An unpleasant encounter

Unfortunately, just like last time, they ran into their father’s party. This time however, keeping their distance sadly wasn’t an option they were given. When they were no more than 10 feet away from the gate, their father and oldest sister suddenly swung through it into view, with another 8 riders following just behind. Both groups came to a halt facing each other, a kind of awkward silence ensued, filled with lots of unpleasant looks. The parties weren’t exactly blocking each other’s paths. Vel and Adeline couldn’t get through the gate with their father’s party in the way, but the latter could easily get around Vel and Adi. Everyone stood still though, the tension in the air was palpable. Veldred clearly picked up on it and snorted in displeasure. This seemed to snap Lord Luthor, who had been staring at the destrier, back to reality. “Such a fine horse, shame to see it wasted so.” His father’s words couldn’t really hurt him anymore, after years of it he had developed rather thick skin, but they didn’t leave him entirely unaffected either. Still, he wouldn’t rise to the bait.

Adeline was another matter though. “Oh do shut up you fail-“. Vel raised a hand to cut her off. “Please Adi, I appreciate it, but its not worth it.” Adeline huffed and grumbled a bit but heeded her brother’s wishes. Looking back at his father’s smug face, Vel spoke up again. “And if you want, Father, I can dismount, and you can try riding him.” That wiped the smugness right of Lord Luthor’s face. Everyone listening knew how that would go. He wouldn’t be thrown from the saddle, as he’d never make it into said saddle. Veldred refused any other rider besides Velas himself and made that violently clear. Clearly feeling the need to speak up for her father as Adeline had done for her brother, Amordina directed her venom at Adeline. “I can’t believe you’re still letting this failure tell you what do, Sister. Spending some time with him out of pity I could maybe understand, but how can-“ She didn’t get any further before Adeline exploded on her. “Oh, shut your ugly hole, Dina, we all know the only thing its good for is sucking up to our asshole father. And no matter how much you suck up to him or try to please him, we all know you’ll never be good enough. No matter how strong or good with a sword you are, you NEVER will be. Because you don’t have a dic-“ Velas saw what was about to happen and once again acted on instinct. Amordina was kicking her horse forward and reaching for her cudgel, clearly something Adi said had hit too close to home. Without thinking about it, Vel extended his hand towards Amordina and spoke in a loud and clear voice “STOP!” He somehow imbued the command with power, despite having no idea how to do so, and both Amordina and her mount stopped in their tracks.

Everyone seemed stunned for a moment as it sank in what Amordina had been doing, and that she had obeyed Vel for some reason. To his minuscule credit, Lord Luthor seemed to realize that things had gone too far. “Amordina, control yourself.” She looked crestfallen at this rebuke, which pleased Vel greatly. He realized he should have been feeling the other party from the start, but he had simply been too overwhelmed by the situation to think clearly. He hated that his father could still have so much effect on him. His father went on. “And you, Adeline, how dare you speak to your sister that way, especially in front of the staff!” He gestured back towards their party, who were a mixture of servants and guards, including their father’s and Amordina’s sworn shields. “Whatever.” Was all he got in reply.

Reaching out, Vel quickly found the minds of everyone in their father’s party, as well as their horses. But he found he couldn’t really focus on more than one mind at once if he wanted detailed information. He could however pull back and get a sort of broad picture of the dominant emotions among the whole party. The situation was tense, and it was clear the servants and guards were extremely uncomfortable. Who could blame them. When he tried touching his father’s mind, he found what he could only describe as an impenetrable wall. This wasn’t the membrane; he couldn’t even see that. His father’s mind was entirely walled off to him. That was a letdown, but also very interesting. Amordina on the other hand had no such wall, and her membrane was not particularly strong. It also felt brittle to him, as if it would be easy to crack. He could see the turmoil of emotions churning inside her. Shame, anger, resentment, and many, many others. Not all of it was directed at him it seemed, he got the sense quite a bit of it was aimed at their father as well. There may well have been some truth to what Adi had said to her. Their father’s sworn shield, old Merandros, was barely feeling anything. The old veteran clearly had a tight grip on his emotions and wasn’t particularly stirred by anything going on. Vel knew he’d respond instantly to any threat to Lord Luthor though. Amordina’s sworn shield was another story. Her emotions were fairly easy for Vel to read, and she was clearly torn. He felt a sense of duty or loyalty, but it was split in two directions. There was also a lot of guilt and displeasure. And hate, real hate, and it was without a doubt directed squarely at Lord Luthor. What in the god’s good graces? Vel was confused, and this was decidedly not the time to sort this out.

“Argh, you have wasted enough of my time already, get out of the way and let’s be done with this.” Lord Luthor sounded quite angry, but Adi wasn’t intimated. “You’re the ones who are in our way!” Their father snorted, but seemed to realize she was right, he kicked his horse forward and motioned for the others to follow. As he rode past, he stared imperiously straight ahead, refusing to look at either of his children. Amordina on the other hand glared up at Vel as she went past. Following right behind her was Jeane, her sworn shield. She gave Vel a look that he could only describe as apologetic. In her mind Vel saw guilt and remorse, but also a sense of duty and obligation. This was definitely something he would have to look into in the future.

Vel and Adi waited patiently until the road was clear before riding through the gate in silence.