The farewell took longer than it should have because ridia had a way of making leaving feel heavier than it should have.
When they ca out, Nerissa was waiting at the edge of the terrace. She stood exactly how she always did, perfectly straight, with her hands clasped in front of her.
Her seafoam hair swayed in the slow current of the deeper ocean above. From a distance, her face looked exactly the sa as it always had: calm and neutral.
Rick could see that her hands were clasped a little too tightly when he got close.
"You’re going to leave now," she said. It wasn’t a question.
"We need to go back to Valdris and see what’s up close. It’s probably so kind of political situation that needed as the Hero of Mature Hearts."
"Yes, I understand that clearly," she said, and then she was quiet for a mont. "And... I won’t tell you to be careful because you clearly can’t."
"Don’t worry, my empress." Rick smiled. "I’ll be back as fast as I can."
Nerissa looked at him for one beat longer than she usually did. Then she reached out and fixed the collar of his coat.
Her fingers moved with the sa precise speed that she used for everything else, and she straightened it until it fit right. She put her hands on his collar for two seconds after it was already straight, then she stepped back.
"I know," she said. "That is... in so way, the most surprising thing about you."
Myrissa was close by, watching with the warmth of soone who has just seen sothing they wanted to see. She waved to Rick and mouthed sothing to him.
He took a mont to read it: "I told her."
"WHAT THE FUCK!?!?" Rick scread as loud as he could in his mind, even though his face stayed neutral.
"Uh-oh... this could end horribly wrong..." Sebastian said in his mind.
Myrissa told him that she already knew about their sexual encounter, and she shrugged it off, which is a typical reaction when soone is not surprised at all.
Rick chose not to ask Nerissa how she always knew everything.
From his spot near the palace entrance, Thalor gave a formal salute to the ocean-dweller that was precise and real. Rick was happy to see Thalor standing straight again after overcoming the corruption and guilt that had followed him.
"Hey, Daddy—I an, Dad... please try not to die, okay?" Myrissa said. "Mother would never admit it bothered her."
Then she went back to helping set up the morning patrol schedules, as if she hadn’t just said sothing that made Rick feel bad all the way out of ridia.
"Ah fuck, fuck, fuck... what kind of conversation did I start with Nerissa when I ca back about Myrissa...?" Rick starts panicking in his mind.
Then, to his surprise, Liora ca up to Rick and pulled him away from the group a little bit before they got to the docks.
She had the calm, careful look on her face that she always had when she had sothing to say that she had already thought through and didn’t want to scare him with.
"Look, Rick..." She said, "It seems like I’m not going back to Valdris with the group."
"H-Huh?" Rick gave her a look. "Why? What happened?"
"Divine communication, during the night. The Temple in Valdris is showing signs of interference... well, it’s not an attack, and nothing that’s dramatic," Liora said. "But sothing has been working its way through the faith network channels underground."
"And it’s subtle and slow with the way it is." She kept her voice even. "I need to go right away."
"The Temple has a transit gate that I can use by myself that will get there faster."
"Is it risky?"
"Maybe... that’s why I’m not waiting." She held his hand for a mont. "I’ll catch up with you in Valdris later, okay?"
"It might take a day or two, depending on what I find." Her fingers tightened for a mont. "Be careful until I get there."
"Fredrich is smart and has been in politics for a long ti, but that doesn’t always an he’s trustworthy."
"Huh...?" This is the first ti Rick heard that from Liora, out of all people.
And then, she let go of his hand with a kiss on his cheek and left before the rest of the group had finished getting on.
Rick stood there for a mont longer, watching where she had gone. Then he turned back to find Carmilla looking at him with the sa look she had when she had seen sothing and was waiting to see if he had seen it too.
"Well..." Carmilla said softly, "She’s not wrong about Fredrich."
"I know." Rick walked over to where Sylvia was already changing into a dragon with the ease of soone who has done this many tis before. "Let’s go."
...
The flight back to Valdris took a few hours, and the first part was very loud.
Sylvia effortlessly and gracefully transford into a dragon, carrying the group on her back, a feat she had mastered for many years. Rick could see the ocean’s depths from thousands of ters up due to the cold, steady wind.
The water still looked different after the corruption clearing. It was a blue so clear that it seed unreal after weeks of purple-tinted murk.
Zara had made a military report scroll sowhere in her stuff without telling anyone. She was reading it cross-legged near Sylvia’s shoulder ridge, and she didn’t seem to mind the height or the wind.
Rick could tell that Carmilla and Natasha were talking in low voices about sothing that sounded like the specific tone they used for ward analysis. They were sitting a little further back.
And to his surprise... Zephyra and Sophia had been waiting at the port, so of course they would return with them.
The reason she is still in the port is that she wanted to spend so ti alone with her daughter without having to work in the council for once, and that’s all.
Right now... Zephyra was in the middle of Sylvia’s back, and Sophia was sleeping in the enchanted carrier next to her.
She was sitting with a thin leather folio open on her knee and writing notes in small, neat handwriting with a stylus. She had been doing this since they left the port and hadn’t looked up at all.
Rick walked over and sat down next to her. The wind pulled at his hair, and the ocean spread out below them.
For about thirty seconds, Zephyra kept writing without looking at him, which he was starting to realize was just how she did things.
"You’re going to ask sothing or not," she said as she wrote.
"Just making sure you didn’t need anything."
"I need two more hours of uninterrupted analysis. Is that what you wanted to know?"
"What are you looking at?"
She stopped for a split second, which was a sign of hesitation from Zephyra. She then turned the folio a little so that the edge could be seen.
It was a political map of Valdris with red lines showing the boundaries of several council districts.
"Fredrich sent three policy motions to the Council while you were gone," she said. "All three were passed, and... all three give the Mage Council more power over civilian magical infrastructure."
"Is that... a bad thing?"
Zephyra thought about the question with the sa seriousness she gave everything else. "It’s just... too soon."
"In a ti of corruption recovery, putting all infrastructure oversight under one authority makes things run more smoothly."
"But without oversight, efficiency turns into sothing else." She closed the folio and looked at him with that flat, analytical look. "I want to be clear that he is not doing anything wrong."
"Every move was legal and defensible. I just think the timing is intriguing."
"Notable," Rick said.
"Statistically."
He looked down at the ocean. He thought of the words "notable" and "statistically" next to each other, and they made sothing that wasn’t quite worry but was close enough to be worth paying attention to.
From the carrier, Sophia made a small noise. Zephyra reached in without looking and moved the little blanket, which made the noise stop.
She returned to her folio.
For a mont, Rick looked at her. The way she handled a hundred things at once and made it look like it didn’t cost her anything showed how good she was at it.
Sebastian stood next to him, out of Zephyra’s sight, and said softly, "Soone has a type."
Rick turned his head away before his face gave anything away.
"Can you even bla for that...?"
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