The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 515 - Things Tend To Move Along Before You Know It
A week after informing them of their new life schedules, Rezzue’s hand raised up in the ritual area meant to help settle their minds. When Elua looked over at her, there was something almost hungry in her expression (though a very different kind than one Ogre). Certainly not like someone who should be having her desires *a bit* suppressed by the cultivation room sigils.
"I know you want us to focus on our spirits, but you mentioned something about consumption and physical energy... catalyzing, that I-"
"Did I?"
"Yes. See?"
Holding up her notebook on an old page and pointing to a few choice words that the brunette was sure the woman probably never would have thought of herself, she watched as mint eyes looked away and to the distance. Eager students were something that she did like - and letting people grow as they wanted was also something that the heiress preferred to allow. However...
"I could explain that further now, as your bodies *will* still need conditioning. Getting you used to properly eating instead of wasting most of the food is a third of that journey. But if I do..."
Reaching behind her back to a satchel of teaching examples, she pulled out a vial of what looked like crude oil or tar. The cooked down and refined tree bark she had been harvesting as a main source of fueling herself had terrible viscosity and color - though luckily it was not quite so sticky as it could be thanks to her processing. Shaking it and pouring it out onto a panel of gases, her three students watched the extremely unappetizing way it traveled.
’Like pancake batter without enough liquid. I really need to find which of these plants can make an acceptable flour...’
"If I teach you my methods, then this will be your new food source until I find you performing the task at an acceptable level. You’ve been rather lucky so far that I’ve only given you some of the nicer bounties of this place - which I might add are quite limited in the first place. Agriculture was not exactly a thing here until I came, you understand."
"Can I taste it?"
"Y-you..."
Ajoreal sputtered at the question asked right at the moment it seemed like their sister-in-law stopped talking. The red-haired woman had been *extra* careful to count to two each time Elua er Goltbred’s voice ended, so that she never ever interrupted her. Mostly out of respect... but also because she watched the younger woman - who was supposed to have some sort of Air related Element she’d been told - slinging tornado-whips of fire at a fleeing, exiled noble from another continent only three days ago.
"Knock yourself... no, wait, let me rephrase that as you seem to listen to the words I say more than the Intent behind them at times. You’re welcome to give it a try. I expect you will not like it."
Poking her finger in the sludge and being so trusting that she plopped it right in her mouth, Rezzue’s face paled... but her stubbornness kicked in. She swallowed the bitter substance, wiped what little remained on her hand onto her clothes, and nodded once.
"You were right. That is an acquired taste."
"That’s a lovely positive attitude, but you’re wrong. You will never acquire it. I can teach you the technique to turn off your taste buds, but I will not do that for some time because I trust none of you to use it wisely. I won’t have you eating poisons just because you can’t taste them any more."
Quietly adding ’not yet’ in her own head, the heiress got them back on track with the current lesson. Everyone learned about their own spiritual nature a little differently, but there were a lot of core things that simply weren’t taught in this era on the continent anymore. Most cultivators seemed to know that spending time in dedicated self-reflection was the key thing... but not much more than that.
Few took into account that to *have* things to reflect on, they needed to go out and experience plenty of situations and subject themselves to plenty of ideas and realities. To question what has been told, what they intuit, and the reasons why those two things may be the same - or different. That there was as much to learn about yourself in the space *between* the parts you could currently glimpse as there was from the exact components of your existence.
"Kal, you’re making that thinking-groaning noise again."
"No, I wasn’t."
And of course, recognition - not necessarily fixing them, but *recognition* - of bad habits was another. Or so Elua felt strongly about enough to show off an illusion making that exact sound to them all. Causing the younger brother to snicker, the older to grimace, and the red-haired woman to clap... finding only wonder and not proper fear in that Astralism’s capability.
⟠ ⟠ ⟠
Leysah was heading to the Warden Patrician’s office from the railway when she found her junior doing something... unexpected. Dragging a mattress across a courtyard, one she was pretty sure belonged to the house rented to the former Yecine’s relatives a couple weeks back, Hoolov seemed intent on getting it to a cart he had parked outside the home.
"Where are you taking that?"
"Outside the walls. To burn it."
Not stopping just to answer, his statements did in fact bring the other cultivator up short. She blinked as the rustling sound of dragging cloth became everything. And meant... absolutely nothing.
"...Why?"
"Just following the Warden’s orders."
"You didn’t ask?"
"Apparently not, Ley-"
Turning his face to answer this time, his foot caught on an uneven stone. He pitched forward toward the cart and felt something hit him in the side the next moment. Ending up laid out on the ground from this small task was not the brightest moment of his life, though landing on a bed together with the woman who insisted on making his life easier and harder with the same choices was definitely not the darkest moment.
Using her Kinetic Element to speed her actions, she tackled and controlled their fall into the padded piece of furniture. During that, she had held the back of his head with one palm and pressed down his shoulder to control the recoil of striking the ground with the other... and keep herself from slamming into him. When starting to move away and check on him, she pulled her hand from below his skull and pressed on his other shoulder to raise herself up.
And also realized she had ended up straddling his waist while he stared up trying to process the matter. She tilted her head down at the man, knowing she should move but also starting to come to a quick and sudden realization of why she had been quite particular in putting him in his place all this time... showing dominance by taking away some of his burdens.
’Oh. Huh. Thought I was just being competitive.’
"Leysah?"
"Yeah? You alright?"
"I’m fine thank you."
She nodded and bobbed her face in the other direction, some kind of instinct rising to look down at him from another angle and make more sure of what she was thinking. The feeling of being ’assessed’ caused him to clear his throat and attempt to push her waist away.
"You’re acting strange."
"Mm. Maybe the reason you were made to burn this was because it was cursed. You already fell once."
"I fell because of you."
"You should still probably take a partner along this time. To make sure the terrible bed doesn’t attack you again."
His expression suggested he wasn’t buying the reason the bed just *had* to go. But he was also too bewildered by the little smile she’d just given, while rolling off and helping him up... to press back on how it felt a lot more like *she* was the one doing the attacking. He was also a bit too polite to tell her that he had this strange sort of feeling growing within his heart.
"...Glad to work with you."
A feeling that he was going to be murdered if he refused to take her along.
⟠ ⟠ ⟠
The bowstring was drawn back with ease, her form almost textbook perfect. Elbow high, smooth release, and an arrow that struck the prepared practice target on the painted dot. The fifth one landed across its form from fifty yards away.
"You’re quite good at that, for whatever it is worth."
"Thank you. My family encouraged it as a proper martial pursuit, since we manage the local hunters where I came from."
Rezzue had a pleased expression as she explained her history, but the ancient cultivator’s eyes were mostly tracking her stance. Her muscle engagement and breathing. Eventually Elua sighed and shook her head... because she hated ruining the good time, but a lot of things needed to be said to the woman.
"It’s a shame that your style of stationary archery with that inferior crafted bow is... nearly useless for cultivators."
"...What do you mean?"
"Any weapon that requires you to be rooted in place just provides an opportunity for someone or something to close the distance. Especially if they can evade or block your first shot, which... isn’t hard when the tool you are using are made of fairly basic materials. It’s pretty, and admittedly a *very* good design for mortals, but that’s about it."
The brunette walked to the target and pulled out the cluster of arrows for her. Arrows which didn’t weigh very much... and whose penetrative power was only *so* impressive. She had seen and built contraptions that slung arrows and other projectile designs at speeds and weights that she was sure would make the continent a much, much less safe place. Heavy ballistic weapons were scary, but lighter ones able to be sent in excessive waves were also quite terrible.
Especially when every piece was lined with sigils.
’Notably, because it brings in new kinds of Voidling tactics. They tend to fight fire with fire, as it were, in some cases... and the ones that use ranged attacks are quite a hassle.’
"So you’re saying all of my practice..."
"Was good for discipline. Hobbies are also important, you know. But if you want to make a martial path out of it that lasts longer than until Primalist before you have to learn another weapon to fill the gaps? Then you’ll have to change your practice. Well, watch what I mean."
Waving her fingers to request the bow, the heiress took it from the frowning woman and started to test her strength against the item. Not gripping it until it exploded was easy enough, pulling the string back was fine - though an incredibly light draw for her, and the arrows floated in her Adhesion easily enough.
Taking a few steps, she broke into a sprint as an illusion of one of the Exclave’s now... extinct lizard-birds tried to swoop down and eat her. El evaded the spiritual construct which she’d based on the battle she’d had with the last one of the creatures to attack the mansion.
What followed was a little show of acrobatics mixed with mastery of the bow. Taking advantage of the moments she would be leaping away to fire shots that were quick and severely accurate, with a very different breathing pattern that allowed split second shots rather than careful releases. Of course, she never actually fired any of the arrows at all, instead using Illusory ones so that ’misses’ would not harm her in-law.
Rather... the teenager wasn’t so worried about the person herself, who could probably take an arrow to the knee and just pull out her grit to crawl over toward the healing formation, but another entity who could be harmed by the red-headed woman’s harm. When the beast lay ’slain’ and the illusion faded, Elua er Goltbred walked over and handed the weapon back before placing a hand on the woman’s shoulder firmly and deciding to tell her what she had been sensing.
"Of course, that sort of training isn’t going to happen this year. You’ll have to wait until you give birth. Congratulations?"
