The next morning, Darion handed Vera a cloth bundle filled with coins.

She looked at it with mild surprise visible on her face. Not shock exactly, but definitely surprise.

She honestly hadn’t expected payment this quickly.

The last time they discussed it, Percvale had barely been functioning. Also, the attack by Valdenmoor had weakened them a lot before their retaliation.

She hadn’t expected a payment this early.

She weighed the bundle slightly in her hands and looked at him.

During all the whispers and movements after the return from Valdenmoor, she hadn’t actually known the full extent of what they had done there.

Darion and Garren had whispered stuffs at the great hall during the Aldric questioning but she hadn’t heard anything.

She knew the knights had been destroyed. She knew the farmland had burned. She knew Aldric had been brought here and forced into an oath.

But she hadn’t known about the treasury.

Now, looking at the weight of the cloth bundle in her hands, the conclusion became obvious.

"You took coins too," she said.

Darion leaned lightly against the doorway.

"Yes," he answered simply. "We took coins too."

A lot of coins...

Vera stared at him for another second before walking toward the great hall.

The cloth made a heavy sound when she placed it down.

Darion followed behind her quietly while she untied the knot and opened the fabric.

Silver coins spilled across the wooden surface in neat metallic flashes.

Vera paused slightly.

Then she started counting.

The hall was quiet except for the soft clinking sounds as she separated the coins into measured stacks.

Darion watched her work.

She counted quickly.

At first her face remained calm.

Then somewhere around the later stacks, one of her eyebrows lifted slightly.

She finished counting twice, then looked up.

"One thousand?" she asked.

Darion nodded once.

"There’s three hundred extra."

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"The agreement was seven hundred."

"I know."

Vera looked at the coins again.

"Then why—"

"Because you deserved more," Darion interrupted casually.

That made her quiet.

Darion folded his arms.

"Without your compounds, Percvale would’ve lost that battle before it even started," he said. "Sixty people don’t defeat over two thousand trained knights through normal means."

That was simply reality.

Without the fire accelerants, the barracks would’ve taken too long to burn. Without the disorientation bundles, Valdenmoor’s knights would’ve reorganized properly. Without the incapacitation compounds, the second assault phase would’ve turned into direct combat against superior numbers.

And direct combat against superior numbers was exactly how small forces died.

Vera stared at him for a moment longer before looking back down at the silver.

Then finally:

"Thank you."

Darion shrugged lightly.

"Happy working with you," he said. "Hopefully we work together again."

That almost made her smile.

She tied the cloth back up carefully and picked it up again.

"I’ll consider it," she replied.

They walked toward the castle entrance together.

Outside, the morning air was cool and carried the smell of damp earth.

One of Percvale’s knights was already waiting near the gate with a horse prepared.

The animal shifted slightly when Vera approached.

Darion gestured toward it.

"That horse will take you to the nearest carriage station toward Ghlk," he explained. "From there you can board a proper transport carriage."

Vera nodded once.

She adjusted the cloth of silver at her side and prepared to mount.

That was when footsteps came from the stairway behind them.

"Goodbye other."

Seren appeared at the entrance.

Still carrying her bow.

Darion was beginning to suspect she carried the thing everywhere out of principle at this point. An obsession of some sort.

Vera turned toward her daughter.

For a second neither of them said anything.

Then Vera lifted a hand slightly.

"Take care of yourself," she said.

Seren nodded once.

"You too."

That was apparently enough emotional expression for both of them.

Vera mounted the horse smoothly.

Darion stepped slightly aside while the knight moved toward the gate to lead her out.

Seren stood beside him watching quietly.

The gates opened. The horse started forward.

Vera didn’t look back immediately.

But just before passing fully through the gate, she turned slightly in the saddle and gave a small wave in Seren’s direction.

Seren lifted her hand back.

Then Vera rode off.

Darion watched until the horse disappeared down the outer road.

Beside him, Seren remained silent.

He glanced at her briefly.

Over Vera’s stay, the two of them had actually spent a surprising amount of time together.

Not openly emotional or anything dramatic like that. But they had talked.

Several nights he had passed sections of the castle and seen them sitting together quietly near torchlight, speaking about things Darion didn’t know.

Old stories probably. Things mother and daughter discussed.

For someone like Seren, that probably mattered more than obvious emotional displays anyway.

And honestly?

Darion was glad Vera had stayed.

At least Seren hadn’t spent the entire period alone training or sitting in trees glaring at wildlife.

The woman actually seemed... lighter compared to before.

Not by much, but enough to notice.

As they stood side by side near the castle entrance watching the road disappear into the distance, Darion glanced briefly toward Seren before looking forward again.

There was quiet.

Morning wind moved lightly through the courtyard and carried the smell of fresh air.

Darion folded his arms loosely.

He was grateful for Seren.

That realization came easier now than it would have weeks ago.

Without Seren, none of this would’ve happened.

She was the ’Start’

Without him deciding to take her from Gonnb, Percvale would’ve lost to Valdenmoor so badly it wouldn’t even have been a fight. Sixty knights against over two thousand trained soldiers without Vera’s compounds would’ve ended in massacre. There would’ve been no fire arrows, no incapacitation dust and no disorientation bundles.

It would have simply been Percvale’s force dying bravely and very quickly.

Instead, they had won.

They had shattered Valdenmoor’s military force in a single morning and walked away with horses, treasury reserves, political leverage and an oath-bound king.

And all of it traced back, in one way or another, to the quiet Soilsinger standing beside him.

She had been the one who suggested bringing Vera.

When all hope had been lost, she had brought her mother...

He looked at Seren again from the corner of his eye.

She had changed, not dramatically. Seren was still Seren. Still quiet and still serious most of the time. Still the type of person who looked mildly annoyed even while standing completely still.

But compared to the girl he had brought from Gonnb?

Pretty different.

When they first arrived in Percvale she had barely spoken unless necessary. .

Honestly, she had practically been a prisoner in the beginning.

Whenever she moved around Percvale a knight accompanied her.

Darion had trusted her enough not to lock her up, but not enough to let her wander around freely either.

But now she was head of Percvale’s archers.

The ten archers listened to her immediately whenever she spoke. Even his knights respected her now after Valdenmoor.

And she seemed... happier.

"Thanks for recommending your mum— mother," Darion said suddenly.

The correction came awkwardly halfway through the sentence.

He blinked.

This wasn’t his Earth. A slip again!

’Mum’ probably sounded strange here.

"Mother," he repeated properly.

Damn.

Sometimes traces of his old life still slipped out before he caught them. It happened more often when he was tired.

Seren looked at him briefly.

"No problem," she said simply.

Very Seren response.

Darion huffed faint amusement through his nose.

He looked back toward the road.

For a few seconds neither of them spoke.

The silence wasn’t uncomfortable though. That was another thing that had changed.

Back when she first arrived, silence around Seren had felt tense. Like both of them were waiting for the other person to suddenly become dangerous.

Now the silence just felt normal.

Wind moved lightly across the courtyard again.

He glanced sideways at Seren again.

"And I now have enough to pay you immediately when you’re done with the soil singing on the farmlands," he said.

That got a reaction. Small, but noticeable.

Seren looked at him properly this time.

Darion understood why.

When they first made the agreement, Percvale had basically been poor enough that promising future payment sounded optimistic at best and delusional at worst.

When she had came to Percvale and looked at the situation of the Barony, it was obvious that couldn’t pay her at that moment.

That was why Darion assured her that if her soil singing worked on the soil and they planted and it harvested, she would be paid.

Now, that sounded like it would take a lot of time. She knew planting took a lot of time before it was ready to harvest, maybe a year or there about.

But at least there was hope, Darion looked serious.

Moreover, it wasn’t like she had any other choice.

Now he actually could pay her. Comfortably even.

The treasury from Valdenmoor had changed the scale of everything.