Lowly Ascent

"Hello, I am Cain Lavedel. Pleased to meet you"

Cain kissed Rebecca's hand in a gentlemanly manner and they began to converse.

"My brother has said good things, I hear you are a talented merchant"

"Yes, I am a merchant and have recently been growing my business. It is a humble operation, we can only grow so much so quickly."

Targan watched the two talk. As Cain and Rebecca spoke to one another, Targan realized that they complemented each other well and nodded to himself in the corner.

Rebecca was highly intelligent and scholarly, she spent most of her time learning from teachers Targan hired or read books to pass the time. This led her to know many facts that she would bring up in her conversation with Cain.

Cain was already mesmerized by her looks but began to become even more interested in her when he saw how smart and witty she was.

He began to feel an emotion he didn't understand, it was something he never felt before, however, he felt hazy while trying to think of it. It was hard to describe. It was in the palm of his hands but it kept vanishing, he then understood he felt this feeling once before.

Continuing their conversation, Cain and Rebecca headed outside and towards the garden. Targan trailed behind them to make sure everything went peachy, he followed them as they discussed different topics.

"Mister Cain, are you sure you have seen liconic lilacs? They grow only deep in the swamps underwater water, how could you see them here in the center of Netherane?"

"Well I was traveling a few months ago and I came upon a pond for rest. In the pond were the liconic lilacs, though I do not know if them being there was natural, it was an interesting discovery none the less"

The pair continued to converse as they wandered through the garden, took in the view, and spoke about many different things that Targan couldn't wrap his head around.

The two eventually came across a maze, it was made of green brush but had flowers growing out of it. Cain could see lavenders, roses, and even sunflowers growing out of it. It appears that the Garsh family hired a skilled botanist to transplant many plants into the maze brush giving it a colorful look.

"Mister Cain, care to bet? We both enter the maze and whoever makes it to the center first gets to make one request of the loser no matter what, how about it?"

Cain turned to her and bowed "I would gladly take up the challenge, the first one to center wins."

Rebecca didn't wait for Cain to start and ran into the maze as he finished his sentence, she seemed to be quite athletic as she ran with good speed. Cain himself was about to enter before he felt someone's grasp on his arm.

"You are an augmenter, right? You get a 2-minute handicap, Rebecca is a normal human."

Cain didn't respond as Targan was right, but he was still annoyed at the thought of losing and having the possibility of being at a disadvantage in his negotiations with the Garsh family due to owing a favor.

'At least me being an augmenter makes sense with my identity.'

After 2 minutes, Cain was released and he entered the maze. The inside was even more colorful than the outside, there was a sharp increase of flowers, red, purple, blue, green, flowers and plants of all colors filled Cain's vision.

It was like he entered another world, it was beautiful and he even slowed his pace to enjoy the flowery scenery.

To most people, this maze would be a piece of art, but anything could be deadly in Netherane, this place would be a death trap for anyone with allergies.

However, Netherane was also a place where people studied diseases and made cures for them, allergies were rare but in turn, those who had allergies were deathly allergic and could die from just being in contact.

This was the balance that the world created, you can not take much before even nature begins to fight back.

Many scholars believe that the undead invasion was Nature's response to the unnatural buildup of the human population and that the invasion of Free City was to rebalance all of Netherane's elements.

Of course, Cain knew the truth about this occurrence but it didn't mean that there wasn't some law that enforced its rules on everything. A law that kept balance and dictated logic, something you can never see or feel but still know is somehow there.

This is where Cain's thoughts wandered as of late.

Unsurprisingly, he eventually did get lost in the maze while deep in thought.

To quicken his pace, he used the microorganisms in the air to map out a path to the center and began to follow it. It took less than 3 minutes before he entered the center and found himself staring at a beautiful scene.

The center was quite empty, only a few benches were seen with some potted plants. At the heart of this area was soft grass being saturated in the moonlight.

Rebecca was standing in the middle of the grass, she was looking up at the moons in the sky, her amber eyes reflected the light as her hair fluttered in the wind.

Her hair was illuminated by the moons and reflected its light, making it look almost ethereal and giving it a sensational glow.

She eventually noticed Cain's presence and turned to him.

"Looks like I won, ready to listen to my request? Remember you have to do it no matter what!"

"Of course my lady, a bet is a bet after all."

"Don't call me lady! Call me Rebecca, okay? Now...I request that you have to spend more time with me, I enjoy your company very much!"

Cain chuckled "I already planned to do such a thing, I enjoy your company as well Miss Rebecca."

She smiled and sat down on the grass, after a while, Cain joined her and sat beside her.

They looked up at the sky.

Eventually, Cain broke the silence and asked her a question.

"Your brother says you have family issues, may I know what it is about? Please pardon my curiosity."

Rebecca looked down from the sky and responded.

"I don't mind it, it's not a secret. I was born between my father and a commoner who was a servant. Because of this, my father felt disgraced by my birth. He treated me as non-existent and left my mother, though we were still able to take refuge inside the family, we were only living as lowly workers."

She closed her eyes.

"It was ok for a while, but one day a family guard killed my mother after having his way with her. My father and the family did nothing about this...

"...thankfully Targan was older now and was able to kill him personally, After that he took care of me most of the time, he had the ability to since he was to be the next patriarch, but he spent less and less time with me because of his duties to the family."

Rebecca opened her eyes and looked at Cain.

"More recently, I have gotten many suitors because of my looks. All of them are lustful nobles who want to take advantage of me. My family was happy to do so at first. But my brother came to my rescue again and protected me. He decided he would find a suitor for me himself."

"And I am one of your suitors right?"

Rebecca looked deeply into Cain's eyes and sadly smirked.

"You're only half right, you are my only suitor. You're the only one who fit my brother's parameters, not only were you talented, but also diligent. And you are unlike other young men who go to brothels to quench their lust, you work with your workers and do the same backbreaking labor they do. So my brother found you to be the perfect husband for me."

'These days I have Anders and the rest doing my job....' Cain gave himself a self-deprecating laugh.

Rebecca sat up and rested her head on Cain's shoulder as they sat there. He still had one more question he wanted to ask after hearing her life story.

"Do you hate your family?"

Rebecca responded as she rested her head on Cain's shoulder with her eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of leaning on him.

"No, they have always provided for me, Brother has also always helped me and cared for me. I plan to help my family in any way I can, I just don't want to give up my freedom and independence doing it. I love my family and will protect them with all I can if I have to"

With his curiosity quenched, he turned silent. He decided to enjoy the scenery.

They sat in silence as they enjoyed each other's company, Cain was wrapped up in a feeling he couldn't understand, he was in euphoria while relishing this feeling, he became tired and rested his head on Rebecca as he drifted off to sleep.

"Hey, wake up you too! It's been almost an hour, you have to get back to the banquet!"

Cain was woken up by Targan in front of him. After listening to Rebecca, he was sure Targan was an overprotective doting brother who only wanted the best for his sister.

He watched as Rebecca began to berate Targan for ruining her good time. He was at her mercy and allowed her to scream and insult him as she pouted.

'Hmm.....that emotion before messed with my head. This girl is far too forthcoming and innocent. With her upbringing......a trick?'

Cain internally laughed at the irony.