31 Albus side, part 3 (2/2)

[Unknown to them, a guy a few tables down innocently shot a little video on his phone. A .gif of it soon starting to circulate the net under 'relationship goals'. While the common folk didn't even pay that much attention to the girl's pupils being slit taking that as either 'contacts' or play of light, those who knew the 'guy who lovingly feeds his gf with meat' spit out their drinks, soon narrowing down who that 'happy glutton babe' was.]

”So, what about Purple?” Tiamat asked on their way back.

”What benefits there are in each option?” August asked.

Tiamat smiled. ”The main point is - Purple has more to lose than to gain if any major mess happens in Urea, so he isn't likely to consider selling you out to Soleans and Terreans, if that's what you are afraid off,” Tiamat said. ”We've been friends since chaos age, I can vouch for him.”

August looked to be a bit shaken about her seeing through his concerns just like that.

”The only benefit in him drawing back without knowing would be less mysterious salamander attacks--”

August squinted. ”Huh?”

Tiamat glanced over at August. ”Mhm, Roy's been very eager to get that treasure so he keeps sending salamanders after you in case you reveal something interesting.”

August let out a breath, resolute expression settling on his face. ”Will this Roy be there in the solstice.”

”Of course,” Tiamat said. ”I can introduce him to you, if you want.”

August made a refreshing bright smile. ”Thank you.”

Tiamat looked at August for a while, then turned away. ”I guess he deserves whatever is coming for him.”

After a brief pause August said. ”I'll take the option of Purple knowing.”

”Alright, the negotiation fee will be five days in the second half of July,” Tiamat said.

August thought a bit, then nodded, agreeing to those terms.

Soon enough they were back. Tiamat went to fetch the trapped 'kids' in her nest, while August headed over to where Albus was.

***

Albus went to sit on the terrace when the talks seemed to be more or less over and the family was settling in for their stay on the second floor. Just as she sighed thinking she'd love to have a drink, August appeared next to her.

Albus could sense him approaching due to their connection as a master and familiar, so she wasn't surprised. Tiamat wasn't next to him, though.

”Where's Tiamat?” Albus asked.

”She went to get Leum and Veri,” August replied, then stepped into the house.

Almost like having waited for it, the brownie came out of a wall, she was smiling.

No matter how she looked at it, Albus found that smile suspicious. It would make perfect sense if August wasn't concealing his presence, but since he did… why would a nature spirit show preferential treatment towards him?

August reached up to his hair, pulling out a hair strand, but this time, rather than it being pure white - it turned into a lily that was patterned black and white, it had a soft glow and shadowy edges. It had the sort of beauty that hinted at the end and the beginning, the harmony of light and shadow, growth and decay.

The brownie's eyes widened seeing the flower and so did Albus'. Albus knew she had mixed alignment, but she didn't think it would look like this when concentrated into one spot. That rather than rejecting or contradicting, the aether would coexist in a beautiful manner like this. Differently to how Albus imagined it, it wasn't ugly or frightening and the brownie did not seem to feel so either. Her eyes were filled with awe.

August's ear tips turned red and he reached out the flower towards the brownie, then asked in fae if she would--

Albus turned bright red. The meaning of August's words left her speechless - he pretty much asked if the brownie would be his property in the most glorified description of housekeeper/housewife/houseslave possible. There was no way--

Yet the brownie took the flower with tears of happiness in her eyes and pressed it to her chest, absorbing it and changing - her skin turned ashen gray and her hair changed from green to hay colored and rather than wearing leaves, she now wore white lace formed of aether.

For a moment, while change took place Albus caught a glimpse of the brownie's presence and her mouth opened without being able to close. What stood in front of her was no longer a brownie, but a being similar to a ruins elemental. An ancient god class being. Yet as soon as the change was complete, she had the same presence as August - or none, in other words.

Charged fog started forming around the ex-brownie. Sparks starting to shimmer and this house started feeling like home to Albus.

August looked… well, he had the same as expression as Albus. 'Holy crap' would describe it best.

”Oh, it worked out,” Tiamat said, as she appeared along with two sour looking dragons.

August sighed. ”Yet, but this place too turned into my domain.”

”Of course it would if you steal its caretaker,” Tiamat said, while she casually passed a small leather pouch over to August.

August took the pouch with no questions asked. Probably a spatial pouch with the promised dungeon core.

Tiamat continued. ”Isn't it good, though, now you can come here directly. Domains are connected to one another so you can jump home instantly and your new familiar can head over to dissolve that zone you were concerned about.”

Concerned about? To Albus it looked like August and Tiamat had done some constructive talking on the task and that haughty slave bride contract then-- was probably something Tiamat had told August about.

August sighed again, giving up. ”I'll call you Lily, call me August” he spoke to the ex-brownie in human tongue.

The girl smiled, nodding.

”Lily, can you go to the library and eat the aether I left there?” He asked.

The girl became thoughtful and asked about the location in fae, sending glimpses of the zone towards them with her words. It was a bog surrounded by ghastly trees, misshapen monsters lurking throughout the place. There were sword marks on the tree stumps left from a fierce battle.

Albus gulped. Now that was a textbook example of a dead zone - creepy, ominous and deadly.

Tiamat seemed to be close to laughing. ”Accidentally made, huh?”

August was embarrassed. ”Yes, that one,” he said to Lily, then added. ”When you see my sister and a church mongrel, tell them they lucked out.”

”With pleasure,” the girl replied and disappeared. Her voice was soft, feminine and sensually low.

August looked towards Tiamat. ”How do you jump between domains?”

”Wish to go to another one and a path appears,” Tiamat said. ”Wait a bit, though, don't you want to settle things with Purple first?”

”Right,” August said, then tilted his head, looking up. ”They passed out,” he said.

They? Albus wasn't sure who was being talked about, but then she realized that there were no voices coming from above.

”My presence does that to humans,” Tiamat said not seeming to care much.

August shrugged, brushing it over and since Tiamat was heading out, he followed and so did the rest of them. Leum and Veri were both crossing their arms and pouting, likely still about the missed-out-looting. There were some sounds coming from above, but those were more like bodies being moved.

'Best of luck, Marcus,' Albus thought to herself. He was probably putting his passed out family members on beds.

After a little while of walking along the edge of the lake, they came out at a meadow. Tiamat stopped and gathered aether on her finger, then drew a summoning circle in mid-air. A very familiar one at that - a circle with a simple triangle in the middle and lines coming out of each triangle's side, connecting to the circle - the summoning circle for Big purple's wisp. The only thing that was different about this circle was that it was fully infused with Aether and that was not common for summoning wisps. To summon a wisp a single drop of blood was enough.

Like usual, a wisp did come through the circle, but this one was five times the size of the regular, palm sized ones Albus had summoned in the past.

”Synchronize with purple,” Tiamat requested.

The wisp first morphed into a humanoid shape - an attractive, yet expressionless male with purple eyes and hair, dressed similar to a waiter. ”Authority level sufficient, synchronizing,” the male said.

And a minute later, the eyes became lively and a friendly smile settled on the male's face. ”What an unusual sight,” he said looking over at Tiamat, then Leum and lastly settling his eyes on August, before introducing himself to them all. ”Pleased to meet you, I'm Purple, a merchant.”

”August Garold,” August said ”And these are my familiars Leum, Veri and Albus.”

”How may I be of service?” Purple asked, glancing over at Tiamat.

Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click visiting.

”I'm just mediating,” Tiamat said.

Hearing so, purple looked over at August.

”I hear you have issued a bounty on what I'm concealing,” August said.

”That happens to be the case,” Purple admitted politely, his expression unreadable.

”If I tell you, can you keep it a secret and notify those after the bounty that it's no longer available?” August asked.

Purple smiled. ”That can be arranged, given that you also provide proof for your words.”

”How will you insure that you won't leak the secret?” August asked.

”Would an oath work?” Purple asked.

August glanced over at Leum and Leum stepped closer to Purple, reaching out his hand.

”Is the secret still relevant in case you pass away?” Purple asked to August.

”No,” August replied.

”Is the secret still relevant in case it becomes common knowledge?” Purple asked.

”No,” August replied the same way.

Purple took Leum's hand, glow appearing over their wrists.

”I swear not to reveal what type of being August Galord is till it either becomes common knowledge or August Galord perishes.”

An attached condition. The smart way to form an oath, but not the common one - like this the oath would dissolve in either of those cases.

After finishing so, Purple cast an expectant look towards August.

August let out a breath and reached up to his hair, pulling out a hair strand and it formed a huge Peony this time, like with the flower he gifted to Lily, this one too was formed from intermingling dark and light aether. He threw the flower towards Purple.

Purple startled at the gesture and Caught the flower by thickening air around his hands. He looked at the flower for a while, before looking up towards August. ”Proof accepted.”

It was faint, but Albus saw relief in Purple's expression, that made her wonder what had Purple been afraid off at a level of putting a bounty on information on August.

Meanwhile a black portal appeared next to August and a chest slid out from it. The supposed reward, Albus figured.

”May I purchase this one?” Purple asked, marveling at the flower that seemed to float above his hands.

”What do you offer in exchange?” August asked.

Purple cast a look towards August, observing him, then looking over Veri, Leum and Albus, then thought a bit. ”A set of 12 prime grade haste potions from Bergens. Effect is similar to having the world slow down five times, every miligram keeps the effect up for ten minutes, the set contains 12 vials of 6 grams each.”

Bergens? Albus was impressed to hear that name dropped. Nothing less expected from Big Purple. One of the best Ahea's alchemists.

August seemed impressed. So impressed that it took him a minute to respond. ”Are there haste potions that speed one up three times?”

”I can offer a set of 50 of those from Bergens,” Purple said.

”Any side-effects?” August asked.

”You get tired and possibly age in proportion to your subjective time, other than that - none,” Purple said. ”As long as you do not overdose, of course.”

”Deal,” August said, his eyes sparkling.

Purple formed a square shape around the flower using Aether. A small portal appeared next to him and he placed the flower in, then another portal appeared next to August and on top of the treasure chest, five little boxes piled up.

”Mr. August Galord, today you appear to be tired, but I'd be more than happy to make more personalized offers if you choose to summon me again. As long as you infuse aether into the formation and summon a mid-rank wisp it is possible to synchronize with my main consciousness.”

”Just August would be a better address, thank you,” August said in a good mood.

Purple smiled. ”Well then, hope to meet you soon, August.” After saying that and slightly nodding his head, purple disappeared as a portal appeared above his head and slid down to swallow him up.

This was Albus' first time meeting Purple's consciousness. Wisps were all parts of his (or its) body, but they all operated under a simple logic - sold what's asked for, bought at market prices, but no personalized offers of looking at someone, evaluating their needs and striking at it like Purple had done just now.

Albus had no clue why August was so tempted by haste potions, they were valuable, yes, but as far as Albus knew, only battle junkies were that eager for them and August didn't look like he could even lift a sword.

Tiamat made a satisfied smile. ”See you all in solstice, then,” she said and after receiving their nods (with the exception of still pouting dragons), she disappeared.

August took out his notebook, turned it into a suitcase and carefully placed the five small boxes in it like they were the most precious thing ever, turned the suitcase back into notebook and put it in his inner pocket.

”Veri, can you take this chest?” August asked.

Looking at the two, Albus noticed that theyno longer pouted now that Tiamat left.

”Sure,” Veri said and picked it up like it weighed nothing. Like that they all headed back to the now fog filled house and when there, August closed his eyes, seemed to figure something out and without warning pushed Albus on the back.

”Eh?” Albus almost stumbled, but as she steadied herself she realized she had changed locations. There was an eyeshadow packet on the ground,there was an apple tree in the room, she was back home.

When she picked up the eyeshadow, first Leum then Veri, then August all appeared.

Leum and Veri grinned like mad and high fived each other.

”What did you get?” August asked, again not being surprised.

Get? Albus was lost for a moment, then it hit her-- that pouting… was that an act?

”Epic class artifacts,” Leum said.

”And mid-grade rune stones,” Veri added with a grin.

Albus sighed. She really needed to have a drink. But sleeping would do as well. Food would be nice, however. Hopefully Tiamat wouldn't try to kill Leum or Veri due to them stealing her treasure, but even if it came to that - what could she do even? Nothing.

”Aren't those too low-class for your tastes?” August asked.

Low-class-- Albus was too tired to be impressed. It would take ten years worth of her salary as a commander to buy either of those. Her boots had been the only epic class artifact she had owned.

”These are meant to be used up,” she said, ”High grade rune stones have side-effects.”

Albus had heard that half of the high grade rune stones were cursed and there was no way to tell before using. A high grade rune stone was equivalent to a century or more worth of perfecting a spell, it could make an average mage into a genius overnight.

In the age of gods there were many such examples, yet the side-effect was also there. In best cases the person using the stone ended up inheriting a bit of the original mage's personality - some turned more reclusive, some only picked up smoking. In worst cases the user was completely overridden and nothing of the original personality remained intact.

So Veri, or Riveria, who hoarded high grade rune stones as her treasure items was both hated and most feared by esteemed mages and skill users, unless they got on her good side. She was known to attack the strong to 'test them' and if they got old and weak they were often killed and Veri could claim their rune stone if it happened to form. Some formed deals with her - that they would come to her on their own if they felt their time running out - those too found place in her collection.

Going by that, Albus glanced over at August. Wasn't August someone Veri would try to 'test' 10/10 due to that presence concealment? Was that how they met? Albus didn't think there was even a need to ask.

”When it comes to artifacts,” Leum added. ”Anything above epic grade is picky about their user.”

”Would your collection reject you?” August asked.

Leum smiled. ”Would you like me to wield Durandal in one hand and Excalibur in the other?”

”Fair point,” August replied, recognizing the issue.

Leum's humanoid form was unknown, but there was one dead give-away Leum had. No weapon would reject him. Even weapons that were dead set on being 'the only one' could easily accept 'buddies' if it was Leum who held it. Or the one who was made to be wielded by only one person, could easily go unfaithful for Leum.

But even without that, even with using 'only' epic grade weapons or artifacts, there was no person out there who had perfect mastery of them all. With a decent opponent it might take just a single fight for them to get a sense that 'something about this light elf look-alike is fishy'.

Albus then had a feeling that… this whole being undercover deal was plain impossible, there were already way too many who knew - Ian, Marcus, Tiamat and Big Purple were added on that list today. Two of them didn't even have oaths binding their ability to speak.

Albus sighed and resolved to do her best, turning to head over to where Mandy was, aiming to ask for some food.

***

At the very same time, in Ahea, high up on a floating city, a girl withlong red hair and feathers sprouting out from under her arms was twisting a fire orb in the air, as she lay on the floor.

Ahea had experienced its biggest causality in many millennia, more than two thousand dead, ship went up in a blast and there were rumors going around that Ahea might go into war with Hades. Oracles all around Ahea had been commissioned to divine anything and everything they could get to, but searching for each individual name had only lead to 'they no longer exist'.

No Oracle could divine more than ten questions a day and Ustrina, who could make these ten questions, was among the very top. She had done her part, but that didn't help her fall asleep.

It made no sense for Hadeans to just appear, take down a support vessel that carried half-healers, half-engineers, then disappear. It was not their style.

And how was it possible for the ship to have enough time to raise the barriers, but not 'enough time' to activate teleportation artifacts? Now that was not Florentine's style. He would go with a bang, but he would sure as hell evacuate and survive, then next month he would call her to discuss the latest volume of little faeries series and spazz about his second in command who was 'just like the frost faerie' character and 'needed to be protected'.

There was no way that idiot wouldn't at least try to protect that junior of his with some hard to resist misleading request half-quoting some novel line.

She knew the answer, but even so, she whispered to the fire. ”Did Florentine's precious junior survive?”

And her eyes widened in shock at the flames that gave her 'yes'.

Wait. What?!!

”Did Albusflores fon Plaustribus survive?”

'No'.

That matched the records from other Oracles.

Ustrina tried to calm her breathing, trying to recall whatever specific details Florentine had dropped about his Junior.

She ended up skipping three days of work and narrowed down that Albusflores had survived, but his identity was different. He had not betrayed Ahea or Florentine. He had gone into the boundary and while Ustria could not divine his current location, out of a lucky guess she narrowed down that the missing unicorn would be in Tiamat's solstice celebration.

If the unicorn really was like the frost faerie character, then there was a reason why he couldn't openly solve things. Approaching the military or the Plaustribus clan might be a mistake, it was best to talk face to face and see what's up with her own two eyes.

A safe round trip would cost a fortune, but Ustrina didn't mind skipping out on another vacation house if she could solve the mystery behind her idiot best friend's death.

Revenge didn't suit her, but she did want to know what bullshit line Florentine said to this 'frost faerie' so she could engrave it on the bottom of the limited edition frost faerie figurine she won't be able to gift him now. She hoped it would make her laugh, at least. Thinking so she started preparing for her journey.