Three hours after a certain Princess blew her fuse and effectively condemned an entire nation to physical and spiritual oblivion, she got a call from her brother Egon, who she hadn’t even known had been given one of the power crystals for making calls or filled in on the fact they all had that ability.

The unicorn haired, solemn faced Jotun eyed his sister giving a her long measuring look.

“Nhn….”

“W-, what?” said Van. Feeling slightly unnerved. If Van had been the one to keep Edwin in line. Egon had been the one to keep her and Wallace in line, and the influence of his disciplinarian, “brotherly love” was still very much in effect.

In other words, Egon was the type who didn’t angry, first he’d get annoyed and then he got “disappointed” and would walk off in a huff. From there the sun would hide its face, the clouds would gather, the birds and furry forest animals would flee and things would just be terrible for whoever he was angry at, from then onwards.

This would be followed by consequences and coincidences that progressively ruined one’s day till either one apologized and was forgiven, or until he decided to let the grudge go on his own.

It was almost magical really, but also somewhat alarming and the experience of Egon’s anger had left and impression on all three of the youth’s siblings. With all three of them asking their parents whether the boy was or wasn’t actually magic in that regard. With the best answer they could get being that he’d just happened to take after his mother that way.

Ego shook his head and pulled his hands over the low cut green hair that grew from his scalp like alpha-sprouts.

“D’you have anything to do with the small force of elites that me and my men were fighting disappearing into pillars of light?”

“Uh….maybe?” said Van.

He sighed and then nodded.

“Alright. Next time...er...maybe call someone first. We almost lost a few of our guys. Or maybe we didn’t... Eddy’s toys do have a way of avoiding friendly fire which is...nice, I suppose. It still scared the shit out of us though.”

“Er, right….Sorry.” said Vanessa.

From there she’d received similar calls from Wallace, and her parents who were apparently no longer doing whatever they’d been busy with, because the building they’d been about to do it in no longer existed.

The calls were all of the same nature, not quite censuring her for her rash actions but asking that next time she inform them first before removing an entire faction from the map. Lest they grant strength to their enemies by having the entire world raising arms against them as part of some reflexive fear response. There was a bit of incredulity on her mother’s face as she said this.

Olivia had worn the same expression she’d worn whilst lecturing her two youngest sons about why they shouldn’t put barn animals on people's roofs or why it wasn’t funny to glue people's home interiors to their ceilings. Mischief one wouldn’t expect two small children to be able to get into but the Wallace and Edwin pair always managed to excel in.

Finally there was a call from Edwin, who was only calling to ask how things with the precision targeting. At that Vanessa had finally cooled off enough to realize that Edwin probably hadn’t been the best person to go to for advice whilst she’d been at the height of a rage.

Edwin was what some might call a facilitator, he generally did not censure or attempt to talk people out of things unless it would be physical or fiscally detrimental to them. Instead he gave suggestions for how they might do whatever they were thinking of doing, better, bigger and on a larger scale.

It was part of the reason why the Wallace and Edwin pair had been something of a menace for the people of Rus, and serious problem for the vis-Oddmund, mother and father, pair. It was also why the vis-Oddmund boys were well liked by the people who knew them. Since Edwin’s “powers” and helpful tips could be used for good just as easily as they were used for evil.

It was like having a devil on one’s shoulder that was highly polite, highly considerate and was honestly just trying to be helpful with what endeavour one was working on, whether it was good or bad.

Thinking rationally, Van could recognize that if there was any mistake in her actions, the biggest one was calling Edwin, who’d helpfully turned what might have simply been a decision to be a bit more ruthless in dispatching the assassins who came after her, into a decision to commit mass-murder.

On the one hand, she still didn’t regret her actions, on the other hand, she did regret making the decision in the heat of the moment without giving it any long term thought.

Even if her reasoning skills were optimized by the elements in her blood and her thought ran whole leagues faster deeper and more logically than that a of typical jotuns, rash decisions were still rash decisions and it was kind of lucky that things turned out as well as they had.

She now somewhat understood that little joke of Edwin’s. Where he’d make some mistake and after apologizing he’d say:

“Even being as smart as I am, I’m somehow still an idiot…”

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Five months passed after the erasure of the order of Golden-shadow and for the kingdom of Palmas after month three, it was mostly just business as usual.

Though everyone, both in the streets and in the house of legislature, was avoiding directly speaking of the matter, it was growing increasingly clear that the removal of a certain order, and the various guilds, company’s and powers that they’d controlled had changed a fair amount portion of the power balance for the continent.

Those who’d been paving the way for the Empire and the Kingdom to have closer relations had become somewhat passive.

Which allowed those who’d espoused policies that would lead to a stronger Palmas, and were resisting any moves that would allow the empire to quietly take control of things as their opponents had planned, a fair bit of more leeway with their activities.

The neutral powers who’d been watching were starting to take sides, finally the wind was blowing strongly enough for one of the two sides, for the people in the middle to feel safe placing their bets. A fair number of them siding with the anti-alliance/anti-submission group.

For Vanessa what this meant was a lot of extra teatimes, and dinner dates, and invitations to play cards and to play golf and see shows.

She socialized with the people on her side and with the people on the neutral side and the people on the opposing side.

Her time in the kingdom’s legislative council was spent just adding her vote to the heaps of majority votes.

It was all almost painfully dull, but was also all thankfully uneventful. The end of a certain Order meant the end of the endless assassination attempts. Which meant that things had been looking peaceful enough, and safe enough that soon one of Hunfred’s less socially and physically indestructible children could come in to take over some of the drier portions of the Princess’s duties.

************************************************************************************************************

On one particular evening Vanessa was heading home, the carriage taking her back to her manse after she’d spent the last six hours in the kingdom’s council taking part in a particularly nit-picky and tedious series of votes for what should have been some common sense financial reform.

She wasn’t particularly looking forward to heading home, her lord-father had sent the first of her future helpers and neither of them was fond of the other.

Vanessa’s older sister was high handed, snobbish and just simply a pain to deal with. Her unpredictability and distinctly sociopathic qualities would likely make her right at home working in the kingdom’s political world, but for the rest of the people who had to interact with her, it made interacting with the woman a chore.

What was worse, Van’s big sis Viv also happened to be one of those touchy feely type, who liked to clamber onto people or hug them from behind. And while Vanessa wasn’t against the occasional hug, she wasn’t fond of getting them from those she was substantially sure had been involved in the murder of her mother.

Thus things in the Princess of Wind and Storms mansion had been decidedly chilly for the last few days.

With the only upshots being that her honorable father would soon have another place prepared for the woman to stay and after a few more introductions of Viv as her right-hand woman Van would be able to leave the capital for a bit and be largely free of the more tedious parts of her current occupations.

All this may well have explained why young Vanessa was paying such close attention to the world around her, rather then just sitting occupied with her own thoughts as was the usual trend.

She’d been trying to distract herself.

Amidst trying to distract herself, Vanessa caught sight of a gang of horsemen, and martial experts who’d surrounded another carriage that had been going down a road adjacent to theirs.

Remembering the days that she’d experienced similar trouble and remembering her annoyance at the fact that no one had ever once tried to help her during her plight, even if she’d hardly ever needed it, she asked the driver to stop and alighted from her carriage.

In the center of the crowd, surrounded by the small mob of cultivators and mercenaries was a young woman with triangular ears atop her head and a lizard's tail. The girl was a monstrum, her tail giving her away as part of the wyrm-blooded clans. She was dressed in the loose but smartly pressed, formal garb of a sect member.

Spinning a bo staff as she dispatched her armed opposition one after another.

Vanessa watched the woman fight, standing a little ways away. Not getting involved immediately because the young woman seemed to have the issue well in hand, and she knew enough about the logistics of fighting that helping unnecessarily could be just as bothersome as not helping at all.

Vanessa recognized the young woman’s uniform, she seemed to be a core member of one of the South-Harta alliance’s three great sects, a member of the Courts of Steel and Amber.

The people who the young woman was fighting however, seemed just be wearing the nondescript armor and uniforms of your average assassination squad and group of hired killers.

Which made Vanessa feel a little more sure of her decision to help, when one side was a friend and the other side was hiding itself, it meant that even if there was something sticky going on, it was unlikely to be borrowing trouble for someone who was technically associated with the person who wasn’t hiding their identity, to render aid.

At a certain point Vanessa saw the girl’s strength flagging. She’d taken down more than half of the group but her movements were growing less sharp and more sloppy, and while she’d yet to take a serious blow, the light ones that she’d been able to dodge cleanly before were starting to land more often.

Which was the point were Vanessa decided to step in, swinging her heavily reinforced parasol into the crowd. Her monstrous strength shattering bones and sending bodies flying.

Between the two of them, Vanessa and the other young woman were able to neatly put an end to the issue. Leaving them as the only one’s standing amidst a circle of broken bodies.

Still breathing heavily the young sect member cupped her fist and bowed.

“This one thanks you.” said the young woman.

“Don’t mention it, I’m....” said Vanessa proffering her hand.

“Princess Vanessa Oedheim, I think we met already, my Aunt is the Countess of Bellatrix Bodil.”

Vanessa resisted the blush that she felt rising in her cheeks at the reminder that she only really recalled a tenth of all the people she was forced to meet as part of her duties as a politician. She narrowed her eyes, lifted her chin and smiled, whilst searching that eidetic memory of hers to match a name to the honey colored face in front of her.

“Ah, I thought you looked familiar. Camilla is it…?”

“Yes, my lady. Thank you for your assistance by the way. I’m not entirely certain but I do believe these knaves were sent by an old business associate of my Aunt’s...he always was fond of his practical jokes” said the other woman. Delivering a heavy kick to one of the downed assassin and smiling as she did so.

“Ah, pish...I was just passing by.” said Vanessa.

After exchanging further pleasantries and agreeing to meet for drinks in a certain restaurant that had recently opened was the two parted ways, with Vanessa’s mood having been much improved. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she might have finally made a friend in this city.