The ambitions of the four girls continued them into the next day, as they tried to settle their concerns by reaching out for progress. Such pursuits pushed them through their morning, and continued them into the afternoon.
Lwyn was struggling over the approach of their future, having two important tasks on her mind. The first was to still resolve her answer for the flow of the world, for once that time came. The second was to find the fortress, and what it was up to. She had been hard pressed to either task, without success in either. She neither had her answer, nor did she have even a clue as to where her father had vanished to. While the first had a worldly importance, the existence of the second was more than a little troubling. Something like that doesn't just disappear, not unless something really major was going on. She had more than a few concerns it was related to the veil, and her father's goals to pierce through it to overwrite Celese in Earth's image.
Lwyn was hard at work, scouring over notes and records at her desk as she tried to figure things out. Yuxzn at least was there with her, helping her go through all of the records in search of anything that might help. He obviously couldn't help her with her answer for the flow of the world, but his help was very appreciated when it came to the matters involving the Fortress. He proved to be her second set of eyes, second opinion, second everything. It was probably thanks to him that she was remaining composed during all of this at all. She did realize that she was really counting on his insight in matters like this, that he was proving to be highly dependable in so many ways. She would have to see if maybe, once everything was over, maybe she could find him a nice place at the Citadel, some sort of role that would keep him at her side even after. She was certain, with both of their insight, the Citadel would be capable of so many things, and might even outshine it's current status. The world was changing, she would need someone like him to make sure that the Citadel could keep up with such changes. For now at least, they would need to figure out how to deal with the problems of the present.
The coming of the cold season had brought with it some chilling winds, circulating a lot of bad weather changes. Dark clouds covered everything over the horizon, heralding the approach of a storm. Fall and Spring were both the rainy seasons around here, so that was rather normal, but even elven eyes struggled to pierce darkness, and the lack of a midday sun was making scouting extra challenging. She had at least ensured people were on watch, all four Nations plus the Rebellion. There was actually a lot of chaos out on the other side of the mountain, scouts having at least reported the state of both the bandits and any elements of the Rebellion that remained behind.
The bandits were actually in a state of panic, not only having had their best backing abandon them, but it seems Khaexyn had actually suddenly set upon them rather harshly. Something about how the ignorant could no longer be trusted. In that moment, the bandits found themselves abandoned and cut off from all of their resources, left to fend for themselves. The rebellion had actually discovered this and walked in, only to find bandit hopes crushed everywhere. Bandits surrendered all over the Hyxir, the badlands suddenly losing the only thing that had cultured them at all over the past several years. Some bandits grew fanatic, scouring to search for the Fortress until death took them instead, while yet others turned on their own out of desperation and fell as a result. With the sudden absence of the Fortress, the rebellion had suddenly conquered the entire Hyxir.
Qheria was helping Rhyde in much of the resulting chaos. Zyuixqs' father had taken quick advantage of the situation, sending messengers along with scouts into the Hyxir badlands. It seems, if his rebellion would suddenly find itself the conquerors of all the people in Hyxir, he was going to make something bigger of it. It was a perfect opportunity, after all. Working with some of the four nations, the Rebellion Leader was pushing forwards with a unification of the entire badlands, to turn Hyxir into it's own nation. As the leader of the Rebellion, securing the allegiance of all of Hyxir would officially make him the ruler of his newly formed Kingdom. Qheria was surprised at how fast things were moving, clearly the Rebellion Leader was not one to let slip an opportunity. In line with the same model as Wyxir and Qicir, they were setting up a monarchy, which would place the Rebellion Leader as the Hyxiri King.
Qheria was especially worried about this impact on Rhyde. Almost as if the new Hyxiri King was taking a page from the Qiciri, Rhyde was being given the title of a founding hero for their newly formed nation, a leader of a team who had ensured that their nation had a chance to even form. Qheria knew what it felt like to suddenly get named a hero, considering she had also been given the exact same title. She did not find herself with the struggles required to found a nation, but she had almost the same degree of a title otherwise. Rhyde would probably be due for a noble title, once some of the rugged elements of the Hyxiri were worked out. Under their current leadership, there were a lot of question about how rugged things would be. Still, considering the recent war between Qicir and Wyxir, it wasn't like even the existing nations could claim to be without their rough elements.
"I know a rebellion means things are supposed to change, but I would never have expected this. Making society from bandits and outlaws, even I never knew his goals were this.. surreal. Fighting back.. it was just a way of life, I really didn't ever get to think about what might happen if the fighting ever ended. The greatest odds would be that I would be dead, really. But.. suddenly forming a nation.. suddenly being a hero.. this is all new, all things I have no idea how to work with." "Well, the place is still going to start with a lot of disorder, and need people that can keep lawlessness in check. Before this whole journey began, I was a Shieldbearer, someone who establishes and enforces order and lawfulness in society. If you feel changing too much might be hard, maybe you could start with something like that?" Rhyde pondered Qheria's idea, setting up an organization that would strive to establish and enforce order in this new kingdom. Flush with banditry, it would be one of the most important things such a nation would need, and it wasn't far off from the sort of things he had done regularly. Quash disorder, promote unity, it might be a great place to start, and provide him enough room to adjust to this sudden shift in his homeland's society. After all, no one else was going to shift easily either.
Still, there was a lot of differences. The rebellion's standard approach to people not doing what they wanted was resolved by conflict. That itself wasn't the most ordered solution, a lot of the basics behind this idea would still require an outlook he himself didn't possess. How does one enforce a law in an established society, how does one measure and calculate the right and the wrong? He was doubting his ability in this situation not because he doubted his leadership ability as a whole, but that he doubted his expertise in this exact application of it.
"How exactly do the Shieldbearers work, then?" "Oh, wow, right.. even the idea would be a far outreach way out there in that kind of society. Here, when things calm down, maybe I should take you to check out how things work there. After becoming a bit of a hero myself, I don't think they would just dismiss me as easily as they did before. Maybe I can help you learn a few things about it, and you can take such lessons back with you and figure out how to apply it in Hyxir?" Rhyde did think a small demonstration might be in order, he definitely wanted a lot more information. To him, it was proving all too convenient having Qheria at his side, helping with all of these changes. He was getting honestly impressed with just how easily she seemed to adapt to change. He had even seen that Xyithy wasn't as skilled in this area, so this would have been something Qheria had learned by her special circumstances.
Qheria was actually pondering a similar subject. After her days as a Shieldbearer, she could hardly grasp the entirety of how much she had changed. She had done poorly in her days back then, hadn't even properly applied herself to her work, only walked through the concepts as if it was self-sufficient. It was her time leading the three girls that she had learned the skills that were missing in all of her pursuits. While the three girls had helped her out immensely over this period, there was one specific person who had always helped her grow as a leader, to learn how to improve her own leadership ability. It was something she would be eternally grateful to Rhyde for, an unforgettable life lesson.
Mhyl was still drawing in her room, struggling in the concept. She was sitting before another unfinished work, frustrated by it. Once again, she had paused to see what she was trying to draw, and then turned to spin her thoughts around how to finish the picture. Every-time that happened, the picture seemed more fabricated, less of a free-flow. The goal was to not overthink everything, but even now, with nothing to focus on, her mind had failed to simply wander idle and had instead amassed upon the single idea before her, leaving her distracted. She wasn't able to just simply relax, not like she wanted.
Mhyl crumpled up the paper before her and went for a new page, to start over once again. The pile she had handy was however depleted, leaving nothing left. Chyurae, still thus far unnoticed, handed her a small stack of blank paper, surprising her. Since when did he... Mhyl shrugged, keeping track of Chyurae was all too impossible. She didn't even know what he might have been doing before he arrived.
"Oh, hello Chyurae. Is there anything I can help you with?" "No.. I'm okay. I'm just worried about you, you've seemed so troubled, storming about everywhere. I noticed you were running out of paper, so I went to get some more." Mhyl realized this implied Chyurae had shown up at one point, probably as she was looking for more supplies, most likely the last time she ran out of ink there. He had then noticed how fast she had ran out of paper and went to get more before she would run out. Obviously, not being noticed in either cases.
Chyurae picked up the latest crumpled page. "I'm not sure why you seem so troubled, your pictures are incredible, so full of life." Chyurae picked up a few other discarded pages and compared them. Sometimes she had stopped before you could actually figure out what she was trying to draw, but many of them had nearly a photographic quality to them. Many of them looked mostly scenic, areas that he had never seen before. Some of them of pure fiction, fabricated from Mhyl's thoughts rather than memories. Even the ones that did not exist in this world or the other, they looked like they could have simply been made to exist if only Mhyl had finished drawing, they were so good. Everything was also so interesting, speaking to Chyurae of places he would love to go see, even if there was no chance.
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Mhyl turned to her new blank page and prepared some extra ink. "This stuff looks like it's a collection of stories, of endless tales never told before." "Oh, well, I had done a lot of reading before, like two lifetimes of stories, in addition to .. well, a mixture of cultures from one." "You read a lot of books? I know you like books, that's why I knew I had to make you the book you have, but I've not actually read books before. I never had the chance. What is reading like?" Chyurae's question left Mhyl puzzled. How do you explain to someone what reading is like, if they have never read anything before? "Well, it's like seeing through the eyes of someone else, while left in a dream-like state in an endless sea of thoughts and ideas. Because the ideas aren't your own, you have no idea what will happen until you keep reading, leaving you to experience ideas at the same pace as the story. At one point, you just feel like you're part of the story, like the adventure before you is going on around you. You can't influence anything, but it freely influences you, and you learn from their experiences. In the end, you just lose yourself to the story, and go along with the flow." Mhyl paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. She had never thought about stories like this before, considering there was nothing tangible by the immersion.. it was really just something you lost yourself in.
Chyurae approached Mhyl as she put her pen down in that moment. In just a handful of moments, Mhyl had a rough outline of an image that somehow stood out between it's lines, the pattern drawn looking like a mess at first glance, but she could see the details after a second glance. She hadn't actually been aware she was actually drawing as she explained. Her picture looked like a coastal view of a beach, a young girl staring out across the waves at an island in the far distance, wearing a summer dress that wavered in the breeze. To Mhyl, the picture somehow looked familiar, but she couldn't place it at all. Also to her, she had no idea how random lines had suddenly resolved such a vivid and powerful image.
"That's a really nice view from a.. lake? It's weird that the ground looks like dust rather than grass, but it's amazing how realistic you made the girl look, like there really was a wind blowing her clothes around." Chyurae could see the entire image too, even though he had never in his life seen a beach or the ocean. So, she wasn't just imagining it, somehow her utter randomness had actually resulted in something so pristine. This was exactly what she was trying to do, but she wasn't exactly sure how she had done it. She was kinda.. not paying attention at the time, having lost herself in the moment of her creative expression on stories and memories.
Thanrie finally finished helping the three spies with their repairs. She had ensured they worked with her to complete their own repairs, but would always find them struggling while being watched, and making far too much progress while she wasn't watching. She had tried to compare them to Chyurae, but found they were very different. Chyurae vanished when you weren't paying attention, the three girls could vanish while you watched them. Chyurae was also good at getting stuff done, the three girls were instead better with their minds. Finally, the three girls never shut up.
"Oh wow, all that hard work.. my hands feel like they went through an inferno." "Seriously, that stupid thing just wouldn't let up, made it so hard. Why is all this stupid metal so rock-solid hard?" "Thank you, lady Thanrie, for your help. We'll take these out for another test from here, you had better get some rest." Sometimes, the three of them seemed to make more use of their mouths then their minds. Thanrie sighed, not at all oblivious as to why the metal was hard. She did like the idea presented by their group's leader, it was a good opportunity to take a quick break before moving on to something else.
Thanrie made her way back to the market square, sitting at the same fountain Mhyl had lost her at earlier. Thanrie could still remember when they had been here before, as she had diplomatically requested some new gear and equipment for everyone. She was very lucky to have brought the price down so low, she had never shared that the same situation had in the process used up every coin she had carried at the time. Even now, she didn't carry any coin, but no one cared. Even approaching the fountain, someone had just gifted her some of the fruit from their stand. Here, like in the Fortress, she had pressed her will upon bystanders with sweet words in the past to get what she wanted, but this time she hadn't even tried, and was given something regardless. Much of it was her reputation, but in her case her charisma was also fueled by her appearance, she was incredibly beautiful.
Thanrie started munching down on some of the small fruits, sweet but not otherwise something she was familiar with, like some kind of melon. Like it, she was also hard to identify unless left as an open book. Usually, she went around aggressively pushing her assertive nature on everything around her, like a delinquent. In a place that furthered the ideas of an unruly society of bandits, that idea still made sense, so she had not bothered with matters of composure. However, as formalities and modesty returned to her lifestyle, she had been toning down on her aggressiveness, furthering a sense of responsibility. Switching back to dresses had really made such needs hard to ignore.
To a degree, she felt like the change was betraying her nature, though it wasn't until left there to think that she realized that... it might not be true. She couldn't exactly claim to be so endlessly rage-driven as she might think, that was closer to the lifestyle of her otherworldly memories. But she herself, she was a combination of both memories, not just one. She had never been in such a society with the combination of her memories, that had occurred only as she had fled it. She had such an aggressive edge to her personality, but it wasn't the whole of it, only a portion of it.
As Thanrie sat there, pondering her own nature, Zyuixqs showed up. "Oh, here you are. I've been worried how you've been doing, having been gone since yesterday." Thanrie realized that she had kinda cut herself off from everything ever since last night, another potential burst of rage that.. she hadn't actually resolved. It visibly worried Zyuixqs how she might thus been feeling, he was still shaking as he spoke, very nervous and uncertain. "Oh, uh, I've been just keeping busy with work around here. Sorry for leaving you hanging like that and everything." Thanrie understood how the end of that might have caused some conflicting messages about the extent of her rage, even though she had found a way to distract herself since then. The three girls were really good at stealing your focus in that way, being so talkative.
"Well, you've missed out on some pretty big changes. Seems Hyxir is going to finally become it's own nation." Zyuixqs explained to her the rapid changes his father had brought about. "Woah, so this makes you a prince now, doesn't it. Congrats!" "Yes, it means there is a lot of changes going on, my dad throwing everything at me all at once. He.. he might have a point too. The world really does change quickly, I don't have time to wait. With everything that is about to change, with all the fighting going on, I probably won't get another chance either. I mean.. things are going to end up official in a matter of days, and then I won't have time for anything anymore." Thanrie was catching on that Zyuixqs was very flustered, pondering everything that would be involved in being the prince of a newly formed nation. She pondered just how much work was involved for her brothers in nation that had formed long before, Zyuixqs was going to have his hands full. Still, she got the feeling that something else was troubling him as well.
"Just relax, you'll be fine. Take it from someone else who is royalty, as long as you keep trying and learning, staying invested in your goals, you'll be fine. Seriously, there have been royalty in better positions who have done worse than you already have." Thanrie was still troubled about her father starting a war over a stupid childhood crush, spanning into her generation. Even getting upset, it would have been better to not invest so many innocent lives into something so.. personal. It was insane that he would let his love affect his decision making like that, especially considering his position and his level of influence and.. honestly how much was at stake.
"You know your fair share about this stuff, I know. You might be right, things might be fine. But I feel a lot of that is because you're you. Dad has the worst way of saying it, but you really are both a beautiful princess and skilled with some of the roughest situations, an absolute perfect combination for the sort of things we're going to deal with. But ignoring the politics, I think you're an amazing woman by yourself, brave and remarkable in kind. I mean.. you won't ever let anything keep you down, and I know I will really regret anything I say if this is going to make you mad, but I'll regret not saying anything too. The time I've spent with you, I don't think I will ever see a person as amazing as you. Even behind all that brass determination, I've seen what seems like a gentle kindness that has looked out for people, and I've seriously learned to admire that. You're a princess that might not be your textbook princess, but instead you're so much better a person for it. I've tried hard to look up to your example, to follow in your footsteps, to learn how you do what you do, to hold the same authority and the same ability to get stuff done. It's why I first learned how to make such metals move, the Facility and the armors. You're a very difficult woman to keep up to, so.. if I don't ask now, I'll probably never get another chance. Thanrie, will you marry me." Zyuixqs went down on one knee formally, kneeling before Thanrie as he made his confession.
Thanrie was stunned. She was fairly certain that Zyuixqs' father was at fault for this, it was exactly what he had told Zyuixqs to do in the first place, yesterday as she had stormed out. However, she could also see that wasn't the only thing on Zyuixqs' mind, this sudden bought of royalty would have it's own political momentum. Really, not a thought lost to her either, her own popularity really might have thrown her down an avalanche of very similar politics. Unlike Zyuixqs, she had just not devoted time to thinking about it, having distracted herself otherwise. Her brothers were very eager on building upon her own accomplishments, she could only expect to be used further in those regards, even without her consent. The politics she would return to would even be the dull ugly refined she had fled. Zyuixqs was going to be a prince of bandits, a rugged environment learning to breach the middle between it's rough side and the refinement expected of it. Thanrie did not miss on the irony, a nation having been left with the same two-way split she was struggling with personally.
Thanrie might have usually snapped at some of Zyuixqs' comments, but she instead got a feeling of how genuine he was being, even through all of his fear. He wasn't mocking her, he wasn't belittling her, he was giving his honest expression of her qualities. Some of his statements, she didn't even realize applied to her. Beautiful, her? Brave, she had some countering stories about that one. But she certainly was no textbook princess, and damn proud of it. She just didn't realize how much her own actions were having an impact on Zyuixqs, that he was so invested in her pursuits in response to her actions and behaviour. It hadn't dawned on her at all, and the thought was making her go even further scarlet. But she did think back to how much Zyuixqs had done, back as early as the day he saved her life, that long time ago. She hadn't thought about it, but she had learned to count on him too, to trust he would have her back. She hadn't let herself think upon the matter much at all, but she had a feeling...
She took a deep breath with a genuine smile as she formed her reply for him. If he was going to be this honest with how he felt about her, it was about time she was honest about how she felt about him.