Desecration Chapter120: A Ripple In The Ocean Isn't Supposed To Cause Wa

To one Erd Of The Chains,

Being honest, I had to re-write this letter half a dozen tis before I decided that the ink and paper wasted wasn't worth the need for perfection. I wonder, sotis, about the day we'll finally et again. When I'll get to recount all my tales under the magnolia tree.

Will it be a tearful reunion? Will we share a tight hug and act as though nothing has changed? Or will the years apart have made us too different to recognize one another?

It terrifies , that we might see each other as strangers.

Sotis I resent you, you know? To banish your child and forbid their return until they've reached their first century isn't a practice I've heard being common amongst the few elves outside our family I've t in my travels.

Whenever I'd ask one of my older siblings, they'd always shrug and say that that's the way things are. That it was best to accept it for what it was.

But I've done as you told .

I explored and collected stories. I fought and loved and learned. I raised two families of my own, with three children between them! I still rember how the loss of my first partner affected , but it got easier as I aged, just as you said it would.

I'm currently married to a blacksmith by the na of Yormir. He's more brusque than my past partner, but he has a heart of gold hiding beneath the shell he likes to don.

Him and I have raised a wonderful daughter, we nad her Yir in honour of his grandmother. She's the reason I've brought quill to scroll to write this nerve-wracking correspondence.

Yir has been blessed with magic, awakening at just eleven! I've never heard of an elf awakening so quickly, and thank whichever god is watching over her.

I want you to teach her, so that she doesn't flounder in her first steps. I know nothing of magic, and can't help her in any capacity, but you? If you're willing to co down from your mountain to teach her, then I'd be forever in your debt.

Otherwise, I would gladly bring my family to the estate so that my daughter might learn.

If you decide to visit yourself, then know that we reside in the northern village of Okama, resting between the cities of Rokla and Anik.

Your loving and dutiful daughter, Asna.

I set the letter down, turning to look at the world below.

The mountain was an artificial thing. One of the handful that had been created for the purpose of housing the Caeser's most valuable assets of war. So many people flowed through the streets to get about with whatever petty business they had.

Usually that was just trying to survive the next day.

Feringale was the Empire's capital, reaping the bounties of the eastern coast by connecting to the continents beyond and their respective civilizations. Trade was the greatest currency here, and it was no exaggeration to say that this city alongside Ortium had funded most of Auriel's conquest wars over the centuries.

It was filled with so many bodies that would amount to nothing but fertilizer.

I sighed.

Family was one of the few things I lived for. To raise a child and prepare them for the world beyond was among the greatest of privileges. To see their growth after they returned instilled a sense of pride I had yet to match.

Warriors, artisans, diplomats, rchants, and even a handful of mages.

Each chose their own passion to pursue and had so many stories to share. Most dappled in multiple before choosing sothing to dedicate their lives too...for however many years until they got bored.

If there was one commonality between all of them though, it was that they had a tendency to die.

My current oldest was only in his third century, and chose to explore the world. I got a few letters every now and then about all the variety of cultures that laid beyond the Radan Ocean, but I could never return my own as he didn't stay in one place long enough to receive them.

Wasting the empire's couriers for family matters was unbecoming to say the least, and would lead to an unpleasant amount of political mire from the Houses.

Why the emperor tolerated their insolence, I'd never know.

I handed the scroll back to the servant kneeling beside , getting to my feet and popping a few vertebrae with a stretch. The woman knew a dismissal when she saw one, and quickly got to doing whatever it was that servants did to maintain the estate.

I hadn't bothered talking to one in decades, so I wouldn't know.

I let out a sigh and walked down the steps that led away from my tree and into the gaudy thing that was my ho. I didn't care for the details. It stopped mattering after you've seen them as many tis as I had. I walked through open halls of elder wood.

Servants looked down and moved aside as I passed, a few of my pupils spotted but decided against starting conversation. Must've been sothing on my face.

I opened a door painted purple. On it was an emblem of a bird tied down to the earth.

Pointless thing that a younger fancied.

Stepping through I was greeted with an office filled with books, rows and rows of all sorts. Mostly of history and archeology. Kaena fancied such things for reasons I couldn't fathom.

The woman in question was scribbling away with bloodshot eyes, transcribing sothing likely to be useless.

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"Kaena, I have news," I said.

"And I don't have ti," she snapped back. "Can't you see I'm busy? Think you can spend months without saying a word and suddenly step into my office proclaiming you have news? Fuck off back to your tree, Erd. We can talk when I'm done with this."

I smirked. "It is urgent."

She let out a whistling whine and slamd her pen on the table, looking up and glaring at . "Make this quick."

"When have I not?"

"Bedroom jokes don't suit you, oh ancient cunt."

I chuckled and stepped forward, grabbing one of the errant chairs that'd...seemingly been thrown? Huh. Maybe she did co across sothing important then. Almost made feel bad with the news I was going to share.

I sat down and made myself comfortable.

"We are travelling."

Silence.

Then I got an exclusive glimpse into my wife's profane verbosity. Stringing together curses from multiple different languages even. So of them long dead, and so even I didn't recognize. I had to hold back from grinning.

"Care to explain why?" she finally managed to grit out once she got control of herself.

I let out a tired sigh. "One of my lineage has bonded with a demon. Again. I need to go deal with it, and you know how much I'd miss you and little Ino while I trekked these cursed lands."

That seed to mollify her a bit, but she still gave a few grumbles.

"Can we at least pretend to care about status and take a carriage this ti?"

"No."

"Bring another!"

His declaration was t with a chorus of whoops and cheers. The crowd surrounding my apprentice bought forth the next fool to try and test his ttle. I couldn't help the smirk that crossed my face while observing from my balcony. The lesser masters thought it wise to try and besmirch my honour by having their brain addled students try and defeat Dodon in fair combat.

If they had any steel in their spine then they'd challenge themselves, at least then I'd get so variety to escape the bureaucratic nonsense of my position.

Alas, cowards will be cowards, and I couldn't clash blades with my equals except on special occasions.

Rules that Irzen thought wise to implent after however many centuries it'd been since she took the mantle of leadership. Supposedly the clan was a steaming pile of shit when it ca to collaboration when the greatest of us could challenge another to a duel at any ti.

Led to a few wars and plenty of deaths.

I wasn't alive to see it, which was a crying sha. Whatever it used to be was truer to the warrior's way than whatever we were now. To stand at the top was to be consigned with more much paper work than was healthy.

Sure, I only needed to sleep once a week, but that didn't an it was moral to grind away at my sanity by replacing exhilarating combat with mind numbing busy work!

I let out a sigh and grumbled. Even my ruminations weren't permitted it seed.

A hand grasped the wooden railing of my balcony, and in one motion a boy of perhaps sixteen pulled themselves up and over, rolling straight into a marvelous kowtow beside .

I stayed silent for a few seconds before acknowledging the boy's presence with a glance. "What do you want, boy? Can't you see I'm busy trying to find whatever entertainnt one such as I is permitted?"

"Forgiveness, honourable master!" the boy said altogether too loudly. I rolled my eyes. "This humble Rorick is but a ssenger to beings much greater than I!"

"You'll find no respect by sucking cheeks."

That stunned him into silence for a bit, but his recovery was admirable. "The great seer wishes to speak with you, honourable master Koh. She says she has received a vision, and requires your presence."

"Of course she does," I grumbled. "Only calling on when she needs sothing."

He didn't respond to that.

"Leave boy, tell her I'll arrive within the hour."

"But master, she—"

"Leave."

He didn't need any further encouragent, swiftly getting back to his feet and jumping off the balcony to race back to Mira like the lap dog he was. I could've done the sa, but what would've been the point? Jumping around the clan lost its charm when it was so easy.

Instead I turned, and went out through one of the rope bridges extending out of my ho.

I greeted a few of my students as I walked past platforms and dojos, giving advice and corrections where I could find them. The new ones thanked with an intensity that made want to sigh. They'd learn eventually. They always did.

Helped that few in the clan actually enjoyed the taste of bullshit on their tongues.

I crossed many winding paths once I made it to the street.T he clan's design was purposefully confusing to encourage our mbers too jump around like monkeys instead. Better exercise. Also very useful for maneuvering around the jungle. ant the citizens who abstained from violence and the pursuit of strength suffered for it, but none cared for them.

I had lived long enough to morize the ss though, so I found myself in front of Mira's ho a bit earlier than I had told the ass kisser. Rickety was certainly a word for it. She was the clan's greatest seer, and yet she chose to live like a beggar.

I didn't understand that. Seers rarely chose to fight, so their ti on this earth was rather limited.

Why spend it in poverty?

I shrugged and entered the hut by pushing aside the cloth barrier, stepping inside to a room of fragrant incense and nonsensical ritual carvings. A few beast organs hung from hooks that were enchanted with Words related to preservation, alongside a plethora of scrolls tossed around carelessly like revelations of the future were sohow worthless.

In the middle of it all was a woman of greying hair looking a painting. Looked to be a...what was that? It was an animal, but it kept shifting, a deer at one point, a monkey at another, over and over.

"I don't know what it is," Mira said before I could ask the question. "And no, letting you ask stupid questions is a waste of ti."

I let out a chuckle. "Good to see you too."

"Yes, yes. Co and take a seat already."

I shrugged and stepped forward walking around her and plopping myself where I wouldn't disturb any of her ss. Which was a challenge, but I was all about challenges.

"I need you to find sobody, or rather, two sobodies."

"Will you ever let ask first?"

She shrugged. "I just did."

I rolled my eyes. "Who are they?"

"A wayward Vessel of the clan is going to make her journey ho, bringing along side her a witch of strange origins."

"So you want to kill them?"

"No. I want you to save them and take them under your wing."

I blinked, but she answered before I could voice my confusion.

"They won't survive the journey without help," Mira said.

"In what world should I care for the fate of a deserter and a demon proxy?"

"In this one," she scowled. "There's sothing...about them. Fate refuses to tell what. It's never done that before. No matter how much I sacrifice it won't reveal anything more than the skeleton."

"So curiosity, is that it?"

She shook her head. "No. There must be a reason it's made aware of their existence and intentions, yet not their futures. They are important. How? I do not know. But to ignore them would be more than foolish."

"You know, you could at least call over for so tea soti. Being your errand boy is ruining my image," I sighed.

"We both know you care little for image."

"True enough." I shrugged. "So do you have an idea of where I can find them? Or am I just going to be searching the mountain range blind?"

Mira looked down, a bit of embarrassnt coloring her cheeks. "They're coming from the east?"

"Great. Fantastic, even."

There were impossible things here.

Plenty and plenty of impossibilities. That was what I was forced to call ho. I liked it. It matched . I just would've preferred being allowed to leave. I sighed and sat on a log of strange muscle and held out a hand.

A flesh-apple fell into my palm.

I bit into it and chewed, looking up to greet my oldest friend.

So, she was here?

The sun in the sky stared from its personal infinity. Up and up and up where it was the witness to all things here. It blinked. I stayed where I was.

Interesting, interesting.

My jaw opened wide and I took the rest of the fruit in one bite. Delicious. I always told myself I'd get into cooking eventually, but the taste dissuaded . How could I dare try to improve upon such perfection?

Do you think she recognized you? I'm not sure why she doesn't ever seem to rember her visits, but the sight should've...jogged her mory.

The sun blinked again.

I heard a confused hoot and a skinless monkey slamd into and was absorbed by the ground behind . Poor thing.

That's unfortunate. I wonder if Fate had a hand in that? My siblings do so love to poke fun.

Mirth radiated from the sun above.

I shared my own chuckle.