The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 468 - Likely Ally With Unlikeable Motivations, pt2

Anper did not lower his weapon. He knew she had gone missing with Elua er Goltbred. That was enough to treat this seriously. Enough to expect her to be an accomplice in some form... to either that girl or the very man she had spoke of. Because that trap was supposed to be inescapable, he had been told.

"What about him?"

"I’m also hunting him. For what he’s done. What he’s been part of."

Scoffing at her, he shifted his stance only slightly. Barely recognizing that something inside of him had eased on the possibility that this could be about allying against someone he loathed.

"That man has earned enemies across the continent. You’ll have to stand in line."

"You have no idea. But I’m curious what specifically earned your enmity. The caravan with the realmshard? Providing the masking tool? The body double you had been using your limited outside contact to attempt to retrieve?"

Eyes narrowed in fury. She knew details that shouldn’t be common knowledge. But for someone digging close enough to the truth, they were not giant leaps, either. Certainly, he expected that the little witch could have understood so much... could have told this woman now standing in his private space.

"You’ve apparently done your research. If you can know all that, what could you need to talk to me about?"

Grief flickered across her expression, paired with bloodlust quickly suppressed. The months of travel back with Thelasi’s body - after Lady Aarengraf paid to have it preserved for the journey - had not been easy. Parting with Tarem at the last harbor, letting him finish the journey to their homeland alone as *she* got back to work had also been hard. The fact the first individual she felt she needed to see, needed to get ’help’ from, was someone’s family member who had schemed against people she now cared about?

’If I had just stabbed him instead, it would have been easier. But only for me.’

"Teovar supplied you with artifacts for your conspiracy. But he was supplying others as well, wasn’t he? You seem like a... man... who’d keep track of his rivals."

The father of three considered her for a long moment, before deliberately sheathing his sword and returning his seat to behind the desk. If she’d wanted him dead, he’d be dead already. The Danger that surged a moment ago proved that to him. She was probing to see what he knew, what he’d collected during his years of plotting. He leaned back in the seat, affecting a casualness he didn’t feel.

Seething quietly that he felt the need to be cowed by another female. And all the more certain that this person was working with Elua er Goltbred. The wrench in all his plans... but they were plans that would not have existed in the first place and would not have wasted so much of his time if it were not for the merchant. Dealing with things in proper order seemed acceptable to him.

"Information is leverage. Knowing which nobles were purchasing which restricted items from the same merchant who supplied me? That knowledge has value. I documented everything I saw or learned from third parties. Should the need arise to call in favors or deflect scrutiny, having proof of others’ transgressions proved... useful insurance."

She knew he meant what he’d done during the *altered* Goltbred plot, after she took the realmshard from the caravan. The things that had gone down with Elua and herself missing from the continent. The fact that he did not sound ashamed at all irked her. But the scout was used to working with people that were not always... her cup of favorite wine.

"Clever. Tell me more."

And he did. Working back through his dealings with the merchant. Dozens of meetings over the years, negotiations conducted in shadowed alcoves and rooms in plain sight. Teovar, for all his shady qualities... had been professional, discrete, and always careful with his words...

Except once.

The merchant had seemed pleased to start their association in the early days. Almost giddy despite his usual obsequious and calculating demeanor. A single word that had meant nothing to Anper at the time had been spoken, like it was a pass phrase that might be known to any of the men there. Then claimed to just be clearing his throat in a set of never repeated again sounds. Nothing the Yecine had looked into had given any information on it. But here, after giving out everything else he knew...

"Ouras-" 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

The woman moved like lightning traveling through Air from the other side of the desk. Cold, pointed metal kissed the vulnerable arteries of his throat. Two long needles clenched between one hand in a fist, as her other braced his sword arm in the perfect leverage spot to prevent retaliation. Feet perched improbably on the armrests of his chair, without the furniture rocking at all. With no flinching or fighting back from the Swift Physique bearing cultivator who could see it coming, he boldly continued.

"What does it mean?"

For a long moment, she held the position. Before releasing a statement so accurate it stung worse than the tips of metal in his flesh. Items that were clearly coated with Negavigor. Turning her from a probable assassin into a definite one. Just not one after him, specifically.

"Does it matter? You won’t break your word by fleeing house arrest early, no matter how much you’d like to be the one to bring Teovar down and recover your once good name. Undeserved as it was."

Kicking his sword across the room, it clattered and she began using her Elastic Physique to climb out of the small window meant for smoke. But from the other side, she spoke out once more to the warrior securing his weapon. Sharper and even more deliberate to wound than the other words were.

"I watched your sons earlier. Before I came in here. The way they practice her techniques when you’re not watching... the way they talk about her accomplishments... they love their sibling like they should. It’s good, having people you admire around. To look up to. And it scars when they’re too far away to talk to anymore."

Personal grief was wrapped in the observation. He could tell that much, and it only lessened the impact for the man who calmly checked and cleaned the scuffs on his scabbard. The weight of people manipulating him by what little emotion he ever mustered had dulled him to much of anything except strong anger. And even that felt muted in the reflection of what she said.

Instead, the fact that a woman had infiltrated his home, proven herself his superior in combat, and left him with nothing but impotent fury on that point was the primary take for the heavy blade wielder. Misplaced admiration for their sister was something that could self-correct in time, once his sons grew even stronger than she had. Or so he excused his subconscious leanings to not bother with them hiding their ’reach’ toward their sister.

"Very well. My beliefs? I can let them stand for themselves. My name? I can prove that. Lets see what progress a single woman makes in these two years. And how quickly I outstrip them."

Even Lirades, a *woman* with hundreds of years of experience on her side, had only captured the merchant’s apprentice - the former body double of Qatrand... because his own man had orders to try to bring him in alive. He had no doubt the Cloak Astralism would have continued to confound his Great relative. The raven haired cultivator ran a hand through his hair, as sure as can be that no one could track down someone his particular pawns still outside could not.

Strengthening himself, clawing back his pride from the edge it dangled from... Sevra was wrong about one thing, even if she was right that he wouldn’t flee early or break his word to the leaders of his family. Anper er Yecine would not sit idle in safety. He would aim to have his reckoning, eventually. One heavy bladed step at a time.