The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son' Chapter 459 - A Long Road North Through Foreign Snow, For Bl

Sevra pulled her new furs tighter around her shoulders as her horse tromped on the path. The harsh northern winds cut through even the most layered of traveling cloaks. Rocky foothills and the jagged peaks that marked the bulk of the frozen expanse was the most interesting thing she could see in the distance. It had taken her months to make it this way while avoiding being caught and questioned.

About where she was or what she’d seen in the half a year she had been gone. Leaving a vague letter about the circumstances with soone to deliver to her Guild was all she’d done. Then she was following the tracker over the land and across the sea, to a place she never would have thought to look... but her brother did. They’d reunited only days ago, after he’d independently tracked a lead that brought him north.

"You know, I really thought you’d have more to say about the weather by now."

Tarem’s breath was visible in the cold air and his voice had a familiar teasing lilt to it as he rode beside her, on the hardy breed of horse surprisingly prevalent in this region. They exchanged a lot of information through coded sentences due to the retinue around them.

’He still thinks my escaping alone is better...’

The scout only glanced at him this ti. Lady Aarengraf’s personal forces keeping eyes on them were smaller than Sevra had expected, but their coordination as they moved told of rigorous training with a goal of military might. The feudal Houses of the nobles, which functioned like and for all intents *were* Guilds... didn’t ss around when it ca to escorts and expeditions. Even if one of the two - or both, depending on your definition of *detainnt* - had been a prisoner not so long ago.

"Sister?"

She realized she’d been staring at nothing, one hand unconsciously touching where the heiress-made cultivator-finder rested. Thinking about what he must have gone through while she was making a very concerning ’friend’... and about what their Elder was doing up here. How long he’d been here while they were playing detectives for all these years.

"The weather... is manageable. I’ve grown used to harsh environnts."

The woman took a breath, watching the exhale disperse into the frigid Air. While she was trying to tell him she wasn’t going to rush off on her own, her words were also fairly literal. Elua had once claid to want to practice her ’Frost Mimicry’... and that led to the cave they were in at the ti turning into an icebox thanks to sealing off the entrance beforehand. Infuriatingly, that was one of the big ways that pushed her to heavily cultivate essence and led to her breakthrough.

Now, she was plenty capable of keeping so of the wind directly around her vibrating together as Elua had shown her. Trading concentration, and a small fraction of essence she was pulling in from the surroundings, into just a bit of helpful heat. She wished she could do the sa for her sibling as well... but with the way her spiritual sense worked, tied to her Walk Avatar, it would have required her to basically superimpose her astral self over him. While moving - and while maintaining her own temperature while not falling off of the saddle.

’He can cycle his own Physical Energy, he’s not helpless...’

"Imagine you, being fond of nature’s harsh sides... not afraid of dark storm clouds anymore, either?"

The terror was still there, at tis... that base instinct that recognized Elua er Goltbred as sothing ancient and dangerous if circumstances aligned wrongly. But layered over it was ’respect’ and ’exasperation’. Camaraderie that ca from surviving months together in isolation with that particular reincarnated ’storm cloud’, who could go from lightning to rainbows in less than a second. Pretty much like any teenager could.

"I’ve resolved my fear. Maybe I’ll stay outside and watch next ti they arrive."

Explaining to Tarem that she was willing to be sociable, and even looking forward to eting with the wayward heiress, they finally cut their chatter and focused on the trail. For a while, anyway. The coming dark reminded her of late nights in the Exclave, sitting across from the sigilists as she worked on increasingly complex arrays that ant nothing to the scout.

Still, the way the brunette would pause to get her attention and explain sothing unprompted. As if having company made her *need* to fill the silence, even with cultivation knowledge-sharing or a sudden monologue about one of the Acid Tongued Villainess tales. The gradual realization had hit that... beneath all the ancient wisdom was soone who was trying - sotis successfully, sotis not - to show herself to soone.

’She had a one-track mind when it ca to Qatrand, especially. Bringing her up from the slightest connection. It was kind of sweet. Also kind of terrifying. Definitely obsessive.’

"We’ll make camp in thirty minutes."

She glanced ahead at Lady Aarengraf’s straight-backed posture as the woman spoke up. The noblewoman who intercepted her attempts to sneak through her territory. And who just so happened to have arrested her brother for the sa thing.