I said.

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  “That will cost a bit of money, but we can certainly do it…” Milo said.

  “Can we sell some drake scales for money here?” I asked curiously.

  “Yes, we can,” Hari said simply. “We can get it built. It would likely turn out to be very useful long term if we come back here with any regularity, but getting back on topic.”

  Hari pushed three scrolls forward.

  “These three, I think these are best: House Fellwood, Fairmont, and Blackmere, with the latter being a crafting house. I think it would be useful to have ties with them for ingredients, but again we’d need to ensure you don’t go alone,” Hari said.

  Milo nodded. “The next thing we need to address is your health, and more importantly, those mana channels. I know you’ve been carrying on like nothing has happened, but they wouldn’t have healed properly yet, if ever. You’ve just not put enough strain on them to see it yet.”

  I was surprised at this. I had not really noticed anything mana-related in a while now, so I didn’t think that was a big deal.

  “We can have someone come out tomorrow and see him. I can have Archie organise it,” Hari said.

  “Wait, is that really necessary? There has been no pain,” I protested.

  “Yes. I understand you’ve bounced back, and it’s not causing you issues right now, Trev, but you need to understand if you don’t get them checked and ignore it, say in a year from now you have a rupture, you’re crippled for life. Wouldn’t you prefer to check it now?” Milo said.

  “I guess…” I was not convinced.

  “And the last thing we wanted to discuss with you was your surname. This is a bigger deal than you’re likely considering. This house may have been a gift, but it came with responsibility, and even if you don’t act like it, you’ve been brought into the fold of nobles whether or not you like it,” Hari said.

  “Do you have any idea what you’re after?” Milo asked.

  I thought about it for a moment. I knew what I wanted, and it was to try to combine both Lily and Crisplet into the name—something to honour them both.

  “Ashmoon,” I said finally.

  All three looked at me.

  “That’s very upfront about your connections,” Hari said.

  “Is there really any point in hiding anymore? It’s clear from all these notes, all these requests, all the rumours—everyone knows my companions. Why shouldn’t we lean into it?” I said, looking down at Crisplet, as really that was the only one I wanted approval from.

  Looking at Crisplet, getting a burst of sparks in confirmation.

  “That’s what I’m going with. Trevor Ashmoon,” I said firmly.

  I knew the name was on the nose. I knew it was not hiding anything and not leaving anything to the imagination, but if they want to drag me into capital politics, then this is what they get.

  Hari looked at me seriously for a moment before laughing. “You know what, fuck it. Let’s go all in. They want a boy with dangerous friends, let’s give them a boy with dangerous friends.”

  “We’ll still keep your cooking ability on the down-low. Right now, everyone thinks your companions are the main draw point, so let’s embrace that. It won’t last forever until they wonder why you have all these companions, but long enough,” Milo said with a smile.

  “I’ll send a letter off with the decision on your name, along with organising the chefs to come here for lessons. I’ll also organise the tea with the three houses, provided they are happy with someone accompanying you,” Hari said.

  “Anything else?” I asked.

  “No, that’s pretty much everything. We’ll need to decide how long we’re staying in the capital and what we’re going to do next, but we need a clearer timeline of all the things going on before that along with the rest of the team. We also need to get Micca set up in the shop,” Hari said.

  After that, we all left the study. As I made my way through the library to go upstairs to my room, I was disappointed to see Micca was no longer there.

  Entering my room. I was hoping Lily would be there so I could talk to her about the rumoured attacks. Part of me wondered if I should ask Sylverith to talk to her, but thinking it over more, it would likely be better that it came from me.

  Crisplet went straight for the hearth in the middle of the room; however, Lily was nowhere to be seen.

  “What do you think of everything that’s happening, Crisplet? Did I make the right choices?” I asked, sitting next to the fire.

  I got a burst of sparks, but I reached out to sense the mana, where I felt Crisplet immediately—confidence and pride, which was quickly followed up with excitement.

  “Yeah, it is exciting. I wonder what we’re going to do after we leave the capital?” I said.

  He spun in a spiral of sparks at all the possibilities.

  “Lily, are you watching right now?” I called out, looking around the room.

  Nothing.

  “What do you think of the new staff? I’m worried that they all come from noble houses. I don’t want people watching me wherever I go,” I said, not really sure if Crisplet would even understand that aspect.

  Getting back the strong sense of concern, followed by confidence again.

  “Hopefully, Archie chose well. At least Cameron and Archie himself are likely not noble house spies. Well, I guess they could be royal family ones,” I muttered as the familiar presence of Lily appeared in the room.

  “Hey, Lily,” I said, reaching out and scratching behind her ears.

  “Lily, I don’t suppose you attacked any adventurers, did you?” I asked.

  Crisplet quickly gave me a burst of sparks.

  “Yes? But why?” I said, stunned by the answer.

  I reached out to Crisplet for an answer, but none came.

  A moment later while I was looking at Lily to see if she’d give me anything, I saw her look directly at me, her green eyes piercing into my own, as a soft feminine voice sounded in my head, saying only a single word.

  “Protection.”

  A cascade of feelings and questions rushed over me at that point. Why? Who was she protecting me from? She could speak to me? Why was this the first time?

  But all I managed to do was stare into her eyes.

  In the end, if she was doing it for my protection, I was missing more to the story, and I didn’t want to tell her not to protect me.

  “Please don’t kill anyone unless you have to. Thanks for the protection,” I said.

  I know I should have questioned it. I know I should have told her not to do it, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know what to say, protecting me from whom?

  I turned back, staring into the flames as Crisplet played with the coals.

  “I chose a last name. Ashmoon,” I said.

  She said nothing this time, but she head-butted my side before flopping to the ground against me, and went to sleep.

  I let out a deep sigh.

  Today had been a crazy day, but so had the journey since I left the orphanage. I didn’t know how to handle this responsibility, or what was to come with all the capital politics, but I wasn’t about to back down.

  I had support. I had my friends.

  It was time to be confident.