Elder Cultivator

Chapter 1030

Chapter 1030

The question of whether or not to trust Lelka was a difficult one. Her intentions appeared genuine, but it was also clear that they were... shallow. Rooted in desires of survival rather than some sort of loyalty to the Scarlet Alliance. Of course, it would have been strange if Lelka had any attachment to them. It wasn’t like they’d done anything for her, except let her leave with them.

Velvet felt personally responsible for sorting that situation out, which meant frequent interactions with Lelka. For her part, the woman seemed quite content with her position. At least, overall.

“Do you think I could have more time outside?” Lelka asked.

“That would be quite difficult,” Velvet said. “We are already quite generous.” She had heard the woman’s story- at least how she came to be in her final position. Doubtless there were centuries of earlier life within the Citadel of Exalted Light. Ultimately, she’d been forced to be a replacement by her association. “Why did you not try to stop us?”

Lelka raised an eyebrow. “Did you forget? By the time we met outside your ship, everything was over for me within the Citadel.”

“Before that, though,” Velvet said. “You spotted us. Giving us away would have doomed our mission and secured your position.”

“And what position did you think I had?” Lelka asked.

“Seneschal to the sect head. That seems like a pretty cozy position.”

“Except for the part where I was responsible for everything. And not in the good ways. Plus, it’s not like I wanted to spend more time around Zaur.” Lelka shook her head. “Besides, I dispute your premise. Your group would have managed a ridiculous success no matter what I did. I’m pretty sure that swordmaster with you died and then cut the planet in half. In that order.”

“Chikere’s martial prowess is an exception,” Velvet said.

“We survived the battle with Ludek without her. It’s at least partially due to you that your group set foot on our capital world before we spotted you.”

“I thought you noticed us slipping onto the ship?”

“Semantics. You were practically there. And you can’t tell me that shooting that ship out of the sky would have helped. I think the results justify my assumptions. I am alive. That’s what I wanted.”

Velvet looked at her. “You complain about being imprisoned every time we see each other.”

“Because I know you won’t make things terrible for me and I might get lucky. It got me the best pillow I’ve ever had,” Lelka shrugged.

“Aren’t you bitter at us? We were enemies.”

“Not personally. And yes, I know that Laurit died to one of you. But that was her own fault. Or Zaur’s. Or Everheart.”

“Everheart is to blame for everything,” Velvet nodded.

“Exactly. Maybe even for Laurit dragging me into view, and ending up as seneschal. I had plenty of good reasons to not want to be there.”

Velvet shook her head slowly. “I imagine I would be quite bitter at the people who killed my sister.”

“It’s that sort of thing that made me interested in your group to begin with. You don’t even torture your prisoners.”

“It’s an ineffective method of information extraction,” Velvet countered.

“You can make it effective,” Lelka said. “But you didn’t even develop things in that direction. What’s the point of all this anyway? I already said you can just keep me locked up forever. It would be fine.”

Velvet deflected her question with another one. “Why were you an ineffective seneschal?”

“Because nobody can do the job if they aren’t actually given the necessary authority,” Lelka said. “Did you know Everheart robbed the vaults during that first war? I wasn’t even allowed to check on the security.”

“It probably wouldn’t have helped,” Velvet said. “But I get the point.” With a finger on her chin, she went back to the other topic. “We wouldn’t start you in a position of any importance, obviously.”

“Did someone kill a big turtle or something? It’s not listed as a limited resource though. Or rather, it’s just time limited instead of quantity limited.”

“That's kind of the same thing,” Alva said. “Here, let me look it up for you.” All she had to do was enter some of the information, and with her credentials she could find a lot more. It wasn’t like they were hiding anything from Durff, but even if he could operate computers his security credentials couldn’t be that high for such things, just in case someone could replicate his aura. Getting the password from him would either be trivial or... harder than squeezing water from rocks. Tricking him would be the easier option, but forcing him definitely wouldn’t work. He’d never willingly betray them. He just wasn’t that sort of guy. “Oh. It’s Paradise,” Alva said.

“Are there really strong turtles on this planet called Paradise?” Durff asked.

“Paradise is the turtle. Apparently, bits of his shell are removed occasionally to help direct his growth. So you can theoretically get some sent with someone ascending, since he’s in the lower realms..”

“Oh. That’s why it’s an indeterminate time.” Durff nodded. “Is Paradise strong? Stronger than uh... Mauled-by-Wolves?”

“You met that guy?” Alva asked. “And yes, yes he is. Would you like to see him?”

“Can I go to the lower realms?” Durff asked.

“No. I mean, nobody can, right now. I meant a picture,” Alva held it up.

“Oh!” Durff looked. “Cool turtle. Doesn’t look that tough, though.”

Alva looked over at the picture and began to zoom it in. Soon, towering trees and buildings began to appear. “He’s big.”

“Ohhh!” Durff said. “He’s biiiig.” He leaned in, as if that would help him see better. “Is that a painting?”

“It’s a picture,” Alva said. “You know pictures. It’s a copy of what you’d actually see.”

“Where’s the water and why are there stars in the background?”

Alva shrugged. “He’s in space now.”

“Are there fish there?” Durff asked. “What does he eat?”

“Distortion beasts.”

“Like the worm?”

“... Pretty much,” Alva said.

“Okay.” Durff looked around. “How do I order stuff? I would like some of his shell to make a hammer.”

“I’ll help you with that.” If she requested it, she could explain why Durff deserved to have it. She was still going to make him pay for it, though. He’d been pretty eager to go out and be active anyway, and just because they couldn’t transfer things from the upper realms to the lower realms directly didn’t mean they could just ask for whatever they wanted. Besides, they did their best to pay things back with research as much as possible. They might have an inter-realm alliance held together by people they knew, but that was even more reason to try to be fair.

-----

Crossed Antennae received a message sent with the highest priority. She was worried that somehow the Tides of the World would have shifted up by a few decades. Maybe things would even start immediately. She would act as well as she could with what she had prepared but-

The message was from her sister. It was, technically, of no importance whatsoever.

“You’re going to ride on some invader’s ships to the lower realms, right? When you get here, have someone send you to Akrys. We need to wrestle. Sorry I haven’t sent more messages but I heard you were busy and you seemed to be doing well so I didn’t want to interrupt. But you’ve got a bunch of mini-yous running things now, right? You need to tell me about them. Also, being a mother is weird.”

A complete waste of things sent on secure channels. That was why Crossed Antennae was here, and not Fearsome Mandibles.

But maybe soon they’d both be in the same place again. Next time, she wouldn’t sign up for such a long mission.