Katolis Northern Border

"General, a letter just arrived for you, its from you wife"

Her head emerged from the mountain of paperwork she'd been stuck with since this morning, she took the letter from Gren who returned to his own office.

She opened the letter wondering what Janai wanted to write to her about. Her wife wrote two letters a week, this was the third so something must've happened.

They had found an elven girl who was implicated in etherium smuggling case and Callum had recruited her. She rolled her eyes after reading the next few lines, she slowly shook her head thinking, "What am I going to do with you." She knew exactly where Janai was going with this.

After she finished reading the whole thing, she then took a piece of paper and began writing a letter and made sure to tell her wife to not automatically assume every young girl their nephew met would be a good match for him.

After she finished writing her response, she called for Gren and returned to dealing with her mortal enemy i.e excessive paperwork.

Outside the city of Frenoria, Erdus Dukedom

In a cave hidden behind an illusion, elves and humans were working throughout the maze like tunnels. In a room deep within the winding network of the cave, a male Moonshadow elf was holding his head in his hands.
"Can you not humiliate them with wedgies for once?" he said, just knocking them unconscious was sufficient, he wished his wife would stop being so vindictive.

"Never" His wife hissed as she pouted at him before turning back to a map wondering where they should strike next.

He simply sighed, suddenly he heard a knock at the door, there were two, then a pause before the third, then another pause before two more. His eyes widening, that pattern meant that direct orders had just come in.
"We're not finished," he said to her before heading to the door, she just rolled her eyes at his remark.

He opened the door and saw an earthblood elf who handed him two scrolls of parchment. One scroll contained several pieces of parchment, the other had only one, he assumed the latter contained their orders while the former had all the details they'd need to carry out said orders.

He closed the door. He's decided to look at it quickly as his wife was too busy plotting how to humiliate their enemy. The seal on the scrolls was genuine, he broke the first one and chanted a spell to dispel the illusion and other safeguards that protected its contents, words started to emerge on the previously blank sheet. He recognized the prince's handwriting, it contained orders to look for information on certain transactions that took place within the black market, the parameters of their search were listed below. He felt this would be an easy job.

"All units are to prepare for a complete withdrawal by the coming winter." He wondered what happened that they were being ordered to return to Katolis in less than three months, well it's not as he and the others could complain about getting back and taking it easy. But what was written at the end of the letter caught his attention.

"The other scroll contains a more complicated matter that relates to what you've been ordered to investigate." That was vague he thought and wondered what it was all about. He broke the seal on the second one and noticed it was two separate pieces of parchment. He unrolled it and dispelled the protections. An image began to form on the sheet.

His eyes widened in shock as its contents were revealed to him, his breathing became heavy as his hands started to tremble, the other pieces of parchment fell free from his grip and laid strewn on the ground. His eyes started to heat up as tears began flowing down his cheeks, he kept looking at it hoping this wasn't some illusion.

"Tiadrin!" he called out.

"For the thousandth time I'm not gonna sto..." she turned around but stopped mid-sentence as she saw him. "... what is it?"

He tried to speak but couldn't as the words were stuck in his throat, so he held up the parchment for her to see. Her eyes widened as she saw the sketch.

"... Rayla." she walked over to him slowly before taking the parchment, she pulled the sketch close to her chest as she fell to her knees crying.
he tried his best to console her but it was too overwhelming for them both

"She all grown up," she managed to regain some composure. They hadn't seen her in ten years, they had no viable means of crossing the veil, all they could do was hope that she was safe.

They both looked at the last parchment and read it,

"... Rayla came under our care after she was caught in an accident, she was escorting a merchant caravan that was smuggling B1 etherium." Their expressions became worried, they knew how seriously humans were when it came to etherium...

"...she was unaware of the contents..." they felt relief wash over them knowing that she wasn't involved in anything problematic.

"... She will not say how she ended up in Katolis and gets upset when asked, so we have chosen to respect her wishes..."

They looked at each other "Now I'm worried, what happened to her?" He wanted to rush back to Katolis right now.

"Are Ethari and Runaan with her?" she couldn't find any mention of either of them in the letter. They assumed Rayla became separated from them, or they had died.

"...She hasn't been told yet about you two. However, if you feel strongly about it then send your decision within two days."

Of course, they wanted to let their daughter know they were alright and finally be able to talk to her after all these years.

They both turned to face each other, their decision was a foregone conclusion, and wrote their response
"We have received our orders and we wish that our existence be kept from her till we return to Katolis."
They were grateful that the prince asked them but they wouldn't let their desire to communicate with their daughter jeopardize their operations here.

He took the letter and sealed it then ordered it be sent back to Katolis. They had gathered all the parchment that lay strewn on the ground and began to go over them.

"She still hasn't lost her sweet tooth after all these years" they looked at a sketch of her happily munching on pastries, the next was of her playing the flute. Each parchment had details written on the back.

The next one was her drinking from a bottle with gusto, they were confused so they turned the sketch around to get some context. They started laughing after reading that she had accidentally discovered the feynor birch during her exploration of Janai's mansion.

After catching their breath they kept looking over them, they were happy to finally know that she was safe and happy now.

"Just three more months and we can meet our beloved moonlight again." she said

"We should probably protect the prince just in case she takes issue with him sending us these" he didn't want to think about the possibility that they might find that their daughter assaulted royalty in a fit of rage, he knew she had inherited Tiadrin's temperament as a child, he hoped she might have grown out of it by now.

"Yeah you're probably right," she didn't want to imagine that scenario.

They decided to look over the rest after they were finished with work.

Katolis

"Welcome back son." Harrow held Callum in a long embrace. Harrow had just finished dealing with the paperwork and went straight to see his son.

Callum returned the hug, "I missed you to dad." After a long pause, they separated and began to head towards Opeli's office.

"I trust your stay in Rimemere was pleasant."

"It was, I managed to find someone from the Silvergrove."

"ah, I take it this is the girl from the incident" Harrow remembered the details of the report.
Callum nodded, they had arrived at Opeli's office and entered,

"Your Majesty, Your Highness, welcome" Opeli stood up and bowed before returning to the mountain of legal papers in front of her. "I take it something's come up?" she asked.

"Remember when you said you suspected Count Gaincel?" The prince said

Harrow cocked an eyebrow, wondering why he's bringing up that scumbag.

Opeli narrowed her eyes, "Yes?"

"Turns out he's been meeting with Hasting in secret."

"why am I not surprised." Opeli groaned.

"It seems scum tend to enjoy each other's company." Harrow was smiling, he finally had something to work with, what made it better was that his son was the one who found this out, oh how he wanted to see Gaincel expression when this was all dealt with when the time came.

Callum had to rain down on Harrow's internal parade. "You're gonna have to wait till after Hasting's party is over before getting rid of him, I still have unfinished business to deal with"

"Whats this about?"

"Tax & rent fraud," Callum said

As she got her answer, Opeli crushed the documents she held as she balled her hands into fists imagining it was Hasting's neck she was crushing. Harrow's face became more stern

"I need to get the actual records to know how big it is. Here's what I managed to dig up so far." Callum took out a file from his satchel.

Opeli took it, her face became more the embodiment of wrath as she kept reading it. This alone would've been enough for her to deal with him but the final pages contained far more serious details that explained why the prince wanted more time, "You suspect the Dukedom's involvement?"

"I find it hard to believe that they could get their hands on any Grade-B1's, on their own." The manner in which it was transported, the odd behavior of the merchants, it was too suspicious.
"We found a lead to the black market, I sent orders to have Lain and Tiadrin see if they could find anything." Callum concluded.

Opeli was massaging her forehead.

Their clandestine operation to gather intelligence in the dukedom was drawing to an end, the elves had fully committed themselves to it far more than any human in the legion, in exchange to be able to hamper the dukedom's efforts in Xadia.

"speaking of which, about tomorrow's meeting?"

"Don't worry they'll all be here, they'll probably spend the entire time complaining about being dragged here so suddenly but they will show up at least." Harrow wasn't so sure why Callum wanted to call a meeting like this without giving any details.

Library, Katolis Castle.

Rayla had put on her uniform and went straight to the library looking around for Vaeril. Saphielle did say he'd be in here, though she could do without his icy gaze.

The library was massive, she kept going through rows of tall bookcases, wondering if Vaeril was even in here. She occasionally took a book out to read the summary out of curiosity. She took a book titled "history of naval armor" she opened a random page, it kept saying stuff about ductile to brittle transition but it was so confusing to her, she wasn't even sure they were using real words. She put it back and resumed her search for the elusive grim reaper.

Moments later she found him, he noticed her heading his way. "Ah Rayla, Is there something you need?"

"Yes, I need to know about the invasion of Xadia."

"They invaded us, took many as prisoners, and Xadia has so far failed at every attempt to drive them back to the human side. The End... you happy?" he said dryly

"I want the exact details, you were there that day weren't you."

"Why do you want to know? Didn't they teach you about it in school or have the educational standards fallen into mediocrity these past few years?" While he appreciated people wanting to learn more, he could tell it wasn't simple curiosity that was driving her.

"After going on that airship, Callum gave me a basic explanation of how it worked but I quickly understood that the dukedom could've easily destroyed all of Xadia if they tried, I want to know WHY, why haven't they defeated us when they could." She made it clear she wasn't going to accept any vapid answers. She had to know.

He snorted "You're right, If destroying us was their goal, then Xadia would resemble the west at the end of the Calamity War.

He looked at her for a long moment before continuing "When you meet the prince again, ask him, ask him what a thermonuclear weapon is. Then you'll know just how powerful humanity has become since we sanctimoniously banished their entire species for the crimes of a few."

Rayla knew that there were people that viewed Luna Tenebris's decision to banish humanity as unjust and cruel, she didn't expect Vaeril to be in that category. Till she met Callum she had no real interest in such a topic "I'll ask him, but you still haven't answered my question"

"I guess I should start at the very beginning, before giving you your answer" He sighed as he closed his book and began to tell her about that day.