Chapter 35:

After making our way down off the mountains, Xavier led me back through the empty halls into the mess hall, where there was a wiry old man with wild tufts of white hair that stuck out in every different direction. "I was wondering when you would bring her here, boy." He called as his sharp amber eyes locked onto Xavier. How did this man know about me? 

"You act like I had much of another choice," Xavier answered, giving the old man a slight smile. 

"Well, I know you're not very well mannered, but I would hope you have enough to introduce me to this pretty little thing." The man said with a wry smile as he looked to me once more, and I instantly started to like him. 

"Ari, Arthur. Arthur, Ari," Xavier sighed out, vaguely gesturing between the two of us with a roll of his eyes as I just grinned.

"And she's got Nova, no wonder you're so attached to her." Xavier just huffed at him, but I giggled, even as Xavier raised an eyebrow at me. 

"It's nice to meet you." I smiled as I stuck my hand out to the old man, who looked it over for just a moment before taking it, only to press a kiss to my knuckles with a grin. 

Xavier shifted his weight uncomfortably beside me, and I looked up at him, only to see him glaring absolute daggers at the old man. 

I couldn't help but to grin as Nova giggled in my head. I think someone is feeling a little territorial. She told me, and with the look Xavier was shooting the poor old man, I could definitely agree with that one. I quickly took hold of Xavier's hand with my free one, giving it a squeeze to see if I could distract him, but Arthur had already caught his glare. Although to my surprise, the old man didn't back away from Xavier in the slightest, no, instead he laughed at the warrior standing beside me. 

"I see. Interesting. I knew she was important to you, but to earn a look like that one over just a touch." The man surprised me once more as he reached up and patted Xavier on the shoulder with a grin. I looked up at Xavier, shocked that he hadn't said a word, but his expression had dropped back to that neutral look that he was so good at, and honestly, he didn't even look offended by the old man's touch. Arthur just laughed once more before thrusting a mug of coffee at Xavier and turning to me. "What do you take to drink, honey?" He asked, and I giggled as Xavier grumbled something about nosey old men under his breath before taking a sip of his coffee. 

"I'll just take coffee as well, thank you," I replied with a grin, and off he went, grabbing another mug off the counter before pouring the steaming liquid inside. I enjoyed coffee back in the village, but it was rare that I could get it, and when I did, it was typically cold and stale. Even here, by the time Lexi and I made it in for breakfast, it was normally cold or lukewarm at best. This time, though, when I took a sip, it was fresh and hot. 

"Make sure you keep that one in line, pretty girl," Arthur told me with a wink before handing me an overflowing plate of food, with a pat to my shoulder, before handing Xavier his own plate. I couldn't help but to smile as Bane instantly snatched a piece of meat from Xavier's plate, almost the second it was in his hand, before Xavier promptly held it well out of the dragon's reach. 

He led me back out of the mess hall, holding the door for me before gently pushing me to take the stairs up towards his office. He followed behind me, keeping his free hand on my lower back as we climbed the stairs. He honestly was quite the gentleman when he wanted to be. 

"Are you okay with eating in here while I find a few things that I need for work? It won't take long." He asked, and I shook my head. 

"I don't mind at all," I told him as he pulled the door open, holding it for me to walk inside. This time, though, the space didn't feel nearly as forboding as he followed me into the small room, shutting the door behind us with a soft click. My eyes instantly caught on the thick file on his desk, along with a sealed letter. 

"Sit, please." He said, gesturing to the chair behind his desk. 

"What about you?" I asked as I looked around the room, but there were no other chairs in here. There was only bookcase after bookcase filled to the point of overflowing with books, rolled pieces of parchment, and files. 

"I'm not the one who just got over being poisoned. I'm perfectly fine standing, princess." I just sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to give this one up, and sat down in the chair. Nova instantly hopped off my shoulders and took a piece of meat for herself. She knew I didn't mind. Honestly, I was so used to maybe eating once a day that coming here was the most food I've ever even seen in a day, let alone could actually eat myself. 

Xavier set his plate down on the desk before moving the letter to the side to pick up the folder, and Bane took that opportunity to steal another large portion of the meat off Xavier's plate. Xavier just sighed as he watched the dragon rip into the food, but made no move to actually stop him either. By how he was acting, this had to be a normal occurrence for him. 

Rather than collecting what little food he had left, he thumbed through the papers in the file. Nova only took one more small piece of meat from me before leaving the rest, so I picked up another sausage and held it out to Bane before he went back to scour the remains of Xavier's breakfast. 

He happily took it from me, pulling it over to the side of the desk before scarfing it down and looking expectantly from me to the other sausage on my plate. "Yes, you can have it," I told him, and he very happily came back to take that one as well before Xavier finally came back over beside me. 

He placed the thick book he had taken from the shelf on the desk before taking up the scavenged remains of his breakfast and sitting up on the desk beside me. "You act like you're starving." He said, glancing from his plate down towards where Bane was still begging for chunks of the biscuit that I was working on. 

The dragon grumbled at Xavier, but never took his eyes off my biscuit. I just grinned at him as I tore off a chunk and tossed it to Bane. "You know, you don't have to feel bad for him, right? He eats just as much, if not more than I do, typically." Those emerald eyes tracked the chunk of biscuit I threw to Bane with a shake of his head. 

"I know, but I didn't really want him eating any more of your breakfast. Plus, I grew up only eating maybe one meal a day. Being here is the most food I've ever even seen in my whole life on a plate. It's not like I can honestly eat it all, no matter how much I'd like to." He just raised an eyebrow at me now with a slight shake of his head. 

"Well, then you need to build up more, because you should eat at least three meals a day. It's good for you." 

"I know that now, but when you've eaten like that for twenty years, it's really hard to get used to this, and the last thing I want to do in this place is make myself sick," I answered before looking over the remaining food on my plate, but I knew I wouldn't be able to eat anymore of it right now. Instead, I just pushed it in front of Bane before taking another sip of my coffee as I sat back in his chair so I could look up at him. He had finished off his own food and was currently watching Bane as he all but licked my plate clean. 

"Fair enough, I guess, but now you can see why I need an extra coffee and sugar break in a day." I just giggled as I nodded to him, but Bane glanced up at him with a little growl, although this one wasn't even close to wholehearted. 

"Yeah, when you have a hungry dragon eating the majority of your rations, I'm sure you really do need the extra boost in a day." He just grinned as he placed his plate back on the desk behind him, where Bane instantly shifted to where he could sniff at it, checking it over for crumbs before snuffing it entirely and going over to where Nova was still slowly working on her piece of meat from earlier. I couldn't help the huff of laughter that fell from my lips as Nova bared her teeth and snapped at him, driving him back as she curled more possessively around the food with a low growl. Xavier just shook his head at them, raising an eyebrow at Bane as he tried once more to cozy up to Nova, only to get the same response. 

"The letter is yours, by the way. Your friend must have brought it up here for you last night." Xavier told me, giving a slight nod to the letter that still sat in the center of his desk, and I instantly reached for it, turning it over to look at the front. 

I was more than a little shocked as I took in the royal Celestial stamp that had been pressed into the gold wax to keep it shut. What would anyone from there want with me in an official capacity? 

I popped the seal as Xavier took up the book he had pulled off the shelf earlier, laying it across his thighs as he flipped through the worn pages. Looking back down at my letter, I pulled the parchment out of the envelope it had been sent in. Unfolding the thick, yellowed paper, I quickly read it over, but I had to reread it, considering it had only served to confuse me further. It was a summons to go back to my home village, immediately, but my issue with that was that no one in that entire village would even have the money to think about sending an official letter like this one. It didn't give any information about what this was about, only that I apparently needed to meet up with someone at the tavern in the village, so what could something like this be about?

Placing my hand on Xavier's thigh, quickly gaining his attention. He glanced down at where my hand had made contact with him before looking at the parchment in my hand, and finally meeting my gaze. "What's wrong, Ari?" He asked, but rather than answering, I just handed him the letter to read over for himself. "Are you going to be up for a trip like that? I mean, it's not like you have to actually answer it." 

"It's a formal summons." I held up the envelope, showing him the royal wax seal that had held it shut. 

"Why would a high Celestial be summoning you to a small border village rather than the capital?"

"I honestly don't know, but I will tell you one thing that I do know for sure. I grew up in that village, and no one there has nearly enough money to even think about sending a summons like this one." 

"It was received yesterday, so whoever it is will be expecting you later today. Are you able to make that journey, or do I need to issue an immediate rebuttal?" That made me pause for a moment. I was so prepared for him not to even entertain the idea of me going anywhere after everything that's gone down this week, but no. He wasn't telling me that I shouldn't go because I had just gotten over being poisoned, and probably the whole laundry list of other things he could say. No, he was actually letting me make that decision for myself. He wasn't even pushing me one way or the other, and it took me by surprise. No one has ever done that for me, but unlike them, Xavier simply patiently waited for me to make a decision for myself, and for the first time in my life, I actually felt respected.

I took a moment to think it over, but my mind just kept wandering back to the fact that I couldn't think of a single person in the entire village of Galia who had either the money or the means to send a letter like this one. That fact alone had me not wanting to put this off any longer than necessary. I'd much rather find out sooner than later what this was all about. 

"I want to go. I can't just sit on this, not when I honestly have no clue what this could be about, Xavier."

He just gave me a slight nod. "Then we'll prepare to leave. That village is only about a three-hour flight, so it's not like we'll need to take much to make the journey. I'm sure they at least have something for food there, and a place to stay if we need it." I just watched him for a long moment. No sharp-witted comment? No fighting back on the grounds that I wasn't fit to leave after just waking up? None of it, just straight up acceptance of my decision. I couldn't help the smile that tipped my lips as I splayed my hand on his thigh, rubbing my thumb over the soft material of his uniform pants. 

"Thank you, but I'm honestly a little surprised that you're not putting up more of a fight about this, you know, considering I did just wake up from being poisoned." 

He grinned at me, showing off one of those damn dimples, and making me smile even wider as his hand came up to gently cup my cheek. His calloused thumb slowly brushed over my cheek as he looked down at me. "First off, it's not like I'm too worried about a lot of conflict in a village as small as Galia. It's closer to the Dead Plains rather than anywhere near the front line, so the only thing we have to worry about is the villagers themselves. That brings me to my second point: I'm going everywhere that you are. I am your ride afterall, so it only makes sense for me to be accessible in case you need to get out quickly for any reason. Which also means that I won't allow anyone to bully you into anything." 

I leaned into his hand, relishing the small touch, but he had a point. It really wasn't a long flight from here, but I wouldn't be able to make it at all without him. If whoever sent this letter knew that and thought that Xavier would just sit on the sidelines and wait, then they had a whole other thing coming. 

After a long moment, he slowly dropped his hand from my cheek, and my eyes caught on the folder of paperwork still on his desk, before I looked up at him once more. "Did you get everything you needed from here?" I asked, and he nodded. 

"My paperwork isn't actually due until Monday night. I just needed this book in order to do this folder. Weekend work typically requires more research than during the week; they give us more time for a reason."

"But if you're with me, will you still have enough time to get it all done?"

"I'll bring it just in case we stay over somewhere, but either way, I'll be fine." He covered my hand that was still resting on his thigh with his own, as I smiled at him.