“Crossing paths with others at one time and splitting off to head down one’s respective roads at other times was just an inevitable part of life itself.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

“Miss deVreys, a pleasure to see you in good health,” said Roland Stahlfaust as Aideen strode into the office. The once youthful dwarf was now older, though still in the prime of his life. It was to be expected since it had been roughly a century since Aideen had last seen him. Besides him, there was another middle-aged dwarf seated behind a large desk that dominated the office, to whom Roland turned. “This is my elder sister Henrietta, the current Markgraf von Ostmauer and mother’s successor.”

“An honor to meet you, Miss deVreys,” said the older dwarf as she stood up from her seat and offered one large, meaty hand for a handshake. Aideen naturally took the offered hand and firmly shook Henrietta’s hand with a smile, which the middle-aged dwarf returned back at her. “I had heard a lot about you from mother and little Rollie here.”

“A pleasure,” replied Aideen with a smile on her face. She had not seen any of Ginnie’s offspring other than Rollie before, though she vaguely recalled the old dwarf mentioning having abdicated in favor of her son and heir. The way Rollie said that his sister was the current Markgraf also caught her attention. “I thought it was supposed to be… your older brother who took over as Markgraf?”

“Leonard did, yes,” said the female dwarf with a nod and a smile that hinted of an amicable situation as the reason for the change. “That said, he can’t really say no when he’s getting promoted to Chief of Staff of the army after he served well for nearly a century here. Hard to take care of Ostmauer from the capital though, so he chose to abdicate this position to concentrate on his duties there. I took over for him instead.”

“Ah, my congratulations then, Markgraf,” said Aideen with a nod. It was an understandable and rather common situation for a noble to abdicate their post in order to concentrate on a different position they held, passing on the title to a sibling or a child. Artair’s father had done the same back in Elmaiya back then. Sometimes if the title was passed on to a sibling, that might lead to a feud over the succession, but given what Aideen knew about dwarven succession law and its strictness, she doubted it would be much of one. “How is Ginnie, by the way?”

“Mother is well, for her age,” replied Henriette rather diplomatically. Aideen sort of understood the reason for the rather evasive reply, since Ginnie would be well in her fifth century by now. A dwarf generally lived five to six centuries, so the old dwarf was definitely approaching her final years, which was still something stressful for the family although the dwarves generally accepted death more easily than most races. “Do you plan to visit? She rarely leaves home these days, so she and father should be there.”

“I plan to, yeah. I’ll be headed back to Ur-Teros soon, so I thought about bidding my farewells first,” replied Aideen with a more solemn nod. Both sides knew that this time, the farewell was likely going to be the last time they met in this life. Maybe Henrietta and Roland would still be alive when Aideen returned to Alcidea in the future, but Ginnie no longer had that long left. “Ah, I haven’t introduced you yet, but this is Celia. She’s sort of an apprentice and friend.”

“Charmed,” said Henrietta as she politely greeted Celia.

“An honor to meet you, Your Grace,” Celia returned the greeting with some visible nervousness. Despite her current age, dealing with nobles, much less high nobles, was still not something she was used to, to say the least. The last time the younger unliving woman was face to face with nobles was in Clangeddin decades ago, but it was not at such a personal level.

The orcish chieftains just didn’t feel the same way despite their high position, since they were far more open and close to their people in comparison. The way the orcs in high position went around were just like some respected elders in a village, rather than the nobles that Celia had known of throughout her life. Not an unfair take given her relatively poor experience with the nobles of her homeland early on.

“Do you wish to stay in Ostmauer first, or would you like to visit mother as soon as possible?” asked Roland politely to Aideen. The younger dwarf was visibly more deterred by her presence, being more familiar with what Aideen had done in the short century she had been in Alcidea. “We will help arrange for it. Please do not refuse us this little allowance.”

“If you insist, then,” said Aideen with a smile. She did not particularly like people bowing and scraping to please her, but given how sincere Ginnie’s children looked she did not want to disappoint them by refusing either. “I plan to stay and have a look around here for the rest of the week before heading to Knallgant, is that fine with you two?”

“Most certainly, Miss deVreys,” replied Henrietta with a wide smile. The dwarven woman’s actual smile was not actually visible, but the way her facial hair shifted still made it obvious that she was smiling behind them. “Rollie, would you arrange for some guides to take Miss deVreys and her apprentice around town? I’ll schedule up a carriage for their trip and send mom a letter.”

“Will do, Your Grace,” replied Roland politely. Though the two were siblings they addressed each other formally, probably a habit Ginnie had ingrained in her children. It was a good habit to have in general when one was in a high noble position like that, anyway, at least in public. In private dwarves were known to pay far less heed to such formalities.