A Long Time from Home Ch. 14

Author's notes:

About the language and notation:

The Baylon language is a predecessor to Latin, which is why it looks like Latin at a glance.

Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"

Some warnings:

This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

P.S. I haven't gotten an editor yet, so any mistakes are mine. Interested editors are welcome :)

--------------------------------------------------

Chapter 14 -- Flashback: Inquisitor

Arcem Discendi in Lescare

It was one of those nights that I really love: Not really dark, as the almost full moon bathed the landscape in silver light and as it was spring, the wind was warm against my skin, bringing the smell of flowers to me.

I was sitting on one of my favourite spots, which was on the battlement of the highest tier of Arcem Discendi, two hundred feet above ground. Not that the castle itself was that tall, but it was built on a cliff that went straight down, which added more than a hundred feet.

Traveling the world outside Baylon was fun and educational, but there was something about the castle that made me relax in a way no other place could.

A voice sneering "Emilian, you little fuck! If you wanna kill yourself, jump. Don't take all night just sitting there." brought me out of my thoughts.

I sighed. The voice belonged to Decimus Livius Varro. Decimus were almost a hand taller than me and my rival for being the best swordfighter in the class. Regrettably, he was also a spoiled brat from the extremely rich and noble Varro family and judging from the way he behaved, he had grown up being told that he was the best again and again.

Unfortunately for him, Arcem Discendi was filled with extraordinarily talented people and since he wasn't the best here, except in pure swordsmanship, that had made him angry as if somebody had stolen his birth right.

He wasn't the only to have harassed me during my time here. Being a good deal shorter than the other Baylon males at the castle, made me an easy target for harassment and that I excelled in both Ars Mentalis and Vis Vitae didn't help either.

I had used some of the training sessions in Martial Arts to legally beat the crap out most of the other students over the years and as a result, most had stopped harassing me, but Decimus Varro was just as good as me in the combat disciplines and the only time we had faced off, which was in a training fight years ago, he had almost destroyed my knee with a roundhouse kick.

"Go away, Varro." I said quietly. "I'm thinking, and you are disturbing me."

He snorted. "You couldn't think if your life depended on it, low bred scum."

Since it sounded that he was looking for a fight I used Vis Meditation and activated Pugna Promptu ("Combat Readiness"), a power that made me aware of all attacks, before I said: "Your feeble attempts to insult me will get you nowhere, Varro. What do you want?"

"To kick your butt," he said.

"Then I suggest that you wait until tomorrow." I said, as I stood and turned to face him. "We're not allowed to fight outside training."

"Always hiding behind the rules, eh Emilian?"

"Always dancing on the edge of them, Eh Varro?" I countered and then added. "Too bad that your dancing sucks."

"We can't all move like little sluts like you." He snorted again.

"Envy doesn't suit you, Varro." I said calmly and studied him, as I jumped down from the battlement. Even for someone as entitled as Varro, this behaviour was over the top and as far as I knew, I haven't done anything special to merit this outburst.

The calmness seemed to strike a nerve and with a step forward Varro attacked with a swift kick.

Even warned by Pugna Promptu the kick was so fast and skillful, that I only managed to deflect some of the force behind it, as it landed on my shoulder and forced me a few steps backwards.

Varro flashed his teeth in a triumphant smile and followed through with a barrage of strikes and low kicks. I managed to dodge or parry most of them, but a few got through and it hurt like living fire.

Finally, I saw an opening and a snap kick to the stomach sent him reeling backwards, giving me time to activate an Ars Mentalis trick. Mental power surged through my body, making me faster.

With a sneer, Varro leapt at me in his favourite move, a flying jump kick.

Jump kicks have the force of movement, mass, and gravity behind them, but they have one great weakness: If you miss, you can't change direction (short of the use of a power) until you land.

With the Ars Mentalis trick I had used, I much faster than him and I dodged to the right, neatly avoiding his kick. I was still within range for a counterattack and the moment he touched the ground again, I kicked the foot that held his weight.

Varro screamed as his ankle was sprained, but using the momentum from the kick, I whirled and did the same to the other foot. He went down, and I moved away from him.

The greatest problem was that if I didn't handle this right, I would have to deal with him again at a later date, so I might as well get it over with now. Besides, there was something strange about the way he had come at me, and I want to know what was going on.

"Are you done?" I asked as I watched him clutching his ankles.

He looked up at me with an expression of hatred on his face. "Just you wait, you little shit! It's illegal to use powers outside the training area!"

"Varro, don't be an idiot." I sighed again. "The way you came at me, you would have killed me, if I hadn't used powers. Why are you trying to pick a fight with me?"

"Because I don't like you!" he hissed. "You're a little snot that thinks that you're better than me, just because you somehow always get things right."

Actually, I didn't think that I was better than him, I knew it for a fact, since I usually had the highest score on any test where we're allowed to combine fighting skills with powers.

"You don't make sense." I told him. "Even assuming for a moment here, that I am better at fighting than you, why would you be angry about that?"

"You're not better than I am!" He shouted.

Intrigued I sat down in front of him, taking care not to be within range of any physical attacks. "If you continue shouting, or use magic for that matter, somebody will come to investigate this and that would be... troublesome. So, could we just have a normal, reasonable conversation here?"

The thought of someone coming shut him up. I guessed, he had run out of warnings and the next major mistake would send him home in disgrace.

"So, Decimus Livius Varro," I said, using his full name to get his attention. "Why are you so angry at me?"

"I just told you." He hissed. "You think that you are better than I am."

"In what way do I think that I am better than you?" I asked patiently.

"In everything here! And you shouldn't be. I'm a noble!"

"That is exactly why I don't understand you." I said slowly as my brain worked at the problem.

"Are you better at gardening than your gardener or better at cooking than your cook?"

"What? No of course not! Why by the goddess' tits would I be that?"

"I don't know, but you seem to think that you should be a better fighter than me, because you're noble and I'm not." I scratched my head. "You fail to understand, that I'm better at this than you are for exactly the reason, that I'm not a noble."

Judging from the puzzled look on his face, he didn't understand a word of what I had just said.

I spread my arms. "Listen, Varro. When your fifty-year tour of duty is done, you will join the rest of your noble family, manage your estates, throw parties and all the rest nobles do. This is just your duty to Baylon, right?"

He nodded, so I continued. "I am not noble, and this is not just my duty, it's my future. That's why I'm studying or training, while you and your noble friends plays around."

I paused to see if I got through to him and somewhat to my surprise, he seemed to be listening to what I said, so I continued. "What I don't get is your behaviour towards the people here. Most of the students are going to be members of the Securitas Interna. The very people whose responsibility is it to find and weed out corruption, disloyalty, and incompetence in the Empire and instead of making friends, you're pissing them off, almost guaranteeing that they will go for you and your family, if they get the slightest excuse."

"Is that a threat?" he said through cleansed teeth.

I snorted. "Start using your head, Varro..." I was about to say something more, when the door to the stairs opened and a guard came out. As the rest of the guards here at Arcem Discendi, she was tall, strong and clad in armor, and from the training sessions every student knew, that the guards were experts with the mace they wore at the side.

She stopped when she saw us. "Is everything in order up here?"

"Yes." I said "Varro and I are just having a heated debate about politics and nobles."

"Ah." She said, and her eyes flickered over to Varro, who nodded to what I had said, the guard must have noticed that Varro was holding his ankles, because she asked again "And none of you are hurt?"

I shrugged. "Varro hurt his ankles when he landed from a jump. It's nothing special. I'll take him to the healers shortly."

Again, Varro nodded, and the guard nodded back. "Very well, sir. Have a good night." Then she walked down the stairs again, closing the door as he went.

"That was a good lie." Said Varro quietly.

"It wasn't a lie." I corrected him with a slight smile. "You did hurt your ankles as you landed. I just didn't tell her that I was the one that did it."

Varro took a deep breath and the rage that had filled him before, disappeared like it had never been there. "You know, Emilian... You're so talented at this, that it drives me crazy."

"And you're so rich that I fail to understand it." I said with a chuckle. "Varro, I was born to do this the same way you were born to be a noble. This is what I am, this is my future and if I fail this, I don't know what else to do. I don't have a rich and noble family to fall back on."

He nodded slowly, which to me seemed to indicate that at least something had gotten through.

In a fit of inspiration, I asked. "You know why a gazelle sometimes outrun a lion, when in theory

the lion is the fastest animal of the two?"

"Ehhh No."

"Because the lion is running for its dinner and the gazelle is running for its life."

"And this is my dinner and your life?"

I nodded. "Yes, along with just about anybody else here, who doesn't have a family with money."

That left him silent for a moment. The good thing about Baylons is that we tend to be highly logical and when confronted with a logical argument, we will at least think it through before dismissing it, no matter how we might feel about it.

"Think about it." I said as I stood up. "But now we got to get you to a healer."

"Why?" He narrowed his eyes. "You're a healer. Why don't you do it?"

"Because Master Sheng is a better healer." I said with a shrug. "And you'll need two unhurt ankles at the test tomorrow. If I heal them, it will take a few days before you can use them."

He looked wide eyed at me, as if he only just now remembered that we had a test in sword fighting the next day.

Varro must have noticed my expression. "Fuck you, Emilian. Don't you ever forget anything?"

"Not really." I answered truthfully. "I use Mnemonics."

Mnemonics was an Ars Mentalis trick that enabled me to retain anything I read or learn as if I had a perfect memory total recall and I always used it when going over our schedule or anything else I wanted to remember for that matter. The trick belongs to Arte Sui Dominatus (Baylon: 'Art of Self Mastery'), which I knew that Varro could use as well, but he clearly hadn't.

"Smartass." He mumbled. "I wish I had thought of that."

"You will in the future." I said, placed a hand on his shoulder and levitated him up, before I stepped under him and lowered him down, so I carried him on my shoulders.

"Good thinking, Emilian." Said Varro sarcastically. "But we cannot get down the stairs like this."

"We're not going by the stairs." I said and activated a Vis trick called Salire Volantes (Baylon: 'Flying Jump'), which enabled me to conduct a series of leaps and jumps, almost as if I were able to fly. Then I jumped over the edge of the battlement, on the side that faced the courtyard.

Varro yelped in surprise, as I landed on a roof, a flagpole and then another roof, before we stood in the courtyard in front of the infirmary. I could just as easily have levitated, but using the Flying Jump was faster and way more fun.

"You're freaking insane!" he cursed as I knocked on the door.

"Yes, I've been told that from time to time." I said with a grin and then shifted to Lescarian as the Master Healer came out.

Like most of our healers, he was a Lescarian; short, dark haired and had the typical slanted Lescarian eyes. He also spoke excellent Baylon, but it was polite to use his language, so that's what I did. "Good evening, Master Healer Sheng. I am truly sorry to bother you at this time, but could I persuade you to heal this young man here? He had an accident when he landed from a jump."

"Good evening, Master Emilian." He said with a slight smile and bowed politely, before gesturing to the open door. "Please carry the patient inside."

I did as I was told and placed Varro on a wooden bed, before shifting my shoulders.

A tall, well-trained guy is quite heavy.

Master Healer Sheng examined Varro's ankles and then looked at me. "Master Emilian, do you know the source of the accident? These sprains look like combat damage."

Clearly Varro didn't understand Lescarian, but that didn't stop him from looking slightly offended that the Healer was talking with me instead of him. I didn't tell him that most of the local staff at the castle disliked him and avoided speaking with him whenever they could.

I nodded. "Yes, Master Sheng. My feet are the source of the accident. We had a debate about general behaviour and attitude."

Sheng chuckled slightly. "Very well, Master Emilian. I do hope that the troublesome young man here has learned from the debate."

I inclined my head slightly. "If not, it is a debate that can be repeated."

He nodded with a slight smile, said "I will need some herbs." and walked out of the room.

Varro snorted slightly. "Why are you so polite? They're just humans."

"Would you be rude to the one managing your estate?" I asked.

"No of course not, but that manager is Baylon." Varro answered.

I sighed. "Humans might not have the powers of our minds, but don't you think it is wise to be polite to people that can heal you? Or would you rather miss the test tomorrow?"

"No, no." he protested. "That wasn't what I meant!"

I cut him off before he could say something more. "Varro, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. It doesn't cost you anything to be polite and it makes life easier." I saw Master Sheng coming back. "Now be polite or shut up."

For a moment, I thought that he would object to the way I talked to him, but amazingly he didn't, and he even thanked Master Sheng, when the healer had finished his treatment and Varro's ankles were fine again.

Master Sheng bowed slightly at me. "It seems that you won the debate for now, Master Emilian. Thank you for teaching the young man some manners."

I bowed back. "You're most welcome, Master Sheng, and thank you for the healing."

-----

When we got out again and was walking across the courtyard, Varro looked at me. "You really have no idea how much you remind me of our teachers and how irritating that is, do you?"

Surprised I shook my head "No, I actually didn't know that."

"Well, you do... especially when you use Vis powers that none of the rest of us is capable of using yet, but even when you don't do that, you sound way older than you are."

I felt my eyebrows lifting in surprise. "Seriously?"

"Really." Answered Varro with a nod and then chuckled at my expression. "You know, just seeing that look of total confusion on your face, is really sweet for some reason. You need to stop being so serious all the time and have more fun, Emilian."

I thought about it, and he was right. I did tend to take the studies here seriously and there was more to life than studying things that I already knew.

"Let's make a deal." I said, "If you try to be more friendly and polite to people, I'll try to have a bit more fun."

"Naah... More than a bit... Try to have fun. Lots of it." Varro said and held out a hand. "Let's shake on that and ace that sword fighting test tomorrow."

"Deal!" I took the hand, and we shook on it, before I said, "And now we're going to see Mentat Sertor Piso."

Varro blinked in surprised as I mentioned the Ars Mentalis teacher. "Why?"

"Because I suspect that I've just seen the real Decimus Varro and that means that the raging, over-the-top angry and illogical Varro I encountered earlier, is most likely the result of somebody messing with your mind."

Stunned, he followed me to the Mentat and as it turned out, my suspicion had been right: Somebody had been using Ars Mentalis on Varro and an investigation was started immediately, while we were told to get to bed and get a good night's sleep.

---------------------

The test the next day turned out to be the start of the final month of training before graduation.

A month usually called Mensis Terribilis (Baylon: 'Terrible Month') by those who had graduated and the sword fighting test was just the first of many tests.

Between all the physical tests, we also took tests in most of the scholastic skills like math, physics, philosophy, languages, alchemy, and a lot more. Our cover stories were also tested and

I did fairly well, except in alchemy, which is not my strong points. All in all, I was confident when I went into the interview, which marked the end of Mensis Terribilis.

I had assumed that all the teachers would be there, but instead I found myself alone with Kaeso Atilus Maximus, Dominus Grande of Doctrina Gladio.

"Ah!" he said when he saw me. "Ivah Chila Emilian... Have a seat."

He gestured towards the chair in front of his desk, and I sat down after bowing politely.

"Let me start by saying that you have graduated the class with honours." Kaeso Maximus said with a smile and despite my confidence, I felt a weight being lifted from my shoulders. "Thank you, Dominus Grande."

"No reason to thank me." He said with a smile, "You did all the work."

There really wasn't anything I could say to that, so I kept silent.

"Before we go further, I thought you should know, that we have caught the perpetrator, who influenced Decimus Livius Varro's mind." Said the Dominus Grands. "I won't give you a name, but it seems like it was a politically motivated to plot to disgrace the Varro family, by having him expelled." He smiled slightly. "Good thing, you took him to the healer when you did, because the influence was fading and if it had happened a week later, we wouldn't have been able to find out who did it." He gave a nod, that somehow felt as having been given a medal. "Excellent work."

"Thank you, Sir."

"Now, what we're going to talk about here is your future."

That statement made the thoughts spin in my head. Arcem Discendi was only open for students of the Ordo Praesidium, which meant that after graduating here there were two carriers to choose between: Securitas Externus (Baylon: 'External Security'), which was responsible for monitoring other countries, including the colonies, and Securitas Interna (Baylon: 'Internal Security'), which was responsible for monitoring other government organizations.