Chapter 153: Consequences


    Leif, Hera and Melissa sat in silence within the living room of the apartment turned de residence. Night had fallen, bringing with it an sea born mist that rolled over the archipgo like an ethereal nket. Lucia and Royce had been given a guest room, and from the pattern of their vitality Leif could tell both were asleep.


    When Melissa had heard themotioning from the room she had quickly made her way back inside. Roy had followed, the little boy hot on her heels. He had stood frozen in the doorway, watching his older sister break down and sob. Lucia’s emotions were apparently contagious, and despite not knowing the reason for her outburst, the boy had started bawling as well.


    Neither the masked tree monster nor the Academy de had any idea what to do. Thankfully Melissa, having spent most of her life working as a servant of the Kossia family, was more familiar with what to do with distressed children. She had taken them up stairs and calmed both of the kids down. She had cooked and delivered them a meal, prepared a bath and helped make the bedroom as amodating andfortable as possible.


    Hera had changed out of her de uniform, and she now sat with one leg over the other on the couch opposite him, a ss of half drunk whisky dangling between her fingers. Melissa sat primly off to the side, her hands in herp, her wrinkled face cast in an expression of concern.


    “Well.” Leif said, levitating a small wooden coaster over his hand. “Sorry for that.”


    “Don’t apologise.” Hera said, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling. “It was deserved. Or at least, I deserved it.”


    “Terrible thing to happen to children.” Melissa said. “Especially those so young.”


    “Do you know who they are? Who their family is?” Leif asked.


    Hera took a drink, sighed, then spoke. “Would you think worse of me if I said I knew?”“It depends.”


    She sighed. “I knew, vaguely, that something had happened to the former royal family of Pherin after the expedition failed. I knew that the main expedition was funded, at least in part, by them. And I knew that they… instigated something in the capital to try and regain what they had lost. I try to keep out of the capital and its politics, if it wasn’t for the crucible I never would have visited before I became a de.”


    “And the kids?”


    “I honestly thought everyone had been killed. I didn’t know two had survived.”


    “You say that like entire families get killed on the regr in Mekrylis.” Leif said.


    Hera nced at Melissa, who nodded grimly. “They do. It’s like a nest of vipers allpeting to eat each other first.”


    “Does the emperor not care?”


    “Having the noble families all bickering and fighting among themselves benefits him, doesn’t it?” Hera said bitterly. “Better that a handful of houses and theirmoner retinues die in back alley stabbings than a civil war killing tens of thousands every few years. You think the empire has its problems? You should see the republic, it’s one civil war after another over there.”


    Leif frowned internally. “From what I heard and saw in Ahle-ho, the republic is preparing for a war with the empire.”


    “It’s all bullshit posturing. This happens every decade. At worst there will be a few coastal skirmishes in the south, a few towns changing hands and some trade routes going in and out of favour. Is it terrible? Sure. Is it avoidable? You tell me.”


    “Lady Hera.” Melissa said. “I believe this one may be on arger scale than any in recent history. At least that is the general consensus among those in the know.”


    “Wonderful.” Hera sighed. “Just what humanity needs. More of us killing each other over stupid shit. This is why the number of truly high level people is so low. This is why frontier countries like Pherin fall every few years. Nobody can pull their head out of the sand for long enough to see the real problem, let alone do anything about it!”


    Leif nced at Melissa, but the elderly woman just looked sad at Hera’s outburst. She didn’t look like she disagreed. “So. What about the real problem facing the two kids upstairs? What more can you tell me?”


    “How much do you know about the organisational structure of expeditions?” Hera asked.


    “Little.” He admitted.


    “Okay. So the expedition you encountered up north had two main parties. The Academy contingent, and the imperial army contingent. We,” She said, gesturing vaguely around herself, “and by ‘we’ I mean the Academy, were scouting for resources and potential opportunities. Dungeons mostly, but sometimes valuable monsters can manifest if certain conditions are met. Our section of the expedition was not funded by the Pheris family, instead the Academy partakes in expeditions at our own behest, should we be requested to do so by the appropriate parties.”


    “And the imperial contingent <em>was </em>funded by the Pherin royal family? Their intention was to retake the kingdom?”


    “Their job was to see if it was possible at all to do so. The outpost made in the remains of that vige I’m forgetting the name of was the initial staging grounds for a potential subjugation of the region.”


    “So when the undead attacked and pushed the expedition away… it all fell apart?”


    “The empire is terrified of the undead. They’re a constant menace to the east, massive hordes of them hide underground and attack along the border. The majority of the empire’s military is used to garrison the massive wall that runs along the edge of our territory.”


    “Aren’t the undead being attacked?” Leif said.


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    Hera shrugged. “Yeah, by the dragons and the djinn. It happens sometimes, the ‘monster factions’ attacking one another for whatever reason. I guess the undead pissed them off something fierce, the eastern front has never been so quiet.”


    “So what do we do?” Leif asked, pointing upwards with his aura. “Those kids don’t have a family. It is partially my fault since Sieg, Marcus and I were the ones to discover the undead. The expedition may not have been forced to retreat if those monsters hadn''t been found below the mythhold.”


    “I don’t know.” Hera said, wincing. “I have no idea. We can’t bring their family back to life, and the girl is clearly traumatised something fierce. In my experience, the best cure is gaining control over a situation, but this is beyond even my ability to control, so that isn’t really a viable solution.”


    The de nced at her attendant with an overwhelmed expression. It struck Leif then, that despite her personal power and considerable influence, Hera was only in her early twenties. No amount ofbat skill had prepared her to deal with something like this. Melissa looked thoughtful, the older woman''s expression serious as she furrowed her brow.


    “Perhaps distance is the correct choice for them. Get them away from the source of their trauma and let theme to terms with their new reality. It is likely the best option for their wellbeing, but also safety. Those two are, for ack of a better term, loose ends. Their family made many enemies before they lost their lives.” Melissa said.


    “They’re at risk in the empire.” Leif said. “Should they change their names? Alter their identities and go somewhere like Ahle-ho?”


    “How old are they? How close is Lucia to getting a ss?” Hera asked.


    “Roy is eight.” Leif said. “And Lucia is at least thirteen, the system said she was older than me when I analysed her.”


    “Older?” Hera snorted, looking amused despite the conversation topic.


    Leif shrugged. “The system likelypares the physical age of my body, instead of the age of something more esoteric, like my soul. If I hadn’t died, I’d be in my early to mid thirties by now, not that I kept much of my life experience or memories from when I was a human.”


    “Damn, that sucks.” Heraughed. “I know a few system researchers who would love to figure out why that’s the case. Does the system really say you’re twelve years old?”


    “It does.” Leif confirmed with a sigh. “And I have a few skills that upgrade the longer I live, not even being considered a teenager by the system is a pain.”


    “Moving back on topic.” Melissa said with a strained smile. “Hera dear, could you contact those you trust in Saris or Ahle-ho, see if sending the siblings up north is a possibility?”


    “It will ultimately be their choice.” Leif said as Hera nodded, crossing his arms. “Lucia should at least have a say in this conversation. Roy might be a little too young, but I doubt his sister will take kindly to those she views as at least partially responsible for the deaths of her family dictating her life choices.”


    “In the morning then. Melissa, could you facilitate that meeting, assuming the girl is ready for it?”


    ===


    Lucia was not ready for a meetinge the morning of the next day. The young girl instead locked herself in her room and only opened the door when Melissa brought her and her brother breakfast. The mists that had rolled in during the night burnt away under the first rays of sun and the Academy slowly bustled to life. There were sses and lectures in the morning, with the quadriad’s second day kicking off an hour after midday.


    Leif spent much of the night in the greenhouse, much to his own amusement. The vegetation was vibrant with vitality and the soil was rich with nutrients. Apparently the ss dome served to focus light and heat into the greenhouse, which was helpful for Hera, as the woman was as much a light mage as she was an archer. The nts were a byproduct of sorts, and were a pet project of Melissa, the older woman taking it upon herself to tend to the resident’s many gardens.


    He didn’t want to leave Hera’s home with Lucia and Roy’s situation not taken care of, but he wouldn’t waste his entire day waiting around for them. Neither would Hera, and with the de leaving to take care of her own duties, he did as well. With Melissa remaining behind to babysit, Leif departed the residence for the teleportation hub, Mask on and clothing covering his body, directions to the Academy’s library and other ces of interest swimming through his mind. He walked, passing a group of third year students out for a morning run through Lutum’s tree covered and twisting roads and paths.


    The forested ind’s gradual elevation asionally allowed for the distant sea to be visible through the canopies. He took the long route back to the teleporters, seeing parts of the ind he hadn’t yet passed. He wanted to find Sieg and Marcus, but the two third years lived on the far side of the ind, and could be anywhere within the Academy now that it was well into the morning.


    An hourter he stepped into the massive library, the almost stick thin receptionist waving him inside when he showed her his token. There were parts of the four story building he didn’t have ess to, but that was fine. He had little interest in poking around at ongoing projects or personal information about past attendees of the institution, instead he perused the second floor, collecting a small pile of tightly bound tomes ranging from bestiaries, historical records and aplete record of every known tier one ss.


    Unlike the Twin-Heart guild, the Academies knowledge base was as broad as it was deep. The sheer breadth of information avable was daunting, even if he had years to spend researching it wouldn’t be enough to sift through even a tenth of the library''s contents. So he had to prioritise.


    Leif drew attention from students and faculty alike, but none confronted him, let alone approached him during his stay. The closest thing to an encounter was a trio of first years who thought they were far more quiet than they actually were, the teens specting why he was wearing a mask. They settled on him being a secret member of a distant kingdom''s royal family, which wasn’t too far from the truth, though Leif had never heard of the ce they finally settled on.


    The list of tier one sses was moreplete than the one he had previously read. Though that was more due to the greater amount of attuned variations that were documented in the tome. He had asked the receptionist about a potential list of every tier two ss, but apparently that was a little more difficult to ascertain. If there were several hundred tier one sses, there were millions of tier two sses. Every tier one ss had several possible promotions, several of which being far rarer than normal. And then, every tier one ss also had a union with every other possible ss.


    The academy had apiled list of every tier two ss that its past students and faculty had donated the knowledge of, but it was far fromplete. The bestiary was a more fruitful read, and though Leif was mostly interested in different species of nt monsters, that section of the book was unfortunately small andcking in detail. The only mention of ‘blight’ was a species of blood draining brambles that the bestiary stated the northern kingdoms had to constantly contend with.


    Instead of knowledge about his own nature, Leif found himself far more interested in examples of evolved beasts. He found a reference to ‘Iron tusked boars’, Leif was fairly confident that was what most of his own horde of hogs had evolved into. There was even a mention of several evolved deer species, though none of them mentioned dream magic or teleportation. Apparently there was a species of evolved squirrel that was known for violentlybusting into arge ball of fire, though they had mostly been culled. Why the system would give such creatures a self-destruct skill like that was beyond him.


    Students started filtering out for lunch, many quietly chatting away excitedly about the uing tournament. There would be another bout between Academy des, this time between the seventh and eighth members. The eighth de, a man named Mouric was apparently a fan favourite among many of the morebat oriented students.


    <em>Well. </em>Leif thought, cing the books in a neat pile and standing to leave, having been told there were people with specific skills who could return them to the correct ces. <em>This should be interesting. </em>