Flora brought her to the dining room. Darius was there along with Marius.

“Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you!” Marius exclaimed.

“I was in the library.” Darius replied.

Marius pouted, folding his arms and grumbled, “We were supposed to play tag.”

Darius noticed his mood and nodded, poking him on the arm, “Alright, let’s play after lunch.”

Marius grinned at Darius’ words, “You better not break our promise!”

Darius smiled and nodded again. Then he turned to the left making eye contact with Aeliana. 

Aeliana puffed up her cheeks and looked away, still not over what happened back at the library. Darius widened his eyes before looking down.

She sat opposite them and quietly waited for the rest of the family to arrive. Darius constantly looked over in her direction without a word. He fumbled around with his fingers, scraping his skin lightly before finally opening his mouth.

“Ael—”

“Did I take too long?” 

A voice spoke up before Darius could. It was their second brother, Claud who had just arrived for lunch. Marius glanced at his second brother and shook his head.

“Dad and brother Leon aren't here yet.”

“Oh! That’s good I’m not late.” Claud hummed happily, taking his seat beside Darius.

Aeliana glanced over her side. It was empty yet no one sat beside her. Even when her first brother, Leon, arrived, he took a seat beside Claud and never spared a glance at her.

‘Even though this has been going on for years, it still hurts..’

Their father, Cassian, arrived not long after Leon. He had a guilty smile on his face as he sat down in the centre seat.

“Sorry kids, I have a lot of things to do.” he said as the food was placed in front of them.

“Don’t overwork yourself, dad.” Leon spoke flatly, cutting the meat on his plate.

Claud nodded, smiling, “Brother is right dad, remember to take breaks as well.”

Cassian chuckled as he heard his sons' concern. 

“What have you all been doing?”

“I just finished my morning classes.” Leon answered.

“It’s the same for me.” Claud said and ate a piece of meat.

Marius frowned, “I was looking for Darius the entire time.”

“Where were you Darius?” their father asked whilst he cut the meat on Aeliana’s plate.

“I was at the library..” he mumbled out, nibbling on his meat.

“You always did prefer books over swords,” Cassian laughed before looking at Aeliana.

“What about you, Eli?”

Aeliana looked at her brothers. They continued eating their meal as they lost interest in the conversation once it was about her. She internally sighed before answering her father.

“I was also in the library. I was reading books!”

“Was Darius with you?” Cassian asked with wide eyes.

She took a quick glance at Darius and then smiled at her father, with no signs of replying. She turned her focus back on her meal. A long silence fell.

“Did something happen?” Claud questioned, casting a look over at Darius.

He stiffened up from the look before quickly shaking his head, “No..nothing happened…”

Another silence fell but it wasn’t broken until lunch ended. Her father rushed back to his office to continue finishing up his work while Leon and Claud headed back to their study rooms for the afternoon classes. Marius and Darius went to play tag as promised but before Darius left, he took one last glance at Aeliana.

She briefly gave him a smile, waving goodbye to him as he left. She went back to the library, only to borrow the book and return to her room. The book she had been reading was about light and dark magic. 

In the book, it stated that it was believed that light magic was bestowed by the goddess of life while dark magic was bestowed by the goddess of death. 

Light magic could heal almost everything except bringing back the dead. Dark magic couldn’t heal nor bring the dead back either, despite being from the goddess of death. It could decay living things and even suck the life force and mana out of a human, which is illegal now.

Like how light magic can heal, dark magic does the opposite.

As both magic is powerful, it is rare but dark magic was rarer than light magic. Almost extinct, one could say.

As Aeliana read further, she learnt that light and dark magic users have a more severe withdrawal if overused. Common magic-users had a withdrawal as well. If one overuses their magic and their mana becomes severely empty, they would be sick in bed or cough out blood.

However, for light and dark magic users, the possibility of death was high if overused. Common magic users have that possibility as well but it was a rare case. Aeliana shuddered just by the thought about it. She died twice and she would rather not go through that again so soon.

‘You know what they say, with great power comes with great responsibilities’

Aeliana couldn’t fully understand everything and since Darius wasn’t with her to help, she decided to stop reading for the time being. 

She could go and learn the imperial language properly but she rather laze around a bit more. Rolling around on her bed, she soon grew bored of staying indoors.

‘Let’s play outside today’

Aeliana left her room and tried to go outside but the servants immediately stopped her, shaking their heads.

“Lady Aeliana, please don’t go out!!”

She stared at them, “But I want to play—”

A servant named Mark swooped her up into his arms, “Let’s play inside instead!”

“But—”

“My lady, you are still recovering!” a maid spoke, making an X with her arms.

Aeliana pouted but listened to the people working in the mansion, “Alright..”

“Lady Aeliana, shall we play hide and seek?” Mark spoke, still carrying her.

She got comfortable in his arms and lightly hummed in response.

“Who else should we ask to play with?” 

“I can play!” the maid from before spoke.

“Me too!”

“I’m free for now so I don’t mind.”

“Same here.”

Not long later, more than ten people agreed to play hide and seek with her. Mark placed her back on the ground. She smiled widely and clapped her hands together,

“You all hide and I’ll seek! I’m going to count until twenty!!”

Aeliana covered her eyes with her hands and slowly counted. She could hear frantic footsteps running in every direction until there was only silence left.

“Eighteen...nineteen...twenty! Ready or not, here I come!!” 

“What are you doing?”