Sylpha sidestepped, now holding the Sword of Saefel with both hands and keeping its tip against the ground while Meron walked in front of the newly appointed Archmage and placed a wreath comprised of the plumes of a golden Griffon upon his head.
“Stand tall, Archmage Verhen. This is the last time I will force you to bend the knee. Unless you become a Magus, of course.” Meron chuckled as he patted Lith’s shoulders and helped him to get up.
The King’s silvery laugh made the whole room burst into tears. Some out of joy, most out of despair.
‘Fuck me sideways times two. What’s the average age for an Archmage?’ Lith thought.
‘For a new magical bloodline with no fief of their own, around seventy.’ Solus replied.
Only then did Lith manage to snap out of his reverie and turn around. He noticed his entire family coming from a side room, all wearing their best clothes and the jewels he had forged for them along with the Camellias.
Elina and Raaz had to rely on each other to not fall onto the ground, unable to even stand up properly on their own. Jirni and Orion quickly went to their rescue while Lith’s sister and Kamila walked towards him.
‘Why the heck didn’t you warn me if you knew what was going on?’ Lith asked.
‘I tried, but even a single door of the Royal Palace is so heavily enchanted that it blocks our mind link.’ She said.
“I would have loved to let your parents witness the ceremony, but during every rehearsal, your father cried so hard that he would drown out my magically enhanced voice. I felt bad forcing them to repress their feelings, so I had your parents spectate from a side room.” Queen Sylpha said.
King Meron patted Lith’s shoulder and the armor turned into a deep blue robe that identified him as an Archmage.
“Congratulations, Lith.” Marth, Vastor, Orion, Mirim Distar, and Jirni almost said in unison.
“My condolences.” Manohar said, his eyes veiled with sad tears. “Now you will never know peace. Men will covet your power and women your loins. Idiots will interrupt your research at all hours and…”
King Meron’s glared at the god of healing when Manohar pointed at him while talking about idiots, but it was Jirni clicking her tongue that shut him up.
The scene was funny enough to momentarily stop the flow of Raaz’s tears and replace them with chuckles, but no one else was actually laughing.
None of those present missed how Lady Distar, the Ernas, and even the magicless Verhen family were able to stand and move whereas everyone else was still kneeling. The arrays even kept the spectators from uttering a single word, making them feel like extras looking at the main actors on the stage.
Velan Deirus could only look up to those favored by the Royals while Jirni winked at her enemies.
“Not to question the infinite wisdom of Your Majesty-” Lith said.
“I feel a ‘but’ incoming.” Sylpha giggled like a mother listening to a naïve child’s question. The familiarity and closeness that she was displaying with Lith were a message that only someone as shocked as he could miss.
“-but am I not too young for such a title?” Lith was unaware of the political gears that threatened from behind the scenes all he had worked hard to build.
He believed that becoming an Archmage when barely past eighteen would compromise his position in the Kingdom. Of course, he was wrong. The ceremony made him a pillar of his country and had allowed the Royals to make all his past achievements public.
Between the Royals and the support he would receive from the commoners, no one could so much glare at him without an excellent reason.
“Too old?” Manohar sneered. “I became an Archmage and a Professor at sixteen.”
“He could have become a Magus at eighteen if not for his behavior.” King Meron rebuked the Mad Professor who completely ignored him while patting some random kneeling nobles as if they were pets.
He even left a dog treat balanced on the head of those who replied to his kindness by throwing him dirty looks.
“Twenty for me. You beat me by a landslide.” Marth said, relieved by Lith’s lack of madness.
“Twenty-five, here.” Vastor sighed.
“Twenty-five as well. But I wasn’t a Professor in the safety of his lab. I worked in the field, protected my wife as a member of the Knight’s Guard, and had to raise my children.” Orion puffed his chest out with pride.
He considered the other three men like no-lifers who had dedicated their youth solely to magical research, whereas he had attended his family and grown his lands into a Grand Duchy.
Vastor looked at him with real envy. Back then, he had a wife and kids as well, but his results as a family man were so poor that the Professor pretended to be a bachelor like his colleagues.
“Where are my manners?” Sylpha chuckled at her own ‘blunder’. “Stand up and rejoice, my loyal subjects.”
A snap of her fingers finally released everyone from the arrays’ grip, but it took many people a few more seconds to get up due to the cramps that the prolonged paralysis had caused them.
“Don’t worry, Lith. Age doesn’t matter, only talent does.” Meron said while the others nodded.
“Your ascension allows the Kingdom to finally replace Nalear’s accursed name from the plaque of youngest Archmage of this generation. Also, there isn’t a set order for these kinds of things.
“Manohar went from Assistant Professor to Archmage without ever becoming a Great Mage. Lochra Silverwing turned from nobody into a Magus at twenty-five, when she shared with the world her discoveries about magic, and Ripha Menadion when she was barely twenty.”
“Don’t hold back just because people are envious of you.” Sylpha chimed in, placing her hand on Lith’s right shoulder while Meron held his left.
“No matter what path you’ll take in life, no matter where your research will lead you, the Griffon Kingdom will always be your motherland. Your house is here and we promise to take good care of it in your absence.”
Lith’s brain finally managed to process what was really happening and to see behind the masks of many.
“Nice move.” Deirus snarled at Jirni. “My protégé is now a Great Mage so you made your own into an Archmage. How much did it cost you?”
“I’d like to take credit for it, but as you said to me, you’re underestimating your opponent. Lith worked so hard, achieved so much, that it only took me a few good words in the right ears to set everything on the right tracks.” Jirni gave him the soft smile that always accompanied her deathblows.
She failed to mention how the good words she was talking about were Deirus’s, not her own. Jirni had shared the recording of their conversation with the Royals, both Orion’s and her own household, and all the allies the two ancient bloodlines and Lith had.
Velan Deirus was unaware of the storm Lady Ernas was brewing with his unwittingly help. Something that she planned to use to take her opponent by surprise and drown him before Deirus even understood what was happening.
Aside from turning to a shade of purple, Velan managed to hide his anger. Kallion, not so much.
