Path to Transcendence

Lily POV

There were times when she resented being the daughter of House Violet.

It wasn't because her family was awful or cruel. In fact, they couldn't be further from it. Out of the many noble houses that did terrible things, House Violet was one of the good ones.

No, what she hated was the expectations that came with being from such an esteemed family. Everyone in the Empire knew of House Violet's reputation. Which made it difficult to live up to them.

Sometimes those expectations were too heavy for her small shoulders. And it was only thanks to her friends that she was able to bear it. They helped support her when she felt like she was going to crumple from the pressure. Not only that, but she had surprisingly managed to gain another person she felt like she could call a friend.

Or at least she thought.

She did her best not to crumble the piece of paper within her grasp. However, she accidentally released a strong pulse of psychic energy as a result of her anger.

How could Julius be so stubborn and stupid? It made her want to run off and find him so that she could throttle him. Perhaps if she hit him in the head hard enough, he would start making better decisions.

"Shit! Calm down, Lily! It hurts!" Aubrey yelled.

Derek, Edgar, and Kyle were all similarly holding their heads as they were subjected to Lily's mental attack.

Their pain jolted her back to reality and helped her rein in her emotions.

"Sorry, sorry! I lost control for a moment," she apologized to them. That was embarrassing, I haven't done that since I was second year, she scolded herself.

Lily turned her attention back to the letter in her hands.

Well, what was once a letter. It closer resembled a ball of paper at this point. At some time and as her concentration was interrupted she realized she had involuntarily crumpled the letter.

Cursing the boy in mind, she unraveled the letter she received from one of her family's trusted retainers and reread it.

Hello Lily,

Before anything else, I want to say I am sorry for worrying you guys so much. I am safe, as safe as I can be. I know you probably think that's not very reassuring, but I can promise you I am making an effort.

I don't know when this letter will reach you but I will give a brief explanation as to what happened and why I am no longer in Heston.

There was an attempt on the princess's life, go figure. And I was unfortunately caught up in it. I will explain everything when I see you, but long story short, we got transported to the northeast region. I would tell you exactly where, but I have a feeling you might try and hunt me down.

I know, I know. But before you get even more mad at me, I wanted to say that I believe this might be good for me. It may not have been planned, but this could be an excellent experience for me.

You know better than most that I haven't seen much of the Empire and I don't want to waste this chance.

I still plan to come back, don't think for a moment I'm not. But along the way, I might take some detours or take a longer, more scenic route. Who knows, I have a feeling that we might get into some trouble along the way so that could be exciting.

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well and I can't wait to see you guys when I come back.

Sincerely,

Julius

P.S. Aubrey, if you're asking Lily why I didn't send this letter to you instead, it's because I have no idea how to get something to you. She was the easiest person to get a hold of considering her connections and no offense, but I trust her judgment on who she thinks she should share this information with more.

After she got through it a second time, it almost made her angrier. Why didn't he want to tell her where he was? She could have her family find him within a day and get them both back. It would be quite simple, and she didn't know what was going on in that stupid brain of his.

It was also safe to assume that the princess was with him considering he used the word 'we' multiple times. That was a whole other issue that she wanted nothing to do with.

To be fair, she kind of understood his reasoning to explore the world before he came back. She remembered him telling them a little bit about his childhood. He hadn't experienced anything else other than the same estate for his entire life.

It must have been oppressive and lonely. She most likely would have done something similar if she had been raised similarly.

It just infuriated her that he believed now was the best time to go adventuring. He probably failed to realize that there were so many organizations and powers frantically searching for the princess. This whole situation was a living nightmare.

At least she knew that he was within the northeastern region of the Empire. She could let her people know where to start looking. She expected there would be some sort of incident that drew attention to him while he was exploring. That was just the kind of boy he was.

"What does it say?" Edgar asked, the others all leaning forward expectantly.

Lily let out a long breath and passed the crumpled letter over to him so that he could read it for himself.

The others all squished together so that they were able to read it as well.
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Before ten seconds passed, Aubrey shouted. "Why didn't he send it to anyone else? Why did he only send it to you?"

Edgar gave Aubrey a soft flick to her shoulder. "You should be grateful that he is even alive and okay," he chided her.

"Eh, there wasn't any doubt that he survived," she stated boldly.

"I recall you just the other night, being very upset about not knowing what happened to him," Edgar reminded her.

"No, I wasn't. I was just mad that I didn't know what happened," Aubrey lamely argued.

"Sure," Edgar said, making it clear that he didn't believe a single word.

"Can you two be quiet, some of us are trying to read," Kyle said.

"I just want to know why he only sent it to her," Aubrey stated.

Lily only shook her head. "Read the entire thing."

Aubrey pinched her eyebrows together but did as she said. When she was done, she looked noticeably more deflated.

"What's wrong with my judgment?" She muttered softly.

The others all gave her quick glances but didn't say anything. They all were thinking the same thing but didn't think it was the right time to mention it.

Edgar finally spoke up. "What are we going to do with this?"

Derek scratched his cheek and carefully removed the letter from Edgar's hands. "I don't know. On one hand, the royal family will be elated to know that their princess is alright. However, I am not sure we should tell them."

"You don't think we should let them know? I mean, I don't care about the royal family, but even I know that they will be pretty pissed if we keep this from them," Aubrey stated.

"True, but Julius is asking us to keep it secret for now," Edgar pointed out.

"Yeah, that's another thing. Are we really just going to allow him to take an adventure and not look for him?" Aubrey asked.

"Who said we aren't going to look for him?" Lily asked with her arms crossed over her chest.

"But didn't he ask for some time to explore?" Kyle interjected.

Lily stared at Kyle who leaned back under the pressure of her gaze. "He is going to get some time to explore. He will have as much time as it takes until we find him. That is all he is going to get though. I don't trust Julius to stay out of trouble enough that I feel comfortable with him traveling the Empire with a princess in tow," she said intensely.

"That's a good point," Derek added. "I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't already gotten himself into a dangerous situation."

"My point exactly," she said.

"So we're not going to tell anyone about the princess's survival? But are going to look for Julius?" Aubrey asked.

"Yes, she might honestly be safer if no one knows where she is. I will also have some of my people keep an eye out for anyone who matches his description," she turned to Derek. "Can you ask some of your people to do the same?"

Derek nodded. "I already have. But I will let them know to direct their attention to the northeast for the time being. Maybe they can find some signs of Julius that might lead us to him."

She smiled gratefully at him. Hopefully, with their resources, they could find Julius before he did something dumb and got himself killed.

While she sometimes didn't like being a part of such a renowned House, she must admit that at times like this, she was grateful for it. It was because of her House that she was able to use her vast resources to track this silly boy down.

The northeast was pretty far away from most of the Empire's politics, but she had plenty of contacts there that would gladly help her keep a lookout for a certain troublesome boy.

The others slowly left and headed off to do their own things. Lily though, remained with the letter in one hand. Once she was alone though, she couldn't help but reveal the smile she had been holding in.

Her friend was alive and for the time being, that was all that mattered.