Qatrand exited the Order premises after a short debrief and handing off of the letter from the senior mber at the encampnt. Elua had been in her workshop when her spiritual sense launched outward and spun in a search of the city. She did it roughly every five minutes, and she kept count of every use!
When she noticed that her beloved was back, her face had brightened and began a run to intercept. The brunette looked up, into pigeon blue eyes as she ca to a stop and started fixing her hair.
"Qat! You’re back early. What a coincidence to see you here. How was the mission?"
The swordswoman stared nonplussed, but felt it wasn’t worth a grip to the forehead for the obvious lie. After all, she had missed her as well.
"It was... eventful. We encountered so strange sigils. Actually, I wanted to ask you about them."
The heiress’s eyes sparkled with ’interest’. It wasn’t that it involved sigils... rely that her ’fortress’ was talking about her work!
"Oh? Do tell."
"Well, there was this clearing with frankly impossible gravity, and-"
The Yecine paused, considering her words. Her hesitation was felt by the illusionist who was trying her best not to squash the tendrils of spirit that were laying protectively around her.
"El, have you ever created sigils that could bend space?"
Surprise? Concern? Sothing passed over the brunette’s face before her ’usual smile’ returned.
"That’s quite advanced work. Why do you ask?"
"So of the patterns looked familiar. Like a swirl your training tool once drew while we were talking about the sigils for my sword."
The Qatrand’s gaze was keenly searching for any reaction. The tips of her nosy spirit projections were also poking at her and the reincarnator really wanted to giggle as if being tickled while pointing it out! She wondered if the swordswoman was even paying enough attention to what she was doing...
The Goltbred humd noncommittally.
"Interesting. Was that all that happened?"
"No, there was an incident where it turned into a trap. The Coiled Serpent liaison I was sent to protect was nearly pulled into a... vortex. I had to hold onto her tightly to keep her from being sucked in."
Elua’s smile tightened imperceptibly.
"Did you now?"
Not entirely oblivious to the shift in mood, but misplacing it as worry about the trap, Qatrand continued.
"She kept very close after that. Touching my arm and whispering theories about the sigils into my ear as she docunted them. Also she seed to have this tendency for her hips to touch mine."
Her future wife beca a bit more ’real’, and Qat knew that sothing was wrong. The dull monotone that ca out was much more controlled sounding than the primary emotion in the girl’s spirit... that felt like was *pulling* tightly on every bit of the tall black-haired girl!
"I see. And this ’liaison’ is she in town?"
Qatrand nodded instinctively.
"Yes - she’s catching the evening train back to the Coiled Serpent Guild. Why... do you ask?"
Elua turned abruptly, her sense casting towards the station after identifying the matching spirit that had rubbed itself all over *her* Qat.
"No reason. Darling, would you excuse for... a while? I just rembered an urgent errand."
Before the swordswoman could respond, her cute fiancee stalked the way that Qat herself had just co from - back toward the station. A faint trail of mirage-haze air followed in her wake. Pigeon blues blinked, puzzled, but she made no move to follow.
’Her emotions were... trust at and anger at sothing else.’
When the girl could finally no longer be seen, the ’fortress’ took in a breath of air and exhaled slowly. It was dawning on her what exactly happened.
"I’m a moron. Even I thought she might have been flirting at first, so obviously El would also think..."
The dense ’heir’ stood in indecision for a while, ultimately deciding to return the trust she had just been pressed with. After all, the girl spoke about how angry Anper had made her - and this didn’t feel a fraction as strong as that.
---
At the train station, the liaison from the Coiled Serpent Guild checked her luggage, thinking if she had room to go shopping in the market. A sudden chill ran down her spine when she turned her back. She jumped to find herself face-to-face with a petite brunette... whose ’smile’ didn’t quite reach her eyes!
"Miss Liaison? I’m Elua er Goltbred, though I think you know this. I believe we have so things to discuss about your recent... *close* collaboration with my fiance."
The blonde’s eyes widened in recognition - and more fear than she expected. After all, she had heard the rumor about the mint eyed monster’s sprint through the halls. She wouldn’t get away if she ran!
As the reincarnated cultivator began speaking in low, asured tones, the woman found herself fervently wishing she’d taken the earlier train instead of waiting to see if that *taken* swordsman would offer to wait with her.
---
After exiting the attached bath and putting on her clothes, Qatrand returned to her bedroom in the Yecine estate - an exhaustion from the mission and just being back here, at the place, weighing heavy on her shoulders. She moved to her bed ready to collapse into the embrace of sleep.
A faint flicker of foreign spiritual energy caught her attention. She closed her eyes with a frown and focused her spiritual sense. Tracing the source to her pillow, she lifted it with a cautious hand.
Neatly folded was a letter sealed with an iridescent wax seal that made her heart skip. The mont her fingers touched the paper, a familiar impact flooded through her - Elua’s spirit, as distinct and powerful as the girl herself.
The girl petted her made-blonde again hair as she unsealed the letter. Pigeon blue eyes eagerly drank in the words on the page.
/ My dearest Qatrand - my ’fortress’ - my everything,
Within my countless years, a love like ours is hard to asure. You are the Anchor that grounds more than anyone ever has, though the pun of it chills my heart. You’ve been a strength that supports and that has refused to reject ... and you have been a gentle heart that completes . /
A chuckle escaped her... mingling with an unexpected sniffle as her hand trembled slightly. She tried to focus on the fact that even in a heartfelt letter, El couldn’t resist bringing up that pun.
/ Your unwavering loyalty that I strive to deserve, your quiet protective strength that I yearn wraps around , your natural kindness that warms even the chill of puns - these form the gem-like treasure of your spirit that I cherish above all else. /
Her throat grew tight. She hadn’t expected to be so overwheld by the words. By the emotions sohow attached right to the letter.
/ I’ve watched you grow to shine ever clearer, my love. From the mont I saw through that ridiculous masking tool to the warrior you’re becoming. Every step I know you take, every challenge I know you overco... fills with a pride so fierce it sotis threatens to consu . /
Pride. The word stood out even as the emotion burned her from the inside out. A choke that she realized with blurring eyes was a sob escaped into the quiet room. How long had she yearned for such recognition from her family? El had always...
/ You are magnificent, Qat - and you are mine.
Know this, my darling, my beloved:
There is nothing in this world or any other that I would let tear from your side forever. I would make the very fabric of reality itself bend before my will just to be with you. You are the only one who truly sees . Who accepts all that I am. I will spend our eternity ensuring you never regret that choice. /
The possessiveness in the statents, rather than alarming her... filled her with a swelling sense of belonging that she’d never had a hope of knowing without Elua. She almost felt that she might burst from the sheer intensity of love and devotion radiating through her spirit from each word. This thod of writing the letter with spirit was too much!
/ Rember, my love, that no matter where you are and no matter what trials you face, I am with you. My very spirit lives within you now to serve as a constant reminder of my devotion - and soday a shield against any who would dare harm you. /
Her hand instinctively pressed against her chest. She’d thought it was only the letter sohow giving off the feelings... but the echo of Elua’s spirit thrumd in harmony with her own. She closed her eyes and focused. A ’fragnt’ like she’d spoken of was being pulled unerringly toward the center of her heart.
She could tell that the interesting part was that it seed to be her own doing. The shard of spirit itself didn’t seem to be trying to do anything, but also wasn’t fighting the miniature tendrils dragging it towards a ’safer place’.
/ You are my chosen, Qatrand. In this life and any other.
I will move every mountain stone by stone to find you. I will learn to bend ti and co back to the last mont I saw you. I will ascend and reshape the very cosmos... if that’s ever what it takes to keep you by my side.
Forever and always,
Elua /
With shaking hands, Qatrand pressed it to her chest as if to absorb every ounce of love poured into it. She laid back on her bed, the exhaustion from earlier forgotten in the wake of this surge of emotions.
Her mind retraced the words in her own mory while marveling how this must be a fraction of what the cute heiress felt... as it seed impossible to pour every ounce of the reality into a re piece of paper.
She reread the entire letter once more, the intensity more bearable on a second pass. The Yecine noticed that she missed sothing probably important the first ti.
/ P.S. If anyone else is reading this first, know that you’ve now been infected by a fragnt of my spirit and incurred my eternal wrath by taking what was ant for my love. /
A startled laugh escaped her lips. In a letter so sincere, her El couldn’t forget to find a way to antagonize an imaginary possible foe. The blonde shook her head with a fond smile. The idea of her fiancee’s spirit ’infecting’ anyone was both endearing and slightly alarming.
Especially since she really seed to be the one intentionally infected...
’Oh, El. Even when you’re being sweet, you can’t help but be a little terrifying, can you?’
She traced the last words with a finger. Fiercely protective and unapologetically possessive. The swordswoman sighed with plenty of exasperation and adoration, both. All of the words were a reminder of the complicated, ancient being that had chosen to love her... and who she realized years ago that she had chosen to love in return.
She settled back against her pillow after tucking the letter back under it once more. With her hands clasped to her chest, she let the comforting intensity of Elua’s piece of spirit lull her into one of the deepest, most peaceful slumbers she’d ever gotten.
---
Late at night, Ondua entered his youngest daughter’s room. Rather than rely checking on Onya, he had been drawn in by a *strange* spiritual energy that didn’t feel malevolent but...
The brunette quickly found sothing new in the room. A very intricate mobile hung suspended above the crib, with sigils sohow glowing faintly as it slowly twisted and spun. It was honestly beautiful craftsmanship and he didn’t think for a mont that such a thing could be intended to harm his daughter.
Especially while his infant child was sleeping peacefully while clutching-
’What is that hideous thing...?’
The Goltbred hero approached bravely. At the closer distance, he began to sense the intricate interplay of spiritual energies - it was sothing he knew quite well! His Dream Astralism practically resonated in his body as he testingly ran the technique to calm nightmares.
If he wasn’t mistaken, there was also Air manipulation happening to keep it spinning and sothing else uniquely... Elua. The spiritual energy at the center of the cultivator tool she must have sohow made for her sister was unmistakable, after having been struck with it a few tis in the recent past.
Shrugging these details aside the man picked up the... toy. Ondua marveled at its leather craftsmanship and the complex sigils hidden in its stitching. He still had no idea what kind of monstrosity it was supposed to be!
Suddenly, Onya stirred while almost frantically grabbing for her toy. When he returned the... thing... to let her hug it, the father noted a subtle shift in the room’s spiritual atmosphere. The ritual sharing his Dream Aspect had activated. With curiosity, he reached his hand out and stroked her head.
"Excuse , my dear girl."
After whispering to her, he ran a technique to join her dreams, finding a more realistic version of the creature stomping and roaring at the encroaching darkness to keep it away... all while his baby crawled circles on top of its massive bald head with a flowing cape of mirage-like starlight trailing after her.
He was stunned!
After canceling the technique and staggering away, he had three thoughts.
’My little Onya is comfortable with this thing?’
’My little... big Elua actually *thought up* this thing?’
’I don’t have a purpose anymore...’
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