I made my way outside with Ulanion and his guard. I wanted a moment out of my room, and there was no point in sending him away at this point; the damage was already done. My brother had run off to who knows where, undoubtedly plotting my immanent demise by mother.

"So... mind telling me what that was all about?" he asked as we headed out into the large inner courtyard. Much of it had been changed since I was last here, now hosting a number of lovely gardens.

"My brother, idiot that he is, wanted my help explaining his choice of girlfriend to our mom."

"You seem flustered though? Isn't that something to be happy about? Not only has he found someone, but he wants your aid, unless something's wrong with her?" He was still a bit confused.

"His choice is my one of my former teachers. She's both a bit odd, and an elf, which may be an issue. I don't think mom will care, but if the woman weren't seriously weird it would help." I rubbed my temples, trying to ward off what must be an oncoming headache.

"Ah, what's the term? Baby-crazy?" Ulanion chuckled a bit.

"Right on target with that one," I confirmed. "How'd you guess?"

"Oh.. yes," he said, leaning in a bit conspiratorially. "You see Alana, I've met one or two elven women in my years. I've personal experience with the most common of their eccentricities, at least by human standards. With our fertility rates there's a heavy push for girls to make heirs."

I punched him lightly on the arm. Of course he knew what I'd probably see as the weirdest thing for Etia. Pointing out that he'd seen, and was probably related to, similar girls was just a bit crass.

"You don't seem to have those problems," I pointed out.

He pointed to the side of his head. There were grey hairs there, a light sprinkling not unlike what my father now sported. "Experience."

I snorted. "So what, back in the day you made lots of little Ulanions to go and 'do your part' or whatever?"

"No comment," he replied with equal amusement.

"Seriously?" I was a bit shocked by that.

"Alana, people with full-blown magic are far more common among elves, but we're still a rarity. Many people also want us in their family trees. I've had plenty of chances to pick up women in all my many years, most with no other real expectations of me. That is... hollow though, the fun is fun, but it's not really meaningful, if you follow." He shrugged at the end, clearly I, even with two lives, still had much to experience.

I'd had a few flings. Nothing major, but Pinea had run a party circuit until the torch had been taken up by others, and with my tattoo and ability to heal anything I might have possibly picked up there was no danger. It was weird how different some of the upper levels of society were when it came to that because of magic. There wasn't anything like the sixties, but it was more relaxed than non-mages tended to be.

"Anyway... John wants me to help him with mom, and also now thinks we're together. If I say no he might well tell her we're together and have been doing heavens knows what back in the elven lands. She's fairly uptight about that kind of thing and will likely have a complete fit."

"I mean... I have seen you sans clothing," he teased. It might have been funny if the guard following hadn't made a slight choking noise.

"By accident! Where nothing happened!" He must have seen my eye twitch. Really the last thing that I needed was some random guard with a loose tongue letting that get back to my brother, or for an even bigger mess, my freaking father, who'd lose his mind.

"Yes, yes, stumbling on you two in the bath wasn't my intent." He put his hands up, warding off any anger. As if that statement wasn't worse.

The guard looked at us with slowly widening eyes.

"Er, nothing by it of course, both girls..." That wouldn't help, my family knew that I'd dated a girl before and would probably only confirm their thoughts. It also didn't stop the widening eyes on the poor observer.

"S T O P T A L K I N G!!!" I hissed, driving every moment of the word hard like a nail.

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"Sorry," he quietly replied.

I glared at his guard intensely. I considered making some threat or other, but ended up just letting my eyes speak the horrors I would unleash upon him should his lips let this slip.

"Anyway, the issue of my brother thinking we're together is a problem. He'll probably say something, and I'll have to explain to my parents, or whatever, and they won't believe me in all likelihood, and all that mess. Mom will almost assuredly insist on meeting my new admirer and ask lots and lots of questions." I closed my eyes, now fully rubbing them.

"Good grief, I do hope that being associated with me isn't that unpleasant to you." Ulanion shook his head a bit as he spoke. I looked up to see him there.

"I don't have any particular objections to you, just that it's not the case," I answered.

"Good to know. Let's talk again another time." With that he quickly turned and left, leaving me a bit flustered. His guard, who was both vastly unprofessional and still a bit shocked took several moments to follow. The elf could have lost him if he really tried, but he didn't.

"Wait what!?" I stood there just as thrown off as the soldier, if not more. Did he seriously like me like that? Was he going to make some kind of move? Was he seriously going to leave me here on that note?

I spent the next couple of days fuming as I worked. Ulanion didn't come and see me again in that time, and I considered going to resolve that particular issue myself. I was stubborn though and if that stupid pointy eared jerk wanted to flirt before leaving I certainly wasn't going to go and seek him out. Who knew what kind of weird ideas he might get if I did.

So instead I busied myself trying to get things done, eventually turning the stone back over with a letter to Mystien that I'd finished with it. That was true, and I had things to get to now. Soon as that word got send out and replied to I had to go to helping Selene with gate building.

She'd been doing a rough job of it. Sure the teleportation sequences and everything were right, she'd just copied them over, but I really hated her design of the surrounding functions. I was a bit traditional in how I liked my setup, unlike Ristolian, who'd redone the on/off and mana distribution methods himself, which she was copying. There wasn't any particular reason that his way wouldn't work, I just didn't like the way it looked.

We argued back and forth on those points for awhile. Her thoughts were that if it worked there was no need to mess with it, whereas I liked the idea of cleaning up Ristolian's messy implementation. In the end we went with her way for this run, since it was a test, but I was determined that when we went into full production changes would be made. That was assuming I was still on this project when that happened.

I wondered how far the update to the core would be spread. It wouldn't be everywhere of course, and if I had to put forth a theory it would probably be shared among our team and a few extras before being locked tight in a vault somewhere. It was dangerous tech, and if one of us were to betray the empire it could spell disaster. I didn't have to theorize either, I'd seen what a small dedicated group could do with a limited version.

As we were putting our first pair of gates together and getting the last of it all writ down there was a bit of a stir outside. We'd been given a small room to use as a workshop and Selene and I had taken to our task with gusto. I didn't notice at first that the outside had gone totally silent, but when I did I turned towards the door. Our lab was warded such that while sound couldn't escape, it could enter, to allow us time should some alarm go off.

The silence followed by the sound of a number of very excited people approaching was the only short warning we got before the door opened. The leader of the entering party stood there looking at us with a bright smile and look of almost fatherly pride.

"Good afternoon ladies, I do hope I'm not interrupting anything too important?" Emperor Durin said, his black cloak swaying slightly as he looked in at us.