Cyra remained silent throughout the Onthoakt's portrayal of today's event. But her expression grew more complex as the nobleman, the apprentice alchemist and the healer described the deeds of her two little trouble sniffers with increasingly more enthusiasm.

"…. You…" The sky realmer picked Agwyn up, not knowing what to say. Then, after squinting her eyes as she carefully studied her daughter's face, she held the coy little girl closer to her own. She scanned every nook and cranny from Agwyn’s quivering lashes to her slightly purplish nose.

Cyra then turned her upside down in midair, restarting her investigation from another angle.

Agwyn giggled.

Cyra put her down right side up.

"I-I’m warning you!” Elrhain tried to back away, but alas, Cyra’s watery appendages were all-encompassing. She dragged him to her bubbly lap and harassed him in front of a crowd with deep nasal breaths.

After her examination of the two finished, Cyra huffed, then gestured towards Onthoakt Slanout.

“North Palaikt Blethen will send someone to confirm what you said soon.” She said.

Upon hearing that, Onthoakt Slanout bowed his head as low as his ape-like body allowed. “I will do as you instruct, oh mighty faediaga.”

“Just repeat what you told me. And if there are more cursed, immediately start their treatment according to this…. Salt, water and honey remedy. So that my children’s intentions won't go to waste, ‘mkay?”

“Understood!”

Onthoakt Slanout took that as a dismissal and ordered his people to vacate the area. Healer Kond and apprentice Adol shared one last glance with Agwyn and Elrhain before following the Onthoakt to the hut where the rest of the patients were being cared for.

Agwyn waved her bare hands at their back as a farewell.

Cyra stood up, dusting her pale blue chiton. When everyone left, her eyes peered at the two kids again with a sense of unease. Elrhain and Agwyn, like rabbits under observation, started squirming.

“W-What?” Elrhain stuttered.

“…” Cyra averted her gaze. “Nothing. I’m just wondering since when did you cuties learn to keep secrets from mommy?”

“Y-You can’t make up lies about us!” Elrhain fiercely denied, and Agwyn nodded while covering her face behind Elrhain’s bushy hair.

Cyra snorted, picking the two up by her filaments again. A film of water protected them as her body collapsed into a stream floating in midair.

“Don’t think this is over.” Cyra’s voice came out from everywhere around. “I’m going to cuddle you till you share everything after we get back. I’m going to kiss you both so much that you will beg me to listen to what you have to say.”

Elrhain rolled his eyes. Before he could say anything, though, the trio gently shot up to the sky and made their way back north, where their home mountain lay.

Along the way from up among the dancing clouds, Agwyn tugged Elrhain’s sleeves and pointed down at the myriads of cliffs and peaks surrounding the loch Sagathan and the tens of hundreds of other lakes of Lochuir.

The unveiled moons showered the night sky with their unending lustre; the sparkling stars and the crisp monsoon breeze proved to them the superior beauty of a rainless night. Cyra’s magic protected their bodies from the cold. Still, the two appreciated this magic adventure of flight with all their soul.

They were not at all uncomfortable lying on a bed of gliding water as they gazed at one settlement after another. The total residential area of Lochuir was no bigger than a modern metropolis of post-old-age Earth.

It encompassed mountains, lakes, forests, and ruins. Yet compared to that world, the population here was far sparser.

Some peaks had only one village like Onthoakt Slanout’s, while some lakes were surrounded by more than ten. Elrhain could even spot valleys full of activity between mountains of no souls.

These scenes passed beneath their sky voyage like a fast forward movie reel.

The fires of the dhionne at night for light and for cooking shined on the disc-like stars fallen. Some were burning on paths for the weary, while others were flickering obstructed inside crude huts and shacks.

Tiny figures wandered back and forth with only a shadow of a shadow seen from so far away, some in the woods and some in the pathways. The noise of the ending hustle and bustle didn’t reach them, but the sight alone conveyed the frantic lives of the dhionne’s trying to settle down in an unknown land. Though for some, now might be the time for sleep, to these dhionne, rest was but an extravagance that the collapse stripped away.

The blood, tears, and sweat to build another home for themselves, the loss of joy and of good food, the absence of a night’s rest as they toiled even after the midnight sky had sung the melody of the goddess of slumber just so they could live a safe tomorrow…

Elrhain smiled, knowing that they had today taken the first step in easing some of those worries for their unintended victims.

Come tomorrow, the dhionne of Earthloch will no longer fear the swampling’s curse.

Agwyn nudged closer to him, laying her head on his shoulder. The girl let out an enormous yawn, her eyes closed and face content.

“Gwyn, Rhain. Just a little longer. We’ll be there soon.” Cyra’s soft voice echoed.

Elrhain nodded. He, too, was fighting off the sleep as hard as he could. But he wasn’t afraid of nightmares, not anymore. Today, he looked forward to what reverie would visit him.

He would not dull his senses with lucid dreams, nor would he avoid any visions of horror that are to come.

After taking the first step to building a better world, he was confident as the celestial bodies above that he could fight back any worries his subconscious mind could hurl at him.

*******

Elrhain stretched while sitting on Thundham’s sturdy lap, his eyes staring incredulously at the quarrelling nobles beneath the podium.

All manners of fancy phrases and nasty insults flew in from every angle. Some nobles pointed at their rivals while spittle flew out of their mouths in the buckets, while others simply grouped together in a corner and whispered among themselves whatever important revelation they had just deduced about their rivals.

On both sides of the large hall were carved pillars of unknown architecture, and beneath them lay rows of wooden putuans and stone seats placed there by the servants this morning for the nobles.

But more than half remained empty since many nobles simply continued standing.

The mass of dhionne was distinctly split into four large groups and many smaller others. The four large factions were led by the four present Palaikts. In contrast, the rest were led by prominent figures without a Palaikt’s association. Elrhain also knew that there were a few other Palaikts who were absent today, their territories lying near the border areas of the Earthloch domain.

If every head of the near thousand noble houses were present, he reckoned that this grand hall wouldn’t be enough to seat them all.

Agwyn, resting on her belly beside Thundham while reading a scroll, made faces at Elder Sonora the moment the old coot dared to peek their way. The antlered man coughed, bewildered at the petite princess’s weird gestures.

Opposite to him was the faction led by the four-armed dhionne, Palaikt Sabhalan. Elrhain could swear he saw a similarly four-armed woman standing beside the Palaikt glare at him savagely.

Next to this faction was the group standing behind a woman with skin the colour of the last winter snow. Her nose was sharp, and her eyes narrow with long fluttering lashes. Her ears pointed behind, far more Elven than Agwyn’s cute but small triangular ones.

On her forehead was a short demon horn, a bone cracked and greyish white. And on her face was a beautiful smile as she looked straight into Elrhain’s bewildered eyes.

… the prince blushed and averted his gaze. He reckoned that this lady Palaikt was pleased because of what he and Agwyn accomplished yesterday. Because standing behind her was a familiar face.

Onthoakt Slanout.

Finally, opposite to the lady of the south stood the head of the last faction. A silent man radiating elegance with his magnificent mane, everyone else too sat as gracefully behind him, as if disrespect was the same as dishonour.

His attire was a level above fanciness even compared to Sonora’s. His long golden hair braided neatly were jewelled with a ruby embedded wooden pin. From time to time, he would whisper softly with his followers, his feline ears twitching and his beastman face breaking into a gentle smile.

Even though these Southern nobles were in the clan’s grand hall, they seemed to regard this noble beastman higher than even the Grand Elder. But unlike Elder Sonora and Palaikt Sabhalan’s factions, they took no part in the spitfire of insults.

“Grand Elder, this humble Sonora pleads you to throw the four-armed baboon out of our sacred hall! He knows not what shame is, not what his duties are with the curse outbreak ravaging our people!”

“Hey! That was uncalled for, Lord Bevin of Yuriel. I only pointed out that the East Lakes are already short of resources. We have no more to part with your Western bunch. In fact, aren’t the western grounds more fertile of both manna rioghs and fruit trees? Why do we have to share with you, and not the other way around? What say you, my brothers of Earthloch, of the fallaciousness of this renegade Palaikt?”

“Nonsense! It is obvious that our settlements suffered most from this curse, and yours suffered least. As fellow nobles, isn’t it obvious for you to lend us a helping hand? Or do you dare say that the East Lakes are no longer under Earthloch’s rule like the rest of us? You dare betray Earthloch upon the Grand Elder’s face?”

“Hahaha, your weak words to sow discord will only fall into the ears of fools, and no one with a smidgen of intellect will believe your kaloxen-crap. Of course, the East Lakes will help our weak little brothers and sisters of the west. After all, it is your impotent abilities that caused so much suffering to our Earthloch’s denizens!”

Elrhain yawned. At first, wrangling like these were interesting to listen to. But over time, he got bored of them as if he was watching the same soap opera every day. That’s why Agwyn even had a servant carry some scrolls from their room to pass the time.

At least the memoirs had variety.

Finally, when a familiar old man, the scaled handed grandpa, entered the grand halls and took a seat with one of the more minor factions, Thundham shifted his position slightly as he held a hand up.

All the noise immediately settled as if their fight before had been just an act they put on, too lazy to break out of their daily habits. Even the South Palaikt, the majestic beastman stopped whispering with his followers; his eyes opened ever so slightly as he gazed at Thundam’s way.