"Going out, you two need anything?" I pointlessly ask my criminal compatriots as they gorge themselves on the servant-brought helpings of the surface. Hrurim makes a point of brandishing his fresh restock of cigarettes, showing off just that little bit more that we are on the glorious surface. Heiya offers no response, her attention remains entirely on her weapons. Especially the honeycomb barrelled one.
I raise a claw at the duo and leave them be, closing the door behind me and quickly making way for the outdoors. I stop at the nearest decorative wall and take in a deep, happy breath. If this is somehow the 'out of the way' portion of Morgihranur's family estate, then I want to see the occupied parts. Then again, however, I've no idea how anyone finds their way around this place.
I have a view of some gardens and what looks like whole towns within walls and other battlements. Yet, from what I've heard, they are not some town, village or even a city. It's all still the grounds of the estate. Parts of it, apartments and regions for the staff and some are just halls for the family. Who knows how much of it even gets used...
"Still, though, I can see why Morgihranur's family has been... Busy." I mutter, looking out even further towards the distant mountains. If they happen to be smaller or not, I can't tell, but it looks like their peaks were intentionally demolished. All to get a better view of what I can only assume is the north. The Theocracy, rather.
The war is going on strong, and the Union, who just walked right into Thrurstradtur's domain so easily, are fleeing so utterly here. It's hard to tell what is what and who is who, but I can gather enough about the nighttime horizon. Airships are being destroyed so trivially, their fireballs enlightening the night in a way it should never be. Flashes of spells and the movements of Valkinvar, I can see it all.
The sight certainly leaves one second-guessing ever heading that way, and I can perfectly understand why there's a quiet hecticness about this whole estate. Still, I can only pray and hope that Vapooliar is alright. At best she's alive, at worst, she died years ago fighting the war when it was on the back foot. An affair which until recently has been... Years long.
The war had already gone wrong by the time I had first gone to this continent. Pass the years along some more, and the war would've only turned even worse. Along some more and then Vapooliar vanished from Suhurlodst. And more years past that until today.
A lot of time for even a Valkinvar to die, especially with how she was when I first found her.
"Your lust for magic makes you very easy to find," a familiar voice lets out, and I turn to find Morgihranur, dressed rather modestly for where we are. Her family's estate is barely different from her underground palace, it's all a simple case of different patterns and heraldry. Still, the best thing she can do is be simple in a land of extravagance.
"You look nice." I tell her, switching the topic away from my blatant magic sponging. I'm disrupting the very night itself with how much of a healthy green I'm now glowing. She returns my words with a smile, a very slight one, but not much if anything of a blush. Gods above, Einervaene would be redder than any rose in this garden over the slightest thing.
"So, what are your plans for the night?" Morgihranur asks me, and I shrug, this whole thing being her idea.
"Wait for you...?" I answer, not entirely sure what to do with it.
"Well, then. I best change this whole idea of what this night is about." Morgihranur chirps, slipping in close and taking my arm as she delights herself in adding to the magic of the night. Quite literally at that, what was already tinted green is now practically a shimmering emerald. If only I knew enough to compliment it in more ways than just the same old pair.
A girl might appreciate being called a 'dear,' 'love,' 'sweetheart,' or even a 'sweet.' But after a while, it all gets very, very old. It loses its edge, and it just becomes noise, like how I never paid attention to Morgihranur because it was just another sound of heels on carpeted floor. Still, I doubt my companion here is going to be particularly bothered by my lack of fine magic understanding. She pretty much lives my shallow knowledge leading her kingdom.
"So... What do you think about my home? My proper home, that is," Morgihranur asks as the glow of the magic around us steadily reveals more and more of the path ahead. First, some stairs and the spiralling case they make. Then, the gravel path that crunches underfoot as more and more garden surrounds you. Some more tended to than other parts.
"There's certainly a lot of home to this home. Even the fanciest parts of Suhurlodst or Thrurstradtur don't quite compare. I've been to a lot of rich people homes this past decade, and this... This certainly takes the crown." I say, thinking over how many I've actually been to. To think that once upon a time, a silk tent with glasses of wine was enough for me. Then it became a manor that dominated the centre of a town and now it's... A whole mountain range of art galleries and localised kitchens and hunting reserves.
If I leap into the sky, far as I can go and all the way up to the furthest clouds... I'd still not escape seeing this estate. I imagine the higher I go, the more I will just end up seeing of it. Too many buildings, far too grand a grouping of people and too vast a kingdom. I wouldn't be surprised, frankly, if Morgihranur's whole thing below is just preparation for this.
"It's honestly too much for anyone. So it's no surprise that Daddy made such a point of having such a busy... Sex life, as it were." Morgihranur struggles to admit to, the topic being what it is. All the blushier for it.
"Better the man be with a lot of women than the woman with a lot of men." I whistle, struggling to understand how a single woman could bear so many pregnancies.
"It certainly makes family affairs awkward." Morgihranur says, her voice rather shaken with past affairs.
"A mum, dad, some grandparents. Maybe a sibling or two. That's the extent of family for me." I huff, thinking back to my childhood in Tobaballe. Even then, though, it was such a family absent place, Tobaballe. Go as far as you want in an estate like this, and you'll still run into them at dinnertime.
"A reasonably sized family sounds quite nice." Morgihranur goes and I can't help but shrug.
"I didn't know mine that well. My homeland didn't really foster an idea of family. At least not if you worked in the lower ends of everything." I say, peeking her interests.
"Where are you from, anyway? I'm still utterly baffled as to where you come from. I apologise for letting you know, but I've made a point of trying to figure out what you are. And I can't find anything." Morgihranur explains, leaving me with some tension as, somewhat amusingly... She already knows the answer. An answer I'm not entirely sure is worth putting out there. It'd be idiotic to let her know, but, at the same time, I doubt I'll ever be this way again.
Not in my lifetime with all that I need to do.
Anyway... "I'm from the continent... West of here. A place called Tobaballe."
"Hreshnia? I've not heard much about that land. I only know the name right now because it comes up so often with Daddy's war talks and the like." she waffles on, leaving me with a slight smile.
"If that's where it is. I think I've forgotten the name we had for the continent, if we ever had it at all. I was never much of a geography lover in any way." I explain, waving my free claw about and away.
"I guess I'll make a point of looking it up in the main library, then." she says, and I can't help but choke on that.
"The *main* library?" I ask, knowing full well it's nothing to be surprised about. Even from this ground floor on the garden, still, I can see far too much about the estate. If there's room for a thousand offices, there's room for a hundred supporting rooms and more.
"Oh, don't be like that. Besides, all the smaller ones are set up precisely around what their local buildings are. I at least know where the main library is. And there's far too much walking to all the other ones. Carriages, flyers and all of that aside," Morgihranur remarks, pulling away from the stroll to get closer to some of the flowers.
Watching her as she gets on with it, I carry on down the path. Heading all the way until I find a fairly modest stone bench carved out of the mountain rock or pulled from another one. I put myself down on it and look out across the horizon once again. Spreading my legs as the freedom of being alone keeps itself to me.
"Uh, hello? Make room. Damn runner offer." Morgihranur gently chastises with a giggle. Sighing with a heavy blow of air, I tighten my knees before my crotch and shuffle around. She gets down at my side, keeping her distance for the moment so she can be oh so cruel to some plucked flowers.
"Which ones caught your fancy?" I ask her, not quite getting a good enough view through the darkness of my mask and the night.
"Just a handful of lilies from one of the ponds." Morgihranur answers without much energy to it at all.
"Don't sound all that happy about it." I remark, and she gives a gentle shrug.
"I suppose my mind is occupied is all. I know it's not my place to pry, but you are an odd man, Nin. You have far more impact on me than seems sensible, and I just can't quite figure it out..." she explains, and my bracelet-wearing arm shifts, a hint that she completely misses and I understand with no problem at all.
I guess, unlike Einervaene, there's not much point in bringing it up or creating an issue out of it.
"How good are you at keeping secrets, Morgihranur?" I ask her, taking my hat off as a sense of foolishness takes me over.
"Secrets...? Uh... I'd say I'm good at it, yes. Being king means I need to withhold quite a lot of information, even when you ignore the whole fantasy of what I've been doing." she explains, leaving me with a smile.
"Tell you what, I'll spare you the visit to the main library tomorrow or whenever it is, hmm?" I suggest, and she leans away, holding the lilies close to her chest.
"Uh... O-O-Ok," she answers, nodding away as I settle a claw on the mask. Stupidity is certainly the word of the day, and it's so plentiful one could be rich with it.
"No screaming or that, now." I warn her one final time, pulling the mask off fully. Sighing in the open as I find myself forcibly blinking for no reason. A strange comfort overtakes me, a freedom to chitter like I never have before. My claws puff up my cloak, and I double-check the gardens as Morgihranur otherwise stays quiet.
"So... So that's why you didn't want me to see what you are...? I'm... I'm confused. I'm very confused." she lets out, quite clearly baffled as to how she should feel. Here I am, an osibindah for her to see. The very race I insisted are nothing but monsters to her. The very race she's come to learn as being nothing but monsters.
"Think on it, dwell on it, do whatever you want with it. I won't be here long enough to face the consequences for my existence." I chuckle, the moment being so awfully freeing for how simple it is. I don't even know why, I still hate what I am, and yet... I'm not scared, or as scared, to let people know what or who I am.
"Th-Thank you for trusting me with such a secret." Morgihranur says, a shaky smile coming to her lips as she picks away at her flowers for who knows how many reasons.
"You're welcome, still, best not be pushing it." I say, chuckling away as I put my effects back on my person.