The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 469 - Copperized Memories & Challenging Moments: A Return

Qatrand gil Yecine was coincidentally visiting the Goltbred estate - with Talva er Ryleon and her small son - on the day that the Gateway opened again. Feeling her tendrils of spirit, which had been tracking the playing Skydancer up above, slap against a barrier that *felt* of her wife’s make was startling. Rushing out of the garden gazebo to see with her pigeon blues a parachute-like ritual that slowed the fall of the three returning cultivators, it was enough to wonder...

’Is she timing this for when I am here? I know that sounds like nonsense. And that two times in a row does not prove anything... but...’

Waving her hand at the other three adults who were peeking out at her from where three children played, she strolled toward where they would land. Sun caught on silver accenting, Nohre having taken quite a liking to the antlers and getting Madrigil of all people to help strip the headdress down to a simpler thing to wear - and with the promise that it would not be for more than a month, Fusand had chosen to keep the mantle & hood.

The young man had done a very good, but ultimately unconvincing job, of trying to hide that he just wanted to keep the dangling spheres of colored sands no matter how mismatched they were with regular travel clothes. Recognizing this sort of whimsy in the two young cultivators - who had firmed more serious in their time with the Talcres - as indicative of Elua’s influence, the swordswoman smiled at them. Unfortunately, even with her face unchanged, her build being recognizable enough, and the sword on her back being the one El had given her...

"Which Yecine are you?!"

A green eyed new bride pointed and shouted even before they landed, not expecting to see black hair and such a severely short style upon returning to the Goltbred estate. For a brief moment, she panicked that they had been sent into the future, the past, or some alternate reality because of some frightening theory that their master had regaled them with one night next to a campfire. Until Qat’s also familiar low voice reassured Nohre that things were *mostly* okay, while running a hand through her barely there hair.

"It’s good to see you again, too. This is just temporary. I’ve been practicing a lot of things since you left. We’ll just leave it at that. It looks like things went well?"

Her husband’s hand rested easily at the small of her back as the barrier of Gas they had been on was sucked back into the device. Zyris er Talcres also looked less withdrawn by far, already smiling and looking past the young woman toward where two of the friends... a bit closer to her age approached. Months more alone with only the teens - even if one of them had a complicated situation with her maturity, and she would have left no matter if she could cultivate or not!

The fact that Madrigil only showed up in their final week, and only really wanted to interact with the two orphans, had been what truly made her realize just how much she missed good old adults over good young ones. Handing off the package she had been asked to hold, smiling briefly and nodding amiably at Qat as she surged past, the woman... tackle hugged the two Goltbred parents while lightly sobbing. She regretted thinking, in her introverted state, that their eldest daughter was being dramatic when they showed up in the Astral Exclave that day!

"Well. You both look... content. And so does she?"

With weight in her hands was more than the size of the package suggested - whatever it was had to be dense, she thought - her spiritual sense reflexively brushed against it. Qat found stacks of letters as well as... depth. Layers of Intention that felt so familiar, like the time before she had a Primalist spiritual accumulation and tried to pierce the veil of her wife’s outer spirit. Also, a complexity of rituals and sigils that matched the new illusory training tool easily.

"Your wife gave us an experience we’ll remember forever. Thank you for sending us."

"The ceremony was very beautiful, I wish you could have been there. I know she did too, even if she kept quiet about it for our sake."

"That sounds like her. You’ll be staying the night?"

Qat tucked the package carefully against her side, securing it in an inner pocket of her coat. Fusand look past to the three adults, finding their behavior embarrassing even more because he knew he had essentially been... Dame Yatrel, in that same situation months ago. Stoic and letting someone hug him while the other two babbled and wiped their eyes.

"Just tonight, I believe. We would have traveled to your territory next, but it seems there is no need. Returning her to Meyran soon is best. There’s still work to be done."

"Of course. There’s always something. If the Talcres need anything, never hesitate to send me a letter or show up in person. You’ll excuse me if-"

"Go. Read them."

With a knowing smile, the dark haired girl waved her off while pulling on her husband’s wrist. She knew they could easily busy themselves by meeting with Talva again, recognizing her from the competition. And explaining to the new mother *why* her cousin was all but skipping away into her wife’s family home... and stealing away in the heiress’s cultivation room... really only needed the words ’Elua sent her something’.

⟠ ⟠ ⟠

She locked the door behind her before settling down on the spider-web cracked stone. A small reminder that the love she decided to protect was not perfect, not omniscient - but also proof of strength and schemes that had persisted to varying success throughout the reincarnator’s life. Every time she had come to visit the Goltbreds since her hero ceremony, Qatrand had spent at least a half hour in here.

But her duties meant that she had not yet spent even a whole half of a day in the room, across the year. She sat the letters out of the package and felt that they could wait. Whatever written news or requests they contained would still be there after she dealt with the part that felt so, so much more like her El than anything else had. The Avatar had not even come close.

She unwrapped the black ribbon from the silver fabric bag that contained what she wanted... and especially clutched the piece that made her wonder if coincidences really could exist so much. It had not been threaded through with care, but it was from her mint-drop’s dress. A new ribbon she could use to tie up her hair - when she actually mastered the Technique to make her hair grow quicker than half an inch per day.

"And in more than one side’s section at a time. I wonder what she’d say if she saw me like this? I feel like she’d tease me for using my free time on something that will grow out on its own before she ever returns..."

The object beneath was a sphere of copper, palm-sized and warm to touch. Verdigris patterns traced across its latticed surface in swirls, the blue-green patina forming additional delicate shapes that she was sure must have been artificially aged to achieve. Glimpsed inside, through the occasional lack of banding copper, was a large chunk of clear gem that seemed to hold a small bit of light on its own... made clear in the dim room more than it would have if taken out in the sunlight.

Script spiraled around the sphere’s equator, Old Tongue that Qat recognized some words out of and could get the gist of - but also knew she did not have to try hard to decipher it. Her wife would have left a note so that there were no mistakes or room for error in her understanding. If two disciples mistranslated and took offense, that was their problem. If her husband-wife spent time thinking it said something it did not? Well, *that* was clearly El’s fault!

Such a double-standard in responsibility and care was something that the swordswoman did not crave, but accepted as how things were. Knowing everything that her wife simply *had* to tell her was a source of pride, but if she forgot to tell her something now and then... well, that was a small pride too. For the former Yecine, anything that could draw the attention of the Goltbred heiress enough to make her forget her beloved - even for a bit - was a wondrous thing indeed.

Cradling the sphere in both hands before she closed her eyes, tendrils of spiritual sense extended fearlessly to touch the surface with the gentlest press of energy. This gift responded immediately, the gem inside providing all the needed essence to activate the ritual pathways. To pull and tug, connect her beloved’s spirit with the fragment of hers that held a whole day’s stored memory. And while all of this did take time, by an ancient’s standards, the transition was abrupt and total as the change of her hair to blonde the moment she had entered this sanctuary. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

’She’ sat at a cliff’s edge, in a black dress with gold trim, as her ’own’ slim feet kicked idly into the air in an odd dawn light.