"This is a lot of fun, Ela-san. I like that you're giving me a chance to get right in there and steer things."
Ela nodded, paying attention to how Kirim was reacting. She took the shock brutally. It was to expectation. She needed a push to really change the people of the light lands. The people of the light lands needed to change their perception of the knights. Quinella went a little further than she wanted, establishing a taboo index, rules which stopped people of the light lands from venturing outside of set rules. Some of those rules needed to be broken for the people inside to become as close to human as possible in their evolution. They needed to understand good and bad desires, the consequences of the bad, the true joys of good. The people of the light lands as they currently were, simply coasted through life on rails. They had no ambitions. The dark lands approach was perfect, and she was immensely proud of Kazu for choosing her second shot at it to be from the dark lands.
Things might need to be shaken up significantly more soon though. She needed to pull her out when she was in light consciousness at some point along the way. Kirim was exceptional so far, but there needed to be a little more change. Ela had some ideas, but she wasn't sure Kazu would approve when she would find out.
"You were a little too rough with her. I said to just drop her and exert a little of Vector's pressure, but the amount of pressure you kept outputting nearly killed her when you dropped her. Please be more careful next time you take control of Vector."
Ela's words made Seijirou pout.
"And here I was having fun..."
"Just remember that she's vital to the project and critical condition in there can cause lasting effects outside because of how real Underworld is."
He nodded with his depressed expression and turned to Higa who was checking over data Ela had him watching over. She wanted to know if anything unexpected cropped up at all from previous members of the team tinkering where they weren't wanted as soon as tampering could be found.
As soon as Kikuoka was out again, time inside of Underworld returned to an accelerated pace. Not a ridiculous amount of acceleration, enough that the acceleration was perceivable. She watched as the situation progressed around Kirim, Kirii and Eugeo. It was interesting how things were unfolding.
Kirim took about a week to fully recover. At that point she went on another gathering run for ice with Alice. Kirii and Eugeo also went along with them. Ela watched on as the group of four made their way down the tunnel and to the ice coated section where the long dead integrity knight and their dragon were buried in their own ice. The scene was still immensely beautiful to Ela as she saw the glittering of the glowing ice through that section of the cave.
Something wasn't right, so Ela stopped the acceleration again to observe at normal time. Kirim and Kirii were suddenly on guard at the edges of the ice cavern. Kirii was watching the tunnel to the light lands and Kirim the dark. Kirim stopped hiding after a minute in cover, stepping out and striding confidently into the tunnel. Ela split the focus so she could watch both Kirii and Kirim.
Kirim walked down the tunnel toward the dark lands and Ela noticed why. There were several hob goblins and one existence which she was most concerned with. A goblin chieftain. The warning she had made before about clearing the corpses had been too slow. There was already a chieftain there. It would be incredibly risky for her to fight a chieftain normally. If it's a goblin, not as risky as other species of the dark lands.
Ela wanted to have them retreat, but she had a sneaking suspicion to check on the others and she noticed Alice and Eugeo frantically trying to pry the sword generating all the ice from its trapped spot in the cave. Alice was using sacred arts to try and melt surrounding ice, but the ice replaced itself as soon as it was melted by her weak flames. They were only children after all. Unless Kirim had the ice sword, there was no getting out. Ela slowed down the system for a minute to mull over what she could do to help them. She nodded and routed a path in communications to establish direct communication with Eugeo's mind. She whispered to him.
"Get Kirim to pull the sword. You need her power."
Eugeo acted frantically at first, but after a tiny consideration he sprinted to Kirim and told her to pull the ice sword. Ela smiled as she saw them hurry about. When Kirim returned to the ice, she swiftly knocked the ice off of the sword with a powerful kick, drew it and breathed a little of her energy into it. The sword was large for her since she was a child, but she wielded it just fine for what it was. A long sword.
Kirim was a natural with it. She was an expert with magic even at her age, so understanding the special aspects of the sword would make her incredibly overpowered in their current situation. The goblins pushed Kirii back into the cave with them and Kirim used the ability of the sword to create a wall of ice thorns which bumped the goblins back away from them.
"It sounds as if the chieftain of the goblins of the plains has forsaken emperor Vector. I will personally deal with all of you here. You brought the whole clan this time. Maybe I shouldn't have gone easy on those who attacked the orc village."
The goblin chieftain screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Blood elf traitor! You will suffer for standing against us!"
Kirim sighed.
"Your people shouldn't have interfered in the orc village near the border wall. Vector was using them as surveillance of the light landers, but now that job has fallen to me. You will not get in my way!"
With those words, Kirim unleashed the abilities of the sword. The vines which had created a wall between them stabbed toward the goblins and coated the walls and floor and ceiling, surrounding them completely and utterly, leaving them unable to so much as move. Then, the whole of the ice structure turned red, drinking the blood of the goblins before shattering and reducing the whole of the goblin opposition to mush.
Ela felt a twinge as repulsion ran through her. If she could still throw up, she would have at that. Her squeamish demeanour had gone with her natural body.
"We're...safe. How did you do that, Kirim?"
Kirim shrugged.
"The sword told me how we could get through this, and I entrusted some of the ambient energy in the area to it, and that was the result. But really I was also directing where the ability of the sword went. Otherwise, there might have still been goblins trying to attack us."
Ela, Eugeo, Kirii and Alice were all confused.
"The sword talked?"
Almost all in unison. Kirim nodded.
"I think it's a sword that has a soul of its own. Anyways, before we attract any more goblin tribes or any more disgusting dark landers, I need to get rid of the remains. Kirii, Eugeo, your statuses just became much physically stronger. Take the sword and cut out some ice and bring it back to the village with Alice while I deal with the mess here."
They all looked at her with concern while Kirii obeyed without question. He still stared in concern but he wanted to fulfill his promise to her. That she could rely on him. He took the sword she offered and followed through. Cutting some ice free from a stalagmite was easy enough.
He wondered about the reliability of using such a heavy sword though. He could barely hold onto it with a single hand. Yet, Kirim wielded it with ease. He wondered just where the physical strength disparity she had to him was, since she was so much stronger than he was.
He continued without asking for the time being, but he wanted to learn as soon as possible. He wanted to learn what made her so much stronger, and why she said he would be physically stronger than her. The question could wait a little while.
Ela sighed and took a step away from the monitors checking in on the internal work inside of underworld and she looked for a few seconds at Kazu's health. So many years in underworld was wearing on her mind. Even if not much time had passed outside, it would feel to her mind like she was aging. Ela nodded and decided that she needed to pull Kazu out that night and give her a week for her mind to catch up. Too much time passed at once without giving the brain the chance to adapt was risky and she needed to prioritize keeping Kazu safe. She honestly didn't want to pull Kazu out yet, but her brain needed time to accept that a strong part of her wasn't human anymore, something that lived significantly longer. That process would take some time. It was the only way her mind would survive the long amounts of time she would be spending inside of accelerated space. Kazu had only taken a fraction of the time Ela had so far though in accelerated space.
Ela knew how to treat Kazu's venture into surpassing human mental age because of how long she had been accelerating. After transferring into her new body, one of the first few things she did was check through her memories and calculate all the time she had spent. It all added up to several thousands of years. The typical human mind could only take so much, so she had to find the key. The key was being something non human. She wondered if she needed to expand her mind to be something else again or if she could handle living indefinitely as she currently was. A mind which wouldn't age any further, drifting from crafted body to crafted body.
It was straight out of science fiction. A technology based inventor overcoming all odds to become immortal through technology. But most stories were horror tropes on how badly such a thing could go, or what would happen if technology lost control. Technology didn't need to be in control in the first place if technology was trustworthy. Having a secure system of minds who were able to be trusted could change people's perception. Those minds being from the system of AI they were currently building. She could show the people of the world that a massive, functioning society of people who had somewhat similar ideals and concepts could be trusted to support the world of the future. They would follow ideal laws, set and support them. The world could change immensely with the release of the AI program, so long as the wrong people didn't get their hands into the project. Which was why her paranoia was going haywire nearly every second they were working on the project.
"Please tell me you've found something Higa...if you haven't that's also good, but there's no way those morons didn't tamper with it. There's so much evidence of corruption occurring within Underworld right now and I need the source found."
He nodded.
"I finally found it. That Yanai...he has a hand in Quinella's progression...I can't find anything I'd be able to change about this one."
Ela smiled wide and went right up beside him, looking over the information and seeing what Quinella was currently doing.
"I'm going to patch in and talk to her, give me a minute."
Higa shrugged and rolled back in his chair, taking some Pocky from his desk and nibbled away while paying attention to Ela's interference. He was more interested in everything Ela did than anyone else. Well, she came in a close second to Rinko. But Ela was the most fascinating person in the room as far as science was concerned. Learning how much a hand she had in artificial time control through perception, how she was perfectly able to adjust Kazu into being able to handle another life within her own. It was all baffling. He knew he was in the presence of greatness. Someone who was definitely changing the world at the moment.
"Greetings Quinella. This is Ela, project supervisor of the Alice project, Underworld. I believe you are acquainted with one of my previous colleagues."
Quinella was startled at first but then looked up at the sky where there wasn't sun light shining directly into her eyes and she nodded.
"There was a man named Yanai from your world, yes."
Ela nodded, she was getting her acting in order in her head. She needed to convince Quinella that Yanai wasn't an ally.
"He hasn't said anything to me for so long already..."
Ela took the opportunity Quinella made. She was depressed that the only person she knew from outside of underworld hadn't made contact with her for a long time.
"It turns out Yanai was trying to do some very unacceptable things to your world. I'll be taking over for him. What all do you recall him telling you?"
What came next made Ela feel suddenly exhausted. Even with a body made of robotic parts, she was still subject to things like exhaustion.
"He said that if he ever lost contact with me that people who don't care about this world at all will be in control. He said that I should never trust the words of another person who communicates with me like this. Honestly, after so long without him, and with my only friend having left me and depart from this world...I just want some company. And not the mindless follower type who has been nothing but a pest for the last few decades."
Ela nodded, taking in the information before giving a response.
"I am sorry for your loss. Your friend was miss Kirito, correct? I happen to know where her child and niece are at the moment, if you would like to meet with them. I could also give you a method of watching over them directly, if you would rather not interact too much with your world. I have been watching over and paying attention to your world for a while. I don't know precisely what's on your mind, which is why I now reach out to you. You appear to be the strongest regular resident of your world and I would like to know if you are an enemy or ally to its people."
Quinella was silent for a bit, waiting for Ela to finish speaking. Likely thinking on her answer as well. They were still incomparable as far as age if comparing their mental ages. Ela was prepared for any kind of conversation with her.
"I'm indifferent to this world, but prepared for an invasion of the dark lands. I can protect at most, this capitol of the light lands, Centoria. As far as Kirito's child and niece...please, let me talk with them without having to leave this tower. If you tell me about people like that existing, I'll want to have them to myself but...I shouldn't take a person from where they're happy."
It took a moment before Quinella continued.
"Wait, the word niece implies that Kirito had siblings?"
Ela smiled as she clarified it. It wouldn't hurt to establish the connection with someone in there, especially at such a position within the world.
"Kirito was of the blood elf tribe of the dark lands. Her younger sister of the same tribe is mother to a child now living with Kirito's child. Kirito's younger sister and brother in law are still very alive and well."
Quinella was silent for a significant few minutes.
"Can you get me a method to speak with Kirito's sister?"
Ela's expression twisted. She had a method but she didn't know if she should make Quinella any more powerful. She began typing rapidly as she developed a work around.
"I can give you a month at the moment. If you want this opportunity right now, then you will need to make haste to the dark lands immediately. The blood elf tribe is about a half hour dragon ride from the wall closest to Rulid. If you stay longer than a month, your identity as a light lander will be exposed. Just let me know when you're ready."
The workaround Ela was giving Quinella was one which changed her appearance for a set period of time. It was something that she could only do for up to a specified amount of time. A month was about all Ela could pull off for the time being. The time within underworld was specifically what was the challenge for once.
"Please, right now if you would be so gracious..."
Ela hummed in affirmative, applied the change to Quinella's appearance and gave her a mirror to see herself in. Ela was impressed with the conversion which happened to Quinella's appearance. Even her musculature changed enough to convince the blood elf tribe. Blood elves were toned and slim, while pugilists were at least slightly more bulky but could become significantly more bulky, and the average human otherwise was usually soft or somewhere in between. Quinella matched the appearance of a pugilist at the moment. Medium tan skin, her hair went from silver to golden, and her very body shifted to being the ideal female pugilist's musculature. Her hair was also pulled back into metal clasps since pugilist tradition with hair kept long was meant to be used as a weapon as much as the rest of the body.
"What dark lander species have you made me appear as?"
Ela explained in response to the question.
"I made your appearance into a peak physique pugilist. The pugilist tribe of the dark lands often have wanderers, which gives you free reign to have whatever personality you want. If I were to make your appearance into that of a blood elf, you would need to adjust your demeanour and personality significantly to blend in. The key in this is blending in so you don't have the entirety of the dark lands attack you at once. So you'll want to be convincing."
Quinella nodded to herself in the mirror and looked back up into the sky, where Ela adjusted herself to face Quinella directly.
"This would work well with me. Is there anything else I should know to convince the people of the dark lands I would fit my appearance?"
Ela nodded to herself and explained.
"The pugilists are often loud and brusque, but you could pass as an elder pugilist who has lost track of their age if you want to come across as passive. Otherwise, pugilists often challenge everyone to a fight they can aside from children. I'll give you a list of things to keep in mind. The thing to keep in mind most however is that at an old age as a pugilist, they always want to find a place worthy of their end. Of course you won't be aiming for that yourself, but please consult the list. There are a few things there I haven't mentioned verbally, so be sure to come up with your pugilist personality well. Only reveal your true personality to someone you believe you can trust in the dark lands."
Quinella nodded.
"Thank you, supervisor Ela. If this goes well, I would gladly work with you in the future."
Ela smiled as Quinella bounded from where she was, off of the tower and significantly passed the borders of Centoria.
Ela just needed to win Quinella over to their side to overwrite Yanai's tampering with her, so it seemed. It didn't seem like it would be that difficult. She had another screen monitoring Quinella now while she continued to keep tabs on Kirim, Kirii and the rest of the residents of Rulid as well as Kazu's status. It was already a lot to keep up with, and Ela was ready to have several dozen more monitors filled with information for her to keep following.
As for Quinella, she just kept going.
The wind swept past her like it never had before, the intensity not even comparable to her sacred arts. Moving at such speeds should be unthinkable, but she of course could after breaking herself as much as she did. She was capable of just about anything. She could even change her own appearance to a limited degree. She could make herself look silver, or like another person who had similar features to herself. The reshaping she received from Ela was incomparable to her limitations.
Her very body felt like it had changed, though her stats were the same. She for the first in a fair amount of time, had the confidence to use her strength. She realized that she hadn't made much progress with using her strength on her own.
It had been a hundred years since she had the opportunity to practically use her own strength. Kirito had stopped her from using her strength unnecessarily, encouraging her to be benevolent. They were building the Axiom church tall enough to make sure dark landers would struggle to reach them. Beyond the height their dragons could fly.
Kirito was the one who prioritized protecting everything they could protect. However, about ten years prior to the current day, she declared that she was nearing her age limit. Quinella wasn't convinced, but if she had passed away, ten years really wasn't long considering the time they had spent together. Over 400 years they spent together as friends, but it felt like thousands. Perhaps their perceptions of time were wrong as well...
She thought long and hard about the time she spent together with her best friend. Kirito gave her a sense of purpose. They redesigned the Axiom church's main building in Centoria, ventured the light lands, understood the people...it was such a fulfilling life. If not for Kirito, she imagined she would be a much colder person, disliking the world in whole. Now she simply missed her best friend. Living such a long, fulfilling life. Loving the land her home belonged to. Wanting to protect the people who depended on the guidance of the church...
The time that Kirito left was also around the time when the taboo index was enacted as a serious thing. They had agreed on some rules for the taboo index long ago, but there was no way to have people abide it even by force. Now there was. When Quinella gave the new symbols to all of the churches to bind everyone to the taboo index, it was around when she started she had her first intense fight with Kirito. After that, Kirito left. She claimed it was to take care of her child, but Quinella was convinced since then that it had actually been because of the fight they had over the taboo index binding symbols.
Quinella wanted to apologize to her family. She also wanted to meet her best friend's child and niece. She had a feeling that Kirito's family would be amazing regardless. Anyone related to her...
She often caught herself obsessing over how Kirito had been a near perfect existence. She had been better to her than she imagined any of the gods could have been. Kirito accepted her even with her extremes and flaws. Quinella had always thought in extremes after all. Not long after they had met, they found out that hunting could make them stronger. Quinella wanted to use it as a method of massively increasing their strength, but Kirito talked her down from it immediately, saying there must be a limit to the growth. There were several other reasons. She was intelligent beyond belief once she started talking. Most of the time, she was a strongly silent beauty. Quinella could listen happily to Kirito go on and on about why violence wasn't the answer to her problems, that extremes were wrong and everything needed to be thoughts about. That kindness needed to always be considered.
Kirito's kindness, calm and intelligence rubbed off on her to the point that she eventually found she was being mindful in the same ways herself. There was always the impulse that efficiency at no matter the cost was top priority, but the part of her which evolved thanks to Kirito was something she cherished above everything else.
She ran across the fields at such blistering speed, she wondered what the people of the light lands thought if they saw her. Blond hair was normal, a little different of a shade wouldn't be so intense. Tans also weren't exclusive to the dark lands, so she could just be a buff farm girl if she thought about it. If she went with that as her personality and worked it into adventuring, then she had her perfect pugilist backstory. Left after her youth training ended, spent some time working on a farm, and ended up adventuring for a long time, even spending some time in the light lands.
She smiled as she realized it sounded like something Kirito would propose. Putting all the details together into a pretty little backstory for an act.
Part of her didn't want to act in front of Kirito's family, but it couldn't be helped. A light lander being seen in the dark lands, she would be attacked instantly. If not, they would try to capture her and torture information out of her. She was plenty strong, but not enough to take on dozens of opponents at once. She imagined Kirito could, but she herself wasn't creative enough in the end to perform such intense feats of sacred art or physical art. She in the end was a sacred arts researcher. She learned all of the sacred arts long ago, so her job's purpose had been lost. Her sacred task as it currently stood was as the highest minister, Administrator of the church. It was a task which would never end. Even if she broke taboo, she was the administrator, the highest member of the church so long as the light land's gods wouldn't return. The integrity knights wouldn't chase after her. They wouldn't attempt to silence her. After all, she was normally cooped up at the top of the Centoria cathedral. And the integrity knights were sworn to uphold the taboo index and the protection of the church at all costs. There were some exceptions Kirito had written into their understanding of the index. Something Quinella thought was pointless. But surely it was to save some from unjust deaths from misunderstandings. Sometimes the symbols could be wrong, after all. They were only objects and didn't observe every detail. Only the moment taboo was committed.
She stopped when she remembered just how Kirito reacted to seeing how she made the symbols' work possible. The fury that she was holding back, Quinella had never seen her that way. She spent most of her time of late thinking about the past she had with Kirito. About the things she did wrong, the things she did right, and the things that she didn't know whether she did right or wrong. But there were also many good experiences they had together. It wasn't all bad. Regret made her gravitate more to realizing how negatively she could have impacted Kirito to make feel she needed to leave.
Quinella stopped just as she neared the mountains near Rulid. She was right near the cave which connected the light and dark lands there. There was a roaring sound within. She had been there before, several times. Currently, she thought there wouldn't be anyone there. There was only the grave of a dear friend who lost to a dragon knight of the dark lands. She was one of the first dragon knights.
What came from the tunnel wasn't the inviting cool she was used to experiencing when she visited. It was a blistering, foul heat which made her skin crawl. She stepped into the cave and continued in until she found herself in the area where her friend's grave should have been. All that remained was the ashes of the dragon and its rider, steam in the air which made everything a little difficult to see.
"Who are you?"
That calm, small voice carried a familiar tone. It was similar to how Kirito used to sound to her, back when she first spoke to her.
"My name is Quinella, little one. What is yours?"
Quinella wondered if her act would pass. She felt that the person in front of her had the same energy as someone from the dark lands.
"My name is Kirim...what are you doing here? You came from the light lands side..."
Quinella noticed the remarkable snip to her tone. Kirim wasn't afraid of her. She spoke like a dark lands resident. Like a blood elf she knew.
"I'm a travelling pugilist. When I first ventured over here, I was able to blend in pretty easily but now...not so much. So I'm heading back."
"I'm not convinced. Mostly because your name is the same as that of the highest minister Administrator. At least as far as how I believe that name is read on the symbol in the churches. Was the symbol your doing?"
Quinella stared in disbelief. A child was so quick to put it together. She didn't miss a beat. Was she Kirito's child? They had similar names after all.
"Unfortunately it is. My best friend was so opposed to it she left after a fight with me. I was just going to visit her family to pay my respects, since I heard she passed."
Kirim sighed and got up to about two feet from her, and Quinella could finally see the indisputably related face to Kirito's. She held herself back from claiming she was friends with her, because she didn't want to out herself immediately.
"Please stop trying the act. It's rather poor...here, let's have a chat, unless you want to try the custom of fighting everyone you encounter of some strength."
Kirim conjured small pillars of stone for them to sit on and she hopped onto hers. Quinella scratched her chin and sat down as prompted. A child was putting her completely out of her paces. The last time that happened, it was with Kirito. Only she was able to throw off her balance.
"You definitely feel like a light lander, not a dark lander. You're not masked enough to go to that side right now. And does the taboo index not stop you from going there? And another point, no pugilist has reached your age, not even close."
Quinella slumped over until Kirim finished and she was about to exclaim her frustrations that once again, she was being told off for her recklessness and moving so quickly.
"You must be Kirito's child, with this level of throwing me off..."
"No. I met her just before she passed away though. You knew her?"
Quinella smiled and observed Kirim more.
"I did know her. She was my best friend for what felt like thousands of years. We built up Centoria and she taught me much about this land. She was originally just a lost child of Vector, but she was so quick to learn. Always learning, even after a long time."
Kirim nodded.
"Right, us blood elves are like that. I'm happy to know she was able to be her natural self. Would you happen to know how old she was?"
Quinella blinked a few times.
"You couldn't tell?"
Kirim shook her head.
"Her status didn't tell me anything when I checked it. It only told me that her life had run out."
Quinella lowered her head and she felt depression set in. She wasn't even there for her best friend's final moments.
"Well, I'm 463 years old, and she was about my age when we first met, and I think you blood elves age similarly as children, so I think she was the same age as me."
Kirim thought while listening.
"She really was too young to pass from old age...what was it then? Was it light poisoning? Food poisoning? Something else?"
Quinella heard Kirim's words as she thought aloud to herself.
"You really don't know what claimed her life?"
"Not yet. I've been observing as much as possible, but the only thing that sticks as a possibility in what killed her was light poisoning. She was much too intelligent to keep consuming food which poisoned her and healing herself. I don't know if there's another option. I might need to be careful while living here and get Kirii to protect himself as well. A nice hood could help us..."
Quinella smiled. She was happy to see such a familiar looking face. And she could tell that Kirim was a similar personality type to Kirito. She wanted Kirim to be her friend as well.
"If you want, I could get you some material-"
"No thank you. It's tradition that us dark elves make our own equipment from scratch unless it's a gift from Vector or our parents when we're young. I would like to teach that to Kirii properly."
"You've mentioned that name twice, is Kirii her child?"
Kirim nodded.
"C-could you introduce me to him?"
Kirim smiled.
"I assume your appearance is altered for a reason...I'll use a bit of illusion magic. If you know what you look like, imagine yourself reflected in a mirror and let me hold a hand for a moment. Be yourself within the village. I think I should be able to keep you under the effect of the illusion as long as we're within range of the village of each other, but I might need to stay by your side."
Quinella nodded. She was still astonished. If Kirim was so proactive and talkative, she was more and more curious about Kirii. What kind of child would he be? She imagined herself reflected in the mirror which she turned into a weapon for an integrity knight, and focused on her self image so that Kirim would have an easy time with the illusion.
"There. I would appreciate if you enlighten me at some point why you're disguising yourself as a dark lander, but you might be able to get what you need to venture there if you stick around me for a day or two. I'll get Rithi to bring some sand from my village if need be, and that would take another day. He has been scouting the wild life in the area so that I can plan my hunting when I need to."
"Rithi?"
"My companion. He's an elder black scaled dragon. I make him small enough to be mistaken for a black bird on this side and when he returns to the dark lands to deliver anything to my parents, I return him to about a tenth his natural size. Anyway, no more stalling. We're going to Rulid, so it's not far."
Quinella nodded and walked alongside Kirim, watching her every move closely. She wondered if the blood elves were all like her and Kirito. Easy to get along with. Intelligent. Highly skilled with her hands. Probably incredibly physically able as well. And most impressively, she was already highly skilled in dark lander magic. Extremely impressive for her young age.
Kirim was quiet until they reached the village. There was a young guard about her age at the gate with an elder guard.
"Who's she, Kirim? You came from the cave this time so...?"
Kirim nodded and motioned in an introductory way.
"This woman is the highest minister, Administrator of the church, Quinella. It turns out she was friends with Kirii's mother. She wants to meet Kirii so we're just taking the short path through town."
The guards both went slack-jawed and stared for a second before stiffening up and standing at attention.
"Excuse our rudeness! We weren't aware we were receiving such prestigious company!"
Quinella motioned for calm.
"Don't worry about it, this visit wasn't planned. I heard about Kirito's passing and came to pay my respects. She was my dear best friend for a long time. It's only right that I honour her at least and meet her child. Besides, in your lifetime, I haven't been here."
The child stared in disbelief.
"H-how? You look no older than mama!"
Quinella grinned.
"It feels like so long since I experienced something like this. I think it's been about fifty years since I've been to this village. It reminds me of Centoria before we put up the walls. Rulid is a good place to make me feel nostalgic..."
Her words made the guards feel more and more uncomfortable. Kirim wanted to laugh but she stopped herself. Humans who were so isolated from long life were pretty entertaining when they found out someone was so incomparably older than them.
Word spread fast through the village. Everyone knew as they walked through. Quinella was enjoying it, and Kirim was enjoying everyone's reactions. The novelty of her presence had worn off already. As for Quinella, she was essentially the highest ranked person of the light lands as a whole, and also the oldest. Kirim was strangely enjoying the attention. Normally she would hide herself from others as she moved around, not wanting to be followed for any reason, but since arriving in the light lands, she had nothing to hide about how she was living. She was able to display her skills, train in the open, converse with the locals. The reason she wasn't able to back at home, was because training needed to be done in private. After being taught, they needed to train in keeping themselves hidden while learning to grow themselves. After all, the most important thing for blood elves is developing themselves so they have their own individuality. Every blood elf was different in some aspect, but most were very similar because of their environment.
Kirim knew she was already very different from the typical blood elf back home. Rithi enjoyed it more in the light lands too. The brightness took a little getting used to, but the warmth was welcome. Not needing to wear as many layers was ideal.
They arrived at the demon tree where Eugeo and Kirii were swiping at the tree or practising what they had been taught. They were still going as lightly as possible at the demon tree. The demon tree was barely still alive. It had been drained to the point that one serious swing with an axe would fell it without issue. The trunk was rotting, the bark was brittle and falling off. There were some good, strong branches which had been hacked off by Kirim already. She planned to carve them into weapons for herself, Kirii and Eugeo, but Eugeo was particularly attracted to the ice sword from the cave which they understood to have the name, [Blue Rose Sword].
Eugeo perked up at the sound of Kirim and Quinella arriving. He looked up and immediately bowed. He must have heard who was visiting from the village's elation that the highest minister of the Axiom church was there. Kirii pulled back from the tree and stared at Quinella, as if he was trying to understand her reason for being there.