Alessa was running from one end of the new Aria village to the other. Making all haste, because she was running an errand for Granny Alma who’d started up a new school for the children.
In her arms, she held a crate of water skins that the kids would need to take for a field excursion that they’d be going on. She was taking them to the one of lead huntsman, when she noticed that there was someone sitting by the house at the edge of the village.
She went and handed the waterskins off to Olaf the huntsman that would be helping Granny Alma teach the village youth the basic of living in the wood. Then she headed back to the house at the edge of the village.
The Lord's house, which troublingly enough looked completely humble compared to the other homes and buildings he’d helped set up shortly after taking them in as wards and establishing the outer bounds of the Gray Lord’s Glen.
Normally it shouldn’t have been a problem, normally they, whoever ’they’ and she wouldn’t have been able to do so. Normally it would been part of the territories that Aria called the lord’s inner-glen.
Unfortunately those had receded, the inviolable lands being pulled away and revealing a quaint, very ordinary looking cottage that it was possible to enter, or look inside.
The Lord of Katia disappearing as his inner lands did. Though his protections on the outer land and the spells that aided farming and construction still seemed to hold strong.
The problem now was that in the time that Lord of the Wood had been absent, the village youth had started to make sport of lingering near his stair stoop.
It wasn’t rocket science, in fact considering that these were barbarian youths it was almost inevitable. On the one hand you had a mysterious and slightly terrifying monster Practitioner, that even the adults seemed to be afraid of.
On the other hand you had youths who were raised to be brave regardless of the consequence. Making catching tigers by the tail into an actual literal game they played. Naturally a few would dare each other to go touch or stand or even sit on the Gray Lord’s stoop.
If the grownups caught you the punishment would be harsh, varying from extra chores and latrine duty, to time in the stockades. The only issue was that everyone seemed to avoid going near that part of the village made it slightly unlikely that one would be caught. Which made it all the more tempting.
Interestingly enough old Alma didn’t advise the Tribal council to set up a guard, instead she left it to the older children and those youths that village trusted small authorities to. Having them warn the other youths away from the Gray Lord’s hut.
Perhaps it was because she sensed that any guards they set up wouldn’t be welcome. Perhaps it was because she’d sensed that part of why the strange Practitioner had taken her people under his wing, was because of the children.
Anyone who truly knew the old woman or how she worked, would say that more likely than not the answer was a little of both. As well as a possible litmus test, a haphazard method of feeling the inscrutable young man out, by seeing how he reacted to this tiny imposition.
A risk she’d never take if she weren’t almost certain that the man was unlikely to actually harm any of the children who’d stepped onto his stoop.
Not that everyone saw it that way or understood what she was doing. For the more Moderate less ‘boisterous’ parts of the tribe, the idea of rocking a boat that was both comfortable and self-sailing wasn’t a relished one. Thus the order for the elder youths to stop their juniors from angering the forest lord was doubly given.
Nineteen year old, Alessa was one of those older youths, just a year away from becoming a full fledged warrior of the Aria tribe. Thus when she saw the figure sitting on the stair stoop she had to ward them off.
Making them leave because if an adult, or heavens forbid, a tribal elder, had to deal with it, it’d mean misery for everyone involved. With the senior youths being lectured about their negligence and given extra chores and mandatory ‘training’.
“Hey guys, this really isn’t cool...I’m going to have to ask you to….”
Alessa began speaking. Her social awkwardness making her words half lost, and half mumbled. Then as she saw who she was speaking to, they died an instantaneous death, on the tip of her tongue. Like fish on a sun dried lake bed.
Funnily enough it wasn’t the man’s aura that told her who he was, for he had no aura at the moment, and curiously seemed to not posses any aether at all. An unbelievable thing on a planet where every life form was evolved for the use and channeling of aetheric energy.
Nor was it his looks, for though he was darker and more delicate in build than most of the tribe, the Aria were a diverse people and he could still have passed for one of the younger youths.
No, what made her recognize him was his expression, or rather, the lack thereof. Whether it was his emptiness in his eyes or the plain neutrality in the set of his face, he looked like something that had been made, not born.
A doll. Absolutely apathetic to the world around it. Inhuman, impassive and yet somehow, possessing a certain fascination that kept her from running away as her instincts were telling her to do.
“Ask me to. What?” said Billy.
“I...uh...I….” she said. Her brain hiccuping. Neurons misfiring because she’d somehow conveniently forgotten how to speak good old fashioned imperial common.
Her nerve broke and she finally ‘consciously’ realized that she wanted to run, the impulse growing strong enough that she could feel herself preparing to do so.
She was just about to turn and walk away when the man spoke.
“Wait...how long has it been since I was here last?” said Billy.
Alessa blinked, not comprehending, fearing that she was being tested, because whenever her Grandmother asked similar questions, it was usually a test.
“Just tell how long it’s been since you’ve last seen me.” said Billy.
Her face scrunched up as she tried to think, then the girl smartly answered, miraculous managing not to stumble over her words as she did so.
“It’s been three months, milord.”
Billy frowned and he brought up the screen of his phone construct, startling the young barbarian before him.
“Well...shit.” said Billy.
He disappeared before the girl’s very eyes, leaving her unsure of exactly what had happened or whether things would be okay. Alessa becoming even further befuddled when she found herself pushed towards her initial destination, back in the village, proper.
Pushed there, when the lord’s inner-glen returned and displaced the spaces around it. Warping the shape of the village to accommodate the inner-glen’s apparent length and depth. With no other recourse, she ran to inform Granny Alma of what had happened.
*****
Elena and Edna made their through one of Gene’s biggest markets. Going from store to store and stall to stall. For once this wasn’t business, it was pleasure, a rare moment of idle distraction. Regular money, old fashioned imperial denarii, it kind of stopped holding meaning after a while.
By the time you made your millionth gold dollar, paper money stopped being a thing that you had to earn and was turned into an almost nuisance-like consequence of doing business.
Similar to what small denomination imperial coins were to normal folk. As for the Bone Tree Company’s actual assets, the only thing that Edna could say, was that it was very, very good thing Elena was present to do the numbers.
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She knew her own talents enough to know that she wouldn’t have been able to keep those numbers straight and she wouldn’t have been able trust anyone else to handle them.
“Mhm...so boss lady, do you think you and certain gentlemen will kiss and make up, by the time the weeks done?” said Elena.
Edna blushed and then she shrugged. Picking up a skirt and then holding it to her own reflection in a mirror. Her expression unsatisfied.
“Not sure what that has to do with anything, but I think that’d depend on whether he’d learned his lesson on A) keeping in touch and B)communicating what he’s got in the works, to keep people from worrying.”
A few hours ago, a certain Sorcerer teleported into the townhouse in Gene, full of apologies because he’d not expected to be indisposed for quite as long as he had been. Using the raw material he’d taken in, as a sub-medium, while completed his breakdown and conversion of the old woman’s divine spark.
Converting it into a seed energy that would hasten and stabilize the growth of the world within his shadow. Granting that world an ever more robust internal logic and reinforcing its spatio-temporal laws.
In effect making the world more real, granting it more weight and empowering both its denizens and its master. What should have taken a few weeks or a month at most, ended up taking three.
He’d ended up having to do some very major overhauls to his biology to deal with the energies that he’d have to contain as the conduit to that world. If it weren’t for the fact that they could somewhat sense each other’s state through the connection that lay between them, the girls might have truly grown worried.
Which could have very well meant some very dire consequences. Fortunately the connection was there, so they simply waited, watching the days go by, without a single visit, phone call, or text.
As punishment Billy was in a time out, made to sit, face the corner and think about what he’d done. Well actually that might well have been an exaggeration, it was more that he was in his office doing the work that he’d skipped out on, plus some of the girls’ work, while they took a very much needed break.
“I suppose he wouldn’t have been gone so long if he didn’t but I really do wish he’d stop with the disappearing acts.” said Elena, with a sigh.
“Mhm...tch...I don’t what we’re expecting, he’s a Maddoc man after all, even for the good ones the only way to keep an eye them is to either actually keep a constant eye on them or lock them up somewhere.” said Edna. Both annoyed with the man and herself.
Elena grinned, aware that the girl was ‘un’-aware that she was pouting. A look that was far more endearing than those chilly fake smiles she always wore. Quietly taking a snapshot for posterity’s sake.
“I think I know where I’d like to lock him up, if I had a say.” said Elena.
“Ew, Ell.” said Edna.
“What? You didn’t even let me finish.”
“Just, Ew.” said Edna.
Shaking her head as they weren from one shop to the next, annoyed that this was the twentieth time that she’d caught herself wandering towards the magic goods shops, to check on both the company’s wares and the competition.
“....Just in case you were wondering. I was talking about my vagina.”
“Ngh…” Edna groaned.
Edna didn’t even have words, she just had the furious heat in her cheeks and a very deep wish to not be standing where she was. She glared at the other girl then walked away in a huff.
“So when do you think we should tell him about the guys who’ve been following us for last few months?” said Elena. Her mood switching as she casually eyed her own reflection in a mirror. Taking care not to notice the ten or so individuals who’d just happened to drift through the mall in the same direction that they’d been going.
Edna frowned.
“I don’t know...so far they’ve just been watching us and we ‘have’ been making splashes.” said Edna. Also taking care to not notice their unwanted entourage.
“So?...It’s creepy and honestly I don’t think they’ll be ‘just watching’ for long. I still say you should let me deal with them.” said Elena. Heading into a shop’s dressing room with a blouse in hand.
“And I’ve already said, no. Besides whoever’s sending them would just send more, either that or they might just lodge a formal complaint about us offing their stooges.”
“So…? If they’re sending stooges they’re obviously not trying to be friends. I say we get rid of these pains in our necks and just see what happens.” said Elena.
“Ngh...I don’t that’d be a good play. Besides this looks like something all ‘three’ of us have to decide on.” said Edna.
“...Honestly,I kind of suspect that Billy already knows, it’s part of why I get so annoyed with him. It’s like he’s playing this game but not telling us that he’s playing it.” said Elena. Frowning as she found that the shirt she’d just tried on didn’t quite fit to her liking. ‘
“Yeah...probably…” said Edna.
“En. I guess...I don’t really mind really. It’s like when we were kids. I made up the schemes. You dealt with the details and he ran interference with the grown ups.” said Elena.
Edna just shrugged, sipping from the ice-coffee that she had in her hand. The ice already having melted, making the coffee watery and bland.
“Yeah...but we’re not kids anymore and the stakes are higher. I don’t want him to get himself hurt because he’s trying to take everything on by himself.” said Edna.
Elena brought her into the changing room to have her help deal with a zipper that was out of reach.
“Then its just as simple as not letting him….We let him do his thing and make sure we’re there to back him up when everything inevitably gets out of hand. There’s a reason why we’ve been working so hard to get stronger after all. The stronger we are the easier it’ll be make him get off his high horse and stop trying to quietly handle everything on his own.” said Elena. Smiling as she turned around trying a coat that seemed to have been exactly what she was looking for. Deciding that she liked it enough, that she might just ask Billy to enchant it for her so she could wear it while she was working.
Edna just nodded, a determined look in her face.
“Fair enough.” said Edna, remembering the decades’ worth of time dilated training that she’d untaken just a few days ago. With Elena and Edna and a few of the battle-programed practice dummies that Billy had set up. The endless mantras, spell memorizations and repetitive, brain numbing, martial drills.
Recalling the constant sense of peril that came at the times that they’d spar at full tilt, trying to get their sharpen their combat instincts and grow used to using whatever they had available.
She remembered it all and grinned with self-derision, aware that it was still far from enough. That all the sessions that she’d taken since she’d broken through to the second realm were still just barely scratching the surface of what she needed to learn.
The Two lady executives of the Bone Tree Company paid for their purchases. Then instead of heading for the next shop they teleported to a bakery they both liked. Satisfied with their acquisitions and decisions.
Deciding that they’d pick up a cake a few honey glazed pastries before they headed home. With Edna taking some extra pleasure in knowing just how frustrated their ten ‘chaperones’ would be.