A few servants hovered near the dining hall entrance but were waved away by the Goltbred patriarch. There was no hurry to clean the table of their remaining food quite yet, even if the conversation might keep going.
"Qatrand... you don’t have to thank . I couldn’t ignore my son-in-law’s concern. Especially when you ca to us like we could be trusted with your worry."
"No, that’s even more reason for to thank you."
The man awkwardly nodded back, feeling like he had just been scolded. He wanted to tell the young man that he had sounded *quite* like his actual father just then... but knew that the pair had not been getting along in recent months.
Ondua kept his mouth shut tight, as he didn’t want to alienate another Yecine he was friendly with!
"Knowing our daughter, she’ll probably try to avoid sleeping here now, just to be contrary with you."
The woman with reddish-blonde hair poked at the hero of the last war who had clamd up. Her earlier teasing edge returned - as there wasn’t much she could do other than watch, wait, and question her eldest when she saw her.
"I will tell her I talked to you about this. So that is... likely."
Qat’s observation drew a small laugh from both parents. For one of them, it still reminded him of Anper’s dry and direct responses when they were younger. The brunette man cracked a grin naturally at the young Yecine.
"You did right by telling us. Just like it would be right to tell her. Letting her stay with you when she asked was also..."
He couldn’t bring him to say it was right! The father still didn’t know - or want to know - the details. A hand patted him on the shoulder as Yatrel took over.
"Sotis the simplest comfort is the most needed. Thank you for being there for her. She especially seems to not want to show any of her vulnerabilities to us."
Their firstborn had always been that way. It seed even more obvious, as things ca to light, that she had been holding herself to rather impossible standards of composure throughout the years. Except when the matter involved Qatrand.
"Even as a toddler, she rarely made a fuss. Unlike so of us!"
The mother stepped quickly and reached over to wipe a streak of fruit from Onya’s cheek. It had spread there when the child turned her head too quickly away from the servant. The child squealed happily at the attention from another person.
The deep contrast between their two daughters’ behaviors as infants wasn’t lost on them or any of the household as the months progressed. So of the staff were already quite worried.
Elua er Goltbred had been quite ’good’ to them, all things considered, except when it ca to her early moon cycles. The noisier and more physically energetic Onya seed like she would be a terror long before then!
The swordswoman unconsciously moved a hand to her chest where the fragnt of her wife’s spirit resided. She watched the ’normal’ little sister for a half dozen seconds before she shook her head.
"I just... I wanted you to know. In case you also notice sothing."
Onya reached eagerly for more attention from her mother and Qat felt the pieces of another puzzle starting to align. The nightmare and her ideas about its origin, Elua’s initial reluctance with her sister, so of her other past life’s choices...
’I shouldn’t make assumptions. I’ll just ask her another ti.’
"Thank you again for listening. I should check in with the Order."
"Oh, we can travel together if you want?"
The brown eyed father offered and she nodded. Sending the carriage driver back would not be too troubleso - especially considering she might go exploring later to locate the missing heiress.
As she walked to the gate to arrange things, her already raven hair moved in the morning breeze. The cultivator ran her fingers up the back of her own neck. Just thinking that she could hold her cute wife close to ask about those old fears... that she could possibly help her El with sothing she buried so deep?
’Maybe I should tell her that if she leaves without waking the next ti, she’s not allowed to... what would even be believable for to deny her?’
That supportive feeling was hardly hiding away the bitter one that had surfaced. Not being able to greet the girl directly on the first morning they shared a bed together - for so reason Qatrand felt like she would not forget this!
---
A mint-eyed brunette shifted uncomfortably before looking around the area. The new building was as empty as before. It felt like sothing was stalking her... but also not quite. It was a feeling she had tried honing in her last life.
’Am I going to get in a fight with soone soon?’
Elua shrugged when the feeling faded and considered that it was never very reliable in the first place. What’s more, her more detailed spiritual pings did not seem to detect anything different in the vicinity.
Her sense of Qat through the fragnt still felt, more or less, like it had since the muscular girl must have woken up. She seed to have traveled in the direction of the Goltbred family ho and was now on the way to her place of work. Most tis she kind of hated that they couldn’t spend their day together.
Today was no different.
The ’young’ girl humd a ’pleased’ tune, reflective of that small honest part of her that *was* just genuinely happy about what happened the night before. For over an hour, she had been sketching more designs for the Coiled Serpent branch floor plan and the simple sigils that would improve it for their business dealings.
In all that ti, she had been alone.
"I wonder if she won’t co out unless I go get her? I feel like she knows I’m here."
The spiritualist let her sense cloud around the dormitory room that the forr liaison seed to have chosen. After everything with their eting yesterday, she was actually a little surprised the woman dared to sleep in there. She didn’t think for a mont that funds and finding an inn was a problem.
At least, until just that mont.
"Ah. Is she actually poor?"
The heiress drumd her fingers on the table while her mint eyes shifted toward the stone ceiling and the arches that held it up. If money was an issue, then perhaps she could make an offer - one that might keep the woman ’appropriately’ grateful.
’It did seem so far that she is still highly reluctant to be here.’
City sounds continuously ca through the tall windows of the mostly empty first floor. Distant rchants called their wares. Carts and carriages rattled on pavestones. The occasional group of cultivators passed by discussing the upcoming competition and ’where this blasted building ca from’.
The acoustics of the offending structure seed to amplify all the noiso chatter from outside. Her Skydancer nonetheless carelessly preened its twilight-hued feathers atop one of the few chairs in the space. She watched its nonchalance to all the noise with a bit of a smile on her face.
Elua pulled a small empty sheet of paper from her stack and penned a quick note.
/ Branch Manager, the day grows late and there is so much to discuss. Do join . /
The bird allowed the ssage to be secured on its leg before it flew off at her gesture and followed the illusory trail to go peck on the woman’s window. She returned to sketching placent marks for mber detection sigils near the entrances. Behind where she placed them in the wall, she would hide a more intricate kind.
’It will be useful to know which elders I already marked might visit when I’m not present~’
She began humming again. The heiress was in an excellent mood! The long and peaceful rest beside her husband-wife had energized her. She was sure that today and possibly tomorrow would be plenty bearable... even with that odd and foreboding sensation she felt.
Elua was sure her ancient instincts were just being oversensitive about all the sches that would be coming together under more public scrutiny. There was bound to be a person or two that would get in the way of them. So of them might even be doing it intentionally.
The brunette pretended that the sound of hesitant footsteps coming through the back door had drawn her attention. She turned her head as if searching and took on a ’surprised’ and then ’pleased’ expression.
"Ah, Dima. I trust you slept as well as I did?"
She spread the preliminary invoice across the table as the woman approached. The Silversky rchant group’s elaborate letterhead decorated each sheet. She kept certain pages strategically overlapped, hoping to gauge the reaction of the forr liaison.
"I thought you might want to review what will be arriving next week. Just to be familiar with everything when you sign for the delivery. It is very likely I will be busy with my own Guild work at the ti."
Dima took a seat and leaned over the paper. Her eyes darted between quantities and descriptions, searching for hidden traps or unreasonable requests. The illusionist watched the thodical check of each listed item with hidden amusent.
A mory surfaced of her early adult years in her past life. After she learned she was a cultivator, but before she had gotten... wiser with the implentation of her abilities. A ti when every rchant’s bill felt like it might hide so devastating cost or trick.
If Dima did have money problems, she wouldn’t take advantage of the woman’s ’situation’... even if she was a thieving cat who’d knowingly flirted with her husband-wife. Mostly because she couldn’t co up with an advantage to it, currently. If there was a way that it benefited soone that she could argue with Qat, then-
As the branch manager shifted the last page to reveal the overall total, the Skydancer ’chose’ that mont to land near Dima’s hand. She looked over at it before looking at the page. The brief tremor in the woman’s spirit ’confird’ Elua’s suspicion and she inwardly rolled her eyes.
’Perhaps I should reconsider the hobby of collecting strays... this one seems liable to scratch at even if I feed it.’
The woman was clearly in dire financial straits!1
Testing to see how footnotes look/work...
If they seem decent.
1 - 2 - 3
I might have to go back and smack in the occasional definition or explanation for my free Chapters at least! Potential increased reader retention, woo.
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