The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 479 - Secretly A Daddy’s Girl

A/N: Arachnophobes beware, I may have made a nightmare. Sorry. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

- - - - -

The private quarters Elua had made for her parents were not actually close by the ones she built for Qatrand. In fact, they were even farther away than those of her disciples - and significantly more soundproofed. This was not a factor of how much she cared for these people so much as it was that she had no intention at all to allow a set of parents whose escapades at night could be so loud... anywhere near her beloved’s place of rest.

Or their own potential place for such private moments. But she had enough delicacy not to bring any of that up while showing the room to Ondua. He had followed his daughter through the stone forest gardens, up stairwells to look out over the central public balcony for an overview, and then through doorways that - despite the incised relief sigil carvings being fresh-cut - lacked the horrendous smell of sulfides that he knew from his wife’s work.

And as they ended in a sitting room that held more books than furniture, for she did not want to stock the library itself with every one of these volumes, the brunette man couldn’t help but stare. He’d noticed it when she first appeared to hug him, but the observation hit him harder as she moved to clear space to sit on a low wooden table.

’She’s grown.’

Her face had lost some of the soft roundness that had still been there even during her early adolescence. His eldest’s cheekbones were now *showing* the angles underneath that reminded him of Yatrel at the same age. The girl’s height had increased by some inches over more than two years... though it seemed she’d never reach her mother or father’s height. Most stressfully was the figure filling out her silver dress. An item of clothing that had clearly had been modified in the chest and hips to account for her growth...

Though rather than adding more silver in, she instead attached a strong gossamer substance obtained from an interesting insect that Madrigil had located as ’native’ to only one pocket of the Exclave. Elua er Goltbred fully expected that many would be terrified by the eight-legged and six-eyed winged arachnids, but she found the furry scaled wings - like that of a moth - to be adorable. And Ondua found the amount of skin he could now see exposed on her lower back and her cleavage to be what required some small hysteria.

"You’re staring, Father. It’s really not so scandalous. Besides, I don’t intend to show the ’truth’ to others."

Her amusement was clear as the dress visually changed between a few more ’bearable’ examples. Both silver and not, before returning to the reality of things. He knew his daughter was always confident, but something about it now made him recognize that this was a midpoint toward the adult form. The one he saw from that strange Dream of hers when he’d entered it with his Astralism, during the investigation of the nightmares caused by the Obsidian mirror.

It felt like a lifetime ago of holding her in his arms like the lightest, heaviest thing in the world flashed by like an instant. This was the heiress more than halfway between the girl who’d married a Yecine as arranged and the woman she’d designed herself to become for the person she loved. Though it *was* within the boundaries of her available genetics. She would never fall into the trap of Reforging herself too far from the cosmic logic of her Spirit-Body connection.

"My little girl is disappearing."

A former Hero sighed like he just lost some sort of long running battle while sitting down on a cushion she had prepared. Not the one her mother had used, but the one a wife had made for her husband while visiting - knowing she intended to send him along, eventually. Yatrel had spent a few months there after the prosthesis was finished and needed hobbies beyond getting cultivation technique advice from her own progeny.

"I’m right here."

However, he hadn’t really expected a serious expression on her face paired to his usual fatherly bitterness. What he’d expected was the deflecting toward ’Qat’ style of mischievousness Elua often used to be the foil to his melancholy - or to cause it. Not a face that made it seem like she wanted to cry. He was warned that she was a little touchy on some subjects, but seeing it himself made his heart tremble.

"What’s wrong?"

"I... I know I don’t deserve to feel this way entirely, considering I was only ever acting out a role I imagined. But I’ll always, *always* be your little girl for as long as I live."

"You know that’s not what I meant."

"I do."

A pale smile returned to his assurance, his acceptance meaning something but not landing the same way as if Qat had said it. But for once, she decided not to express that in words. Being open with her emotions in a *realistic* way didn’t mean she couldn’t still keep some things to herself. And she had months to tease him!

"I’m still sorry that I haven’t been quite as filial as I could have been. And sorry that I enabled the Saltfire without vetting them more. It was lazy and it put the people I care about in danger, all because I was bored and wanted to stretch my abilities."

"So you’re saying you would do things differently, correct?"

"...Of course I would."

’As long as I was sure it meant everything worked out well with Qat and I.’

Standing up as a cut of those mint eyes made the sentiment clear, for it was not so different from the one his own wife used when keeping the obsessive thoughts she held locked away... he took the few steps needed to place his hand gently on her shoulder. The brunette man, with his brown eyes that were sometimes soured but never with malice, smiled as friendly as he would with any good news received.

"Then as far as I am concerned, my eldest made a youthful mistake and grew from it. Must we really get into the details? Will you not recover from this unless I blame you?"

"I... I don’t know?"

Hearing his last question, the reincarnator could only answer that way. Because while she’d blamed herself a lot over the millennia, for so many things, she wasn’t sure if she could claim to have actually ’recovered’ from any of them. There was moving forward... and like he said, she had grown from experiences and modified her tactics going forward after every mistake she recognized. But one could move forward even with a broken leg - she’d had to do that before, so Elua er Goltbred knew quite well it was possible.

’Bad analogy? The leg does heal. Even does so properly, if you give it time and stop aggravating it. Maybe... that’s exactly what he wants me to do.’

"I’ll try not to think about it anymore. As long as you promise to keep getting along with Qat."

The barter was so characteristically her that Ondua found himself chuckling even with the ache in his chest. This mix of dealing with someone who claimed to be older than you can fathom but who you also had raised with care from an infant was too hard to fully wrap his head around. He just knew he didn’t wish for the individual in front of him to be sad.

"Speaking of girls who are growing up. Your sister has also discovered the joy of tormenting her father."

Quickly, the expression on her face brightened so genuinely that he knew his gambit worked. He was trying to lighten the mood by bringing up Onya’s antics even at a personal cost of reliving the latest incident. Yatrel had shared her take already, telling her eldest that the youngest should now be referred to by little racoon instead of a little otter, as El often animalized the nickname of the ’river-bend’. Yet, how she might have acted in the months without her mother there was a different set of stories entirely!

"Oh? Do tell."

"She’s at that wonderful age of three, where she’s energetic enough to cause chaos but young enough to claim innocence and still mean it. Mostly."

"The week before Yatrel made it back, she took hold of the latest experiment based on the letter you sent back."

"She did say you had been prototyping a new Crystal whip-sword. I assumed you would hide it in-"

Seeing the *seeth* in her eyes, hearing it in her voice, and feeling it in her spirit was... exactly the same as his wife had gotten when he started to tell her this story! Raising his hands quickly, it at least made his daughter stop. For his wife, it just made her hands shoot to his throat as she kept berating him... before he could raise his voice to defend against the accusations.

"I do hide any that I have given edges to, I promise. This one only used safe round... beads for the concept phase."

"She could have swallowed-"

"Please, dear. I’ve heard all of this already at length..."

Sighing and shrugging, she resolved to just learn from his mistake. Not that she would have *ever* let her children anywhere near *anything* that had not been given a ritual that kept them from eating it. Or perhaps putting one in the child itself to keep them from consuming anything they should not eat... As far as the ancient cultivator was concerned, both options were valid. And the nursery she had not yet started sigil script on would be a lot quicker if she waited for the later!

But she was also sure that - as understanding as Qat had been about what she’d done to Onya’s spirit without asking anyone - this was a conversation that would need to be had before they got to that distant point. Elua wanted to have lots and lots and *lots* of conversations with Qatrand gil Yecine, including about what to do regarding the proto-spirit children.