Tiber sat up, awake, Albert was by his side and Heron had her arms and wrapped around him and a leg on top of his. It was then Tiber noticed he and her were nude, Uruk was standing at the door and the ring of metal at Yagrum's forge dominated the room.
Albert held a liquid to his lips, "Here you are," Tiber drank the liquid.
"Why…" he couldn't form any more words.
"Well, the MadGod took you by surprise, I always cover myself with a ward when reading magical texts, so as to be prepared, you were hit with a force far greater than I was hit, you've been out for two days, you went cold so Heron elected to keep you warm, and we put you with the forge so that it would be easier for you to stay warm and she could leave to eat and such," He sighed and brushed Heron's fur off of Tiber then sopped him with a washrag, Heron began cleaning herself as well, albeit in a catlike way. Meroth was muttering to himself in a corner.
"Isn't there servants to take care of such needs?" Tiber asked.
"No, and also I am honored to do such a thing for the future emperor, such was my upbringing and training!" Albert said enthusiastically.
"Speaking of, how old are you?" Tiber asked, a double ploy, he was genuinely curious, and it's the little things that you wish to know that makes them feel special, all his elites shall feel this way as he will be with them for some time.
"Well, next month, I will be seventeen," he said with a chuckle.
"Seventeen? That's!"
"Younger than you, yes," Albert said, guffawing.
"Why does Camoran have one who is younger than me guarding me?" Tiber asked.
"Well, he had one much older than me prepared for it, he had me bred as one of the mages in the army, but however, I exceeded all expectations by destroying my teacher by accident during training, he was showing us how proper wards worked, supposedly blocking all magic if properly executed and sustained. I was the best student in all the schools of magic, which is why I was chosen, so he told me to cast the most powerful destruction spell I knew... So, I summoned up all my strength, figured, you know the most I would do is catch him a bit on fire, nothing more major than the accidents in class... I had created a most powerful spell, I called it meteor crush, it requires a pebble with a bit of alteration magic, now I can do it without the pebble, but I digress... The point is to inflate the pebble with a great amount of Magicka and then wrap it in a ball of fire... Well, the spell did much more than I thought it would, well, more than any of us thought it would... He saw me pick up the pebble and chuckled, even chuckled as it seemed to grow and then catch fire..." he licked his lips, "It obliterated him," he began laughing madly, his pauses were not of silent regret, but of excitement. After a while he calmed down, and began breathing evenly, "We were made to think of the teacher like an enemy while he instructed us to attempt to destroy him, most of the times, we did not succeed, but that was because most of the time he had not asked me, he saw the demonstrations of my power and knew that he would lose in a battle, he only allowed me to go at him that time because he truly believed his ward would completely protect him," he wound down a little bit, "I made the joke, 'well, he asked for it' which was true, but unfortunate, he was a good teacher and his replacement wasn't as good. Anyways, the one much older than me began training me to become his replacement, he was only mildly inferior, but his knowledge surpassed mine so I did not claim my true place yet. I talked to Camoran after learning all the old fool would teach me and requested I become the guard and not simply the replacement. He stated the terms, that I challenge him and he step down or he accepts and I kill him. I challenged him and he shook my hand and stepped down. He replaced the replacement as the teacher of magic," Albert smiled, "I was glad I did not have to kill him, after all we must think not of who deserves the role more rather, we must think of who would be better at it,"
"How very noble of you, so tell me, if someone who were your better wanted to replace you, would you step down like a reasonable person?" Tiber asked.
"No, I would fight the person, that was one flaw with the stepping down, either the man was greatly incompetent or extremely wise, however if I do not presume surety of the others ability, I would want to see it for myself and if they won, then good, I have left you in good hands, if they lost, then I need not leave you,"
Tiber nodded slowly, laying back down, he felt exhausted still, sickly from the poison of the Madgod's voice. He coughed and accepted more of the liquid, he rolled over and allowed sleep to take him once more.