A mont of longing rocked the imdiate area, making Ondua rub his temples from the spiritual pressure headache. The healer that returned with his wife had tried to teach him the technique reluctantly taught to Zonnel and the rchant girl, but while he was more of a spiritualist than anything else... neither of them were exactly good teachers. Not when they wanted nothing more than to flirt with each other in his ho!
"Anyway, when I asked where the Crystal had gone... she just shrugged and said ’dunno, this mine’ before running off with it in hand. Giggling each ti it clattered on the floor. Happy, as it beca more and more tangled."
"Well, that’s fairly standard mischief for her age, no?"
"She’d then tied it like a collar to the neck of that fox."
"That creature is still around the estate? I guess it really was too spoiled."
For a mont, the girl simply tried to think back and wonder if she had ever done anything quite like that as a child. But owning an animal that would *let* you do sothing like that to it was a rarity as a mortal, in those tis. And she certainly had no access to a string of Crystal material kept persistently linked to each other like they were highly gyroscopic magnetic bearings.
"Ah, it actually lazes around the branch office of yours most days. But the haughty beast was staying with Klaytei at the ti. while Dima was called in to the Coiled Serpent Guild on business. Regardless, I spent two hours searching for where it ran off to - as I’m sure it kept away intentionally - all while she followed around insisting that I call the ’fun girl bird’ out next."
Raising her hand, Elua smiled and gradually turned his whole tale into a miniature illusion play as the man also watched. She found it interesting that Onya could tell the gender of the avian she had sent her father and wondered if it was because she actually rembered being introduced to each by El... or if soone else told her more recently about it. Either way, she did not think it possibly had anything to do with only being six months away from starting her cultivation training.
’But I have not seen her in more than two years, maybe she has grown in ways I didn’t foresee? It would not be the first or final unexpected situation that developed from whimsical ddling...’
"I wish I could see her myself, but I’ll be back before she could ever co here. She sounds delightful."
"Well, she is a bit more straightforward than your flavor of mischief. Where yours was all a ntal ga of chess that I was unaware was being played, hers always involve pure physicality. Jumpscares from around corners and under tables. Hiding things only when she knows you’ll be around to ’play’ with her. The kind of pranks you can see coming if you’re paying any attention."
"I think I would have liked being that obvious. If things were different."
A mont of wistfulness crossed the teenager’s features as she brushed out her hair with her fingers. She’d let it grow a bit, because she was reminiscing about the past so much while her mother was around. Since she was not spending more than a minuscule fraction of physical energy on the affair, only mimicking natural growth, it was still nowhere near the length from before she cut it for the wedding. She was hoping to do so again the mont she returned to the continent.
To serve as a small personal recommitnt ceremony to her beloved, after being off of that world for more than a third of the ti they’d known each other. Her father actually was enjoying seeing her grow it out, though he would enjoy it less if he understood that the reason for doing so was still ’Qat’.
"You were obvious enough when it ca to young Qatrand, believe . Which is what worries . We visited the territory that your wife-"
"Husband-wife."
"...I love you and the person you love, but I am not saying that. So if you’ll let continue and not pretend you are about to never talk to again, Talva is living there now with her husband and son as you probably know."
Smiling at the man taking a stance against her teasing, made so obvious in her spirit, she twisted her hand dramatically and produced a full-size version of the Continental Army mber in front of them. Talva er Ryleon was a bit too close to her cousin to want to see right now, but what she showed *him* isn’t necessarily sothing she had to let *herself* see. Another sort of ’delusion trick’ like her facade, built on the catalogue of representations she kept of the people she t for her Astralism’s techniques.
"Mother said as much and Qat wrote at length about their integration into the community there. Did she congratulate her over the birth for ?"
All El saw was a dark silhouette in the shape of a person holding onto a more detailed happy Onya. While the brunette man saw more and more of her amazing ’Projection’ in action, that he knew well from his wife was no such thing in the first place. Not... technically. Knowing his daughter had lied to him was not the most comfortable thing - and certainly made him disappointed. However that feeling was more about himself, for he recognized that he’d had a tight edge of concern over the taboos back when he asked.
’That she is unlikely to be caught because she knows how to use it so well... should be a whole different kind of concerning. But I’d rather choose to trust her. Or at least, I’d rather choose to ignore it!’
"Yes. The boy is healthy and growing like a... weed."
Ondua’s voice flattened a bit when speaking of the child. Sothing he could not quite bring himself to ignore. And El could already tell where this was going, but she let him speak anyway while trying very hard not to smile or laugh with any kind of glee.
"Onya was absolutely enamored with him. Wanted to hold him, play with him, and followed Talva everywhere to ’help’ with the child’s care. When it was ti to leave - for to co here... I asked if she would miss ."
The mory burned an embarrassed indignation, that of a father that just wanted his children to love him! The heiress had already stood and began to stroke his head, trying not to laugh too early. That would lack sympathy. After all he didn’t laugh at her own inner torture a bit ago...
"Elua. Dear. She actually tilted her head, looked back at the baby, and shrugged. *Shrugged*! When I sat her down, she ran off once and then ran back. I got my hopes up only for her to remind to tell ’Eluwa’ that she ’misses sister’."
The ancient cultivator’s laugh rang out so loud that she was grateful for the soundproof room. It had been horrendously sharp and not at all cute! After clearing her throat and giving him another hug, she sat down beside the man who felt like he had just been betrayed by everything he cared for. As it was the exact sa laugh that Yatrel made this morning before covering her mouth and looking away!
"To be fair, babies are very... compelling to young children. Especially active little girls who think they are strong enough to protect and manage anything."
Another small burst of her emotion, one different from the *joy* that had wounded her father a few monts ago, made Ondua reach across to pat his daughter’s hand on her knee. It was ’happiness’ mixed with ’concern’ mixed with ’uncertainty’. She took it as his encouragent to speak her mind again.
"Did she really say she misses ?"
"Every ti she sees Qat - and she can pronounce the Q now - she asks when you’re coming ho."
Her heart felt too weak and too full of sothing that couldn’t be described the sa way as her love for her ’fortress’. The little ’river-bend’ had her own sphere of influence on her in this life. An only child experiencing siblinghood for the first ti - it had left her navigating new ground for a long while now.
"I prepared supplentary materials for her cultivation training. Qat should know how to handle it."
The illusory training tool she modified actually contained a whole set of instructional lectures on Initial teaching thodologies and the most effective age-appropriate exercises. Part of that was because El was unsure what kinds of roles her Hero would take once things began to settle in her territory. Although she felt pedagogy - teaching the next generation at any Youth Guild that is approved - might be one of her pastis, which is why she gave out such data.
’Though I don’t really want her to have any disciples this young, the attachnt Leysah has to my beloved now is bad enough!’
"She’s told about the cultivator tool you made for her. It sounds very impressive. Though she has not actually let us see it yet."
"Sorry. She’s just protecting it because I asked her to."
"I know. But I’d prefer to at least take a glance at sothing the two of you want Onya to use, dear."
Sothing akin to a blush crossed her face. The air in the environnt developed a squirming and pressing feeling, as her essence field was actually pulsed by her own emotions that wanted to crush herself juts a bit.
"That wouldn’t help. What you’ll see isn’t what Onya will."
"What do you an?"
Elua’s face heated up even more, making her hide it with illusions of shadow for a half dozen seconds.
’I don’t want to say. Please don’t make say it! Why am I going to say it?!’
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