The End of Innocence: Book 3 of the Kinstone series

I take her around the second floor, going the same route I took Jenn on back in December. The most I showed her was a few of the rooms there.

When we come up the library, I place my hand onto the door, rasping a soft knock, “Coming in.”

Diana looks to me, “Why did you do that?”

I lower my hand to the handle, pushing it down and opening the door. “It’s a courtesy, to let the spirits of the library know you are entering their domain.”

In reality, it serves as a way to let Xiphos know we were there. Despite him already knowing we are there, it’s still being polite to do so.

She look to me as we stepped inside, “Spirits? You believe in spirits?”

I pan around the room, “Yep. I even performed for them while I was in Japan.” Her eyes faintly twitched, appearing to look at me with disbelief.

“You did a lot while there.”

I grin, “Yep, I sure did. I hope to go back soon.”

I spin around and lean against the bookcase, “Well…this is where I often spend a little of my day. Just me and hundreds of books.”

I make a passing glance as I see Xiphos peering out from behind a book shelf on the upper level. When Diana has her back turned, I give him a soft bow with my head. My tutor smiles, slipping back into the darkness.

I look back at my guest, whose mouth stood open in shock, “This place is enormous. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many books in my life.”

I grin, panning around, “I’ve been in an even bigger one while in France.” Much bigger.

She looked to me, “You’ve been to France?”

I cross my arms, “Yep, was there nearly a year ago with my mom. Wish I could say that it was a good time, but it turned into a major bummer in the end.”

Namely due to a certain pair of girls who thought they could order me around. I still wished could’ve seen their reactions when they learned that I was their princess. It must’ve really pissed them off. The memory of them attacking me flashes back into my mind. I sigh softly.

She stands there in a mild shock, “Where else have you been?”

I grin, “England and Italy, Japan I went to a couple years ago for the first time with my mom. Well, it was long before she became my mother. At the time she was my teacher.”

Her mouth curls open, “Your mother was your teacher? What about your family? Weren’t they concerned about you flying off all over the world and you not telling her- I mean them?”

Her questions hold a more accusatory tone, to the point where again she for some reason felt offended. It was true that I kept my trips a secret from them. But the truth was that I choose not to tell them. It was my life after all.

I look to her, “I was on a school trip when I went to Japan and England. The trip to Japan was on short notice and I quickly jumped at the chance to go. When I got back we had a very long conversation about it.”

I looked away, yeah I did, and it was the last time I was there with most of them. The part about it being a “school” trip was a partial lie. Rachel had taken me there to further my studies, but also a chance to spend some alone time with her.

I sigh, shaking my head, “It’s now all in the past. And it doesn’t really matter to me anymore.”

She turns to me, stepping closer, but then stops and goes around the room. She glances at me from behind a bookcase, strumming her hand over the books. “Well what did they say when you told them?”

I look to her, “Let’s just say that words were spoken, which caused me to leave and not return for a few months, mainly due to hearing about them being killed.”

She slips behind me, heading for the fireplace. “I see.”

I turn to look at her, just what was that all about? I thought. You keep acting like I somehow offended you. I brush it off, maybe I’m overthinking things.

She then reappears beside me, walking towards my right, and into another section. I open my mouth to saying, but chose not to, seeing how she moved on and didn’t continue the matter.

I clench my chest, watching as the sun shines gently through the windows behind me. Fenris was sitting in the doorway, eyes ever trained on my guest. He tried to maintain a neutral appearance, but I knew that he couldn’t. He was far too concerned about her to hide it.

I rise from the table and walk over to a case and reach for a random book, opening it. The subject didn’t matter, just the fact I have something in my hand was enough. The library had been reordered, with most of the books pertaining to magic and other subjects residing on the upper level, under Xiphos’ guard.

The room is quiet, apart from the shuffling of feet coming from her. She continues to pace around the library, seeming interested in one thing and then to the next. I was about to go over to her, but the book I was reading started to become rather fascinating.

I pan over the window to see that the sun is starting to set a bit lower in the sky. I slam the book shut, which makes her and Fenris jump a little. I place the book back onto the shelf, panning over to her, “Want to head out onto the Estate?”

Diana emerges from behind a bookcase, also with a book on her hand, “Sure. Just…can we not be out for the long. I’m not much of the outdoorsy-type.”

I smirk, “So you said that I was more at home in a mall, but here you are saying that you’re not much for the great outdoors. And you lived in Chattanooga, a place full of forests and hills.”

She walked over to where I am and leans in, “Hey, just because I lived there doesn’t mean that I had to like being outside.”

I shrug, “Ok, just hope your shoes can handle the amount of walking we’re gonna be doing, and it will be a lot.”

She smirks, “Only if you can keep up yourself.”

I grin, tilting my head, “Is that a challenge?”

“What do you think?”

I sniff, motioning my head towards the entrance, “Let’s see then, shall we?”

She smiles as we both then turn for the door. Just before we left, I peer once more up onto the second level, bowing my head to the sphinx.

He smiles, “Take care little scholar,” hearing his voice in my mind. I grab the door and close it, smiling back.

A few minutes of walking through the hallway later we finally emerged back into the foyer. I slid my hand on the railing as we descended the staircase. The sun had sunk a little more in the sky since we left the library, meaning it was probably after 2:00.

The front of the Manor felt a bit warmer than it did just a few hours ago. The chandelier had been turned off, allowing more of the natural light to filter in from the rear of the house. The colors are brighter and full of yellows and whites as the sun passes through the numerous curtains and windows. It is the perfect time to go out for a walk.

We landed onto the bottom floor and I rounded us towards the back. I saw the door to the parlor slightly ajar, meaning that Rachel was probably inside working on something. Since we returned from the Gathering, I had noticed she was a lot busier than usual. She usually left most of the day-to-day operations to those who worked for her, and they would still send her packets of information pertaining to anything that needed her to personally look over.

Summers were the worst for her, mainly July and August that saw a dramatic increase in files and reports to go over. Maybe it had to deal with the third quarter being the wackiest before the start of fall. I don’t know. I learned to never bother her during those months. Well after September began, things tended to slow down and with it her workload.

Last year it was about that time when she and I resumed our lessons, seeing how she had a lot more time on her hands. I also knew that while she did miss me when I flew up to see Jenn, she took full advantage of extra quiet to power through the second quarter reports and started working on some for the following quarter.

We quietly snuck past the parlor, hoping to not disturb her. The only issue was Fenris. His claws click loudly on the marble tiling, and the rather exemplary acoustics of the foyer meant my mother could hear everything, even if the door is fully closed. Just as we slip passed the door, I hear papers dropping onto the floor.

“Oh damn,” I hear her shout. I look to Diana, hoping she was following my lead and staying just as quiet.

“Aria?”

I stop dead in my tracks, leaning back into view of the French door, “Yes ma’am?”

She smiles softly, “Are you three heading out onto the Estate?”

I step back and open the door a little, “We are. I’m gonna take Diana around the forest and maybe to the lake. I think we should be back in a couple hours.”

She picked up a few scattered reports off of the floor, “Be sure to wear a hat. It’s rather hot outside and I don’t want you to get burned too badly.”

I turn to find my Gatsby hat resting on a hanger. I lean over and snatch it, plopping it on my head, “Okay…good to go,” stepping back into the doorframe.

She gazes up, knocking the once scattered papers into a neat stack, “Good girl. Now, both of you have fun on your walk. Oh, know that Orga and Kateryna went out just a few minutes ago. So you stand a fair chance of running into them.”

Crap. I nearly forgot that this is when they went out and sparred with each other. They loved going out in the mid-afternoon towards where I set up my training grounds and exercise together. I still would like to either join in with them or have them train with. I think it be kind of fun to spar with a pair of magical knights.

But then if I showed up with Diana, I’d have to explain why two people were swinging real swords at each other. Oh, not to mention that fact that if I did show up while they were in the middle of their session, they’d immediately stop and bow to me. I’d also have to find a way to explain why they would greet me as “Your Highness”. That would be a really dozy of a story to come up with.

“Thanks Rachel. I’ll keep that in mind.”

She nodded, and returns to her work, “Oh, one more thing sweetheart. There are a pair of water bottles for the both of you by the door. I figured you would want to take your guest out onto the Estate and had them prepared for you.”

I pan back towards the door to see two large hiking bottles sitting there on a table. I smirked; she’s just as good at predicting my thoughts as I am at planning out my builds.

“Thanks again Rachel,” turning back to her.

She smiles, signing a few more documents, “Be safe out there sweetheart.” I waved to her, slipping out of sight.

As we approached the door, I snatch up the bottles, handing one to Diana. She takes it and loops it over her head and arm, with me doing the same. Abigale and Lyra both stand by the door, each maid smiles and bows.

“Have a good time, Young Miss,” greets the kikimora.

I nod to her, panning over to my swordmaster, who taps the inner part of her left wrist twice with her right middle and index fingers.

I smirk, holding up my left arm, tapping my elbow twice and streaking up halfway my forearm. A broad grin stretches on her face.

“Tomorrow, early,” I say to the valkyire as they opened the door.

She chuckles, “See you bright and early then Young Miss.” I smirk once more, shaking my head as Diana, Fenris, and I step out onto the back deck.

“What was that all about?” asks Diana as we head toward the steps.

I look over to her, “Oh…that was just Lyra telling me to ‘watch my grip’, meaning to look where I’m going. I responded by telling her to ‘shine her shield’. In others words, I know what I’m doing. It’s a joke between the two of us. Which also means that its call for a training session. Lyra is my sword master. She’s the one whose been teaching me how use the weapon, after my mom and sister started training me.”

The girl looks to me, “You mean the sister who lives in Seattle?”

I grin, staring out into the forest as we step onto the grass, “Marron is one of my sisters, and the other is Silvi. She’s are resident survival expert and game warden. She’s also an avid hunter. I often go with her into the forest looking for deer.”

Her eyes grow bigger, “You hunt?”

My grin widens, “Yep. But we do it a few times a month. But she will sometimes come to the Manor for dinner.”

She looks to me, “Poor Bambi.”

I shrug, “Oh well, that’s life. Besides, it’s a lot of fun and it great bonding for the both of us. I went hunting with my dad years ago, and we had a great time together.”

He and I went dove hunting well over a decade ago and it was fun, we even went deer hunting. Well…now I get to do pretty much whenever I want, within reason of course.