Qat let her to the ground slowly after sensing the intent underneath the loud feeling. The decision to ’distance’ that was being pumled by the storm inside. The Goltbred heiress still seed incredibly reluctant to part and take a step back from the Yecine, but ultimately did so after a struggle.
"I do expect so much. So very, very much. I’m just really sure you surpass all those calculations. By a wide margin of error."
"Is flattering helping?"
"Perhaps not , but if it makes you feel better about leaving here like this..."
The girl stared at the ground, trying not to make it harder for herself - or for Qatrand.
"You must know I never feel better about it. Even when you aren’t so overtly troubled."
"Now who isn’t helping?"
"Who needs help, dear?"
Yatrel called as she slowed her steps, a frown forming as if the sight or sll of sothing unpleasant just beca in range. Even her father trailing behind looked uncomfortable. Compared to them, the target of the leashed but overspilling intent stood close as if unbothered.
They both knew that couldn’t be the case. The parents had seen how quickly their son-in-law reacted to changes in their daughter’s mood. The Yecine heir was rely enduring it.
"Elua..."
The woman with reddish blonde hair knew it would have only been a matter of ti. Their eldest was strong willed, but the sa could be said for everything else inside her. The duelist had strong words with won for a tiny fraction of this...
And led with fists if even a sixth of this was aid at her husband.
’Worse, that’s just what I can sense. She is very good at keeping everything bound tight. Maybe too tight?’
"Do the two of you need sowhere more private?"
The concerned mother was just afraid for the brunette girl,
"No. Really... no. But the two of us do."
Like in the dical area, the girl was there one blink and gone the next. The Goltbred couple tracked the direction the raven haired cultivator stared. Her wife had made it to the edge of her sense’s reach and stopped.
The tips of the tendrils barely held around her form as ’resistance’ vibrated in her chest. The fragnt allowed more glimpses of what was inside the cute girl’s actions. Qatrand was sure that it was better to leave, else the reincarnator would not be trying to hard.
"Help , mom. Co talk to for a bit. Maybe push into my tent? That was kind of everything I had."
"You were such a good child. Never threw a tantrum..."
The woman put a hand softly on Elua’s back when she walked over, not yet pushing.
"Yet, I’m a little scared you’re about to bite and run off, little one."
"I’d love to tell you there is no chance of that. So you might want to push once... hard."
Their strange little planning session was made pointless when Qat disappeared from her spiritual sense - mostly. Through the fragnt, she could still tell where ’herself’ was in her. Stepping away at a calm looking pace, radiating love and well wishes.
Of course, that hadn’t stopped the brunette from spinning and shooting past her parents once again to the camp entrance. Dull mint eyes stared at the back of the swordswoman, moving and ditating. With one hand on her sword hilt so tight with concern.
’It’s a little ridiculous that she can do that without teaching her. An aligned Trinity is really such a cheat.’
A hand found her collar and started dragging her backward to where they were supposed to be going. Without a word from either mother or daughter. And a father who simply looked into the air and tried to pretend nothing had happened since well before his wife...
Offered them privacy for things he did not wish to think about.
Mint eyes stared at the floor between her feet, avoiding her mother’s waiting gaze. She was the one who asked to talk and needed it, but wasn’t saying anything. The trunk’s copper brackets pressed uncomfortably into her thighs - but physical discomfort was better than nothing at the mont.
’Nice and distracting.’
"You know I understand intensity, dear."
Yatrel’s voice spurred the quiet brunette on, the severe experience with her own possessive nature coloring her tone. Her fingers drumd slowly on the arm of the chair her daughter pointed at and insisted she take. Mint eyes were patient but expectant.
’She needed help and she asked for . Ondua is going to be so upset about it later. Especially if I actually help her solve or manage this without his input.’
The fact that light misery was space for the woman to insert herself further as a source of comfort for her husband was nothing new. Without even aning to, initially, Elua had been of imnse help with that. Her mischief against Ondua that increased when she t Qatrand turned the doting father into one who needed to be doted on.
"It’s different. From you."
The monotone response drew a raised eyebrow. Over the years, the woman had learned that her daughter’s emotionless state often ant she was trying to explain sothing complicated.
’Other than not wanting to talk to her father about these things she planned to... well, I’m less afraid than him to be direct on so matters.’
"Your father and I waited all of three months after marriage. I was older than you are now, but only a couple years. And I was quite... eager, after his proposal."
"Mother."
She didn’t ’make a face’, outwardly, but the roil of intent was a fair equivalent.
"The point being - you’ve held back longer than I did already. But it is beyond that. I’d like for you to trust with the real reason."
Small hands gripped the edge of the trunk she sat on. The brunette’s was frustrated that her Physique acting up again was forcing her to find this sort of distraction. At having to partially explain without revealing too much.
’But if I was going to be truthful with anyone other than Qat... and Onya who can’t even understand well yet.’
"There are cultivation benefits. To waiting until we both reach our Pri."
The sentence hung in the air as the reincarnator dug her foot into the ground underneath. She tried searching for the right words, knowing the kinds of questions that might co.
"You an... waiting until you’re fully grown?"
The fact that her mother’s steady presence still radiated the sa warmth she’d offered since the girl’s earliest mories - which is to say since the mont she opened her eyes and realized she had been reborn - was a severe contrast to the churning feelings the brunette tried to contain.
The fear of that unconditional acceptance being revoked had grown the longer she waited. Elua wasn’t used to actually caring that much, what a lie or omission did to a relationship other than how it affected the one she loved.
’But I clearly care about this myself. Not just how Yatrel might treat Qat after.’
"Essentially. Yes. The peak of natural physical developnt. When the body settles into its mature form."
Dull mint eyes flickered up briefly at the attentive set. The ones that her own were biologically designed after. But then she returned to study the tent floor like it was sohow more interesting.
The illusionist could feel the spike of amusent... the sense from the woman that her daughter was ’acting cute’. Knowing that soone other than Qat would think of her like that at all while she was not keeping up her facade left her with a complex feeling.
"Well, I don’t think your father would complain about your waiting. Neither do I, other than how it troubles you. He does stay glum thinking about when and if it has already happened. That will go away once the deed is over, dear."
The reincarnator was a little grateful that she tried to keep the conversation ’light’. Though it wasn’t exactly a joke, it was also sothing both of them found a little amusing.
"Now, about this benefit you ntioned..."
An audible sigh turned into the girl leaping to her feet. Sitting still had felt like a good idea at the ti, but pacing suddenly felt like it might be better. Even if it looked a little crazier.
’What I’m about to say when she questions is going to sound that way already...’
"There’s a resonance between spiritual cultivation and physical maturity. The recognition that you are at a peak in sothing is a strong mont. The first... ti."
Her own hands covered her face. She’d explained this very thing to disciples in her past life - but this ’embarrassnt’ at speaking to a mother - *her* mother - about it was a new experience.
"That... that is also a strong mont, ntally. The mix of body and spirit as two cultivators... a-anyway, it creates a lasting impression."
A soft "ah" escaped Yatrel er Goltbred as she further relaxed her posture. Her daughter’s awkward refusal of even clinical description couldn’t quite hide the yearning for what she wasn’t saying that crept into her almost unnoticeably cracking monotone.
"You’re saying both of these impressions existing at once have a tangible benefit. And you learned of this where exactly?"
The heiress realized the mont was almost upon her. She had no way to prove such a benefit existed. Her mother’s expression suggested she didn’t expect to be told. That it was going to be included in the many prodigious things the girl had done in the recent past.
Like designing rituals that others could not. Having a stronger spirit than any her age should. If one really bothered to look, there were any number of tis that Yatrel could have decided to put her foot down and demand answers.
"I an... it makes sense, doesn’t it? That such an important mont would have deeper significance for cultivators specifically?"
The deflection did what she thought it would. Left the mother ’disappointed’, but smiling warmly anyway. Elua er Goltbred stopped walking as her arms fell to her sides lethargically.
’That look actually hurt more than I thought it would. Guilt. Yes, that is quite distracting.’
The small cultivator got on her knees and sat on her legs. In front of this person, the least she could do was tell her best near truths.
"Mother... what if I told you I rember things? From before?"
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