The sun had already risen by the time Anette decided to go see Kyran. Two hours had passed since her arrival and while breakfast had been ready almost an hour ago, they delayed calling for him so they could complete their morning choirs first.
Another reason for the delay was due to Cyneah's complaint, saying she could not face him yet after realizing she had been in her nightdress when she brazenly flaunt her so-called no longer skinny figure.
She felt so embarrassed and needed time to calm down.
Anette could only chuckle and assure her there was nothing to be embarrassed about since she had grown into a beautiful lady, inside and outside.
Unfortunately, instead of assuring Cyneah, Anette ended up making her feel more embarrassed.
In the end, Cyneah went back to her room to get 'properly' dressed as she phrased it.
Seeing Cyneah get flustered around Kyran, Anette's expression turned slightly sober. No one knew exactly what she was thinking. Not even Nolan, if he had been there and saw her expression.
Standing in front of Kyran's room, Anette could faintly hear faint metal scraping sounds inside. With a slight shake of her head, she could almost see him working on some magic items and sighed inwardly.
How come she was always surrounded by men who loved grease work? Both Cade and Nolan were Array freaks. Their master was also one, as well as her father's side of the family.
"It's open, godmother," Kyran's voice came from inside the room even before Anette could knock.
Anette raised her brows at his call. She was not surprised that he noticed her outside. Any mage could more or less sense another person's presence, even if there was a thick wall separating them, through magic sense.
But for Kyran to also guessed who it was, was a different story, especially when he only learned magic sense a couple of weeks ago.
'His improvement after a week's training in that place is tremendous. But… I wonder how long has he really spent there?' Anette thought as she opened the door and let herself in.
"What? Have you also installed a surveillance array outside your door—?" She greeted but then stopped short after noticing the inside of the room.
She did a double take because the room had completely changed.
Instead of a bedroom, what greeted Anette was a workroom, complete with a burning furnace and smithing tools. The room even looked bigger than she remembered as if the whole space had been enchanted.
As she wondered her eyes, Anette caught sight of three human-shaped puppets sitting on a work bench on one side of the wall, seemingly at rest.
'H-Human puppets?'
Then she found Kyran hunched over at one end of the long work table at the middle of the room, where another human-shaped puppet whose torso was currently open, lay. It appeared Kyran was working on the puppet, which was currently emitting faint purple glow.
"This—?"
Anette's was interrupted by another movement in the room.
To her surprise, she found a handsome young man with auburn hair in a black robe holding a round metallic gold cover, walking toward Kyran.
Because the room only had the fire from the furnace as its source of light, Anette could not see the young man's eye color. But she could guess it was in a lighter shade.
"Master, it is done," the young man had said.
'Master…?' Anette looked at him and then back at Kyran in complete surprise. Since when did he find another person to become his Sigil?
Kyran looked up and motioned the young man closer.
"Okay, I'll let you handle the rest," he told him.
"Yes, master."
"Who…?" Anette looked at Kyran questioningly as he approached.
Kyran looked back at the young man and said sheepishly, "Ah, that's… I guess, the other 'Tyr'?"
"'The other what?'" Anette repeated in confusion.
"I'll explain later," Kyran replied. "Let's change location first."
Without waiting for Anette's consent, he ushered her toward another door.
The truth, he wanted to warp them to another place but remembered she was not fond of warping. He might be able to warp people without making them feel wheezy now, but there was no telling that Anette might still feel bad because of psychological trauma.
Anette looked at that door suspiciously. Since when was there a door inside Kyran's room?
More importantly, was this room still in the cottage?
After a few minutes, the two of them were now inside what appeared to be a study room.
There was a study table, with several rolled scrolls on the table and a few thick books on top, and two single wooden chairs. There were also a bookshelf on one side and a window on the other.
Kyran chose to lean on the windowsill while Anette sat on one of the wooden chair.
"We can talk after breakfast," Anette started.
To be honest, her mind had yet to process what she had seen.
It was not her first time seeing a human-shaped puppet but seeing it in the Human plane was a different story. There was also the young man Kyran brought with him. Why did she not sense him earlier?
Who exactly was that young man?
"I think we have enough food for your friend," Anette added, trying to start the conversation by bringing up the young man.
Kyran smiled slightly. He already noticed her interest in his 'friend' and could not help but sigh inwardly.
Not planning on keeping any secret, Kyran explained, "That friend, doesn't eat human food, godmother. It runs solely with magic energy."
Silence followed, wherein after a few seconds, Anette's eyes almost popped out of their sockets as she stood up and exclaimed, "That's a puppet?"
Kyran smiled and nodded.
"It took some time to input human intelligence in its system, and its only in the testing phase, but he can more or less hold a conversation and do more technical tasks now. After a week of testing, I'll be able to adjust any errors."
"That's…."
Anette was speechless.
She had seen Cade and Nolan create so many things. Cade's specialty were magic armors, while Nolan's were magic weapons.
As for Kyran, this… How could she even categorize a puppet? Could it be considered an armor or a weapon?
Armor because, if done correctly, a puppet could disengage its parts and fuse with its master and become a full body armor. Or it could even become a defensive shield by means of transformation. As a weapon, the puppet could be programmed to wield magic spells. As long as it had enough energy in its energy core, it could cast any recorded spell in its system.
Nevertheless, all of those were only secondary to Anette's shock. The real cause of her shock was the fact Kyran managed to create a puppet and have it act like a real human!
Anette's eyes was even fooled and she had discerning eyes because of her sensitivity to magic energies!
"Let's not talk about that," Kyran decided to change the subject, seeing Anette's shocked expression.
The matter about his puppets were not exactly important. What Kyran wanted them to discuss was far more important. Truthfully, he was unsure how to open that topic, so he started with a more recent one.
"I heard from Cyneah that you two are working in the city?"
Anette snapped out of her thoughts after hearing Kyran.
Knowing that she needed more time to fully comprehend the matter about Kyran's puppets, Anette put that aside. She actually felt grateful to him for changing the subject.
"Ah, yes." Anette nodded her head, still feeling a little out of sorts. "Cici told me you got angry."
Then she smiled. A smile whose meaning Kyran was perfectly aware of. If Nolan and Zephyr had been here too, they would probably made side comments too.
Feeling hopeless about how these people seemed to enjoy putting him together with different women, Kyran was about to continue with his explanation but then he realized something and frowned slightly.
"Cici?" He asked.
"That's right," Anette replied with an amused smile. "Cyneah told me her mother used to call her Cici. So I decided to call her that too, since I am now her master, which makes me her second mother. She doesn't seem to mind and even looked happy."
Then she grinned teasingly at Kyran and added, "You can also call her that. Cyneah's name can be a mouthful sometimes."
"I'd rather call her Neah, than Cici," Kyran flat out rejected the idea.
"Oh! Neah's good too. I am positive she will be ecstatic to receive an exclusive pet name from you."
Kyran's brow twitched. How did calling Cyneah, Neah, giving her a pet name? Could it not be a new nick name first? Why did it turn into a pet name?
"I know you have your own arrangements to make sure both of your appearance will not be recognized, but just in case, I made some face-altering masks both of you can use."
Choosing not to comment on Anette's off-handed comment, Kyran diverted the topic back on track.
"Masks? Did you mean a mask which is the same with yours?" Anette asked, not one bit offended at how Kyran ignored her teasing.
Kyran nodded, "Yes. This way you don't have to keep on drinking transformation potions."
"Of, we don't exactly drink that much. I've made sure to drug everyone in the hospice so they will have trouble remembering our face. We mostly needed the potion to change our magic signature and appearance slightly while we travel outside."
Hearing how Anette said the 'drug everyone' part so nonchalantly, instantly turned Kyran's expression blank. He already knew his godmother had made her own contingency plan in place in case the potion wore off while they were in front of other people. But he did not expect that she would resort to drugging everyone.
Alchemists sure were a scary lot.
"I see…" Kyran replied in a low voice. But then he cleared his throat, and added, "I think the masks are better than drugging them again."
Anette nodded her head.
"Quite true. The ingredients in making the drug is quite expensive," she agreed.
That was not the point.
Kyran wanted to say, but instead, he took out two face-altering masks which he had completed a few hours ago and let it hover before Anette.
"You can adjust the mask to what you two looked like when you drink the potion. I've made the mask's array to also include the hair and eye colors."
Anette raised her brows as she took the masks. She examined the one on top and shook her head in amazement, "Don't you think, us wearing such an expensive and advanced magic item just to conceal our faces are overkill?"
Kyran smiled bitterly as he took out a semi-transparent white orb and let it float toward Anette again.
"You'll change your mind once you see the image in that orb," he said.
Looking a little confused, Anette took the ball and used her magic sense to inspect its content. As soon as she saw the content of the orb her eyes grew wide in surprise.
"This!"
She looked at Kyran questioningly.
In return, Kyran nodded his head and replied, "That's the Crown Princess."
"She looks so much like Cici!" Anette exclaimed.
"Yes. That's why we have to be extra careful. There is no telling what those people affiliated with the Royal Family would do if they found there was someone here who look so much like the Crown Princess.
The Crown Princess may not have appeared in the public before, but I have reasons to believe that will change from now on."
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