Fusand closed his eyes and breathed out to settle himself. His Physique seed to like stealing his focus to deepen the conversion of solar energy. When it did, it sotis destroyed his balance.
"I’ll get the hang of it. It’s just taking so getting used to."
He murmured to the girl who helped him. The boy wasn’t very athletic in the first place and he realized that Nohre knew it. So he didn’t let it bother him that she helped. Of course, the eavesdropper had no clue what he ant.
"Well, I think you’re doing fine. The color is also pretty..."
The girl with braided hair trailed off, then quickly looked away as if surprised by her own boldness while touching her dark hair. They walked all the way to the house as the scout expected, going inside with a key and coming back out after only a minute after setting down the load of leather.
The pair walked for a while longer around the city and paused at a food stall. The boy insisted on buying them both steaming at pies with his portion of their most recent paynt. The way he carefully handed Nohre hers, their fingers brushing with eyes that darted aside, made Sevra feel like she was intruding on sothing private.
She watched them share the al while sitting up on a high wall. The girl had hopped and climbed up first before reaching down and catching the boy’s arm. That behavior was clearly that of cultivators raised outside of a strict family... Sevra thought.
She had no way of knowing that Elua was the one who taught them the joy of ignoring mortal norms. Why sit on a low bench by the dirt when you could watch the city from up high?
They talked in hushed voices while sitting closer than strictly necessary. When Nohre reached up to brush so flaky crumbs from Fusand’s cheek, his skin took on that peculiar brown-green flush again. This ti, Sevra noticed how the color spread exactly like blood rushing to his face would.
She considered that maybe she had jumped to conclusions about poison. If anything, the two teenagers seed to be thriving under whatever training that reincarnator was putting them through... and orphans that weren’t attached to a Guild finding money through her employnt was ’good’.
The thought didn’t comfort her much. She turned away, deciding that watching young love bloom wouldn’t help her mission. The innocence of their awkward courtship made Sevra’s chest ache.
It reminded her of simpler tis, before an ancient cultivator complicated everything. Now she couldn’t look at love without wondering what crazy things soone would do when it was lost or threatened. She turned away, leaving the young disciples to their mont.
Investigating the Goltbred heiress for a way to approach in an unthreatening way could wait.
---
The city streets bustled with afternoon traffic as they made their way to the Ironclad Order’s headquarters. People walked everywhere while the occasional buggy or carriage rolled in the middle of the lanes. Navuill walked slightly behind, the swordsman maintaining a proper escort distance while Qatrand and Elua strode ahead.
His head hurt a little from trying to ignore all the unsubtle emotions between the pair that his Empath picked up. It had been insufferable since the brunette had wrapped her arm around that of their ’heir’ after they got off the train. Both her happiness and intent to be a spectacle was all too clear.
The black haired and clad Yecine moving along with the mint-eyed, brown haired Goltbred in her very white dress stood out. A low voice spoke softly to the shorter girl.
"I’ll need to file my part of the mission report. Would you mind waiting in the entrance hall? It shouldn’t take long."
Elua nodded at her tall partner, already realizing that she was in work-mode due to her hair color change near their arrival. Holding onto her arm as they walked from the station was partly to counter this shift away from their ’personal’ ti... but it was also far less of a reaction than the ’carry ’ that she thought to request.
The heiress knew that her fortress would have done it gladly, but it was about ti to act more like the young adult she was supposed to be!
"Of course I’ll wait. Though I might see if my father is busy while you handle the paperwork."
"Okay. I’ll look for you there if you aren’t in the reception area."
As they approached the imposing stone building, Qatrand turned back and placed a hand on Navuill’s shoulder.
"When you get back to the estate, please inform any elder who asks that I’m spending the afternoon with my wife. I left a notice about collecting her, but not about what I would be doing after."
The cousin glanced between them before nodding. While spending so much ti together wasn’t his way of things, it was clear the amount they’d had earlier wasn’t enough. In a way, he could start to see it.
’I wouldn’t say it makes her any weaker, but calling this under a witch’s spell is sowhat appropriate.’
"I’ll handle it. By the way, your father spoke to of his concerns again. Would you have ti soon to talk about it?"
"Tomorrow. Today we have other priorities."
The swordswoman declared firmly and the few years older Yecine accepted this with another nod before heading inside. It was strange to him, but he really wanted to get things done and talk to his wife. If only to feel a more normal level of closeness between arranged marriage partners.
Elua watched the exchange with poorly hidden amusent. The illusionist had not had a lot of chances to see the older teen interacting with her family outside of a few instances. She was so decisive!
"What?"
"Oh, nothing. Just enjoying how you handle your business."
The swordswoman shook her head and led them inside. After signing the visitor log at reception, Elua inford the person behind the desk that she would be visiting Ondua er Goltbred’s office and didn’t need any more help.
Sothing about saying it out loud felt novel - she’d only been in the Order’s headquarters a handful of tis, usually eting her father in the entrance hall or sharing lunch in the cafeteria. He had asked if she wanted to see where he worked a half dozen tis a year when she was younger, but eventually gave up at her lack of interest.
Especially when the responses started adding ’if Qat isn’t there, why would I go?’.
"It was funny at the ti, but I guess it was quite an."
She walked through the building’s corridors, glancing at the paintings depicting past war efforts. The building’s martial atmosphere grew heavier as she ascended to the senior mbers’ wing. There were more physical Primalists here, all of them veterans of at least one Descent.
A few of these cultivators that she passed nodded respectfully, recognizing her connection to the regional hero. Two had even been at her wedding! Though she didn’t recognize them for that, she still smiled ’sweetly’ at all of them with friendly waves.
Taking one last turn down a less busy hallway, Elua found herself before her father’s open office doorway. The wall held a naplate with crisp engraving that caught the light from nearby windows. She smiled, dropping into stealth as an idea struck her.
The reincarnator slipped into her father’s office unannounced, her footsteps silent as she studied the space. Unlike the militant aesthetic of the Order’s other halls, this room held personal touches. Crystal fras on his desk caught the afternoon light from a high window.
She circled around to find they showed so of his treasured monts.
Two different portraits of Yatrel cradling newborns - her beautiful and fierce mother with first Elua, then Onya, in her arms. The heiress thought back and vaguely rembered a visiting artist around the ti of her sister’s birth. Between them stood an even newer piece... commissioned from one of the painters at the wedding.
The silver-wreathed scene captured herself and Qatrand standing at the altar with their profiles against the vast horizon. The ancient cultivator didn’t consider herself to be a lover of art... even if she sotis had to be creative with illusions.
However, she was absolutely a sucker for anything that showed her beloved and her in such happiness. She stared at it, morizing it completely for far longer than she had intended to remain quiet in the room.
Ondua sat hunched over reports the whole ti. Elua moved closer to the side of his desk and let her facade express the genuine ’fondness’ she felt at catching him absorbed in work.
"The mighty hero does this much paperwork?"
He startled and sent papers scattering as he jerked upright. His eyes narrowed then softened after taking in her presence. The man thought his daughter looked lovely in anything - but brighter colors were his favorite.
"Elua... you were supposed to be at that research camp, weren’t you?"
"I just arrived back. Qat and my cousin-in-law are filing their reports now, so I ca to visit."
She gestured at the wedding portrait before stepping forward and leaning both arms on his desk, laying her head down and ’dreamily’ staring at it.
"The artist captured my groom quite well, don’t you think?"
The brunette man sighed. Of course the first ti she ca to his office, his eldest would still be distracted by that boy! He could only bla himself... his choice to arrange the marriage in the first place had led to all this.
"Yes, they did. I suspect you didn’t sneak in here just to discuss art and frighten ."
"Can’t a daughter visit her father at work for absolutely no reason?"
Elua turned and sat on the edge of his desk, careful not to disturb anything - especially the fras.
"Though since you ntion it, I may have a personal report about the anomalous sigils at that camp. As well as the plan the researchers and the Order have. I could use your insight on a certain warti suggestion..."
The entire ti, she smiled at him with ’mischief’ in her eyes. His clever little girl sotis scared him, especially when she thought many steps ahead like his wife sotis did.
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