Chapter 1532 (1/2)
The ancient, mechanical clocktower was the tallest building in Outer Realm Umt, giving Lady Iellaya a sprawling view of the downtown area of the floating piece of land. She looked down through the glamorously wide stone streets that were absolutely clogged with soldiers in military uniform. Superior officers shouted and waved their arms, forcing their various battalions to move to make room the soldiers flowing ceaselessly behind them.
Lady Iellaya checked with her aide on one key fact and was somewhat nonplussed when it turned out that her initial impression was correct. For most of the off-duty personnel, attending the funeral was only voluntary.
Looking at the numbers that continued ceaselessly to flow out of the teleporter formation, it seemed that many had resolved themselves to volunteer. And Lady Iellaya didn’t fail to realize that the more people were present in the Outer Realm, the more difficult it would be for her to detect a saboteur. Lady Iellaya glanced sideways at the aide standing next to her. “Do we have the room for all of the soldiers?”
“We’ve already started moving all of the soldiers below the rank of Commander out to the overflow venues, so this area should clear up shortly.” The aide responded quickly. “In addition, we have received regular reports both from the extra security around the teleporter and the entrance to the undercity; there has been no suspicious activity thus far. Everything is optimal.”
Lady Iellaya allowed herself a short nod. The black feathers down her arms and spine flared slightly, hidden under the tight military uniform that she wore. It was difficult to shake the feeling that she was missing something. But for the past week, she had been tirelessly throwing herself into preparations for this funeral. She had visited the nearby Outer Realm that had been attacked. She had thoroughly inspected thousands of teleportation records. She had patrolled every public inch of Umt, looking for any trace images that stuck out to her amongst the local population.
Maybe what I’m missing is a fucking break, Lady Iellaya thought sourly.
Perhaps most depressingly, she was slowly realizing that successfully pulling off Commandant Lyrim’s funeral would mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. This was only a detriment to her career; a failure here would mean she could no longer advance, while Military High Command would almost instantly forget her hard work should she succeed.
Or, even worse, they might assign her more funerals in the future.
Lady Iellaya shuddered, then looked back out to the streets below. Due to the sheer volume of people who came out for the funeral, most of the actual residents of Outer Realm Umt were stuck within their stone residences, their noses pressed to their windows to watch the spectacle. While the few remaining family members of the Commandant had already been taken to the chapel, the rest of the people who lived here, descendants or not, wore solemn faces and watched the soldiers march below. Somehow, the event felt less like a moment honoring a fallen comrade than a foolhardy denial of weakness by the military.
Look at how large our armies are! Look at the solidarity! This will never happen again!We are invincible! The soldiers seemed to shout with their localized unity in each step. But as Lady Iellaya stood on the clocktower and waves of sound separated by space converged on her, all she heard was a chaotic mass of bodies stomping around.
She could understand why the real residences might be especially tense right now. Sometimes, it was better simply to avoid the attention of those in power. Especially considering how little value Commandant Lyrim appeared to put on protecting the Outer Realm even during his life… and also because of how shallow the backing was of this Outer Realm currently.
Offending the wrong person would mean this place would be wiped off of the map.
The residents of this Outer Realm might be relatively affluent in the grand scheme of the Nexus. Many of them were employed by the NLC or were assistants to the Overseers of the various Cohorts. But although they might have specialty training, it wasn’t so strenuous that replacements couldn’t be found, even in the short term.
That was the reality of the Nexus. There were simply too many people waiting in the wings, hungry for access to more Aether.
Lady Iellaya turned away from the window. That’s why I cannot hesitate to seize more responsibility. I’m so close. Just a little more…
She glanced sideways at her aide. “Contact me immediately if something comes up. But for now, I need to pay my respects. Let’s get this over with.”
The aide bowed and Lady Iellaya proceeded down the straight and sharp cornered stretches of stairs that formed a repeating square, all the way down to the ground. She could have utilized her Authority in the Nexus Ways to jump to the location more directly, but Lady Iellaya thought it was better to not clutter the signals being observed by her team monitoring the Ways. If anything unusual happened, she wanted to know immediately. The time that they took to investigate her movements might be crucial to the security efforts.
Lady Iellaya did not forget, even for a second, that an unstable element bearing a year’s worth of Aether for an Outer Realm was lurking about. There were enough powerful individuals present at the funeral that there was little chance of anyone truly important dying, but with so much Aether missing, she was unwilling to take even the slightest risk.
Besides, Lady Iellaya could also use the physical exertion to work her way through some of the stress she was experiencing from the constant state of awareness she was maintaining. Unfortunately, she knew immediately when she arrived at the ground floor that the next few minutes wouldn’t be as stress-free as she had hoped.
Lady Iellaya narrowed her eyes at the woman waiting for her with her hands clasped behind her back. “Miss Rex. What a… surprise to find you here. Is there a problem? I can have a guard guide you to the chapel, if you wish.”
Neshamah Rex smiled sweetly at Lady Iellaya. Each strand of her emerald hair seemed to be an exquisite work of wrought stone, twinkling in the light filtering through the window. Even more strikingly, the light that hit her cascading mane of hair then radiated out from around her in a delicate and arresting halo. Lady Iellaya felt a strange, unfamiliar irritation as she looked at the inscrutable young woman in front of her. With her blue skin and a deer-skin mahogany dress, she truly looked like a perfectly manicured product rather than an actual living, breathing, and shitting individual.
Lady Iellaya convinced herself, with difficulty, that punching the woman to wipe the smile off her face would not help ease her stress.