The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 525 - Warm Continental Banter Abating The Void, pt2
A/N: Two new sections exist after where the interlude ended before~
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"The Clearer Skies Society building is coming along well."
Yatrel gestured vaguely toward the territory’s eastern quarter on the map, where lots of scaffolding had become a familiar fixture over the past months. The older Goltbred woman had begun the conversation a while after they’d gotten back to the city, still yet to be half a decade old - though it was close if counting its time as a competition ground.
"I appreciate how you’ve been overseeing their work without taking over. Paying the mortals for the labor and the younger cultivators for their Element usage gives them a big sense of belonging to the community."
"Yes it does, dear. Speaking from experience, there is always a nice feeling in me when I pass by a building that I know I took part in raising. Even if it was just from laying the foundation."
She’d made sure Onya was fed and napping off the journey before interrupting Qat’s day again to talk about some things. The new Guild - rather, herself - had wanted a real headquarters rather than continuing to operate out of a leased building which the Valmenf family had built. A series of them, with rents that would not recoup the cost of construction for many years still.
Not because she couldn’t afford the rent, as clearly putting in for a new building was much more expensive, but simply because the design of what was available did not fit her dreams. Her very, very big but ever so simple plans and dreams.
"Zyris thinks we should have built closer to the rail. But I think it’s good to have to walk through the city and stay connected to it. For us and for visitors."
"She mentioned that she was surprised to be Vice-master in the letters we share."
"Not sure why she should be, she’s good at it. And we are a whole seven official people strong at this point. Did she think I would make the cultivators under thirty take on such a position?"
With a little chuckle, Qat agreed with that sentiment. Nohre was bright and so was Fusand, but the latter was busy with the Talcres side of things like Meyran. The scale was smaller, more distant villages than large towns, but the work was similar to her own.
Aleck was a fighter and more of a bodyguard to the Mend wielder than anything. Certainly not a bureaucrat, even if he was willing to help wherever they needed to place him. His go-getting had come back in force after returning from the Exclave.
The two performance artists who set up displays of Sand were older than those three, but while the man was scholar enough for a leadership position should he desire it - the woman he partnered with claimed she’d rather be tossed off of a ship at deep sea than handle paperwork or any liaison missions. And they belonged to the ’entertainment’ side of rebuilding after Descents, which would need a whole different command structure.
"Well, I’m sure she’ll have a good time taking a break in the Exclave again."
"You’re right. It’ll be a good change of pace. There are so many wonders there. My daughter is a wonderful hostess after all. I taught her well."
If only she knew exactly what it was that Elua er Goltbred was ’hosting’, the two of them would probably be about as cheerful as the three kneeling on the ground.
⟠ ⟠ ⟠
Dusky purple and orange feathers fluttered as the Skydancer landed on a man’s forearm. The bird’s white eyes fixed on Ondua with that heightened intelligence his daughter had espoused as the perfect reason to keep so many of the expensive gluttons, years ago. It lifted one leg as always to inform the brown haired cultivator that there was a return message.
Another report from the network of Ironclad Order members and informants about *another* set of bodies found. At a location where Anper er Yecine had been seen and gone away before anyone of their number could appropriately respond. The man moved like Smoke and always had. A useful tactic in wartime, but an infuriating one in ’peace’.
It was their responsibility to bring him to heel. To keep him from appearing only long enough to execute his self-appointed judgments and rile so many families before vanishing again. Their Guild even had a set of protocols for rogue members, even senior staff or Descent veterans... but those all assumed the target could be located and contained.
"She’ll be back soon, just a few more months."
He spoke to the bird that had lingered after delivering its burden - and even after being given its snack. After this many years and that many feedings by their ’temporary’ owners, the Whispering Skydancers still carried a melancholy to them that Ondua had learned to recognize as missing his eldest. Of course, he had no clue the avian minds were specifically holding onto their absent ’Queen’ with a loyalty that outlasted animal reason.
"Is that another report on him?"
Navuill’s voice came from the doorway into the small office, commandeered in a regional branch of an affiliated Guild. The younger man’s Empath Astralism had already picked up on the mood of both man and bird. The ’grimness’ and ’frustration’ that came with each new update on his uncle’s vigilante activities.
"Three more just confirmed. Traveling merchants near the northern rail line. Journals were found on the bodies."
"That *allegedly* prove Ouras connections, according to the officials in that territory."
An emphasized word in his speech carried a bit of *exhaustion*... from having heard that uncertain pattern too many times. The heavy blade wielder walked in and settled into the only other chair in the room after speaking. His relationship with the subject of their investigation was... complicated, just like it was for the Goltbred Patriarch. A man who also understood complicated family matters well enough.
"He knows our methods. Trained in them. Knows where we’d look and when we’d look there."
Ondua could only nod at that assessment, before pivoting to the other reports.
"There’s something else occurring, something that isn’t him."
"You refer to the missing cultivators?"
Zones of disappearances that don’t match his movements. Locations where people vanished without the almost theatrical evidence of his coming and going he left behind. No bodies, no proof of guilt, just utter and often sudden absence.
"You think someone else is hunting cultists?"
"I don’t know what to think. The regions overlap sometimes, but the methods are entirely different. Anper obviously wants people to know what he’s done and why. But whoever... or whatever... is responsible for the other disappearances leaves nothing behind at all."
Sevra’s warning of that reincarnator from some Merzijan Prophecy was the obvious assumption, but he didn’t want to make it. Intermediate Voidlings hiding and using guerrilla tactics this many years after the Descent would not be unprecedented according to the histories. However, the number of locations...
"True. Could be unrelated incidents that we are looking at too hard because we are on edge. Bandits that have taken hostages. Beasts that collected their fill on unwary travelers."
"Some of the cultivators were high Echelon Enchanters. That would have to be an incredible variety of new beast. Or a set of Primalist cultivators all working in tandem in different locations, because bandits don’t coordinate like that. Or take people without looking for ransom."
"You’re right. I just didn’t want to think it might be a copycat killer mimicking my relative."
"I don’t think that’s what this is."
Navuill was quiet for a few seconds as his spiritual sense picked up the ’uncertainty’ beneath the other man’s words that made it clear he truly didn’t know what they were dealing with. It had not yet formed ’fear’, but there was something akin to it on the level of ’concern’.
"Either way, without evidence or solid leads to go on, it’s just missing persons that could be anywhere. That unfortunately isn’t unusual enough to prioritize. A few scouting Guilds are spending a bit of effort, but..."
"But there’s a reason we can get away with sending people to your daughter for months at a time without a lot of fuss."
"Speaking of that, my wife has asked me to hand you this."
Ondua sat down himself, reaching for a certain letter she’d sent - and then hurriedly checking to make sure he had not mixed it up with the private one. There was no need to let another man see his wife’s dirty doodles. Quickly, the younger Yecine man skimmed it after opening the seal.
"She’s hoping to recruit Rezzue for her Clearer Skies Society once she returns?"
"Yatrel is confident that anyone who spends time in that place comes out stronger. Having been there, I’m inclined to agree. She wants to catch your wife before another Guild does."
Knowing she wasn’t all that much of an impressive cultivator before she left - but understanding her deep drive to improve by taking his cousins to that place... the raven haired cultivator stared deeply at the letter and thought about such a course sincerely. The sort of obstacles he would face within his family for ’allowing’ it, let alone her for seeking it, which he always intended to do his best to shield her from. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
’Qatrand wouldn’t hesitate.’
"I’ll let her know and have her decide for herself. How is Yatrel lately?"
"She’s been busy. Gone more days than she’s home, lately. Just like I am. I’m proud of what she’s pivoting to. Truly. But there are days that coming back to the empty estate - er, well... my youngest is there, but-
"I knew what you were getting at."
Stopping him before conversation pivoted to *details*, he considered how his own situation was currently harder to reckon with... but how it was also one that the brown haired man had already gone through more than once. No letters, no occasional meetings, just silence from a place he couldn’t reach. Seven months of it was terrible.
’Maybe Qatrand *would* hesitate sometimes? Because if I had real control over the realmshard, and could go spend time with her...’
⟠ ⟠ ⟠
The Talcres residence came into view for two travelers. Klaytei adjusted the leather strap on her forehead, the porter’s frame at her back as heavy as it was when they left the city. Which is to say, not as much as she thought it would after Dima had applied careful sigilscript to it.
Ripped and modified from both the design used on some military wagons during the Descent and other things taught to her by Elua. Lessening the load by an impressive six percent. All for a cornflower blue tea set with bronze details that had made the journey to a wedding years ago, endured a small bit of personal use by the Goltbred heiress and then young master of the Yecine... and now back again thanks to a letter sent back with Ondua almost a year ago.
The sigilist walked beside her as protection, with the russet fox draped contentedly across her chest. Completely ruining the servant’s flirty assertion that carrying the load herself would allow the other woman to protect her better if bandits appeared. One hand absently stroked behind its ears while its amber eyes half-closed in obvious bliss.
Life was good for a fox with a woman for a caretaker, especially with eyes on it filled with jealousy from another woman! The creature had been in this paradise for almost the entire journey. Utterly content to be carried and stroked ’lovingly’ by the stronger of the two, instead of using its apparently useless vulpine legs.
"It doesn’t need to be held the entire way, you know."
Klaytei tried to keep her voice professional. The fox’s ear twitched at her sub-tone, but it made no move to leave its preferred perch. It knew she would give up eventually anyway.
"He likes it."
"...I’m aware."
’Aware of how much easier it would be to get attention from her if the lazy creature had attached itself to literally anyone else other than my Princess!’
