Chapter 87: Greywall Again
*Day 54 since the Seal’s activation.*
The journey between Sareth and Greywall passed without major incidents.
Nathan drove the large cart with the two elven horses along the paths he already knew. Marren received them with Halden’s calm efficiency. Ilena prepared a discreet dinner and didn’t comment on the circumstances of their return more than strictly necessary. Valcrest was similar. Tomen accepted the information load with the professional neutrality characteristic of Veil coordinators.
Liaraen didn’t speak much during the first four days of travel.
Nathan respected the silence.
On the fifth day, when the path left the Veil territories and began approaching the human kingdom’s official roads, Liaraen spoke at length for the first time.
About general matters.
About the route.
About the provisions.
Without mentioning Sareth. Without mentioning the kiss. Without mentioning anything that had happened the last night in the settlement.
Nathan followed her lead.
Apparently the recalibration process was going to complete itself without needing explicit discussion.
On the sixth day, the cart crossed the last crossroads and began approaching Greywall.
And around midday of day 54, the city’s gray walls appeared on the horizon.
Nathan stopped the cart at the edge of the final stretch of road.
He turned to Liaraen.
"Sprout."
"Yes."
"We’re about to arrive."
"Yes."
"Are you ready?"
Liaraen looked toward the city.
The gray walls. The watchtowers. The smoke from the upper chimneys rising in irregular columns. The visible activity of carts entering and leaving through the main gates.
She paused to process for a few seconds.
Then she spoke with a calm voice.
"Yes, Nathan."
"Yes?"
"Yes. I’m ready to live my new life."
"Acceptable."
"However, I want to make one modification."
"Go ahead."
"I’m going to stop acting aristocratically during my time in Greywall."
Nathan looked at her.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Why?"
"Because if I’m going to settle in the human kingdom over the coming months, I don’t want to look too different from humans. Elven aristocracy is a communicative barrier that’s going to limit my interactions and apparently draw more attention than I need."
"Understood."
"I’m going to speak more casually. I’m going to lower the formality. I’m going to integrate better."
"Sprout."
"Yes."
"Don’t worry so much about the difference. Greywall is an area where different races already coexist. Elves, humans, some Kalindar, even some passing Tren-Ferth, half-humans, sirens, even orcs. It’s not Rendel, but it’s not homogeneously human either. You’ll see that better when I go to the guild."
"You’re going to the guild?"
"You’re coming to the guild with me, if you want. I have to continue my work. Selene can prepare things for us for a few days, but I can’t depend on that indefinitely. I have to resume Hunter activity. Honestly, I don’t want to starve over the next ten months."
Liaraen laughed softly.
First laugh since Sareth.
Nathan noticed.
He didn’t comment.
"Acceptable," Liaraen replied. "I’ll go with you."
"Acceptable."
Nathan took the reins again.
The cart began to move again.
Toward Greywall’s main gates.
---
The main gate guard recognized Nathan almost instantly.
A human of about forty years with the municipal watch uniform. He gestured for him to approach the checkpoint.
"Hunter Voss."
"Yes."
"You’ve returned."
"I’ve returned."
"With a considerably different cart."
"With a considerably different cart."
"Purpose of re-entry to the city?"
"Continued residence."
"Accompaniment?"
"Yes. An elf I’m going to host for the coming months. We have formal guardianship documentation signed by two collateral houses of Aelthoren."
The guard looked at her.
Liaraen inclined her head.
"Documentation, please."
Nathan took out the documents Lord Erenn had prepared. He passed them to the guard. The guard reviewed them—he knew exactly what needed to be present for the review to be valid.
After approximately two minutes, the guard nodded.
"Documentation in order. Welcome to Greywall." He turned to Liaraen. "Lady, by convention, I have to ask. Are you here voluntarily?"
"Yes."
"Do you need to report any coercion or irregularity in the guardianship arrangement?"
"No. Nathan Voss is my guardian by my own decision and with approval from my collateral family."
"Understood. Welcome to Greywall."
"I appreciate it."
The guard returned the documents to Nathan. He signed the entry register. Nathan took the reins again, and the cart crossed the main gate.
And for the first time in forty-four days, Nathan Voss re-entered the city where he’d obtained the Seal of the seventeenth god.
---
Greywall was almost exactly as Nathan had left it.
The same cobblestone streets. The same gray facades. The same specific aroma of a city with dense population and kingdom sewer systems that apparently functioned at medium performance. Nathan processed it with his cynical smile—someone who had internally enjoyed the natural aromas of Aelthoren’s forests and was now readapting to urban reality.
Liaraen observed everything with the discreet attention of a newcomer.
Nathan noticed the sidelong glances she received from some pedestrians. An elf with spring-green hair on the driver’s seat of a cart with visible elven diplomatic markings. She was, specifically, an uncommon visual event in Greywall.
But not everyone stared. Approximately half the pedestrians barely registered her. Apparently Greywall had enough diversity that a new elf wasn’t exactly an alarm.
Nathan drove the cart through the main streets toward the neighborhood where Selene lived.
Approximately thirty minutes later, he stopped in front of the house.
The same modest facade. The same closed windows with thick curtains. And the same dark wooden door with its unadorned bronze knocker.
Nathan climbed down from the cart.
He approached the door.
He knocked.
Approximately thirty seconds later, the door opened about ten centimeters.
Selene was on the other side.
And with an expression suggesting she hadn’t been expecting this arrival.
"Nathan."
"Selene."
Selene looked behind him.
She saw the cart.
She saw Liaraen on the driver’s seat.
And she paused to process for approximately two seconds.
Then she stepped aside.
"Come in."
Nathan gestured for Liaraen to get down. The two elven horses apparently were trained to remain still with the cart parked. Liaraen got down. They both approached the door. Selene let them in.
And when the door closed behind them, Selene spoke with a calm voice.
"Nathan."
"Yes."
"You have considerable new information to share—you were supposed to take her back to her land."
"Apparently so."
"Let’s go to the main hall. Tea first. Explanation after."
"Acceptable."
---
Selene prepared tea in the kitchen.
She returned to the hall with three steaming cups. She placed one in front of Nathan, another in front of Liaraen, and one for herself. She sat in the chair Nathan remembered from previous conversations.
And with a calm voice:
"Tell me."
Nathan and Liaraen looked at each other.
Nathan began.
He recounted the entire journey from when they left Greywall. Valcrest. Marren. The dungeon. The return to Marren. The road to Sareth. The twins. The Arren River. The slug. Rendel. The crossing to Aelthoren. The arrival. The revelation of the deaths. House Vaelith. The return to the ruins. The secret chamber. The sword. Liaraen’s decision. The informal guardianship. The uncles’ misinterpretation. The preparations. The return journey. Sareth again. Sella’s kiss.
Selene listened without interrupting.
Approximately forty minutes.
When Nathan finished, Selene drank from her tea.
She paused to process for approximately thirty seconds.
Then she spoke with a calm voice.
"Nathan."
"Yes."
"Fifty-four days."
"Correct."
"Apparently in fifty-four days, you activated the Class, completed the escort, survived a dungeon, established contact with two divine-mortal hybrids, crossed a diplomatic border, discovered a lineage ceremonial sword, assumed guardianship of a young elf, received a kiss from an illegitimate daughter of a major Pantheon god, and returned to my house with a diplomatic cart, an aristocratic elf, and a full wardrobe."
"Well, yes—now that I think about it, a lot happened in such a short time."
"And you’re twenty-two."
"Correct."
"Nathan."
"Yes."
"Apparently you’re going to need a master urgently before your life accelerates more than it already has."
"Liaraen’s uncles mentioned exactly that."
"Sensible of them."
"Correct."
Selene turned to Liaraen.
"Lady Sael’thoryn."
"Selene, please. Apparently I’m going to reside here over the coming months. Just Liaraen is acceptable."
Selene inclined her head.
"Liaraen. I appreciate the modification. And I appreciate your decision to settle here. I recognize you made the decision with limited information about what life in the human kingdom entails. But I respect it."
"I appreciate that."
"What are you going to do now?"
Liaraen straightened slightly in her chair.
And with a calm voice—the new one she’d begun developing during the return journey:
"I’m going to find my sister Aelinne. I’m going to establish connections in Greywall that allow me to operate diplomatically over the coming months. I’m going to find a fencing instructor that my uncle recommended and that you probably know. I’m going to learn about the human world firsthand. And when I turn one hundred and eighteen, I’m going to decide what to do with House Sael’thoryn with considerably more information than I currently have."
"Aristocratically organized."
"I appreciate the assessment."
Selene turned to Nathan.
"And you?"
Nathan thought for a moment.
Then he spoke with a smile.
"I’m going to keep being an adventurer. I’m going to help Liaraen along the way with the search for her sister and with life in the human kingdom. I’m going to have fun with the power I currently have. I’m going to gain fame and achievements. And I’m going to rub it in Mira’s face until she accepts that I’m great."
Selene paused to process that for a moment.
Then she drank from her tea.
And with a casual voice.
"Nathan."
"Yes."
"What you really want is to impress Mira because you have some specific interest in her?"
Nathan froze for a second.
Beside him, Liaraen turned her head toward him with the specific speed of someone who’d registered the question and was waiting for the answer with considerably more interest than she was showing externally.
Liaraen’s pale green eyes fixed on Nathan.
Nathan felt Soul Sense passively react to the internal pressure directed at him.
*Ah.*
*Again.*
*Apparently this is the month of questions that produce directed internal pressure.*
*Good.*
Nathan looked at Selene.
Then at Liaraen.
Then at Selene again.
And with a cynical smile set to "I’m going to answer, but I’m going to do it with the ambiguity the occasion requires":
Nathan smiled.
Without saying anything more.
Just the smile.
Approximately five seconds.
Selene looked at him.
Then she inclined her head.
Liaraen didn’t speak.
She just kept her pale green eyes on Nathan for approximately ten additional seconds.
Then she lowered her gaze to her tea cup.
She drank slowly.
And without looking at Nathan.
Selene spoke again with a calm voice.
"Nathan. Liaraen. You’re going to stay here over the next few weeks while you find appropriate lodging. I have two rooms available on the second floor. Neither is as luxurious as the ones you apparently used in Aelthoren, but they’re functional."
"Acceptable," Nathan replied.
"Acceptable," Liaraen replied.
"Tomorrow we begin preparations. Finding a master for Nathan. Finding a master for Liaraen. The investigation into Aelinne’s disappearance. And other smaller matters."
"Acceptable."
"Good."
Silence.
Selene drank from her tea again.
Then she added, in an almost indistinguishable voice.
"Nathan."
"Yes."
"Welcome back."
"I appreciate it."
"And Liaraen."
"Yes, Selene."
"Welcome to Greywall."
"I appreciate that too."
The three of them stayed in the hall drinking tea calmly.
And outside, on the street, the two elven horses waited patiently while a strange man in an extravagant ninja outfit perched on one of them with a barely visible deranged smile beneath his mask.