Damien supported his daughter in this new ambition of hers, while Tristan just couldn't believe she was serious. She was a girl and she may have been everyone's golden-haired princess, but that didn't make her a knight.
She didn't let herself be discouraged, though. If anything, her brother's lack of faith made her even more determined to prove him wrong, for everything he had put her through.
And even if she didn't become a knight at the end, the stronger and the better fighter she became, the less able Tristan would be to bully her. That was something in itself.
But there were also times when whacking her brother's stupid training dummy with a wooden sword was just to keep her busy and help her clear her mind. She was still grieving for her mother and the fact that she felt like the only one was only making it worse. She felt lonely and didn't really know how to approach her own family.
She wanted love, but had no idea where to find it. She grew up surrounded by parties and easy affection, but without her father's or brother's confidence and charm, she had always felt on the edge of all his father's gatherings. She had watched Adrian and Delia fall in love, but didn't really understand how exactly it happened.
As weeks passed, she grew so desperate, she was willing to turn to magic to get it.
She had often walked past the gypsy's stall with its promises of granted wishes and true love, often interested and tempted, but only now she dared to really approach the mysterious-looking gypsy. She was obviously old, but her face was unlined and her eyes seemed to look directly into the soul.
"I need..." Elena started nervously, handing her all the money she had managed to save up or take from home, but the gypsy stopped her before she could really finish her sentence.
"I know what you want." She said. "Someone to spend time with, someone who would understand you. Look deep into my crystal ball and I will show you one such person."
Elena looked and the crystal ball started to glow, first just a little and then brighter and brighter. She thought she glimpsed a figure behind the glow, but it might have been just her eyes.
And then the crystal ball stopped glowing and the smiling gypsy motioned behind her. And there stood a boy with red hair and a lovely smile.
Elena just stared at him, but luckily the boy reacted faster than she did. "So, you're my one true love?" He asked, his eyes sparkling.
"I... don't know. Maybe? The gypsy says so?" But it just took one more look into the boy's eyes and Elena was already giggling. They spent the whole day in the marketplace, talking about everything they could think of, and laughing a lot.
Hours flew by faster than Elena ever remembered and than it was evening and she would have to go home. She almost didn't want to leave him, afraid that the magic would only last that one day.
But if it was just for a day, she wanted to remember that day for a long time. She wanted to kiss Orin goodbye like she had watched countless times at home, be it her parents, her brother or Adrian and Delia, but in the end her nervousness returned and she just touched his lips quickly. It still felt good, though, and it still was a memory to hold on to, together with Orin's warm smile as she turned to run home.
Tristan never used to care about lord Adrian's romances any more than he cared about his lawful wife. They were not part of his life and that made them unimportant, at least when he was still the most important person in Adrian's life. Tristan never cared when Adrian and Delia found each other, maybe even encouraged them to have fun, but he had never expected Delia to threaten his own position.
But now the two had actually married, Delia was carrying herself like it made her nobility and Adrian seemed only more taken with her, completely ignoring him. It was driving him mad. And what was worse, the two never seemed to realise this and continued flaunting their affection right before him.
One day he was too sick of it to watch silently any more and finally confronted Delia.
"So, you think you're better than me now?" He snapped at her.
She flinched, looking confused, but Tristan was sure there was guilt behind it too. As there should be.
"You with your pretty dress and big house, pretending when you're better than me when you're not." Tristan continued, watching the hurt build up in her face.
"But... I'm not... I don't think... What did I do?"
He wanted to scream at her that she stole his father from him, but even in his anger and desire to hurt he could see how stupid it sounded. He just hated feeling less important than her.
"You're disgusting." He said in the end and turned his back on her.
Delia didn't understand what she had done to insult her cousin, but she did her best to put it out of her mind. Tristan made it clear he wouldn't accept any apologies and, hurt as she was, Delia hoped he would get over his strange animosity in time.
Everything else seemed just perfect, though. Alysanne seemed happier than Delia had ever seen her, finally proud of her daughter, and it seemed all the past troubles were finally forgotten. Delia had almost given up on making her mother happy and she couldn't get enough of her approval.
And Adrian was overjoyed with his sons' achievements. Lucien had learned to walk and Edric was growing tall like his father and bringing only praise from school. Adrian had great expectations of both of them and was already making plans for their future lives.
Delia thought she couldn't possibly be happier.
Tristan, meanwhile, was searching for something to make him feel better. He mostly wanted a way to get Adrian's attention again and prove his own worth to everyone, but even a distraction would do, as long as it was something to do.
He was fascinated by Finn from the moment he met him. Finn was basically an outcast, hardly even went to the stupid school, and didn't seem to care about what people thought about him. It was almost like he was proud of his reputation and everything the society saw as failures.
Tristan listened when his new friend told him about Delia and her hypocrisy and about ways how to feel like a king of the night and get back at everyone who may have wronged him.
The only disappointment was when Tristan asked his new friend to really teach him and Finn refused, saying real crime was not for rebellious children. He even suggested he wasn't any different from Delia all those years ago, which was just unfair. Tristan had almost knight training, he would never be caught like an idiot child.
But when he was considering other possible partners in crime, Tristan noticed there was something different about Devin. His normally dull and boring cousin now seemed dark and mysterious, with an almost threatening aura around him. He was also pale and seemed lost in thought, but what was important, he finally seemed interesting and maybe even capable.
When Tristan suggested robbing the village wine seller, Devin hesitated, but in some ways at least he was still the old pushover and it didn't take much to make him go along with the plan.
Tristan didn't really know what exactly he wanted to achieve, except getting drunk. He probably just wanted to feel in control of his own life. One thing he definitely did not want or expect was to be caught by the angry merchant and threatened with various punishments, from spanking to the stocks. Devin somehow managed to disappear, almost as if he blended into shadows or flew away and Tristan realised he was completely alone.
At first he laughed at all the threats, convinced that being a noble's son made him untouchable. He even dared the merchant to call a guard if he wanted to, that most of them were friends of lord Adrian's anyway. But then the guard actually came and took the side of the merchant.
Tristan just didn't understand it. He knew Arthur, had often seen him drink with Adrian at hunting parties or even at home, but now it was as if it didn't matter at all. He tried to explain he wasn't stealing, not really, and didn't manage to take anything, anyway, but Arthur wouldn't hear any of it. Tristan couldn't even recognise the normally friendly and easygoing man in the strict guard that stood before him.
As a last defence he stuck to just hiding behind lord Adrian's name. He claimed Adrian would not be happy if his son, oldest living one in fact, was arrested or humiliated with such conviction he finally made Arthur slow down in his talk of punishment.
"I'll talk with him, then." He finally said, his voice still cold and unfriendly. "But he will not be happy to hear his son is a common thief, either."
Tristan wanted to wave this aside and say he knew his own father well enough to not be afraid, but Artur continued:
"And there is no way a common thief who is not even brave enough to accept his fault and punishment will become a knight, no matter who his father is. I will make sure of that."
And that was the end of all discussion. Tristan tried to protest, but it was like Arthur had made a decision and wasn't even listening to him any more. As he was led back home, his shock was slowly replaced with fear that was hard to completely shake off.
Damien lectured him about stealing and even threatened to take off his belt, but Tristan knew him too well to be worried by this show of strictness. He told himself he was safe, but Arthur's words were still at the back of his mind and as time passed they were getting harder and harder to ignore.
Tristan expected lord Adrian to come to his defense, to put the stupid merchant back in his place or at least come and assure him the knight training would still be open to him. But days turned into weeks and then months, both the wine merchant and the guard continued to frown at Tristan and there was no help from Adrian at all.
Slowly it dawned on him that maybe Arthur had meant what he had said and the road to becoming a knight might actually be closed and that thought immediately made him wish he had taken the spanking instead, or any other punishment. At least that humiliation would be less public.
And what would he do if his whole life and future was really ruined?
And then he saw Edric again and everything clicked into place. His father had a new family now, new sons who thought they were better than him. Tere was no doubt it was they who had poisoned Adrian's mind and turned him against Tristan. It all made so much sense it was a relief.
He watched Edric become increasingly hostile every time they saw each other and understood perfectly what it meant. The more success he had in stealing his father from him, the less he had to pretend.
He watched the boy walk through the village as if he owned everything until one day he couldn't take it any more. He didn't even know what exactly it was that made him snap, just that suddenly he was walking up to Edric and slapping him hard across the face.
Edric stared for a moment, touching his burning cheek in complete disbelief. But then his face grew hard and his hands clenched into fists.
"How dare you? You insult me, insult my mother... how dare you?" He growled, almost shaking with anger. Tristan drew back in surprise and then Edric slapped him back. "This is too much. I'll ask father to deal with you." He finished.
Tristan wanted to snap back at him, but he found himself unable to speak. As much as he wanted to believe the boy was stupid, worthless and jealous, just the thought of Adrian rejecting him was too much to bear, even if there wasn't Arthur's threat still lurking at the back of his mind.
He just knew he needed to somehow get back at Edric.
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