Chương 77: Vera hardened criminal

Vera stared down at the very official-looking parchment, her brain taking an extra second to chew through all the dense, ceremonial phrasing. Then she looked up at Lorin, who was watching her with measured patience. Then she looked back down again.

"… Am I under arrest?" she finally asked. It wasn't a great line, but it was the only thing her mind had managed to cough up. She genuinely didn't know what else to say. This was so far out of left field and outside anything she'd had to deal with before. The closest she'd come to trouble with an authority that wasn't her parents—or a very annoyed college dean—had been muttering a few choice words about a judge involved in sorting out her parents' estate after they died.

For all the things people liked to say about her, she really didn't think she was that bad. Although that was before she'd been punted into the body of a near-godlike game character who everyone treated like a walking catastrophe waiting to happen. Even she had to admit she'd loosened a few internal limits after that.

"Arrest?" Lorin's gaze lingered.

"Do you truly need to ask?"

"Mommy, are you okay?" Serel's voice cut in, confused and a little worried as she rose onto her toes, trying to peek at the parchment in Vera's hands. Elaria stepped closer, her frown deepening as she reached out and angled the document toward herself. It only grew sharper as she read. She turned to Lorin.

"What is this about?" Lorin gestured lightly in Vera's direction.

"I would like to hear her answer first." Elaria looked to Vera. Vera met her eyes.

"I have no idea."

"I can't say that I am surprised," Lorin grumbled, a hard edge creeping into her voice.

"But I am disappointed." She straightened.

"Veralyth Mournvale, you are accused of unlawfully breaching the Vaults of Stoneward and removing the Ashbound Register, seven years ago. Do you deny this?" Vera blinked. Then her eyes widened.

"Oh."

"Oh?" Elaria repeated.

"That is your response?"

"…It slipped out." The woman's gaze turned icy.

"Mournvale. What did you do?"

"Okay, wait—hold on. This isn't even really my fault. And I had a very good reason."

"Then explain."

"To start with, it was Roderic Presley's idea."

"You are using a dead criminal as your defense?" Lorin asked coolly. Vera paused. Right. Maybe not the smartest opening. She'd forgotten that mentioning that name here might not get the best reactions. Roderic Presley had been a somewhat notable NPC and quest-giver in Ashen Legacy. He was the smooth-talking, swindler-esque type of character who specialized in nudging players along with his schemes.

He'd also—by some inexplicable fact—been the previous Castellan of Karthvale before Lorin, stripped of the title after his embezzlement and assorted administrative crimes finally caught up with him. Players first encountered him after he'd escaped confinement and gone into hiding under a false name. He'd featured in several quests, gone through something resembling a redemption arc, and eventually 'sacrificed' himself to save others. None of which helped Vera right now.

"Mommy…" Serel tugged at her sleeve, looking up with worried eyes.

"Did you do something bad?" Vera looked down at her, a knot forming in her chest. For a brief moment, she felt the urge to just admit fault, accept whatever came next, and spare herself having to hold her daughter's gaze. But being labeled 'bad' in front of her daughter was simply unacceptable.

"No, no," she said quickly, carefully running a hand through Serel's hair.

"Mommy didn't do anything wrong." She glanced back up, catching Lorin's sharp, assessing stare.

"I didn't do anything wrong per se, at least. I just… skirted some boundaries." She hadn't even connected the dots when she'd first read the charges. It had been so long. But there had been a questline where you helped Presley break into Karthvale's vaults to steal a relic called the Ashbound Register. In an MMO, that was a perfectly normal thing to do. It wasn't as if you, as the player, ever stopped to think about the legal ramifications of your actions.

Elaria considered her in silence for a long moment before turning to Lorin.

"If she admits to it, then I will not defend her." Lorin glanced at her.

"You intended to defend her?"

"…Possibly."

"No—wait, let's hold on here again," Vera cut in.

"I wasn't done. We don't have to paint me as the villain in front of my daughter just yet. I had good reason to help Presley, you know." Elaria's eyes shifted back to her.

"In front of our daughter," she corrected. Vera froze for just a heartbeat.

"…Yeah," she said, nodding.

"Right." She wasn't sure why Elaria stating it like that somehow felt different from what they'd done before. It shouldn't have. They'd agreed on what they were to Serel. She cleared her throat.

"Anyway. It was Presley's idea to take the Register, and I only got involved because of the Ashbreaker Incursion." Her gaze shifted to Elaria.

"You remember how Ashbreaker Ruun was rampaging?" Elaria's crimson eyes narrowed.

"Yes."

"We needed a way to counter his bindings. Presley knew Karthvale had the Register, and it was the best option on the table. Getting it was literally a matter of life and death for the entire Cinderfall Expanse." Ashbreaker Ruun had been one of the major raid bosses in the second expansion, and Presley had played a central role in the chain that led to his defeat.

"Then answer me this," Lorin said.

"Why did you not petition the Covenant or request sanctioned access to the Register? We would have been obligated to assist." Vera hesitated.

"… We didn't have time?" This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. Neither of them said anything, but she could almost feel the weight of both Lorin's and Elaria's stares pressing down on her. She really should have sounded more confident. But what the hell was she supposed to say? It had been one quest in a long chain in a game that had thousands of quests, literally. The players didn't know the freaking logic behind every decision involved.

They were told objectives. Break in. Take the thing. Beat big baddie. If this world's versions of her had followed along with that as well, then it was on her. Vera had no idea how she had justified it. But it was really annoying not knowing how to defend herself.

"Do you really think I'm the sort who goes around stealing things wherever I go?" she eventually asked, looking between them.

"Yes."

"Yes." They answered in near unison. Vera's lips parted, then closed in what felt like defeat. Serel's gaze bounced between all three of them before she tugged at Vera.

"Mommy, I don't think so!" Vera's mouth twitched.

"Thank you, Serel." She recollected herself.

"Alright. Let me try that again. Do you really think I'm the sort who goes around stealing things without a good reason?"

"Yes," Lorin said without hesitation. Elaria, though, remained quiet. She exhaled slowly and turned to Lorin.

"There is no point in continuing this. As reckless as Mournvale is—and I do not dispute that she is very likely to have exercised poor judgment in this matter—she would not lie now. And it is true that she played an instrumental role in Ashbreaker Ruun's defeat." Both her brows lifted slightly.

"You never intended to truly charge her for this, did you?" Lorin clicked her tongue.

"No. Of course not. She's the soot-caught Ashborn Ascendant." She flicked two fingers toward the parchment.

"That bill is little more than paper-shuffling formality and precedent. If I had the power to punish her, I would have done so years ago." Vera let out a short, disbelieving breath.

"So you were just scaring me half to death for fun?" Lorin's gaze snapped to her.

"For fun?" Her voice cut sharper.

"It is a simple reality of this world that power buys latitude, Mournvale. You are a hero who has done more for the dominions than nearly anyone alive." Her eyes didn't soften.

"I lack both the means and the mandate to put you in chains without doing more harm than good, but do not mistake that necessity for justice. You are afforded a privilege others are not—the ability to act beyond consequence simply because the world needs you. Ordinary people do not get that grace. They answer for their missteps." Her jaw tightened.

"You standing above that is not something I am obliged to like." Vera went still. She studied Lorin for several long seconds, searching her eyes, and slowly realized that… she might have misjudged her. Or maybe not misjudged. She'd simply walked into this thinking more of Lorin as the overbearing NPC from Ashen Legacy who'd probably tear into her for some vague, half-defined reason or other.

Not an actual person charged with keeping an entire city standing, weighing fairness against survival while monsters and gods kept trying to tear the world open. Vera could understand why someone like Lorin wouldn't like someone like her. Even without knowing the specifics of what Veralyth Mournvale had done in this world, just knowing herself—and some of the quests her player character had completed—it felt almost natural that they would rub each other the wrong way.

Lorin's frustration wasn't entirely unreasonable. Did that mean Vera would've politely accepted being arrested or locked away? Absolutely not. But she did get it, at least. Vera glanced down at Serel, taking in her thoughtful expression as the girl was clearly grappling with the situation. Then she looked back up, a lighter smile tugging at her mouth.

"I'm afraid I can't really return the Register. It was destroyed back then. But if you want, I could agree to paying a fine or something along those lines? Anything that doesn't restrict my movement, I'll accept. I'm guessing that won't fully satisfy you, but it's a compromise, right?" Lorin looked genuinely surprised. That surprise hardened only a beat later.

"You're serious?"

"…Yeah? What, do you take me for the sort who'd joke about these things?"

"Possibly." Vera shot Elaria a look.

"Elaria. Please help me out here."

"I have already supported you more than enough," Elaria replied evenly.

"Mama, please help Mommy!" Serel suddenly said. Vera's lips curved into a crooked smirk as she watched Elaria. She hadn't expected the girl to help like that, but she wasn't going to complain. Elaria frowned heavily, eyeing Serel closely. Vera wondered if she was maybe once again trying to calculate how much influence she was having on the girl. Eventually, though, the woman seemed to give up, turning to Lorin.

"Mournvale does make many inane jokes, but you may trust that she is not joking in this particular instance."

"You understand that your word carries significantly less weight after I just watched you get convinced by a child," Lorin remarked. Elaria dipped her head.

"That is still my honest assessment." Lorin's eyes stayed on her.

"…I did not think she was truly lying to begin with." With a quick shake of her head, she stepped forward and took the parchment back from Vera. It crumbled into ash in her hand. Her gaze dropped to Serel, softening slightly.

"…Girl, I understand that you are attached to both of your parents. But I would advise you to take after Elaria more than Mournvale. She is considerably more reliable."

"Hey!" Vera immediately covered Serel's ears, turning her slightly and leaning down closer.

"Don't listen to her, okay? You should learn, at most, sixty percent from Mama. Got it?" Serel paused, clearly thinking that over. Then she nodded solemnly.

"Mmm. Okay."

"Good girl." Vera placed a hand on her head again, this time ruffling the girl's hair while feeling proud that Serel seemed to have a decent grasp of percentages. Naturally, the ruffling earned her an immediate protest as Serel squirmed away from her and closer to Elaria, but that only made Vera laugh. Lorin watched the exchange with something that wasn't quite a frown before turning away and returning to her desk.

"We can discuss what form of recompense you are willing to agree to later, Mournvale," she said, pulling a stack of reports from a drawer.

"For now, since you are both here, I want to hear more about what transpired in Marrowfen with the Silent Lord—and the current situation on the eastern front." She flipped through the papers.

"Before we get into that," Elaria said, "I have a request." Lorin looked up.

"Yes?"

"Do you still have the Ember Measures?" The woman paused. She set the reports aside, her expression shifting as she considered the question.

"I do." Her gaze dropped to Serel.

"Do you intend to teach them to her?"

"I do."

"Huh?" Vera cut in.

"What are the Ember Measures?" She didn't recognize the term at all. Elaria seemed almost to weigh how much explanation was necessary.

"They are the path traditionally followed by the Ashward line."

"Oh." Vera nodded, then blinked.

"Wait—" She looked down at Serel, then gently let go of the girl's hand and stepped closer to Elaria, lowering her voice.

"You want to teach her something like that?"

"Yes. If she possesses the Ember Scar, the Ember Measures are an appropriate starting path until she gains better control over her Resonance."

"No, I mean—" Vera searched Elaria's face.

"Are you sure you want to teach her… fighting and all of that? Already?" Elaria gave her a strange look.

"Yes. Naturally." Vera stared at her. She'd honestly expected Elaria to be the one to push back on that. Given how little patience she'd shown for Vera's more…

'violent' tendencies, Vera had assumed the woman would want to delay anything resembling combat training for as long as possible. Instead, it hit her that she'd been looking at this sideways. To Elaria, learning how to fight in a world like this probably wasn't some grim milestone. It was just baseline survival. Vera suspected that the woman wanted for Serel not to have a childhood like hers, but apparently that did not include not fighting. Did the alternative even register as an option to her?

Elaria tilted her head slightly.

"Are you opposed to me teaching her the Ember Measures? There are other paths, if necessary." Vera stayed quiet just a bit longer before shaking her head.

"No. Not strictly, at least. I've just been… putting off teaching her some of that stuff. For a few reasons. She only knows a couple of Marks right now." As soon as the words left her mouth, a thought struck Vera. Slowly, she turned a suspicious look toward Serel.

"That's still true, right?" Serel looked startled, as if the fact that she could hear them hadn't been obviously clear to Vera. A poorly concealed expression of guilt crept over her face as she clasped her hands behind her back and stared very intently at her feet.

"Oi," Vera said.

"Have you sneakily learned more Marks while I wasn't watching?" Serel's gaze eventually lifted to meet hers, lips pressed tight. Vera narrowed her eyes for a second. Then she sighed.

"Yeah. Should have figured." She looked at Elaria, then turned to Lorin.

"Elaria can probably fill you in on what happened in Marrowfen better than me. Ask her if you've got any questions." She reached for Serel's hand again.

"I'm going to head out with her in the meantime."

"You're leaving?" Elaria asked.

"Not far. Just the outskirts or something. We'll keep it short." Vera shrugged.

"Then we can go over everything together tonight, including those Measures or whatever."

"…Very well."

"Mournvale," Lorin added.

"And the matter of recompense?" Vera waved a hand vaguely in Elaria's direction.

"You can work that out with her. I'll agree to whatever she thinks is reasonable. I doubt it'll bankrupt me." Another flicker of surprise crossed Lorin's face, quickly giving way to something more thoughtful.

"Alright." Vera summoned Stillwake as she tightened her grip on Serel's hand.

"If that's everything, we're heading out. See you."