Chapter 6
1202 Words
Upstairs in Lord Kramer’s home, Lady Kramer was occupied with her own troubles.
“Vincent! Get up! What are you doing? Where is your gift for your father?!”
“Mother! Get out of my room!!” the sleepy heir to the Kramer empire mumbled.
“Why?” Lady Ginnie Kramer shot back icily, “Because of your friend? Or should I say friends?” she continued caustically as she eyed the girls in her son’s bed.
“Are you still messing around at this hour?” she complained, her soft voice rising exponentially.
“Mother!!” the heir to the great Kramer empire groaned as he turned face down on his palatial bed.
“See them out, wake him up, and get him down to the design room,” Lady Kramer ordered frostily as she spun around, breezing out of her son’s room the same way she had breezed in.
“Yes, ma’am,” the head butler of the Kramer household droned, bowing his white head to his Madam.
==========
An hour later, Master Kramer sauntered into the design room, where his mother had been waiting for him.
Her eyes were on four large paper designs, a cold cup of tea at her elbow.
Vincent ran a slender hand through his thick mane. His dangling earring trembling from his fingers brushing against it.
A long, gem, bead, and silver, single-drop earring of Vincent Kramer’s own design – his protection gem.
Just as the images his mother was gazing lovingly at were his designs.
His irritation faded as he watched his mother’s eyes. The young heir smiled sweetly.
“Which do you prefer?” he called out respectfully as he approached the slender beauty at his crafting table. His mother. A slight, graceful woman in her late forties who could easily pass for younger.
Ginnie Kramer smacked her cheeks, eyes still on the drawings. Well, more like diagrams. Each one contained not only a sketch but also details of dimensions, weights, and materials for each part.
“I can’t choose!” she gushed.
Vincent laughed contentedly. His mother’s praise never failed to delight him. Just as her consistent intrusions into his privacy never failed to piss him off.
He moved to her side as a maid entered with a full tray of breakfast foods for the young master, even though it was well past noon.
Vincent ignored the maid, just as he ignored the implication of the food. His mother always liked her little punishments. He would have to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Even if he had left his room at six p.m., Lady Kramer would make him ‘do the right thing.’ Nothing was allowed to be missed or skipped.
Vincent pushed his irritation down. He leaned over her shoulder, gazing at the papers.
“So, these four, huh? The others have been weeded out?”
“Yes, these ones, my sweet!” Ginnie Kramer breathed, turning to kiss her son on the cheek, holding his face in place with her palm on the opposite side of his slim face.
Vincent grimaced, but he wasn’t upset. “Mother…,” he droned, fake complaining.
Ginnie wiped her lipstick off her son’s clean-shaven face, smiling proudly up at him. She turned back to the papers.
“The colors, the gems, they’re all…all so…,” she commented, mesmerized.
“Magnificent?” a deep voice rolled into the room, cutting off Ginnie Kramer’s next words.
Mother and son glanced up at the same time, and they both flipped the drawings face down as they smiled at the intruder.
“Father!”
“Edward!”
“Do you know what time it is?” he shot off-hand at his son, while nodding gently as his wife, his expression tight.
Vincent’s brow furrowed. He moved away from his mother as Lord Edward Kramer strolled into his son’s office. Vincent’s workroom. The design room of the Kramer estate.
The Kramers were descendants of the ancient rulers of the nation, Ashrone.
Every descendant was born with an affinity for gems – locating them, harnessing their powers, or crafting tools or weapons from the various gems – miners, alchemists, and crafters.
It was why their ancestors had been able to discover and eventually control the best mines in the land.
Most descendants had one gift. They may have other general, more commonplace magical talents or affinities, but one of these three was present.
Gifted ones had two, in any combination.
Only an ‘Emperor’, as with the first Kramer, could do all three.
Vincent, the heir, was a crafter.
His father, the current Lord Kramer, had none of the Kramer-specific talents. What he was, however, was an astute businessman, a top strategist in both commercial and technical matters.
He had moved the Kramer wealth forward since taking over as Head.
The businessman was staring down at his only child, his heir, who had slept into a workday.
“Daytime?” Vincent tossed casually at his father.
“You –” Edward snapped.
“Darling! Our son has been working tirelessly on your present. He has been quite busy, working into the night on it –” Lady Kramer cut in, her eyes pleading with her husband as she faced him, while he faced their son.
“Genevieve, please,” Lord Kramer stated patiently, his tone softening.
“Seriously, Darling. I would invite you to see, but it’s supposed to be a surprise,” Ginnie continued, her voice sweet, cajoling.
Edward closed his eyes. His wife was always like this when it came to their son. And the boy let his mother stand between them. Defend his actions.
Edward’s mind drifted to someone he had not thought of in years. He frowned.
Ginnie and Vincent both took a step toward the head of the family. The breadwinner. Their shelter in all storms.
His mind had gone somewhere, and it had nothing to do with Vincent Kramer’s tardiness. Mother and son did not speak. They waited for the Master of the house.
“How long has it been…,” he murmured. “It should be about time… But…no…it’s not possible…”
“What’s not possible?” Vincent echoed cautiously.
It was rare for his father to get distracted in front of others, let alone voice any thoughts he had not fully formed.
“Our locations are under some kind of attack. There are too many coincidences for them to be coincidences,” Lord Kramer replied distantly, his voice low, his eyes still far away.
“I don’t follow…,” Vincent stated slowly, taking two more steps toward his father.
“Of course you don’t!” Edward snapped, his gaze turning and focusing on Vincent.
“Where have you been all day? All week? And don’t you dare tell me you’ve been crafting! You don’t craft! You draw, then others do the work, just like –” Edward offloaded on his son, then swiftly cut himself off.
Vincent’s face darkened.
Edward squared his shoulders, glowering at his son. The younger Kramer sauntered forward, closing the gap between him and his father, his change in position putting his mother at his back.
“Like…what?” Vincent growled.
All servants left the room.
- Writer
