The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 312 - We’ve Been Caught Sleeping In Your Room Together, What More Is A Cave?

Chapter 312: Chapter 312 - We’ve Been Caught Sleeping In Your Room Together, What More Is A Cave?

"We’ll coordinate your reconnaissance with our planned withdrawal. The rest of us will escort the civilians toward the fort while your team gathers intelligence."

The meeting dispersed with soldiers returning to their watch duties and rest schedules for the night defense. Qatrand sat again with her back against the cool stone wall and Elua settled beside her. With their shoulders touching, the situation they faced felt like a different world.

"I’m just gonna set up here, is that alright?"

Still needing to play the scout for believability, the illusion of the man that was supposed to be from the Whispering Winds Guild plodded over and settled on the floor. Huddling in his cloak, he quickly seemed to enter sleep. It was easy to make others believe a pile of cloth on the ground was alive, human, and real.

’People usually see what they want to believe is there, after all.’

"You’ve been busy this week."

Qat’s voice was soft... the sort meant only for her wife’s ears. Knowing that the spiritualist was likely hiding every bit of what was happening between them - and honestly a little too exhausted to care if she was not.

"I’ve tried to stay distracted that way. Though I can’t really claim it made me miss you any less."

Waking up in the Yecine estate, in her beloved’s room, the morning they left the city had been both lovely and bittersweet. It had also provided her with something to look into more deeply once the war was over with.

⦑ ⟠ ⟠ ⟠

Light filtered through the thin curtains of the high window in Qatrand’s room at the Yecine estate. The heir had woken early and extricated herself slowly from the tangle of the brunette clinging to her in strange positions. She was halfway through packing a small trunk when a sharp knock at the door interrupted the intentionally quiet routine.

The tall teen glanced toward the bed, where her mint-drop remained curled beneath the covers. Somehow still deep in slumber even without her being there for many minutes. Qat had been sure that she would wake up any minute now.

With a few steps, the Yecine opened the door just enough to see who was looking for her so early that had not already been sent to their Descent locations. Then she froze momentarily at the sight of Lirades waiting in the hallway. The eldest woman’s eyebrows raised in surprise at Qat’s still disheveled appearance.

Most men of the family pretended to wake up like they’d slept as standing statues in their perfect suits. None of them held such an obvious habit of forgoing black colored hair in private. But those differences were what made the old woman trust this member of the latest generation the most.

"I thought I might catch you before your departure. I have some matters to discuss,"

Her voice was built with the calm authority that came with centuries of experience. Something that the younger cultivator respected, but it was also a quality that she was well used to interacting with. A quality held by the one who was not supposed to be in her room.

Qat hesitated to answer with one hand still on the door.

"This isn’t... the best time."

"It never is. Especially when there are schedules to keep. However, even if time is something we’re all short on today, I will not require long."

Pigeon-blues quivered as she attempted to formulate a polite refusal, but a sleepy voice called out from within the room and dashed her attempt at secrecy.

"Qat? Where did... is someone there?"

Elua er Goltbred’s words were slurred with the numb tongue of sleep, causing the blonde at the door to sigh and close her eyes. Lirades covered her mouth to hide her amusement. She had come here for important matters.

But she could not simply say nothing!

"Ah. I see your little heiress found her way to your quarters last night."

She saw the heat of embarrassment flush the young man’s skin, but their posture straightened and met the teasing gaze directly. Which only made the corners of Lirades’s eyes crinkle further.

"She did. I take responsibility for the choice."

"Well, it’s better that you’re here too. This will save me the trouble of seeking you out separately at the station. May I enter?"

With only a little hesitation, Qat stepped aside and allowed the elder woman into the room. Elua sat up in the bed and pushed away covers as the newcomer intruded, her short hair heavily tousled and mint eyes still drowsy with sleep. The girl wore one of the Yecine training tunics - the garment clearly sized for someone of tall and muscular frame.

Not for a small, feminine cultivator making no effort to hide her presence.

"Oh, is it Lirades? What an unexpected pleasure."

Or play any sort of pretend social graces about a preference for propriety. Just the usual, expected formalities of greeting came streaming with ’sweet’ appeal from the lips of the heiress. The old woman took a seat in the room’s single available chair without waiting for an invitation.

"Yes, it is nice to see you. I imagine many here would find this situation unexpected, but whatever the two of you get up to in private before you might go and lose your lives is none of my concern."

Qat closed the door and moved to stand beside the bed. The blonde positioned herself between her cute wife and the eldest family member as both bridge and protector.

"It was just sleep. Is there something specific you needed to discuss?"

An experienced gaze moved between them, reassessing her assumption. It certainly *looked* like it could have been something more... but their latest heir was rather upstanding. She’d rather believe his words than doubt more and more of her family.

Even if young Qatrand seemed to be at the center of the recent swirl of doubts.

"Several things, actually. I attended that performance last night... Sachret Pass. Quite thought-provoking."

"Thank you. I’m glad you found it worthwhile."

"I think many missed its significance... but then, that’s often the way with important messages."

Elua stretched a bit while sitting up straighter. It would be simple to shock her system awake fully, but it would potentially send the wrong message to one of the few Yecine she felt was almost implicitly on the side of her ’fortress’.

’Making her think I am too wary of her is less valuable than making her think I have completely lowered my guard.’

"I actually came to speak with you about the coming deployment."

"Have there been changes to the assignments?"

Qat asked with a serious expression. It was rare, but occasionally new information might enter the Guild’s sight or accidents may happen during all of the transit that reshuffled members at the last minute.

"No, but there are concerns I have about certain... projects. Particularly the Gravity Trap initiative."

The drowsiness seemed to evaporate instantly. For a half second, the illusionist considered hiding it with a different version of herself but refrained.

"What about it?"

"Be careful with that project. It has drawn attention from factions within the family who see opportunities beyond its stated purpose. Not everyone who shares our name shares our priorities, unfortunately."

Lirades turned from the Goltbred girl to look directly at the owner of the room. Qat frowned at the insinuation from the old woman.

"Are you suggesting one of our numbers would sabotage a defense measure during the middle of the Descent?"

"I’m only suggesting that family does not always work for the best interest of the family. Even when they believe that’s what they’re doing."

With hands folded in her lap, her posture relaxed despite the weight of her words, the eldest Yecine could have been talking about the weather. Elua supposed that was almost the case. For long lived individuals, turbulence in the ranks was essentially a storm.

Sometimes devastating, but quite often just passing through.

"The success of the trap is important, yes, but it has become a focal point for factions with... alternate visions of our future. My concern stretches ahead."

"Why tell us this? Why not bring such concerns to your council of elders?"

A laugh that held little humor broke out of the woman’s chest at the probing question from the brunette girl in bed.

"Child, who do you think leads these factions? The council itself is divided. It has been for longer than you’ve been alive."

’I highly doubt that part~ but... I understand she means these nearly fourteen years in this form. Of course, I did already know this family was unified in name only.’

The varied reactions at their wedding and every meeting with the older male representatives of the Yecine since had told the experienced schemer as much. It would have made their splinter groups of thought clear even if her husband-wife’s very gender was not a ’strange’ point in their behavior.

It could be said that the reincarnator had held back from intruding in their affairs out of fear. Not of the people within the family she married to, but of how her actions might make her Qat look at her.

’Maybe I can push over the line I set before, just a little, now that we’ve been approached with this...’

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