Chương 243: The flowers of strife

Given his life as an adventurer - and one where he had even traveled more frequently than many during his contracts with task group Gauntlet - Kite had woken up in many different beds over the years.

Calling some of them beds was also an extremely generous definition as contracts that required staying overnight in the field often meant that a hard floor behind illusions or portable concealing arrays was what you got, meaning that a silver-ranker's ability to go without sleep for extended periods came quite in handy. But the night Kite had just spent in a guest wing of the diamond-ranker known as the Queen of Jade and Sky, he had to put at the top of his list of most comfortable nights spent. Ever.

"Kite, I don't know what this is…

But I might have changed my mind about the whole adventuring life and decided to simply never leave," Dragonfly groaned from beside him, ignoring the bright sunlight shining in from the recently uncovered windows as a small swarm of servant constructs readied the room around them; colorful, many-legged insectoid things which scuttled across the walls and ceiling as they drew back drapes, balanced trays of food or otherwise helped clean and prepare the attire and equipment of their guests.

The food in particular had Kite a bit confused at first as, from what he had gathered, there had not been any living being residing in the castle for a long, long time. In response, Gleam had simply assured him that she had overseen the maintenance of the preservation enchantments of their larders herself, and the delicious results had spoken for themselves. But it was not the excellent service that had Dragonfly reconsidering her life's choices, but the beds.

And Kite honestly had to agree with his intended in that they were beyond compare.

"Surely a glimpse of the heavens themselves," he agreed, moving his hand over the incredibly soft cloudstuff that made up the bed. Without the coverings, it truly did look like a piece of sculpted cumulus cloud, complete with a slight glow as if the sun was just about to peek out from behind. Or, in this case, beneath.

"When travelling with Gauntlet, I had heard of the famous cloud furniture from one of my more affluent temporary teammates. She even told me that there are a few lucky souls out there sporting entire shapeable buildings of the stuff."

"Hnnng… I'm so jealous… And now I feel bad that I'm jealous because we live an incredibly wealthy life already," Dragonfly groaned in response, managing to sit up through what looked like sheer force of will.

"Just take me away from here before it pulls me back in."

"As you wish, my lady," Kite replied, rising and walking over to her side of the bed before sweeping Dragonfly up in his arms, her giggle doing warm things to his insides. While there was no question as to who was actually the stronger of the pair, he knew that his intended would never say no to being swept up and properly cuddled.

He reluctantly let her down after a little while, as them rising from the bed had prompted the servant constructs to start bringing their clothes over, a swarm of them now gathered in patient anticipation around them.

"While this is nothing I need at home, I honestly thought that this would feel weirder than it does," Dragonfly observed as she moved to accept the pieces of clothing which the constructs helped her put on.

"Is that weird in and of itself? To have gotten so used to the odd that it no longer is?"

"Hah. Heavens know I thought about it a lot during the years past," Kite chuckled.

"But come, let us rejoin the others. Perhaps the Queen has even returned." They found Will and Laevyeth in one of the smaller courtyards outside, going through some kind of glacially slow spear kata together, and unsurprisingly Wander - or at least parts of her - was already there too as were Braid, Glint and Fantina who sat sharing a pot of tea at another table.

"Kite, this place sucks~!" the outworlder called from where she, contrary to her words, sat devouring a huge platter of delicacies with obvious enjoyment.

"Oh? How so?"

"There is no good snooping to be had. Either places are really off limits, enough so that even I know I shouldn't go there, or they are just open and welcoming. Heck, I even tried sneaking into those chutes which the servant constructs use to move around, and not only was I discovered but one of the cursed things even offered me a tour…~""And…" Dragonfly prompted, stopping with Kite near where the outworlder sat.

"And what~?"

"Did you take it? The tour?"

"Uhm… No… But on an entirely unrelated note, I might have suddenly found myself with plenty of inspiration on how to make a really great network of tunnels for my future burrows~." Over the hour that followed, the rest of their group gradually congregated in the courtyard as well even though it was obvious that not all of them had slept in like Kite and Dragonfly.

River, for example, came skulking in from across one of the nearby lower walls while Soul unsurprisingly came from another courtyard where she had been training on her own with her portable set of artifacts. And last came Little Crow, gliding into the courtyard with his customary parasol atop one shoulder. But, as it soon turned out, he was not alone.

"Good, you are all here," Soaring Soul said matter-of-factly as their minds suddenly became able to take note of the diamond-ranker who had probably been walking at the celestine's side all along.

"I have procured what we need, and my wardens are moving the prisoners to the interrogation chambers as we speak. Given that I assume that most of you will want to bear witness, I had to choose an appropriate locale. As I am no alchemist, I had to draw upon some favors within the Adventure Society to find a batch of truth potions in short order. They even seem to have improved the formula in the years of my absence, which is good.

Many devotees of the gods won't fear death to the same extent as those who lack the touch of the divine in their paths."

"Understood, honored Queen," Kite replied, bowing respectfully.

"We will, of course, defer to your wishes in regards to our role in all of this."

"Of course," the diamond-ranker replied to the foregone conclusion.

"Two of you may join me in questioning the prisoners after I am done with them. The rest of you will observe. As you, Pathbreaker, are the assigned leader of this venture, I will assume that one of them will be you. Choose your second." Kite took a moment to look around the gathered group, trying to lock gazes with each of them to see if anyone had any objections to him being chosen like that. Fortunately, none did, and as for the one to join him, there was one of them who stood out as perhaps the most deserving.

"River, will you join me then? Assuming that you agree to abide by the rules of our host?" he asked. This caused the acolyte of Pain to regard him with an unreadable expression at first, before her usual detached mask slipped back into place.

"There is only death to be found in directly opposing the mighty. I will stay my hand," River agreed.

"An interesting choice," Soaring Soul remarked with a raised eyebrow, but said nothing more as she turned and started walking off at a clearly measured, normal pace while waving for them to follow her.

"Come. Everything is prepared." As they all came together in the Queen's wake, Kite noted how Wander quickly ran up to Little Crow's side, giving him a knowing grin.

"Sooo… Spending some alone-time with our dear host~?" she whispered insinuatingly, although Kite was quite sure that everyone - and especially the diamond-ranker - could hear her loud and clear.

"I was merely conveying gratitude and respect on behalf of my clan, as is only proper when one diamond-ranker's descendant receives the honor of meeting one of their distant sire's peers," the assassin explained, ignoring the meaningful look of the outworlder.

"Our esteemed host has met the Tengu on several occasions, after all. She was even kind enough to give me some news of his activities to bring back to the clan." To her credit, Wander didn't say anything else in response to Little Crow's explanation, even though her eyes kept a certain sparkle that seemed to say 'Sure, friend. Sure.' Letting Wander carry on with her usual banter, Kite instead chose to increase his pace until he came up just behind and to the side of the diamond-dranker walking at their fore.

"Honored Queen, would you mind humoring a question of mine? It is one of history and perspective?"

"It is acceptable, young Pathbreaker. Speak your mind," she replied. She didn't look back at or otherwise acknowledge him, but Kite ignored that as he took the chance to indulge his curiosity.

"I know it has been a long time since you lived in our homeland and that you have been away for quite some time. Would you mind telling me a bit of how it was back then? The kingdom? People's way of life? Culture? I can surely find some in the histories, but not from the perspective of one who lived it."

"While wanting a grasp of history is commendable, I'm afraid that you might be partially disappointed by the answer," Soaring Soul replied.

"When the world is actively culling us and those at the heights of power live for hundreds of years, things change slowly. The Hua-Xi of my time was certainly different, even though many of the broader strokes were the same. We had honor and were willing to fight for it. We strove towards the heavens, me most of all. We treasured our paths, but lack of communal focus made things awkward and slow. Hence why I saw the throne as a means to instill some more dignity to our communal strive towards the peak."

"What are the most notable differences then?"

"There have, as expected, been myriad shifts in architecture, fashion and the like, but I assume that is not what you are after. Even back then we were a kingdom of conflict, of tempering ourselves against one another. I furthered that quite a lot by sanctifying the clashing of paths through royal decree, after all. But now, part of that heritage feels a bit tarnished. There is a difference in the general air of these conflicts and probably have been for some time.

Honor used to mean something, or at least something other than what it seems to do today. The development feels rather puzzling and irrational" the Queen spoke, a faint disappointment lingering in her voice before she dispelled it with a shake of her head.

"But alas, the years have taught me that such changes are inevitable, and especially if the influence of Discord's clergy is as you have described. Each kingdom is always being tempered by the grinding erosion of time, after all. Hence why I don't take offense at your relative lack of decorum, as holding you up to the standards of my time or previous position would neither be reasonable nor fair.

And besides, my time is limited and definitely better spent on things other than hearing the flowery groveling of those of lower rank."

"Then you have my gratitude for your patience, honored Queen," Kite replied, even though he was inwardly wincing at the comment and the thought of making faux paus in social rules of which he wasn't even aware. He was about to ask another question when the diamond-ranker waved her hand towards a pair of doors ahead which started to open.

"We are here. Come. It is time to acquire some answers." When imagining an interrogation room, Kite usually thought of windowless and heavily reinforced underground bunkers, their whole setting indicating that escape was impossible even should the prisoner in question break free. That was why he was surprised when their host let them into what looked like a small auditorium up in one of the palace towers instead. The room was shaped like a half circle, with benches set like stairs around a central open area.

Above and all around them, tall and colorful windows let in plenty of light, creating an atmosphere where one might expect a lecture or a debate, not an interrogation of chained prisoners.

"Although I suppose that with a diamond-ranker in residence, a pair of silver-rankers are as trapped here as they would be had we been seated out in the gardens," Kite thought to himself, as he waited for his companions to get seated before he and River joined the queen in the center of the room.

"Could we even break that glass if we tried?" The trio weren't alone in the center of the room. In a high backed chair, an elven woman was kept in place by colorful jade bands that strapped her into her seat. From her frame and the hints of black hair which Kite had seen as she was brought down by River in the final clash inside the astral space, he knew her for the armored elf woman with the earth and stone powers.

But without her mask and armor, she looked smaller and younger than the competent essence user with which many in the group had already clashed, further accentuated by her fine and delicate features. And while she was conscious, the woman's gaze was forlorn and lost. Even a bit broken.

"We shall begin with this one," Soaring Soul stated as she looked down at the prisoner. A nearby smaller construct brought a dark blue potion bottle to her outstretched hand which she swiftly unsealed. Kite felt the diamond-ranker's aura clamp down on the trapped woman which seemed to make her start in fear slightly as the Queen took her lower jaw in a vice-like grip which the elf couldn't have shaken out of if she had tried.

"You will drink this, or I will get a proper funnel. You will not like the funnel," the Queen said before feeding the potion to the restrained elf. The captive seemed to have regained some clarity, but still downed the liquid of the bottle with surprising obedience. Soaring Soul stepped back for a moment, and after a few minutes seemed content that the potion had taken effect. Kite thought that he could sense a faint shift in her aura, but still looked to River who in turn nodded in confirmation.

"What is your name?" the Queen asked, voice carrying a level of imperiousness Kite couldn't have mustered no matter how much he tried. There was a certain kind of abstract power resonating through her words that Kite suspected to be linked to her aura, but there was no telling with a diamond ranker.

"I- I'm…" the elf began even though her words seemed a bit muddled.

"Eve of Clarity."

"Family name and city?"

"Clarity. He… Heavenward."

"Sect?"

"Thunderous Soul." Kite's eyes widened as he heard her reveal the name of the biggest sect in Heavenward when it came to numbers, which probably made it the all around most powerful one in all of Hua-Xi.

"Position?"

"Inner… Disciple."

"And you venerate Discord?" Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Y-yes." A slight hint of resistance could be heard before the answer seemed to fall from the restrained woman's mouth anyway. Kite had never seen the truth potions in action and neither had he any knowledge of how it worked. But the effects were undeniable.

"Why did you set out towards my gate, breaking its rules?"

"I… I don't know."

"Why did you set out towards my gate, breaking its rules?" the Queen repeated, apparently not taking the first answer entirely at face value.

"I don't know."

"Who were your allies?"

"The cu-cu-cult of the Builder."

"Was it them who helped you enter the trial space?"

"Yes."

"Did any one of you possess a token?"

"Y-yes."

"Who?"

"V-verses." The Queen seemed to weigh the answer for a moment before nodding.

"What was your goal inside?"

"To- to- to- Set- set- set." The woman started stuttering, fighting against the potion more forcefully now, to which the queen only sighed and shook her head.

"Your inner spark has awoken, I see. But too late," she said, forcefully feeding the prisoner another swig of potion.

"I repeat, what was your goal inside?"

"To help them. The builder's cult. They wanted to do some ritual to establish themselves. They mentioned a beacon. And a tunnel. But I cared little, as I was serving Discord." The words had started flowing again, Kite noticing a rising panic in the trapped woman's eyes as she couldn't hold them back even now that she had finally started trying. Soaring Soul kept pressuring the elf, more tidbits dropping along the way while supported by three more swigs of the potion.

How her brother had been with them, Clarity of Purpose, and how he had been slain. How they knew little of their church's true goals with the operation inside the gate. And how she did not know anything of what the Builder's cult did once inside beyond the resulting ascended constructs and the monsters that started flowing in.

The group had apparently spent the first two weeks simply keeping the trial in check through their numbers, a state that would probably have remained had Kite and his companions not entered and further complicated things.

"The other prisoner, what is her name?"

"Ve- ve- Verses Sung Twice."

"Which position did she have?"

"S-she was our leader, but in name only."

"I see," Soaring Soul finished, nodding to herself before turning to Kite and River.

"You may question her further. I will apply more of the potion if necessary." But as the pair stepped forward, River coming more into view for the prisoner, something also changed in the elf's demeanor. Drastically.

"You!" she suddenly screeched, as if only then noticing the scarred woman for the first time.

"You killed him! You cowardly mongrel! You killed him! I'll rip you to shreds for that! My family will never let this pass without retribution! You and everyone you've ever met will be-" She abruptly fell silent, however, as the Queen's aura surged briefly to choke the elf's spirit, leaving room for Kite to ask a question of his own.

"Who are the other agents of Discord in the capital?"

"I- Curse you- do-don't know."

"Anyone else within your sect?" She tried spitting at Kite in response, but the Queen deftly stepped and grabbed her jaws while forcing more potion down her throat.

"Any other servants of Discord within your sect?" Kite repeated, imitating how he had seen the Queen do it earlier.

"No. I don't know. We don't know one another. Masks when meeting."

"Anyone in your family?"

"No. I don't know."

"Why were you chosen to participate in this operation?"

"I don't know. My superiors chose me and my brother."

"Who are they?"

"I don't know." He tried several lines of questioning along similar topics, but kept running into the same answer. And given that the potion seemed to be in effect and that the diamond-ranker wasn't otherwise reacting to any lies, Kite had to assume that the woman did indeed speak the truth. River seemed to agree with him where she stood, arms crossed and a look of clear discontent at her face.

"It's like the others I've caught, like those we rooted out during the conflict with the three sects. They don't know much beyond their current task. Worthless."

"I take it that you are done then?" Soaring Soul asked, and as both Kite and River were in agreement, the elf - now shifting between agitated outbursts towards River and the more catatonic state from before - was taken away by the Queen's constructs.

"While this first one may not have given us much, it is concerning to hear that one of the main sects of the capital have the agents of Discord in such a high position. And where there is one, there might be more," Kite mused.

"But that other one we captured… Given how she acted and the equipment she used, I still harbor some hope that she may be able to give us more answers."

"Let us hope that you are right, annoying one. This all cannot have been for naught. I will not let it," River hissed in return as she had started pacing back and forth. The other prisoner soon arrived too; the other elf woman Kite had clashed with the most during their time in the trial. Removing her mask had revealed an older and more mature-looking woman with peach-colored hair, and her eyes were a lot more calculating and lucid as she was fastened into the chair.

For a moment, Kite thought that she would speak, but she just kept regarding them all even as Soaring Soul stepped up to address her.

"Verses Sung Twice. Your companion has named you, and I will repeat what I told her. You will take this potion, or I will make you." Kite was impressed that the silver-ranked woman's gaze did not waver overly much in the face of the diamond-ranker, and she kept silent. Resolute. The Queen apparently saw it too, shaking her head.

"Waste of time and resources, but so be it." What followed was by no means a gentle process, but one metal funnel, one truth potion and one health potion to repair some of the damage later, the Queen apparently judged that the time for questions had come.

"Why did you set out towards my gate, breaking its rules?" she began, asking the same as she had the last prisoner. But this time, the answer they got in return was different.

"W-ww-w-we wanted to make overture-re-res to the Builder's cult in the hopes of future collaboration," the bound woman - apparently named Verses - replied, initially trying to fight against the potion's influence before failing as words came out in a torrent.

"And why did this include my gates?"

"It was the cult's choice. They wanted a secluded astral space as a base. For what I don't know. We were to procure a token to gain initial access."

"What do you know of their means to meddle with the trials?"

"Nothing. The magic is unknown to me." So it continued for a while. To Kite, it looked like the woman lessened a bit in her struggles against the potions as she confirmed what little she knew of the actions of the Builder's cultists and what means they had employed to tamper with the gates.

Verses confirmed some of the other elf woman's information about the timeline and what had occurred inside the trial as well, and the Queen seemed somewhat satisfied with that as she once again left the questioning to Kite and River, with the latter taking the lead this time.

"Discord has plans for this kingdom. What are they?" the scarred woman asked, voice cold. But where Verses had previously seemed pretty open to spilling what she knew of the Builder cult, this line of questioning once more made her completely clam up as Kite could see the physical strain she put on herself to keep her mouth shut against the impulse to speak. There even came a small trickle of blood from how the priestess bit down on her lower lip.

But once more, her efforts proved in vain against the strength of a diamond-ranker, and another brute-forced potion later the verbal floodgates burst.

"Discord's garden has grown for a long time in this kingdom," she eventually wheezed out, fighting every word even as they dripped with spite.

"And while I know not of the grand completions of this plan, I am certain that there is nothing you can do to stop it. The flowers of strife are already blooming all around."

"But you know something, don't you?" Kite broke in.

"Some part of this plan. The next step?" It was a gamble, but given the potion working he tried to keep the momentum of questioning up.

"Y-yes."

"What is it?"

"T-the beginning of the end."

"When? What is the timeline?"

"I-it's already in motion. You cannot-""When?!" River shouted, breaking in before the priestess could continue her more vague answer.

"T-two years."

"Two years," Kite murmured, thinking of any significance with that particular date. The monster surge? No, that was not probable as it should be around five years until that calamity. It didn't have to be anything special but…

"The Grand Proving!" he called out, realization striking.

"Do you have plans for the Grand Proving?" It was rare to see a person look like they desperately wanted to evaporate then and there, but as she fought against the impulse to answer Verses managed to convey that wish very acutely in her struggles, before a hissing answer made its way through clenched teeth.

"Yes."

"What plans?"

"I do not know""What will you do?"

"I do not know." No matter how much Kite asked or River threatened, no more details on the matter were forthcoming. But it was something; a direction. Something they could work with. Still, they didn't let up there either. Four more potions had to be emptied throughout the thorough questioning which the pair put the priestess through, but the Queen didn't seem to mind them emptying out her store of truth potions. And, Fortune be praised, Verses knew things.

Not everything, but a lot more than any of the previous agents of Discord they had questioned. Cells of assets. A hidden sanctum of the church of Undeath. A bit about the odd artifact that Verses had used to empower herself and a confirmation that it should be based on similar principles as the one young master Valor used against the King, albeit that hers was freshly made and a lot weaker. Several sects where they had agents among the members.

Even some slight details of the inner circle of Discord's council with three masked individuals only referred to as porcelain, gold and black wood mask. Through his expanded vision, Kite saw Wander help Braid taking copious notes, and he couldn't help but smile to himself. Some of these assets might be warned and pull out in time before Kite, the guild and the Adventure Society could take action, but every hidden threat they could purge or scatter was a boon in the long run.

At the end of the extensive questioning, they even discovered some information about past events that gave Kite quite the new perspective.

"Wait, so it was you who was behind the turmoil in Bastion? With the mistress of the Withers family?" he asked, baffled.

"Yes."

"You personally?"

"Yes."

"So you took action so far north… The investigation did never locate the rumored chairwoman of the council of instigators," he mused.

"What of the Unbreakable Chains sect?" River interjected, gaze intense.

"Was it truly just an experiment as others have indicated."

"A failed one. Some potential, but little more than a temporary destabilizing distraction. Inconsequential, even detrimental to the cause in some ways," Verses replied. While she had started to look quite sluggish due to the repeated potions addling her mind, Kite did pick up a hint of satisfaction in her tone as she called River's original sect - cruel and wicked as it had been - a mere failed project of higher powers.

The barb did hit its mark too as a chain appeared in River's hand in the blink of an eye, lashing out towards the prisoner as her face was filled with cold fury, only for said chain to shatter and dissolve as Kite's hand flicked out to touch the conjuration.

"Center yourself, River. Remember our agreement with our host," he said sternly. There was no doubt that the diamond-ranker could have stopped the strike, had she wished, but the Queen seemed content in her choice to let Kite intervene. River shot Kite an angry look, but she did back down while settling for glaring daggers at the bound priestess. Who, it turned out, was the first one to speak this time.

"I may be lost, but Discord's garden lives on," she said, as evenly as possible given the effects of the potions which muddled her senses.

"You may have won here, but remember; Discord is all strife. The more you struggle, the more you nurture their garden. No matter what cause you claim, it won't be furthered without conflict. Discord is everywhe-" A gesture from the Queen sent another jade band clamp down across the lower part of the priestess face, gagging her as she gestured for the constructs to take her away again.

"While I do honor the gods and their power, their clergy tend to ramble about their deities' supreme power quite a bit more than I'll deign to put up with," the diamond-ranker noted as Verses Sung Twice was carried away, collared, gagged and bound. She then turned to the gathered silvers as she continued.

"Did you find what you were hoping for?"

"We did, honored Queen. More than I had hoped for, honestly," Kite replied, bowing again. River did not seem to want to protest either, even though the deference didn't come as easily to her.

"Good. Then along with the materials and services Gleam will provide you, I hope that you agree to our karma being counted as severed, balance restored?"

"Of course, honored Queen." The diamond-ranker regarded Kite for a moment, eyebrow raised as she asked;"But?" Kite should have known there was no hiding some of his thoughts from a diamond ranker, so he bowed again as he clarified.

"My apologies, honored Queen, but… You have also learned of how the church of a shunned god seems to be actively working on some no doubt harmful project to your homeland. Is… Will you act in any way? To help root them out?" Kite was careful to keep his tone polite as he knew that he was essentially questioning a diamond-ranker.

But throughout the questioning, the Queen hadn't seemed to raise an eye at - or even take overly much interest in - the revelations of the extent to which Discord's followers seemed to have spread over Hua-Xi. And Kite felt that he didn't just want to leave that unaddressed. Soaring Soul caught on quickly though, even though it seemed to take her a moment of genuine surprise at his question.

"Excuse me. I just had to try and remind myself of our differences in perspective," the diamond-ranker said, her smile turning a bit patronizing.

"There are many things about the heights of power of which you are unaware, Pathbreaker, and will remain unless you manage to reach it yourself. So while I won't tell you of the rules among us diamond-rankers, there is a more personal reason to my indifference too; I am, and have long been, done with my old homeland. It holds nothing for me anymore. Hua-Xi was a place where I happened to be born, but compared to what I have seen - both in this world and beyond - it is quite insignificant.

It is my origin, not my home, and beyond leaving a proper legacy in the form of the gates to give the younger generations a chance for tempering, I owe the kingdom nothing. The struggles of Hua-Xi are not mine any longer. Hence my concern for my legacy alone." Kite felt a bit taken aback by the Queen's words, delivered with such indifference as if she was describing watching a colony of ants trying to fight off an invading predatory beetle; taking note but, in the end, uncaring of the outcome.

"But…" Kite began again, but faltered quickly as his mind caught up to his emotions. Soaring Soul was a diamond-ranker, after all. Hundreds of years old. He doubted that anything he could say would provide her with new perspective. And so he held his tongue, frustrated as he may be. But once again, his spirit conveyed what his words did not.

"I can sympathize with your disappointment, Pathbreaker. But this is your fight to win or to lose. Yours and all the others caught up in this struggle. Those of you with strong paths and quickness of wits will even come out the other side stronger than ever before. Look not to the heavens to smite your enemies, but plan accordingly, wait patiently and act decisively once the time is right."

"I see," Kite responded, albeit a bit stiffly, as he bowed to their host again.

"Thank you for your perspective, honored Queen. I may not understand it, but I shall meditate upon it nonetheless."

"Become powerful enough, and I assure you that it will be clear in time," Soaring Soul replied, before her aura swelled slightly to indicate her addressing everyone in the room.

"I have found the answers I need from these interrogations, and I thank you again for helping Gleam resolve this matter. The modifications to the gates will be done soon, and this incident will not repeat itself unless the Builder's cult sends a talented enough diamond-ranker of their own to make the attempt. And should that happen, you will have far bigger problems. I will take my leave again, as there are other projects that require my attention. Gleam will see to your comforts, your reward and your safe return.

May your paths take you to the heavens and beyond, young ones." And as such, in a repeat of her last departure, Soaring Soul vanished.