Chapter 1056 (1/2)

Lord Miln smiled widely at Iellaya as she walked into his headquarters. From his relaxed stance, it was clear that he had been expecting her. As always, he stood behind his ornate desk, the ground around it covered in thick lines of Engraving. Behind him, his mausoleum of isolated bodies floated suspended in the strange mixture of Aether and Nether that would ensure that they would be cut off from the System. “Lady Iellaya, to what do I owe this pleasure? It has been quite some time since you’ve come to visit me for a pleasure call…”

His smile artfully slipped away, as though a true tragedy had occurred to him only at that moment. “Unless… you made the trek over here in order to talk business…? Ah, I suppose you must have heard about Commander Thrall’s camp… truly a tragedy. To think that the monstrous creatures of Nether would be so insidious and deceitful as to corrupt an image to infiltrate our base… but worry not, it has all been taken care of. There is no need for you to be personally involved.

“To be honest…” Lord Miln leaned forward. He smiled like a shark eyeing a haunch of meat as his eyes glided over Iellaya’s tightly controlled feathers. “You are somewhat superfluous at the moment.”

“No need to worry, this isn’t about today’s bitter defeat. But I can understand your tension. You could use a break after the day you’ve had.” Although Iellaya knew better than to press it, she wanted to squeeze a little to see if any blood oozed out. Lord Miln’s eyes were glassy and mild as he returned her stare.

Nothing. That’s a pity. She continued, “Actually, I would like to apply to have one of your precious prisoners freed. An extremely strong image was transferred to my base in the latest batch. I think he would be invaluable if he possessed his body to fight.”

“He survived an offensive battle?” Lord Miln’s sculpted eyebrows rose smoothly upward. The man ran on clockwork and snake oil. “How lucky he must be to have avoided an area of dense Nether, and likely encountered no beasts in the Great Rift.”

“I have it on good authority that he did, in fact, avoid any beasts today,” As prettily as she could, Iellaya smiled. But her feathers stayed tightly pressed to her scalp and spine. Lord Miln was the worst sort of predator: too lazy and sure of himself to even hide his dripping fangs.

“How strange that such a fortunate individual had garnered enough ire to require my involvement.” Lord Miln’s fingers drew slow circles across his desk. “What is his name?”

Somehow, Iellaya knew that Lord Miln already knew his name. This was all just a game. But just like Iellaya came to weave a net to protect what she wanted to protect, it seemed that Lorn Miln also had skin in the game. Interesting. “His name is Randidly Ghosthound.”

“The peculiarities of this individual seem to be perpetually multiplying.” Lord Miln’s eyes practically glowed with the glee of a positive determination. “I must be misremembering because it seems to me that was the very name of an image you reported to have been destroyed two days ago. Right after you lit your Beacon of Duty, if you recall.”

Iellaya’s eyebrows pulled inwards in confusion. Her face displayed only the confusion she wanted to be present there. “What are you playing ate, Miln? I have no doubt you are aware that the body possessed multiple images. And it seems like one of the images might possess the capability to heal other images. As such, it is in the best interest of the front that the image returns to their body.”

And I want the main image to be beyond your reach.

“You know well the danger of returning images to a body after one of the images has been destroyed. Sometimes there are… consequences.”

“I”m willing to risk it.” Crossing her arms, Iellaya studied Lord Miln. Although there were generally consequences, sometimes it didn’t occur. It depended on how discrete the images were. In the case that the images were very different, the physical body could continue as normal.

And they both were aware that it would be impossible to determine what images were returned to the body unless the images were once more extracted. So the images would be safe.

“I cannot risk such a tragic loss of life.” was all the reply she earned. That same stupid smile remained pasted across his face.

I had hoped it would not come to this. Iellaya leaned forward with her face twisted into a scowl. She was overwrought and frustrated, nothing more. “You owe me a favor. My vacation last year was very timely, was it not? I wasn’t present at all for the Aether flow inspections.”

Lord Miln shook his head sadly. “Lady Iellaya- or should I call you Queen?- I cannot believe you don’t trust how deeply I value our candid relationship. It would bring me nothing but joy to acquiesce to your requests, no matter what they may be. Alas… I cannot. There is a superior lienholder.”

Turning slowly, Lord Miln glanced over his shoulder, almost fondly. “This body… Well, let’s just say you aren’t the first to express interest in it. You can consider it to be on lone for as long as the images yet live. And after it is emptied… it has already been purchased by a very influential citizen of the Nexus. So satisfy yourself with just the images, please.”

*****

Yggdrasil and Randidly sat above the emerald form of Ignition Essence in silence, each considering the information that Randidly had brought for them to consider from his experience watching Abiodun and Iellaya.

“There is something I have to tell you as well,” Yggdrasil rumbled to break the silence. “After you left… I was approached. By a wounded image, suffering. It said that it heard a rumor that I could perform healings.”

“Fucking bitch,” Randidly swore without bothering to keep his voice low. It seemed like they planned on moving quickly to discover the veracity of the rumors about Yggdrasil. And asking Yggdrasil how he responded was almost unnecessary. “You healed it, didn’t you? The image.”