"Status is often one of those things that people invent to put themselves above others. People fight for it, die for it, all for the intangible honor and glory it supposedly brings. What all too many fail to grasp, however, is that without power, status alone is more often than not as useless than it is intangible. I never sought after status myself. My power speaks for itself loudly enough." - Nec Aarin, the Bone Lord

"Fascinating. Truly fascinating," said Artair as he jotted down his notes on the sheafs of paper. Early on in their conversation they had relocated to a long bench by the side of the courtyard, which creaked a bit as they sat on it. Artair was obviously as hefty as he looked, while Aideen pondered that she too might be a bit heftier than she looked, with how her muscles had become more dense over the years. "Much of what you said correlated with what we learned, yet more of them are new to us entirely."

"Really? I had thought with so many of us here it would be more common knowledge by now," asked Aideen in reply, absentlymindedly sipping from her mug of ale while she talked. She had related her experiences where it applied to Artair, including some of the things they learned from less ethical research done on the flesh artisan from over a decade ago, since grandpa Aarin never said to keep it a secret. Nobody ever asked him about those findings though. "There's got to be like… what? Three hundred of us unliving living in Tohrmutgent now?"

"You neglect to consider that the vast majority of those are content to live their lives peacefully in town, Young Lady," replied Artair as he was finishing up his last few lines with the quill in his hand. His appearance right now, with a monocle perched over his right eye and the quill looking positively diminutive in his large paw-like hands, had made for a juxtaposition that brought an unbidden chuckle for Aideen when she first saw it, though the therian man seemed used to it and took no offense at her amusement. "Few of them actively assumed a role in armed conflicts, and very few see any action. You are probably the first I have talked to who actually experienced so much, to be honest."

"Good point, I guess," conceded Aideen. It was true that most unliving they rescued turned to more peaceful ways of living, with only a few taking up work as guards or similar. She did not recall any that actually joined the military for that matter. For many of them, especially the ones they only rescued a while after their rising, violence brought out a painful reminder to the traumatic experiences they had suffered at the hands of their former friends and comrades, or even loved ones for an unlucky few. "Anything else I can help with?"

"Oh no, thank you. Just what you gave us so far would likely result in more years of further research already. We will need a good while to digest this, maybe see if we can pinpoint why some people rise again as unliving with some providence," replied Artair with a humble nod, while peering over his notes rapidly, his paw-like hands more dextrous than they looked, considering the ease with which he flipped sheets of paper. "I must once again express my gratitude that you had deigned to share your time and answers, Young Lady,"

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"Think nothing of it," said Aideen with a slight smile. The conversation had helped her while away the time without having to be too involved in the festivities, since she was honestly not in the mood for it, but had not wanted to disappoint her niece. "Enough about me. What about you? To be honest, I didn't even know sir Myrddin had a grandson… until today."

"To be honest? Grandpa hadn't known of my existence until I came to Tohrmutgent three years ago," replied Artair with some melancholy in his voice. "I'm lucky that I still got to meet him at all, to tell the truth."

"That sounded like… you got a bit of a story behind it," Aideen replied with a raised eyebrow. "I don't think sir Myrddin ever talked about his family much, now that I think about it."

"It's a pretty long story, if I were to be frank," answered Artair, looking a bit wistful as he thought over his family's past. "And rather messy to boot."

"It's fine," said Aideen as she got up and walked to the nearby table, piled a plate with some cold cuts of meats and cheeses as well as a few still hot roasted ribs of boar, and grabbed a fresh pitcher of cold ale before she returned to the bench and poured to fill both of their mugs. "I'm not in a particularly festive mood anyway, wouldn't mind hearing your story for a change."

"All right then," said Artair after he thanked her. He fell into thought for a moment, probably sorting out his family's past so he could tell a coherent story, before he started. "It all started from my great grandmother, I would say. Grandpa Myrddin's mother. I do not believe you have met her since grandpa said she was rather reclusive."

"I had not indeed," confirmed Aideen with a nod.

"You see, our family, the deVreys, originated from the west part of the Elmaiya empire. We used to be minor nobles there, a barony or its equivalent if I remember right," explained Artair as he started talking in between gulps of ale to wet his throat. "All that ended a long time ago, however, by the time grandpa's grandpa was the head of the family. Some said it was due to politics, other because the family head back then fucked up, probably both if you asked me."

"Sounds about right for that sort of shit, yeah," replied Aideen with a nod. Despite her upbringing, her experiences so far had made her want to have as little to do with politicking as possible. "I assume your family came here in search of refuge then?"

"Indeed. At the time, I heard the family was mostly annihilated after the loss of status by some old enemies, and only great-grandma along with the then young grandpa managed to escape here," nodded Artair nonchalantly, as if he was just reciting some random history instead of his family's own. Then again, he was so far removed from that time that it might well be as good as random history to him. "Great grandma supposedly always dreamed of returning and paying back the insults in kind, but grandpa would hear none of it. He had just focused on starting a new life here instead."

"Sir Myrddin always felt a bit married to the job, yeah," agreed Aideen as she recalled the late therian man. "How does that led to you being born out of his knowledge though?"

"Ah, you see, Young lady, Grandpa Myrddin lost grandma when she gave birth to my mother, who was their only child. He had never remarried, and since he was usually busy with work, he asked for great-grandma's aid to look after his daughter," said Artair somewhat sadly as he sighed. He looked somewhat melancholic despite his large, fierce appearance. "Needless to say, great grandma influenced mother quite a bit with stories from their glory days, and mother had it in her mind to somehow revive the deVreys name as a noble house. Grandfather had disagreed, so one day, after they had a squabble, she simply left on her own. I think she was but twenty or so at the time? That was decades ago. Great grandma had long passed too by then."

"It was that sequence of events, with how my mother and grandfather were estranged from one another, that led to me being born without grandpa even knowing."