Walden the second son of the second house of Fos, enthralled the others with a recount of when his party had stumbled upon the gruesome remains of a small traveling party that had been attacked by bandits. “They killed everyone! Even the children’s throats had been slit.” Walden dragged a stubby finger across his neck. “I overheard my guard talking. They were unnerved by the pattern of corpses. They said it appeared the people had not even attempted to escape. They had stood around their cart and welcomed their deaths.” “The bandits likely had them surrounded,” Jaco, a son of a minor branch of House Aquata dismissed. “They were unable to run.” Walden clearly believed otherwise, but he was unable to offer a viable rebuttal to Jaco’s explanation. …show more content…
“I heard that stretch of road has been plagued by banditry for the last two seasons. The lord has been unable to capture or even identify the culprits because the bandits are led by a Gifted.” Vesperanza scoffed at that. “Why would a Gifted be a bandit?” “Not every Gifted is born into a noble family,” Odelia replied. “This one was probably the illegitimate offspring of a paid-woman.” “Every member of the Gifted studies at the academy,” Vesperanza countered with a sharp tone. “They would have secured employment and would not have turned to criminality. Obviously.” Throughout the afternoon, two more first years joined them inside the lounge. They were the children of House Trastamara and had traveled to the academy in joint company. Cajsa was well known to Vesperanza as they were first cousins, but the boy was unfamiliar. Cajsa introduced the quiet boy to the group as Gaetan, first cousin once-removed to Vesperanza and herself. “He is great uncle Reginaldo’s youngest son,” Cajsa explained breezily. She sat down on Vesperanza’s right while Gaetan remained standing at the end of the