CHAPTER 402: CHAPTER 402 - GUSHING OVER MUSCLES I MARRIED... WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT?

The pressure receded gradually. Elua studied the scout’s face for any sign of further probing, then apparently decided the topic had been safely redirected. She sat down beside her, ’watching’ the essence condensers pulse in their timing sequence. Which *looked* like much of nothing bit a small glint in the crystals themselves, but did make any dust present dance in the air.

"In four more months you can go home and tell people that I’m alive. Tell Qat that I chose to remain here... temporarily... and that I’ll return when I’m ready."

Sending Sevra home safely was important, but the project also served as proof of concept for larger ambitions. The center could be used for the gateway, but the condensers would remain for her other projects. Becoming the power station that would fuel making everything else.

"Thank you. For all of this. I know you could probably find easier ways to get rid of me."

"Well, you’re lucky you had a use to me, aren’t you? Otherwise... I might have just left you to fend for yourself as I... waited here."

"...You look sad. Because you’re staying here."

The woman observed without much surprise. She had studied the young-appearing cultivator’s profile countless times since being trapped. Noting the way mint eyes focused intently on technical details but drooped the second she wasn’t in the middle of thinking about anything.

"Why are you doing that, exactly?"

"Because I feel that I need to."

"But why? I saw how you looked at the wedding. How they looked at you. That wasn’t... just some political arrangement. And I can admit now that I’m calmer that it really was-"

"Love."

The brunette girl supplied for her, finally glancing over. When the thrum of essence in the area struck her field, the remaining thin bit of control around her spirit slipped and blanketed a portion of the Exclave in so much ’longing’ that some of the native insects began to keen.

"Genuine, overwhelming, incautious love."

"...Yes. Then why choose to stay away from them for years?"

The assassin-raised scout eventually continued to ask after the reincarnator got a handle on herself, which allowed her to be able to breathe and move more without such metaphysical weight. She wasn’t sure she could take many more of those up close and was considering asking if there was any kind of ritual that could help them talk from a distance that would perhaps put her out of range of such blasts of Intent.

"Because my mental memories are completely interfering with my youthful intimacy. They are like white phosphor on dry kindling. Experiences pressed against a teenage body that responds... violently inappropriate, sometimes."

The admission came out quite flat and clinical despite the metaphor. Sevra wasn’t entirely sure she understood exactly what the reborn cultivator was getting at, though she knew it had something to do with adult relations.

"You’re afraid you’ll hurt them... because of your strength?"

"It’s not about the strength it’s... look, Guilds have considered a cultivator capable enough to operate as an adult after they are a mere thirteen even as far back as my time. This was arguably the fault of the Void Divinity."

It felt like half the conversations with Elua were hard to follow for the woman, if only because her brain liked to disconnect when such great concepts were talked about not only like it was a matter of course... but by someone who claimed to have interacted with these ascended cultivators.

"Explain it to me like I’m four again, please."

"An eighteen year cycle is not a lot of time. Yet the average challenge of the next invasion is based on the scale of living cultivators and realm quality of them during the last defense. With some other caveats involved."

"The Void Defense Society has suspected something like this, but hearing you say it sounds more convincing."

"Well, thank you. The point is, the Voidlings do not just scan the quality of combatants alone, but the entire region they are sent to during the opening of the wars. This directly contrasts with accepted best cultivation practices... which is to say, starting as early as possible to build momentum - and ingrain how things work with how a person acts and thinks from Youth."

Such was the very purpose of Youth Guilds. Affluent families did tend to take that further with specialized training starting around the age of four, but that only further contributed to the ’problem’.

"So on one side you have cultivators seeking strength quickly. Achieving Enchanter before thirteen and sometimes even Primalist realm accumulation status in at least one field of energy by the time they are eighteen. On the other side, you have an enemy that gets stronger when the region as a whole is considered stronger. What would you do?"

Like most, Sevra’s first instinct was to say slow down cultivation to make the wars less harsh. But then, like most, she thought about if she was the one who had to be forcefully slowed down and realized that was no option at all. Finally, she settled on the fact that the age of joining a Guild officially was thirteen.

"I guess I would split the difference. Allow as many people as may want to the chance to fight, but give them some years to grow accustomed to it and how they fit into society. So that’s the reason..."

"That’s the reason. But the human body does not stop growing - and the spirit does not achieve a sense of real belonging until much later than that. Which leads me to a concept known as Prime."

While it was not the first time the heiress had offered a lecture on a topic to the scout, the majority of them had been given to Madrigil who was, at times, an insatiable student. Elua went on to detail the whys, hows, and whens to the woman in much the same way as she’d told Yatrel about it.

"...I’m afraid I’ll lose control entirely. Qat deserves better than someone fighting their own body just to share a kiss without... all of that complication. This Exclave is a good opportunity and a good excuse."

"I think I see now. As much as I can, anyway."

"Good. It’s helpful to me if you know my stakes. You can tell Qat about everything I’ve told you... though I’ll also be sending you with a mountain of letters."

Sevra remembered her sleuthing, when she was delivering the Silversky packages to the heiress at the Coiled Serpent main branch. She’d discovered then just how often the girl sent back missives. Therefore, this time she was sure that the girl was not exaggerating the amount at all if she had four months to write them.

"I’m not sure whether to call the Yecine you’ve bonded with lucky or not."

"My ’fortress’..."

Another blast of ’wistful’ spirit rocked the area, the soft facial expression much more awkward than some of the others she’d been practicing... because she had tried not letting herself feel this way. The illusionist let herself speak her feelings freely, knowing that Sevra already had come to the truth - and that Shadow Whisker member had even called Qatrand a woman more than once as they talked.

"I’m sure she is growing stronger every day. Even without my constant... assistance."

Flopping onto her back, the brunette squirmed and rolled a bit side to side while holding onto her reddening cheeks. When the cloak wearing woman watched her for a dozen seconds, she felt it might be best to ask.

"What’s wrong...?"

"She’s likely developing even more specific definition and tone to those incredible muscles. Through real combat experience refining which of them are most engaged. Asymmetric, just like her abdominals... ah, I just want to see them again~"

The shift in her tone was remarkable. Where not long before the ancient cultivator had *sounded* like one, now she sounded like... some far younger. And with a smile widened into something approaching giddiness that matched her ’innocent’ look.

"You really are fourteen in some ways, aren’t you?"

"In this body, yes. In my heart... the core of my spirit? It comes and goes. Which is probably where my biggest problem with my Physique lay at, if I’m being honest."

Her answer sounded more lucid and a bit less youthful, but not much. And she still kicked her legs with too much pent up energy. She’d been working for hours on end here and hadn’t left the area at all in four days. But now that she was talking about Qat, she might not go anywhere at all for however many hours the woman would listen.

"In particular, when I think about how proud I am of them, I’m my past age. But when I think about how I want them to be proud of me, I’m a bit more... *now*, than not. Which makes sense?"

"How so?"

"Well, because I can only judge them by who I was this whole time. Pretending to be someone a bit different can’t change my honest opinions. However, when I think of her approval of me... it’s affected me the most at times when I’ve reached out towards who I want to be going forward - which is the me you can see growing before your eyes."

Sevra rose to her feet and stretched while looking down at the girl. Whether she had grown or not, whether anything she had been show was real or not... didn’t actually matter, like Madrigil once claimed. But still, she found herself asking-

"You miss your..."

"Husband-wife."

"Yes, that. You miss them terribly. Don’t you?"

The agreement came without any hesitation, just like a third strong pulse of spirit.... just like too much continued sharing. Pained mint eyes gained yet another chance to practice expressing her feelings on her face.

"Every moment we were apart, even before we came here. But I can be patient. I have to. I’ve learned patience over my past life - and Qat is worth waiting for. I just hope she’ll feel the same."

"That’s very... romantic."

"I am genuinely, hopelessly in love with someone remarkable. Someone who deserves all the good things in the cosmos and none of the bad. Romance, if you can call my selfishness that, is the very least I can offer."

The scout found herself smiling at the ancient cultivator’s unguarded ’affection’ laced with such inner worries. While the girl seemed so concerned with that - and with ’looking cute’, which Sevra was sure was also mostly for the Yecine to enjoy... she was beginning to think something. Something that the her from months ago would have both shivered and approved of.

’Her name fits her, and the one who owns her love is quite lucky after all. I should share everything when I get back... and then stay as far away from getting involved again as possible!’