Then Ileana moved closer to him and put her head against his shoulder and her arm across his chest and stayed there, and he put his arm around her and the room was quiet and warm and entirely sufficient.
"Tell sothing small." She said. "Sothing that happened today that was not important."
He thought about it.
"Rin looked at Leon at dinner." He said. "Three tis. She was very careful about it."
Ileana made a sound against his shoulder that was amusent in its purest and most uncomplicated form.
"I noticed that too." She said. "What did Leon do."
"Ate his food." He said.
She made the sound again, fuller this ti.
They talked about small things for a while, the comfortable kind of conversation that did not require anything from either of them, and eventually her responses slowed and her breathing deepened and her arm relaxed its weight across his chest in the way that happened when sleep arrived without her deciding to go to it.
Neil lay in the quiet domain and looked at the low ceiling and thought about cores and the lost elven kingdom and a golden fruit and a woman nad Shadow and the particular way Cynthia’s voice had sounded when he told her the life force problem was resolved.
Then he stopped thinking and slept.
Morning ca with Bob’s voice sowhere in the domain exterior at a volu designed for outdoor distances that had not adjusted for the fact that so people were still sleeping, and Neil lay still for a mont registering the day before moving.
Ileana was warm beside him and still asleep, and he got up with the careful movent of soone trying not to disturb the specific quality of morning quiet that existed in the window between a person sleeping and a person waking, and went to the washroom.
She was awake when he ca back, sitting up with the loose and unhurried quality of soone who had slept well and was not in a hurry to lose that feeling.
She looked at him with morning eyes, clear and warm and direct.
"Bath." She said.
The water was warm and the domain was quiet outside the washroom and they took their ti with it in the way of people who had the ti and were not going to pretend otherwise, talking about nothing in particular and washing each other’s hair with the comfortable ease of two people who had stopped being self-conscious about ordinary closeness so ti ago.
Afterward she pulled on her usual clothes with the quick and practical movents of soone whose relationship with clothing was primarily functional, and he dressed and they went out together to find Fay had already arranged breakfast at the table without being asked, because Fay’s relationship with the domain’s al schedule was comprehensive and anticipatory.
Eggs and rice and sothing with mushrooms that Ray had apparently sourced recently, and enough of all of it that the table was full when the domain’s population settled into its morning configuration.
Bob was already halfway through his portion and was describing the structural behaviour of the evolved wall sections to Rob, who was eating at a normal pace while listening to this with the focused attention he gave to anything structurally relevant.
Mob was eating with the steady efficiency of soone who had a full morning of plans and wanted fuel for it.
Leon arrived from the overnight rotation and sat in his usual seat with the composed and slightly removed quality he always had fresh from the periter, present but running through his final assessnt before fully releasing it.
Rin arrived after Leon, which Neil noticed, and sat beside Jane, which was becoming her habitual position at the table, and ate with the slightly less careful quality of a second morning compared to a first morning, the adjustnt to the domain’s rhythms beginning to take hold.
Jane was quiet in her usual way, present and attentive and not filling the space unnecessarily, eating her food and occasionally saying sothing small to Rin beside her.
Neil ate and drank his tea and opened a line to Nemo when the table had settled into its comfortable breakfast noise.
’The final core.’ He said internally. ’What have you found?’
"I have completed the search." Nemo replied, with the particular quality of soone who has already prepared for the reaction to their information. "The closest available second Order Diamond class domain core is inside a domain in the south-middle section of this settlent."
Neil held his cup.
’Sa settlent.’
"Yes master. His na is Adam. He is at the 3rd Origin, Diamond class." A pause. "His primary ability is a dragon form transformation. The form provides significantly enhanced physical defence through layered scale coverage, a substantially increased essence pool and circulation rate, and a fla breath attack with aningful range and output. He has supplentary treasures stored in the domain as well, based on the energy signatures I can read from the exterior."
Neil considered this.
A 3rd Origin Diamond class with a transformation ability and supporting treasures was a genuine threat to the category of lord it was designed to face. Against soone at the Mythic class with fully converted energy and saturated cores, it was a different arithtic entirely and he did not need to spend long on it.
What he did need to spend a mont on was the settlent context.
’Is there a legal issue with challenging another lord in Randy’s settlent for their domain core?’ He asked.
"No master." Nemo said. "Settlent Number 2 operates under standard inter-lord challenge protocols. A formal domain stake challenge is entirely legal as long as both parties agree to the terms. The warden is notified as a matter of procedure but his approval is not required."
Neil set his cup down.
He was about to stand when the communication device at his side buzzed with a specific signal that he recognised, and he paused and looked at it.
Cynthia.
He accepted the call and her voice ca through with the clear and composed quality of soone who had arranged the timing of the contact rather than reaching out on impulse.
"Neil." She said.
"Teacher." He replied.
A brief pause, the sa slight shift that always happened on her end when he used that word in the genuine register.
"The lost elven kingdom." She said. "Less than a month now. The access conditions are aligning ahead of earlier estimates and the other interested parties are already positioning themselves." She paused. "I need you in the clash realm for training sessions before we go in. There are things you need to develop and we do not have the ti I would prefer."
"When." He said.
"I will confirm the timing when I have arranged the session paraters. Be ready to co at short notice." Another pause, different in quality, quieter. "How is your condition."
He knew what she ant. She had been aware of the life force situation and had not pressed on it but had not stopped tracking it either.
"Resolved." He said.
The silence on her end lasted longer than processing the word required, and he could feel through the connection the very composed and very real version of sothing releasing in her that she had been holding for so ti.
"Resolved." She repeated.
"Found a solution." He said. "I will explain when we et properly."
"Good." She said. And then, in the quieter register that she used when she was saying the actual thing rather than the expected thing: "I am glad."
He thought for a mont about the soft nod across the event hall in Mantis’s settlent and the dark corridor after the treasury room and said nothing about either of those things.
"The training sessions." He said. "I will be ready."
"Good." She said again, and ended the call with the economy that was characteristic of her.
Neil stood from the table.
Ileana looked at him.
"Cynthia." He said, which was sufficient information.
She nodded once, processing several things simultaneously, and went back to her food with the settled quality of soone who had arrived at their position on a topic and did not need to revisit it every ti the topic appeared.
"Be back before evening." She said. Not a request and not a restriction, just a preference stated plainly.
"Before evening." He confird, and walked out of the domain.
The south-middle section of the settlent was established and weathered, the domains there having stood long enough that the boundary walls had taken on the grey of exposure rather than the cleaner appearance of newer construction.
Adam’s domain was identifiable by its energy signature and by the fact that it was in better condition than most of those around it, the walls maintained with care and the barrier running with the confident output of soone who had put consistent effort into their infrastructure.
Neil walked to the front gate and knocked.
Not carefully. He knocked with the side of his fist using enough force that the sound rang through the gate and into the domain interior with clarity that communicated he was aware a person could hear through a gate if the contact was sufficient.
From inside ca a crash, the unmistakable sound of a large person in a comfortable position losing that position rapidly due to external stimulus, and then voices and movent.
The gate opened.
Adam filled the opening in the way that certain people filled openings, the size of him imdiately establishing itself as the primary fact of his presence.
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