The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'-Chapter 347 - Changes For Good, Bad, And Nothing

Fingers traced lazy patterns on the smaller cultivator’s back, as a certain blonde rested her chin on her wife’s little shoulder. Elua had shifted and laid on top of her as they tried winding down to sleep. With one arm locked underneath the taller teen’s armpit and the other laying against her husband-wife’s face.

Qatrand could feel the girl’s breath directly on the same spot she had been ’marked’. While the Yecine may have been a little uncertain if this had been the past about why such a display might be necessary, there had been a number of things lately that explained it quite well to her.

’My feelings when I saw the handprint that ichor left on her face... and how it made me feel like others would know it was mine.’

While it was a far cry from saying it ’awoke’ anything in her, she did gain new layers of understanding to some things. Including the actions of her cute wife, as impulsive as they could sometimes be.

"Will you be safe here without me?"

A ’giggle’ escaped the brunette staring intently and only slightly sleepily at the skin right in front of her eyes.

"Oh, my love. I think the question you mean to ask is whether anyone else will be safe with me here alone."

Her expression softened as she saw Qat’s concern remained, even deepened a little. But it wasn’t for others - it was still for her.

"I’ll play the role of the dutiful wife awaiting her husband’s return, keeping myself as busy as I can. No one will suspect the spouse of yours is anything but harmless."

A muscular arm wrapped and hugged her tightly.

"You’re sure?"

"I’m talented at deception, but how often do I lie to you?"

"Never, I think. Though I’d probably rather not know the answer."

They held each other in silence for a long moment, their spirits intertwining deeply. Knowing that in the coming days, they would not get any such chances. Monotone eventually broke the deep quiet that had left only the sound of breathing.

"Do you think... this separation will make things easier or harder for me?"

Qat understood immediately what she was referring to - it was hard not to with tendrils allowed so deeply into the complex nature of the other girl. Elua’s ongoing struggle with physical restraint.

"I don’t know. Does distance normally help or hurt your control?"

"Both, I think. In different ways."

The girl moved to raise herself up and look down at her beloved’s face. In the total dark, she couldn’t actually see the pigeon blues she could tell were looking at her. But through the pulses of worry in the fragment in her chest, she could tell she was being taken very seriously.

"Not seeing you daily might reduce any immediate temptation. But the anticipation of reunions might make our next meetings even more... challenging."

Small fingers traced a jawline with a feathered touch. The swordswoman smiled a little, due to the sense of ’intentional mischief’ behind the reincarnator attempting to tease her. It lasted all of six seconds before growing serious again.

"This assignment... it will change things between us, won’t it?"

"Most things change things. But in this case, I believe it will only be in ways that make us stronger. I’ve made sure you know your capabilities so that you don’t underestimate yourself."

El’s certainty was absolute as ever. Her monotone voice carried the same ’conviction’ in the intensity behind it as ever. The same spirit that had known quickly after their initial meeting that she had fallen for the precious gem irrevocably.

She pressed back closer and lower, her form small and steady against Qatrand er Yecine’s side. A kiss on the top of her head settled her violently roiling ’love’. Her ’fortress’ even took in a deep breath of the faint scent that always seemed to exude softly from her scalp.

"And when you return - covered in glory from your well deserved victories... I’ll be waiting. Taking our next steps together like always, expecting your input. Your firm corrections."

Curling closer into each other’s embrace as they honestly drifted toward sleep, both minds turned over plans and promises for the days ahead.

⟠ ⟠ ⟠

The morning came, and Qatrand stood in the fort’s training yard waiting for the day’s first candidate. She had arranged for individual assessments, preferring to evaluate each potential team member herself without the others present. Her Yecine attire reflected the sort of seriousness with which she approached this duty.

Black blazer and pants were immaculately clean, thanks to her wife having cleaned it of the stains from the prior fighting. While she wasn’t sure exactly how she’d done it, the spiritualist had promised to show her how someday - and that was enough for Qat.

Her heavy blade was strapped properly across her back with the knowledge that it may need to be used to evaluate the people coming. Perched on a sturdy weapons rack just outside the immediate practice area, Elua sat with a small notebook in her hand.

She appeared to be taking notes on the fort’s current defensive sigil arrangements - a perfectly innocent activity for a sigilist prodigy spouse supporting her warrior husband. Though her pen had stopped abruptly a little while ago and took a moment to begin again, worrying her husband-wife.

The sound of the yard gate opening marked the first arrival. The commander of the fort had been told to send them in random order. Muscular shoulders stiffened as she recognized the figure entering - and understood why her El had reacted a few minutes ago.

Leysah, serving as a representative of the Northern Contingent, walked with the grace of an experienced combatant. The curved blades hanging at her hip did not come off as being for show. Her eyes scanned the yard methodically, settling for a moment on Qatrand - then immediately sliding past her to where a certain Goltbred sat in the rear.

Recognition of the young girl was laced with a spike of confusion and something more instinctive - and long broken. Her stride faltered almost without physical notice, before she corrected herself and approached Qatrand with a formal salute. But both the Primalist and the Breacher had noted it all clearly.

’She doesn’t have great control of her distorted Astralism now, does she?’

"I am honored to be considered for this assignment. But first I’d like to apologize for my behaviors before."

"Lady Aarengraf recommended you highly to the Guilds. Your combat record at the fort which your noble employer took shelter in during this Descent has been impressive enough - and you came here on your own."

Low voice and neutral tone flowed out despite the discomfort simmering beneath her formal demeanor of the raven-haired cultivator. Leysah inclined her head in acknowledgment of the praise, but her gaze drifted once more to Elua.

There was something almost compulsive about the movement, as if her attention was being drawn without her conscious direction. While in hindsight, the reincarnator with all of her memories and knowledge had noticed this behavior...

"Elua er Goltbred. I hope you’ve been well since the competition."

An ’innocent’ face looked up with well calibrated ’surprise’ - as if only just noticing Leysah’s devout attention. Her ’sweet’, youthful voice carried across the yard.

"Oh! The annoying one who would not merely let me practice the needed surgery in peace. What an unwelcome surprise to see you again. I’ve been quite well, thank you."

Like a reflection of their interaction at the competition, even being pushed away made the woman take an unconscious step forward. Something in the tightness around Leysah’s eyes suggested she herself couldn’t fully explain her fixation. And was no happier about it than they were.

A flash of frustrated confusion crossed her features as she forcibly redirected her attention back to the one she had actually come to see. Only, something fleeting and inexplicable darkened her expression when she noticed the mark on the heavy blade wielder’s neck.

A moment of deep, bone shaking wariness that had no rational basis. As if the person before her was going to commit evil toward not herself, but the spouse they were bound to. Her hands surged toward the hilts at her hips as she closed her eyes and fought against whatever was controlling her.

’Why would it even be my place to be upset and seek to protect this heiress? It doesn’t make any sense. Am I being affected by someone’s Astralism? Is it part of the test?’

After a dozen seconds, her eyes opened back up and her hands shifted from her weapons.

"Forgive me. I’m fine now. We should focus on the assessment."

"I’m curious why you volunteered for this assignment. Continuing further north through the period of the Descent would seem to better align with Lady Aarengraf’s interests."

Gradually, the woman clenched and unclenched her fists. Feeling a strong desire to look at the brunette again. What the heir said was true from one angle, but it had little to do with her own desires on the continent.

Moreover, the noblewoman was actually more interested in ’letting’ her become closer to this pair in the first place - thinking that she would retain some sort of leverage over the other cultivator to trade for information at a later date.

"I found myself... drawn to the opportunity to prove myself after failing to do so in the competition."

Her eyes flicked once more to Elua and away again, the girl already returned to doodling in her notebook. However, the fragment of the reincarnator in Qatrand’s chest pulsed with ’recognition’, ’caution’, and something almost like ’pity’. There was also a subtle but poignant ’uncertainty’.

The spiritualist had been examining everything about this entire interaction closely. So she had noticed that brief phantom of ’suspicion’ and ’self-sacrifice’ in the curved blade wielder. Like the other ’need’ to seek the ’approval’ of the Goltbred girl, it was but a remnant.

’One that appeared while looking at my Qat... whyever would such a phantom show itself? Is it because she recognized a partner of mine as someone up to something evil? Because... the one when she was alive before ended up murdering her...’

But that only explained half of it. It was one thing to be suspicious, but another to feel the need to get in the way to protect someone else. Especially someone you had betrayed before... even if you didn’t remember it.

Elua had not exactly been at the top of her spiritual strength during that period of betrayal - especially when it came to reading the intents and natures of others. If she had been, then she would have seen her prior partner for what they were.

’It’s easy to wish they’d never changed, harder to recognize they may have never been what I thought, and most difficult of all to be thankful for it happening. At least, it was until it led me to Qat~’

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