Lind left the Nurturing Palace and removed the guards from the wards. It had been an exception in case he needed them but things had gone as planned.
"Make sure that Ethry knows we have caught the killer. I will see her later." The fate of that Elental was sealed. Ethry would sear it to ash when she had the chance.
She loved her servants nearly like family. No matter how long she lived, she never excluded those close to her from her heart.
Lind knew, though, that they had to stop future incursions. It also revealed a weakness he was unsure how to stop.
Thralls were easy to defend against due to the Fiend Qi that made them work, but Elentals were essentially just Qi given form. They were also welco in his Clan. He could not just make it difficult for only them.
"It is not possession, my Eyes could see the Laws they used. Still, I did not see it all. Puppetry and Soul Laws are not enough." He would have to ponder on it more but just as he was about to get back to his office, he felt a spike in his own soul.
He turned around and saw a furious prismatic haired woman flying right at him.
"WHERE ARE THEY?! GIVE THEM TO
NOW!" Her skin shimred with scales but he grasped her easily. She tried to resist him but he used all his power to hold her. He had to because she was physically stronger than him being a natural dragon.
"They are in custody. They do not have a pure physical body but a kind of pseudo–" He felt the skin on his hands shred to nothing as she tried to break free from him.
"I DO NOT CARE! I WANT TO INCINERATE THEM! LET
GO NOW!" He nearly lost her but he summoned his harmony to enhance his strength even further.
"They are with the other Elentals. I think they are from the Sacred Ones!" Ethry finally stopped. The na was well known to her and other leaders of the Clan.
"Why would those fanatics co after us?" He sighed as she cald a bit but led her into his office. He activated the various wards but Abby was still there. She stood up and he smiled at her.
"It is all right, but could you take a break, Abby? I need to talk to Ethry for a mont." She bobbed her head but looked at Ethry in anticipation. The cute look seed to further calm Ethry a bit as she embraced the girl and she giggled before her body dispersed and vanished into the cylinder in his desk.
He then isolated that as well. He trusted her but unlike Haro, she would not be tied to him forever. The Inheritance would not let him take the cipher key away.
It was better not to burden her with keeping secrets or politics as much as possible. He had asked her if she could isolate such knowledge but she did not seem to understand. Haro had warned she was still forming her personality so it would be like asking a baby to stop absorbing information.
"Sit and take a breath. Justice will co. I have already stated so." Ethry cald considerably at that. He brewed her favorite tea. It was not an Immortal tea, just the normal jade tea they enjoyed in the Frey Clan back in the mortal realm.
It was not hard to find but it was sowhat difficult to stop it from becoming more profound. It would change the taste of the leaves if they allowed it to do so. Thus, Lind had learned more inventive wards to preserve the condition inside a certain bed of plants at the realm he wanted them to be.
So alchemist guilds had been demanding that secret but it was incredibly difficult to weave the wards.
Lind was the only one who could do it thus far.
He let her savor the tea before relaying all he had observed and heard. He also explained his conclusions after that.
"Given they retreated to the 4th layer with the soulless invasion, they are used to older sches and tricks to hide what existing weaver guilds are doing. The resistance to my own thods also proves they are unwilling to change for obvious reasons." Once a weaver found the ease of using other souls as a resource, it was nearly impossible to start over.
Once the 4th layer was opened up, a lot of shady and dark practices were revealed to be considered normal. The 2nd layer had similar issues but the severe conditions of the Corruption purged them due to its nature.
The Corruption, ironically, killed off those practices because the resource was killed by it directly.
Thus, when the Frey Clan and other powers, now long used to not needed shortcuts to achieve even greater power, arose, the powers thinking to resu them were brought to heel harshly.
The Rubyfire and Fionan Empires quickly supported those actions. The righteous powers were more than happy to forever criminalize those practices, even if they used them in the past!
The 3rd layer, obviously, had no such practices because barely anyone was doing much beyond fighting and surviving. There was no ti for cri even in the Knife Edge Bazaar. That was how desperate the situation had beco!
In the 1700 years since it all ca to an end, the older powers tried to pick up where they left off and finally ca in conflict with the rising new powers. Even old allies found their forr branches massively transford and walking a far righteous path than them!
The Heavenly Maiden Sect was far more harsh and unforgiving compared the branches Lind knew. The one in the 2nd layer was not that different but after his new techniques and knowledge spread, they seed to decide to extend their protection to the Elentals that returned once the Corruption was lifted.
The Rubyfire Empire also welcod them. The Elentals were thriving!
They got to the point they could form official sects and powers of their own and had their own power.
They were not the first of their kind to do that, however. Before the restoration of the 1st to 3rd layers, several organizations ca to exist in response to the dark practices.
One of them was the Sacred Ones. A group of terrorists to many but it was hard not to sympathize with them. Their race, the Elentals, were being used like materials in weaving and so other fields.
Those powers that did not need to support such groups were sympathetic in a way. Their rivals were getting hit, after all.
Negotiations did not work and the powers that led the Celestial Fields only had so much political weight to lend to various needs. A single race's struggle was not their concern unless they saw so benefit.
Further, the Fiend wars required power. They would take any advantage they could get no matter the source so long as it did not cross their bottomline. Lind had not been surprised but he was angered by it.
His Clan was the sa.
"So, my summary is we just sound like the others to them. We simply are unknown to them and we have been protecting the Elentals so much they think they are dead." He sipped his tea as he sumd up his thoughts.
Ethry was calr. Her pale face was not so flushed with anger but he could see it in her eyes. The Elental was going to die by her hand. He could not stop it, nor would he. The Elental had killed innocent people and who knew how many others that had no direct connection to those that did harm their kind.
"What will we do?" Lind smiled as it ant she was at least going to hear him out.
"Before they face judgnt, I want them to invite an envoy with so of our friends at their side. I also want a trial so far as our Clan mber's deaths. I won't push for more. Do you understand?" She slowly nodded. She was well versed in politics.
There were those that would happily push for confessions to have justifications to kill the Sacred Ones they found anywhere. They were not welco anyway but any Elental could be one.
They would take 'defensive actions' to interrogate Elentals if their powers were revealed to be attacked previously as well.
Lind knew the Sacred Ones would not like the execution but a price must be paid.
The pair both looked up as a sigil glowed by the door. Lind used his left hand to connect to one by his chair and a portal opened. Soltarakaren escorted the prisoner.
"I have the list of nas I thought you would want. I must prepare for my breakthrough but my next one has been chosen. They will have my insights for you while I ascend to the next tier." She kept everything businesslike. Unlike others, she had no dislike or disgust with his previous actions.
If anything, the Elentals thought it odd he felt guilt! Their unique thod of cultivation made for a strange but helpful perspective. The shedding of one life for the next made them a new person. They did not maintain connections like other races because of that.
He bowed low and she left. Ethry was putting off literal heat but she held back.
[Lord Frey, I apologize for my actions and accept judgnt.] Lind felt the sincerity but turned to Ethry. She huffed smoke from her mouth before she cooled off.
"You will contact soone powerful enough to et an envoy from the Elentals here. You will announce by Oath what you just said and we will have a trial in front of that contact. After that, we will et again." Her eyes shimred with all her elents as she left the office.
Lind sighed but was glad. Her temper was fueled by draconic pride but she had long tad it. Still, the death of a close friend was not sothing she would normally reign in.
"We have a long way to go but I want to help change things for us all. Can you believe that?" The vague shape nodded. Lind then summoned a set of tal cuffs. They snapped over tendrils of the Elental and it beca a solid shape of an androgynous youth.
He frowned but knew it was likely a side effect of their technique and not their actual age. He then motioned for them to sit and plan out the next steps.
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