Vitkus Twins

Chapter Fouteen

Aldona was awake before Montgomery was. She had a feeling that this would always be the case, the only other person who woke up at the same as she did was Viktorija. Temporarily turning off the seals, she watched as his chest went up and down.

She wasn’t sure if the news had sunk in yet, nor was she sure how he was going to react once it did sunk in. Azuloas and Jakoba would be over soon, how she had ended up with three people who couldn’t cook was beyond her.

She was just glad that Page and Launcelot could look after themselves.

Montgomery might know how to cook, but Aldona wasn’t going to hold her breath on that one. She might just have him help Azuloas with the dishes, since she wasn’t going to leave him alone with Jakoba.

Thinking about cooking, Aldona wanted to start breakfast and Azuloas could untie Montgomery from his bounds. Maybe she could make pancakes and bacon, maybe she might make eggs if there were any in the fridge.

“I’ll make a bit of everything,” Aldona whispered to herself, closing the door behind her. Azuloas entering the apartment as she did so. “Azu, he’s still asleep.”

“Breakfast? Tea?” Azuloas asked her.

“Let me make that tea, sleeping beauty,” Aldona told her brother, Jakoba walking in behind him, her hair a mess and a hairbrush in her hand. “For both of you, you look horrible.”

“Thanks sweetie,” Jakoba muttered.

“Jakoba, we have a guest,” Azuloas told her as Aldona ducked into the kitchen, Jakoba sat down and waited for him to continue. Jakoba knew this had something to do with their mission, but she had a feeling that the guest wasn’t their cousin. “Until we know it’s safe, never be alone with him. We don’t trust him around you.”

“Did you find your cousin?” Jakoba asked him.

“We found Torija, she’s tiny,” Azuloas told her.

“How tall?”

“About the same height as an eight-year-old.”

“Then she mustn’t’ve gotten a lot of food growing up,” Jakoba told him, Azuloas nodded, once Viktorija had left. Launcelot had told them the same thing, that he had met her because she had been digging through a trash can trying to find food.

“Azu, can you check on Montgomery?” Aldona asked putting a tea pot onto the table, Jakoba smiling at her as she got herself a cup. “Breakfast isn’t that far away.”

“You need a hand?” Jakoba asked.

“You can’t cook,” Aldona pointed out.

“Have to learn.”

“That’s what cooking classes are for, but they aren’t happening in my kitchen.”

“I’ll check on our guest,” Azuloas told Aldona and Jakoba as he slipped into the room.

When Montgomery opened his eyes, he could smell pancakes, bacon and other breakfast foods, things he hadn’t had in years. In fact, he never bothered learning how to cook.

“Morning sleeping beauty,” Azuloas said, echoing his sister’s words. Montgomery turned his head to look at the blond male with dark green eyes. “Julia is coming over for breakfast, she wants to meet you. She’s the current head of the Atspoguļo Clan; well until either Clarice or Launce comes of age.”

Montgomery just looked at him, he had about a few inches on him.

“I’m Azuloas Vitkus, you might want to get dressed before Julia arrives,” Azuloas told him as he untied the bounds around his limps. Montgomery just laid there as Azuloas pointed towards a dresser in-between two bookshelves. “A teammate of ours is in the living room, Jakoba is here every morning, we’re helping her train.”

Montgomery waited until Azuloas had closed the door behind him, before walking over to the dresser. He would need to get dressed quickly, he never liked it when people kept him waiting when he had other things to worry about.

He was still wearing that oversized black robe that Etienne had stuffed him into, he would be happy to watch that thing burn. He would be happy to burn it himself, the moment he wasn’t in a room made from wood.

“I’m Jakoba Meyer,” Jakoba greeted as Montgomery walked out of his bedroom, looking at the seals that weren’t active above his head. He didn’t know how to deactivate Vitkus styled seals. Jakoba looked like she was reading a book basic sealing, now that he looked closer at the title. “It’s nice to meet you, Aldona told me your name was Montgomery? You must have been named after the village founder.”

Montgomery had been named after the village founder, along with being named after the second Paslėpta liepsna’s adopted son.

“Aldona, Julia should be here soon,” Azuloas told Aldona, who just glared at him as she poked her out from the kitchen’s door.

“And when were you going to tell me this?” Aldona asked him.

“I just did,” Azuloas told her.

“Ass! I would have made someone better then pancakes,” Aldona hissed at him, throwing a dagger at his head.

Montgomery just looked at the two, as Azuloas dodged the dagger while laughing. Jakoba just pulled him to sit down next to her, while a dragon looked at him from her place wrapped around a cat tree, or what Montgomery would have guessed used to be a cat tree.

“Aldona, I think something’s burning,” Jakoba told her.

“s**t!” Aldona said as she ran into the kitchen, Azuloas walking calmly behind her.

Montgomery knew he should be angry, he spent most of his life pissed off at one thing or another, but now, he just felt tired. Empty, the same emptiness that he felt as Etienne dragged him around for the last twenty years.

Maybe he had given it up; knowing that no matter how many people tried to destroy the Atspoguļo Clan, remove his clan from the face of the lands. That they were still around, they would endure like they had during the Clan Wars and before that.

Or, Montgomery thought to himself as he looked at Jakoba reading, listening to Aldona cursing Azuloas to the high heavens. Maybe, just maybe, his heart was tried to all the rage that had built up over the last hundred years.

“Aldona and Azuloas are quite rare,” Jakoba told him, Montgomery didn’t know if she knew what they were. Holders of Sin, Montgomery knew there were seven of them and he’s met two. “They helped me, when I didn’t know I needed it.”

Azuloas walked out with a large plate in his hands, putting it on the table before Aldona followed him with another one. Aldona guessed that she had gone a bit overboard, but it was better then what they had been eating out in field.

Rice, rice and more rice.

Jakoba loved the fact that all their apartment were basically liveable libraries.

“Montgomery, Jakoba, breakfast,” Aldona told them, Azuloas walking towards the door. “Julia will be here soon, sit and eat. She won’t mind, since Azu didn’t tell anyone she was coming.”

“Come, Aldona’s the best cook I know,” Jakoba told him as she dragged him to the table, sitting on the opposite of the table to him.

“I’ll get the door,” Azuloas told them as Aldona sat down next to him, there was a free chair between her and Jakoba. Aldona shrugged before piling pancakes onto her plate; Jakoba following suit but grabbing eggs and bacon instead.

“Aldona, Azuloas,” Julia greeted as she walked into the apartment, sitting down next to Montgomery and Heikkinen taking the sit next to her. “Jakoba, and this must be Montgomery.”

“Hello Julia, hello grandfather,” Aldona and Azuloas greeted, Jakoba nodding her head. Since she didn’t want to talk with food in her mouth.

“Paslėpta liepsna,” Jakoba greeted after shallowing her food, getting another cup of jasmine tea, before pouring some into Julia and Heikkinen’s cup. “Lady Atspoguļo.”

“It’s nice to see you awake Montgomery,” Heikkinen told him while getting his own breakfast.

Montgomery nodded his head; he knew that he didn’t remember how he got into Aldona’s apartment. But she must have kept him asleep, they must have kept him asleep, might have found it easier to get him from point A to B.

“Well, let’s get,” Heikkinen continued, Heikkinen was there for see how Montgomery was taking waking up in his granddaughter’s apartment. Aldona would write him regular reports of his behaviour, but he had to make sure that he wasn’t putting her life in danger.

“Looks like we have another teammate,” Jakoba said to Azuloas, who nodded his head while Aldona rolled her eyes. Jakoba could tell that Montgomery might be more willing to work with them then Launce was; if there were one too many people.

Jakoba was sure that they could put Launce onto another team; Mother of Mercy, but Jakoba highly doubted she was going to miss him. Aldona and Azuloas had to rework more then one plan because Launce did his own thing without warning them.

Even Jakoba herself was learning how to make plans on the spot because of his actions. He was far too trap in his own mind and misery, she should have seen it in the Academy. Should have seen it, but she was too obsessed to think anything was with her Prince Chirming.

“So, Montgomery,” Julia said while looking at the teen. She couldn’t see a monster, not the monster one of her clansman from his time had written about. More then one of her old clansmen, she had gone through the old archives and it didn’t paint him in a nice light.

He looked like a lonely teenager. One that lost more then one family member to a senseless war, because his family was always sent out first and that saddened her.

“Which team am I going to be on?” Montgomery asked her.

“Ours,” Aldona told him. “Team Justus.”

“It would seem that Aldona and Azuloas have taken a shine to you,” Julia told him. “Even Jakoba seems to like you.”

“Don’t know him that well,” Jakoba told her.

Montgomery just looked at her. When Aldona had him that a woman oversaw the leadership of the Atspoguļo Clan, he had been surprised. Back when he was growing up, the elders had scoffed at the idea of his older sister running the clan.

Magnolia had been brilliant, until her team had left her to die. At least, Montgomery had always hoped that they had killed her. His oldest brother, Mahieu had met a familiar fate during that horrid war.

He didn’t care that Julia was in charge, or that Clarice might take over. He knew a lot of strong woman that had been forced to hand up their swords to have children; or forced to give up their carriers because they were pregnant.

Montgomery was glad that it wasn’t like that anymore.

“You’ll be on Team Five with Aldona, Azuloas, Jakoba and Launce,” Heikkinen told him, grinning at his grandchildren.

“Are you serious?” Montgomery just stared at Heikkinen with wide eyes. “This isn’t a joke?”

“No joke,” Julia told him a small smile on her face, as Melanthe snorted from her spot on her cat tree. Aldona was sure the moment she went near the door, Melanthe could attach herself to her waist. “You’re a member of the Atspoguļo Clan, and I’m sure that Aldona would have a talk with the Paslėpta liepsna if it were a joke.”

“Grandpa owes me,” Aldona told him a growing smile on her face as she picked up another blueberry pancake. “I told him the key to battling paperwork and now he can do more things for the Academy and Village.”

“Like making sure the council’s ego doesn’t get to bug,” Azuloas chimed in, before looking at Jakoba with a large smile. “No offensive, Jakoba.”

“Mama’s ego is quite large,” Jakoba agreed.

“Talking about paperwork, I thought you were doing that this morning?” Aldona asked Heikkinen, who only grinned at her. While he might not be able to physically pull off the pranks he did in his youth. Didn’t mean he stopped enjoying pranking people, or just straight out messing with them.

“Clones are doing that,” Heikkinen told them, before handing Montgomery a piece of paper with his new team’s details. Handing Aldona, Azuloas and Jakoba a different piece of paper on the little information they had about Montgomery’s abilities. “Thank for your breakfast, Aldona.”

Getting up, Heikkinen walked out of the apartment; muttering something about the ‘council’ and a ‘requested meeting’. Julia nodded her head before following behind him; she didn’t have to tell them about Montgomery, and she wouldn’t.

Like she didn’t have to tell them about Page and Launcelot being part of the Sekti Unit.

“Come on, let’s finish and hid to training,” Aldona told him, pulling her hair into a high bun. Dvesma was amused that it had lasted this long, but Aldona didn’t want her hair to be the reason she was killed, and it was this, or cutting it to above her shoulders.

Montgomery just thought she looked like Rozalija from his youth, the one that had saved his life in their first year.

“Let’s clean up and then go to training,” Aldona said as Azuloas gathered up plates. Jakoba followed him quickly, picking up any plates that Azuloas hadn’t grabbed. “Justus will be late, but we can continue sparring.”

“I’m coming then,” Montgomery muttered as he stood up, going back into his room while Jakoba and Azuloas washed dishes, Aldona shrugged while making sure to rub cream into Melanthe’s scales to make sure they didn’t crack.

Looking out the window, Montgomery was glad that the village looked different. Maybe, he could make memories that weren’t stained red.