Book 1 - Chapter 2: Dragons, Witches and Cultists.

The next day dawned and the morning light began to gently enter the bedroom, prompting some stirring from the young pair still snuggled up close together in bed. Syl rolled over to the side to keep the sunlight creeping in through the windows out of her eyes, and Lucine shuffled closer to not let her cuddle buddy get too far away. The duo showed no signs of wanting to give in to the pull of the morning and would rather stay cuddled.

Another day another morning Elthin had slept soundly that night. And on this very morning he wasn't one to wake up first taking a small break and sleeping in for a change. He slept for another hour before finally waking up for the day. As he got up he walked over to his own bathroom and walked inside to get cleaned up.

Eventually, the invading light source caused Syl to begin to stir awake, gently fluttering her eyes open as she began to push herself up, only to be pinned down by the still sleepy Lucine.

"Cuddle more..." Lucine mumbled as she pulled Syl closer. "Soft and warm..."

The pull of the bed, and Lucine's insistent hugging, caused Syl to lie down once more. After all, she wasn't at home so she didn't have to get up early. Willow or Freya weren't there to rouse the sleepy girl, after all, and Lucine seemed quite content with the company as well.

Elthin took a nice hot shower and then shaved doing his best to make sure he was all handsome. Once he was done with those tasks Elthin got dressed and headed to check up on his two guests again. Making his way to Lucine's room he lightly knocked on the door.

"Time to get up sleepy heads?"

Giving into the charms of sleep only lasted a little while longer before the silence was intruded by a knocking at the door. Lucine just grumbled sleepily as she tried her best to ignore the will to get up, whereas Syl decided to wiggle her way out of Lucines arms and begin to get up. It appeared that Syl was better trained in waking up than Lucine was.

"J-just a second. I'll get Lu up." Syl answered as movement was heard from the other side of the door. "May I trouble you for the use of your bath again?"

Syl was the first to wake up and Lu wasn't Syl then wished to use the bath again. "Sure go ahead and make sure Lu has one to, we've got a rather busy day ahead" Elthin explained. As he then let both girl's do their thing.

"Thanks." Syl answered. "I'll try and get her up."

Elthin then left the pair to their own devices.

Elthin first went to go check if he had any mail or messages. He first checked the communications device for anything before. Heading outside his home and seeing if there was anything for him outside. Once he checked those things he headed into the kitchen to fix breakfast.

Elthin checked the communication device for any missed messages. As it was still early in the day, it was not showing any signs of missed communication. The outside post was just the usual stuff, like notices for being cautious due to the imminent approach of the Inquisition, and the general news of the City.

A little while later, Syl entered the kitchen, followed by a still tired looking Lucine,

"I wanna have you round here all the time. You make a nice cuddle buddy." Lucine mumbled to Syl.

"I'm not that good, really. I'm pretty average compared to others." Syl answered shyly.

"You're like a little fluffy pillow full of warmth."

"I'm not really sure how to take that..."

The conversation quickly turned back to serious when Syl noticed Elthin.

"U-um, thank you for letting me stay over, and trouble you for the use of your facilities. I hope I wasn't too much trouble for you." Syl politely thanked Elthin with a small bow. She was obviously raised to have impeccable manners.

Elthin had not got any messages and went about fixing breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs and toast, Soon enough Syl and a sleepy Lucine entered the room.

"It was nice having you over here you weren't too much trouble. It's also nice to have and see Lucine unwind I take it she had a lot of fun having you around?"

"If keeping me in bed by holding me down was fun, then..." Syl answered with a blush. "There was also bath time, both yesterday evening and this morning."

"Girl stuff should be kept between girls." Lucine chided Syl. "Elthin doesn't need to know. It'll only excite him."

Elthin knew what had happened during bath time yesterday. He didn't mention anything about him having listened to their chat yesterday.

"Maybe you two were talking about boys you like or something?" Elthin asked.

"No, that's not it." Syl answered, looking a little apprehensive about talking about it any more.

"Girl talk is between girls and girls alone. You're not allowed to know." Lucine reiterated.

"Okay, okay" Elthin finally said.

Not wanting to be drawn into another argument with Lucine, He turned to Lucine and asked her a question.

"I've been doing some thinking this morning and am going to ask you this. What would you like to do today?"

"I just wanna relax and pickpocket a few Nobles, but I know that's not gonna happen." Lucine answered. "I'd like to learn a bit more about this...thing I have."

Elthin thought over what Lucine had just said.

"For now you can relax with Syl here and if you want go see Willow to. We can always do the more serious stuff later on today."

"Guess that'll work." Lucine shrugged.

"I don't want to trouble you any more than I have." Syl interjected. "I think I've stayed her long enough. I'm grateful for your generous hospitality, but I don't want to overstep my bounds."

Lucine seemed bummed about what Elthin offered for them to do.

"Syl you're no trouble at all and I don't mind having you here" Elthin says. He looked at Lucine and started to walk towards her.

"I'd like to speak to you in private for a moment please?"

"You flatter me, really." Syl answered, looking down at the ground shyly. "Having two girls in the house has to be difficult."

Elthin wanted to speak to Lucine in private, for some reason.

"What've I done this time?" Lucine questioned, unsure of why she was being summoned alone. "Why can't Syl be there for it?"

"A little yes but I believe it's something I'll get used to in time" Elthin answered.

Lucine spoke up.

"Nothing yet, but this a private matter that doesn't concern Syl here" Elthin stated.

Elthin explained the reasoning behind wanting to speak to Lucine in private.

"If that's the case then, please, excuse me." Syl interjected as she took a quick curtsy and headed out of the room.

"What is this 'private matter'?" Lucine asked, sounding a little tense about it. "C'mon then, say it."

Syl headed out of the room leaving both Elthin and Lucine alone.

"What is with you, ever since yesterday you've been so moody. What is it something I did to make you all like this?"

Elthin repeated the question he asked yesterday.

"I said so yesterday, and I'll say it again. I don't know. Sometimes, I'm just angry, and other times, I'm fine. I think you're reading into it far too much. I don't think I'm being moody at all right now." Lucine repeated. "It might be due to this weird power I have, or something else. I don't got book knowledge, you're the bookworm here. Find something in your books."

Lucine said the same thing as before.

"Then you need to find out what's wrong with you. I can't be the one to always have the answer for things you'll need to find out some things about yourself as well."

Elthin insisted that Lucine should be the one to find out.

"How am I meant to do that?" She countered. "I can't read, I can't write, I can't exactly ask anyone about it, even if I knew who to ask. What am I supposed to do?"

Unlike normal, this questioning sounded more out of desperation than anger.

Lucine wasn't sure on what she could do.

"The only thing I can say is learn, you're given a rare opportunity here. So, take advantage of it and learn all that you can. In time you'll learn things about yourself maybe we can both learn things together?"

"But to learn I need to learn how to read." Lucine repeated. "I wanna know just what's wrong with me as much as you do."

"I know that I'm still willing to teach you, but learning to read takes time" Elthin told her. He wondered if they really had time for her to learn all these things.

"Then why are we wasting time talking?" Lucine questioned in exasperation. "Let's get going already! The longer we take, the longer you'll be stuck with me"

"I'm not stuck with you, and if you want to learn let's first say good bye to Syl. Then your lessons can begin"

Elthin started to head out of the room to go see Syl.

"Fine." Lucine answered as she headed off to see Syl out, whom was waiting patiently by the doorway.

"Thank you, once again, for having me over last night." Syl appreciatively said to Elthin. "And thank you, too, for allowing me to borrow your clothes and your bed." Syl said to Lucine as she gave her a hug.

"You're welcome over whenever you want." Lucine informed Syl as she hugged her, hiding Syl's back by aiming her towards Elthin. It was unsure why she did this, until Syl let out a surprised squeak and her hands darted down to her rear.

The pair met Syl who was waiting by the doorway.

"You're welcome once again," Elthin answered.

As Elthin watched Lucine hugged Syl she aimed the girl at him hiding Syl's back. Not really sure what Syl was up to when she let out a surprised squeak and her hands went to her rear.

"Is something wrong?" Elthin asked.

Elthin questioned the sudden outburst from Syl, who quickly acted like it was all fine.

"N-nothing's wrong. She just...took me by surprise, that's all!" Syl quickly insisted, still blushing and moving her hands behind her back for some reason.

"We're just making sure we're saying goodbye to each other properly." Lucine interjected as her hands were moved from behind Syl and to her sides, by Syl's hands, no less.

Elthin looked at both girls for a short while not sure whether to believe them or not.

"One weird way to say good bye," Elthin said. He thought about doing what Lucine did but didn't instead he walked to the door and opened it to allow Syl to leave even following her outside as to walk her home safely.

Once the strange goodbyes were done, Elthin began to walk Syl home a bit, until Syl stopped just a little bit down the pathway to the main thoroughfare of the City. She then turned to Elthin with a small smile on her face.

"Thanks, but I'll be fine on my own from here. Can't have you escorting me back otherwise it'll make it look like I didn't do my job well enough." Syl informed Elthin, for once acting like it was a basic conversation. "I'll like to come over again at some point, maybe when Lu's started at the Guild."

They walked Syl home for a bit before Syl moved on ahead and then turned to speak to them.

"You're welcome anytime you want to come over. Next time you can bring Freya along with you" Elthin said. They then parted ways with Syl as everyone waved goodbye and Elthin and Lucine walked back to the house to begin their lessons.

"We could all have a sleepover together. Of course, if that's fine with you." Syl suggested. "Willow doesn't like being alone."

Once the trio had parted ways, Elthin headed back in with Lucine to begin lessons for the day.

Before they had fully left ear shot range Elthin told Syl it was okay. Soon they reached home and walked inside Elthin led Lucine to the library to begin her studies with learning to read.

The day began with reading lessons, following on from the progress from the previous day. Lucine had gotten a little better at reading the passage they were learning, almost like she'd been working on it by herself, or, more accurately, with the aid of another. Elthin hadn't been keeping track of the pair the previous evening, so maybe Lucine 'convinced' Syl to help her with education.

As they did Lucine's reading lessons at first he didn't know. That Lucine had improved a bit since they had last did this. But over time he came to see that she had improved. He took things slowly with her helping her out with a 'Beginner's Guide to Reading' for novices like Lucine here. He even brought in the magic book he had loaned to her as well.

As the more complicated books started coming in, Lucine's current reading ability was not enough to keep up with the more dedicated books, so she tried to stay away from them and keep on with her initial reading lesson plan. Taking things step by step wasn't something that it seemed she was used to, but she didn't show any aversion to doing it.

Things started to become harder on Lucine as the more complicated books came down. He put them to the side and still worked on the easier books. After about two hours of reading lessons Elthin let Lucine take a break and he went on to prepare her for her next lesson.

Once the reading lessons were up, Lucine was allowed to take a short break. She took this time to prepare herself for her next lessons and review what she'd learned in reading, attempting to read some book titles in the Library.

Elthin gave Lucine a half hour break to review what she had learned. Along with reading some other books to even resting a bit. Once the time was up the next lessons were to begin this time Elthin was going to teach Lucine how to write. He needed to take things very slowly and started with the first letter of Lucine's name 'L'

After the half-hour break, Elthin's next topic of teaching was penmanship and writing. The lesson started with reviewing the Alphabet and what it looks like, as letters cannot be formed without knowledge of their shape. The differences between uppercase and lowercase were left to the side, for now, as the forming was the core of writing.

Despite having no writing experience, Lucine's penmanship was quite good, for a beginner. She tried holding the quill like a blade, but that didn't work out. Her finger dexterity showed promise for impeccable writing skill but what held it back was the lack of knowledge of how to write, and hold writing implements.

Elthin had also brought over some books for Lucine to read. Which would help her with learning to write they were in the easy catagory. As he thought her Elthin caught on that he penmanship was quite good for a beginner. She had a change to really shine here when she improved as time went on Elthin helped Lucine write the rest of her name along with her, Syl's and even Willow's names.

The form of the letters written were slightly off, but the base of writing was there. They were understandable, but only just. With time, they will become much more well formed, as Lucine was picking up on the basic shapes of certain letters from the books provided.

Next once everyone's names were written down Elthin wanted to teach Lucine. How to use the names in a sentence he started to slowly teach her how to write one out. Along with going over different words such as nouns, verbs, adverbs etc.

Bringing in different types of words, along with writing them, was a little overwhelming for Lucine. Word types are more suited to reading lessons, not writing. She tried to write out simple sentences using the words she knew and managed to put together very basic three to five word sentences.

When Lucine started to become overwhelmed with the words. Elthin stopped and went over to help her with what she didn't understand. He thought her first to use the easy words that she knew about and try those out first before moving. Onto the more advanced words in time Lucine was able to write out simple sentences with three to five words each. For a moment in the lesson, Elthin stopped what he was doing.

"How are you holding up?"

Cramming in years worth of education in a few hours took a good deal out of Lucine. She was keeping up, but was slightly struggling a little more as time went on. The added assistance helped somewhat but, in the end, Lucine's mind just couldn't take much more and she began to lose focus.

"Too many books." Lucine commented with a sigh. "I didn't expect learning to be this book heavy. I'm just as bad as those old guys with their noses crammed into books all the time. It's a wonder I haven't hit the pipe."

As Lucine learned more and time went on Elthin could see that. She was struggling as time went on even with Elthin's help Lucine started to lose focus.

"How about we stop for now, as it looks like you're all booked out. We can do something you want to do for a while?" Elthin suggested.

"Like what?" Lucine asked, fixated on the chance at getting away from dusty old books. "We've got that fight coming up with the bent pair. You haven't seen me with daggers, have you?"

"I don't know it's up to you on what we can do?" Lucine then mentioned that he had not seen her with daggers yet. "I don't believe that I have, we can do that or some magic training. Or we can just relax"

"I'd rather relax for a bit. I'm all booked out and can't really be bothered to do anything." Lucine answered. "We could go and annoy Freya, Syl and Willow, if you wanna see your girlfriend again,"

There was a slight huff with the word "girlfriend", but it wasn't too much of a negative indicator.

Lucine suggested that they see Freya and friends.

"We, can do that I have no problem with it" He didn't bother with hearing the huff when Lucine mentioned his 'girlfriend' So, with things decided Elthin and Lucine went to go see their friends after locking up the Manor.

It was decided that the pair would go pay a visit to Freya and her 'Children'.

On the road to the Apothecary, it was instantly noticeable that the city was, once more, completely empty, despite it being nearly midday. The threat of the Inquisition was holding strong over the city, it seems. The site of the localised sandstorm from the previous day was still in disarray. There was also something like tracks leading into that section. but most of them were blown over by the sand on the wind.

As the headed outside the city was once again basically empty. With the threat of the Inquisition not many people where not going outside. As the passed the area of the sandstorm yesterday. Elthin stopped and looked around. He could see tracks leading into the section. He looked closer to see if they were a single set of tracks or if more then one set was there.

The pair stopped for a moment as Elthin decided to become a tracker and look at the faded footprints in the sand. They were mostly blown over, but some still remained. They looked very close in size to a child's footprint, barefoot at that, which was actually pretty common in a place like this. Without looking into them closer, and potentially finding any other incriminating evidence, these could just belong to any waif from the Slums.

"Thought we were going to Freya's and not looking at footprints in the sand?" Lucine cut in.

As Elthin looked at the footprints in the sand he saw that they looked. Like a small child's barefoot which looked quite common. Elthin was about to study them closer when Lucine spoke up once again.

"Was just looking for something." He turned and rejoined her on the way to Freyas.

"Well, look in your own time, ruin freak." Lucine retorted. "We're here to relax, not study old stuff."

The pair resumed their route to Freya's, passing through the main square until...

...movement was seen just over the square. From this angle and distance, it looked to be a squad of three to four people, with a single commander issuing orders. The commander, despite bearing all of the sigils and badges of a high ranking officer, looked to be quite young for someone in charge. Judging by the appearances of people in the local area, when they are out and about, this commander looked to be just shy of 15 Summers old, but it was hard to tell without getting close. The shape of their silhouetted outline through the displaced sand in the wind looked close to a female's body shape, but the people they were commanding were almost all military trained Males. It was uncommon to see a female out and about alone, and even more so giving order to Males. In some practices, this may be considered as Heresy to the Old Ways, but the Males looked completely loyal to the young girl. They were clearly outsiders to this Continent, but they were not being tested for their brazen disregard to the principles and practices of Perrisethian life.

"Whatever" Elthin answered.

As they were passing through the main square movement was seen. As a squad of three to four people with a commander were issuing orders. Elthin decided to move closer to Lucine he took hold of her hand. Making sure the spell that would keep her hidden was active. As he didn't know if they were here searching for someone or other business. As they moved closer Elthin could see that the commander was 15 years old. Though it was kinda hard to tell from the distance between them. As they got closer he saw the commander seemed female in size and shape. With the other members of her squad being Male.

He decided to try and overhear what was being said. And kept close to the squad but just out of distance from them maybe trying something out.

Elthin, upon noticing the group of official looking Military people, began to slow pace and hold Lucine's hand. This, of course, came with some rebuke.

"What're we stopping for?!" Lucine complained. "And why're you getting so touchy feely with me?"

Eventually, Lucine noticed the group of people in the square and comments came to a standstill.

Elthin attempted to listen in on the conversation going on, but only caught the tailend of it.

"...and that's why you need to stop slacking off!" The commander demanded. "How hard can it be to find a Slum girl posing to be a rich girl?"

The lecture from the commanding officer stopped suddenly as she seemingly sensed something.

"I thought all the rats cleared shop when we came here." The Commander exasperatedly stated. "Just who do you think you are interrupting Inqui- " The Commander stopped as she turned to face both Elthin and Lucine.

As Elthin was now a little closer, he could make out a bit more about this official Military girl. She had a wine red Military uniform on, consisting of a navy blue blouse under a Wine red blazer marked with a sigil of the hilt of a red winged rapier inset with coloured gems in the hilt and pommel. To any educated individual, this was the sigil of the Inquisition. On her lower half, unlike the rest of the Inquisition's forces, she had a wine red and navy blue checked skirt which stretched to just above her knee and, on her feet were a pair of red leather boots decorated with Inquisitorial runes. On the left hand side of her waist, she had the signature rapier of the Inquisition's Adepts casually slung in its runed scabbard and, on the right hand side of her waist, she had a rather strange looking device with a crossbow-like handle. It looked to be more something that the Argentian Duke's Guard would have on them. It was a strange metal projectile weapon, currently set to 'neutral'. Due to researching Argentian armaments, Elthin could make an educated guess that this firearm was a gun of some variety.

The Inquisitor looked upon Elthin and Lucine rather unamused.

"We spend nearly a whole morning searching this volcano of a city and the targets come waltzing up to us all casually." The Inquisitor sighed with a shake of her head. "Come to hand her over? The bounty on her could buy you all you could ever dream of."

"I don't like the look of the people over there," Elthin whispered. With his head, it pointed in the direction of the soldiers and commander. As they moved closer Elthin's grip on Lucine's hand tightened when he overheard a little of what they were talking about. It seemed that the commander had been informed of a Slum girl who was posing as a rich girl. This troubled Elthin as how could they have found out so soon. Maybe they had agents within the city who were spying on Elthin and Lucine?

As they attempted to walk past everyone the commander turned to face Elthin and Lucine. This gave them a clearer image of the girl and the way she was dressed. The commander was indeed part of the Inquisition and soon enough the commander spoke.

"I've already got everything I ever need" Elthin replied calmly. His eyes were looking for anyone who might be watching them. He needed to play things out slowly he didn't want to cause a scene here and if things got out of hand he needed a way to escape with Lucine quickly. Maybe he could try and locate Freya, The Elder or The Duke if things got really hairy.

"Why do I have to hand her over?"

Elthin was not bought so easily and countered the offer by saying that there was nothing he could ever need. He then asked why he had to hand her over.

"Nice try, lover boy. Nobody can be as lucky as that." The Inquisitor countered. "The Inquisition have an interest in her. After all, she is a natural born Witch."

The Inquisitor focused on Lucine, seemingly trying to find something on her. Elthin's ability to detect the flows of magic indicated that the Inquisitor was attempting to read Lucine's Magical aura. This was only normally done to determine just what the target was capable of, and how much control they had over the powers they possess.

"She's got a potential of being an Adept. I can sense another force inside of her other than the fires she called upon that sewer they call the Slums here. There's also...something else. Something I can't quite make out. Most interesting..." The Inquisitor commented. "You can either hand her over to us and, if she's just another Witch, we can ensure that she's not going to burn down this city. If she's an Adept, she'll always have a place in the Inquisition. The alternative is that we just kill her here and now. either way, we don't lose much. Also, if word gets out that she's a Witch, both of you will likely end up dead."

"Don't I get a choice?" Lucine cut in. "Being dead or a slave doesn't really sit right with me."

"Not really." The Inquisitor replied matter of factly. "What can one Magician and a untrained Witch do against an Inquisitor and four trained Peacekeepers?"

"Lover I'm afraid not as I already have someone," Elthin answered. The Inquisitor then spoke once again. "No, she isn't she's a normal girl"

Elthin was then able to feel the ability that the Inquisitor was trying to read Lucine's magical aura. Elthin wasn't liking the way things were going right now.

"I can't hand her over to you nor can I allow you to do any harm to her. While I would like to avoid a fight if possible." Elthin said. He didn't really have many options to go with if he ran away with Lucine he'd become a wanted criminal. He turned to look over at Lucine you do get a choice you're staying with me. If these people get their hands on you I might never see you again."

Elthin and Lucine were in trouble Elthin tried looking around. For anyone that might be able to help them out of their current problem. Using his eyes in tried to see if either Freya, Duke Trent or the Elder might be walking towards them or through the crowd.

Elthin was not about to give up Lucine, and the Inquisitor knew this.

"It's not a question of 'can' or 'can't', it's simply a question of 'do it' or 'die trying to oppose'." The Inquisitor explained.

"Better to die fighting for freedom than be a slave for a lifetime." Lucine countered, prompting a rather amused smile from the Inquisitor.

"Typical Slum etiquette, if you can call it that." The Inquisitor countered. "Listen, kid, you either come with us and we'll keep you nice and safe. We'll give you new clothes, a title, potentially, all the food you can eat and all the clean water you can drink, until you're old enough for the joys of wine. We'll give you a solid roof over your head, a bath every day with the finest soaps known to the Five Continents, and your own handmaiden. The alternative is that you spend your life on the run until you either die of exhaustion, or fall at our hands. So, what'll it be?"

Despite how much Elthin tried to find a way out of this encounter, he was left with no options. All the people he could think of were either halfway across the continent or unknowing of his current plight.

Elthin wasn't about to hand Lucine over to anyone.

"Are you really in that of a hurry to die?" Elthin asked Lucine.

Elthin wasn't able to find any sort of help as everyone he was looking for. Were no where around and the only option he had was to hand Lucine over. Though a second option was also there he could run away with Lucine and try to escape the city?

"Damn it" Elthin muttered.

He let go of Lucine's hand and backed away a little.

"The girl is yours" Elthin said quietly.

Elthin, after hearing the only alternatives to the situation, decided to sacrifice Lucine for his own gain.

"Oh, really?" The Inquisitor asked, looking a little confused. "You'd readily give her up that easily, even after all you said to try and keep her? I'd hate to have you as a Guardian, that's for sure."

Lucine, upon being given up, look both hurt and betrayed as she stared at Elthin, tears in her eyes, as he back away to give her up.

"But- " Lucine choked out over tears. "But..."

This seemed to spark something within the usually soulless Inquisitor.

"Oh..." The Inquisitor commented. "Ah...um..."

The Inquisitor then cleared her throat and returned to her usual Militant self.

"As you caught me at a less than favourable time, I'll give you to the end of the day to come to a decision. I'd like to shower off these four layers of sand and stone as soon as possible. I expect you to come back to this plaza at no later than seven this evening. You're free to do what you want until then. I expect a final answer."

Elthin wasn't sacrificing Lucine for his own gain he had little options to go with. The Inquisitor seemed confused with his change of thought.

"What am I suppose to do run away with her and become a wanted criminal?" Elthin asked. Lucine turned to him and looked at him with a look of betrayal and hurt. She started crying and Elthin felt hurt on the inside.

"Do, you really think I want to do this, what am I suppose to fight them and die? Do you want to die I don't know what to do" Elthin said helplessly.

The Inquisitor then cleared her throat and spoke up.

"Fine I'll meet you back here at seven this evening," Elthin said.

He started to leave heading to Freya's the look on his face was one of his own sadness.

"Then it's agreed." The Inquisitor answered. She then called her Peacekeepers into rank and file and headed off towards the Tavern by the main gate, leaving Lucine and Elthin alone in the square. Lucine wasn't even looking in Elthin's direction as she was softly sobbing, tears falling off her face onto the floor to create small wet spots in the sand. Before Elthin could continue to take Lucine to Freya's, Lucine turned to him, still crying full force.

"I hate you, you selfish bastard!" Lucine angrily shouted at Elthin. "You're just like all the others!"

Lucine then ran off down one of the side streets.

Before Elthin left Lucine turned to him and spoke with him.

"You don't understand what was I suppose to do?" Elthin told her. Lucine then ran off crying and Elthin was left alone he could go after her but he didn't. He needed time to think and plan things he needed help.

He headed for Freya's and arrived there moments later knocking on the door.

Not chasing after the distraught Lucine, Elthin decided to seek additional help to rectify this tense situation. He arrived at the Apothecary and knocked on the door. There was excited chatter from both Syl and Willow before the door was opened by the pair, who seemed to be fighting over who'd greet the customer first.

"Hello." Willow greeted Elthin. "Lu not with you?"

"We're currently free at the moment, so feel free to come in." Syl added in, before noticing the rather ragged appearance of Elthin. "Did something happen?!" She continued, sounding very concerned.

Elthin waited outside the Apothecary he heard the excited chatter, From inside he didn't feel excited at all. He felt hurt and sad he did the only thing he could think of. Even though it was bad he didn't mean to hurt Lucine like he had done but what else could he have done?

Soon Willow was the one to greet Elthin. and Syl joined her moments later.

"At the moment no" Elthin said sadly. Syl seemed to pick up on that Elthin wasn't in the greatest of moods.

"Yes, something did happen something very bad happened. I need to see Freya right away please take me to her?" Elthin asked.

Elthin requested to see Freya right away. Willow, now noticing the gravity of the situation, quickly hurried off to fetch the only other responsible adult present, as per the request, leaving Syl with Elthin.

"Come in, take a seat." Syl began, trying to keep as calm as she possibly could. "Shall I get you anything?"

Even though the situation may have been rather abnormal, Syl still couldn't shrug her upbringing enough to pass up being a respectable hostess.

Shortly after Willow had set off, she returned from the back room with Freya, who looked like she was caught in the middle of mixing an alchemical concoction.

Willow went to go get Freya right away leaving Elthin with Syl. Elthin didn't say much but did take a seat when it was offered to him. "No thanks" Elthin muttered. He tried to think of someway to put together what he was about to say to Freya who arrived a few moments later.

"Sorry, to break you away from what you were doing. But I need some help, real help" Elthin said. He had gotten up and started to pace around the room. After gathering his thoughts he explained to all three girls everything that had happened. Of how both he and Lucine had left to come visit everyone when they ran into the Inquisition. Who seemed to know about Lucine was posing as a rich girl. Elthin went on to explain that he was hand over Lucine to them. At first he had refused and tried to think of ways they both could get out of the mess. They were now in but running away or staying to fight against them wouldn't have worked.

Elthin had also tried to find anyone who could have helped them. But no one was around and with little options left Elthin even though he didn't want to do it. Tried to give up Lucine to the Inquisition which only led to Lucine feeling hurt and betrayed by what he had done. Elthin told everyone he tried to explain himself. The Inquisition guard had said he had till 7 this evening to make a final choice of handing Lucine over or not. And in the meantime Lucine was out alone in the city having run away from him.

Elthin let everything he had said sink in as a heavy silence filled the room.

"I know what I did was wrong and clearly didn't want to do it. But what was I suppose to do stand and fight and die along with her or run away and become a wanted criminal? I didn't know what to do and that was the only option that popped into my head."

Elthin, not wasting a moment, reeled off the tragic tale of his betrayal of Lucine to the gathered trio. Freya was perhaps the only one who did not show any signs of dislike towards it.

"You're mean." Willow interjected once Elthin had finished. "Selling Lu off to people she don't know."

"Weren't you meant to be keeping her safe?" Syl questioned. "Selling her off isn't being a good parent."

"Girls, please." Freya cut in. "I know it sounds bad but there was really not much of an alternative. Elthin only did it to protect Lucine and not because he wanted to."

That seemed to curb the younger duo's complaints, leaving Freya taking charge once more.

"Knowing how children act when upset, there's really only one place she could've gone to, and I think she'll be safe enough there. She's got connection who won't let harm come to her in that place." Freya began. "I'd suggest that you let her cool off a bit before trying to find her so she has a chance to think things through as well. Jumping in too soon will only make matters worse.

"As for suggestions for ways out of this, we've got a while before the appointed time, so we could brainstorm any ideas we have. We're sure to find some way out of this. We have to."

Everyone there took in what Elthin had said Freya seemed calm about it. While both younger girls seemed to drill into him about what he had done. He didn't even try to defend himself from their questions and jabs. Freya then spoke up again a little later which calmed things down for a bit.

"For starters I believe we should let Duke Trent and The Elder know. About what has happened so far as they need to be informed" Elthin said. He was busy trying to think up ideas on what they could do he did want to go out and try and find Lucine. But it'd be for the best to give her some time to herself. "If things get really bad we may have to leave the city"

Elthin was losing hope in their safety inside the city walls.

"They may be able to help us think up ways around it. Honestly, even Zena may be able to help with this as well, if she's willing to cooperate with you, her 'Arch-Nemesis'." Freya answered. "Leaving the city won't help much at all as they'll keep hunting until they get what they want."

Freya mentioned that they might be able to help out even with Zena. Being added into the mix when Freya mentioned about leaving the city Elthin spoke up again. "It might have been able to buy us some time if you could sneak her out in a airship. As I wouldn't be joining you I'd be turning myself in to help buy everyone time."

Elthin's idea included self-sacrifice and the one thing none of them had any immediate access to.

"You're a complete and utter idiot if you think turning yourself in would help in any way. Did you even stop to think about how that might affect the ones close to you?" Freya questioned, a slight hint of anger in her voice. "Lucine wouldn't want you to do something like that, even if she's still angry at you when the time comes. Who'll look after her then? Who'll teach her how to use magic? Who'll help her grow up healthy and strong?"

Freya seemed angry about Elthin's self-sacrifice.

"Do, you even know what I'm going through?" Elthin questioned. He knew what he had said earlier was a dumb idea but he wanted to keep Lucine safe even if it ment his own downfall. "There'd be no one who would be able to do that. But don't you think that I want all those things for her. I wish this whole thing had never happened."

"What's happened has happened, all we can do now is find ways to correct it, and that's not going to happen if we just stand around her placing blames and coming up with completely ludicrous ideas." Freya countered. "We need to think as one if we want to find ways around this."

"Okay, okay" Elthin said.

He once more tried to think up ideas.

"We, know that the Inquistion will keep Lucine safe for the time being. If they get their hands onto her there is also a chance that. They might still be searching for her right this moment I say someone should go out and find Lucine by bringing her here."

"I doubt they'll try and take her before they agreed to. The Inquisitor you talked with sounds like the same one the Duke talked with, and she seems to be true to her word, if a little abnormal by Inquisitor Standards." Freya answered. "It's best to let her be by herself for now. She's likely trying to come to terms with everything herself."

"Are the Duke and Zena coming here?" Syl asked. "I wanna see Zena again."

"They're busy with building stuff." Willow interjected. "They're not gonna come all the way here."

"It's worth a try." Freya suggested.

"She did seem rather shocked about my sudden change in what I had done. I think it'd be best to try and learn more about this Inquisitor. Maybe if we can befriend her we can have someone on the inside who can let us know things?" Elthin said.

The Duke and Zena might be coming.

"Seeing Zena again might now be so bad"

"Befriending an Inquisitor is a lofty dream." Freya answered. "They're not one for making relationships outside of the Inquisition. However, I think there's just something about this one which could make that dream a reality."

Elthin seemed all for the idea of the Duke and Zena coming to Brascus once more.

"Give them a call and explain to them the situation. The Duke has a soft spot for Lucine. I can tell." Freya suggested to Elthin. "Zena will also keep Syl and Willow busy while we discuss ways around this."

"Well, I can try later on to engage in small talk with this girl"

Elthin was needed to speak with the Duke and Zena. "May I use you communications device to contact them and let them know what is going on?"

"Maybe when the time comes you could try and barter with her." Freya answered.

Elthin asked if he could use the Communication Device in the Apothecary to contact Duke Trent and Zena.

"Would I have suggested it if I didn't intend you to use it?" Freya asked, rhetorically. "It's in the back room, to the right of the doorway."

"I'll be back shortly then" Elthin said. He headed for where Freya pointed out where the device was being stored. "Maybe I can barter with her never know" He left the room and headed into the back room. Once there he turns on the Communication Device. Letting it warm up and act on it's own when that was all done.

Elthin used the device to try and contact Duke Trent and Zena. He first tried to contact Zena as she might be the one who was free at the moment.

Elthin booted up the communication device and first looked to contact Zena. It felt like the connection was't going to a similar device, but, rather, a more complicated one. The base mechanisms of the communication relay were the same, but the lines of magical energy connecting the devices felt more...refined and flowed freely rather than statically from one place to another. Eventually, the device connected and Zena's picture, despite the archaic mechanisms of the Communication Device on Elthin's side, appeared much more crisp and more like the mythical holographic projections which were said to be used in the time before the Great War. Zena didn't appear as full of moxie as she usually is and looked to be rather nervous of speaking like this.

"H-hello." Zena began, before noticing that she was speaking to Elthin. "Hwah?! I-it's you?" How'd you get my contact details?!"

Zena was then one who began speaking to Elthin.

"Yes, it's me I used my secret powers to gather you contact details. As I plan on capturing you for my own needs again. I'm just kidding I wouldn't do that sort of thing to you. The reason I'm calling is because I wish to speak with you and Duke Trent about Lucine. Some things have come up and I can use both your helps on matters outside my control."

"You truly are an evil villain!" Zena retorted. "Big Bro's busy at the moment working on a secret project which he won't let me see. I think he'll be willing to stop that for a bit to help if it's about that captive you hold. Just don't expect me to let my guard down around you. You'll kidnap me again."

"Think about me however you like," Elthin said dryly. He heard the Duke was busy with some sort of project. "Can you please go get him, let him know that it's an emergency and I no longer have Lucine in my care a present" Elthin told Zena.

"You can keep up your guard around me all you want just don't go having another accident. Around me please I don't want to clean up after you again"

"I don't need you to tell me to do that. I'll do it anyway." Zena countered. "So, you lost your hostage and you want help getting her back? I guess Big Bro's got time to play with you. I'll go and see."

The communication device which Zena was using appeared to move with her as she began to exit what looked to be her bedroom, if the decor was anything to go by.

"I'm not a baby!" Zena shot back as Elthin probed her more on her earlier unfortunate encounter. "You'd love to see that, wouldn't you?! Should I call the Enforcers right now?"

Despite the sudden tension between the pair, Zena dutifully went about her task, heading towards a cellar room down some stairs, which was more than likely a workshop. Knocking on the door, she called through to the Duke, keeping up with calling him 'Big Bro'. Regardless of the clarity of Zena's communication device, it still was not powerful enough to transfer sounds from rooms outside of the surrounding area. There was some exchange between the pair before Zena resumed speaking to Elthin.

"Big Bro said he'd be done in a few minutes. I don't think he's gonna stop for your carelessness of misplacing a girl."

"She wasn't my hostage and it was beyond my control and yes I'd like some help," Elthin said calmly. Zena left for a few moments then spoke again to him. "I could care less about seeing that"

Zena left again and then spoke with the Duke and Zena then came back.

"It wasn't my carelessness!" Elthin snapped at Zena. It appeared that Zena had struck a nerve with that last remark. "I met with the Inquisition and even though I didn't want to I gave Lucine up"

"Got on the wrong side of the Law?" Zena sighed. "Kidnapped some more girls in broad daylight?"

After the exchange between the Duke and Zena, and her information to Elthin, the communication between the pair was soon ended as Elthin began to abuse Zena.

"Go find her on your own!" Zena shouted back, looking quite tearful after being shouted at herself. "We're not helping you!"

The communication device then suddenly shut off before Elthin could must've ended the interaction on her end, which wasn't something normal Devices for that sort of thing could do.

Elthin was truly beginning to grow annoyed with Zena's words to him. He wanted nothing more then to put her in her place. "Will you just stop it" Elthin asked. But when he had shouted back at her Zena shut off the device and said they weren't going to help him.

Elthin just left the room and started towards the doors leading outside. He stopped by Freya first "I wasn't able to get the help I needed I'll do this on my own."

After the communication with the only potential lifeline was forced to a stop, Elthin decided to take matters into his own hands, but Freya had other things in mind.

"You'll get nowhere doing this on your own. You need help for this. You'll be heading towards your own execution if you go into this without a solid plan." Freya lectured Elthin. "Have you truly exhausted all the help you could call upon? You must have others who will be willing to assist?"

"I know I need help for this!" Elthin countered and then sighed. He knew that Freya was just trying to help him out but Elthin was once again upset. "Maybe you can talk to Zena get her to change her mind. I'll try contacting The Elder he might be able to help us out."

"I'll see what I can do, but I can't make any promises. Zena's stubbornness is one of her more prominent personality traits." Freya answered. "The Elder may not be able to physically help, but he is a good source of knowledge. He knows more about the Mainland than anyone else in this City."

"Well, you can always try the Duke. I was told he'd be done with his business shortly" Elthin told her. She spoke about The Elder who was good for knowledge. "I'll see what I can find out from him." Elthin headed back into the backroom. He booted up the device once again and this time tried to contact The Elder.

After decisions were made, Elthin headed back to the Communication device and tried to contact the Elder. The connection this time was a lot slower and had returned to its usual grainy appearance.

"Greetings. Any new leads on what we've been looking for?" The Elder asked once the connection was stabilised.

"Greeting, Elder" Elthin greeted him.

"That isn't why I'm contacting you today. I could use some help in a personal matter I met with the Inquisition today." Elthin told him. He was silent for a time before passing on all the details of what happened earlier with Lucine and himself along with what had happened. With the Inquisition as well he left nothing out.

Elthin relayed the reason behind his contact, leaving no detail out. The Elder looked to be pondering every situation Elthin was placed and and deeply considering all alternatives.

"You had no other option." The Elder began. "Even so, this Inquisitor you met does not seem to be like the others. She seems...human. Most Inquisitors would have just killed you and taken Lucine, and killer her if she resisted. In Inquisition is like a gathering of this world's most Emotionless beings. They care not for anything but their goal, and anything that gets in their way is nothing more than an obstacle which should be disposed of. If you can, I would suggest talking to her and seeing if you can bring her round to your side. Get her alone, and then she will not be much of a threat. She is still not an opponent to be trifled with, as she is still and Adept and a master Swordswoman. Under no circumstances try to engage her in combat, as you will surely be hard pressed for victory."

After Elthin told the elder everything he listened to what their thoughts were on the matter.

"I wish I had another one but you are right." Elthin said. "I had thought of trying to befriend her or at least get to know her. As this would be to our advantage to have someone on the inside who can help us out with things. As you know I am to meet up with her later I can try talking to her then to see what her thoughts on this matter is." Elthin spoke.

He thought for a while.

"Do you think that the Inquisition might do any harm to Lucine?" Elthin asked.

"Take every opportunity you can to find the peaceful way out of things. There has been enough needless bloodshed in this world." The Elder answered. "It may be near impossible to even begin to consider to being able to befriend an Inquisitor, but there is always the possibility that it may happen, even if it is more of a mutual alliance for a while rather than a long-lasting friendship."

Elthin asked a question which even the learned Elder had no direct answer to.

"That I cannot say. We can only hope that it does not come to that."

"Is there always a chance we can be working towards them same goals?" Elthin asked. He tried to think on how he could befriend the Inquisitor. Then another thought came to him and he waited for a moment to ask it.

"What can you tell me about the mainland like what is the city of Elenveir like?" Elthin asked.

"There is always a slim chance, though they may not be willing to include you in their work." The Elder answered.

Elthin then asked about Elenveir and the Mainland.

"The city of Elenveir is the pinnacle of Magi-tech development. The entirety of the continent is covered by a powerful Magi-tech barrier from and Archeotech relic. Instead of taking the complete power of the Magician's Guild to maintain this barrier for no more than a few moments, this device completely encompasses the whole continent, running off an unknown power source which never seems to run out. The city is so vast that it nearly covers the complete body of the continent. It even requires teleportation to move between some sections as they just cannot be reached on foot. The continent is mainly built on levels, both vertical and horizontal, and each rung of society lives on a different level. The only thing which is consistent between each section is the Archmage's palace, which is as tall as the City is on levels, and as wide as the top half of the Continent. It could be counted as being a city in and of itself."

"Would they also be trying to search out or find any info on the Dragons. Like I'm currently undertaking?" Elthin asked.

The Elder then spoke to him about Elenveir and the Mainland.

"Where was this Archeotech relic found?" Elthin asked. As he listened to more of what the Elder said. "Have you ever been to Elenveir? Just hearing about what you've told me about it makes the ciry sound very interesting but. Wouldn't there be problems with having a city that big?"

"The Inquisition do not hunt stories told to children to make them behave." The Elder replied. "They believe that Dragons are no more than fairy tales told to children, or the drunken ramblings of fools who are drowning in alcohol."

Elthin asked a little more about the Mainland.

"The Inquisition are keeping that piece of information closely guarded. Some people believe that it was also recovered from the Old Palace along with the Airship, like it was left there specifically for some reason by the Lost Generation. Why they may have done so, and why it was created are as much unknown as all things regarding the Lost Generation." The Elder explained. "I have only been to the Archmage's Palace for that meeting, and I was escorted by Inquisitors the entire way, so I did not really have much of a chance to explore the city, almost like they were trying to hide something. There are always inherent problems for having anything as large as an Island is, but the Inquisition help to reduce or completely counter some of the problems."

"But still it should be something that would need to be looked into. At least at some point in time, I believe that the dragons might show themselves" Elthin said.

The Elder explained more on the Mainland.

"So, even the Inquisition has things they wish to keep secrets on. From what I've learned from you so far. It seems like perhaps they are trying to hide things. As for what that certain thing is I have no idea. Maybe it can be more to do with the Archeotech or maybe something else." Elthin stated.

He thought on everything that was said.

"I should also mention this to you but yesterday Lucine and I were attacked," Elthin explained. Telling The Elder everything that happened to them yesterday about the whole attack with the ground shaking and mini tornado.

"Maybe so, however, we have nothing but rumours and drunken ramblings to go on." The Elder confirmed. "The Dragons have been extinct for centuries, nearly a millennia. Any traces of them are so inconclusive that we cannot prove their return."

Elthin gave his views on the Mainland.

"Maybe they are, maybe it's just paranoia. The Inquisition are so secretive that nobody knows the truth." The Elder answered. "While the Mainland may have claimed most Archeotech, other places may still have some forms of it left behind, waiting to be rediscovered."

Elthin then went on to explain about the attack from the previous day.

"Search the attack site for any clues. If they have left anything behind, then we may be able to trace their motive and who may have sent them." The Elder instructed. "Leave nothing to chance. If it was a targeted attack and not a feint, then we must know."

"Maybe my search into this whole matter might change things. It's a long shot but there's always a chance" Elthin said.

The Elder spoke.

"Can you tell me about the airship that was found. Was it the same one that came here earlier or is it The Arch Mage's own personal flagship?" Elthin asked.

The Elder explained his thoughts about the attack.

"I had found some footprints but that's nothing to really go upon just yet. But I have a feeling that attack must have been a targeted one. As there is always a chance someone else knows about Lucine."

"Perhaps that may be so, but we have yet to find any conclusive evidence." The Elder answered.

Elthin asked about the recovered Airship.

"As one would expect, it is the Archmage's private Flagship. All other Airship designs, both in the Mainland and Argenta, are based on the blueprints recovered and the living legend of the Archmage's Airship. Nothing we can create at present can even come close to the complexity of the Original. The Original seems to run, not on the conventional fuels like the copies, but on the Elemental forces in the world themselves, giving it effectively limitless potential and power."

Elthin explained his findings at the site of the attack,

"Keep searching if you can. See if you can track the footprints. If not, they may have left a latent trail of Ley Energies from using the stones which you could follow. However, you'd need to hope that they have not disguised the flow of Magic from themselves to the Earth."

Elthin learned the Airship was the Archmage's personal flagship. He then learned more about the ship as the Elder spoke.

"If I ever had the chance I'd like to travel to the Mainland to study the Flagship. Let alone the Palace it all seems like a adventurers paradise. But with the Inquisition running the show I don't think I'd be able to do as I wished.

"I'll see what I can find out and let you know the results. I should be out there searching for Lucine as there is always the chance she might be in trouble."

"The Mainland is indeed a researcher's haven. It has almost all of the recovered Artifacts from before the Great War and the time of the Lost Generation. However, without the Archmage's permission, you will not be able to even look upon the Flagship, let alone study it. It is, after all, an Artifact from a time my advanced than ours." The Elder explained.

"That girl can do a fine job of handling herself against the more common of problems, but, if she comes up against a more skilled Magician, then you may have to step in." The Elder answered. "Recovering Lucine if of great importance, but do not forget the dangers of leading the enemy to her. We are unsure of whether there are Spies inside the City or not."

Elthin wished to know more and the Mainland and perhaps travel there. As all his dreams would become a reality. "Perhaps sometime I can tell you about my homeland while I'm not sure if you've ever visited it before. I'm sure you may find it fascinating"

The Elder spoke about Lucine.

"I believe there are Spies here perhaps they are even closer then we know" Elthin pointed out.

"Artaria is one continent which I find too cold for my old bones. I've only ever read about it in travel journals." The Elder answered. "There's said to be ruins hidden under the bluffs and glaciers. I'd like to discover what secrets they may hold."

Elthin voiced his concerns for Lucine's safety.

"We can never rule out the possibility." The Elder replied. He then stopped for a bit, pondering the direction the conversation has taken. "I believe we've...deviated a little from the original reason for this contact."

"Artaria can be rather cold and there are some ruins that have been. Found under the bluffs and glaciers." Elthin told him.

While Elthin wished to tell The Elder more about his homeland he had a pressing matter.

"Yes, I believe we have I'm sorry for that. I shall contact you again later today to let you know how my meeting with the female inquisitor went. But for now I'll go and gather Lucine and try to explain things to her."

"Best of luck to you. May your chosen Deity favour you." The Elder finished. "If she is as your friend, the Duke, pointed out, negotiations should not be too difficult. You just need to come to a compromise which will benefit the both of you."

After the conversation had ended, the Communication was closed down.

The Communication was closed down and Elthin started to head out.

"I'm going to go find Lucine and bring her here." Elthin informed Freya and the others.

After closing communication, Elthin decided to go and search for Lucine.

"Take one of the girls with you. Safety in number, after all." Freya instructed Elthin. "They may also make it easier to coax Lucine back. I've managed to prepare a single draught which should allow you to become undetectable, both by sight and Magical sight, for no more than two minutes. Use it when the time demands it. While it may not affect you, the draught is made with ingredients which can be rather...detrimental to bladder control, which is another reason I strongly advise you to use only if necessary."

Both Syl and Willow looked rather taken aback by the indication that using this draught, while the perks may be good, also came with a crippling drawback.

"While you're out, I'll see if I can win back The Duke's favour."

Freya told Elthin to take one of the girl's with him. As it might be easier to coax Lucine back. Along with a single draught.

"I'll try not to have things come to that." He could see both girls didn't like the thoughts. Of having to use the item.

"I'll take Syl with me" Elthin told Freya as he headed to the door. After mentioning Syl to follow him and taking the draught from her.

Syl, being the one chosen out of the pair, didn't seem to realise she was the one being called upon, until it finally dawned on her.

"Wha? M-m-m-ME?!" Syl questioned in shock. "W-w-w-why?! Willow's much better than me,"

"Better you than me." Willow commented with a small smile. "I like dry panties."

Eventually, Syl followed along with Elthin, keeping close but also a slight distance, and eyeing the dreaded draught with venom. She clearly didn't like the thought of having to down it, but, if the situation demanded...

"Because Lucine likes you most and get's along with you really well." Elthin told her. He had no plans on using the draught on Syl. They left and headed towards Elthin's home there was a chance that Lucine might have returned there.

"Really? Is that why?" Syl questioned, not quite sounding like she believed that was the sole reason for bringing her along. It appeared that Lucine's well-being was the only reason she'd actually agree to this if her repeating 'This is for Lu.' under her breath most of the way was anything to go by.

Elthin's first stop was his own house. However, the doorstep was vacant and Lucine was nowhere to be seen. Only one other place...

"Yes, Lucine sees you as a true friend." There was more reasons but Elthin wasn't going to tell her. What he had heard them doing in the bath the other night. Which was sure to be another reason why Lucine liked her.

Elthin tried his home and saw that the doorstep was vacant. This left him with only one other place to try he headed towards her old house in the Slums with Syl.

"Really..." Syl continued, still not sounding completely convinced. Her stare at the draught was possible her expectation for an 'ulterior motive'. Lucine did like to spin tall tales, after all...

Noticing that Lucine was nowhere to be found at Elthin's house, he headed towards the Slums. Just before approaching the entrance, Syl quickly pulled Elthin behind a street stall and tried to push his head under the cover of the counter top. He reasoning behind this was a simple.

"Inqi patrol." She informed Elthin in a whispered voice as she looked towards a pair of official looking Military personnel stalking the empty streets. "Wait them out?"

Before they could enter the Slums Syl pulled Elthin back behind a street stall. Then pushed his head under the cover of it.

Elthin peaked over the top and saw the Inqi patrol. He lowered his head and looked at Syl "we will wait them out."

Syl just nodded in response, not wanting to allow any noise to give their position away.

Whether it was down to just desperation to not have to drink the glorified diuretic, or her enhanced hearing and sight from having Animalia Cat genes in her, Syl managed to point out the patrol before they fully rounded the corner. They were, actually, a fair distance away, but closing in on the pair's location at a steady pace. Waiting them out, at their current walking speed, would possibly take a little over three minutes. The pair could, in contrast, dash around the corner and hope to not be spotted, but that came with its own problems.

Elthin thought over what sort of options they had. Waiting them out was going to take some time they could use the draught or run around the corner. Hoping not to be seen but Elthin didn't want to do those two options at all. So, he and Syl waited as the Inqi made their way towards them. "I think we might see more of them once inside the Slums. We might have to use the draught which I don't want to do." Elthin whispered to Syl.

"We're not using it." Syl firmly, yet still quietly, retorted. "We'll find Lu, get her out and get back without having to use it. All we need to do is read their movements, see when they're not looking our way, and make our moves then. If we're really sneaky-sneaky like, we'll get this done in no time."

"Would you like to take the lead or should I?" Elthin asked. As he once again peaked over the top to watch the Inqi moving towards them then lowered his head. He went on counting the seconds until they would pass them by.

"If you're that bad at hiding and spotting, I don't think I'll have a choice if I wanna get through this without drinking that thing." Syl sighed in response. "They'll pass us in around fifteen seconds, get ready to move quickly and quietly. If you knock anything over, I'm not helping you."

Placing his faith in the sense of a part Animalian, Elthin counted the seconds until the Inquisition patrol passed them by. Right on the fifteenth second, Syl quickly moved from her hiding spot and rounded the corner into the Slums.

Elthin was fine at hiding he'd done this sort of thing before. He said nothing back and slowly counted to fifteen. And as Syl moved from the hiding spot Elthin followed after her and they both rounded a corner. Moving slowly Elthin looked around for any other sets of Inqu as they moved forwards.

After the pair had moved from one hiding spot to another, Syl began looking out for more patrols.

"Not so many here at the entrance. They're probably further in. Why they're in the Slums, I don't know." Syl informed Elthin. "Where's Lu's old house? How far in is it?"

"They might be looking for Lu I'm not sure" Elthin says.

They moved forward and hid in some places just to make sure no other Inqu were around. "Lu's old house is further inside the Slums just a few minutes away."

Given an estimated time between their current location and there destination, Syl began to think up a plan of action.

"If they're looking for her, then they're obviously not looking hard enough. Even so, why would they be looking for her when you've agreed to meet up again later?" Syl began. "Lu's likely not hiding, so they're possibly just ensuring that nothing happens to their target, meaning that there may be a number of patrols near where Lu's old house is."

"Maybe they are just here to keep the peace and make sure nothing happens?" Elthin said. They walked along as no other guards were around them. "If there are then that means we may have trouble getting close to Lu."

"That's not likely if what Sis says about the Inqi is true." Syl answered. "Sis says the Inqi only care about themselves and not others."

Jumping from cover to cover, the pair managed to sneak past the first few patrols in the Slums. As they neared their target, the patrols got more frequent and were mostly stationary, posting two Peacekeepers on either side of the pathways in a zigzag motion, covering each other's blind spots across the path, making it very hard to sneak by.

"We must be getting close." Syl commented. "These ones don't look like they're gonna move."

"If they do they do but the one I talked to earlier she seemed different some how." Elthin whispered.

As the moved deeper into the area more and more patrols were around. Making there movements much slower. They also had a hard time sneaking by and soon came. Upon a pair of Inqi that weren't moving this put them in a bind.

"We need to get by them somehow any ideas?" Elthin asked.

Elthin, despite being the older and more versatile of the two, turned to Syl for direction to pass by the stationary pairs.

"I don't know, you're the Magician!" Syl countered, sounding a little exasperated. "Use some Magicky-hocus-pocus to distract them! Move a tavern sign with wind, or whatever you can do. Just get them so they're not looking at us.

"I can use the draught on you instead!" Elthin countered. Growing annoyed that Syl was making it seem like Elthin was useless at this sort of thing. Turning from her he looked towards the Inqi and placed his hand on the ground. Muttering something quietly several snowballs white in color were formed above the Inqi's heads and then fellow upon them trying to blind them.

"You'd just love to see that, wouldn't you?!" Syl shot back, sounding quite annoyed.

Eventually, Elthin took the lead and decided to do a rather direct attack at one of the patrol units. A small collection of snowballs fell from the sky onto one of the Patrol Unit's heads, prompting some rather confused chatter in battle-tongue, one language which only the most proficient of Military trained people are taught. A ear-splitting bang was heard, followed by two clangs as the patrol fired off their rather strange looking firearms just above where the snowballs fell from.

"Smart move, genius!" Syl scolded Elthin. "Now all of them will know something's going on! Couldn't you have dropped them on the sign, or something?!"

Using the momentary cover of noise and confusion, Syl quickly scampered along, jumping from building to building as the patrols spread about the Slums were all congregating around their previous position. An order in battle-tongue, from a familiar sounding female voice, dragged the chaos back to some organisation.

"Fan! Search! Duo!" The Inquisitor Captain ordered the Patrols. "Track! Ley! Prints!"

"Oh, yeah I'd love to see that!" Elthin said in a mocking tone which sounded totally annoyed. His trick fell onto one of the Patrol Units heads, prompting some battle chatter among them. Then a bang was heard and two shots were fired.

"Be quiet!" Elthin ordered.

Elthin heard the familiar sounding voice and knew it was coming from the captain he had. Talked to earlier in the day moving slowly Elthin moved around the best he could. Having stopped using his magic if worse came to worse he'd use the draught on himself.

As the Inquisitor troops regained some composure, they followed the orders from their Captain and began to spread out, leaving no corner of the Slums or city without at least a pair of Peacekeepers on patrol. The previous lax nature of the Patrol groups was replaced by a rather organised march, allowing them to cover double they ground they did before in half the time. Some of them were even using intriguing looking plain white marble stones, which glowed when near the presence of anything of minor magical origin.

Syl had totally abandoned her careful advance for a more tricky route. She clambered up the side of one of the Slum Dwellings and began vaulting from roof to roof and wall to wall, making no sound from either the vaults or the is possibly where the Panther part of the genes she has in her come from. Strangely, she also seems to have adopted a pair of panther ears and a tail as she continued to vault and dive from dwelling to dwelling.

Seeing as how it was much harder to get around since his little trick. Didn't work the way Elthin had wanted it to he decided to try another method. This would at least let Syl reach Lu while he tried to distract everyone again. When they were near each other again Elthin spoke to Syl. "You go on ahead Lu's house is just down the path to the right. I'll stay here to by you some more time." Elthin told her.

He waited until Syl was well enough away from him before he spotted the female captain. When the others were busy else where down the road Elthin stepped out into the daylight. He started to walk towards her.

"Don't be an idiot!" Syl countered. "Use the thing! That;s what Sis gave it to you for!"

Sticking by her earlier statement, Syl continued acrobatically flipping and vaulting along the way towards Lucine's house while Elthin did a more obvious distraction. He spotted the Inquisitor commander and began to head towards her. She was still ordering some of the more addled Peacekeepers around in Battle-Tongue, but most of her words were lost among all the other complicated strategies milling around the Peacekeepers. However, one thing she said wasn't in Battle-Tongue, for unknown reasons.

"Keep the Mark safe! Let nothing touch her!" The Inquisitor Commander ordered. "If she gets so much as a scratch on her, you'll pay!"

One of the Peacekeeper patrols noticed Elthin's advance and pointed their firearms at him.

"Halt!" They ordered. The Inquisitor Commander caught on to the Peacekeeper's actions and turned to Elthin.

"This area is off limits to all civilians." The Inquisitor Commander informed Elthin." And that goes for people related, or even just looking after, the Mark. I thought this Chaos was caused by someone with a little too much time on their hands. Come to give your answer?"

Elthin handed Syl the draught before he left. "You'd better use it as I need to talk with her anyway."

After he was gone he heard the captain speak about keeping Lucine safe. At least they were not going to be harming her anytime soon. The one Peacekeeper spotted Elthin and told him to stop. Which he did before the captain spoke to him.

"Yes, I've come to give you my answer about the Mark. While I have sworn to protect her even though I didn't do a good job. I believe she would be better off with me then with you. I'm not sure if you will truly keep the Mark safe or kill her if she doesn't join or give you the answers you are seeking. But my answer is I will not give her over to you I'd rather try and talk things out first."

Due to the distance between the pair at present, Elthin had to throw the draught up to Syl, who deftly caught it while flipping from one roof to another.

"I'm not drinking it!" She shouted back before leaving the immediate area.

Elthin, in his little discussion with the Mastermind behind this city on lockdown, explained his diplomatic intentions.

"So you consider yourself a orator, do you?" The Commander questioned. "I'd rather talk than kill, anyway. Killing is a dirty task."

Elthin explained that he believes he'd be the better one to take care of Lucine rather than leave her in Inquisitor hands.

"Ready!" She instructed the Peacekeepers, who all lowered their weapons, but kept them primed if things went downhill. "Shoot! Fight! Detain!"

While Battle-tongue was not a language for the untrained, it was relatively easy to pick up that the Commander only instructed the troops to shoot to detain only if the situation demanded. After giving her order, the Commander returned to her diplomatic negotiations with Elthin.

"It's not my place to defy the orders from the Archmage himself. It's under His instructions that I came to this sand-hole of a city. He's interested in this girl, though I don't know why. Maybe he just wants to execute a Witch himself in public display to discourage these Cults popping up all over the place? Or maybe he wants a Courtesan with some latent power to bear his children? Either way, the girl's got his interest."

Elthin heard Syl speak again but ignored her not wanting the Inqi to learn he had. Someone with him "Yes, I am as I know killing can be a dirty business I've killed some people myself and I can tell you it leaves a sick feeling in one's stomach." Elthin said.

Elthin even rose his hands to show that he wouldn't fiight them.

"If I was in your shoes I wouldn't wish to defy him either but. While I'm not sure as to truly why he's interested in her. I do know that executing the Mark in the wrong answer. And while the Cults have been popping up more lately I believe one of them might be linked to what happened here in the Slums the other day."

"It's not the act of killing which I don't like. It's the mess it leaves on my clothes and weapons. I hate cleaning blood and stuff off, it stains easily." The Commander replied.

Elthin tried talking the Commander into allowing Lucine to live,

"Why would I care what happens here? This backwater place is weeks away from the Mainland by sea. It's not like any Cultist here could breach the barrier around the Mainland." The commander answered. "If the Archmage tells me to kill someone, I'll kill them. If He tells me to seduce someone, I'll be a little annoyed, but will do it. If He tells me to take out a continent at the cost of my own life, then I am bound to serve. It's not me you need to be talking around, it's the Archmage, and I doubt your paltry diplomacy could win Him over."

"Then why take a sort of job like this if you hate getting blood on your clothes and weapons?" Elthin asked.

The Commander gave her thoughts.

"That I don't know only you can know that answer." Elthin who already knew about the barrier around the Mainland said nothing at first. "There is always a chance that someday that might happen you can't rely on your barrier forever." Elthin said. "Sadly I've never met the Archmage before but if I could set up a meeting with him to try and discuss the Mark's fate maybe he'd be willing to listen. If not then there is nothing I can do."

"Because it's either that or die." The Commander answered like is was common knowledge. "You should know that being the 'lesser gender' and being able to tap into the powers of Magic is not a good combination for survival. Though, I doubt you'll fully understand as you're not physically facing it."

Elthin proposed the idea of meeting with the Archmage. Silence hung over the group before the Commander burst out laughing.

"Really?!" She laughed. "You really think you can just simply request to see the Archmage? How dense are you?!"

"Would you rather of had me coming over here by trying to attack. Which would have given you the chance to kill me?" Elthin asked. "Also I don't rely on magic all the time I've trained myself to use other means of staying alive."

The commander burst out laughing at Elthin wanting to meet the Archmage.

"I'm sure he wouldn't even want to see me let alone hear my request." Elthin sighed. He then thought of doing something which he wasn't about to enjoy. But maybe it might change the Archmage mind if he was to ever find out who Elthin truly was that is if the Commander ever told him.

"Would the Archmage be willing to meet with a member of the Veldhar family. For I am Elthin Veldhar crown prince of Glacialis son of King Xalvandor and Queen Lillias Veldhar the currents rulers of Glacialis?" Elthin asked.

"Not really. Like I said, I hate getting dirty." The Commander repeated. "Either way, you're part of the 'Master Gender', and myself and the poor squirt with you, aren't. Seriously, Men look down on us and treat us like we're mentally deficient, now look how things have changed. We're still far behind being accepted, especially in this backwater city, and are seen as nothing more than sex objects or goods to trade for a few crates of food, or horses."

Despite the outright degrading of the statement from the Commander, Elthin still tried to defend his case.

"Spout out your titles as much as you want, I'm not interested in who I have to deal with to clear my Missions. You could be a reborn Dragoon for all I care, and I still won't treat you any differently." The Commander answered. "If the Archmage was interested in some ice-box of a Continent, He would've conquered it already."

"I don't look down on you in fact I don't even know you." Elthin told her. He listened to the rest of what the woman had to say to him. "Maybe in time things will change for you or change your way of thinking." Elthin told her.

Even with telling her who he was it didn't seem to help.

"I don't believe Artaria would stand around and let the Archmage conquer us. While he is the leader of the entire five continents and a very powerful magician. He might find out that we Artarians are more then a match for him and his armies."

"All men say that, yet it's just a bunch of lies." The Commander retorted with a theatrical sigh. "The squirt's little sister was sold off to a Whorer to become used goods in his brothels in Port Ralence. Hasn't she told you that? That was all because some rich poser like yourself was claiming to 'respect' girls and that he wanted to 'give her a good future'. Some future being a cum-dumpster for some fat merchants is."

Elthin prized the military might of his home country quite highly, but the Inquisitor wasn't impressed.

"If He came with his full might, it'll be either roll over and submit, or become fodder for the scavengers." The Commander answered. "How well could a castle's wall stand up to Aerial bombardment from and Archeotech Airship and some warships? Also, how could Magicians who can only control a single element stand up to an entire battalion of Adepts?"

"That's up to you to believe but not all men are like that." Elthin then learned that Lucine had a little sister he never knew that. "I never knew that" Elthin said after learning that he slowly got a feeling. Of way Lucine disliked his kind.

The Inquisitor spoke highly for the mainlands army.

"You will just have to find out for yourselfs if you ever come and try to attack us. But I will say this we have managed to use some of the Lost Technology in our weapons. Ships and other such things so we will be more then a match for you."

"That's probably because she may see you as that kind of person. Slum Dwellers are wise. They learn from the mistakes of their kind and, as kind of a genetic trait, instantly distrust anyone outside of their close circles." The Commander answered. "Don't take it personally. She probably hates everyone outside of the Slums."

Elthin 'claimed' that Glacialis had access to Archeotech Weaponry. This prompted another amused chuckle from the Inquisitor.

"Fat chance of that." She scoffed. "All Archeotech is property of the Archmage."

"One could try to change her mind given time but it'd take a lot of hard work." Elthin sighed. He had been trying to do something like that before things all went to hell.

"I'm not here to talk about our armies or Archeotech. I'm only here to talk about Lucine and once again I will not be handing her over to you."

"Could've fooled me." The Inquisitor sarcastically answered. "Now, as we've finished comparing cock sizes, let's get back to business."

Sneaking behind the houses on the other end of the slums were Lucine and Syl. They'd still yet to use the Draught, but Elthin's 'distraction' was enough to allow them to slip past mostly undetected.

"It's not like you have a choice in the matter, we're taking her from you. If you want to cling to the slim hope that you can keep her, we'll talk again later." The Inquisitor answered. She then returned to Battle-Tongue to command her troops. "Desist! Threat-Zero! Monitor!" After commanding the troops, she turned back to Elthin. "Take yourself and your little friends out of here before I change my mind. Stealing Inquisition property is punishable by Death. Thankfully, you've amused me enough to let you take the Mark and her little friend away. Just make sure you keep to your word later."

"Yes, let's get back to business."

Elthin wondered how Syl was doing and if she had found Lucine yet. He thought about ending the meeting here but still wanting to give Syl more time. The commander then spoke to him once again about some things.

"Again you can try but you will find it hard to get her from me. This isn't a threat or anything as I have a feeling I know what you plan to do with the mark." Elthin said. "I'll meet with you later and things will be talked over then." Elthin added. He left them alone and jogged further on into the Slums trying to find Lucine and Syl.

Elthin was insistent that he could keep Lucine.

"Do you really? Let's see if your assumption is right later, shall we?" The Inquisitor answered. "If you want your little friends, they're sneaking behind the tavern where you dropped snowballs on my troop's head. The Animalian one is quite skilled, but she's not got the disguising her trail down yet. She's left Alchemical Ley Energy everywhere."

After closing the discussion, Elthin headed to rejoin Syl and Lucine, who'd just reached the Slum Entrance.

"If you are challenging me to a battle then it should be between you and me. Not you little minions standing behind you." Elthin says. She then spoke about his friends and where they had been Elthin would wish to know more about how they were able to track them. Plus if he did end up fighting against the commander he might be able to use the draught on her if given the chance.

With the talks over Elthin found both Syl and Lucine. By the Slum Entrance, he looked over at Lucine to see how she was doing. As he'd be the last person she'd want to see right now. "How's she doing?" Elthin asked Syl and then turned to Lucine.

"I know that you hate my guts right now and don't trust a word that comes out of my mouth. But I'd like to try and make things up with you by any way that I can. I know it's going to take time and energy to regain your trust but I'd like to try if you'd let me?"

Elthin insisted that if there was any duels going on, it should be Commander against opponent. A one on one.

"Like I'd do it any other way. They're just here to ensure that I don't get jumped by foolish people." The Commander answered. "If we're becoming Nemeses, I could at least introduce myself. Be grateful, as I never normally grace other people with this. My name is Ellara, Second Rear General Inquisitor of the Aquaven division of the Inquisition's Front-line Corps. The division name should hint at what I'm good at. You may refer to me as 'Inquisitor Ellara' only. Anything less than that is a severe breach of respect to my rank, 'Prince' Elthin."

Once the challenge was set and agreements came to, Elthin rejoined with his more stealthy compatriots.

"Broken, a shell of her former self, betrayed beyond redemption, seething with rage," Syl reeled off. "Other than that, she's doing just fine."

Elthin tried to talk with Lucine, but she simply just turned away and ignored him. He wasn't likely going to get her to talk for a long while.

Elthin before he rejoined the others learned the commander's name was. Ellara and while the challenge had been set there still had not set a place where it'd take place. That could happen later on and soon Elthin joined everyone.

"Did she talk with you?" Elthin asked. After he learned that Lucine was okay. He had tried to talk with her next but she refused to answer him. Instead, he just started out of the Slums with the others in tow.

"After spouting out every bad word in the book after hearing that you ordered me to go get her." Syl answered. "Freya would spank me into next week if I said even a few of the things Lu did."

After learning that Lucine would be non-compliant with communication, Elthin decided to make tracks back to the Apothecary. From the place they were in now, there was about three routes back to their destination. One took them through the site of the Sandstorm from the previous day, while adding a little more onto their walk. Another took them through the side-streets on a direct course to the Apothecary, which was the shortest route out of them all, and the third took them through the main plaza and Trading district heading towards the front of the city, which was the longest one to their destination.

"Just don't go saying anything of what you heard while Freya is around" Elthin advised.

Elthin decided it was best to take the side-streets to the Apothecary, as he needed. To speak with Freya about something important and while he wanted to check out the site of the Sandstorm again that'd wait until later when he returned home to fetch something.

"You don't have to tell me twice. I'd like to be able to sit down and not feel like my butt's on fire." Syl answered. "If you can, I think you should try and stop those kind of words. Freya won't care if she's not hers, she'll still spank her if we're around and she says them."

Ignoring the Sandstorm site for now, Elthin made tracks straight for the apothecary. Lucine had to take the lead sometimes to navigate the more tricky intersections, but they managed to reach the Apothecary in less than ten minutes.

"I'm not even sure Lucine will listen to me you've seen so, far how she acts around me now."

The three reached the Apothecary in less the ten minutes and after knocking and being. Let inside Elthin went to go see Freya to ask if she was able to get the Duke's help along with telling her something about himself.

Elthin reached the apothecary and was let inside by Willow.

"So, didja take it?" Willow grinned to Syl.

"No. And I'm not gonna take it." Syl curtly answered.

"That's too bad. I'm sure Elthin would've loved to have seen you squirming around, busting to let it all out."]

The banter between sisters carried on as Freya joined Elthin in the back room to discuss matters.

"The Duke's agreed to help us." Freya informed Elthin. "On a condition he didn't tell me. He said he'll discuss it with you when he arrives."

Elthin left Lucine with both Syl and Willow hoping that they would have. A better chance of her getting to open up. He then joined Freya in the backroom and they were alone.

"I'm glad that the Duke's agreed to help us did he tell you when he was going to arrive?" Elthin asked. Wondering what the condition was that the Duke wished to speak to him about. "There's something I need to tell you I haven't been entirely truthful in who I am. I'm actually the first crown prince of Glacialis."

Elthin asked when the Duke would arrive.

"He should be here within the hour, with Zena joining him. He's got to help calm Zena down first after your little scene with her." Freya informed Elthin.

Elthin then dropped the biggest bomb in conversational history, taking Freya by complete surprise, even going as far as making her unable to form coherent sentences.

"So you mean I...with a Prince...and we...on the floor...in the bath..." Freya stammered out. "Am I going to be executed for this? And should I call you 'Prince'? Or what...how...when...?"

Elthin learned that the Duke and Zena would be here in an hour's time. Then after he told Freya who he really was she was taken by complete surprise.

"No, no you won't be executed and just call me Elthin" Elthin says trying to calm Freya down some.

Elthin's sudden announcement took a little more effort than expected to return the conversation to normal.

"Next time, tell me that before we engage in the Mating Process." Freya sighed, finally returning to some semblance of her old self. "If I knew you were a Prince, I would've pulled out all I could to make it the best it could be."

"Sorry, I most likely should have told you sooner but its something. That I don't like telling people but I should tell that Duke and The Elder who I really am." Freya started to calm down. "I'll say it was the best I've had in a very long time."

"Don't drop it on the old man like you did on me. It might cause more problems." Freya answered. "However, he may already know, for all we know. Zena wouldn't really view you any differently. She'll still see you as a playmate for her make believe stories. The Duke is used to dealing with Royalty, so he may propose trading pacts based on what Artaria can offer."

Elthin confirmed that it was the best intercourse session he'd had in a long time.

"I'm glad I could fulfil your exotic tastes." Freya grinned back mischievously.

"I don't plan to drop this bombshell on the old man like to did you." Elthin learned that the old man might. Already know who he was seeing as knowledgeable as he was. He most likely did know and The Duke might propose an alliance or trading pacts with Artaria which can open up new roads.

"Just try not to let the others know about this or that for now." Elthin grinned back at her.

Elthin confirmed that he'd be a little more tactful with his next reveal of his true identity.

"They'll find out the joys of joining bodies with another when they're old enough." Freya informed Elthin. "Though, I'm not sure how experienced they'll be, or what traits they'll follow. Whether they'll do it like Tailless ones, or Animalia, will be down to whatever genes are dominant in the pair. Lucine, I'm not sure about either."

"Well whenever they do they do." Elthin spoke.

He didn't really want to wonder how Syl or Willow would be during sex when they got older. "Let's check on Lu to see how she's doing?" Elthin asked. He left the back room with Freya to rejoin the others.

"it'll be a long while yet. I don't want them to grow up too fast." Freya agreed.

Eventually, the pair decided to check on how Lucine was doing. While Syl and Willow still went about their sibling rivalry, Lucine was sitting alone at one of the workbenches just looking at some insects pollinating some herbs. she didn't seem to be joining in with the banter like she did earlier, and, in fact, didn't seem like her usual self at all.

When they entered the main room they saw that Syl and Willow. Were still doing their sibling rivalry while Lucine sat away from the others. She was quiet and looking at some herbs and insects. Elthin had thought that her friends might have been able to get through to her. But Elthin's betrayal of her trust had really messed her up.

"I don't know what to do with her now, I know I broke her heart but I don't want to see her like this."

Elthin was at a loss for direction when he saw Lucine in the state she was in.

"She's tougher than you take her. She's probably trying to still process all that's happened over the last couple of days. She's gone from a stable life, to an unstable one, back into a relatively safe life and now on the verge of being used for Inquisition purposes." Freya answered. "Girls don't always need coddling. Sometimes, it's better to let them work things out on their own."

Elthin was still watching Lucine as he heard Freya speak.

"That's almost too much for someone to bare. I'll leave her here for right now maybe in time she might say something to her friends. I need to head home to pick something up I'll be right back shortly." Elthin says as he heads for the door.

Excusing himself for a rather hasty exit, Freya was now at a loss for a response.

"Okay, be careful on your way back. You're still a target." Freya called after Elthin before he left.

Freya's last remark the end of it stopped him in his tracks. He had wanted to return home and gather up his sword and check out the Sandstorm area but. Didn't want to risk being attacked so he turned away from the door.

"Maybe later."

Elthin was just as random as normal, seemingly intent on leaving, only to come back before doing so.

"You're more unpredictable than a Chicken in a Wolf Den." Freya commented. "Do you ever make up your mind completely, or do you just like to live spontaneously?"

"That depends on what I want to do." Elthin replied.

He looked over at the girls to see if they stopped fighting amongest themselves and were trying to help Lu come out of her shell.

"Seems like you like to do random things, to me." Freya answered.

Elthin took a quick look at the squabbling duo across from Lucine. The argument had mostly died down, for now, but the pair wasn't looking like they'd made up. They seemed more fixated on their own problem than trying to get Lucine back to her old self.

Elthin walked over to both girls.

"How come both of you are not trying to help Lu out?" Elthin asked.

He wanted to see if they'd help him out.

Elthin tried to get between the bickering girls and intrude on their little stalemate.

"You stay out of this." They sternly answered in unison. "Girl talk. No boys allowed!"

"When they're like this, they'll not even listen to me." Freya cut in. "No use trying to talk them into doing anything until they've had their little spat."

The girls weren't going to help him out until after they were finished with their spat.

"I'll try myself."

Elthin walked slowly over to Lucine.

"Would you like something to eat?"

Elthin, noticing that he had no other option but his own words, decided to try and talk Lucine out of her silence himself.

No answer...

Lucine didn't even acknowledge he was there. She just kept staring at the plants and the aphids milling about on them.

"There may be some way you could get the others to give up their argument, but it won't be pretty." Freya interjected, breaking the silence over the pair. "We have one draught, and two girls. The argument started with the draught, and it may end with it. If you're willing to risk it, I'll tell you the recipe."

Again Lucine ignored Elthin and stared off into space.

"I'm not willing to risk having those to mad at me. I still have the draught and plan on maybe using it later when in combat not before. But I may know of a way that might help things out." Elthin said he turned to freya and thought of telling her about Syl swearing.

"If you know of a way to get those two stubborn troublemakers to kiss and make up, then go ahead and tell me. I'm always looking for a way to get them to listen when they're this fixated on causing trouble." Freya answered.

Elthin was about to tell Freya a lie and say that Syl had swore but. The more he thought on it the wrongness would get to him. Getting someone into trouble just to end a fight seemed a bad idea.

"Maybe not I'll try something myself." Elthin sighed.

He went over to the bickering pair and picked Syl up and carried her over to Lucine. "Why not give her a hug?" Elthin asked to Lu as she set Syl down before her.

Elthin, realising how bad his idea was, soon thought against it.

"There you go again being random." Freya sighed.

Elthin then went over to the arguing duo, and abducted Syl, much like he did Zena the previous day, ignoring the angry rants and rather weak kicks and punches from Syl, demanding to be 'Put down right now!'. He carried the thrashing girl over to Lucine, asked her to hug her, only to be rebuffed as Syl stormed over to Willow and resumed their stalemate.

Elthin once again was being random which seemed to annoy Freya. He abducted Syl and placed her in front of Lu who did nothing and Syl walked away to resume her stalemate with Willow. Elthin sighed and looked back to Freya and shook his head. He was going to later regret what he was about to do.

"I'm sorry to tell you this Freya but earlier today Syl swore and I mean swore a lot. I mean saying every bad word in the book. And this was when I mentioned I might be using the draught on her while we were searching for Lucine here." Elthin lied.

Elthin decided to bite the bullet and get Syl punished for something she'd never do. How cruel...

He explained (all lies) about Syl's little 'swear session' when Elthin suggested something she didn't want to do. At first, Freya looked as calm as normal, until Elthin had finished. Still, she kept a relatively calm outlook, but the slight hidden tones in her voice gave her away.

"So, she swore, did she?" Freya questioned, hints of anger in her voice aimed at the innocent target in question. "As I don't know how many words there are of that nature, I'll have to settle for ten. Please, excuse me for a moment..."

Freya then left the room and headed to the back room. A little while later, she returned with a rather painful looking wooden paddle. She hid this behind her back for now and resumed her usual calm tone.

"Sylvianna!" She called over to Syl, trying to sound as even as possible. "Can you come and see me for a moment?"

The pair's argument stopped, and Willow began to smirk.

"Full name. You're in trouble, 'Sylvianna'." Willow chuckled to Syl, who complied with the order, despite looking rather scared and nervous.

After doing the deed, Elthin was left to witness the outcome of his white lie. This wasn't going to be pretty...

"Y-yes, Sis?" Syl answered when she reached Freya, evidently trembling a little at the sudden request.

"I've heard you've not been completely ladylike when I wasn't there to keep watch of you." Freya continued, dragging on the punishment.

"W-what do you mean? I-I'm always good, really!"

"Using inappropriate unladylike language, followed by lying in the face of the truth, I think you need a little more 'motivation' to become a proper lady."

"But I didn't-!" Syl was about to protest before she was pulled over to a chair in the corner and laid across Freya's lap. "No! Please! I'm sorry, I'm really really sorry! Please, don't spank me!"

"If you can't take the punishment, don't commit the crime." Freya instructed Syl firmly.

Freya quickly pulled up Syl's skirt and pulled down her underwear just enough to show off her soft peach rear. Freya then bought up the paddle and slammed it firmly down on Syl's presented lower half, prompting a yelp of pain from the poor, framed, innocent. Each whack from the paddle prompted more yelps, screams and cries of pain from Syl, and more lessons from Freya about how to be Ladylike. Willow was just watching while stifling laughter. Around ten whacks in, a Freya had now upped the count to 15 due to Syl's 'lies', the cries of pain just turned into tears as a sudden pale yellow stream gushed forth from Syl's lower half, beneath her red rear. The punishment and the fear must've been too much for the poor girl to bear as she was now peeing full force while Freya was spanking her, soaking her underwear and noisily splattering across the wooden floor.

After the full 15 spanks, Freya covered up the now red-raw behind of the innocent bystander and ordered her to stand by the chair and not utter a single word until otherwise instructed. She didn't even give her a chance to change her pale yellow tinged panties, saying that the added humiliation will make her think about her actions more deeply. Once Syl was left, still sobbing and dripping onto the floor, she just kept her head down and tried to blend in with the woodwork. Freya took the slightly damp paddle back to the back room before returning to the main room to warn Willow about the consequences of not being a proper lady.

Elthin watched the events unfold before him as Freya and Syl spoke. Only for Freya to start spanking Syl moments later in which. Poor Syl ended up wetting herself Elthin took a look over at Lucine to see if she was watching her friend be punished. Wondering if she would step in and say anything.

Once everything was done he went over to Lucine and sat down next to her. He tried to do something small he reached down and gently and tried to hold her hand.

Elthin watched as the consequences of his white lie began to unfold in front of him, making the pure white innocent turn a shade of red and pale yellow. He tried to see if the dazed bystander by the herbs was reacting to any of this. Lucine appeared to tense up upon every whack of the paddle, and cry of pain from Syl, potentially feeling the pain Syl was going through on an empathetic level. Perhaps the kinds of punishments in the slums aren't too far from Freya's idea of a punishment.

Noticing the minor show of emotion from the previously doll-like girl, Elthin tried to do something small, like hold her hand. Lucine's response was to move her hand away from his.

Lucine moved her hand away from his and again he tried to grab it. Only for Lucine to move it away again. Elthin then sighed and got up and thought of yelling at her. But what good would that have done instead he walked away leaving her to rot in the corner like a piece of old fruit.

Elthin decided that he'd give up on the non-compliant girl.

Once the hubbub from the punishment had died down, the door to the Apothecary was opened, heralded by a obviously Chuuni girl.

"The Heroine of Justice has arrived!" Zena announced as she theatrically pushed the door open, allowing the afternoon sunlight to silhouette her appearance like stage lights before showing her in all her glory, with her legal Guardian following along behind her. "Your time has come, evildoers!" Zena finished her introductions, mainly aiming it at Elthin.

"Don't think I need to say we're here after all of that." The Duke added on while shuffling in behind the boisterous minor.

The door to the place opened up and The Duke and Zena arrived.

"I'm not in the mood for your game Zena not right now." Elthin said. He looked over at the duke and was glad to see him.

Elthin retorted to Zena's 'Heroine Introduction'.

"Like I'd wanna play with you now, meanie!" She countered. "I'm only here to see Syl and Willow"

"Zena's here!" Willow excitedly announced as she ran over to glomp Zena. "Got more cool stories to share?!"

Willow and Zena seemed to get along very well. They headed off to the back room section, possible going to Syl and Willow's bedroom to entertain one another. Syl just stayed in the corner trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

"Someone's been a bad girl." The Duke commented upon seeing one of the usual playful trio standing in a corner looking sorry for herself. "Anyway, guess we'll come to that later. Business first,"

Duke Trent headed over towards one of the free stools by the botanical gardens and took a seat. He then turned to Elthin to begin discussing business measures.

"Freya told me something big's gone down in this quiet City. Guess the girl who commandeered one of our Carriers is the cause?" Duke Trent asked Elthin. "And the other little lady's gone and got herself in with the wrong crowd of interested people. You seem to have no luck with women, not that I'm really one to talk."

"Then leave me alone okay?" Elthin said calmly.

Willow and Zena then left the room which Elthin was thankful for. And The Duke spoke again about what happened. "Yes something big has gone down, I'm sure Freya has already told you the details of what happened earlier?" Elthin asked. "My taste in women is not really important right now."

"She's told me the gist of it, yeah, but I'm told you tried to pull off a little rescue mission." Duke Trent replied. "As the little lady's here, I take it you were successful. That'll irk them, that's for sure."

"Not like I wanted to be rescued, or even needed rescuing." Lucine cut in under her breath.

"She's a tough case." Duke Trent commented. "Says one thing but probably means the other. She'll get on just fine with my little troublemaker."

"Yes, I did and I was able to speak with the Ingi commander. Though I now have a match against her later it seems." soon enough Lucine spoke up. "If I had not come for you, there was a chance that you could have been captured if not killed." Elthin stated.

He looked back at the duke "I could also use your help in what to do about Lucine here?"

Elthin used Syl's word for the Inquisition, which prompted a rather puzzled look from Duke Trent, until it appeared to click just what Elthin had meant.

"Strange word for them, but I get what you mean." Duke Trent answered, "Don't underestimate her just because she looks like a fragile flower, she's got quite the mean streak to her."

Lucine just huffed in response to Elthin's interjection.

"If she's anything like Zena is, she just needs time to cool down. Though, if you got her into something where she just had to interact with you, and if it was dire enough, she may crack and give in." Duke Trent suggested. "You could try and win her over with gifts and things, but she's not that interested in material possessions as Zena is. She's just throwing a tantrum because you annoyed her a bit. She'll get over it soon enough."

"It sounds strange at first but the more you use it the easier it is to understand." Elthin pointed out.

Elthin listened to The Duke speak. Wondering how he was also going to tell him who he really was.

"Not really sure if I'd want to get her into that sort of situation. And gifts and things wouldn't work for her either. And I wouldn't call it annoyed more along the lines of being hurt." Elthin added in, He looked over to Syl who was still standing around then at Lucine.

"Why, not try and play with your friend?" Elthin asked.

"Guess it'll be easier for the little ones to pronounce," Duke Trent commented. "However, I'll stick to the full name. It'll just sound weird me saying it."

Elthin pointed out that he'd rather not cause more trouble for Lucine.

"You're just saying that to sound good. That's not what you did to poor Syl, liar." Lucine grumbled, only just loud enough for Elthin to hear.

"Doesn't seem like she agrees with you, if that rather muted complaint was anything to go by," Duke Trent answered.

Elthin tried, once more, to get Lucine to stop moping in a corner with the vegetation and actually do something, She didn't look like she was listening, again, until she pushed herself up from her seat and went over to Syl. She then picked Syl up, who looked a little surprised, and carried her into the back room, not caring about the sodden clothing on her. This even surpised Freya a little.

"Seems like she still cares for the others." Duke Trent interjected. "She's probably going to take Syl's punishment for her."

"So, you finally speak again" Elthin whispered back to Lucine. After he had heard what she had to say to him. "If she cares or not at least she spoke to me once again." Elthin pointed out.

He watched as Lucine finally moved herself over to where Syl was and picked her up. She carried her into the back room out of sight. "She doesn't need to do that."

Lucine just ignored Elthin once more, having already said her piece.

After seeing Lucine leave, Elthin gave his response to Duke Trent's observation.

"Maybe she doesn't, but she might not think that way." Duke Trent replied. "Whether the younger of the two really did cause trouble, or whether the blame was placed onto her by another, Lucine thinks that it's her fault as she was the root cause. She doesn't want to lose her friends, so she's willing to do anything to keep them, even if that means taking the fall for them."

Elthin ignored Lucine right back.

"It's still not her fault in that or maybe it is who knows." Elthin replied. He still didn't like what he had done but wouldn't say anything for now on things. "Oh, there is one other matter we need to discuss" Elthin said wondering how he was going to tell Duke Trent who he really was.

"Who knows, indeed." Duke Trent shrugged. "Girls are difficult, you can never fully understand their thought process. Even after spending so much time with Zena, I can never understand just what's going on in that head of hers. All of this 'Azure Princess' stuff is just beyond me."

Elthin was about to drop the bombshell of a confession again.

"Guess it can't hurt to hear it." Duke Trent answered.

Elthin was indeed about to drop another bombshell confession but he was. Trying to figure out the best way to tell the Duke.

"I'm not really who you think I am, you only know me as Elthin. But there is more to it than that which you still don't know about. What I'm about to tell you might come as a shock it sure shocked Freya when she learned who I was."

Elthin tried to subtly hint at his revelation, however, Duke Trent's jovial personality didn't quite get the severity of it all.

"Whatever it may be, it can't be as crazy as you think it is." Duke Trent answered. "You're not being that specific, but I highly doubt you're going to say you're a girl posing to be a guy, or claiming that you're the next in line to the throne of another continent."

Elthin listened to Duke Trent speak.

"Well, about that actually I am in line for the throne of Glacialis which in the ruling city. On Artaria in fact I'm the first crown prince of Veldhar family." Elthin confessed.

Elthin gave out his confession, catching on to the minor indication in Duke Trent's statement. At first, he didn't seem to believe him.

"I was joking. It's not like I wouldn't know a Prince when I see one." Duke Trent dismissed before catching a look from Freya. "Wait, you mean he's serious?"

"I couldn't believe it at first, either. However, as we've yet to receive solid proof to either support or dismiss his claimed lineage, we have to act accordingly." Freya explained.

"Okay, so maybe my jest wasn't as outrageous as I thought." Duke Trent replied. He then turned his attention back to Elthin. "Okay, guess you don't want me acting all different now, do you? You're still the same person struggling with a troublesome adopted Daughter."

The Duke at first didn't seem to believe Elthin until he spoke with Freya. Who explained things clearly to him.

"I can show you solid proof as that is all at my home. When things are taken care of I'll show it all to you?" Elthin asked. He listened for a while. "No, I'd just like you to act the same around me as you always have."

Elthin explained that he can provide proof when they next go to his home. He also agreed that nobody should act any differently around him.

"That's good. Formality is something I'm not good at. Zena, on the other hand, she's like the perfect little Lady for formal things. She may not look it, but she's more reserved when it comes to formal interactions." Duke Trent replied. "She's all for dressing up like a doll to attend parties and dinners, but I'm...well...as you seem me now. I find being covered in soot and oil stains to be more comfortable. These overalls are like my own formal dress."

"I know you were busy with some sort of project when I tried to talk with you earlier?" Elthin remembered. As he listened to the duke speak about Zena. "How is that project coming and is there anyway I can help you out some?" Elthin asked.

Elthin mentioned the project Duke Trent was working on and offered to be of assistance.

"Nice offer, but there's not much you can do to help, unless you're an artisan stonemason, or something." Duke Trent replied. "It's nearing completion, possibly going to be another few days. I'm not going to tell you what it is, because I want all of you to be at the Reveal of it, for several reasons. Zena's also in the dark about it, for reasons as well. I'll let you know the Grand Unveiling date when it's complete."

"Sorry but I know nothing of stonemasoning." Elthin told the Duke as he learning that. It was some grand project that the duke was working on. "If things work out I'll try and see if I can be at the unveiling but with things being so busy in my life at present. I'll have to let you know if I can attend because I don't know what other trouble I will be in with the Inquisition.

"I know how busy life can get. I'll see if I can requisition a recorder to capture it all in crisp quality if you can't come." Duke Trent answered. "You don't want to miss this one. It's the biggest thing Argenta has worked on since Steam Ferries."

"Again I'll try and be there." Elthin pointed out.

He walked around the room a little. "Anyway we are getting off track at the moment as we need to plan. Out some ideas on how we can deal with both Lucine and the Inquisition."

Elthin pointed out that they were getting sidetracked again.

"Well, I know that she's keeping something secretive in the Vehicle she borrowed. She refused to empty her Airship while myself or the Guards were present. We had to move inside the blockade's structure, where all the Guard Quarters were, before she'd even begin to empty her Airship." Duke Trent interjected. "She moved almost all the contents of the Ship into the Carrier, leaving nothing in the sleeping quarters, or the lower decks of the ship. I think that, if we can find out what she's hiding, we may gain a bargaining chip."

Elthin listened to the Duke.

"So, you believe that she's hiding something secretive I wonder what that could be?" Elthin thought on the idea. "I think that we should search her room and the ship for whatever it is that she is hiding. Is there anyway we can do this search without getting into trouble. Like what about a safty search to make sure she didn't bring anything harmful into the city?" Elthin asked.

"Don't we all want to know?" Duke Trent answered. "We're getting nowhere near that ship. She's left a battalion of troops to guard it. She obviously don't trust the Border Guards enough to leave an Airship unguarded, and she's right to. Those things are worth troughs full of Platinum to the right people."

Elthin asked if searching the Transport Vehicle Ellara 'Borrowed' is possible.

"The Inquisition are outside of the Law. If they wanted to bring bombs, or whatever, into a city, they're allowed to. They're not pinned down by moral codes or any form of Governmental ruling other than the Archmage's orders." Duke Trent explained. "We're not getting into anything they hold through conventional means."

"Maybe the only way onto the ship is to either sneak aboard or somehow. Gain her trust enough where she will invite us onboard." Elthin gave a reply.

The Duke gave his thoughts on what Elthin had said.

"Then we have to use unconventional means to get what we want then."

"Getting her to 'Invite' us on board is impossible, unless she 'invites' us because she wants us to stand trial in Court to plead our own defense." Duke Trent replied. "Unconventional means are the only way, I believe. She may leave the Vehicle unattended when she goes off to see you later. She'll obviously want an Audience for her 'discussion' with you."

"Then who's going to sneak onto the airship then?" Elthin asked. He had thought about doing it himself but since he wouldn't be able to with Ellara. That only left a few people who could do it Duke Trent, Freya or maybe even the kids.

"Not the airship, the Transport they borrowed." Duke Trent clarified. "The Airship is all the way over at the blockade, and they don't look like they'll be moving until their Commander is back."

That left who'll be carrying out this espionage.

"Whoever we can trust the most, of course, and, more importantly, who can hold their own should things go south." Duke Trent informed Elthin.

Elthin's mind must have slipped for a moment as it was the transport and not the airship. That was needed to be boarded and searched.

"Well, there is The Elder but I'm not sure or even know if he'd be able to sneak aboard. Or hold his own against if things did go south," Elthin said.

He didn't really know how powerful the elder really was.

"That Old Geezer's powerful. but he's not quick enough to do it during your little show of manhood with the Commander." Duke Trent answered. "Speed is vital, as you probably won't last that long should she get serious."

Elthin again tried to think of who could be used to search.

"You're not planning on trying to get Lucine to search. She might be fast but she wouldn't be able to handle herself if things got out of hand. Would you or Freya be able to search the transport instead?" Elthin asked.

"If there's no other options, I don't think we've got much of a choice but to send the little ladies in to do it." Duke Trent confirmed. "She was raised in the Slums so she knows how to defend herself against most would-be attackers. The Guards, while being Inquisitorial Elite Soldiers, only have basic mastery over their magic. The Commanders have all the skills. They can do the base cantrips of any magic, much like Lucine can."

Elthin suggested that Duke Trent should search the Transport.

"If Zena's willing to tag along, I can. I'm not skilled in offensive magic. My power is limited to just crafting and making the base elements needed for building things and servicing Servitors." Duke Trent informed Elthin. "However, Zena's my own personal Bodyguard, and she's not to be underestimated. I don't think you've ever seen her in action before, have you? She's the most skilled Bodyguard in the history of all the personal Guards of Argentian Dukes. The only downside is that I'll be wandering around in full view of all people. Seeing the Duke of a neighboring Duchy is sure to draw some attention. I can keep myself mostly inconspicuous, but, if things kick off, that'll have to drop faster than molten steel into a mould."

It seemed that the little girls would have to be the ones to do it. "But you've seen how Lucine currently is will she be willing to listen to you or let alone do something this big?" Elthin asked. Not sure if Lucine would be able to pull this sort of thing off.

The Duke spoke of Zena going along to help Lucine out.

"I have not seen her in action, if she's as good as you say then send her along. And that wouldn't do any good to have you trying to sneak a board as it would cause too much trouble."

"That's something I don't know." Duke Trent admitted. "She's in quite the sorry state at the moment."

Elthin agreed to send Zena along, but without the Duke.

"She can't unleash her full power unless I'm there with her. She's a...special case, as you've seen." Duke Trent answered.

"The Duke will need to be present and issue the order for Zena to unleash all her might. Without that, she's just a skilled Martial Artist, and that is little good against armed guards who are also magically inclined." Freya explained.

"I guess we can try and explain things to her to see if she would be willing to do this?" Elthin asked.

The duke was needed to be around for Zena to unleash her full power.

"Then once more that leaves us at a problem The Duke here can't be around. As it would cause a lot of problems."

"This'll take a lot of prep work, and we haven't got the time to ensure no errors happen." Duke Trent finished. "I can keep myself hidden as long as there's no reason for me to reveal myself. I'm not exactly dressed to impress most of the time, and I've been told I have a very general appearance. People have often mistaken me as another worker at the Forges and Mines."

"Then we best get to planning things right away, we should tell Zena and Lucine. What we have planned along with going over all the positives and negatives that. Going through with this plan will have for us. I hope that you can keep yourself well hidden." Elthin explained.

"I'm a natural at blending in with the regular folk. That's one of my more defining traits, and one of my best in the eyes of the citizens of Argenta." Duke Trent proudly answered. "I think it'll be better if Freya goes and gets them. It'll seem weird me going into a girl's bedroom that's not in my own house."

Freya agreed to go and fetch the others. Shortly after leaving, the four younger girls were obediently following along behind, until Zena reached enough distance to reclaim her position next to the Duke and stare daggers at Elthin. She wasn't the only one with a piercing gaze, as both Lucine and Syl were also staring oppressively at Elthin. Lucine probably explained everything to Syl. The only girls not glaring were Willow and Freya.

Freya returned with the others and three of them were glaring at Elthin.

"Mind telling me why I seem to be the center of attention now?" Elthin asked the girls. He had a feeling Lucine explained things to them.

"You're a popular guy. Got three pretty ladies all eyeing you up." Duke Trent joked.

"Liar." Lucine retorted.

"Meanie." Zena added in.

"You're cruel." Syl retaliated.

Not much from the angry trio.

"You like seeing it that much you'd lie about Syl saying bad words?" Willow explained vaguely. "Must've been angry you couldn't get her to use that pee-potion."

"No thanks." Elthin says.

The three spoke there piece and then Willow spoke up.

"How was I suppose to get you two to stop with the fighting. As all you cared about was yourselves at the time. And Syl should be mad at you to for laughing at her for being in trouble."

"Ain't no way you'll get us to stop it until we're good and ready." Willow answered. "You could've waited, but then you wouldn't have been able to see Syl pee."

"I laugh at Willow when she's in trouble, but I'd never seek to actively get her in trouble." Syl retorted.

"You're a lair and a betrayer. Slum etiquette says 'Honor Among Thieves'. No honor means they're the first to drop when trouble happens." Lucine answered.

"You're a villain to girls everywhere!" Zena interjected.

"Quite the little party of upset girls there." Duke Trent commented. "Like a Tavern Date gone wrong."

"Yeah, and how long would that have taken?" Elthin countered.

"Oh, look you finally decide to talk to me once again. Calling me a betrayer again I did what I thought was best for you at the time. If we had run or attacked them we would have been killed and what good would that of done us nothing." Elthin told her. "What if it was you and your sister against them would you two have run or attacked them or done things like I did?" Elthin asked.

"Zena stay out of this!" Elthin told her.

"I 'unno." Willow shrugged. "I guess until we got bored?"

"You just like seeing girls have accidents, don't you?" Syl countered. "You need patience. Lots and lots of patience."

Elthin, once more, ordered Zena to keep out of the conversation, causing her to yelp in fear and retreat behind Duke Trent.

"No need to take that tone with her." Duke Trent firmly retorted, sounding serious for once. "She has as much right to be a member of this conversation as the others do, as you've upset her as well. We still need to discuss how you can make up for that, so don't go adding more onto what I want in return for agreeing to help."

Elthin's next comment about a relation whom Lucine had never mentioned was possibly the worst move he could've played. The trigger had been tripped and things started to get more complicated...

"YOU LEAVE MY FAMILY OUT OF THIS!" Lucine angrily shouted at Elthin as the whole Apothecary began to tremble as if an Earthquake had struck. One of the mostly empty herb patches suddenly caught fire as pots and Alchemical equipment began to fall from high shelves to clatter across the floor as the whole building shook on its supports. "IT'S YOUR FAULT THAT MY SISTER HAD TO BE WHORED OFF!"

Elthin first listened to both Syl and Willow. "I don't care about people having accidents," Elthin said. Then he turned to face Duke Trent who spoke up after Zena yelped.

"I'm upset about a whole lot of things right now. And all I ever get from Zena here is negativity thrown my way." Elthin simply said.

Elthin was surprised by the effect that his comment about Lucine's sister had. He felt the ground shake under him as one of the herb patches caught fire. "I had nothing to do with that don't fucking blame me for something I never knew about until just a while ago. Either blame yourself for being too weak to do anything to stop it or blame the mother fucking person who came and took her away from you!"

While the chaos of the magical catastrophe continued, the more concerned members of the group began to try and fix up the damage that had been done while the children hid under tables and tried to remain as calm as they could in such a situation. At the rate the Apothecary was shaking, this was probably not a localised incident, and it was likely affecting neighbouring residences and the outside as well, on a smaller scale.

Elthin, once more, failing to read the situation, just added more fuel to the not-so-proverbial fire as Lucine's control over her powers slipped further.

"All you rich bastards are the same! All you care about is money and power and who next you can shove your tiny dick into! You're all just sick, twisted, selfish wankers!" Lucine ranted on as the volume of the shaking continued, making footing increasingly difficult for anyone but Lucine. The fires were starting to spark closer and closer to Elthin the more he placed the blame on Lucine, even to the point of nearly causing a support beam to topple on top of him, only to smash through a stool next to him.

More damage seemed to spring up around the room as the Apothecary. Was still shaking this wouldn't end well as the place could fall apart. Or worse yet the Inqi would come running and appear any second unless Elthin and Lucine stopped their fighting. As Lucine ranted on Elthin started to take notice. That Lucine was slowly starting to lose control over herself. As a support beam crashed down on a stool not far from where he stood.

"I don't need to hear anymore of this from you." Elthin said he started to turn and head out of the place,

Elthin tried to leave the apothecary, but Lucine had other ideas.

"You're nothing more than a coward who can't take the truth!" Lucine continued as the doorway to the Apothecary burst into flames. "You can't take the truth so you try and hide it under all the shit you fat cunts thrown into our home. Well, here's something for you: shit burns! And so do overstuffed twats like you!"

Fires began to glow inside of Lucine's eyes as her hair started to lazily move in the thermal currents inside the building. The air was becoming thick with woodsmoke and burning vegetation, making vision and breathing increasingly difficult. Lucine was cloaked in a sphere of flame, much like the way they had found her, making her unaffected by the inferno surrounding her. The tremors had increased in intensity, causing even the sturdy fittings to fall under the cataclysm. The other girls continued the scream and cry at the devastation happening to their home.

Elthin had made it to the doorway when it caught fire. Lucine seemed to be stopping him from leaving and he turned around to face her. "You know nothing of me or what I've been through and you now threaten me!" Elthin snapped. A cold chill blew across the room as Elthin own magical powers were coming into play. The surrounding area around him suddenly froze over well the ground anyway.

"I WISH I NEVER MET YOU!" Etlhin snapped.

In a swirl of icy magic, Elthin was engulfed in a cloud of icy mist. And suddenly vanished out of sight have disappeared from the Apothecary. The mist vanished and ice on the floor along with it meaning Elthin had retreated.

Elthin, not caring about the others trapped inside the burning building with an out of control Witch firing off magic in all directions, took the safe route out and dissipated into an icy mist, leaving Lucine to fire back these parting words.

"The same can be said for me!"

And with that, Elthin had successfully avoided having to deal with a Witch.

Elthin appeared a short distance outside the Apothecary. He was clearly mad at Lucine for being blamed for something he didn't do. And in his haste to leave he had forgotten something important. The others were trapped inside of their home and were as Lucine's mercy. Sighing he ran back towards the home and called on his own icy powers. To cover the entire home in a sheet of ice to try and protect it from burning down. He rushed to the door and kicked it open he'd repair the place when things calmed down.

"Freya and the Duke there's a way out gather the girls and retreat towards the sound of my voice?" Elthin called. As again he sent in a icy blast to try and put out the many fires burning.

For some reason, perhaps guilt at his sudden departure, Elthin only moved himself a little out of the way. To the other side of the door, to be exact. The quakes were affecting the outside as well, but on a more manageable level. They'd also attracted the attention of the one group Elthin did not want to deal with, as a group of Peacekeepers entered the tremor-wracked plaza while their Commander was firing off rapid commands in Battle-Tongue.

The Ice from the outside managed to remove most of the flames, but the intensity of the conflagration wasn't so easily stopped, as the ice soon began to melt, but it did buy valuable time. Elthin kicked the door to the burning building down and doused the majority of the fires on the inside, leaving a safe-ish route out of the Apothecary. There was still the Witch to deal with...

"Back for more, are you? Couldn't take the thought of leaving them with me? Why not just throw them aside? They're of no use to you anymore, after all. Isn't that why you so easily discarded me?" Lucine taunted. "Think I'm going to just roll over to your superior snowflakes?" The word 'Superior' was delivered with evident sarcasm.

Lucine had no interest in the other rapidly trying to exit the building, her sole interest was on Elthin.

With Elthin outside of the building he could see a group of people. Gathering around to watch what was going on he also saw a group of Peacekeepers. With their Commander who started shouting off commands. This wasn't what Elthin needed right now with the others still inside He had to be fast and the first think he did was surround The Duke, Freya, Syl, Zena and Willow in the same icy. Mist he had used to teleport away he teleported them safely out. Of the area and a short distance down the street out of sight from everyone.

Lucine turned her full attention towards him.

"There isn't time for that now the Inquisition is here and if you don't. Stop what you are doing they will stop you themselves you're no match against them. Do you want to die just because of our stupid fight?"

Elthin transported the fleeing group away, leaving Lucine safely inside the burning building. He tried to convince her to stop what she was doing, but it didn't seem like he was talking to Lucine right now at all. It was like the very powers she had were now controlling her.

"Let them come. You just wanted to throw me onto them anyway." Lucine answered as she began to leave the building, segments of the blaze following her wake as the tremors began to subside slightly, but were still present. "Why not just do it now? Either way, I'm not going down without a fight."

Lucine entered the main Plaza and turned to face Ellara, who was currently trying all she could to stem the inferno so it did not spread to the other buildings. Some of the Peacekeepers were either wielding water elemental stones or using their own powers to try and douse the flames.

"Like what you see?" Lucine grinned to Ellara. "This is what you wanted, wasn't it?"

Lucine wouldn't stop what she was doing and the entire home of Freya and the girls. Along with all their work was being destroyed. Elthin tried his best to put out the fire with his own magic but. Lucine's powers were quickly restarting the fires he had put out. Lucine then exited the building and turned to face Ellara and the others.

"Then you leave me with no choice then." Elthin said.

Not caring about what would soon happen to him and with a tiny. Part of himself still carrying about Lucine ran at her only to tackle her to the ground he quickly grabbed. Both of her arms feelings his hands burn.

"Some help here?" Elthin shouted at Ellara.

Elthin, being the bigger of the two, managed to successfully tackle Lucine to the ground. She tried to fight her way out, but all she could use at the moment was her lacking physical strength. Without being able to move her body, she couldn't control the elements around her. Her Flame Shield was still active, though, and quickly burning her grappler.

Not wanting to let a Rogue Witch run free, Ellara had no choice but to obey her nemesis. Leaving the restoration effort to the footsoldiers, she hurried over to the wrestling pair and readied some form of magic.

"Let her go...now!" Ellara commanded, as Elthin was left with little choice but to do as was told.

An extremely powerful containment spell was soon triggered, and Lucine was quickly encased in a bubble of water, which didn't seem to break no matter what was done to it.

"Trust you to cause her to lose all sense of reason!" Ellara lectured Elthin as Lucine tried to break out of her entrapment. "Just what did you say to her?!"

As Elthin held onto Lucine her powers seemed to die off. But the flame shield around her still burned him yet Elthin didn't care he wasn't going to let Lucine get herself killed. Ellara came over and cast a spell on Lucine as Elthin obeyed orders and let go of her.

"I mentioned her sister to her." Was all Elthin said.

Elthin confessed his terrible choice of conversation topic.

"You're so stupid sometimes!" Ellara countered. "You nearly got Civs killed for your own lack of control over your words! How the hell we're going to cover this up, I've no idea. You better start talking, Mister, I want a full rundown of the whole thing!"

"I will repay for the damages and will let those living here. Stay in my home until this place in repaired." Elthin said.

And so he then explained to Ellara everything that had happened during his and Lucine's fight.

Elthin claimed to be willing to pay off the damages.

"That still doesn't cover how the hell we can hide this from all the people around here. We've already had one inexpiable fire break out down in the Slums, and now another up here. People are going to get suspicious." Ellara retorted.

Elthin went on to explain everything to Ellara.

"You're really messed up after that earlier talk, aren't you?" Ellara answered. "Going all this way just to keep an out-of-control Witch from becoming Inquisition property. Kinda bad how you roped the Duke or Argenta and his little Companion into your own foolish game of cat and mouse. Really bad how you lied to force that sweet little girl to make a mess of her undies just to stop her from engaging in sisterly bonding. You really have no idea how a girl thinks, do you? Not that I'd expect a person who doesn't understand equality to know how to read a girl."

"Then come up with a story say bandits attacked and tried to steal what's inside. I don't know it's not my job" Elthin told her.

"How, the heck was I suppose to know that mentioning her sister. Would have this sort of effect on her she blamed me for the whole damned things with her sister. When I didn't know about it you should never have told me anything and this could have been avoided. As for the Duke and his friend they were just visiting their friends nothing more."

"Bandits attacking in a city as heavily fortified as this? Not gonna hide anything. We could go with the Arson story again, but I've another one in mind." Ellara answered. "If it was your job, with the amount of tact and understanding you've shown, no story would be believed. Leave it to the professionals."

Elthin tried to blame the whole cause of the problem on Ellara's revelation on some sensitive information.

"Use your brain, idiot." Ellara sighed. "Of course she'd kick off if you talked about her sister. After all, a Noble is the cause of her being a jizz-bucket for the rich people in Port Ralence. Knowledge is power, and power comes at a price of knowing when to and when not to use it."

Elthin tried to sell of the reason the Duke was there as just being a 'friendly visit'.

"You must take me for a fool or something." Ellara commented with a slight scoff. "The Duke doesn't just go on 'friendly visits' unless there's something in it for him. He likes creating abominations of nature too much."

"Fine I leave it to you to come up with a believable story." Elthin sighed. Ellara then spoke up again. "So, once again I get the blame for something you told me about. Geez, next you'll tell me her mother was the queen of the Gott Kingdom." Elthin sighed once again.

She spoke of the Duke next.

"Well, you are a fool but a pretty smart one." Elthin started to walk away.

"Yeah, right. Gott was destroyed way before any of her family were born." Ellara countered. "Isn't that right, 'Princeling'?"

Elthin retorted with a casual insult and began to head off.

"Wait, don't you want your little pyromaniac back?" Ellara called after him. "Can I keep her?"

Elthin heard what Ellara had said.

"Yes, that's right my beauty." Elthin countered back.

Ellara then asked about keeping Lucine.

"For now yes, as this will let her cool down some, but when we battle I will be reclaiming her then and there.' Elthin told her. Before he was out of sight he headed towards where he knew the others had been teleported to to check up on them.

Elthin tried to counter the rather sarcastic remark under the impression that it was flirting.

"I was being sarcastic, you dense Royal." Ellara chuckled back. "But, nice to know you respect my irresistible cuteness."

"We're not a creche! We don't do daycare!" Ellara retaliated just before Elthin was out of communication range.

Elthin then headed off to find those he displaced rather suddenly.

"Maybe I can see more of your cuteness another time and with out all that armour on." Elthin replied. Ellara spoke up before Elthin was out of ear shot range.

"Damn it" Elthin sighed then walked back over. "I'll take her then as long as she remains in this barrier until she's calmed down.

Once more, Elthin was being rather random in his actions and went back to pick up the troublesome pyro currently in a 'cool down' bubble.

"She'll conk out soon enough." Ellara answered with a shrug. "Using that much Magic is sure to cause her to lose consciousness. When that happens, the bubble will drop and she'll forget all she did while going on a burning rampage. She'll still hate you for bringing up her sister so casually, though, and suggesting that her sister would've done the same as you would've."

"That's better then her going out of control again and burning down the whole town." Elthin replied. At the moment he didn't care that she'd still hate him. He just wanted to leave the area and see the others. He then mentioned to the bubble which then started to follow him as he left the area.

Elthin had no qualms about being hated by Lucine, he just didn't want another inferno breaking out.

Elthin the set off out towards the pick-up point for the teleported individuals, if they were still there, that is. The bubble didn't need commanding much as it soon dropped, leaving Lucine to gently descend to the floor and lose consciousness. Bubble transport was not available any more, so carrying was the only choice.

The bubble soon left and Lucine lost consciousness this meant Elthin now. Had to carry her he sighed and picked her up into his arms. He walked in the direction of where he knew where the others are and soon found them all behind some buildings.

"I know, you all hate me and Lucine's right now and most likely hate me more. I'm sorry about your home being destroyed by the witch here. I'll repay the damages to get it rebuilt and allow you three to stay in my home until things are all fixed. I also know you've lost a lot of items and plan to help out remaking them in anyway that I can." Elthin told Freya.

Leaving no chance for response, once Elthin reached the group, he began to reel of a rather needless excuse for the destruction of Freya's home.

"So you bring the thing that caused all of this right to us once more?" Duke Trent answered first, all sense of joviality lost. "Just hand her over to the Inquisition. She's a Witch and it's their duty to cull the problem at its root."

The three younger girls just hid behind their respective guardians.

"You think money can replace all the things we had in that shop?" Freya questioned. "Money isn't the answer to everything."

"Then if you want to take her off my hands and give her back go ahead." Elthin countered. Not in the mood to argue anymore he offered Trent Lucine who was in his arms. "If you really want to cull the problem then handle it yourself." He placed Lucine on the ground to see if Duke Trent would do just that.

"I know you had a lot of items and materials that money can't replace. I'll help out replacing those by asking you to teach me the kind of stuff that you do for a living."

Elthin suggested that Duke Trent did as he had offered.

"I'm not about to kill a child." He countered. "Witch or not, she's still a child. I gave up murdering children long ago."

"Again with only the physical things." Freya retaliated. "There's more to life than just the physical aspects. That was my children's birth home. It was my livelihood. It's all I had since leaving the Pride Lands."

"That's good then," Elthin said and didn't bring up anything else. He looked over at Freya as she spoke her piece.

"What am I suppose to do, I can't travel back through time to change the outcome. On what happened with what I said. And I don't know how I can replace your children's childhood memories or the memories you had over your home. I don't know what to do or offer that can ever fix the things that were taken away from you. But my offer still stands even if you won't ever forgive me or the little bitch here." Elthin tapped Lucine with his foot.

"Maybe we just need some time apart to cool down or just go our sperate ways." Elthin said.

"You can't. And there's nothing any of us can do to replace them." Freya countered. "The little 'bitch', as you so eloquently put it, was not acting out of malice. She was acting out of sadness and anger towards how she was treated, and how you called her weak and blamed her for the loss of her own family."

"She acted like how anyone one of us would of acted if we were in her situation." Elthin pointed out. This was getting them no where fighting but Freya and the others had a right. To be angry and upset Elthin then did something he rose both his hands and created a small ice icicle between them. He walked forward and placed it upon the ground.

"Which ever one of you wishes to end her life because of how anger and upset you are. Go right ahead and do it I'll take all the blame and punishment for what will come. After the deed is carried out."

Elthin, again, tried to get someone to murder the accursed girl who'd forcibly entered his life and ruined it in a matter of days. However, no one was willing to commit the crime.

"Killing her will do nothing but spit on the Gifts the Earth Mother has given. I told you before that every life is a Gift from the Earth Mother and should be cherished. Killing a child out of spite for destroying something material will make us no better than those Tailless monsters who slaughter my people from differing viewpoints." Freya retaliated. "If you are so for killing her, why not do it yourself? I will not bloody my hands for another's enjoyment."

No one wanted to take the action of killing Lucine and instead tried to make Elthin do it. He looked at the icicle upon the ground and then the others. "You're the ones who are so upset with her over what has recently happened." Elthin pointed out. As he gazed at it again the thought of killing Lucine was on his mind but a part of him didn't want to do the deed. He wasn't sure just why he didn't want to do it maybe he was scared?

He snapped his fingers and the icicle disappeared.

"I can't do it, I don't know why but I just can't" Elthin spoke.

Even with all the horrible things that had happened since meeting the Girl, Elthin still couldn't bring himself to killing her.

"Then you've passed." Freya answered with a nod. "You respect the Earth Mother's Gift of life, and do not give into negativity."

"Killing her wouldn't have solved anything. It just would've caused more problems." Duke Trent agreed. "Plus, you'd have been setting a bad example for the little ones."

The group were still rather angry at Elthin and the troublesome pyromaniac, but they were not completely against considering them to be redeemable.

Maybe the reason why Elthin couldn't bring himself. To kill Lucine was that he liked having her in his life he was always alone on his travels and having someone around to speak to. Was something he had enjoyed doing with her. He wasn't about to tell the others that not at this very moment.

"Then little ones have been shown many bad examples today." Elthin answered. Only to then return Freya's nod. "So, what do we do now?"

"The girls and I still need a place to stay. They may not like the idea of being in the same house as the one who burned down their home, but it'll be better than being out on the streets. The city is dangerous at night." Freya answered. "Tomorrow, at first light, I want you to go back to our old home and try and salvage what you can from the wreckage. Only the front took the most damage, being a wooden extension of the main building, but the stone base for the back rooms may still have some salvageable items in which haven't been damaged by embers or smoke."

Freya and the girls still needed a place to stay and Freya told Elthin what to do. The next morning when everything was taken care of. "The girls will have to stay in Lucine's room I'm afraid as I don't have anymore spare bedrooms. You can share my room whatever that can be salvaged tomorrow can be placed into the basement. As we can turn part of that into your little workshop as there is more then enough room down there to work."

The confession that Elthin's house, while being bigger than most Nobel Households in the city, only had two serviceable bedrooms, didn't quite sit right with Freya and the girls.

"A house that big and you only have two bedrooms?" Freya sighed with a shake of her head. "They wouldn't want to sleep in the same room as Lucine, and I'm not really in the mood to sleep in your room right now. Organise your house a little more, make space for guests. Even just converting a sitting room into a makeshift bedroom will be enough for tonight. However, we do want proper rooms tomorrow."

Elthin's house did indeed have more bedrooms which. Would give the girls and Freya the rooms that they wanted just as this time they were being used to store. Some of the items Elthin had brought along in his travels across the land. "There are more bedrooms but they are being used at this time. I'd have to move things around to give everyone what they want." Elthin said.

"There is always my room you can use for the night I can sleep else where. The girls can either join you or I can set up beds in the main living room for tonight."

Elthin informed the abode-less group that there were more rooms, but they were currently being used as store rooms.

"We'll take the sitting room. It'll be more like home then." Freya answered. "We don't sleep in beds like tailless ones do, we sleep on futons."

"You can use the sitting room then." Elthin went over and picked up Lucine in his arms. He started to walk home then turned to the others. "Unless you want to stay there follow me?" Elthin said as he started walking again.

It was agreed that Freya and her children could use the sitting room as a bedroom for this evening. After parting ways with the Duke and Zena, who went back to the Guild to take the portal to their home, Elthin and his little group headed back to his house.

Elthin and the others parted ways with the Duke and Zena. The others remained with him and Elthin headed to his home arriving later. He opened the door and walked into the home and took Lucine to her room to lay her down. Before going to the sitting room and starting to make it into a bedroom for all three of the other girls.

After arriving at his home, Elthin set Lucine down to rest and began to make a suitable nesting area for his guests for the evening. They assisted in what ways they could, but Syl still wouldn't go near Elthin without having both Willow and Freya with her. Willow, being the more mature of the two, was still evidently angry with Elthin, but managed to momentarily put aside her grievances to allow for a swifter set-up to be done. After all, he did loan them his sitting room.

Elthin did move things around the sitting room. He set up three futons for the girls which lucky for him he had in storage. As he usually kept one around for when he went camping. Out in the wilds and the other two were bought for the others. Who if Elthin ever had company in his travels could sleep on as well. He placed them in the middle of the room. Not knowing if they wanted sheets or not and not knowing how they slept. Elthin didn't try asking just helped clean things up and saying they could move the beds how they wanted them to be.

Along with changing the room how they saw fit. He left them in peace and retired to his own room to go to sleep.

Elthin and Freya's group set up the Sitting room to the guests liking, and then each of them went about settling down for the evening. They'd had a long and eventful day, and all they wanted now was to sleep.

/Moving on to the next day.\\

Morning of the next day came and the usual silence was broken by what could only be likened to some major event going on in the main Plaza. The noise was so loud that it could even reach this distance. Either the rest of the City folk had found out about another house spontaneously combusting, or some other major even was going on.

It wasn't exactly early in the morning, perhaps around ten O'clock, but there was far too much noise going on to be like a normal day. Having sensitive hearing, Freya's little group were the first to awaken and they began to go about their morning routine to the best of their ability in an unfamiliar setting.

Elthin didn't get much sleep that night having maybe gotten a couple of hours. Before going in and checking on Lucine to make sure she was sleeping. Along with placing strong magical wards around her room in case she went off again and tried to burn down his house. After doing so he went into the basement to train by himself for a couple of hours. Before being interrupted by tons of loud noises. Quickly leaving the basement and dressing himself for the day.

Elthin stepped outside to see what the racket was all about.

During the night, Elthin check up on Lucine and let his paranoia get the better of him. He placed wards around her room, almost like he was trying to exorcise a Demon, or something. Lucine wasn't showing much of a 'Demon Possession' and was, instead, clutching her abdomen and whimpering. Perhaps her earlier action had ruptured the wound she received from the glass? It'll have to be check out by a proper physician the next morning, if one was willing.

After that, he did some solo-training before giving in to his curiosity and heading out to see what the noise was about. It appeared that there was, indeed, some major event going on in the main plaza but, from this distance, all Elthin could see was a large gathering of people milling about in the Plaza, or heading their for whatever reason.

Elthin had done his best to close the wound that had ruptured. As he had seen Lucine whimpering and clutching her abdomen. He had closed and cleaned the wound the best he could but. Knew that she would need to see a doctor to get it fixed.

When he was outside in the distance there looked to be a major gathering of people. Hurrying quickly into the Plaza Elthin went about looking around.

Elthin headed into the bustling plaza, slaloming through the people going to and from the plaza during their daily routines.

Inside the plaza, the gathering looked to be mostly around the ruined Apothecary, but that was quite expected. Housewives and interfering Nobles were discussing if there could've been a link between the Slum fire and this Fire, and whether another Cult attack was imminent.

One more thing which looked mostly out of place was the sudden erection of a set of Gallows just in front of the plaza's fountain, facing towards the main gates, where the most people could gather. The gallows were empty, but the set-up of the nooses were kind of unsettling. There were two which were obviously not going to be used as they were still near the very top of the construction, leaving three of them to be possibly inhabited a little later...

Two of the three serviceable nooses were quite far down, closer to the base of the gallows than the top, with little stools under them. Child sized...

The third and final one was a little taller, potentially youth sized, and had no stool over the trapdoor.

Seems like a family hanging was imminent...

Everyone in the plaza, had gathered around the ruined Apothecary. Everyone who was there were discussing just what could have caused it. This would make his task of gathering anything that was still of use harder. As he looked around he saw a set of gallows had been set up three of them looked to be going to be used for something. He saw two were child sized and the other was just a little taller.

Elthin walked over to the nearst person who wasn't busy talking and asked. "What's with the gallows is someone going to be hanged?"

Elthin, a little unsettled by the Gallows, decided to ask the most pointless question to a passerby.

"What else would gallows be for? Drying vegetables?" The passerby answered. "Of course there's going to be a hanging. It's happening at midday today. Apparently, some ponce at the Guild found the culprits behind the arson attacks on the buildings. Some small time middle class family with no real note to their name."

"I know what they are used for, but can you tell me who in the Guild was the one who found. Out who caused the arson here?" Elthin asked. He already had a feeling of just who it was who had found out about everything or some of it.

Elthin requested for a name to place to the one who discovered the 'Arsonists'.

"Some posh git with the name 'Karst'." The passerby answered, sounding a little put off with mentioning that name."Said a family of Heretics got their hands on some Elemental stones through thievery and went around raiding easy to burn houses for money."

Elthin learned that it was 'Krast' who had been the one who knew about the arson. Looking back at the gallows he wondered if the hanging was going to be meant for Freya. And her family leaving the plaza he headed home to see them to let them know the news. Stopping at their room he knocked upon the door.

"Freya it's me I've got some news we need to talk?" Elthin asked.

After hearing the news, Elthin quickly fled back to his house like it had been the one to catch fire.

He hastily knocked on the sitting room door, only to get no response and it simply opened to his touch, showing that Freya and the girls were not in the sitting room. They had to be somewhere in the house, but possibly not able to take queries at the moment.

Elthin didn't find the girls in the sitting room. Which meant they had to be somewhere else the only place could be the bathroom which Elthin wasn't about to enter. So, that left him with little to do instead he went back to check on Lucine to make sure she was doing ok.

After getting no response from Freya and her children, Elthin went to check up on Lucine, only to find that she, too, was missing, and that there was a medium sized bloodstain on the sheets of her bed, possibly from, looking at the positioning the stain was in and Lucine's sleeping position the night before, the wound on her side. If Freya wasn't in the bathroom, she was probably tending to Lucine's wound in somewhere with lots of space and a place where Lucine could lie down.

Lucine wasn't in her room either which meant she was somewhere else. Seeing the stain on the sheets Elthin went about changing and cleaning up the mess before putting. On a fresh set of sheets and putting the dirty ones in the wash. Not knowing where they were Elthin after leaving the laundry room went in search of Freya and the others. He tried the basement first seeing that was large enough for someone to lay down in.

Elthin, after setting the bloodstained laundry to wash, headed down to the only large enough place to perform medical examinations.

Thankfully, Freya and the others were down here. Lucine was lying down on a bench as that was the only bed-like thing in the area and the floor was too dirty, from a medical point of view. She, obviously, was wearing nothing but a pair of cute blue and white polka-dot panties, as Freya needed to fully see the wound to be able to work on it.

Elthin was able to find that everyone was indeed in the basement. Lucine was lying down dressed in nothing but her panties. Which made Elthin stand at the door he didn't look their way and instead cleared his throat to try and get their attention.

Elthin. not wanting to intrude on the 'girl time' between Freya and her patient, decided to go for the most traditional of attention grabs. prompting Syl and Willow to dive in front of Lucine, facing the door, to try and cover her prone state.

"No boys allowed!" Willow instructed.

"Privacy!" Syl interjected.

"Whatever you want to say can wait. I'm working here. It's bad enough I'm having to use improvised tools." Freya responded.

Syl and Willow dived in front of Lucine to cover her up. Before speaking up and Freya joined in to.

"She needs to see a doctor we should just take her to one. But I've got something important to discuss with you. So, once you're done treating Lucine here meet me near your room." Elthin told her before leaving the room.

"In case you've forgotten, I am this City's doctor." Freya corrected. "I've been treating people for the past two Summers, and I will continue to do so, even if my Clinic is no more."

Elthin said his piece and then left the Doctor to do her work. About ten minutes later, Freya and the others headed up from the Cellar to the Sitting room, with a fully dressed Lucine looking a little dazed, potentially from improvised Anesthesia, but mostly her normal self.

"Now then, what can be so important that it'll warrant interrupting an operation?" Freya questioned Elthin.

Elthin waited around until Freya had returned after finishing up with Lucine.

"I went over to your home this morning like requested. To check if I could anything that survived the fire but there appears to be a rather large crowd gathered around it. All talking about what happened to the place on top of that there are Gallows set up for a public hanging at midday today."

Elthin explained his paranoid findings to Freya and the girls, who didn't look too fazed by it all.

"I did say first light to avoid all of this." Freya sighed. "Anyway, it's bound to be a hot topic for conversation. After all, to most, it would've appeared like an arson attack again. Public hangings happen every now and then in this town. It's the sad truth. Nothing we can really do but pray to the Earth Mother for the soon to be deceased's souls."

"Yet it seems that this hanging is for a family event someone named 'Karst'. Ended up finding the people who did the arson he's from the Guild." Elthin tells her. As he tried to think about just who could be the people who was going to be hanged.

Elthin explained the person behind supposedly finding the culprits.

"Good for him, then." Freya shrugged. "By all means, go and watch the hanging. I know how it's a popular Noble passtime. Just don't expect myself or my girls going along with you."

Freya didn't seem too interested in the potential Public Execution.

Freya wasn't too interested in the Public Execution.

"Why, would I want to watch something like that?" Elthin asked. "But there is still more to this then that what if Karst captured Duke Trent and Zena thinking they were the people who. Caused the arson to happen?"

"It's considered as a performance to most Nobles." Freya explained. "It's unlikely they would've even considered the Duke or Zena to be responsible for the arson. The building was destroyed by fire, and the Duke doesn't have command over the element of Fire, and neither does Zena. No matter how dense this person might be, it's glaringly obvious that the Duke of Argenta and his Bodyguard would not have done such a public declaration of war against Brascus. It's pretty much common knowledge now that Argenta has reformed from its warmongering ways."

"Well, I don't care much for that sort of thing. And even if other Nobles do enjoy it I'm not one of them." Elthin said. "But it was said that a family of heretics got there hands on some elemental stones and went about. Using them to burn down houses as they went about stealing money. While both the Duke and Zena don't control fire it's still always the chance that something like this might of led to their capture." Elthin explained.

He then thought of an idea to try out. "I'm going to try and contact the duke to see if he's okay?" Elthin said. He then left the room and headed towards where the communication device was stored. Turning it on he waited for it to power up before trying to contact Duke Trent.

Elthin tried to counter the argument by saying that the Duke and Zena may have been wrongly captured. This caused a small smile to form over Freya, Syl and Willow's faces.

"Do you really think that the Duke's so easy to pin down like that?" Freya questioned.

"Zena's an expert at kicking boys where it hurts." Willow proudly announced.

"She may look cute and cuddly, but she's got fight in her." Syl agreed.

Elthin, still letting Paranoia do the thinking for him, decided to go and contact Duke Trent, only to have the communication redirected once more to Zena's seemingly handheld communication device.

"Big Bro's busy." Zena informed Elthin. "If it's not important, try again later. If it is, I can take a message and pass it over when he's free."

Elthin was unable to respond to everyone as he had left the room in a hurry. Soon enough he was able to get through to Duke Trent. But the call was taken by Zena instead who told him the duke was busy.

"It's good to see that neither you or the duke was captured. I'd just like to leave a message for him telling him that someone named Karst has found out who burned down Freya's home. And that there will be a public hanging at midday today in the plaza."

Elthin went about his confusing, paranoid statement, causing Zena to tile her head and give a look of blissful ignorance.

"Captured? What've we done? You didn't tell on us, did you?!" Zena shot back. "And you were meant to look after the Witch, not hand her over! Go out there and get her back right now! Stop wasting time having a pleasant chat!"

Zena was confused.

"You've done nothing wrong it was just something I was thinking. Anyway Lucine is safe here at the home. I didn't hand her over or anything she's with Freya and the others at the moment."

Elthin explained himself more clearly, by Zena was still completely lost.

"Then how could this guy have caught the culprit if she's mooching around at your place like nothing ever happened?" Zena questioned.

Zena was still lost.

"I don't know." Elthin told her. Before slowly and carefully going on to explain what he had learned. Making it easy for Zena to understand things. By going slowly as possible and saying he had thought Karst had captured the Duke and Zena which proved false.

After the indepth explanation, Zena roughly understood what was going on.

"Don't just jump to conclusions like that." She retaliated. "You'll give everyone the wrong idea and the whole thing would get crazy!"

Zena finally seemed to understand things.

"Things have already been crazy enough as is." Elthin sighed. "Well, pass on what I told you to the Duke and no wetting yourself today." Elthin got in one joke he didn't know if it would happen to Zena or not later on. After saying that he turned off the device before Zena could counter it with a nasty remark and went to rejoin the others.

Elthin requested for the message to be passed on to the Duke.

"Guess I've got no choice. It is business related, but only a little." Zena responded.

Elthin then threw in a rather snide remark, prompting an angry/embarrassed blush to form on Zena's face as she quickly tried to counter, but was soon cut off.

"You take that back! I'm not a-"

Zena's counter was cut short as Elthin close the communication and rejoined the others, whom were now milling about the sitting room trying to tidy it up as much as they could, with Lucine still looking a little out of it.

The others were busy milling around the sitting room trying to tidy it up. Lucine still seemed to look a little out of it.

"The Duke and Zena are doing okay." Elthin told Freya. He went over to check on Lucine himself to see how she was doing before moving about and helping tidy the room up.

Elthin informed the group about the results of his recent check up.

"As I would expect." Freya answered as she went about making up the futons again.

Elthin decided to check up on the rather dazed patient. Her eyes were a little glazed and her balance was a little off, but she was mostly doing fine. She bore the same kind of traits as someone who'd been hitting the bottle a little too much, but without all the innate stupidity that comes with being under the influence of alcohol.

"You'll get no sense out of her for the next hour at least." Freya informed Elthin. "I had to request some unconventional Anaesthetic to get her to let me stitch up her wound."

"One of my Moth friends can make some really cool dust that makes people who breath it in sleep real quick. And real deeply." Willow explained. "She's sleeping, now. Dusting's not easy,"

As Elthin checked up on Lucine he could see that she looked rather dazed. Her eyes were a little glazed over but she appeared to be doing fine. It even looked like she was drunk a little form having drank so but alcohol.

"At least she's doing okay." Willow then spoke again,

"That's another good thing to have when someone needs to sleep." Elthin said.

He still helped tidy up the room. "How did you three sleep last night?" He asked.

Elthin was mostly content with the outcome of the improvised surgery.

"Problem is, you're not really sleeping when it happens. You're just in some kind of weird world where you can still see and hear everything, but don't feel anything." Willow tried to explain. "It's like you're in a dream, but one you can't wake up from until the dust stops working."

Elthin helped tidy up the last of the clutter in the Sitting room.

"As well as we could in an unfamiliar place, with someone who just burned our house down only a ceiling above us." Freya answered.

"I had to go and get my Bug Friends, so I didn't really sleep that much." Willow replied.

"I had to go and get some things as well." Syl added in quietly.

Elthin listened to what else Willow had to say to him.

"So Lucine is able to hear everything and see everything that is happening to her?" Elthin asked. He kneeled down near her and then wave his hand in front of her eyes to see if that would work. An that she might mention something later on down the line.

He then went up helping tidy up the room.

"I know you three don't like all that has happened. An that you wish things could of been handled differently. I'm trying to help out with all I can."

Elthin asked about the effects of the Moth's dust.

"Yeah. She'll probably be screaming when she comes 'round. All of Big Sis's customers do when she stitches them up without numbing them first," Willow explained. "Probably be best for her to be in the bathroom when that happens as well, as the Dust tends to shut out nearly all of the signals of the body until it stops working. One time, when Syl used it as she couldn't sleep, she-"

Syl quickly covered Willow's face with one of the pillows, just enough to cancel out her speaking, but not enough to suffocate her.

"He doesn't need to hear that." Syl shot back at Willow, her face a little flushed from blushing. When the muffled protests faded, Syl removed the pillow and got back to cleaning.

Eventually, the room was in a more complete state, like it was before its guests came in to stay.

"How long before that happens?" Elthin asked to Willow.

Willow was about to reveal something about Syl when she quickly covered Willow's face. Which canceled out the rest of what Willow was going to say,

"About that can we stop with that sort of thing please. As even if I were to find out about it which I don't want to. I'd just be accused of lewdness and all that other stuff."

Elthin accepted the animosity the girls bore towards him and claimed that he wasn't interested in any of it. Syl answered for Willow while she was still covering her up.

"Willow's got a problem with saying what she's thinking all the time." Syl explained. "If she's talking, and she's thinking about something related to her speech, she'll say it, regardless of whether she meant it to be a thought or not."

Once Syl released Willow, Willow was able to explain her knowledge on Dust duration.

"It normally lasts anywhere between two hours, and twelve hours based on how much dust was used. I think Lu's will be wearing off in around half an hour, as she was only dusted a little."

Syl was the one who spoke up once again.

"Doesn't that usually lead to problems in the long run?" Elthin asked.

He had a feeling that it normally would as it wasn't the best of things. To reveal others problems of personal information. Syl then mentioned how long the effects of the Dust would have on a person.

"Only 30 more minutes that's not that bad."

"You have no idea how many times we've had to bail her out when her mouth runs before her brain does." Syl sighed with a shake of her head.

Elthin was thankful that the dust's effects wouldn't last much longer.

"It might be. It depends on what she's doing, or, more accurately, where she is when the effects wear off." Willow countered. "Hopefully, as it's only really short, she'd still be around the house."

"Well for now that's all she will be at maybe I should. Lock her away in another room for a while just in case something bad happens again."

That would work as Freya would need to keep an eye on the girl. "Are any of you hungry and want something to eat?" Elthin asked.

"Let's not lock her away." Freya quickly interjected. "Considering what happened yesterday, that may do more harm than good."

Elthin asked about food arrangements.

"Guess we could have a late breakfast." Willow replied with a shrug.

"Food's a good idea." Syl answered.

"I think we can wait a little longer so the patient doesn't miss out." Freya suggested. "By my calculation, it shouldn't be more than 25 minutes until she's back to her old self again. She'll lose the dust hypnosis in about ten minutes, but she'll still feel a little addled until the full duration is up."

"We can wait the twenty five minutes for now at least." Elthin says. After Freya told them that they should all wait. "What type of food do you three eat so that I can know ahead of time what I will need. To pick up from the market place for later?"

Elthin agreed to wait the required time before Lucine recovered from her dazed state, He then asked about what food to pick up for cooking.

"Sweet things." Syl answered. "I don't like spicy or sour things."

"Salads and chicken." Willow replied. "I'm okay with spicy things, but sour things taste bad."

"I'm not picky. Just no red meats in the food." Freya concluded. "Unlike Lucine, my girls are okay with healthy foods. I wouldn't have it any other way. I forced the pickiness out of them when they were still very young."

The girls all wanted to eat healthy foods which was understandable.

"I'll see what I have in storage I might have somethings that can be used. For all three of you so if you'd follow me later I can show you what I have?" Elthin asked.

Elthin believed he had some food in stock which was suitable to the Guests' tastes.

"Good. Food is sorted, then. Now, we just need a more suitable sleeping area." Freya reminded Elthin. "I did say that you had to sort out a proper room as quickly as possible."

"Um, I've got a question." Syl spoke up, which was a little abnormal for her. Her question directed at Elthin. "If good people are going to get hurt for things they didn't do, why are you not helping them? If they've done nothing wrong, then they shouldn't be hurt for it, right?"

"I know that and it will be taken care of later today okay?" Elthin sighed. Not liking to be reminded of something he still needed to do. Syl then asked him a question.

"It isn't my place to help them as there is always a chance. That I could get into trouble for doing something like that. I'm already in enough trouble as it is with holding Lucine from the Inqu and don't want to build onto that. But I do agree that innocent people shouldn't get hurt for things they did not do."

Elthin tried to reason with a child's innocence, but Syl's side was still the stronger one, in her mind.

"But isn't helping others what we should all be trying to do? In all the books I've read, the good guys always help others, even if it might be dangerous to them. After all, we should all try to help one another if we can." Syl countered. "So, you think that you can't help people because you might get in trouble for it? That sounds rather selfish."

Syl responded back.

"It would be nice indeed if everyone always was there to help one another. But there are those types of people would don't like doing that sort of thing most. People dislike helping others nor care for it." Elthin tried to explain. "I can help others but am trying to think of the bigger picture and the outcome of actions I can take or what would happen if I did help people. Like here's a question for you say you were in my shoes and decided to help out Lucine here. What would you do to help her out even knowing you'd get into some sort of trouble while doing so?"

Elthin tried to counter optimism with cold logic.

"I'd keep Lu safe." Syl answered. "I'll make sure that nobody would hurt her, and that nobody would take her away from me. I don't know about the Inqui or why they want Lu, I just know that if I promised to keep her safe, I should keep my promise. Breaking promises is a bad thing."

"You, say you would keep her safe and no one would take her away. But what if giving her away was your only option at the time. Would you do it like I did even though I didn't want to do it would you give her away?" Elthin raised his voice. As that moment was still a hurtful matter to him.

Syl was about to give her answer, until Elthin raised his voice at her, causing her to whimper and hide behind Freya.

"That was completely uncalled for!" Freya countered. "You asked her the question and she gave her answer. There was no need to shout at her for doing as she was told."

Between the arguing pair, a small aquamarine like pebble-sized oval began to form from nothing...

Freya then countered with her own statement and Syl hid behind her.

"Do you think I like what happened?" Elthin countered he was about to say something else. When he saw the small aquamarine like pebble-sized oval began to take shape. Not knowing what was causing it he dropped the subject with Freya and turned to face this new threat.

"There's no need to take your anger out on someone who has no fault in the matter!" Freya retaliated, unaware of the small object forming on the floor.

The small pebble began to expand outwards and grow into a large egg-like shape. Once the object reached the size of Syl and Willow, then Freya took notice of it.

"Great Earth Mother, what is that?!" She questioned in surprise.

"An Egg?" Willow suggested, confused by it all as well.

The object did, indeed, look like an egg, however, it was far too large to be laid by even the bigger of non-mammalian creatures and it had the texture of a rough hew gemstone, faceted in the ways they normally do as well, but still maintaining the overall feel of an egg.

"Just drop it!" Elthin warned.

The small pebble began to expand and outwards it spread. Into a large egg-like shape the object grew in size of Syl and Willow.

The others took notice of it.

"Why do I have an egg in my home?" Elthin asked. He walked up to it and placed a hand upon it. As he looked closely at it.

The strange egg stopped at the size of the young girls, and we now taking up quite a large space as it lay on its side. It showed minor signs of movement, like it would be hatching soon, moreso when the two were arguing.

"How would I know?" Freya countered. "What even laid this egg?"

"Do eggs just appear like that?" Willow asked. "I though that-"

Syl, in one swift movement, covered Willow's mouth once more.

"Eggs are gifts from the Stork for animals." Syl cut in. "Do you keep animals here?" She asked Elthin.

Elthin tested the firmness of the egg. It felt, as one would expect, smoothish and a little bumpy. It glittered a little in the light from the outside, like it's appearance would suggest. It showed no signs of hatching at present, but still felt undeniably warm to the touch.

The egg moved a little and showed signs of hatching soon.

"No they don't but I don't want this egg here in this room right now." Elthin says. He felt the egg and it indeed felt warm to the touch. "I don't keep any animals here, I don't even know what to do with it." Elthin turned to look at Lu could she have done this some how.

Elthin, being at a loss for what this huge egg could be doing in such a place, turned to the one who'd been causing the most abnormal occurrences lately. She was still rather dazed, but the effects should be wearing off soon enough. Even if she did cause it to happen, there was no way she would've consciously done it in this state. Another problem was what reason she may have for doing something like that. Overall, more research was required on this strange phenomenon.

"What're we going to do with it?" Freya questioned pointlessly. "It's far too heavy and large to move."

Lu still appeared to be out of it and this was still all rather strange.

"We can try and hatch it?" Elthin asked. He thought about asking someone to sit on the egg. But they wouldn't be able to get up there. "Would magic work to try and move it into the basement where there is more room?" Elthin asked.

"And how are we meant to hatch an egg the size of a small child?" Freya retorted. "Do we even know how to hatch an egg like this? Normal eggs don't just appear out of nowhere in the middle of a sitting room while people are talking."

Elthin suggested using magic to move the egg to a large location.

"Try it." Willow suggested when Syl released the 'running thoughts plug'.

"I wouldn't even know where to begin as I don't have any knowleadge in animal birth." Willow then to try to move it with magic. So Elthin went along with that idea he called on his magical powers creating a blue dome around the egg and tried to teleport the egg into the basement.

"How do we even know that this is an animal egg? It looks like a precious gem, it just appeared out of nowhere, and it's far too big." Freya answered.

Elthin tried to move the egg with magic, but it didn't budge one bit. The dome encased it, the spell went off, but the egg remained firmly in place and glowed a little from the attempt at magical relocation. It appeared to respond to the Water part of the spell rather than the spell itself. It wiggled around a little more and some cracks started to form on the outside shell.

"We don't know maybe it's a gem as you pointed out or something else."

The egg didn't budge when magic was used on it. The egg remained in place as she dome encased it and then started to glow. They egg seemed to respond to the Water in Elthin's magic so her kept it up and increased the amount of magic that was cast. When he saw cracks appeared on its shell.

"An egg that responds to magic and heightened emotions..." Freya puzzled as she saw how the egg-thing reacted to the magic cast on it.

Elthin continued to bathe the egg in magic and more cracks began to appear on it. It was also wiggling a lot more as it showed signs of hatching. Once the magic had coated it for around a minute, the egg split open in a dazzling display of turquoise light, filling the room with its luminescence. Once the light faded, the egg had disappeared and all that remained in its place was a sleeping child, curled up like she was in bed.

Judging by the long hair, this child was evidently female, but something was very off about her. For starters, her hair colour was the same as the colour of the egg and stretched down to nearly the complete length of her back. She had coral growths resembling horns on either side of her head, but they soon began to fade away, but not disappearing entirely. She also had coral segmented wings on her back, which look close to a natural coral formation taking on the shape of wings. These, too, began to fade with her horns. She looked to be around four years of age, despite just being 'born' mere seconds ago. She was a little shorter than Syl and Willow, around the normal size of a person her apparent age. Aside from that, she was, as one would expect from a newborn, completely naked. Thankfully, her hair was covering up the most important parts for now.

Her eyes gently began to flutter open, revealing a set of crystal blue irises. She slowly pushed herself up from the floor, rubbing her eyes as a child would after a nap, and then looked up at Elthin with a large smile on her face.

"Papa!" She greeted Elthin, she then turned to Freya, and greeted her just as strangely with "Mama!"

Regardless of being less than a few minutes old, she seemed to have a perfect grasp of the Common tongue up to the ability of Syl and Willow.

"Earth Mother be praised." Freya quietly whispered to herself. "A dragon is born once more..."

More and more cracks formed on the egg. As Elthin fed it magically it started to wiggle more and more and soon split down the middle. As a turquoise light filled the room once the light faded. As sleeping child was seen which appeared to be female. Yet there was something indeed off about this female. She had coral growths on her head and wings along her back that faded from view. The girl was about 4 years of age and was shorter than Syl and Willow. She was also naked and Elthin looked around and found a small blanket to use to cover up her nudity. But the blanket fell away as she stood up and then looked at Elthin with a large smile and then Freya.

"Papa?" Elthin asked clearly confused. He then heard Freya's whisper and was shocked that a dragon was born as he had never seen one up close before.

Elthin wasn't sure on what to do with these latest turn of events. If word got out that a dragon had been born once more into this world it could lead to a whole mess of trouble. There was the chance that the Inqui would come to claim it for their own uses. Plans needed to be thought up quickly The Elder and Duke Trent would need to know what had happened. That could all be taken care of later as he walked up to the small girl.

"Do, you have a name?" Elthin asked.

As Elthin moved towards the recently hatched Dragon, she leaped up off the floor and glomped Elthin, giggling gleefully as she did so. Elthin asked the girl for her name, but she just tilted her head to the side in a confused manner.

"Name?" The girl repeated.

"A gift given to all children the day they are born to provide them with an identity." Freya clarified for the confused hatchling.

"No name." The girl answered with a shake of her head. "Can I have a name?"

It seemed that Dragons, like most creatures, are born without names added to them. Being the surrogate caregivers, it was down to Freya and Elthin to provide their new child with a name.

"Perhaps 'Coral' will suit you well?" Freya suggested. "After all, you do have coral wings and horns. Unless, your 'Papa' has other ideas."

"Coral." The young dragon mused to herself. "Name, Coral?" She questioned Elthin.

The girl before him seemed confused about the question he had asked her. Before glomping onto him and giggling gleefully. Freya then told the girl what having a name meant before. The girl asked if she could have a name in which Freya decided to name the girl 'Coral'.

'I've got nothing Coral can work out just fine." Elthin told both girls. He went on to scratch the back of his head he wasn't sure of what to make of any of this. The was so many questions he wanted to ask Coral and tried to think of the first one.

'Are there more of your kind Coral out there in the world and by kind I mean dragons such as yourself?'

"Then Coral's Coral!" Coral giggled to Elthin.

Ignoring the current nakedness of the Newborn Dragon hugging his waist, Elthin began to ask questions of this hatchling. Coral looked to the side, puzzling over something, before giving her answer.

"Coral thinks there's one more close by." Coral answered. "But Coral's not sure if she's sensing herself or not."

"Shouldn't we be getting some clothes on the poor thing before you barrage her with questions?" Freya suggested. "Unless you like having naked children hug you."

His question was answered with a look of puzzlement on Coral's face. She then gave her answer to the question that was asked. "Another one could he mean Lu..." but her response was cut off when Freya mentioned about getting the girl clothed. "I tried to do that earlier." He wasn't sure he had any clothes that was her size. He looked over at Lucine just checking her clothing size by looking at her body before looking back at Coral.

Elthin countered the order for Dragon clothing by stating that he tried to do it, but towels or blankets aren't likely to stay on newborns if they move around a lot, especially newborn Dragons. He checked Lucine's size a little and compared it to Coral. Lucine was, indeed, a fair amount taller than Coral but, perhaps, at a push, some of Lucine's shorter dresses may just about fit Coral as more of a gown/tunic than a dress. It'll do, for now, until they can properly clothe the newest addition to their 'family'. Syl and Willow offered to fetch the clothing for Coral and quickly headed out of the room.

As Coral kept snuggling against her 'Papa', something strange came over Elthin's vision. The corners of his view were slightly tinted a pale blue colour, close enough to Coral's Eye colour, and strange shapes began to form around the room. Small pockets of blue spherical objects appeared close to Lucine and just gently hovered around her. Faint whispers of conversations, sounding very close to the rants between Lucine and Elthin, could be heard when Elthin passed a glance over the orbs of light. Nobody else noticed these strange occurrences except Coral, who was perhaps seeing what Elthin was seeing.

Elthin was able to see that Lucine was a little taller than Coral. It seemed that some of Lucine's clothes were too tall for her but some of her older ones might just fit her. Elthin would need to get Coral fitted with clothes more to her style that was if a dragon liked to wear clothes. Syl and Willow left the room to gather clothes as Coral kept snuggling against him.

Something strange came over his vision as a tinted pale blue color. Were around the corners of his vision as strange shapes began to form around the room. Small blue spherical objects appeared to hover around Lucine. And he could hear faint whispers of someone or something talking. He didn't know what was really happening and was rather confused. But it appeared that Coral knew what was going on.

"I feel strange," Elthin said he stepped away from Coral and took a seat.

The strange tinting of vision made Elthin a little uneasy as he stepped away from Coral and took a seat. As soon as Coral was no longer touching him, the vision tinting and phantasmal objects disappeared and everything returned to normal.

"Don't tell me she's tired you out already." Freya sighed. "I don't need two patients and, if you're already feeling the parental pains, you'll likely go gray haired when she's a little more proactive in the world."

"Coral's hungry..." Coral commented as she headed over to Lucine and stopped just a few steps away from the location of the blue orbs. She was eyeing up the orb's location before Freya cut in.

"Lucine's not food!" She quickly instructed the young dragon. "She's your...sister? Yes! She's your sister. You shouldn't eat your sister."

"Coral can't eat?" Coral questioned as she pointed at the location of the orb, which appeared to be pointing straight at Lucine to those who hadn't experienced the strange event.

Elthin's vision returned to normal once he was away and not holding Coral. Or at least touching her in any sort of way. Coral then said that she was hungry and Freya told her she shouldn't eat Lucine since she was her sister. This confused Coral who was standing near a location of one of the orbs that Elthin had seen.

"Coral can eat but what was that strange stuff that I saw?" Elthin asked her.

Freya, who was completely unaware of any strange phantasmal objects, interpreted that Elthin had condoned Coral in eating Lucine.

"I know she can be a pest, but that doesn't mean that you can offer her up as food for a Dragon!" Freya lectured Elthin. "Have you completely lost all sense of reason?"

"So can Coral eat, or can't Coral eat?" Coral asked once more, still very confused by the mixed viewpoints.

Elthin asked the young Dragon about the strange blue objects.

"Coral thinks they're food. They smell nice and look tasty." Coral answered as she plucked one out of the air, seemingly grabbing nothing, and began to munch on, again, seemingly nothing. Seconds later, she had a large smile on her face. "Tasty."

Another strange feeling overcame Elthin as he felt understanding of the varying viewpoints he had with Lucine.

"I'm not offering her up as food or anything. And no I haven't lost all reason I can't really explain what just happened to me. Maybe you might see what I saw at some point in time." Elthin finally said. Coral then asked if she could eat or not.

"You can eat."

Coral then said that the blue objects were food and took one. Out of the air which Elthin couldn't see but had seen moments ago. Then another strange feeling came over him and he seemed to understand certain varying viewpoints he had with Lucine,

Elthin went on to explain about seeing strange things, which only made Freya question his sanity once more.

"You're really not cut of for parenting." Freya answered with a shake of her head. "I dread to think what you're going to be like when they grow up. You'll probably be sent to an asylum as an inmate."

Coral nommed down the last two orbs around Lucine and understanding washed over Elthin. He now knew just why Lucine was so upset when he suggested to hand her over to the Inquisition.

"All finished." Coral chimed to herself after eating the last orb.

Freya still didn't understand what Elthin was talking about.

"I've never been a parent before. So what am I suppose to do?"

A feeling of understanding seemed to wash. Over Elthin after Coral had eaten one of the orbs he now understand. Just how Lucine had felt. As the understanding feelings came over him. He felt depressed and angry with himself. Over what he had done he didn't know how Lucine had felt and that ate away at him. Making him hate himself for what he had done. He wondered if she would event understand why he had done so.

"I now understand just how she felt."

Elthin explained how he was at a loss with no experience in childcare.

"Now you know how every new mother feels when men sow their seeds." Freya answered. "Nobody has experience in childcare naturally. It is gained through hard labour and much toil. Every child is unique, so what may work for one may not work for another."

As Elthin began to gain an understanding of things, the Befuddlement from the Dust wore off, prompting Lucine to start to feel everything suppressed by the Dust. leaving poor Coral at a loss for what might be causing her 'sister' to look and sound so pained.

"Huh?" Coral sounded in confusion as she looked over the pained Lucine, who was now doubled over slightly and clutching at her injured side. "Pain?"

Without even waiting for a response, Coral lifted up Lucine's dress, showing off her deep blue and white polka-dot panties, seemingly not even feeling any resistance from the tight grip from Lucine. She found the source of the pain, which was the location the stitches were sewn in to. It had now flared up quite noticeably, and we coloured a deep red.

"Pain hurts." Coral pointlessly said to herself as her wings and horns came back into existence for the briefest of moments as she kissed the wound. The redness began to fade away, and the swelling subsided. All that was left was a mild inflammation, like what was expected from a recently closed wound. "Pain go away."

Coral stood back up again, looking rather pleased with her handiwork, as Lucine quickly threw her dress back into position. The redness from the wound had now moved up to a deep blush on her face.

"Just what's this girl's problem?!" Lucine ranted, still blushing. "And you better not have been staring, perv!" She added on the end, aimed at Elthin.

Freya said that Elthin now knew what it was like to be a parent.

"I don't think I will ever understand. Im not ready to be a parent yet. I'm not saying that I don't want to be one I am just so confused. And not sure on what to really do."

After what the understanding had done for Elthin Coral began to say she felt a strange pain before going over to Lucine then lifting her dress. Before kissing the wound which made the pain go away.

This made Lucine awaken and push her dress back down. "She's my new child and she is a dragon. She was born from the egg that showed up here a short while ago."

"You don't really have much of a choice any more. Most of Lucine's raising was done by her birth parents. However, you now have a child of your own to look after. Things will be much harder from now on." Freya explained. "But, as she seems to be a product from both of us, you won't be alone in this matter."

Elthin explained, in as little detail as possible, how Coral came into this world.

"I knew you were having an affair!" Lucine misinterpreted. "Everybody knows Dragons are just fairy tales created by adults to scare kids into doing things."

Lucine now noticed that her new 'Sister' was completely naked.

"And why the hell is she naked?!" Lucine exclaimed. "Are you a kiddy-fiddler or something?!"

Elthin listened to what Freya had to say.

"What am I going to say to Duke Trent an The Elder I think it will. Be hard to believe that I am with a child now. Plus I can use all the help I can get."

Lucine thought Elthin was having an affair and dragons weren't real. "Dragons are indeed real as Coral here is one." he turned to Coral. "Ifyou would kindly show her your wings please?" Elthin asked

"She's naked because she has no clothes at the moment. Syl and Willow went to get her some."

Elthin was feeling the new parent confusion.

"If you explain what she is and show proof to them to back up your claim, them I'm sure both will be very interested in supporting you in raising her so they can research Dragons more closely." Freya suggested.

Elthin requested that Coral showed her wings to Lucine.

"Okay." Coral answered, a little confused about the strange request. Soon enough, her wings and horns began to materialise once more, but only for a couple of seconds before disappearing again. "Hard to do."

Lucine was just left speechless by the revelation. Syl and Willow soon returned with an outfit which, despite being requested to look for a smaller one, was still Lucine sized, and not Newborn Dragon sized.

"How can one girl need so many clothes?" Willow questioned everybody. "I've only got three outfits, and one of them's my nightie."

"Clothes?" Coral mused a she looked over the outfit in Willow's arms.

"You know what to do, girls." Freya mysteriously informed the pair with a smile. "On the count of three...two...one..."

All of a sudden, Freya covered Elthin's eyes as something unknown played out through the darkness.

"Be careful with that, they're not cheap!"

"I know. We've done this tons of times."

"Are we gonna play?"

"I hardly call getting dressed 'playing'...Hey, wait...that's for Coral, isn't i- WHERE' DO YOU THINK YOU'RE PUTTING YOUR HANDS?!"

"This'll only take a moment, Lu."

"HEY! Get your hands- IYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Yay! Playtime!"

"Wow, Lu, it's so soft!"

"GET YOUR HANDS AWAY FROM THERE!"

"This is revenge for bathtime, Lu!"

The sound of rapid undressing accompanied by screams of shock and embarrassment from Lucine overpowered the joyous giggling of Coral as Syl and Willow went about doing unknown things to the pair. With the way Lucine was shouting out curse word after curse word, Syl was possibly placing her hands were she wasn't meant to to make up for what Lucine did to her. Eventually, the screams and swearing died down to embarrassed sniffling as Freya removed her hands from Elthin's eyes.

Lucine was now crouched on the floor, with a deep red blush on her face, wearing the dress Willow had bought down, leaving Coral wearing what Lucine did have on, which was a small navy blue dress. Coral didn't look too please with her attire if the pout on her face was anything to go by. She looked like she was being pushing for something she didn't do. Syl and Willow had mischievous smiles on their faces as they look at one another and then back at Freya, nodding to show their work was complete.

"They're experts at undressing even the most stubborn of patients." Freya clarified for Elthin. "I do hope you weren't imagining unsavoury things while it was going on.

"Once everything has calmed down here I plan on letting them both know. What has been going on."

Both Syl and Willow returned with some clothes as Lucine was left speechless. After seeing the wings and horns of Coral who said it was hard to do. Then his eyes were covered as they went about dressed Coral.

"Oh, come on this isn't needed."

Elthin heard everything that was said and done. But was unable to see anything until. Everything was all finished and Lucine and Coral were both dressed in different clothes though Lucine was blushing.

"I have a lot more pressing things on my mind other then that. What does this make us now that we have a child do we get married now or something?"

Now that the girls were all dressed and ready for the day, now came the problem of having to raise a Baby Dragon with absolutely no clue as to what is required.

"Cohabiting isn't frowned upon in Animalia Society." Freya explained to Elthin. "Marriage is an invention of tailless ones. Animalia do not need to be joined with a ring. Animalia simply need to become Soul Mates. There is no ceremony or social implications infringing in the life of them and forcing two people to be joined. When two wish to be together, they simply need to be together, that is all."

"Um, what're we gonna do now?" Coral asked. "Coral wants to find some better clothes."

"Are you trying to start a fight?" Lucine retaliated. "You took my clothes, and now you're saying they're not good enough?"

"Shouldn't Uncle Duke know about this?" Willow suggested. "Elthin did say he'd let him know when he found a Dragon."

Freya explained things about how her race went about marriages.

"That does make things a lot easier plus. It saves a lot of time with other things as well."

Coral wished to find better clothes while. Lucine was in the mood to start a fight. Then Willow brought up that the Duke needed to know about the dragon.

"We can take Coral here to get some new clothes. Then go visit Duke Trent and The Elder is that okay with everyone?"

Elthin suggested that they go out and find Coral some clothes more to a Dragon's taste.

"We don't even know what kind of clothes would be suitable for a Dragon." Freya answered. "I think we will need to research some more before we commit to anything. We don't want to endanger such a rare being's life and comfort."

Lucine was the only one vehemently against dithering.

"Before we do anything else, we're stopping that Execution." Lucine cut in.

Freya and Lucine both tasted some facts.

"Something blue might work out for Coral but I believe you are right. We need to do more research on this subject,"

Lucine spoke up about the Execution,

"Are you really up for something like this even though you might get into trouble?" Elthin asked,

Elthin believed that the chosen colour was what Coral wasn't too pleased with.

"I don't think Dragons are picky enough to detest clothes just because they're not the colour they want." Freya commented. "It may be the material, the weight, the style, we just don't know."

"Clothes too stuffy. Coral wants to take them off!" Coral interjected. "Too heavy, too long."

Elthin tried to dissuade Lucine from interfering with the corrupt justice system of Brascus.

"So I should just let people die, even if they've had no part in it?! Who the hell is corrupt enough to pick up random people and kill them for no reason?!" Lucine countered. "We've got a Dragon, if that ditz of a kid really is one. Who's going to be stupid enough to contest us?"

Coral wasn't thrilled with his answer.

"You can take them off when its time for bed. But for now you will have to wear them." Elthin told Coral.

He thought over Freya's answer some before Lucine spoke up.

"No you shouldn't but there are people in this city who are corrupt. Enough to pick on others for their own amusement. And while we do have a Dragon I'd rather not have others finding out that we do it would just lead to a whole bunch of trouble. Would you want the Arch Mage or Inqu to find out about her and take Coral away?" Elthin countered.

"But Coral wants to take them off!" Coral protested.

"Clothes stay on." Freya repeated firmly. "A girl must be modest at all times."

Elthin responded to Lucine's counter.

"Then why are we standing here discussing it?! It's nearly noon!" Lucine shot back. "If you don't come along, then I'll just do it myself!"

"I have to agree with Freya on this one," Elthin stated.

Lucine then said she'd go alone.

"I never said that I wasn't going but if you think you're going out by yourself then you are dead wrong!" Elthin warned.

"Who's going to stop me?" Lucine retaliated. "If you're so fixed on making sure I don't go out alone, then kick your lazy ass into gear and get to the Square."

"I will stop you!" Elthin warned her again.

He went over and then grabbed her hand pulling her along. "Then we will go together if that's how you want things." He dragged her along to the door of the room.

Elthin, once more, jumped the gun and forced his preferred outcome onto Lucine. She began to fight against his hold and protest using her usual methods.

"Hey, don't leave Coral behind!" Coral protested as she hurried on after the pair.

"Always quick to exercise control." Freya sighed with a shake of her head.

"Brutish." Syl quietly commented.

As Lucine started to fight back Elthin let her go and turned to face her.

"I'm growing tired with how you are treating me as of late. If you want things to be better between us then treat me nicely and I will do the same to you. If not then things will be harshly between us." Elthin tells her and he waits for the others.

Elthin responded in kind and stated that kindness begets kindness, and the opposite leads to like.

"Well, you never listen to me, you're always bossing me around, you're always shouting at me and you never treat me nice!" Lucine countered. "You always want me to do just as you say I should, you don't let me go out alone and you're always asking me questions which I don't wanna answer! You're worse than you say I am!"

"More food? But Coral's not hungry..." Coral mused to herself as she looked upon the arguing pair.

The others present would be following along, but the arguing pair was blocking the door.

"And neither do you you're always putting me down and shouting back at me. Look at how things turned out I take you into my home as my guest and you treat me like I treat you. If things are ever to be put on the right track again then we both need to change." Elthin stated.

Coral thought there was more food.

Elthin stepped out the door and waited for the others.

"I'm not gonna change until you treat me better!" Lucine shot back as she pursued Elthin out of the door, allowing for the others to follow along. "I'm stopping that execution, no matter what!"

Lucine then stormed off towards the door of the house in a huff.

For a very brief moment Elthin felt like raising his hand and striking Lucine. Across the face but he held back from doing so. "We, will stop it together!"

He followed along after her.

Lucine was beyond caring about whatever complaints Elthin may throw her way as she continued along down the streets, forcing her way past people when needed, towards the Square. The others, including Coral, stayed behind Elthin and carried on at a brisk pace, with Coral looking upon all the new sights, sounds and smells of the City as she did so.

Once outside Elthin made sure to stay in the middle keeping an eye on Lucine. Along with one on Coral as he didn't want anything bad to happen. He watched as Coral looked upon all the sights and sounds of the city around her. Then back over at Lucine who pulled ahead of the group.

Lucine showed no signs of slowing down as she approached the main Square. Due to the sheer volume of people milling around at the chance of witnessing an execution, the streets were hard to navigate through if people weren't forcing their way through them like Lucine was.

Coral continued to look upon everything the City had to offer, and was actually attracting some attention due to how out of place she looked. Unlike the deeply tanned residents of Brascus, Coral was rather fair skinned and carried more of a Seafarer's complexion, being a little more lighter than the more common folk in the City. Her aqua blue hair also drew more eyes than would be suitably acceptable. Her youthful appearance and lost-looking behaviour could also attract the attention of even greater threats than a few merchants trying to extort money out of 'Tourists'.

It was hard to keep track of Lucine due to how many people. Were on the streets wanting to see the execution. Plus just moving around was also a pain in the ass.

While Coral still looked around the City. Elthin took notice how others were starting to look at her. This wasn't something that he wanted to deal with as since she was new. Everything sort of bad thing could happen to her. He moved back towards her and took her small hand into his own. While gently walking her along and explaining things to her out the city the best he can.

Elthin decided to fall back and look after the newest arrival to the city. Coral, as if it was almost natural to her, held Elthin's hand as she continued to look around. Like before, Elthin's vision was once more tinted a pale blue around the edges, and lots of blue orbs appeared in the streets, near enough reaching the same amount as people who were present.

Faint whispers of numerous arguments and disagreements circled the blue orbs as Elthin continued on. The trail Lucine had took was now showing a deep blue trail echoing her every step as a large dome of blue began to appear over her as she stormed on, moving out of Elthin's sight and getting lost among the crowds. However, the homing trail dutifully followed her, allowing Elthin to see just where she went.

When Elthin held Coral's hand his vision returned to the way it was before. This time there were many blue orbs around the city streets. He heard Faint whispers of people arguing and disagreements as he passed by the orbs. He even was able to pick up Lucine's trail which was blue and was moving out of sight. But she was easy to follow as Elthin knew just where she was going.

Despite the change in visibility, Elthin continued on, following the faint trail left behind by Lucine, and reaching the main Square. The gallows were looking rather populated as there was now row upon row of people waiting for the inevitable execution to take place. The large clock on the Guild's clock tower showed it to be nearing noon, with only a few minutes to spare. Lucine was now completely lost in the crowds, save for the very evident blue dome over her current location. The dome appeared to encompass her only, and nobody else seemed to be even aware of her presence as they were too focused on the gallows. Lucine had edged her way closer and closer to the stairs leading up to the structure.

They had reached the main square and the gallows were looking rather populated. As a group of people were waiting for the execution to take place and the Guild's clock tower showed. That it was nearing noon, with only a few minutes left. Lucine was now lost amongest the crowd though a blue dome was over her telling Elthin where she was. She seemed to be moving closer and closer to the stairs.

Elthin let go of Coral's hand and started to move forwards towards the stairs as well.

Shortly after Elthin removed his hand from Coral's, the blue dome over Lucine and the tracking line towards her location disappeared, leaving Lucine completely lost in the crowd to Elthin's eyes. There was something going on down where Lucine's last known location was but, due to the sheer amount of people gathered around the gallows platform, anybody on the outer edge of the crowd were blissfully unaware of anything going on.

Elthin last track of Lucine once had let go of Coral. So he had lost track of her with his eyes however as removed. Other last known location he found moving through the crowd to be a problem. As he tried to force his way through the crowd he found his way. Blocked on multiple paths as everyone wasn't moving quick enough to his liking he slipped past a few other humans.

Elthin continued to try and reach where he last saw Lucine, but the mass of onlookers to this coming execution blocked his path on multiple fronts. Lucine had completely merged with the crowd now, leaving no traces of her previous locations to anyone.

One of the onlookers near the stairs was unceremoniously thrown to the side and landed on the floor as the tail-end of what looked like a traveller's cloak was dragged back into the sea of people. The onlooker, of course, was shouting obscenities at the crowd, seemingly complaining about a 'thief' and demanding their cloak back. The large clock on the Guild's Clock tower began to strike Midday as the crowd livened up some more.

Elthin was now at a loss for words on where to find Lucine. With all the people around him he didn't know where she was. As he looked around and moved slowly forward he heard someone yell out about a 'thief' he moved slowly in that direction until he reached the person who was complaining. "Did you see who it was who took your cloak, I'll make sure to get it back for you?" Elthin asked.

Going by the only lead he could find on Lucine's potential whereabouts, Elthin decided to question the poor unfortunate soul who happened to be on the receiving end of sticky fingers,

"You that little bandit's Father, or somethin'?" The traveller questioned Elthin. It was clear that they weren't from a local area judging by the kind of accent on their words. "Some angry lookin' midget 'alf-inched my Cloak! Long red 'air an' wearin' a black dress. Sort ya spawn out, mate!"

"Something like that yes, I normally don't allow my children to steal from others. I will get your cloak back sir." Elthin told the man as he took all that the man said about the person's discription. "Do you by chance happen to know in which direction they headed off to?" Elthin asked.

Elthin asked where this 'Angry Looking Red Haired Midget' went.

"T'ward the Stairs. Looked to 'ave some sort of fire-starter in 'er 'ands." The traveller replied. "Seemed fixed on burnin' the platform down, if 'er mutterin' was 'er plan."

Elthin learned that the person had went toward the stairs and was fixing. On burning down the platform. Not wanting to couse a bigger mess if Lucine was able to go through with this he thanked the man and hurried towards the platform keeping an eye out for a small girl wearing a cloak who had red hair.

Not wanting to waste any time and causing another display of pyromania, Elthin quickly hurried off towards the stairs leading up to the main platform. The crowd was no help, as it never was, and proved to be quite troublesome in navigating through. If Lucine did head this way, she must have used her small size to slink through gaps between people.

The pre-execution ceremony began, and Lord Arundal's egotistical voice hushed the crowd.

"Citizens of Brascus, today we bring you a spectacle sure to delight all of you. It has been many a moon since our last gathering like this, and the want for Justice against the crimes committed towards our fair City must demand to be sated. In the past few days, we have been subjected to, not one, but two arson attacks against our city. One of them happened in the slums, but that is not what we demand justice for, is it?"

"NO!" The crowd shouted back.

"Most certainly, the one we want to see blood spilled over is the one which happened merely a few paces from where we are all gathered. In the early hours of yesterday evening, our Apothecary was mercilessly burned to the ground for the sick amusement of some lesser citizens! While the people inside were expendable, nothing more than foreigners in our City, the service they provided was, no doubt, a necessity to our lives. Some of you may be pleased that they remain unharmed, but that is of no concern. What we want to see is the scum responsible for the destruction meet the punishment they deserve!"

The crowd exploded in cheers as there was a break in the presentation.

The going through the crowd after Lucine was rather troublesome. As he was unable to reach it thanks to his size someone like Lucine would find it easier to move through this mess of people. Soon Lord Arundel began to speak up and Elthin listened as he still headed towards the platform.

As he listened to what was said Elthin got a sick feeling in his stomach. As it was his fault that Freya's home and business had been burned to the ground. He still hurried towards the platform wanting catch up to Lucine.

As Elthin continued his pursuit, the presentation from the Gallows resumed.

"These brigands claim to have been hoarding the Elemental stones for innocent means, however, that is not what the evidence suggests! First, they admit to the thoughtless theft of such precious materials, saying that they had not the funds to obtain them through normal means. If they cannot afford them, then they have no right to take them, that is the basics of Business. That is what this City thrives on! If we hand out our precious resources freely, then we would not survive as there will be nothing returning to the economy."

Just peaking over the edges of the gallows was the hood of a Midnight blue cape, with a burning red afterglow on the side hidden behind the body of the cape.

"Secondly, they were at the scene of the crime, supposedly salvaging charcoal to keep their Forges burning. Due to their earlier transgressions, it would be clear and correct to assume that they also burned down the only Wooden Building in the city so they could gain access to 'free' resources once more. The wanton destruction of a precious lifeline to the city, and the brazen disregard to the very laws this City was founded on, can only be met in kind. They have endangered the very lives of you fair citizens by destroying the only place where we can gain access to remedies and services to cure what ails us. A life for a life!"

Elthin was still listening as he moved forward as he neared the Gallows he tried to see just who. It was that was on them to get a better understand of who was being put on trail for the actions. That had been caused by him and Lucine. He was also able to see the hood of the Midnight blue cape with a burning red afterglow. He knew that had to be Lucine and headed towards it.

"Damn it I won't let you cause a mess." Elthin whispered to himself.

As he neared the girl he rose a hand slowly and tried to picture the ground. Underneath her he pictured the cloak on her and pictured Lucine in his mind and tried to cast a spell. That would try and lock her feet to the ground in a small ice chain attached to the ground.

Elthin attempted to lock the Cloaked Assailant in place by using Ice Magic, forgetting the very basics of Elemental Match-ups. The ice chains latched on to the figure, who simply looked at them and gestured, causing a trail of flame to melt the chains holding them, as they continued on, unaffected by the attempted delay. If this was Lucine up there, she wasn't acting like her normal self at all.

"We may want for revenge, but we are a civil group. We must first trial them on their actions in front of the entirety of those affected. It is all fair the Guild passing judgement, as has always been in days of old, but we were not directly affected. No, you were the ones troubled by their actions. You are the ones who have the right to decide their fate." Lord Arundal continued. "Bring them up, so we can all see what foul monsters destroyed our precious City."

The people on trial were yanked onto the gallows platform. Local people would recognise them as the City Blacksmiths. There was the Master Blacksmith himself, a middle aged man dressed in usual middle-class attire, with coal black hair and beard and deep brown eyes. The next in line to the business, a young man, also dressed in middle class attire, barely older than twenty, with equally dark hair and growing stubble. And, finally, the youngest in the family, a small girl, her face streaming with tears as she was practically thrown onto the platform by the executioner. She was dressed in a tattered hemp dress which was stained with soot. She had long black hair, ragged and dishevelled due to possibly spending the night in a cell. She was attempting to plead her case as innocent, but, due to her current distraught state, couldn't even form the words to speak.

The Master Blacksmith was clearly angered by the actions of those who think themselves 'better' than him, but did a good job at hiding it from the Jury. His eldest son was also trying to plead their innocence, only to be slapped across the face by the leather glove of the executioner.

The cloaked figure how now reached the top step and was swirling the embers in their hand, coaxing them to spark and ignite stronger than they had before.

Elthin felt that his spell had the affect he wanted it to have only. Then to learn that it had been countered and burned away, This also seemed strange to Elthin as Lucine wouldn't have been able to burn them away so easily. But maybe in her current state of mind Lucine tapped into that power from the other day to do so. An Lord Arundel spoke up once again.

Elthin stopped for a moment and watched as the people on trial were yanked up onto. The gallows platform he saw who they were. He knew these people as Elthin had gotten some work done at their store on one of his swords. The Master Blacksmith and his family didn't deserve this sort of punishment and as Elthin saw the young girl he was reminded of Lucine. Wondering what she would be going through if it was her up there. Not wanting to let innocent people suffer Elthin saw the cloaked figure reach the top step.

He wasn't about to let her mess things up but Elthin was not about to let. This family be harmed either Elthin then started to chant in casting a spell which would surely get himself into trouble. But at the moment he didn't care. "Come, Spirits of Ice! Spread Forth into the Air! Tundra and Glacier in the Realm of White Night! Frozen Earth!" Crystallizatio Tellustris (Frozen Earth)" This spell causes all moisture near the earth's surface to instantly freeze, causing jagged pillars of ice to jut up from the ground. If not dodged effectively, the opponent's feet will be likewise frozen to the spot, immobilizing them.

Elthin pointed his hands at the girl on the top step. "Wait, Wait this is unfair punishment!" Elthin yelled out. Hoping to catch Lord Arundel's attention.

Seeing as how his previous attempt had ended in failure, Elthin tried a much bigger, more risky spell. Ice began to shoot out from the ground around the square, causing even more of a commotion and attracting the attention of the Jury. The cloaked figure, on the other hand, deftly avoided nearly all the ice blasting up around them. The ones they could not avoid were melted in an instant by a Shield of pure fire which began to cloak them. It was clear that this was not the 'Lucine' Elthin had been training. This was the automatic reaction one, the part of her that shielded her from both the inferno of her home and the conflagration of the Apothecary. This was her blinded by rage, a truly terrifying display similar to a raging inferno.

Elthin didn't need to shout to attract Lord Arundal's attention. The spell he had cast was enough.

"So you seek to stop me once more, 'Hero of the Downtrodden'." Lord Arundal huffed to Elthin, a clear mocking tone on the title he'd given him. "Well, you have my attention, and my Ire. Come, tell us why these fiends should be allowed to run free after causing some much suffering for the people of this City?"

Elthin's spell might have made Lucine happy if she had seen it. As it was a rather risky spell Ice began to shoot up from the square around everyone. Causing a bigger commotion and attracting the attention of the Jury. The cloaked figure was about to avoided nearly all of the ice blasting around them and melted the ones that were near them. Elthin now knew this person wasn't the 'Lucine' he had been training. This was the one who he had faced when the Apothecary had been burned down.

Lord Arundel got his attention.

Elthin stopped casting spells and walked up towards the platform. He ignored the title that had been given to him and spoke his piece.

"These people are innocent, and should be given a chance to plead their case. What need is there to place them on trial when they were not the ones who caused the fires in the first place," Elthin stated. He looked at the family before him "I also have done business with the Master Blacksmith here he's a good and kind hearted man who. Cares deeply about his home and family along with the items that he creates. His young daughter should even be here this isn't something someone so young should either witness of be put through. Let her go let all of them go or I will stop you myself!"

Elthin decided to take the defense of the Blacksmith's family.

"What evidence do you have to support this?" Lord Arundal countered confidently. "You are but one person against an entire City. What one's past may have been does not excuse them of the crimes they commit today. If we let thieves and arsonists roam free, then how can we say we're supporting the side of Justice and seeking to protect the people under our care? This 'girl' is nothing more than a thief. She stole the Fire Elemental Stone right from under the Alchemist's eyes as she attempted to 'seduce' him with her 'innocence'."

"It wasn't seduction M'lord." The Alchemist cut in. "She threw a tantrum and faked crying while her brother stole the Elemental Stone. Said she needed it to help rekindle the forge and that business had been too slow to afford it. Tried to cut me down to a tenth of the price. Daylight robbery, that! I've got a business to run!"

"But we do need the stone!" The Blacksmith's son retaliated. "Without the forge, we can't temper the metal to make the swords you people use to kill 'scum' like us! Charging twenty thousand gold pieces for a hunk of burning rock is just pure greed!"

The Master Blacksmith was the only one not trying to defend himself.

"Bless your soul, M'Lord." The blacksmith weakly smiled to Elthin. "We did steal the stone and, for that, we'll have to pay the price. These stubborn fools just place the blame of the fire onto us as we were the closest to the scene when it happened. We've got nothing to say we didn't cause it. We did have a Fire Elemental stone on us, after all."

Lord Arundel spoke up.

"You want evidence my evidence is that I was there when the fire. Took place and not once did I see any of these kind people here anywhere near the place." Elthin countered. "If we do let thieves and arsonists run free then we are not doing Justice. We are letting them commit crimes against those people who are innocent."

Elthin listened as the Alchemist spoke and then the blacksmith's son speak up.

"We all have businesses to run but there are times when. One person or family can't do that couldn't you have just agreed to the price to what the girl was asking. Perhaps that would have helped them beable to afford the stone instead of stealing it or not." Elthin turned to the blacksmiths son.

"I agree with you there would have you been able to afford the stone at a lower price?" Elthin asked.

He turned to the Master Blacksmith who spoke up next.

"But your deaths isn't the sort of punishment that you guys deserve. I will gladly pay for a elemental then you were for I was inside it when the business went up in flames."

Elthin continued the defense.

"Then how can we be sure that you didn't commit the crime to create a distraction so the thieves could escape the Law?" Lord Arundal countered. "You've already proven to be a supporter of those dregs of society with housing a Slum Concubine for your own personal entertainment. Made her go the full way with you yet, or are you more the kind to dominate than to be dominated?"

"Madness!" The Alchemist exclaimed. "To even think of selling as precious an item as an Elemental stone at a mere two thousand gold pieces is inexcusable! Do you understand the time and effort put into making those things?!"

"Even two thousand would've been a substantial drain." The Blacksmith's son answered. "We barely have enough to afford food and water, let alone that."

Elthin offered to reimburse the cost of the Elemental stone.

"You truly are kind, M'lord, but I just can't accept something like that. If we live off the generosity of others, then we are just supporting His claims." The Blacksmith replied.

Elthin listened as Lord Arundal spoke.

"Why would I have need to start a fire?" Elthin questioned him. Then when he spoke about Lucine Elthin felt the rage build up inside of him. He walked over to Lord Arundal and punched him square in the face. "How dare you speak of her like that. I would never do any sort of that with her!"

"I do understand how long it takes. But still people need to make a living. How can a family afford your prices. When they are unable to work?"

Elthin listened as the son spoke his earlier anger already gone. Then the Master Blacksmith spoke and Elthin wasn't sure on what to say.

Lord Arundal's taunting had their desired effect. He merely smiled confidently when Elthin attempted to punch him in the face. Lord Arundal's barrier flickered slightly as Elthin's fist impacted it and stopped a few centimetres short of its intended target.

"The truth hurts worse than a blade, I take it?" Lord Arundal countered with a grin. "What does it matter to us if we violently remove their 'chastity'? They're nothing more than lesser beings, parasites leeching life from the people worth something. They should feel blessed to even be considered to be a suitable recipient for venting our frustrations."

Elthin wasn't able to punch Lord Arundal in the face like he had wanted to. As a barrier appeared before he was able to. "What about you have you already stuck your manhood into the behind. Of your student I've seen the way you look at him. And know that those lewd thoughts are always on your mind!" Elthin countered.

'There is more to them then just venting our frustrations. But you wouldn't know that would you as you've never even tried to engage in normal conversation with them. Or even spend a day talking with them. You're too busy fucking every boy you come across!'

The argument between respected Guild Members might not have been the entertainment the locals came for, but it was certainly starting to become the entertainment they were engaging in. Who needs an execution when there's a comedy double act of the 'Exceptional Nobles' playing out on a makeshift stage? The audience were erupting into laughter as the two battled it out with insults and degradation of one another.

Elthin's probing and insinuations had managed to crack the 'in control' persona that Lord Arundal was showing.

"You dare to insult a Lord of this City, foreigner?!" Lord Arundal retaliated, anger clear in his voice. "I care not for whatever backwater place you came from, or whatever standing you may have fucked your way up to, but I will not stand for you besmirching my family's Honor!"

It was clear that he was now ready for a fight, in the middle of all these onlookers...

"We may have an agreed arrangement for our match, but I refuse to stand here and wait for that to come while you continue to spout your false accusations!"

The audience was starting to watch the show on stage. And were erupting into laughter as they battled it out with insults and degradation of one another. Lord Arundal's persona soon started to crack.

"I dare insult you 'Lord' because I have every right to! You're nothing more then a lowly worm who is beneath me. If I so wished to I could crush you like the lowly worm that you are!" Elthin stated.

It was clear that Lord Arundal was ready for a fight and Elthin would give him one.

"If you so wish to fight me then bring it on gay boy!"

"To protect my Family's honor, I accept your challenge, Slum-gigolo!" Lord Arundal retaliated.

"Don't you two ever shut the fuck up?" A condescending childish voice came from the rafters of the gallows. "You're both just egotistical gay boys who'd rather fuck each other than speak sense. Gonna fight with your dicks? Cock slapping is a sport among the gays."

The figure in the cape jumped from the rafters and landed on the platform a little ways away from the arguing duo.

"Stay out of this, child! Run along home to your parents and leave the adults to their business." Lord Arundal shot back to the new entrant.

"What adults? All I see are two childish gay boys comparing dick sizes. Just so you know, I've seen bigger dicks on mice than you two put together." The figure taunted.

Just as Lord Arundal and Elthin were about to start their battle. The figure in the cape jumped from the rafters and landed on the platform a short distance away from them.

"You've finally decided to show yourself. Just who are you anyway you seem highly skilled for someone your age. To be able to dodge my mid-level spell like you did?" Elthin asked. Completely dropped the argument with Lord Arundal and now address the newcomer.

Elthin questioned the new arrival and asked just how they were so skilled.

"Come on, you've already forgotten me? Do you only see me as the weak Apprentice you've been forced to train? Do you see me as someone who can't even make a simple Barrier spell work like it should?" The figure answered. "I'm like you, but ten times better. Countering a weak Ice spell with Fire is just basic chemistry,"

"You seem incredibly confident in your own abilities." Lord Arundal replied to the figure. "Overconfidence will just lead to your own downfall, in the end. A flame can be snuffed out if there's no oxygen to support it."

"Everything burns, pretty boy, even people." The figure responded with a slight chuckle as they slammed their hand into the wooden platform of the gallows. A plume of flame erupted from the impact point and the wooden structure began to catch alight.

"Yet how have you gotten so powerful in such a short amount of time. Clearly, it was nothing that I could have done to make you so much stronger." Elthin told Lucine having forgotten about her for a moment when he was arguing with Lord Arundal.

Lord Arundal spoke up again and Elthin turned to him. 'Stay out of this you don't know what you're getting yourself into!" Elthin warned him.

He turned back to Lucine.

"So, here you are, I take you plan on getting revenge on everyone here?"

"I've just allowed the powers to flow freely through me. Magicians like you weaklings put limiters on yourself, preventing the raw power for working as it should. That's why you're ten times weaker than me. Remove the limiter, and you'll be much stronger." Lucine(?) answered.

Lord Arundal was about to resume his argument with Elthin, until Lucine(?) set fire to the gallows. The audience began to flee in panic, causing chaos to erupt in the square once more.

"How dare you interrupt my Execution!" Lord Arundal angrily shouted at Lucine(?).

"Evacuate! Seek and Suppress! Nix Engage! Civilian Safety Paramount!" Familiar Battle-tongue could barely be heard over the chaos in the square.

Ellara's Peacekeepers funneled into the square and began to evacuate the civilians, including the ones set for the trail of execution. The Inquisitor herself vaulted onto the burning gallows and attempted to remove Elthin and Lord Arundal from the burning platform.

"Just what the hell did you do this time?!" Ellara exclaimed to Elthin as she tried to drag him off.

Lucine spoke about limiters and how by removing them. They would allow someone to get far stronger. But they did come with side effects as in the past some people were. Known to go out of control when removing their own limiters. Elthin had one placed on his person not wishing to go out of control or harm anyone.

"We, put limiters on ourselves so that we don't go. Out of control and harm others like you might do any second." Elthin warned her.

Lucine then set fire to the gallows and Elthin quickly put the fire out. Using his ice magic while the audience started to flee in terror.

"Get out of here!" Elthin shouted at Lord Arundal as he then heard a familiar voice speak up. He turned to see Ellara coming towards him with her Peacekeepers. She jumped onto the burning platform and tried to pull him off of it.

"I didn't do anything!" Elthin snapped as he pulled away his arm from her. He looked over at Lucine again and then a look of worry formed on his face, He had been so caught up in his arguments with Lord Arundal and Lucine that. He didn't know what had become of Freya and the others. Let alone Coral who might be scared and crying right now. He didn't know how dragons acted in this sort of manner. He suddenly turned away from Lucine and the others. Jumped off the stage and started to search for Coral.

"Coral, Coral where are you?" Elthin cried out in a panic.

He was starting to panic something totally unlike him. He didn't want any harm to come to Coral let alone see the Inquisitors come and take her away.

Elthin attempted to douse the fires raging on with his magic but, like inside of the Apothecary, these fires were not naturally made, and were sprouting up again as fast as he was putting them out. One Magician alone couldn't douse these, and it's unlikely they'll go so long as the Magician keeping them going was still able to channel their power into them.

Lord Arundal, much like Elthin, refused to go quietly and actively tried to combat the attempted retrieval by Ellara. Where she failed, her Peacekeepers were able to restrain him enough to remove him from the burning platform.

"So the famed 'Inquisitor' shows herself once more." Lucine(?) condescendingly announced. "I'm not sure how to deal with such a persistent stalker."

"I've not got time for your little performance!" Ellara countered. "You've become quite the public nuisance, and it's my role as an Inquisitor to ensure public peace."

For some reason, Elthin's resistance to removal increased significantly as he actively jumped off the platform and headed into the chaos of evacuation.

"Get your ass out of here!" Ellara ordered Elthin. "Do you wanna burn with the gallows?!"

Elthin ran into the chaos of the evacuation. He was worried about Coral which was something that he couldn't really explain way of. Could it be that he had failed to protect Lucine when she needed him the most. And that he didn't want to see the same thing happen with Coral or could it be a totally different reason.

"Coral, Coral?" Elthin called out.

As he ran and dodged the raging fires people we screaming and crying for help. As they rushed towards him to escape the chaos.

"Freya, Freya where are you?" Elthin called out.

Elthin continued to try and find his missing 'family' in the evacuation in progress.

"Lost something?" Lucine(?) called to Elthin from her place on the platform. "That runt's probably been trampled already. Forget about her, you never wanted her in the first place. She just showed up out of nowhere and made your life a misery. Isn't that what you think of me as well?"

Lucine jumped off the platform and the inferno began to move with her, crackling flames licking at the parched sands and tempering them into something close to glass.

"After all, didn't you lead the perfect simple life before any of this happened, Little Princeling? Casually going about your day, ignoring those who society says are beneath you. Had it not been for meeting me, your life would've continued in blissful ignorance of the plights of those in the 'Lower Rungs' of society. Isn't that right?" Lucine(?) questioned Elthin. "That runt's just another freeloader. She's not worth worrying about. Why treat her any differently?"

Lucine's words seemed to get to Elthin as he tired not to think about. His new 'daughter' being trampled to death he just kept running forward. Around the flames and past the other people as he called out to her. "That's all you've done since the damned Inqu showed up." Elthin countered. As he went back to calling out to Coral and Freya but getting nothing back.

Lucine jumped off the platform and started to follow him. She questioned him about his life and why he was treating Coral differently then her.

"You know nothing of my life so don't think you can question me. About living the simple life when all you are is a no good whore!" Elthin's anger toward's Lucine resurfaced again for a moment. Before he pushed it back down. Elthin didn't answer Lucine's last question.

Elthin's anger towards Lucine resurfaced once more.

"That's what you truly think. That's all you've ever thought of me since you first had the misfortune of being stuck with me." Lucine retaliated, sounding rather pleased by Elthin's show of anger. "Why didn't you just leave me to bleed out in the ruins? Or, you could've handed me over to the Guild as soon as you had the chance. I'm sure it would've been me up on that burning wreck today had that happened. I'm certain you would've been watching with the other egotistical wankers when they pulled the lever and the noose tightened around my neck. You would've cheered in delight when you noticed the life sapping from my body and my writhing turning to limp flopping. When the life finally drained from my face, and my body hung limp, would that have made you happy? Why not do that now? I'm here, and waiting for you to do it. Perhaps you don't have the balls to kill someone. Is that why you've dragged me around all this time?"

Elthin was about to call out to the others again when he turned. Around and stared at Lucine as she spoke to him.

"You know nothing of me or how I truly felt towards you. You'll never even ever know why I saved you from the ruins that day." Elthin snapped he wasn't about to let Lucine know his true reasons. As he had been living a rather lonely life. Up until then just moving from town to town studying all the time always traveling. He wished to find someone to spend time with a show. Them the exciting stuff in his life. Sure he could have found someone his own age but he never had much luck. When he found Lucine he thought that could change that she might be interested in his sort of life style.

"You wish for me to kill you or is it the other way around I know you wish to kill me. As all I've done is betray you and cause you nothing but grief and pain. Maybe when I'm gone your life will feel just a little bit better. Well come on now I'm standing right here kill me and be done with it!"

Elthin retaliated by claiming that Lucine was using reverse psychology.

"Why would I need to know the reasons? We've been given the ability to make educated guesses, and that's enough for me." Lucine answered.

Lucine stopped a few paces away from Elthin, and the flames stopped with her.

"Kill or be killed, it matters not to me. I only wish to either see another's life ended, or have my own ended. Either way, the result is the same, isn't it? Life has no meaning, the only truth is the inevitable end. We suffer from when we're born until the day we die." Lucine finished.

"Have your domestic elsewhere!" Ellara cut in. "Stop her, or would you rather me do it?!"

Gale winds began to blow around the plaza as a sudden downpour began to assail all those inside. The plaza had been mostly evacuated now, save for a few stragglers who were just being escorted out. At the eye of this Storm was the Inquisitor herself, with her rapier pointed towards the sky and the winds blasting forth from it. Most of the fires had been doused by this sudden rainstorm, save for the ones around Lucine.

Elthin listened to what Lucine had to say once more.

"Because if you knew them perhaps things might change your little mind."

Both sides wished to be killed and stood only few feet away from each other. A rain started to fall upon the pair as Ellara spoke up once more.

"You won't touch her!" Elthin yelled at her.

Then turned back to Lucine he had two ways of saving her. Either to kill her with his own two hands or save her some how. He decided to save her with her guard down for the moment. As she was waiting for him to make a move to try and kill her. Instead he ran at her and wrapped both arms around her. Holding her tightly as he felt the flames around her start to burn his skin and clothes.

"I was all alone until I met you living a lonely boring life. When I met you I thought things had changed."

"Then hurry the hell up and stop her already! Keeping up a storm of this magnitude isn't easy and it's the only thing keeping this entire city from burning down!" Ellara retaliated.

With the pair caught in a standoff at the moment, Lucine wasn't expecting a sudden attempt to grapple. The latent flames around Lucine began to burn Elthin once more as he tried to reason with her. Being the smaller of the two, and the one without much physical strength, keeping Lucine pinned in one place was rather easy. However, with enough exposure to the flames around her, even the steeliest of grips may be reduced to nothing in minutes, As expected, she tried to break out of the grapple, but wasn't having much success.

"Let go of me!" Lucine ordered Elthin as she tried to break free.

Elthin began to reel off the reasons behind taking Lucine into his custody. Of course, Lucine attempted to defend her own reasoning.

"Why not just pick up any Slum Girl at a whorehouse like the rest of you bastards do?! You're more sick than any other wanker if you're into little girls!"

"Go pee in a bucket and shut the hell up!" Elthin snapped at her.

Elthin was sick of Ellara's yelling at him to hurry up. As the flames burned him he didn't cry out in pain or anything. He let them do their work upon him and as Lucine tried to fight back and escape. Elthin held onto her arms with his hands.

"You think I'm into little girls and only picked you up. Becuase I wanted a quick happy fun time with you. I picked you up from those ruins because I didn't want to see another Slum Girl left to die. I thought that I could have given you a better life. I offered you everything a home, a place to study a wide world to travel in. I gave you a life most of your kind never get a chance to see or even take part in."

"What the hell's that mean to mean?!" Ellara shot back.

Elthin continued to explain his reasons behind the 'abduction'.

"What does it matter to you people if another Slum Dweller dies?" Lucine countered. "All you people see us as are expendable slaves for both pleasure and labour! Why waste your life dragging an insignificant waste of space around?"

"Because I'm one of those people who have seen Slum Dweller's die and no. One ever cares about them or says that they will miss them. They only use them for slaves or pleasure as you put it. I wanted you around because I had started to care for you and was begining to see you as a younger sister. I enjoyed having you around as you brought happiness to my life!"

"You're only saying that to save your own life! You wouldn't really care if all the Slum Dwellers died! It'll only be a minor set-back for you fat fucks as you'll have to get off your fat lazy asses for once in your lives!" Lucine argued.

The intensity of the flames around her were dying down slightly, but something was still preventing her from fully returning to her normal self. Mere words and actions won't be that effective anymore unless the reasons behind her anger were addressed.

The flames around Lucine began to die down just a little but they were still fully there. But there was still something more that was holding Lucine back.

"I would care if you died! I would always care I cared about you" Elthin tells her. As he lets go of her arms. "You're sad and hurting on the inside for something that I had done to you. I don't know how you felt about me or if you even enjoyed being in my company. I never meant to upset you or hurt you in anyway. I want you around me and even though we are currently at odds with one another. I'm still trying to fix things between us. I want the old Lucine back who was an enjoyable person to be around. I want to enjoy your company again I want to see you happy and smile!"

Elthin attempted to cull the problem at its route, but fell short of the reason.

"Then why do you keep trying to hand me over to someone else?!" Lucine countered. "You throw me aside whenever another girl comes into your life. You forget that I exist and care only for the newest girl you've got to know! We're nothing more than cheap thrill material to you!"

"You won't let me help you every time I try to fix things. We always end up arguing with each other. That was my anger at you getting the best of me. And everytime I tried to give you away did I know and the reason why I care so much for Coral. Is because I don't want to see what happened with you happen with her!" Elthin countered.

"You care so much for that new kid because she's a Dragon! She's money! You only wanna fatten her up so you can sell her parts to the highest bidder and live a trouble free life!" Lucine retorted. "Much like you only wanna train me so you can sell me to the Inquisition as fodder for them!"

"Get it through that damn thick skull of yours I not doing anything like that. She's not going to be given over to them at all and neither are you. I don't know if you care to hear this or not but at one point I started to love you yes love you. Not in a sort of way that would only see me as wanting something in return. But the love someone has for a fellow sibling like how you love your sister and family. That was the sort of love I had for you I saw you as a little sister. Who I wanted to protect who I wanted to save who I cared deeply for."

"You said that before, but you still tried to give me away! As soon as things got a little tough for you, you tried to throw me away to another to look after! You're not meant to have a family if you can't even care for those you claim are like family to you! Life's tough, get over it and grow up!"

The flames around Lucine began to flare into life once more.

"Papa!" Coral shouted over the storm as she came running to his side. "Papa, what's happening?! Why is Sis all fiery? Why's it raining so much? What's going on?"

The flames grew around Lucine again and Elthin was at a loss for what to do. Lucine just did not seem to understand things and neither did Elthin.

"No I'm not meant to have a family or anything. I don't know what I want I just don't want to be alone anymore. I don't know what I want anymore!" Elthin moved away from her as he heard Coral shout over the storm.

"Coral don't come any closer, please stay where you are. Sis is all fiery because she is upset with me and its raining because. Magic was cast in the surrounding area please stay with Freya and the others if you come near me and Sis you will only get hurt!"

"Coral's staying until Papa and Sis stop fighting!" Coral retaliated. "Papa and Sis have done nothing but fight all day, and Coral doesn't want that anymore!"

The young Dragon was adamant that she wasn't going anywhere until all this had been resolved.

Coral spoke about wanting them both to stop fighting.

Elthin was in a tuff spot as he didn't know how to make things up with Lucine. When she wouldn't listen to him and he didn't want something bad to happen to Coral either.

Elthin gave in to Coral's insistence and was left at a loss of what to do. The young dragon, however, had a lot on her mind to get off.

"Sis, stop bullying Papa!" Coral ordered Lucine.

"You can't tell me what to do! I'm the older sister, I make the rules!" Lucine countered.

"Then act like one! Stop being childish!"

"Says you! You're the newborn crybaby here, not me."

"Cora's not a crybaby!"

The pair had now gone off into a full blown argument about who's older and who;s not acting their age.

Coral and Lucine then got into an argument.

"Now, isn't the time for something like this." Elthin told the pair. He reached down and took hold of Lucine in his arms again, "Lucine you're the older sister so, stop acting childish and treat Coral with respect." Elthin then looked at Coral. "Coral please stop aruging with Sis and let's get out of here." Elthin told her.

He started to run over to Coral.

Elthin attempted to break the bickering duo up, but to no avail. Grabbing Lucine just caused her to get even more heated, and Coral was just as determined to win this argument as Lucine was.

"Stay out of this!" The duo ordered Elthin in unison.

The pair continued their argument, ranging from Coral's innocent name-calling to Lucine's usual language, with neither side giving ground for the other. They seemed just like blood-related siblings at the moment. Lucine's anger towards Elthin was now directed at coming up with speedy retorts to Coral's high-pressure argument responses.

The pair kept up their fighting and told Elthin to stay out of it.

"I told you both to knock it off if this fighting between you two. Keeps going them you will both be in big trouble!" Elthin warned. This being the first time that he would have to punish them ever.

Much like things they were claiming not to be, the girls completely ignored the warning from Elthin and kept their rally going.

"All this happened 'cos you can't make up with Papa!" Coral continued.

"It's his fault for being such an idiot!" Lucine countered. "I can see where you get your brains from!"

"Coral's not stupid! Sis is stupid!"

"Only stupid people call others stupid!"

Both girl's ignored Elthin's warning and kept their rally going.

Elthin by now had taken Coral's hand and was leading her away. From the platform while using the other hand to hold Lucine. "Coral, Lucine this is your last warning if you don't stop you both will be in big trouble." Elthin warned the pair for a final time.

The flames around Lucine had all but faded away now as the heat from them was directed into Lucine's argument. She was a little more like her old self now, if far more argumentative. Like before, neither girl heeded the warning given to them.

"Coral's had it with you acting like you own Papa!"

"Like you own him, instead! You're more of an attention seeker than I am, talking like a toddler and saying your name all the time!"

"Coral's not talking like a toddler! Coral is talking like Coral should talk!"

The flames had all been put out and Lucine was back to her old self for now at least. Once again they ignored Elthin's warning.

"I warned the both of you to stop this fighting when we get home you are both in for. A big punishment and the first person who will be up on the chopping block will be Lucine!" Elthin said.

He started to look around for Freya and the others.

Elthin informed the pair that they were in for some serious punishment when they got home.

"This is all that stupid baby's fault!" Lucine countered. "She should be punished, not me!"

"You started it, you big dummy!" Coral interjected. "You've done more bad things than Coral has!"

With the plaza evacuated and the flames simmering out, Elthin and the others were led out of the plaza by the peacekepers to be rejoined with Freya and her children.

"Coral is being punished to but it seems you're in need of an even bigger punishment," Elthin told Lucine.

Coral had spoken the truth and Lucine had indeed done more bad things then Coral had. Elthin already knew how he would punish Lucine. By doing the same thing that Freya had done with Syl but he was also thinking that Lucine needed something more then just that. Since her stuff was way worse.

Soon enough they found Freya and the others and started to head home. Elthin placed Lucine down on her feet.

The argument stopped for the time being upon the definite conclusion of punishment. However, the tension between the two was still very high.

Upon rejoining the rest, both Elthin and Coral got an earful from Freya, who stated that punishment was far too lenient for the things they'd done and the needless risks they took. Syl and Willow were left in charge of keeping the siblings away from one another to prevent further arguments from breaking out.

Elthin wasn't too happy with getting an earful from Freya. About the risks and things that he had done. But it was something he needed to hear as they walked home together. As Elthin walked he stayed near Lucine just in case she tried anything funny. The group soon arrived home after a short trip and they entered the living room area.

"Lucine you're up first if you will please come over to me?" Elthin asked.

When the group entered the house, Elthin declared that Lucine was, indeed the first for punishment.

"Like hell I'm going to just let you do that!" Lucine shot back as she tried to run out of the house, only to have Syl and Willow on door guard/ The quickly slammed the door and stood in front of it to prevent Lucine's exit.

"Fair's fair, Lu." Willow grinned at her.

"You've been bad, so you need to be punished." Syl concluded.

Lucine was left with little option however, she made no attempt to return to the punishment area.

"This is my house and as long as you're under this roof whatever Freya or I says goes." Elthin warned her. She then tried to run out of the house and Willow and Syl stopped her. By closing the door on her.

Elthin then went over and took Lucine gently by the arm and pulled. Her into the punishment area where he was about to start Lucine's punishment."If you would please raise your dress and pull down your underwear. Then lean over my lap we can begin."

With her escape route closed off by onlookers, Lucine had nowhere left to run and was promptly pulled back into the room and requested to allow for the punishment to go through. Obviously, she didn't comply with the request.

"Make me." She defiantly retaliated.

Lucine wouldn't agree with what Elthin requested and instead demanded it to happen.

"If that's what you wish"

Elthin then reached down and pulled up Lucine's dress to show. Everyone her underwear he held onto her arm. To prevent her from trying to escape next he grabbed her underwear and pulled them down her legs in one quick motion. Before pulling her across his lap "If you end up wetting yourself like a baby during this punishment then you will be punished even more!" Elthin warned.

With Lucine over his lap he held onto her with all his strength not letting her leave. if she was trying to escape or make a break for it. When he had her firmly on his lap he brought down his hand as hard as he could on Lucine's behind. He smacked it again and again as hard as he could.

Going along with the 'request' from Lucine, Elthin began his punishment, prompting the usual kind of responses from his target. She tried to escape the iron grip through any means she could. She wasn't truly expecting it to go forth, as her whimpering would suggest when she found out that she couldn't escape. Her tough act was soon dropped when Elthin began the punishment properly.

The punishment went through quite like Freya's did to Syl. However, Lucine had marginally better control than Syl did, and only leaked slightly during the punishment. So far, that is.

As Elthin went through with the punishment. He saw that Lucine's tough act was dropped and she began to whimper. As he slapped her behind, again and again, making sure to rain down the punishment. From the heavens he made sure each blow would hurt Lucine just enough so that she would always remember this. And hoped that she would learn her lesson and not try this sort of thing again.

Upon each cheek, Elthin slapped it thirty times making 60 slaps in total but after the first 20. His blows were starting to lose some of their zeal. He wasn't enjoying hurting Lucine like he thought he would. Even with him knowing that she leaked upon him made him feel mad but then. Made him feel sorry for her. So he stopped just shy of the 60 slaps and pulled Lucine off his lap.

After the punishment was over, Lucine quickly tried to leave the room once more, ignoring the fact that one more punishment was still to happen.

Syl and Willow decided that the punishment was possibly enough for Lucine and that she was likely going to reflect on her actions, so they let her out of the room, resuming their duty afterwards should Coral attempt to flee justice.

Willow and Syl stopped Lucine from leaving the room. But then let her leave the room he just hoped that this punishment would teach Lucine a lesson. Soon it was Coral's turn for her punishment and Elthin asked Coral the same statement he had asked Lucine to do.

Unlike Lucine's false bravery, Coral was another story. She clung on to Freya tightly as she trembled upon Elthin's approach. She was also whimpering, but a bit more so than Lucine was. In addition, her eyes were also misting over with waiting tears. She looked far too shocked by the force Elthin had exacted onto Lucine to even begin to comply with the request.

Elthin saw as Coral clung onto Freya tightly as she was much too scared. To approach him and was whimpering more then Lucine had been doing. With tears in her eyes she wasn't able to go with his request. Knowing he had to punish her somehow Elthin did so gently he did what he did with Lucine on Coral. And as Coral lay across his lap and Elthin was about to spank her he couldn't bring himself to do it.

"I can't do it" Elthin said.

Elthin went through the motions of trying to start the punishment, but couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Coral's been bad, so Coral needs to be punished." Coral quietly informed Elthin, her voice quaking with tears. "It's not fair to Sis if Coral doesn't get punished."

Even when Coral pointed out that she still needed to be punished. Elthin still couldn't bring himself to do it at first he didn't want to harm Coral like he had with Lucine. With Lucine she got what she deserved but with Coral it was another story.

So finally Elthin went through with Coral's punishment at last. He spanked her bottom twenty times just hard enough so that she would learn her lesson. But not as hard as he spanked Lucine he was far more gentle with Coral's behind then Lucines.

The punishment went forward, but at a much more tame conclusion than it had been with Lucine. Elthin was sure to inflict just enough pain so Coral would be less inclined to disobey again, but not enough to cause lasting damage. The slaps still caused yelps and sniffles from the young dragon, but that was to be expected from a punishment after all. Upon the punishment ending, Coral seemed to have completely learned her lesson and apologised for putting herself in a dangerous situation like she did.

Once the punishments were over, there was a knock at the door...

Coral seemed to have learned her lesson but still yelped and cried out. As the spanks were delivered to her. Coral seemed to have learned her lesson and once the punishment was over Elthin made sure to have Coral promise that she wouldn't put herself in a dangerous situation like that again.

Soon there was a knock on the door and Elthin. Left Coral in the care of Freya and the kids and went to answer the door. Not knowing just who it could be Elthin before opening the door asked who it was.

"Who is it?" Elthin called from behind the door.

After the punishment was delivered, Elthin had an unexpected visitor. Leaving the children in the care of their 'Mother', Elthin went to check to see just who could be calling at this moment in time.

"Do you really need to answer that after you just legged it from a Crime Scene where an Inquisitor was?" Ellara rhetorically questioned. "Open the door, or I'm obligated to gain entry in any way I can."

Ellara was the one who was at the door. Elthin opened it up to let her in. "What is it that you want?" Elthin asked. After closing the door moments later.

Elthin opened the door and let Ellara into the house. She looked completely soaked through, with her hair still dripping from the torrential rain she'd called down. Miraculously, Elthin and the others were completely dry and hadn't the slightest damp patch on them.

"Do you always leave others to clean up your messes?" Ellara asked Elthin. "Where's the little Pyro? Has she calmed down some?"

Ellara looked to be completely drenched as she stepped inside before asking him a question. "I had my own problems to take care of. Plus you seemed fine on your own." Ellara then asked about if Lucine had calmed down. "She is off in her room I delivered my own form of punishment to her. So for now she has calmed down some."

"You can't just leave things to others because you're doing something else." Ellara retaliated. "You really, really need to start teaching her properly, otherwise I'll have no choice but to take her off you for the good of the people of this City."

Curious as she was, Coral decided to see who'd paid them a visit.

"Papa, who's this lady?" Coral questioned Elthin. "And why's she all wet? Did she try swimming in her clothes?"

Elthin listened to what Ellara had to say to him. "Don't you think I am trying to do that. Yet she doesn't listen to me." he tells her. Coral soon entered the room and asked who it was.

"This lady is a friend and her clothes are wet from. It raining on her".

"You seriously lack talent for teaching young ladies." Ellara countered. "Have you tried talking it out with her as to why she's so problematic? And I don't mean just asking once and raging off at her for getting a little defensive. It'll take serious time and dedication, with help from people her own age, to actually allow for her to progress in her learning."

Coral's arrival turned the topic from Lucine towards the young dragon. Ignoring the little Q&A Session between 'parent' and 'child' Ellara went over to examine Coral a little more closely, extending her hands to gently touch at where Coral's horns and wings were translucent. Coral, as would be expected, reacted to this in a rather unusual way. A dragon's appendages must be extremely sensitive if Coral's change from inquisitive to submissive was anything to go by. She looked to be more entranced by the gently rubbing of her horns and wings than she did at the current display playing out. If one was to hazard a guess, Dragonkin wings and horns were possibly erogenous zones in development on someone as young as Coral.

"Just as a thought, though, how's it even possible?" Ellara confirmed to herself.

"Don't you think I have tried that she just won't listen to me" Elthin pointed out. As Ellara spoke to him about Lucine. Soon enough the topic changed to about Coral and Elthin gently took hold of her. Arm pulling her away from Ellara. But she had already checked Coral out. He placed a defensive arm in front of her.

"I don't know what you're thinking. But you're not going to be taking her. Away from me or touching her again." Elthin warned.

Ellara dismissively answered Elthin's questions while she continued to unknowingly pleasure Coral.

"Knowing your track record with 'understanding' her, you probably just asked her once, she snapped back, and you raged off at her before leaving it at that, If that's your idea of a heart to heart talk, I'd hate to see your lectures."

Elthin pulled the small dragon away from Ellara's teasing hand.

"Who stuck their sword up your ass?" Ellara huffed as she folded her arms across her chest. "Do you seriously see me as some duty-bound emotionless automaton who tries to crush everything someone loves?"

"Then why don't you try speaking with her?" Elthin countered. Not wanting to have this talk with Ellara. "She is more of a pain in the ass. Right now at least but she does need a good talking to."

Ellara was upset he had taken Coral away. "Sometimes I see that what good have you done since coming here. And messing things up between Lucine and myself?"

"She's not my problem." Ellara shrugged. "You're fixed on keeping her, so she's your headache, not mine."

Elthin went to blame the family break-up on an innocent bystander.

"Then you've obviously never had any other interactions with people of my standing." Ellara answered. "If it was anyone but me, they'd have likely killed you first and took Lucine away without even giving you chance to plead your case. I'm actually the most humane of them all, or so the general populace of the Mainland says. I'm giving you the chance to prove that you're capable of raising a potential Adept, instead of just stealing all the innate potential this world has to offer. In addition, knowing that you now, somehow, miraculously have a natural born dragon clinging on to your arm, I'm not going to just remove her from you. She's clearly fond of staying with you, and all the records we have note that removing a dragon from their 'family' can lead to dire consequences, for both the humans and the dragon involved."

"She is part of your problem as you showing up. Was what started this whole mess!" Elthin countered. The topic then changed to something else.

Elthin listened to what was said.

"Then why not leave me in peace I don't care much for your kind. Always getting their way when they shouldn't you end up ruining peoples lives. And while you may be the most leveled headed and caring of the bunch whose to say. That couldn't all change?"

Elthin instructed Ellara to leave him in peace, claiming that she's done nothing but ruin lives.

"If that's what you want, then, good luck raising a dragon with absolutely no knowledge on how to. Hopefully, she's a vegetarian, otherwise you may find yourselves dragon food." Ellara replied. "Also, don't go thinking you can just pick up credible knowledge on Dragonkin in any old Library. Dragons are, after all, creatures of legend and fables."

Due to Coral holding on to Elthin, the usual vision tint returned. However, something was a little different. Normally, every person Elthin's seen through this vision has either a faint blue aura around them, or little orbs in their general vicinity. Ellara, on the other hand, had neither of those around her. She was almost completely lost to the tinting of vision, taking on a faint bluish hue, like Elthin was looking through coloured glass.

"I am still not sure on what to do with her. So far I am doing things well enough but I would rather not think about. That far ahead and worry more about the here and now."

"I already know of where I can go to get some answers to my questions. On Dragonkin but will need to find other ways"

Elthin saw that Ellara didn't have any of the blue orbs around her. Like Lucine had he found this very odd.

"You said you don't want my help, so I won't offer it." Ellara casually answered, dismissing Elthin's acclaimed knowledge on where to gain Dragonkin information. "Just a word of warning, though, Dragons are very picky, and get ill very easily if their needs are not met. Don't think she'll be willing to drink tap water, or eat what you may think she'll eat. Also, you clearly don't know how to dress a dragon, did you even ask her what her preferences were? She's evidently too hot in the clothes you've thrown on her."

Giving her final statement, Ellara left the house.

Elthin listened to what was said and then saw as Ellara left. He let go of Coral and followed after her.

"Please wait a moment. I may have said some harsh things. But I could use the help even though. I might not deserve it. I am just afraid of losing Coral and I don't know what to do. I just don't want to make the same mistake I made with Lucine happen again" Elthin confessed.

Elthin soon changed his mind and requested outside assistance to help raise the Mystical Creature he was 'gifted'. Ellara, as was expected, was 'ego boosted' by this change, and clearly showed enjoyment in the sudden change of attitude in a defiant client.

"I guess I could help you a little, considering you seem so inept at understanding how a girl thinks." Ellara answered, puffing her small chest out in pride. "I'm by no means a compendium of Dragon Knowledge, but I've done all the research I can into them back on the Mainland. First things first, you're going to need to give your friend in Argenta a call, as he's sure to be dying to see a Dragon in person. Plus, I'd suggest you go purify some water while you're waiting. Only perfectly clear glacier-standard water can be stomached by a Water Dragon as young as she is. She is a water dragon, isn't she?"

Ellara seemed to enjoy this sudden. Change in Elthin who clearly showed enjoyment.

She then told him what next to do. "I am sure he would enjoy it. That I am not sure about she might be one. As she seemed to feed on my water magic when. I was trying to hatch her." Elthin then decided to go ask Coral what type of dragon she was. Followed by contacting the duke and getting some water.

"I'm just making a wild guess, but she was completely unaffected by the Storm I created, which would suggest that she has some form of Water Affinity." Ellara answered,

Elthin asked Coral just what kind of Dragon she was. However, Coral didn't seem to understand the broad question, and simply responded by saying that she was a 'Dragon Dragon'. Due to the complicated process of needing to twice purify the water, Elthin couldn't make it up while trying to get into contact with Duke Trent. According to Ellara's instructions, the water will first need to be boiled, and then frozen as soon as it stops bubbling. Then, the water would need to be placed in an airtight container and kept in a freezer for a few hours in order to ensure that any impurity has been purged, either by boiling, freezing or a combination of the two.

The first thing Elthin did was to start. With the water by following Ellaras instructions on how to make it. Making sure to follow everything correctly. He also asked Coral what kinds of clothing she would want to wear.

Elthin followed the rigorous instructions for making Twice Purified water, ensuring to follow each step to the letter. It took a little while, but the water was soon ready for storing in the freezer. The water itself, aside from the frost lining the top and the sides of the container, was perfectly clear. Not a single discolouration remained in the substance.

Afterwards, Elthin tried to ask Coral what kind of clothes she liked. As before, her answer was not helpful in the slightest. She simply said that she liked 'cool clothes which weren't baggy or hot or hard to move in'.

The water was a lot harder to create then Elthin had know he did. Follow the directions as closely as possible and it took a little while, but the water was soon finished and ready to store in the freezer. Next Elthin checked to make sure everything was perfect before taking the water and placing it inside of the freezer. After that was done he asked Coral what kind of clothes she liked her answer wasn't very helpful.

'I take it you want something cool that you can easily move around in?"

"Yeah, Coral wants cool clothes that aren't baggy or hard to move in." Coral repeated.

"I know the perfect outfit for you then, little Aquatic girl." Ellara added in. She then turned to Elthin. "Go ask your Argentian friend to bring along a Uniform Shirt from his little girl's school, and also one of their Swimming kits. It's a little outrageous, so you may need to say it's for 'Dragon Research'. If it's as I think it is, it'll be perfect for this half-pint."

Coral repeated what clothes she wanted and Ellara knew the perfect outfit for her. "Okay I will let them know wait here." Elthin told her. He left the pair alone and headed towards the magical device that was the phone. He then started it up and let it work it's magic so that he could get into contact with the Duke.

Elthin took into mind what Ellara had suggested and went to contact the Duke. Like usual, the device patched straight through to a rather startled Zena.

"You always call at the worst times!" Zena opened the communication with. Her face was a healthy shade of red, and the backdrop looked to be the inside of a bathroom. "You're lucky this thing only picks up voice commands, and not other sounds!"

The device soon patched Elthin straight through to a rather startled Zena.

"It's nice to see you to dumpling" Elthin told her. He noticed that she was inside of the bathroom. "I'd like to speak with the Duke place it's rather important as he would want to hear what I have to tell him?"

Zena was having none of the ignoring of her current situation.

"Don't you have any decency in you?! You called a girl at her most vulnerable! I hope you're willing to take responsibility for any mental scarring I may get from this!" Zena retaliated.

Eventually, she relented to the request.

"I'll patch you through to him, but only to retain my dignity! No other reason!"

A few beeps were heard on Elthin's side of the device and, soon enough, Duke Trent appeared on the screen. However, he was looking away from the device and was working on some kind of stone-like project on a rather large workbench.

"I'm not about to argue with you that I don't care about." Elthin told her. Ignoring what she was doing and soon he was patched through to the Duke. When the patch went through he could see the duke's back was to him and that he appeared to be working on something.

"Excuse me Duke Trent I've got something that should really interest you it's about a Dragon?" Elthin told him.

At first, Duke Trent didn't appear to notice Elthin's attempts at communication. Like normal, he was far too engrossed in his work. However, at the mention of 'Dragon', the Duke practically sprinted over to the device.

"So you've actually seen a Dragon?!" Duke Trent excitedly questioned. "What're they like?! Are they as the books make them out to be?! Do you have anything from them on you?"

Duke Trent didn't hear him at first but when Elthin mentioned 'Dragon' he stopped what he was doing. He then went on to ask Elthin a bunch of questions in an excited tone.

"I've seen one well their egg for that matter, I ended up hatching one using my magic." Elthin told him at first, "As for what they are like well they seem just like you and me, but they are quite different this one believes that Freya and I are her parents. As for having anything of them on me I've got a little girl do you want to meet her?" Elthin asked.

Elthin reeled off what he'd found about Dragons and Duke Trent's excitement only mounted.

"You actually hatched a freakin' DRAGON?!" Duke Trent questioned in a mixture of disbelief and awe. "I'm coming over right now! Stay where you are and keep your dragon with you."

Duke Trent then rushed off to presumably find Zena. Faint communication was heard between the pair, but not much of it could be made clear aside from the fact that Duke Trent's excitement was not shared by a rather peeved sounding Zena.

Duke Trent only got more excited after he heard what Elthin had told him.

"Yes, I did hatch one though I believe it might have something to do with Lucine" Elthin told him. Before Duke Trent went rushing off to find Zena he then spoke to her and she didn't seem to want to return the excitement. Clearly Zena was still annoyed that Elthin had caught her in the bathroom.

Eventually, Duke Trent returned with a still red-faced Zena.

"Will I need to bring gifts for the Dragon? Is it malevolent or benign?" Duke Trent questioned.

"It's just a stupid Lizard, Big Bro, stop nerding out over it!" Zena cut in.

"Dragons are not just big lizards!" Duke Trent retaliated. "They are the most majestic of all creatures!"

Duke Trent returned with Zena.

"I'm not sure about bringing Coral any gifts you can if you want. But I'm more interested in finding out any sort of information you might have on Dragons." Elthin told him before Zena spoke up again. "Zena you need to cheer up as you can make a new friend." Elthin pointed out.

Elthin informed Duke Trent that gifts weren't necessary.

"Are you sure? I though each Dragon had a hoard of treasure." Duke Trent asked.

"You're in no place to talk." Zena countered.

"Some dragons do but I haven't seen this one with any yet. If she does have treasure I wouldn't know where it is" Zena spoke up again. "You're only mad about what happened earlier not my fault"

Elthin replied that he wasn't sure if Coral had a hoard of her own.

"Still, there must be something a Dragon would want. I want to make a good first impression." Duke Trent answered.

"Totally your fault." Zena dismissed Elthin's protest. "Anyway, that's done and done now! Stop bringing it up."

"Well some clothes could help do you have something in the line of clothes that are cool. But not baggy and hard to move in?" Elthin asked. He looked over at Zena, "it's your fault not mine at least I didn't catch you doing something worse like taking a shower"

Elthin requested some clothing in a rather roundabout way.

"That's not very specific, though I'll see what I can do,. What size is the Dragon? Would Zena's clothes fit?" Duke Trent answered.

Elthin's retort to Zena knocked her into a stunned silence for now as her face went a darker shade of red,

"Coral would be around the same size as Lucine and Zena's clothes. Might fit her we can try them out." Elthin said. He looked over to see that his comment to Zena was making her blush a deeper shade of red.

Elthin infomed Duke Trent of Coral's size, and also let her name slip. Hearing such a starightforward, if a little childish, name, took him by surprise.

"Coral doesn't really sound like a name a Dragon would have..." Duke Trent commented. "Anyway, the proof will be in the evidence. I'll go and grab some of Zena's old clothes before I head over."

"I'm not talking to you anymore!" Zena announced, breaking her silence. "You're nothing more than a dirty old man!"

"She might have another name or an even longer one I can't really say for sure." Duke Trent then spoke about getting some of Zena's old clothes before she spoke up again. "This has nothing to do about being dirty old men we are trying to help someone out. So, you can either try and be nice and help us in return or just remain quiet."

Before Duke Trent could answer Elthin, Zena spoke up.

"You know what I mean, potty peeker! This has nothing to do with the big stupid lizard!" Zena retorted.

"Zena, please, we're trying to discuss business here." Duke Trent chided the girl. "If you can't keep it on topic, then please go wait outside."

Zena quickly shut up and left the room in a huff.

"Sorry about that. Something seemed to have got her all riled up." Duke Trent apologised. "Anyway, I'm going to cut this here and get ready to come over. We'll be over in about half-hour,"

"Some other time perhaps" Elthin said not liking the way Zena spoke of Coral. Duke Trent then told her to go wait outside. "That's both mine and her own fault something I'd rather not speak about at this time." Elthin told him. As he learned they would be over in half an hour. "I will see you then." Elthin said before he let Duke Trent go. Next Elthin tried to get into contact with the Elder to let him know about these recent events.

Elthin and Duke Trent cut communications for now. Afterwards, Elthin tried to contact the Elder. Like usual with this form of communication, it took longer to patch through to the Elder than it did to Duke Trent. The secret behind Argenta's fast communication was still a mystery to most. Eventually, The Elder appeared in the device.

"Greetings, I trust you have some news for me?" The Elder asked. "In addition, I have a handful of questions for you as well."

Soon the Elder appeared on the device.

"I've got some interesting news for you." Elthin told him. He also learned that The Elder had a series of questions for him as well. "I will start off and tell you my news and then you can ask me your questions." Elthin waited for The Elder to agree.

Elthin proposed that he'd start by passing over his news and then let the Elder ask his questions,

"That's agreeable." The Elder nodded.

The Elder agreed to Elthin's terms.

"This is what has happened" Elthin started. He went on to tell the Elder about how a dragon had been born into the world. In his very own house he let him know that the dragon now thinks of both him and Freya as her parents and that. The dragon has some sort of odd power and sight that Elthin was able to see he couldn't really explain just what sort of power Coral had but. Elthin tried his best to explain things. He also let The Elder know about the problem in the Market Square today and how he and Lucine had been at odds during it before Ellara. Had come to fix things and how she was now at his home.

Elthin explained his case to the Elder, whom took in every detail which was passed to him.

"That ties in nicely with my own questions." The Elder answered once Elthin had finished explaining. "What I would like to know is if Lucine was involved with the incident in the Square earlier."

"In regards to your Dragon's power, I believe that to be her innate ability to materialise and consume the Sins of Mankind. According to our records, the blue aura normally represents the Sin of Wrath. You mentioned that she was conceived during an argument between yourself and the Animalia girl, correct?"

The Elder then began to ask his set of questions.

"Yes Lucine was involved with the incident in the Square. She tried to burn everything down and I tried to stop her. She seemed to be far more powerful then before and was clearly doing tricks that she shouldn't have been able to do at her level. She also knew about the limits us Mages place upon ourselves so that we don't let our powers run amuck and go out of control." The Elder then explained about Coral's power.

"Yes, she was" Elthin answered.

Elthin confirmed the Elder's fears.

"You have been teaching her control before Magic, have you not? That sounds very much like her magic was controlling her, rather than her keeping it in check. Magic is a living entity with a will of its own. If the wielder cannot control it, it will seek to consume them." The Elder answered. " In states of heightened emotion, a Magician's magic may be agitated by the emotions being displayed. With Magic like fire, it responds to anger, hatred and most emotions which are fuelled by primal ideals. In turn, Water responds to sadness and grief, Earth responds to excitement and tension and, finally, Wind responds to happiness and calmness."

"That would explain her power further. Once you link with a Dragon you are compatible with, you may pick up a portion of their power. In this instance, you gained the Dragon's Vision. That allowed you to see the world how the Dragon sees it. The orbs of Blue Energy were crystallised Wrath. They are condensed forms of events and situations in which the person they are linked to displayed the mentioned emotion, even if they did not mean to be doing so. Lore tells that once a Dragon consumes the crystallised Emotion, that event is bought into new perspective for the individuals involved in it. They may see it in a new light, or, perhaps, understand what the other person may have been feeling at that time."

"I've tried to teach her on how to control her Magic but have had very little time. To further our studies on that as many other things have been going on." Elthin answered. "But as you say I believe that Lucine's out of control Magic is due to her current emotions towards me and the others in her life at present."

The Elder explained about Coral's power.

"I believe something like that happened as The dragon did consume one of the blue orbs. That you spoke of this did let me get a better understand of something that recently happened. Between Lucine and me as I seemed to understand a part of her far better during a recent event. It was like I was able to understand a part of what she was going through and feeling at the same time."

"Before you teach her anything else, you must be certain that she can control the powers she has." The Elder repeated. "Make Control your priority lesson. Even if she comes to the Guild, she will have to known Control before she is even accepted here, for her own safety as well as all the other Students and Mentors present."

Elthin seemed to understand Coral's power a little better.

"Then the Records we have on that are correct, at least. You should know that raising a Dragon is no small feat. Depending on the type of Dragon she is, she may have radically different needs and requirements than anything you've ever seen before. You must learn as much about her as possible so you can provide just the things she needs. I do not believe you will have to worry about her turning feral, as she seems very attached to both yourself and the Animalia girl. However, know this, Dragons, especially hatchlings, cannot be left without at least one birth parent being with them. Dragons are creatures that make strong bonds with their family, so they may start to pine for a family member if they are not present."

Elthin listened to what was said.

"That is if she still wants me to teach her or even let's me. We're at odds with each other on just about everything. I'll try and see what I can do but it's going to take some time."

The Elder spoke once more.

"Honsetly, I don't even know what to do with a Dragon I'm not really ready for parenthood just yet. I am getting help from Ellara on how to take care of the Dragon." Elthin said before speaking again. "I do know that after I left her in Freya's care she came searching for me as I was busy handling Lucine. Could this be that she's formed a stronger bond with me over Freya so far?" Elthin asked.

"If she does not want you to teach her, you must find someone else to fulfil that role if you want her to attend the academy and not fall victim to her own powers again." The Elder cautioned

Elthin explained the incident with Coral's attachment.

"As I said before, young Dragons form strong bonds with their family. If either yourself, or anyone who the Dragon deems to be part of its family, goes missing, the Dragon will search for them. Dragons, like most Legendary creatures, prefer to be in groups. Only rare cases are loners."

"Who else would want to be the one to teach her?' Elthin asked. After he listened to what The Elder had to say to him.

The Elder spoke again about Dragons.

"Do you know of any other legendary creatures that roam the land of five continents?" Elthin asked.

"That will have to be something you discover on your own. There are plenty of Magicians out there willing to impart their knowledge, though, having a Student from one of the more misunderstood genders may be what prevents it." The Elder answered.

Elthin asked about other Legendary Creatures.

"We have a whole section dedicated to the Lore and Legends of the Five Continents in the Guild's Library. However, most of the information we have is just conjecture and personal belief, the true grounds of them have yet to tested." The Elder replied.

"PAPA!" Coral suddenly cut in as she came running up to Elthin and grabbing him by the waist. "Syl's being mean to me!"

The Elder told him it was something he'd have to find out on his own about.

"I guess this will take a lot of doing and working with. I should first try and ask her what she wants before seeing who needs to be done."

Elthin learned they had a whole section dedicated to the Lore and Legends of the Five Continents. He was about to ask more about that when Coral suddenly called out to him and grabbed his waist.

"Sorry, but I believe I'm needed elsewhere at the moment. So we will have to cut this short," Elthin told the elder. He then turned to Coral and spoke to her.

"What is it that Syl has done?" Elthin asked.

"Communication is paramount to any successful tutoring." The Elder agreed.

Before Elthin could go into the things he was looking for, Coral's interruption cut the conversation short.

"The joys of having a family." The Elder commented with a slight smile. "I wish you all the best with your family."

The communication was then cut off and Elthin decided to get the full story out of Coral.

"Syl's mad at me getting special treatment, like clean water and extra cuddles and she said that I'm just faking all of what I do and that I'm not a Dragon at all, I am a Dragon! Syl said she'll butt in when I go for cuddles and that I shouldn't be such a baby if I'm meant to be a Dragon. I'm not a baby!"

Coral wasn't really making much sense, but the gist of it was that Syl may be experiencing some jealousy issues as she's no longer the youngest member of Freya's little group.

The conversation with the Elder had ended and it was time to deal with family needs.

Elthin listened to what Coral had said and picked up that Syl might be jealous. Of all the attention that Coral was getting and might be feeling left out.

"It seems to me that Syl is jealous of all the attention you're getting" Elthin told her. He then took Coral's hand. "Let's go talk to her about it?" he started to lead the way out of the room.

Elthin now had to deal with jealous children.

"Why is she jealous? Is she just being that to be mean? Coral likes being cuddled and Coral doesn't want that to stop." Coral answered, still sounding a little annoyed at Syl's behaviour.

Elthin hoped things could be fixed between the pair.

"She's jealous because of all the cuddles and stuff you seem to be getting. She wishes it was her getting everything like how things used to be." Elthin pointed out. She took a moment and gave Coral a cuddle hugging her close to him wondering if this might calm her down a little.

Elthin decided to explain in easy terms why Syl may have said what she did.

"If she wants cuddles, then she should just ask for them. Mama likes giving Coral and Syl and Willow cuddles. Coral's sure that Mama wouldn't say no." Coral answered, still not quite processing the idea of 'Growing up'..

Elthin went on to hug Coral tightly, prompting a slight startled noise from the young Dragon, however, it soon turned into a contented purring-like noise as she snuggled close to Elthin. All her previous upset seemed to have dissipated in the connection between the two.

Elthin tried to explain things to the young dragon.

"She can do that but it's also nice to be given them without warning." Elthin then knew that sounded rather odd. But he was now hugging a purring dragon which reminded him much like a cat. After a short while he left go of her and they started walking again.

"Any cuddles are good, aren't they? Coral thinks so." Coral replied as she hug continued.

Soon enough, Elthin let the Dragon go, who seemed to want to be hugged some more and carried on to confront the other hug-monster.

Entering the living room once more, Elthin found Syl sulking in a corner while Willow admired her bug collection. Freya was not present in the room, and that could be why Syl decided to complain about hugs.

"They are always good." Elthin let her know.

They then entered the room and Elthin saw Syl sulking in a corner and Willow looking. At her bug collection Freya wasn't anywhere around. Deciding to try and make Syl happy he walked over to the sulking girl and swept her up into a hug of her own. "I take it that you're feeling rather upset?" Elthin asked.

Elthin decided to take the brash course of action to try and resolve the hug-jealousy. As was normal with Syl, the sudden action startled her, prompting a few yelps of shock as she tried to fight back against the force pressing against her, that was until she realised it was a hug.

"I'm not upset." Syl retorted with a pout. "I'm just trying to find bugs for Willow."

It was clear that she was just trying to hide the truth, considering a modern house like Elthin's never tended to have any form of insect life in them.

Syl started to fight back at first but stopped when she learned it was a hug.

"I know you are there is no need to be." Elthin whispered.

He kept up hugging Syl for a while longer and then let her go. "But I do believe you and Coral need to make up."

"I said I'm not upset." Syl repeated, even though it was clear she was, Syl's likely not known for being good at deception.

Elthin informed Syl that she needed to make up with Coral.

"Why should I do that?" Syl questioned. "That baby is the one who started this by getting all the special treatment!"

"It's not her fault, and she didn't start anything it would be your fault there. As you clearly are upset at everything she is getting. Would you like it if you were to still get the attention as well?" Elthin asked.

"I though that we were all loved equally, but that Baby's getting all the attention and we're being forgotten about. Even Lu's getting more people around her than we are!" Syl countered. "Why aren't we treated the same? Why do Lu and the baby have everyone waiting on their every order?"

"Lu is a special case and Coral is a different matter entirely." Elthin tried to point out. But Syl was right both her and Willow were being forgotten about while the others were. Getting all the attention she clearly was upset of this.

"You clearly want what they are getting don't you?" Elthin asked.

"But why are they 'Special Cases'? Does that mean you love them more than you love us? Is that what being a 'Special Case' means?!" Syl countered. " I though we were all meant to be treated equally, and not have someone loved more than another!"

Syl wanted to know the answers to special cases.

"It means that I don't love Coral more it just means. She gets more attention at present because. I need a lot of help in learning how to raise and care for her."

Elthin tried explaining things to Syl, but wasn't doing a very good job of putting it into understandable terms for a child.

"You said that you never had kids before, so wouldn't we all be 'Special Cases' then?" Syl countered. "You're just saying that 'cos you don't wanna say the truth!"

"Now, now, Syl, no need to take your anger out on Elthin." Freya interjected as she entered the room. "W"hat he's trying to say is that Coral's needs are a lot different from yours or Willow's, or even Lucine's. As I've told you a lot of times, every child is unique in their needs. Coral requires a special diet and can't have certain things without becoming ill. You, yourself, won't eat meat because you feel bad for the animal it came from. Willow can't have oranges or citrus fruits without getting a rash on her hands from the citrus oils. Lucine requires a little more attention due to her still learning about her new gifts. It's not that we don't love you all equally, it's more along the lines of that we seek to try and fulfil each person's unique needs."

Syl still didn't seem to get what Elthin meant and was clearly angry with him. "Whatis it that you want me to say?" Elthin countered. Not wanting to get into another argument with a child. Freya then spoke up and helped Syl to understand what he had been trying to tell her.

He just stood off to the side silent and really not saying much.

Elthin decided to leave the parenting to Freya at the present moment in time. Being new to this whole ordeal may require some additional research to be done on effective parenting methods of the troublesome duo of Freya's, and the equally problematic pair of his own. Knowledge like this cannot be gained easily from books, and may require talking to other who've been through this ordeal before.

After explaining things to Syl, Freya decided to also exact a minor warning for her in regards to upsetting Coral.

Elthin watched as how Freya handled Syl and tried to take mental notes. As he wasn't sure on just what to do. As he watched he knew that he'd have to talk with Freya at some point about this sort of thing. As he had no knowledge of what to do.

Learning from a more experienced person, Elthin found out that talking things through with the child on an even footing, was likely to get better results. Freya was getting down to Syl's level, keeping eye contact and explaining things clearly while also listening to Syl's opinion and working to a compromise. Even delivering the warning, Freya was keeping a calm tone of voice and adding a little authority to her statement as well.

Coral was at a loss of what to do and watched as Freya went about parenting.

Again he made sure to take mental notes as he watched the way. That Freya handled Syl by keeping eye contact with her and listening as Syl explained her. Opinion on things before the warning was given. He also took note of Freya's calm tone which was clearly something he didn't have. He looked over at Coral who was at a loss on what to do. He walked over to her and looked her in the eye.

"Do, you think you can understand how Syl feels?" Elthin asked.

Elthin tried to put his learning to the test on the only other minor present aside from Willow.

"Syl's still a meanie." Coral pouted. "Coral even said that Papa loves everyone equally, but Syl called Coral a liar."

Elthin took in what Coral had to say.

"Syl isn't a meanie." Elthin said. "She has a right to feel the way that she does. What if Syl was getting all the attention you and Lucine are would you feel mad. That we are spending more time with her then you?"

Elthin decided to turn the scenario on Coral.

"Coral knows Papa would never do that." Coral simply replied. "Papa's nice and loves all of us. Coral's certain that Papa would never put Syl over anyone else."

"But take a moment to try and think about how Syl feels. You've clearly been listening to what her and Momma have been talking about. While I know I wouldn't do something like that everI just want you to try and understand how Syl feels."

Coral's purity and innocence could be quite grating at times, as she still didn't grasp what Elthin was trying to put forward.

"Coral knows Syl's not happy, and that's why she's being a meanie. Mama has been talking to Syl about what Papa was trying to tell her. Papa's not good at explaining things, Coral thinks." Coral answered. "Coral doesn't know how it would feel, as Coral hasn't felt it. Coral doesn't want to feel it either. Papa's not going to make Coral sad, is he?"

Coral clearly still didnt understand.

"I'm not going to make you feel sad Coral, but you're right I'm not good at explaining things. Or really being a good parent either. I'm still really new at this and am not sure I'm doing a good job or not." Elthin confessed.

Elthin admitted his own lack of parenting skills.

"Papa will get better, Coral's positive!" Coral replied. "Papa just needs to keep trying."

A rather energetic knocking at the door disturbed the conversation between the people present.

Coral believed Elthin would get better at parenting. Elthin was about to say more when a knock was heard at the door. He knew who it was and went over to the door to let in Duke Trent and his little helper if she came along.

As Elthin had expected, the Guests were Duke Trent and Zena. Zena was in her usual 'Azure Princess Z' outfit, and was staying behind her Guardian, still looking a little annoyed at the fact she's been dragged away to look at a lizard, as she believes.

"Where's the Dragon?" Was the first thing Duke Trent asked when the door was opened. "I've got what you asked for, though I'm not sure what a Dragon would want with children's clothing. She might have a human form, but she's still a Dragon, isn't she?"

Duke Trent first asked where Coral was.

"She's right over there" Elthin pointed out. He looked over at Zena and went as far as to pick her up in a hug and spin her around. "So, glad to see you again" Elthin said before he let go of her and looked back at the Duke.

"She still is a dragon."

Elthin decided to engage in a rather questionable greeting for Zena, picking her up, hugging her and spinning her around. Of course, she didn't seem to pleased, but wasn't angry either.

"Do you always greet people like that?!" Zena retorted when she was finally put down.

Before Duke Trent could search for the 'elusive' dragon, she came to the door once more.

"Papa, who is it?" Coral questioned as she entered the hallway.

"I don't believe it..." Duke Trent commented quietly in awe. "A REAL LIVE DRAGON! Look at her horns and her wings!"

Duke Trent proceeded to do a similar action to what Ellara did when she first saw Coral; Except, Duke Trent's actions where more like a child looking over a new toy than the surgically precise examination Ellara did.

"Have you finally lost it, Big Bro?!" Zena questioned in shock. "That's a girl! She's not a lizard!"

"No I don't but get used to it." Elthin told Zena.

Coral then came over and asked who it was.

"This is Duke Trent and Zena they are friends of mine." Elthin told her. Before he did just what Ellara had done. Soon Zena then spoke up once again "I bet you're jealous."

Elthin introduced Coral to the two guests.

"What have you learned about her?" Duke Trent questioned Elthin. "Is she just like a normal little girl, or is she completely different?"

"Why would I be jealous of Big Bro looking at another girl? I'm not a Brocon!" Zena retorted.
"Zena, I don't know where you learned that word, but you shouldn't be using it." Duke Trent warned Zena..

Duke Trent wished to know what Elthin had learned.

"I know that when I am holding onto her. I am able to see blue floating balls. Which she eats I believe those floating balls. Makes it easier for people to understand each other."

Zeta said she wasn't jealous.

"I believe you are."

Elthin tried to explain how Coral's power works, but, once again, it turned out to confuse rather than to enlighten. After all, it was something that had to be seen to be fully believed.

"That's a rather...vague explanation." Duke Trent replied "
"Uncle Dukey...please stop rubbing Coral's wings." Coral requested between light panting.
"Huh...?" Zena queried in confusion at Coral's chosen name for Duke Trent. The person himself also seemed a little taken aback by the chosen name.

Duke Trent stopped his gently rubbing of Coral's wings between his fingers and released the girl from her euphoria stun. The small dragon collapsed to her knees and started to catch her breath,

"Sorry about that. Your wings are just so silky. It feels like I'm running my fingers through water," Duke Trent apologised to the Dragon.

Elthin's explanation of Coral's powers only seemed to confuse them.

"It's rather hard to explain" Elthin told him.

Coral then spoke up and then Zena did as well.

"Did that hurt? Elthin asked over to Coral as he saw the girl drop to her knees. Trying to catch her breath after what had just happened to her.

Elthin asked if the wing-rubbing hurt the young Dragon.

"No...Coral's just...feeling a little...funny." Coral panted out. "Coral's body feels hot...and...Coral's legs felt weak..."

"Dragons really are complicated things." Duke Trent mused at Coral's admittance. "Still, good to know that I didn't hurt her."

Zena was the one who was even more confused due to this revelation. For the briefest of moments, Zena's eyes glowed with a pale blue luminescence, much like they did back in the video of the Council meeting.

"OhmyGod!" Zena suddenly exclaimed. "She's got wings, and horns?!"

Coral seemed to be doing okay for the most part. "That is very good to hear" Elthin agreed with Duke Trent. He then heard Zena speak and her eyes glowed blue like in the video. She then knew that Coral had wings and horns. "Of course she does she is a dragon".

"Took your time to notice that." Duke Trent answered Zena's outburst. "Thought it'd be pretty simple for you to see. Now, are you convinced that she's a Dragon, and that Dragons aren't just 'big lizards'?"

"Just what did you do to her, Big Bro? She looks completely out of it!" Zena questioned accusingly. "Did you touch her in weird places for 'discovery'?"

"Of course I didn't! I just gave her wings a little rub, that's all."

"It's gotten pretty noisy out here." Ellara commented as she entered the hallway. She noticed Duke Trent and his little companion. Not wanting to miss the chance, Ellara decided to mess with Elthin a little more. "So, we've got Emissaries from a neighbouring Duchy, and you don't even invite them in properly? Well, it'll be your head on the guillotine for treason, not mine."

"I wonder what Zena would be like as a big lizard?" Elthin joked for a rare moment. Then the pair starting talking about touching places badly. Elthin didn't bother to join in. Soon Ellara entered the room.

"They came in after I let the in. Though I bet you go blowing down peoples doors. When you try to enter someone's home." he looked over at her and stood beside her.

"Don't even go there!" Zena countered, sounding a mixture of angry and upset.

When the talk of 'Discovery touching' came around, Elthin finally managed to find his tact and politely kept himself out of the conversation. However, he'd lost this momentary moment of maturity when Ellara came in and messed with him

"Please, I'm a Lady! I'd never blow someone's doors of their hinges, not even the metaphorical doors for euphemisms. Though, having mine blown down might be quite the experience." Ellara retorted. "Aren't you going to offer them a seat? A Drink? A look through embarrassing picture albums?"

Elthin agreed to Zena's terms and didn't press the matter further. Ellara then spoke up once more about offering the others a seat or a drink.

"I'd rather look through your own embarrassing picture albums" Elthin countered. Before he turned back to the others.

"Would either of you like to seat down or have something to drink?" Elthin asked.

"Good luck with that, they're back on Mainland. Hope you can swim well, and are strong enough to swim for nearly two years." Ellara dismissed, unfaltering.

"If you have any Whiskey-" Duke Trent began before being cut off by Zena.

"Soft drinks, for both of us. Whatever you've got, unless you have fizzy drinks." Zena interrupted.

"Coral's thirsty..." Coral added in.

"Let's take this conversation to a more suitable location. Is your sitting room free?" Duke Trent asked. "You've held up your end of the bargain, and now it's time for me to keep up mine."

"I bet you want me to look at them just like Zena here wants me to see hers?"

Duke Trent and Zena and even Coral all wanted something to drink.

"I have soft drinks" Elthin told the pair and looked over to Coral. "What do you want to drink?" He asked before Duke Trent wished to move the conversation to the sitting room.

"It's currently being used as rooms for Freya and the kids. We can move to my office to discuss matters?" Elthin said.

"Don't drag me into your perverted conversations!" Zena retaliated, blushing a deep red.

"Seems like you fancy a Harem of your own. Don't you already have a wild love interest?" Ellara answered, deflecting the probing.

Elthin asked what Coral would like to drink. The Young Dragon possibly had no idea what she was asking for when she confidently answered with:

"Whiskey! Coral wants whiskey."

"Maybe when you're older, half pint." Duke Trent chuckled.

"You're a bad influence on impreshi-, impresho-, impreshen-." Zena cut in, struggling a little with the word she was trying to say.

"You mean 'impressionable', right?" Duke Trent finished for Zena.

"Yeah! That! You're a bad influence on those kind of people!" Zena concluded.

Upon hearing the news of the sitting room being used as lodgings, the offer of using the office was given.

"Wow, you move fast." Duke Trent joked. "Guess we'll have to use that, then."

Zena blushed a deep red and Elthin once more got what he wanted. "I do but right now I wouldn't say I have a love interest but things can change." Elthin said.

Coral wanted to have whiskey which caused Duke Trent to chuckle. "I don't think that would be wise Coral I have to agree with the Duke on this one."

Elthin then led everyone to the kitchen to get them their drinks. Where he gave the Duke and Zena soft drinks and not knowing what Coral wanted some ice water. He turned to look at Ellara who had followed along. "What about you what do you want to drink?"

"Even though you've shacked up with her, she's not considered a love interest? My, you certainly like holding the reins over another." Ellara replied.

"Why can't Coral have Whiskey?" Coral pouted, sounding like a child who'd just been denied sweets.

"Whiskey's an Adult's drink, and you're still a growing girl." Duke Trent explained. "When you're older, you can have more things."

Coral didn't seem satisfied with the answer, but simply huffed and continued to pout.

Drinks were served up, and Coral was given an ice cold water to drink. The fully filtered water may not be ready yet, but a single glass of partially filtered shouldn't cause much harm to a growing dragon.

"Either champagne or wine, whichever you've got more of." Ellara answered. "If not, then, I guess I can settle for some grape juice. Red grape, preferably."

"I just haven't thought of her that way, hey maybe you can be my love interest?" Elthin tried to change the subject.

"You can't because it's bad for you it would make you do funny things. Along with make you feel really bad the next day." Elthin pointed out to Coral who was still pouting, The drinks were then given out and Elthin gave Ellara some grape juice he had wine but didn't want to take it out due to childen being around.

They then moved up to the second floor of the manor and entered into Elthin's office.

"Not likely." Ellara answered dismissively. "You're not my type."

Elthin tried to explain the misuse of alcohol to Coral, but the warning was lost on the youngster.

When the group reached the office, Coral tried to sit on Elthin's lap, as there wasn't a chair next to him. Duke Trent and Zena, as expected, stayed together, and Ellara just leaned in a corner near the door, despite there being available chairs.

Once in his office Coral tried to sit on his lap as there was no chair near him. As he sat at his desk he let Coral sit on his lap while the others took their seats or stood in a corner.

"So, where shall we begin?" Elthin asked Duke Trent.

Coral's lap seat was soon met with a fruitful outcome as she happily snuggled up against Elthin, still pouting slightly from her denial of alcoholic refreshments.

"Firstly, I'd like to know more about the one on your lap, like how she came into this world and what caused her to be born. It doesn't seem like she had what we would call a 'natural birth.' " Duke Trent began.

Elthin let Coral snuggle up against him as he listened to what Duke Trent said.

"That's rather hard to say" Elthin said. He tried to remember what it was that had caused the egg of Coral to appear in the first place.

"I would agree that it wasn't a natural birth."

Elthin was at a loss for how to explain Coral's birth. Thankfully, Ellara was there to support this conversation.

"From what he told me, he said that Coral's egg appeared when he and his SO were having a little domestic. From my knowledge of Dragonkind, the little dragon known as Coral was born from the Sin of 'Wrath', which materialised in the argument between the two." Ellara explained. "Am I missing anything?"

"I believe that Ellara here nailed it with what she had just mentioned." Elthin said. As it was true he had been arguing with Freya at the time and then the egg appeared.

"Perhaps Lucine and Coral are connected in someway that we cannot explain?"

Ellara's explanation was to the point, confirmed by Elthin.

"Sins and Dragons being connected is something we haven't heard before." Duke Trent commented. "Argentian Lore indicates that Dragons are Demi-Gods sent to Earth to cleanse Humanity of their Sins. They're seen as fearsome tyrants, Dictators even, who always seek to gain the position of the most power in Human society so they can amass wealth and status."

"That dunce couldn't even command a baby to cry." Zena interjected, sounding unimpressed.

"Coral's not a dunce. dummy!" Coral shot back.

"I wouldn't call Coral fearsome just yet." Elthin said as he took in what was said. Coral and Zena then argued back and forth. "Zena leave Coral alone." He then patted Coral on the head and tried to cheer her up. "Coral is Coral yet Coral is special in certain kinds of ways just like you are Zena."

"Kids. So troublesome." Ellara sighed as Coral and Zena went about their argument.

"She doesn't quite fit the image we have for her in our history tomes." Duke Trent agreed. "However, she's still just a baby, so she might grow into it."

Coral and Zena engaged in a staring contest with one another upon being told to stop 'verbally' arguing.

"So, where does the other kid fit into this?" Duke Trent asked. "I can see she's not making herself known right now, and I'm starting to think that the lap-resident you have may be the reason behind that."

"I believe that Lucine is still sleeping at this point or maybe is up now." Elthin says. He wondered about her for a moment and looked back at the Duke.

"Maybe she just doesn't want to be around anyone right now due to all that's happened."

"I think you're a little too lax on her, letting her sleep in past noon." Duke Trent answered. "She'll get used to it if you do it too often, and that'll make it harder to get her up before midday."

"She's probably sulking from the spanking she got earlier, at least I think she got one." Ellara interjected. "If she was mine, I'd do more than give her a slap on the wrist after what she did."

There didn't appear to be much more information they could gather about Coral at the moment.

"Keep me updated on her growth. I'd love to study her myself, but she's your kid." Duke Trent requested. "Now, in exchange, you wanted some information about my little troublemaker, didn't you? What'd you like to know?"

"I am not lax with her just too much is going on right now." Elthin sighed. "I am not going to beat her if that is what you mean Ellara."

"I will keep u updated on anything else I find out. As for the troublemaker I would like to know her history what was her life like before she and I first met?"

"That's barbaric, even by my standards. I wouldn't do something as uncouth as that. I'd simply starve the stubbornness out of her. When she finally caves to her thirst and hunger, then she'll be a little more aware of the consequences of her actions. She's hardly going to waste away from being denied a single day's meal now, is she?" Ellara answered.

Elthin wanted to know about Zena's past.

"That's a rather...broad timescale." Duke Trent replied. "I'll start from the top: Before she met me, she was just a normal girl living in one of the outlying villages to Argenta, somewhere along the mountain pass leading into the main city. You'll probably know them as ruins now, considering what happened to you aware of the terrorist attack that happened about five years ago near the Argentian Military Blockade?"

"That won't do anything as I am sure she has gone. Without meals before I could try it i guess?" Elthin said.

He listened as the Duke told of Zenas past.

"Only very little I am afraid. I believe it had something to do with invasion?"

"Oh, yeah, forgot she was a Slummer." Ellara answered. "She's bound to have gone hungry for days on end before, so it probably won't work."

Elthin explained that he had little knowledge on the terrorist attack.

"It wasn't an invasion, it was more of a Suicide Bomber attack." Duke Trent replied.

Before going on any further with explaining things, Duke Trent wanted to ensure that the one in question was okay with it all. Zena had no complaints, a deal was a deal, but she didn't want to be present to hear it all again, so Ellara agreed to wait outside with her.

"You might want to take your little one out as well, if you don't want her hearing all the gory details." Duke Trent cautioned Elthin.

"Suicide Bomber?" Elthin asked.

Duke Trent wouldn't say anything else as Zena. Left the room since she didn't want to hear things again. "Coral I believe it best if you went and played with the others now". Elthin told her.

Elthin decided that it was in Coral's best interest to sit out the current discussion. She was reluctant to leave, but eventually relented and headed off downstairs to possibly spend time with her 'Mother', leaving Elthin and Duke Trent to discuss the attacks on Argenta.

"At the time of the attack, Argenta was expecting a delivery of some materials from Port Ralence. They were imported from the Mainland, but the freight ship that was transporting them had to stop over in Drakmar. It appeared that some Fanatics from the Church of Scales had infiltrated the vessel while it was resupplying on food and other commodities for the Sailors. They managed to avoid detection for the whole journey over to Port Ralence, and, upon arriving, posed as the carriers for the delivery. They got their trader's permits and headed off towards the Argentian Military Blockade.

"When they reached the blockade, they showed their permits and were waved through unopposed. Most of Argenta's Military was off trying to claim the Wilds to the west of the City. You probably know that Argenta is not just a City, it also offers passage over to the Wilds on the other side of the mountain it is situated on. Well, it does now, but it didn't used to.

"The Infiltrators declined an escort, insisting that they were able to fend for themselves and that Argenta's efforts were best focused on their current task. Not all traders passing through wanted escorts, so it wasn't uncommon for one to be declined. They carried on heading up the mountain pass until they reached the first village."

Coral had left the room and Duke Trent started up once more.

"I don't seem to understand why go through all this trouble. I know this is just the beginning of the tale." Elthin said he tried to picture in his mind a group of people doing things like this.

"Because they saw us, and still see us, as Heretics to their religion. Religious extremists will go to any lengths to get their points across, even if that means killing themselves to kill masses of innocent bystanders who happen to live in the same Province." Duke Trent explained.

"The freight we'd requested was highly combustible material used as fuel for our Vehicles. They were a mixture of Greater Fire Elemental Stones and various Alchemical Gasses used to spark the reaction. They were, of course, kept as far apart as possible in transport, even going as far as encasing the Gasses in Lead-lined crates to prevent the magic from the stones seeping in and sparking the reaction.

"Someone must've leaked information to the Church that we were expecting this delivery for them to have been able to hijack the transport and the delivery. Either way, I can only hope that that person went up in the blaze with the village.

"The Extremists parked their cargo in the middle of the village, where the market was currently taking place. Nearly the entirety of the village were there, even though their presence in that exact spot wasn't exactly needed for the carnage to happen. They recited the Mantras of their Church before forcibly shoving the two cargo boxes together, resulting in the contents spilling out and creating a explosion which could rival that of which happened in Gott during the Great War.

"The Tremors shook the whole mountainside, causing what little was left of the village to fall victim to a landslide, sealing the fate of everyone present. When the guards from the main City noticed the explosion, it was already too late. The entirety of the Royal Guard rushed over there, myself included, to try and rescue as many people as we could, though it was mostly a wasted effort."

Elthin listened as even more was explained to him.

"Were you able to find out who the person was who leaked the infomation?" Elthin asked. Wondering just who could have been the one to do so.

"We could never find out who'd leaked information, or even if it was leaked. That's why I hope that they went up with the Village. We have yet to have another tragedy like that, and I hope to whatever Deities are out there that we don't have to experience that again." Duke Trent answered before continuing with the recount.

"When we reached the village, the inferno was so powerful that we had to petition the aid of the Magicians from Brascus to quench the flames. Thankfully, we managed to search most of the village while they rushed over. As we thought, nobody survived the blast. After all, there was around a few hundred Greater Fire Elemental Stones, which house as much fire as a volcanic eruption, and several tonnes of flammable gasses and materials. We're still unsure as to how the whole mountain hadn't collapsed under that blast.

"When we were about to return to the city to mourn the losses of the village, I heard something which sounded like soft sobbing on the wind. I initially dismissed it, putting it down to a trick on the wind, but, as I moved closer to the source, the sound got a little louder. I couldn't have been hearing things. I rushed over to where I heard the noise, hefted piles of charred wood and debris from there, and found a small girl, barely holding on to life, impaled into the ground through her stomach with a sharp metal fence pole, believed to have come from the house she was buried under.

"Seeing just one life holding on after the carnage bought pain to me. This poor girl must have experienced her whole village burn to ash while being in agonising pain, seeing her life ebb away in a river of red pooling from her, witnessing the deaths of friends and family, being powerless to stop it from happening. I knew she was beyond saving, at least in this vessel.

"She pleaded for me to make the pain stop, to save her from whatever fate lied before her, begging me to do anything I could to keep her alive. I've been trained in Field Medicine, but she was beyond any form of triage. The only option I had was the Item I always carried on me. A Soul Battery, as I call it. It's what powers the personal guards of Agentian Royalty. You already know what they are, and how they are made. I offered this option to her, warning her of what it included, even going as far as claiming it to be a fate worse than death, but she just weakly smiled at me and said she'd go for anything to live for longer. So, with a heavy heart and tears misting up my eyes, I placed the Soul battery against her chest, and switched it on. Soon enough, the life further drained from her already pale face, and her body fell limp. The Soul Battery thrummed to life and lit up in its sickly blue colour."

After recounting this part, Zena had returned to the room.

"So, as you probably know, that girl I imprisoned was none other than Zena." Duke Trent concluded as he patted Zena on the shoulder. "She's now a Servitor, but not just any Servitor. She's the most powerful Servitor in the history of Argenta. She's the most cutting edge of all technology we have, capturing the passing of life to near perfect detail. She's a human in a metal shell. Maintaining all human traits, even down to the very mechanisms inside her. She's just like any normal girl."

"If you want, I can show you the rest. It's stored in my memory. All you'll need to do is touch my forehead and close your eyes. Don't try anything perverted, though, as I could easily beat you down to a pulp." Zena offered, sounding more serious than she had ever done before.

Elthin listened to all that was said. Taking it all in slowly making sure everything was alright. "So Zena is just a metal shell of her former self. Yet she still looks like you and me?" Elthin asked.

Zena returned to the room. "No thanks I would most likely see something inside that mind that would blind me for life. Anyway I wish not to see anything further that's your own stuff".

"She's far more than just a metal shell. She's the pinnacle of Magitech in all of the Five Continents." Duke Trent countered. "She's a near perfect humanoid Servitor. She can do everything we can, including the gathering and disposal of waste products in the form of filtered, purified water!"

"BIG BRO!" Zena cut in, blushing a deep crimson. "He doesn't need to know that!"

"But that's your best feature! It's an exact replica of the human digestive system, tweaked to near perfection!" Duke Trent insisted. "I spent months working on your finer details to give you the closest existence to real life."

Elthin's comment in regards to being shown Zena's memory banks turned her attention from her Surrogate Big Brother,

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Zena questioned Elthin.

"I didn't need to know that but its nice to know." Elthin gave Zena an evil grin then returned his face to normal. "Are there people out there who have tried to replicate what you've created?" Elthin asked.

Zena wished to know something.

"Am not telling."

"I doubt it. Most people see what I did as the epitome of heresy. I technically created another life by enslaving the soul of an existing one and trapping it in a metal body." Duke Trent answered. "That's not exactly the most 'Religious Friendly' way of making a Sentinel, or a Servitor for that matter. In addition, without the history Argenta has for replicating life in machinery, and researching the very working of the human body down to the smallest of cells, something like Zena will be impossible to replicate."

"It took Big Bro three months of working endlessly just to get the internal mechanisms right." Zena commented. "Not to mention how long it took him to produce this skin-like shell around the Sentinel base unit."

"Reproducing Skin cells with magic takes an extremely long time. I had to requisition the best Magicians from the Mainland just to get the shell made for the body." Duke Trent clarified. "Overall, it took nearly half a year just to get Zena's new body working and cosmetically complete."

"What of the Archmage surely he would be interested. In getting his hands in something like this?" Elthin asked. He looked over at Zena then back at the Duke. He then got up and started to walk around the room.

"She's far from Archeotech, so it's not something the Archmage has much interest in. Of course, her base design of a near perfect humanoid Servitor is Archeotech in nature, but the methods used to create her are as modern as we can get." Duke Trent explained. "According to history Tomes in Argenta, Fully Sentient Humanoid Servitors used to cover most military personnel in the time before the Great War."

Elthin listened to what was said and stopped his pacing. "But don't you ever worry about how someone might. Try to replicate your work or somehow make Zena into a weapon if they were to capture her?"

"If you think she hasn't the capability to be a weapon, then you've clearly not been listening to the fact that she's my Personal Bodyguard." Duke Trent answered. "Underestimate her at your own peril."

"I could easily kick your ass if I was asked to." Zena boasted. "However, I'm a good girl, and I won't go around beating up old men for my own enjoyment."

"It's true that someone could attempt to copy the blueprints, but there's only one set of them in existence, and their location is sealed with warding that only people I allow can pass through." Duke Trent explained. "If anyone else tried to force their way in, they'd trigger the ward and...well, let's just say it won't end well for them."

"Your so full of yourself" Elthin warned her. He had been listening to the Duke speak. "I believe you no need to go that far." He started walking around again. "Does she suffer from any weaknesses?"

Elthin asked if Zena suffered from any kind of weaknesses.

"That, I'm afraid, I can't tell you. After all, she is what's mostly standing between me and Death." Duke Trent answered. "If you knew her weaknesses, then you could easily overpower her and take me out as well. I'm not a fighter, I'm a diplomat"

"Safety first!" Zena cut in. "We're not telling you a single thing about that."

"That's too bad" Elthin said. As he could have used Zenas weakness against her if. She passed him off enough. "I have no reason to take you out at all. Why even think of such a thing?"

"When you're in my line of work, or position, more accurately, it pays to be a little paranoid of others." Duke Trent explained. "If I went around trusting people if I thought they were nice, then I'd likely end up dead, or in danger at least, more often than I would be safe. It's not just you, I'm a little wary of everyone's allegiances unless they've consistently shown otherwise. I only have a tenuous trust in The Elder, even, and he's not done anything overtly against me, but I can never be too sure. Brascus and Argenta were enemies before the Great War, and we only have an uneasy alliance at the moment under the Archmage's Banner. Don't get me wrong, he seems like a nice enough Person, but survival instincts kick in before comfort does."

Elthin listened to what was said.

"There are many enemies out there and trust. Is hard to come by it really must be earned." Elthin told him as he returned to his seat.

"Even in the work I do both here and at home is hard."

A mutual agreement for withholding information was wordlessly held between the trio present.

"Anyway, we seem to have gone slightly off topic. Is there anything else you wanted to know about Zena, or would you like to get back to your newest family member? She's likely a little lonely now if the other kids aren't playing with her." Duke Trent offered.

"I will ask again about Zena later. As I am sure as you pointed out Coral might be lonely." Elthin got up and headed towards the door he opened it. And waited for the others to join him outside.

Elthin decided to pay a visit to Coral before discussing business further. Duke Trent and Zena joined him outside of the meeting room.

"There're four little ones and only two adults, things are going to get pretty hectic. Even Zena can be a handful for me sometimes, and she's all on her own." Duke Trent commented.

"I'm not as bad as some kids in my class are. Some are so bad that they're made to live in the dorms rather than at home!" Zena retorted.

"Now we know that's not true. Some of those kids prefer the independence of living in the School Dorms over their own homes as it helps to set them up for later life." Duke Trent countered. "There're important life skills to be learned from living alone."

Parental conversations could carry on for quite a while, but a sudden startled shout from downstairs drew the group away from parental bonding.

"Put that dress back on right now young lady!" Ellara called after a troublesome minor. "It's indecent to be running around in just your underwear!"

"Don't wanna!" Coral shouted back, sounding very much like she was heading up the stairs right now. "It's all stuffy and heavy and not cute!"

And Coral was, indeed, charging up the stairs, wearing nothing but a pastel pink vest and panties combo with small red polka dots on them. It also looked like she'd tried to remove her underwear as well, as they were quite dishevelled and nearly falling off her as she was running up the stairs. Like she normally does, Coral soon dived onto Elthin and began to regale how 'badly treated' she was by the 'old lady'.

"Coral kept saying how stuffy those clothes were, but the mean old lady ordered Coral to keep them on! No matter how much Coral complained and tried to take them off, the old lady always put them back on Coral. Tell the mean old lady to stop being mean to Coral, Papa!"

Elthin and the others went back to the living room. Where Coral was running around in her underwear with Ellara trying to get Coral to redress herself. "I already see what you mean." Elthin sighed.

Coral soon jumped onto him and explained how things were.

"Coral it isn't nice to be running in your underwear. Or to be naked even in public. We must always wear a set of Clothes unless we are bathing. Please put the dress back on?" Elthin asked.

Elthin, not understanding just how to approach a stripping child, requested that Coral put the dress back on.

"NO! Coral said no, Papa, so no!" Coral pouted back, stubbornly refusing to even considering redressing herself. "That dress is too stuffy and heavy! Coral wants something better!"

"I had a feeling that you'd be experiencing clothing issues." Duke Trent commented. "You asked me to bring some clothes along, didn't you? Perhaps we should try them on her and see what she thinks."

"Oh, yeah! I left those in the kitchen. I'll go get them." Zena agreed before turning to Elthin. "You really are a perv. You've got a half-naked girl diving on you and refusing to put her clothes on. I feel like you're a bad example for young minds."

On that parting comment, Zena headed downstairs, narrowly avoiding Ellara, who came charging up the stairs brandishing Coral's discarded dress. Ellara tried once more to insist that Coral redresses herself, but nothing was getting through to the stubborn dragon at all. Thankfully, Zena quickly came back with a small bag and produced a folded up set of clothes from it when she reached the others.

"Perhaps she'll like this." Zena suggested as she unfolded the clothes.

The clothes they'd bought across appeared to be a one-piece navy blue swimsuit and a white and yellow sailor uniform shirt, with a big yellow bow in the middle of the collar. Coral's attention was soon turned to the clothing produced as she began to take off her underwear. Seeing the imminent strip, Duke Trent casually turned around and put his back to Coral before she'd managed to even grasp at her underwear. It was almost like the motion was done with practised ease.

With much struggling from Ellara to try and keep Coral in some semblance of decent attire, Coral was soon speed dressed in the outfit provided. It fit her nice and snug and still left growing room. It was a little weird to see someone dressed in nothing but a swimsuit and a shirt, but Coral seemed to be delighted with the clothing.

"It's nice and cool and cute and easy to move in." Coral appraised her outfit. "Coral thinks it's perfect!"

While the troublesome dragon may have finally been dressed, she didn't exactly pick up her discarded clothes, leaving the set of underwear she had on at her feet on the floor. Once the change was done, Duke Trent turned back around to see the dragon her in new clothing.

"Knew Zena couldn't have been much bigger than her." He commented. "That should do her for a couple of years, I'd think. Dragons don't grow very quickly, after all. At least that's what all the books say."

"Coral please put the dress back on. Unless you wish to be punished?" Elthin said he was about to do something when. Duke Trent spoke up again. "Yeah you did." Zena then also spoke up before leaving the room.

"At least I don't wet myself." Elthin countered back.

Soon they came back with some clothes and helped. Coral into them "I thank you for helping settle things down."

"It's fine. I know how hard it can be raising children." Duke Trent responded. "When Zena brings her friends around from school it gets twice as noisy as this place does."

"Hey! They're not that bad!" Zena countered. "Only Naru is noisy, and she's the biggest weirdo of my friends. B-But she's not a bad weirdo, she's just a little eccentric!"

"Isn't she that crazy collector for all things Makki? That's the name of that little pink half-human half cat figure, right?"

"While I would love to listen to your friendship circle, I think that little brat needs punishing." Ellara interjected in regards to Coral's behaviour. "She doesn't listen to her elders and she's also completely devoid of all human decency."

"Oh lets hear more about Zena's life" Elthin wanted to now know embarrassing moments he could use against her. If things took a turn for the worse.

Elthin listened to what Ellara had said. "Coral you really need to learn to behave" Elthin sighed.

"Let's not hear more about my life in the presence of this perv!" Zena swiftly retaliated.

"You should come to Argenta some time. We've got a few spare rooms at home you could populate for your stay. That is, if you don't mind helping out in some places. We might be friends, but nobody can stay for free. That's the basics of the world. Everybody's gotta pull their own weight." Duke Trent suggested. "Just let me know when you want to come over and I can put in a word with the Guild to let you portal to us. That'll save on travelling time."

Elthin attempted to act parental to Coral in response to Ellara's interjection.

"But Coral does behave. It's just the mean old lady saying Coral doesn't." Coral pouted "Coral's not done anything wrong."

Zena spoke up but Elthin ignored her request. He instead went over and pinched her bottom in return. "That sounds like a nice idea but let me get back to you. On when I am free due to i have lot of things going on at present. Plus I will help out anyway that I can" Elthin offered.

He listened as Coral spoke then looked at Ellara. Then back at Coral once more. "I have to agree with Ellara here and since she was the one who. You misbehaved to she can punish you."

Elthin politely declined the offer for now, saying that business came first.

"Whenever you get the time, you know how to get in touch with me." Duke Trent answered. "Bring everyone along with you, we've got the room to spare. I'm sure Freya and her little ones will enjoy the big city."

"I'll be sure to keep Naru posted on your behaviour, miscreant! She'll make sure you stay in line." Zena commented.

"Thought COG was very busy? They'll not likely have the time or manpower to keep watch of every outlander who comes in the city." Duke Trent interjected before elaborating on the acronym he used to Elthin. "COG stands for 'City Order Governors'. They're a civilian group of volunteers who're trained to keep watch of the city and apprehend any criminals until the City Guard turn up. Think of them like Vigilantes which are endorsed by the ruling bodies of Argenta to help out the city guard and take care of petty crimes so the actual City Guard can focus on the more dangerous ones."

Elthin then resumed his lecture to Coral, who just pouted and didn't seem to be listening. He offered up the chance for Ellara to punish Coral, as she was the one who was wronged by the young Dragonling.

"You better prepare yourself, kid." Ellara grinned at Coral, who soon looked a little scared by the idea of being punished by someone other than Elthin.

Ellara slowly approached Coral as the Dragonling just sat there trembling a little and staring at her impending punishment. When Ellara reached Coral, she slowly raised her right hand up to Coral's face, causing the Dragonling to flinch away, close her eyes and start whimpering. When the actual punishment came...

Ellara just gently flicked Coral's forehead, causing a yelp from the young girl.

"I'll let you off the hook this time as you're still a baby. You were just born a few hours ago, after all. I want you to learn proper manners before we meet again, otherwise you'll get a much harder flicking. Am I clear?" Ellara cautioned the young Dragon, who just nodded in response.

"I know I will keep in touch though" Elthin says. As he then watched what sort of punishment that. Ellara would do on Coral all she did was flick her forehead. "Now that all that is taken care of what next?" Elthin asked he went over and took Corals hand.

Elthin asked what to do next after Coral's punishment was dished out.

"Well, I think we can concluded business, unless you've got something else to discuss or trade." Duke Trent answered "Wouldn't want to take up too much of your time, after all. We're both busy people. Oh, one more thing. Just some advice from one parent to the next: Don't want to sound rude, but you're kind of forgetting about someone. Why not pay her a visit and talk to her for a while? Don't get too angry with her, no matter what she may do or say, she's had a difficult time, after all. Just hear her out and lay down a few rules as nicely as you possibly can. She might just want to vent a few frustrations and that's why she's acting up. Sometimes, listening is the best thing you can do with someone."

The was nothing else to speak about. Yet Duke Trent mentioned that he was forgetting a certain someone. And should go speak with them.

"You mean Lucine right?" Elthin sighed.

He had been forgetting about her as other things were on his mind. "I better go speak with her then. I believe this will take some time. Ellara can escort you back to your room for the night."

Elthin, realising that he'd been neglecting someone, decided to correct the wrong he'd done, but unwittingly commit another at the same time. Ellara looked extremely displeased by the supposed direction that she'd be escorting Duke Trent and Zena back to the Guild so they could return to Argenta.

"Quite a pair you have on you to assume that an Inquisitor of my rank will act as your personal Housekeeper." Ellara commented, fighting back anger while keeping an even tone. "You're lucky that I have business to discuss, so I'll do this of my own volition and not because you told me to."

"The words come but there's a broken link between thought and mouth." Duke Trent playfully jested.

"You'd best be on perfect behaviour when you come to Argenta. Naru will know of your deeds, and she'll make sure to keep the young of Argenta safe from your thieving clutches." Zena cautioned Elthin with an accusatory pointing gesture.

After goodbyes were said, Duke Trent and his little group left Elthin's home and headed back to the Guild, leaving Elthin with his current task.

Ellara seemed angry with his request.

"Well this is my request for all the trouble you've caused me. So you can do this one thing for me" Elthin stated.

He looked over at Zena.

"The same can be said for you. I don't want you going crazy when I visit." Elthin says he walks to her then whispers in her ear.

"Or show me yourself naked" he then waved goodbye to the others and headed to check on Lucine.

Elthin's parting comment to Zena silenced her and caused her face to take on a reddish hue. She tried to counter with a smart comment, but the words just didn't leave her mouth, she simply stammered for a second or two before taking off down the street as fast as she could. There was certain to be some drawback for such a brazen joke, but only time could tell.

Once the guests had been shown out of the house, Elthin went to check on the one he'd been avoiding for most of the day. There was no noise coming from her room. She might be asleep, or she may just be keeping quiet for her own reasons. After all, she hadn't shown herself since Elthin had punished her earlier.

Elthin watched as Zena ran off with a blush. On her face he had enough fun for now as he again waved goodbye. Before going back inside he went straight for the trouble makers room. He stood outside her door and knocked upon it.

"Its me may I come in?" Elthin asked.

He got no answer from her so he waited a short time before repeating what he just did.

Elthin attempted to draw Lucine out of her room by knocking on her door and waiting, even though there was not a single sound coming from the room in question. If she wasn't in the mood to talk, then she wouldn't likely put herself out to do so, so waiting around may just be wasted effort.

After getting no initial response, Elthin tried again. This time, a 'thud' came from the other side of the door, much like a pillow or some soft object was thrown at the door in response.

Elthin heard the sound if something. Thrown against the door which made a thud on impact. Not letting this chance pass up he announced. "I am coming in" Elthin let himself into the room. He stayed near the door.

"Your not going to be hiding in here. All day are you?" Elthin asked.

Elthin decided that, as he was getting no sense out of Lucine, he was free to let himself into her room. After all, she hadn't said otherwise. Lucine was lying on her bed facing the wall. She was likely huddled up against a pillow, possibly the one which was now discarded on the floor near the door. She hadn't changed out of her street clothes, so she'd probably been like this since she took off after her punishment. Upon entering, Elthin posed a rhetorical question which was, surprisingly, met with an answer.

"What does it matter? It's not like I'm wanted anywhere else." Lucine responded, sounding forlorn and very much unlike her normal self. "You've got your little 'Dragon' friend, and your bit on the side, so I'm nothing more than unwanted baggage, you said so yourself."

"If you weren't wanted then I wouldn't be here. Besides that don't you think its time to bury all that has. Happened between in the past I know things can't be undone. But at least we can move forward and try and set things right?" Elthin asked.

He could still see that she was dressed in the same clothes as before. "Anyway you're as much apart of this family as Coral and the others are"

Elthin attempted to console the sulking girl, but he wasn't getting very far.

"You're just saying that to try and make me feel better. It's not going to work. You've already said how easy your life would be without me, and you've even tried to get rid of me on several occasions. All nobles are the same. You just see us Slum Dwellers as lower than vermin."

"If I had truly thought that I wouldn't have taken you into my home when we first met. Would you have liked it if we had never met each other?" Elthin asked. He walked over to her and sat down on the other side of the bed beside her. "Or is there more to this then that?"

" I just want to be accepted somewhere for who I am, and not what 'powers' I may not even have. You only took me in so you could turn me into a tool for war, didn't you? That's what all Guild Members do." Lucine replied. "If I didn't carry any of these so called 'powers' you wouldn't have even given me a passing glance, let alone take me in. You just want me for what destruction I can cause."

"I took you in for other reasons and not just that. I didn't want to see you suffer and thought perhaps you could use a better life. One that could open up a whole new set of doors for you." Elthin informed her. She only thought he wanted to use her for nothing more than destruction.

"Then prove it. All you've done so far is pushed me to understand this...this 'thing' I have inside of me. You've not once asked me what I wanted to do instead of leafing through duty old books and trying to learn the basics of reading and writing. You're trying to turn me into a model Noble without thinking about what I want."

Lucine's retort wasn't one of anger, it was more one of sorrow. She possibly just wanted a normal life sometimes, one where she can just be a child and not a Magician.

"What is it that you want to do now how do you wish to go forward with your life?" Elthin asked. Thinking about what would be the best sort of way to get through to Lucine with what she would like to do.

"I want to see the world. I don't want to be a prisoner in this city any longer. I couldn't leave before as I never could've gotten enough stuff to keep me alive for a day outside of the city. I've been trapped in the Slums all my life, and I want change. I want to know about what goes on outside of city walls." Lucine answered.

Lucine wished to see the world outside.

"This might be some news you should find interesting." Elthin said. Before telling Lucine just what that news was. "How would you like to visit Duke Trents home he has invited me overthere when I have a free moment. if you'd like why not come along and see what the outside world has to offer?"

The idea of visiting Argenta seemed to perk Lucine up a bit. She was no longer lying on her side and was now beginning to push herself up into a sitting position.

"You mean we can go to Argenta?" Lucine questioned, not quite believing what she was hearing. "But they've not let travellers in for a while now."

"Yes, we can visit Argenta" this seemed to have caused Lucine to move.

"We just need to speak with the Duke and set up a time to visit. When would you wish to leave?" Elthin asked.

Elthin confirmed that a visit to Argenta was available.

"Like, now!" Lucine quickly shot back. "As soon as you can! Tomorrow, even, if today can't happen."

Lucine was now more like the child she was meant to be, bubbling over with excitement at the thought of visiting a new place.

Lucine wished to go now or even tomorrow.

"Let's speak with the Duke to see what we can do, it might not be able to happen today or tomorrow. As these things take time to set up but let's see what we can do?" Elthin said. Seeing as Lucine was filled with excitement.

The news of the trip potentially being delayed didn't do much to cheer Lucine up, however, her previous sadness was replaced with minor frustration.

"That's so annoying!" Lucine pouted. "I wanna go there right now! Can't you talk to him and get it set up? How hard can it be to say 'yes' to a trip where I could learn something?"

Lucine seemed annoyed that they couldn't go right then and there

"We can try talking with him right now if you'd like?" Elthin tells her he takes her hand. Gently pulling her along until they are out of her room. And walking towards the magical communications device. It was a short walk and they arrived Elthin turned on the device.

Elthin proposed the idea of trying to get in touch with Duke Trent there and then to try and arrange a visit to Argenta. Lucine had no objections, and didn't seem to react adversely to the sudden physical contact between the two in the form of hand holding. Soon enough, the pair reached the Communication Device and Elthin switched it on. The Device booted up in its relatively slow way and it prompted for an connection to be established.

"Papaaaaaaa!" Coral whined, her voice originating from a little ways down the hall from the pair. "Coral feels funny..."

Elthin waited for the device to make a connection. When he then heard Corals voice call out to him about how she felt funny. He was torn on what to do.

"What do you mean by funny?" Elthin answered wanting to know what it was. "If you need to use the bathroom you can ask Momma for help. As I am a little busy at the moment." Elthin hoped that was what the problem was.

Elthin asked what was wrong with Coral while the device began making an active link.

"Coral's tummy feels heavy, and Coral's legs are shaking. Coral can't move as fast as she could before, and every step hurts Coral's tummy." Coral vaguely explained. Her symptoms, while rather lacking in detail, did fit with an urge to relive oneself. Maybe her body knows what to do, yet her mind is still behind in practical education on matters of natural bodily functions.

Looking over Coral a bit, it was soon evident that she did, indeed, look to be in dire need to a toilet. Her legs were locked tightly together and one of her hands was latched against the crotch of her swimsuit. Her body was trembling ever so slightly with exertion of keeping the flood at bay. She was evidently straining to keep any leaks in, and still didn't appear to be any wiser as to what Elthin had said to her. Raising a Dragon, no, raising any child was difficult, and Elthin hadn't the experience with the earlier, more problematic, ages yet, as Lucine was already past them.

"You deal with the talking, I'll take care of the toddler over there." Lucine sighed, offering, for once, to help out her younger 'sibling'. "I can't allow you to lay your hands all over her body in this state as you 'attempt' to try and figure out what's wrong. When I come back I expect good news only, or I won't be very happy."

After volunteering herself to properly toilet train Coral, Lucine headed over to the troubled Dragon and carefully led her to the toilet.

Thankfully, a connection was now established on the Communication Device and it prompted for a recipient to be decided upon.

It turned out Elthin was right about what. Coral had wanted yet she didn't seem to be asking her mother for help. In fact it was Lucine. Who said she would take care of things. "Don't even start with that stuff again." Elthin sighed.

He wasn't in the mood for Lucine's attitude problems. But as she went off to do things. The device was soon connected and he turned to it.

"May I speak with Duke Trent please?"

Leaving the two girls to their own devices for now, Elthin requested to speak to Duke Trent. The Device began linking up a connection, and, like normal, it went through quickly. However, this time, it went to Duke Trent straight away, and wasn't diverted to Zena.

"I wasn't expecting a call so quickly after we just left. How did things go with your 'handful'? She stopped sulking yet?" Duke Trent answered.

Duke Trent picked up and was surprised. To see that Elthin had returned to call him sooner then. He thought he would have done.

"She has stopped doing that. Which is good but the reason I am calling is. I'd like to try and set a trip to your homeland. I told Lucine about it and she would like to tag along."

Elthin went straight to the point with the reason he called.

"No beating around the bush there." Duke Trent commented with a smile. "She really that eager to see the Rust bucket of a city Argenta is? It may take a little while to get things set up but, if you're really that fixed on getting her to come here, then I'd say get in touch with us again tomorrow afternoon. We should have things mostly presentable then, and you could even stay the night should you want to."

"I wish I was but Lucine has her heart set on seeing the place. Plus she wants to leave as soon as possible."

Duke Trent said they were free to come visit tomorrow if they wished.

"Then I will speak with you tomorrow. Perhaps in exchange to would care to visit my homeland sometime?"

Elthin agreed to the proposed arrival time from Duke Trent, and offered a chance of a visit in return.

"I'd like to, but I'm sadly a little too busy right now with everything to spend a lot of time away from Argenta. Quick visits like the one today are allowed, but anything longer than a couple of hours and things might get a little out of hand. You'll see what I mean when you come here."

Elthin listened.

"I can totally agree with that. I do need to return home as it has been too long since my last visit." Elthin sighed for a moment. Thinking about how he had been putting off his own return.

"We can discuss this at another time, but if you need help with anything let me know?"

Elthin expressed minor dissent for returning to his own Hometown.

"Sure. If I need anything, I'll give you a shout. Same goes for you, you know I'm just a call away if your two bundles of joy act up a little." Duke Trent answered. "Now, I'm going to have to cut this about now. We're about to go through the portal, and portal travel doesn't really go well with communications. Talk to you again."

When goodbyes were exchanged, the call was ended.

He took his mind off his own problems.

Duke Trent after saying his piece cut out. Leaving Elthin alone he left in search of Lucine and Coral having. A sort of feeling that they might be fighting again.

After closing the call with Duke Trent, Elthin went in search of the two girls who left a little earlier, expecting them to be fighting once more. However, strangely, they were not, for the most part, at least not right now, anyway.

Elthin found both Lucine and Coral outside of the toilet, with Lucine lecturing the young dragon about the whole ordeal she was forced to explain to her. Something so basic as a simple toilet training escaped Coral, but her body seemed to understand just what was needed, and when it was needed. Dragons were curious creatures.

"...that's it. You got it ?" Lucine finished. Elthin only managed to catch the last part of their talk.

"Coral already said Coral knows!" Coral countered, pouting more out of annoyance than anger.

"Then prove it to me! Go pee all by yourself next time." Lucine concluded. In her 'big sister' state, she hadn't caught on to Elthin arriving in the middle of their discussion.

When he found them Lucine appeared to be lecturing Coral.

"You should listen to your big sister Coral, she is only trying to help you out." Elthin says. He turned his gaze over to Lucine.

"There wasn't any trouble was there?"

Elthin decided to intrude on the talk between the girls.

"Yes, listen to your big sister." Lucine agreed with a nod. She still hadn't caught on to Elthin being there yet.

"Papa as well?" Coral mumbled to herself, understanding that Elthin was taking Lucine's side in this dispute.

Lucine finally noticed that Elthin was present when he addressed her directly. She looked a little surprised to see him so soon, but that passed.

"That blue bedwetter could've told us how to get those damn clothes off before she left." Lucine explained. "I had to feel around for some kind of zip, or something. I only got them down by accident when I pushed on the sides of her clothes."

"The little bits of metal stick together and hold up this part." Coral explained as she pulled on the crotch of her swimsuit, only to have Lucine quickly push it back in place.

"There's some kind of metal thing in the material which hold that part to the rest of it. When pushed on, they lose their stickiness and it just falls down." Lucine quickly clarified to prevent Coral's innocence from getting Elthin in trouble.

Elthin was only taking a side as he didn't want to see Coral end up having an accident. "I think I get the picture of what you just told me and I don't need to know anymore." he decided to try and change the topic.

"I've set things up and we can go see Duke Trent and Zena tomorrow. It can only be for a few hours though. But that should give you more then enough time to slowly start to see the outside world."

Elthin understood the gist of the walkthrough on Argentian Clothing and requested to not hear any more about it. He then changed the topic to one related to the origin of the clothing.

"You're not joking right?" Lucine asked, not quite beliving what she was hearing. Her eyes had the glow of childhood excitement in them. "If you are, I'll really make you pay." Her threat didn't really sound that convincing with how happy she sounded.

"Can Coral come, too?" Coral questioned, not quite showing the same excitement as Lucine was.

"Why would I be?" Elthin asked.

He could see the excitement in Lucine's eyes but it was could to see her happy again. He looked over at Coral. "Yes, you can come so can the others" Elthin told her.

On the confirmation, no words came from Lucine. All that came was something very unlike her at all. She dived onto Elthin and held him in a tight hug as excited laughter came from her. This had definitely changed her previous foul mood.

"Oh, Coral likes that." Coral answered with a smile, she then noticed Lucine had grabbed Elthin and refused to be outdone. She also dived on Elthin and held him in a tight hug, trying to push Lucine out of the way, but not quite succeeding.

Both girl's then dived onto him when the got the news hugging him tightly. Elthin hugged both girl's back and gave then pats of the head. Before letting both girl's go "I want you both to be on your best behavior while we are there understand?" Elthin told them.

Elthin relished in the attention from his two adorable daughters(?) and cautioned them to be on their best behaviour in Argenta. Lucine just gave two excited nods, her mouth not able to form words in her current hyper state.

"Coral will." Coral answered with a smile as Elthin patted her head.

"We should go tell the others the news and make plans for tomorrow." Elthin told them.

He soon headed towards where the others were.

Elthin decided that everyone needed to hear the news so he went in search of the three he'd neglected with his business meeting. Syl and Willow were still in the sitting room, entertaining themselves by leafing through some books which are likely impossible for them to understand. Whether they came from Elthin's library, or were salvaged from Freya's home was unclear. All that was known was that Syl was looking through a book titled 'An illustrated guide to the human anatomy'. Does that mean...? Oh no...

Elthin arrived at where Freya and the others were. Busy making the most of their time reading books.

"Enjoying those?" He asked.

After he had gotten their answer he told them his news.

"This might seem like short notice but. Would you three like to go on a trip tomorrow to Argenta?"

Freya wasn't with the other children at first, but she came in from the kitchen when Elthin started talking.

"What's a 'Repra...repre...repro...Reproductive Organ?" Syl questioned as she pointed towards something in the book she was reading. It was an illustration of the interior structure of the male anatomy, particularly around the genitalia. Not something a girl her age should really be reading, or asking about for that matter. "Why don't I have a penis? Am I not old enough for one yet?"

This wasn't going to be easy to explain...

Instead of answering, Willow just nodded in response. At least the book she was reading was about cooking recipes rather than the human body.

Eventually, Elthin managed to de-rail Syl's sexual curiosity with a proposition of a trip to Argenta.

"I haven't been there in a long time." Freya answered. "It'll be nice to see how the old City is doing."

"Will we get to see Zena?" Syl asked.

"Is Naru gonna be there?" Willow questioned.

Elthin saw as Freya walked into the room. Before Syl changed everything about speaking of not having a penis. He looked over to see the book she was reading. Saw the picture and quickly took the book. "That's something you shouldn't be reading or worrying about."

The topic changed for the better.

"Yes you can visit Zena but who is Naru? "

Elthin quickly removed the questionable material from the impressionable girl's hands. She didn't look too happy until Freya passed her a more child-friendly copy of a similar reference book. This seemed to keep her wrath at bay, at least for now.

Elthin asked who this 'Naru' was.

"You don't know Naru?!" Willow questioned, shock evident in her tone. "How can you not know Naru?! She's one of the best COG officers Argenta has to offer! She has a 90% success rate for criminal captures and she's only as old as Big Sis Zena!"

"Naru is one of Zena's friends who's a member of COG. I think the Duke explained that acronym to you?" Freya clarified. "Willow's very fond of her and always likes to hear about her exploits."

Elthin tried to think if he had heard Naru before but couldn't place it. He might of heard the Duke mention the name somewhere before. But might of forgot about it with all the stuff that had been going on lately.

"I can't really say honsetly, I think the Duke may of mentioned that to me before. But I might have forgotten about it."

Catching on to Elthin's lack of knowledge on the subject, Freya enlightened him once more.

" 'COG' stands for 'City Order Governors'. They're a group of civilians who volunteer to help the City Guard out by taking care of petty criminals and keeping the peace in the city. Despite being a volunteer group, they still have to undergo Officer Training up to the level of basic self-defence in at least three styles, all using different parts of the body should some parts become inoperable due to restraints or injuries. In short, they're basically City Watch."

"Oh, yeah" Elthin finally remembered.

He had remembered hearing about that group now. But his memory was still fuzzy in parts about the going ons of that group. "Some places have those types of groups" He walked over and took a seat besides Willow and Syl. "But why comman civilians don't they know what sort of danger they are getting into?"

"I take it you've not visited Argenta in recent years?" Freya answered. "The City Guard have been so busy defending the Border from the Western Wildlands that they just can't keep track of the internal plights of the city. Most of the time, COG Officers just detain the criminals until City Guard can get there. On rare occasions are they expected to make arrests, though that's fully within their power."

"Naru's a super awesome Wind Kinetic! She can warp around like 'whoosh!' and create gusts of wind like 'fwoosh!' to knock the bad guys on the floor!" Willow chimed in, sounding very much like a fangirl to a superhero. "When those don't work, she can warp behind the bad guys and deliver a swift kick of justice. Kapow!""

"Not recently I'm afriad."

"Sounds, like a tuff job but if they enjoy helping others that's a good sign." Elthin said. Taking everything in that was told of him. "I take it that you are a fan of Naru's from just listening to what you've described of her?"

Elthin took in the explanation and acted upon Willow's excitement.

"Naru's the BEST!" Willow gleefully answered. "I wanna be like her some day. But I'm not a Kinetic..."

"Willow really likes Naru for more than just what she's said. Naru treats her like a little sister, so she's extremely fond of her." Freya clarified.

"What about you Syl do you like Naru to?" Elthin asked.

He turned to face Willow and then Freya. "I will take your word on that"

"Naru's too noisy for me." Syl answered casually. "She might sound awesome from how Willow's describing her, but she's not quite as good as she makes out. Sure enough, her skills are true, but her personality could be a little less crazy."

"I have to agree there." Freya interjected. "She's a lovely girl, but a little too...random for most people. You'll have to meet her to understand what we mean."

"Naru sounds like a very nice yet, odd person in some ways. I am sure I will learn more when I meet her tomorrow." Elthin pointed out.

Elthin stated the obvious in regards to learning about Naru.

"Anyway, weren't you meant to be setting a room up for us?" Freya reminded Elthin. "I neglected to mention it earlier because we had guests, but it's getting close to the girls' bed time, and they'll not want to sleep on the floor for another night."

"I'll probably have the baby in my room. I don't think it'll be big enough for four, though." Lucine commented.

"Coral's not a baby." Coral retorted.

"I had forgotten about that" Elthin sighed. He got up again and mentioned for the others to follow after him. After walking a short distance they arrived at a room.

Opening the door he walked inside to see a nicely but cluttered room filled with boxes. "This room can but used once I start clearing the stuff out."

Elthin admitted that he forgot about the agreement they had, but soon began to correct his forgetfulness and lead the others towards their lodgings for the evening.

Arriving at a room, Elthin opened the door to reveal that it was cluttered with boxes, most likely because it served as a storage room.

"One person's not going to be able to do this that quickly." Freya noted. "I'll have the girls help you out while I get dinner underway. After all, we need to earn our keep here. 'Those who do not work shall not eat', as the saying goes."

"That will do it's only several boxes so the room will be free shortly for use." Elthin walked inside and looked around he picked up the first in a series of boxes. And brought it out of the room he wasn't sure on where to put it so he placed it down. Against the wall and went back inside to get another one.

"Lucine could also help out unless she wants to help you with dinner?"

Elthin proposed that Lucine help with either dinner or box moving.

"I've done my fair share of cooking before, but I don't know how to use all these fancy foods and things you Nobles like." Lucine answered. "I'd rather help with box moving."

"Coral can help, too?" Coral interjected. "Coral's never cooked before."

In response to the overwhelming vote that help is required, Syl, Willow and Lucine all gave a bit to help move the boxes from the room and get it set up to a liveable state.

"Coral can help cook if she wants to." Elthin came out of the room with another box. With the three others agreeing to help out, Elthin walked into the room with the others he had the little ones take the lighter smaller boxes. While he took the bigger heavier ones after several minutes the room was cleared out. To reveal a small writing desk, a bed for guests and a small nightstand it seemed this room at one time. Had been used for guests that was before Elthin had turned it into a storage room.

"Coral will do her best!" Coral answered cheerfully as she headed down to the kitchen. Learning new things seemed to be a good way of keeping the young Dragon in a good mood. Dragons, in most Lore, loved gaining new knowledge, so maybe that part wasn't just fiction.

With four people working on the room, it was soon transformed into a suitable living area. It looked very much like one would expect a guest room to, and it was possibly used as such before storage. The whole process still took the best part of an hour, and twilight was just surfacing outside the window.

The room had been cleared out in about an hours time. With twilight having arrived Elthin had worked up a sweat and was hungry. "Let's go check on how dinner is doing?" he left the room after making sure things were nice and clean.

"How can one person hoard so much junk?" Lucine questioned, tired out from the box moving. "You're a single male, it's not like you've got anyone to hoard for!"

"Wonder what's in the boxes?" Willow commented. "Perhaps some dirty books not suitable for children?"

"Burnable rubbish." Syl cut in, a menacing glint in her eyes. "If they are, then we'll have a big bonfire going tonight."

Conspiracies about the contents of the boxes aside, all four went down to check on how the food was doing. It wouldn't be long before it was ready. They had just enough time to clean themselves up before dinner.

"They're stuff from home that I just haven't had a chance to unpack yet." Elthin pointed out before the two others spoke up.

"Nothing of the sort is in those boxes and we are not burning anything."

As they headed for dinner it was time to clean themselves up. "You girls can all clean up together and no comparing chest sizes or if you're bare down there. "

Elthin, once more, failed to read the situation and blatantly suggested that the girls were going to engage in questionable activities in the bath. As would be the expected response from three minors in regards to a perverted statement from an adult directed at them., the trio huddled back away from Elthin, leaving Lucine in the front. All of them had deep crimson faces, from either rage or embarrassment.

"Like we'd do something so dirty!" Lucine countered. "Those two don't even know what puberty is!"

"Pervert!" Syl scolded Elthin.

Elthin could've picked some other way of wording it...

"We're going, and don't even think of peeking in on us, or listening in, or sniffing in, o-or anything! Just leave us until we say you can come even in eyesight of us!" Lucine finished as she swiftly ushered the younger two towards the bathroom.

That's going to take a little more than an apology to clear up.

"I have no need to peek at all as you three are too young for me." Elthin told the group. Lucine ushered the other two into the restroom. Leaving them along would be for the best. He walked away and headed towards the kitchen to see how Freya and Coral were doing.

After leaving the young trio to their own devices, Elthin decided to check on his newest child. There was quite a selection of food already prepared in the kitchen, enough for a full three course meal for everybody. Portion sizes were near perfection, and decorative display of the prepared food was restaurant standard. Coral was closely watching something boil in a saucepan while Freya was cutting fruit up for one of the desserts. As was expected of food preparation, both Coral and Freya had aprons on. Granted, Coral's was more like a tunic on the small Dragon, but she didn't seem to mind, and she had to stand on a stool to properly see the contents of the saucepan and reach the counter-tops.

The selection of prepared food ranged from soups for a starter, to a full balanced meal for the main course, and an equal partition of healthy and tasty desserts. Of course, there was a clear distinction between meat dishes and vegetable dishes, taking into account Syl's preference for non-meat dishes. Coral's tastes weren't exactly clear from the prepared food, but when it came to actual dinner time, perhaps they'll become more obvious.

As Elthin entered the kitchen the first. Thing he smelled was the various aromas of food that had been made. His mouth watered at the thought of tasting them. "I didn't think that all this would be made?" Elthin questioned as he went around looking at the food.

Elthin asked about the amount of food prepared for dinner.

"We are feeding five people and a young dragon, so I'm worried that even this might not be enough." Freya answered. "I'm used to cooking for three, and now we've doubled in number."

"Coral helped, too!" Coral chimed in. "Coral measured out all the food!"

"She's got quite the eye for perfect measurements, even without the aid of scales." Freya commented. "Anyway, you shouldn't be in the kitchen until you've cleaned up as well."

Freya and Coral had made a lot of the food. Seeing as now five people were eating instead of three which. Freya was used to doing 'Just something we have to get used to.' Elthin went over. He gave both girls pats on the head before leaving to go get cleaned up in his own bathroom.

Elthin concluded that the increase in numbers was just something everyone had to get used to. He then patted each girl on the head, Coral clearly enjoying it the most, and then headed off to get himself cleaned up.

Elthin entered into his own room and bathroom to get cleaned up. For dinner he hopped into the shower after taking off her clothes, Cleaning himself up the best that he could in the time he had and soon finished up a few minutes later. He got dressed once again and headed back towards the kitchen.

Elthin cleaned himself up in the time allowed and soon made his way back down to the kitchen. The trio of minors had also cleaned up in a short space of time as well. They must have finished just a little before Elthin had, as Lucine's hair was still rather sodden. Syl, at present, was combing it through in the sitting room.

"Good, you're back." Freya commented as Elthin made his way into the kitchen. "You can set the table. The girls have done their part to help out by getting drinks ready."

It was soon time to set the table and Elthin nodded his head. He went and in a short time got the plates, silverware, cups and napkins and went about. Setting them up around the table. He also had to get a couple more chairs. As there were more people now.

"Lets dig in"

Elthin did his part in food preparation by setting the table. He got a few glares from the trio of youths in the Sitting room, they were likely still mad at him from his previous insensitive statement, but they didn't verbalise their disapproval, at least not yet. Maybe they needed a little while to cool off before being addressed again?

Once the table was set, Coral and Freya started bringing the first course in. As was the case in most restaurants, the first course was Soup. Syl immediately chose her favourite of the soups and the others started to pick from the ones present. Seating arrangements around the table echoed Lucine, Syl and Willow's current approval of Elthin. They were seated on the opposite side of the table, as far away from Elthin as they could without being too far to engage in first pickings of food. This left Coral and Freya to fill the inevitable gap between them. Coral, like normal, was her usual bubbly self. It appeared that table etiquette was already programmed into a Dragon's knowledge banks at birth, as Coral knew the utensils and how to use them.

Seeing the youth's glaring at him from earlier. Did nothing to him so he ignored them and went about his own business. Seeing as they now sat away from him told him. They were still clearly upset another thing. He didn't care too much about with the food being brought in. Elthin watched as Coral appeared to know just how to use the utensils.

Ignoring the disapproval of the others, Elthin just allowed the meal to go forward without incident. The food prepared was actually really good. It wasn't quite 'Noble Restaurant' standard, but it was way better than what one would expect from a Dragon's first time at cooking. The presentation was delightful, and truly made the meal all the more better. The portion sizes were perfect to allow all the flavours of the food the come through without being overpowering or too weak to taste.

The food was great though he still. Got stares from the kids every now and then. He took his time enjoying every bite. Though he eventually sighed when he got the look again.

"If you have something to say come on and say it."

Elthin tried to ignore the occasional stares from the violated trio at the other end of the table, but eventually relented under the burning gaze and requested that they spoke instead of stared in silence. All three girls just huffed and turned away from him, evidently pouting as they did so.

"We're not talking to you!" Willow retorted, which was followed by an agreement from Syl.

"But, if you're not talking to Papa, then why did you talk to him now?" Coral queried, not quite understanding the childish 'not talking' venting.

"Because we're not talking to him, so we told him we're not talking to him." Willow elaborated paradoxically.

"But, if you're telling Papa you're not talking to him, aren't you still talking to him to tell him that, which means you're still talking to him when you shouldn't?"

"We're not talking to him!"

"But you did just talk to Papa. Coral's confused."

That explanation was going nowhere, so Freya had to cut in to prevent infinite looping the poor Dragon. She explained, as best as she could, the psychology behind what Willow had just attempted to explain, albeit very poorly. Freya's explanation was still hard to follow without knowledge in child psychology, but Coral seemed to understand the most part.

"So, Willow's saying that she's not talking to Papa, but she had to talk to Papa to say she's not talking to Papa, which meant she's still talking to Papa, but not in a way that she'd normally talk to Papa?" Coral attempted to process. It was clear the Dragonling was struggling a little with the whole concept, but giving it her all despite this. "This means that Willow, Big Sis and Syl are not talking to Papa, even though they just spoke to Papa to tell him this? Coral's still very confused."

Coral was confused as to why the girls. Weren't talking with him and Freya had to cut in to explain what it met. Elthin in the meantime at his meal in silence. But eventually stopped when the girls looked at him again.

"Can I eat in peace or would you three like to eat in another room?"

Elthin was starting to get annoyed at the supposed stares from the trio.

"We're not staring, we're trying to eat in peace as well." Lucine retorted. "It must be your guilty conscience."

Lucine wasn't lying in this regard. They hadn't stared at Elthin since before the paradoxical conversation of talking without talking. Perhaps he was being too paranoid, or maybe Lucine was correct in the guilt-trip? Whatever the case, Syl, Willow and Lucine were focused on their food as well.

Maybe it was just his imagination playing tricks on him. Or maybe it wasn't as Lucine said they were only focused on their food.

"I will leave it at that then."

He went back to eating his own food.

Despite the awkward interactions, the first course was soon finished and the Main were bought in. A variety of foods equating to a balanced meal in the right portions soon filled the table and the consumers began cherry-picking their favourites from the bunch and, even if it might not have been as balanced as the Chef had hoped, plates began to fill with personal meal choices. Of course, Lucine and Willow chose more meats than vegetables, that's if there were vegetables on their plates, and Syl was the complete opposite, no meat and all vegetables. Coral, on the other hand, was sampling everything on offer.

The first course of the meal was finished. Then the main was brought into the mix. Wondering what would be best Elthin took a bit of everything. Himself wanting to taste everything once before deciding what he liked best.

From this buffet of food, Coral's personal tastes were soon established. The Young Dragon seemed to like nearly everything available, save for a very select few options. Generally, Coral sampled and quickly avoided anything above the spice level of curried chicken. Water Dragons had very acute tastes, and spices were not something they enjoyed. Now, going by Elemental properties, perhaps spices would be more suited to Fire Dragons, that is assuming that the Dragons truly are making a comeback. Aside from the spicy foods, Coral was rather healthy in her meal selection, unlike a certain two who could do with some greens on their plates.

With each meal now sampled Elthin had enjoyed them all. The curried chicken was a little on the spicy side for his tastes. He ate a little more of the meats and placed some greens onto his plate. He started eating them and enjoyed the taste he kept an eye out on the others to seeing their reactions to the food.

Elthin decided to judge the reactions of the others in regards to the meal. As was expected, food is food to most people, and, with a buffet, people were near guaranteed to choose the foods they liked, so it was a pretty biased sample to be judging things on. There were no complaints, no food left over on plates and no deviations from the course of preferred options. All in all, it was a regular uneventful meal.

He pretty much liked everything that he had. Placed on his place soon he finished eating. He felt full and didn't have much time for desert if there was any.

"I think you girls should start packing for the trip tomorrow."

Elthin may not have wanted dessert, but the younger members present couldn't just pass up the option of dessert. Once they all had finished their main course, dessert was brought in. It was the typical ice cream/fruit salad variation of classic after dinner treats. Like before, Syl and Coral were the only ones who opted for the fruit part and not just the ice cream. Lucine took a few strawberry halves to decorate her ice cream with, but Willow was against any healthy option and simply stuck with the ice cream.

Elthin reminded the girls that they should start packing for their visit to Argenta the following afternoon.

"I'm sure Zena will have some spare clothes. It's not like we've got much to pack at all." Willow answered.

"Why do we need to pack things?" Coral questioned.

Coral wished to know why they needed to pack things.

"We pack things such as clothes and other belongings. Because we need them it wouldn't be wise to say go. Visit somewhere for a week wearing the same clothes everyday. As in time they'd start to smell."

Elthin explain the reasoning behind packing belongings before a trip, but neglected to take into account Coral's obliviousness to nearly everything outside of Dragon Culture and the basics of human functions.

"Isn't that what cleaning clothes are for?" Coral questioned.. "Besides, Papa never said anything about staying anywhere for longer than a day. Coral thought that Uncle Dukey said that we could stay for a day."

The ignorance of youth...

"We're girls. We like to be clean and smell nice." Lucine interjected. "However, living in the Slums has kind of removed that notion from my to-do list."

"But, if we're staying for a day, can't we wear the same clothes back and then get changed when we get home?" Coral countered.

The Dragon had a point. A heavily mislead point, but a point no less.

Some things were pointed out by both parties.

"But there is always the chance something can come up. That would maybe make our stay longer."

He wasn't sure what that could be.

Elthin attempted to back up his point again, but Coral's blissful ignorance won her over.

"Then, can't we just borrow clothes, or pick some up while we're there as a kind of useful take-home item?" Coral suggested. What she meant by 'take-home item' was likely Souvenir.

"Both of you have good points, but we won't know what happens until we get there." Freya concluded. "Being prepared is better than being caught unawares and having to improvise in solutions. While packing may be important, we only need to travel light. A spare set of clothes is likely all we're going to need."

"We can do something like that if we have time."

Freya soon joined in the conversation.

"As Freya has said traveling light would be for the best. So just a change of clothes will do."

Coral still wasn't fully convinced on the idea of packing clothes, but she didn't have anything else to say about it at the moment. Teaching a Dragonling human customs would be quite the ordeal, it seemed. Though, children do learn from their parents, so maybe Dragons were the same in that regard.

Dessert was quickly consumed by the younger quartet and the plates were cleaned up. Freya had to talk Syl and Willow into doing the washing up, saying that herself and Coral had made the food so they could at least help out some as well. Eventually, a compromise was reached when Lucine was also forced into helping pack away the washed-up dinnerware. They had a little production line going, with Syl doing the washing, Willow doing the drying and Lucine packing them away.

Elthin did his part of helping washing the dishes and silverware. Why after they were dried off gave them to Lucine. To pack up and put away after telling and showing her where they went.

After that was taken care of Elthin went to pack a change of clothes for the following day.

The clean up from dinner was completed, and Elthhin headed to pack some things for the trip to Argenta the following day. The girls went off to do their own thing as well, keeping preparing for the trip as an afterthought rather than focusing on getting things ready. They possibly didn't care about the prep, but rather wanted to jut get there as soon as possible. Evening turned to night, and, soon enough, preparations for turning in for the day were started.

The rest of the evening went by. Fairly quickly as everyone was doing their own thing Elthin had finished packing for the trip. And spent the rest of the time in his study. What he was doing in their was some research into Argenta wanting to brush up on his history. When the time came it was his turn to turn in for the night and soon fell asleep.

After finishing their nightly routine, the girls were so exhausted from the busy day they had that they fell straight to sleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. They may have been eagerly looking forward to the packed day they'd have the following morning, but their bodies won over their minds. From a night of restful sleep came another bright morning.