The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son' Chapter 415 - Risky Business, Being Friends With A Teen

"I may have encountered so... complications with my physique managent. A while back. Around the ti I sort of yelled and picked a lot of silly fights with you."

Sevra wasn’t sure what sort of complications could be making the girl lose herself like this, but the woman *was* sure that it terrified her to know that the reborn cultivator with so much knowledge could lose control of the way she wielded it.

"What sort of complication?"

"You see, maintaining the precision needed for all my techniques requires keeping certain biological functions extrely well regulated. I’ve been trying to cut back on that as apparently, my complete suppression of so hormones creates its own problems with the aspect I’ve been granted."

For a couple years now, ever since her adolescent lust had started to trigger her ancient thoughts, Elua had been experinting with hormonal ratios more than she ever had in the past. Trying to find the balance that worked and that she could handle without noticing herself doing things or reacting in ways she never normally would.

"It turns out that a linear percentage partial suppression is worse than either extre, as I thought. But I was a little desperate for success, and in this environnt without the target of my desire... I may have miscalculated the variables and..."

"Please stop. I don’t know what you’re about to say, but just-"

"The point is, I woke up that morning with what soone respectable would probably call ’lady problems’."

The scout scrubbed her face with her palms, wondering why she even bothered. Elua er Goltbred never stopped just because you asked - it was only if she thought it was also better to do so. Willful and rascal, an absolute nightmare combination when the young looking girl was now apparently...

"More blunt and honest healers would tell you that I am nstruating again. I woke up that morning with that particular physical energy technique broken - among others - and my emotions feeling wild. As well as the expected blood that-"

"Okay. Really, okay. Look, I know it’s not usually that big of a deal to talk about things like this, but half the ti I can’t decide whether to look at you like a small girl or like a great elder. So it just gives so..."

"Ick?"

The brunette helpfully offered when it seed like the scout wouldn’t be able to think of a way to say it. While not a clinical term, it was the closest the spiritualist could think of that the other woman would understand as her own emotion.

"That’s the word. Why exactly were you ssing with whatever you just said?"

"I made the attempted adjustnts so that I could grow to my potential with less... *direct* manipulation. The plan I have to achieve in four years will require to shift between long sessions of building and long sessions of ditation where I directly influence growth hormones."

So far, the girl had seed surprisingly lucid. Despite just talking to a construct that the scout had been assured possessed nothing like a way of human thinking or free will. But Sevra could almost see the mont that whatever was holding her together snapped.

"But I don’t want to be that busy. I want ti to rest too, but my usual emotional regulation techniques aren’t working properly and I can’t fix it without disrupting the very abilities I need to keep working and I can’t stop working because if I do I’ll just think about how much I miss her and how long it’s been already and how I don’t even know if she’s safe and..."

The words ca out in a rush, faster and faster until Elua was nearly hyperventilating. ’Fascination’ and ’horror’ spiked as the most terrifying person she was sure she’d ever et had, what was *unmistakably*, a fullblown teenage angst-filled tantrum breakdown. The girl sucked in a deep breath and pointed in a direction.

"So I’ve been talking to the stones and the constructs because they don’t *judge* and they don’t ask questions... and they definitely don’t have spirits that give that look you’re giving right now!"

"...What look?"

"The ’oh no, the scary ancient cultivator that I can’t decide whether to like or not is actually just a confused teenager having feelings’ look! I *hate* that look!"

Sevra realized she was indeed feeling those exact things. Though she wasn’t sure if that was an actual facial expression or body language. If it was, she couldn’t help it. But she could try one thing. She boldly raised her most authoritative tone - the one she used to manage difficult people on contracts.

"Right. Okay. Here’s what’s going to happen, in this order. You’re going to stop working imdiately. You’re going to eat sothing. You’re going to sleep - not ditate - for at least eight whole hours. And you’re going to stop having conversations with inanimate objects to avoid others."

"But the schedule I had for finishing the foundation..."

Upset in a way that couldn’t decide if it was ’anger’ or ’depression’, El whined and looked at the ground. Being talked at like an unruly kid was not exactly a first, but it had been so ti. Even her parents in this life didn’t often take that tone with her!

"That will wait. The rocks aren’t going anywhere."

"Actually, they might. There’s been so concerning settling in the eastern corner of the stone forest that suggests a sinkhole could form in another few years. I really should get to fixing that now so-"

"ELUA."

The sharp bark made the ’young’ cultivator blink her mint eyes in surprise. Not because of the sound, or because of being interrupted for the... she actually forgot to count this conversation!

But because a small sothing had finally solidified. Sothing that all the talks these months and the small gift of knowledge - and wine - hadn’t gotten to happen yet. The ’concern’ in Sevra had finally turned from being entirely outweighed by self-preservation against the other cultivator into not even thinking of the risk.

’For about five seconds there, she really didn’t think I was going to ever do anything to her... that I was a *good* person.’

Of course, it didn’t last forever. But ’care’ had sprouted once in the field... and so too did sothing else sprout in a location. The heiress brushed her soft but dirt covered hands across her own cheek.

"Are you..."

Before the woman could finish the words, Elua began to walk off. Feeling the wet of tears - a silent cry that she didn’t fully understand herself for the first while after it started - she turned in a direction almost at random. Of course, she was followed sowhat reluctantly.

"That’s not where we sleep."

"I know."

The Shadow Whisker mber also knew she knew, but it felt like the only thing to say. And there *was* a chance that the sleep-deprived girl had made a mistake.

"Where are you going?"

"Just... anywhere but here for a while."

"Is it because I yelled at you?"

Footsteps increased their pace - not quite a run, but no longer a calm stroll. Sevra hesitated again, but kept up for a little while until the brunette finally spun and gave her a very weird look. One that seed ’pained’ and ’conflicted’ and all kinds of strong emotions that weren’t actually being let out into the surroundings for once.

’Hold it in. She’ll be hurt if you let it out. She won’t understand. Not like Qat.’

"Just... stop caring for a minute, okay? I don’t want you to follow . I don’t want you to comfort . You’re not going to make it better. I’m not... I *am* essentially a child right now, but I can handle myself."

"Yeah, I thought so too. Which is why I took too long to say anything."

The admission did nothing to make the normally composed ancient cultivator look any better. Even without sobbing, just standing there with glistening eyes and wet cheeks - it made her look impossibly young and fragile. Not like soone from a ti that sounded like constant fighting.

"...You shouldn’t have said anything at all."

Words ca out in a harsher tone than the illusionist intended, but she couldn’t take them back - and didn’t want to risk using her spirit for things like mory blanking right now. It was hard enough to keep it contained. Her hands were shaking as she wrapped her arms around herself - as if that physical gesture could sohow hold the pieces together.

"I was just trying to help-"

"I know you are! That’s the problem!"

The brunette all but scread to the woman’s face, mint eyes blazing with a frictional energy that made Sevra take an instinctive step back. All the fear that had been set aside revived into a new sparking blaze of terror, but it was too quickly quenched by this seemingly incombustible drop of ’unselfish care’. Teeth clenched tight for a few seconds before El continue to bark what she was feeling.

"I won’t let you comfort because that’s *hers*. When I fall apart and when I need soone to hold together - that’s my beloved’s role. My Qat’s... not yours - and not anyone else’s."

In the small break, the scout tried to open her mouth to respond to what she was saying... but Elua er Goltbred was not finished speaking.

"I refuse. I will not dilute that. Or practice feeling better about myself with soone else... just because she’s not here - or because it’s sothing *normal* people would do with their friends."

Such a word and title toward the woman seed to surprise them both... and sparking mint eyes blinked in a pattern while looking down and away. One that suggested she hadn’t actually ant to say *that* either. But before Sevra could process what that ant - Elua was moving in a short ’stomp’ step that ’popped’ and bounced her much farther away.

In that suddenly gained distance, the air around her began to visibly streak and shimr with the pressures being contained and increased, while temperatures were being offloaded to the surroundings more quickly than she usually worked her Elent.

"Wait, where are you-"

The controlled explosion of compressed air launched the small cultivator skyward with violent force, her silver dress whipping tight as she arced over the stone forest. Away from the cliff that she usually ran off to when she needed alone ti lately. Where she explored the underwater caves for small earthly treasures while thinking of presenting them to her husband-wife soday soon.

’Sooner every day that passes. But still so far away.’

Within seconds of repeated and tid blasts, she was just a speck against the violet sky even to a cultivator’s enhanced vision. Leaving the decommissioned assassin standing alone. Sevra stared up at the empty air for a long mont, then down at the abandoned construction site with its scattered tools and still - for now - functioning spiritual constructs.

"So we’re... friends now?

The woman asked the silence. Predictably, nobody and nothing was capable of answering.