Chapter 129 - Sisterhood
Back in the Freybrook mansion, Scarlett stood in her room as she finished dressing herself. She then walked over to the nightstand next to her bed and picked up her [Pouch of Holding].
She and the others had returned from Faybarrow about an hour earlier, having spent a few days in the city. Things had been rather uneventful after clearing the Zuverian ruins, with them only finding two smaller dungeons in the nearby area. Neither had particularly good loot either, but it was better than nothing. The mansion staff were currently cataloging and storing what they did find, in addition to all the stuff recovered from the ruins. For the time being, it would be stored in the cellar.
Others might have had a worry that things might go missing over time, but she didn’t. From her time grilling all the servants with Fynn after the Cabal’s assault, she knew they were relatively trustworthy people. With her new connection to the Loci that now made this place its domain, she would know if there were any intruders around as well.
For now, matters related to the Zuverian ruins would be left on the back burner. They’d said their goodbyes to Adalicia just after they returned to the mansion earlier, and they wouldn’t announce anything publicly until the wizard had finished going over her notes. Evelyne would probably start getting into contact with Elystead Tower and the other mage factions before that, though, but that wasn’t an issue. As for when they would be visiting another Zuverian ruin…
Well, that would probably also have to wait for a while. Adalicia was a busy woman, after all, and Scarlett would have her hands full with other affairs soon. She was expecting Gaven to return to Freybrook tomorrow from the job she gave him. With him, he would hopefully bring the [Memory of the Covenant]. That item would finally let her make use of the [Gem of Athanasia] she had picked up in Abelard’s Doll Mansion, which, in turn, meant she would soon have everything she needed to execute part of her plan for completing the main quest and reaching Beld Thylelion before any other faction.
She reached a hand down to her pouch and pulled out the [Cube of Instant Katabasis] she had found in the Zuverian ruins. The small grey cube felt cold to the touch in her palm. Before doing anything else, she first had to have a talk with the Countess. Placing the cube back into the pouch, she left her room and began climbing the stairs to the highest floor in the east wing. There, she stopped for a moment before the door to the Countess’ room.
She had already thought over how this conversation would go several times in her head, but she still reviewed it one last time, just to be safe. This was an important talk, on several levels.
Then she opened the door.
It was dark inside, with the curtains pulled over the windows and the candles unlit. Floating near the ceiling was an ocean of stars, each embroidered onto a napkin, with a full moon at the center. The light emanating from the fake moon and the stellar facsimiles wrapped the room in a calm glow. The Countess was sitting at the table in the room’s corner, working on even more of her embroidery pieces.
For a few seconds, Scarlett simply took in the sight of the room and the woman engrossed in her work. She had given the Countess the okay to do things like this, since it seemed to calm the woman. The only thing they had to be careful about was to ensure it didn’t happen when there were any guests present that could detect it, but those weren’t too common.
Shifting her gaze from the fake night sky that was the room’s ceiling, she glanced at the new bed that had replaced the old canopy-one that the Countess had accidentally broken. This new one was far simpler, made of rough-hewn wood and half the original’s size, so it wouldn’t matter as much if it broke. She’d sent an invoice for the cost to Leon’s abode in the capital, and being the upright knight that he was, she had little doubt whether he would pay. Though she was curious about the reaction his staff might have if they were to see the letter.
She started walking across the room.