Drake stared at his mother, the woman who had birthed and raised him, the woman who had practically abandoned him as soon as he entered high school, and the woman he had thought he would never see again after he was summoned here.
Mom. Marissa. Lady Gloomwood. Apparently, all three of these were the same person.
“You are the Fog Warden?” Lydia asked in quiet awe. “The woman who passed her title to Steward Joshua and sailed beyond the realm?”
“And you are Steward Lydia,” Marissa said with warmth that surprised Drake. “I know only bits and pieces of all that has occurred while I was away, but I am grateful for your loyal service to my son since he arrived. Knowing Esme as well as I did, I believe she would be quite proud of all you have accomplished.”
Lydia bowed. “Thank you, Lady Gloomwood.”
“Now... hold on!” Drake glared in consternation. “Mom! What the fuck?”
That was not a very lordly thing to say. It was certainly not something the lord of Gloomwood Manor would say, especially not in front of the Judge of the noble court. But Drake was too far beyond reason to care and well to the point where his sanity might snap entirely.
“I realize seeing me here may come as a bit of a shock,” Marissa said.
“How are you even here?” Drake demanded. “Did he kidnap you too?”
“Did who kidnap me?”
“Lord Crow! The fucking pro-wrestler asshole who pulled me out of my truck with a teleport spell and—” He caught himself at the last moment. “Passed me his title.” Because all that happened before he arrived here in this world, so far as the Judge knew.
“So that is how you were brought here,” Marissa said thoughtfully. “I was unable to learn much at the manor. With the lord away, no one would admit me, and I had no desire to announce my return before I knew the current state of the realm.”
“So you...” Drake simply couldn’t picture it.
“I arrived at Gloomwood Manor a day after you departed for the cabal. Unfortunately, I had no horse and carriage, so I had to travel by foot. I had hoped to catch up to you before you reached Korhaurbauten, but I was delayed.”
“By what, exactly?”
“Circumstances beyond my control. I only just arrived last night, and it took some time for me to use my status as a former lord of Gloomwood Manor to work my way up the ladder to the Judge and arrange this meeting with you.”
“I once again apologize for the trouble,” the Judge said. “That a friend of the noble court encountered such trouble is a matter I will certainly address with our staff.”
“It was no trouble,” Marissa assured the Judge gracefully. “It has been twenty-five years since I last walked this realm, and I understand how large bureaucracies change and grow. Positions move and people retire. I doubt many at Gloomwood Manor would even know who I am, other than Zuri.” Marissa smiled as if thinking back on a fond memory. “How is she?”
“She’s, uh...” Trying to seduce me? No. Not any longer. “Alive.”
“Wonderful. When we have a few moments alone, I would ask for the opportunity to review our current roster and see how many who served during my time still do. I still feel rather guilty about leaving them to continue without me, but it had to be done.”
So his mother had been a lord of Gloomwood Manor. She’d led the manor far enough back that she knew Zuri, but few others. As he numbly absorbed those basic facts, a story Zuri had told him some time ago once again flashed through his mind.
“Forget it, Zuri. So Lord Gloomwood, who was a lady, was having an affair with one of her battle maids, who was a dude, while she was betrothed to Lord Proudglade.” This was actually sort of Arthurian, in a way, except Guinevere was the king instead of Arthur. “So what did Lord Proudglade do when he found out?”
“He cut off all contact with Lord Gloomwood and was murdered soon after. As suspicions mounted in the noble court that Lord Gloomwood had somehow assassinated her betrothed, her battle maid stepped forward to prove her innocence by admitting his own guilt. He could not bear to see Lord Gloomwood with another man. Therefore, he killed his rival.”
“Damn.” Drake whistled. “And he was executed?” That was how they rolled here.
Zuri nodded. “After his execution, that battle maid’s name was also stricken from the Gloomwood roster and thus lost to history. The shame he brought upon Gloomwood Manor’s honorable battle maids is why we have recruited only females since. As for that particular lord of Gloomwood, she passed on her title to an advisor and went into exile.”
“So you’re... her?”
Marissa smiled. “Who?”
“The Lord Gloomwood that was engaged to a Lord Proudglade twenty-five years ago.” Drake stared. “And you were banging your battle maid?”
Marissa’s cheeks colored. “It would be better if we discuss internal manor matters in the privacy of our quarters.
“And it would be better if you’d just confirm or deny so I know what the fuck is going on!” Drake snapped. “So does that mean... have I always been...”
A sharp knock interrupted Drake’s attempts to retain his sanity.
“Who is it?” the Judge called.
“Lady Skybreak has arrived!” Atticus called.
“Send her in,” the Judge said.
Drake blinked rapidly as the door opened and Viktoria hurried into the increasingly small office, dressed in blue silverweave with her hair done up in her usual braids. Marissa pivoted as Viktoria entered and then smiled wide. Sky’s mom gasped and dashed forward.
The two women threw their arms around each other, laughing and hugging like two old friends. Drake shook his head rapidly to focus. So they knew each other? Sky’s mom and his mom? And that made him and Sky... what?
“It’s so good to see you again,” Viktoria said warmly. “I thought I never would.”
So were his mother and Viktoria sisters? Was Sky his cousin? It’d just be his luck to catch feelings for a cousin without knowing she was his cousin. At least he and Sky hadn’t kissed or done anything else weird. Other than flirt over a magic mirror, and clasp arms a few times.
“And you, my friend,” Marissa said fervently. “How I have missed you.”
His mom had said friend. Not sister. Not relative. So maybe that meant Viktoria and his mother just really liked each other. But did they really like each other?
No. His mom had been banging her battle maid back then, who was a dude and also her blood thrall, rather than banging Sky’s mom, unless they had some weird threesome or even foursome thing going on, and... God! He did not need this in his brain!
Viktoria smiled. “I scarcely believed the word I received today.” She glanced at the Judge. “Not that I would ever question you. I simply assumed someone was mistaken.”
“I assumed the same when the matter was brought to me,” the Judge said. “Yet now that you are all gathered, I have done as Lady Gloomwood asked. I shall take my leave.”
“Thank you, Judge,” Marissa said warmly. “It is an honor to be a friend of the noble court.”
“The honor remains with us,” the Judge said. “Now, I will leave you to your meeting.”
Drake frowned in disbelief. “So now you’re just... giving us your office?”
“You may borrow it as long as you need for today.” The Judge walked around the desk and knocked lightly on the door. “When you are ready to depart, simply notify my man outside and he will call for an escort. No one can eavesdrop on you down here.”
The door opened. Atticus the train conductor stepped back. The Judge strode out with her noble bearing and noble robes, and then Atticus closed the door again. That left Drake alone with Lydia, Viktoria, and a mother he was no longer certain he truly knew.
Had he ever truly known his mom? Or was the woman he’d always believed was a college dropout with a strong work ethic and bad taste in men actually a famous self-exiled manor lord from this world? Had she been slumming it on Earth?
“Hello again, Clint.” Viktoria smiled at him. “I am sorry I did not reveal my suspicions about who your mother was the night of our supper, but I could not be certain. And if you did not know your mother’s circumstances, it was not my place to reveal them.”
“Her circumstances,” Drake said quietly. “Which are she was a fucking manor lord.”
Marissa patted his arm. “My son has always been a fast learner. Back in our world, I often boasted of his independence to the others I served with, even at such a young age.”
I was independent because you left me alone as a latch-key kid who had to cook my own meals, wash my own clothes, and clean our whole damn house, Drake thought resentfully. Once I hit my freshman year of high school, you just weren’t ever there, Mom.
He said none of that aloud. Shocked as he was to see his mother here, and shocked as he was to learn she had once been the Lord Gloomwood, he wasn’t to the point where he was going to air all their dirty laundry in front of her good friend and his own steward.
Though he was going to give her a real earful about all of it once they were in private.
Also, his mother refused to call him Clint. In fact... she’d called him “son” or “Lord Gloomwood” since she’d arrived, rather than saying his real name: Drake.
Could she not say his false name since she knew his real one? If she’d lived in this world, did that mean she could not lie? Also, hadn’t Viktoria been the lord of Skybreak Manor about the same time his mom must have been Lord Gloomwood? The timeline matched up.
“I know you must have a large number of questions about my arrival,” Marissa said. “I promise, I will answer everything I can. But first, are you well? Has anyone hurt you?”
Drake snorted. “Other than the time the old lord tried to ritually sacrifice me? And some assholes broke my knees before I turned into a dire rat and ate them? Or how about the time I got shot by a crossbow, or when I almost had my blood sucked out by an assassin?”
As Marissa’s eyes, Drake continued to grow increasingly more irate.
“Or wait, there was also the time a whole army of mercenaries tried to pump me full of arrows. Oh, and then the noble court and Judge arrested me and tried to chop my damn head off. But other than that? Things have been fine. Real fun place you’ve got here!”
Also, Drake added silently, I’ve murdered at least thirty people, including one guy I straight up executed while he was tied to a chair, and then I made a woman explode. And guess what, Mom? It doesn’t really bother me. I kill people. It’s what we do here every day, isn’t it? Perfectly normal.
Marissa looked truly pained as he spoke. She almost looked like she intended to hug him, which she hadn’t done in almost a decade. He frowned to forestall any of that nonsense.
His mom was not hugging him in front of Viktoria. And certainly not in front of his loyal steward, who was still watching Marissa like she’d just met God.
“I really should excuse myself,” Lydia said quietly. “I will let you talk.”
“No, I would not have asked the Judge to invite you if I did not wish you to be here,” Marissa said. “I was not sure in what state I would find the manor when I returned, but I did know that the lord’s steward was the one person who would have the answer I sought.”
“What answer?” Lydia asked.
“Does the sapling remain safe?”
Lydia smiled brightly. “It does... Lady Gloomwood.”
“That the Eidolons,” his mother whispered.
Drake looked at his mom, who now looked relieved. He looked to Viktoria, who seemed equally pleased. And then he glanced at Lydia, his loyal steward, the brave woman who had nearly killed himself multiple times to keep him alive and keep their manor safe.
She’d never said anything about a sapling. She’d never told him what it was or if it was important or why it would be important. Yet the moment his mom brought it up, she knew.
So it was about time someone let him know too.
“All right,” Drake said impatiently. “The fuck is the sapling?”
Author's Note:
We're back! This is the start of what I'm calling "Book 3" of Rise of a Manor Lord. At this point, Drake has both secured control of his manor from the old lord and gained the favor of the noble court after cleaning the clocks of the opposing manors.
Today kicks off another large arc that I won't spoil other than to say we'll get an answer to some big questions that have been around since Book 1 and, naturally, raise a few new ones. We'll also be getting back to Gloomwood Manor after some more "fun" in the capital.
Drake stared at his mother, the woman who had birthed and raised him, the woman who had practically abandoned him as soon as he entered high school, and the woman he had thought he would never see again after he was summoned here.
Mom. Marissa. Lady Gloomwood. Apparently, all three of these were the same person.
“You are the Fog Warden?” Lydia asked in quiet awe. “The woman who passed her title to Steward Joshua and sailed beyond the realm?”
“And you are Steward Lydia,” Marissa said with warmth that surprised Drake. “I know only bits and pieces of all that has occurred while I was away, but I am grateful for your loyal service to my son since he arrived. Knowing Esme as well as I did, I believe she would be quite proud of all you have accomplished.”
Lydia bowed. “Thank you, Lady Gloomwood.”
“Now... hold on!” Drake glared in consternation. “Mom! What the fuck?”
That was not a very lordly thing to say. It was certainly not something the lord of Gloomwood Manor would say, especially not in front of the Judge of the noble court. But Drake was too far beyond reason to care and well to the point where his sanity might snap entirely.
“I realize seeing me here may come as a bit of a shock,” Marissa said.
“How are you even here?” Drake demanded. “Did he kidnap you too?”
“Did who kidnap me?”
“Lord Crow! The fucking pro-wrestler asshole who pulled me out of my truck with a teleport spell and—” He caught himself at the last moment. “Passed me his title.” Because all that happened before he arrived here in this world, so far as the Judge knew.
“So that is how you were brought here,” Marissa said thoughtfully. “I was unable to learn much at the manor. With the lord away, no one would admit me, and I had no desire to announce my return before I knew the current state of the realm.”
“So you...” Drake simply couldn’t picture it.
“I arrived at Gloomwood Manor a day after you departed for the cabal. Unfortunately, I had no horse and carriage, so I had to travel by foot. I had hoped to catch up to you before you reached Korhaurbauten, but I was delayed.”
“By what, exactly?”
“Circumstances beyond my control. I only just arrived last night, and it took some time for me to use my status as a former lord of Gloomwood Manor to work my way up the ladder to the Judge and arrange this meeting with you.”
“I once again apologize for the trouble,” the Judge said. “That a friend of the noble court encountered such trouble is a matter I will certainly address with our staff.”
“It was no trouble,” Marissa assured the Judge gracefully. “It has been twenty-five years since I last walked this realm, and I understand how large bureaucracies change and grow. Positions move and people retire. I doubt many at Gloomwood Manor would even know who I am, other than Zuri.” Marissa smiled as if thinking back on a fond memory. “How is she?”
“She’s, uh...” Trying to seduce me? No. Not any longer. “Alive.”
“Wonderful. When we have a few moments alone, I would ask for the opportunity to review our current roster and see how many who served during my time still do. I still feel rather guilty about leaving them to continue without me, but it had to be done.”
So his mother had been a lord of Gloomwood Manor. She’d led the manor far enough back that she knew Zuri, but few others. As he numbly absorbed those basic facts, a story Zuri had told him some time ago once again flashed through his mind.
“Forget it, Zuri. So Lord Gloomwood, who was a lady, was having an affair with one of her battle maids, who was a dude, while she was betrothed to Lord Proudglade.” This was actually sort of Arthurian, in a way, except Guinevere was the king instead of Arthur. “So what did Lord Proudglade do when he found out?”
“He cut off all contact with Lord Gloomwood and was murdered soon after. As suspicions mounted in the noble court that Lord Gloomwood had somehow assassinated her betrothed, her battle maid stepped forward to prove her innocence by admitting his own guilt. He could not bear to see Lord Gloomwood with another man. Therefore, he killed his rival.”
“Damn.” Drake whistled. “And he was executed?” That was how they rolled here.
Zuri nodded. “After his execution, that battle maid’s name was also stricken from the Gloomwood roster and thus lost to history. The shame he brought upon Gloomwood Manor’s honorable battle maids is why we have recruited only females since. As for that particular lord of Gloomwood, she passed on her title to an advisor and went into exile.”
“So you’re... her?”
Marissa smiled. “Who?”
“The Lord Gloomwood that was engaged to a Lord Proudglade twenty-five years ago.” Drake stared. “And you were banging your battle maid?”
Marissa’s cheeks colored. “It would be better if we discuss internal manor matters in the privacy of our quarters.
“And it would be better if you’d just confirm or deny so I know what the fuck is going on!” Drake snapped. “So does that mean... have I always been...”
A sharp knock interrupted Drake’s attempts to retain his sanity.
“Who is it?” the Judge called.
“Lady Skybreak has arrived!” Atticus called.
“Send her in,” the Judge said.
Drake blinked rapidly as the door opened and Viktoria hurried into the increasingly small office, dressed in blue silverweave with her hair done up in her usual braids. Marissa pivoted as Viktoria entered and then smiled wide. Sky’s mom gasped and dashed forward.
The two women threw their arms around each other, laughing and hugging like two old friends. Drake shook his head rapidly to focus. So they knew each other? Sky’s mom and his mom? And that made him and Sky... what?
“It’s so good to see you again,” Viktoria said warmly. “I thought I never would.”
So were his mother and Viktoria sisters? Was Sky his cousin? It’d just be his luck to catch feelings for a cousin without knowing she was his cousin. At least he and Sky hadn’t kissed or done anything else weird. Other than flirt over a magic mirror, and clasp arms a few times.
“And you, my friend,” Marissa said fervently. “How I have missed you.”
His mom had said friend. Not sister. Not relative. So maybe that meant Viktoria and his mother just really liked each other. But did they really like each other?
No. His mom had been banging her battle maid back then, who was a dude and also her blood thrall, rather than banging Sky’s mom, unless they had some weird threesome or even foursome thing going on, and... God! He did not need this in his brain!
Viktoria smiled. “I scarcely believed the word I received today.” She glanced at the Judge. “Not that I would ever question you. I simply assumed someone was mistaken.”
“I assumed the same when the matter was brought to me,” the Judge said. “Yet now that you are all gathered, I have done as Lady Gloomwood asked. I shall take my leave.”
“Thank you, Judge,” Marissa said warmly. “It is an honor to be a friend of the noble court.”
“The honor remains with us,” the Judge said. “Now, I will leave you to your meeting.”
Drake frowned in disbelief. “So now you’re just... giving us your office?”
“You may borrow it as long as you need for today.” The Judge walked around the desk and knocked lightly on the door. “When you are ready to depart, simply notify my man outside and he will call for an escort. No one can eavesdrop on you down here.”
The door opened. Atticus the train conductor stepped back. The Judge strode out with her noble bearing and noble robes, and then Atticus closed the door again. That left Drake alone with Lydia, Viktoria, and a mother he was no longer certain he truly knew.
Had he ever truly known his mom? Or was the woman he’d always believed was a college dropout with a strong work ethic and bad taste in men actually a famous self-exiled manor lord from this world? Had she been slumming it on Earth?
“Hello again, Clint.” Viktoria smiled at him. “I am sorry I did not reveal my suspicions about who your mother was the night of our supper, but I could not be certain. And if you did not know your mother’s circumstances, it was not my place to reveal them.”
“Her circumstances,” Drake said quietly. “Which are she was a fucking manor lord.”
Marissa patted his arm. “My son has always been a fast learner. Back in our world, I often boasted of his independence to the others I served with, even at such a young age.”
I was independent because you left me alone as a latch-key kid who had to cook my own meals, wash my own clothes, and clean our whole damn house, Drake thought resentfully. Once I hit my freshman year of high school, you just weren’t ever there, Mom.
He said none of that aloud. Shocked as he was to see his mother here, and shocked as he was to learn she had once been the Lord Gloomwood, he wasn’t to the point where he was going to air all their dirty laundry in front of her good friend and his own steward.
Though he was going to give her a real earful about all of it once they were in private.
Also, his mother refused to call him Clint. In fact... she’d called him “son” or “Lord Gloomwood” since she’d arrived, rather than saying his real name: Drake.
Could she not say his false name since she knew his real one? If she’d lived in this world, did that mean she could not lie? Also, hadn’t Viktoria been the lord of Skybreak Manor about the same time his mom must have been Lord Gloomwood? The timeline matched up.
“I know you must have a large number of questions about my arrival,” Marissa said. “I promise, I will answer everything I can. But first, are you well? Has anyone hurt you?”
Drake snorted. “Other than the time the old lord tried to ritually sacrifice me? And some assholes broke my knees before I turned into a dire rat and ate them? Or how about the time I got shot by a crossbow, or when I almost had my blood sucked out by an assassin?”
As Marissa’s eyes, Drake continued to grow increasingly more irate.
“Or wait, there was also the time a whole army of mercenaries tried to pump me full of arrows. Oh, and then the noble court and Judge arrested me and tried to chop my damn head off. But other than that? Things have been fine. Real fun place you’ve got here!”
Also, Drake added silently, I’ve murdered at least thirty people, including one guy I straight up executed while he was tied to a chair, and then I made a woman explode. And guess what, Mom? It doesn’t really bother me. I kill people. It’s what we do here every day, isn’t it? Perfectly normal.
Marissa looked truly pained as he spoke. She almost looked like she intended to hug him, which she hadn’t done in almost a decade. He frowned to forestall any of that nonsense.
His mom was not hugging him in front of Viktoria. And certainly not in front of his loyal steward, who was still watching Marissa like she’d just met God.
“I really should excuse myself,” Lydia said quietly. “I will let you talk.”
“No, I would not have asked the Judge to invite you if I did not wish you to be here,” Marissa said. “I was not sure in what state I would find the manor when I returned, but I did know that the lord’s steward was the one person who would have the answer I sought.”
“What answer?” Lydia asked.
“Does the sapling remain safe?”
Lydia smiled brightly. “It does... Lady Gloomwood.”
“That the Eidolons,” his mother whispered.
Drake looked at his mom, who now looked relieved. He looked to Viktoria, who seemed equally pleased. And then he glanced at Lydia, his loyal steward, the brave woman who had nearly killed himself multiple times to keep him alive and keep their manor safe.
She’d never said anything about a sapling. She’d never told him what it was or if it was important or why it would be important. Yet the moment his mom brought it up, she knew.
So it was about time someone let him know too.
“All right,” Drake said impatiently. “The fuck is the sapling?”
Author's Note:
We're back! This is the start of what I'm calling "Book 3" of Rise of a Manor Lord. At this point, Drake has both secured control of his manor from the old lord and gained the favor of the noble court after cleaning the clocks of the opposing manors.
Today kicks off another large arc that I won't spoil other than to say we'll get an answer to some big questions that have been around since Book 1 and, naturally, raise a few new ones. We'll also be getting back to Gloomwood Manor after some more "fun" in the capital.
