The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'
Chapter 130 - That Maelstrom Of Chaos Behind Door #1 Can Be Yours! For The Right Price

Chapter 130: Chapter 130 - That Maelstrom Of Chaos Behind Door #1 Can Be Yours! For The Right Price

Elua skidded to a halt before the door, with a hand on her chest trying vainly to still her heart. She heaved in air as her other hand hovered over the door handle - knowing she only had about ten seconds before the person she wanted to see the most, and to be here at this moment the least, rounded the corner.

’S-she started moving faster when I did. Barely enough time left to rush in and... and what? Hide the evidence of two days of emotional turmoil? With the illusions I promised I wouldn’t use on her specifically?’

A headache pulsed at her temple as she wavered. The impulse to wait was stronger, but not by much. Luckily, she fought things off long enough for the decision to be ’made’ for her.

She turned around guiltily as her husband-wife’s figure appeared at the end of the street. Blonde hair shined in the sun as Qat’s long strides ate up the distance left between them. Even from far away and without relying on their connection, the heiress could tell from the expression on the ’older’ girl’s face that she hadn’t hidden her panic quickly enough.

There was a lot of concern in those pigeon-blue eyes.

"El? I felt... Are you alright?"

When her low voice carried well ahead of her steps, Elua’s heart leapt into her throat and she wanted to sob in joy.

’Has it really only been days? It felt like an eternity.’

The illusionist plastered on a ’smile’ with her facade... quite aware now of her messy hair. Her cheeks flushed as she berated herself over taking too long to start keeping the wind out of her way. It wasn’t like it was the first time she had ever panicked to run somewhere, shouldn’t she be getting *better* at it?

"Qat! My love, I... I was just..."

She trailed off as Qat didn’t stop drawing closer. The taller girl’s eyes roamed over her, taking in every detail of her disheveled state. A part of the Yecine wanted to ask why her wife was wearing her wedding dress, but figured that learning the reason right then wasn’t as important as what she could be doing.

A fond smile tugged stole across the swordwoman’s face as she reached out with calloused fingers to smooth the wayward strands of brunette hair.

"You look like you’ve been in the middle of a storm."

The voice that softened in ’just that way’ only for *her* and the gentle touch of the thumb across her brow sent a shiver through Elua. She knew she had missed her precious gem... and she knew her behavior had been exacerbated by some rather ingrained fears - but for a few blissful seconds she could forget about absolutely everything.

Everything but the ’affection’ thrumming through the tendrils of spirit that held no apprehension at trying to wrap around her own volatile energy.

At least until the tall girl’s gaze curiously considered the building they stood next to. The reincarnator felt her panic resurge, knowing she was going to have to begin explaining herself. The flicker of unease and the tightening around her eyes were her fault... and if she let her inside to see, those shifts of feeling and expression would surely only grow worse.

"Wife, what’s going on? The house feels...strange."

The blonde spoke each word slowly, as if in between there would be something new to catch on her own. A few attempts at rallying her spiritual sense failed as she encountered some kind of barrier. The Yecine didn’t particularly feel the need to question that part - it only made sense that her El would not want people to peep inside her workshop.

But the teenager was still curious enough to want to look more on her own. Before she could think better of it, the reincarnator’s arm shot out and barred the entryway. She was in such a rush that her palm slapped and fingers curled... gripping the wood beam and causing it to creak ominously.

"Wait! I... I need to tidy up inside first."

An eyebrow arched over pigeon-blues. Qat allowed her line of sight to shift from the door, to the outstretched arm, and finally to the downcast mint eyes that seemed like they wanted to hide something. A palm rose up and gripped on the smaller girl’s forehead, partly to cover that particular expression from the Yecine’s view.

’I don’t like her looking away from me like that.’

"Tidy up? Since when do you care about a little mess in your workspace?"

"It’s not that kind of mess."

The monotone response led to a tense silence that stretched between them. Qatrand manipulated her spirit to probe at her cute wife gently - patiently seeking for any freely given answers... but her El’s defenses were more ’ironclad’ this time than any warrior from the Order. The Goltbred abruptly swapped back to a facade brightened voice that used entirely too much ’sweetener’.

"How was your mission? Did you see anything interesting this time?"

It reminded the blonde of a wild animal yipping a warning to stay away. The fingers pressed around the skull in her hand tightened.

"It was actually... I’ll tell you about it if you tell me what is going on? You’re acting strange."

A high, brittle laugh made Qat wince. Not just because of the pitch or the falsehood of it, but because it still felt like an attempt at directing them away from the subject.

"I’m perfectly fine now. Just been working on some secret projects, you know how I am."

"Elua."

The Yecine barked back with a firm tone. The tendrils of her spirit gripped down on her wife with ’frustration’ and... ’helplessness’. This situation was clearly not the same as the girl keeping all her other secrets in the past.

"Stop evading. What happened while I was gone? What do you mean *now*?"

The facade of sweet behavior melted like a sugar cube in hot tea. Elua’s shoulders sagged and her arm loosely dropped from the doorway. The fingers that were latched familiarly onto her head began to pull away, but were held in place by two small hands in the next blink.

"I... I lost control of my emotions. Or I let myself do it. Either way, it wasn’t good. I made sure it would be contained but it’s a mess in there, Qat. People should not go inside."

The monotone of the girl’s ’real’ voice explained with more patience than panic. The simple choice of contact with her husband-wife grounded her tightly to the moment and allowed her to willfully forget consequences. If she was in a different sort of mood, she would realize how dangerous that sort of thing was.

Like a catalog explaining what was for sale inside the building, she let very small hints of the types of feelings she’d ’exploded’ with slip and revolve across her spirit. An understanding dawned in Qat’s eyes as she realized they were all strongly negative. The concern she’d felt when first approaching the reborn cultivator magnified.

"Show me."

"I really don’t think that’s a good idea-"

Qat interrupted and repeated the simple demand. Her tone brooked no argument or sign that the tall girl would change her mind. Elua let go of her hand and felt the intent of her beloved quickly shift. A calloused palm stroked her cheek and a kiss graced the temple on the opposite side.

A sense of satisfaction blossomed throughout the swordswoman. She hadn’t been greeted with an ecstatic hug from the cute girl, but the Yecine felt that doing this wasn’t bad either. Especially after how it affected her wife.

’Hngg! That... that *triumph* she is feeling is just not fair!’

With a soft sigh, the heiress pushed open the door to the small home. The interior looked perfectly normal if one used only their eyesight. The furniture was more or less in place. There was nothing that could be called visible damage, aside from a small pile of leather scraps.

But to a cultivator with even slightly developed spiritual senses, it was practically a warzone. Spiritual ’shrapnel’ peppered every possible surface. Each shard of it pulsed with raw and easily identified emotions.

Embedded mostly in a ring around the walls, anger seethed in red-hot bits. Moments of deep fear were razor-sharp spikes in the ceiling and floor. Extreme loneliness coiled into the corners of practically everything it could, like it was searching for its proper place.

Seeing it with her own clearer sense, the culprit was a little repulsed. It was the biggest reason why she hadn’t wanted the other girl to come look inside. After taking a few quick steps forward and turning around, she watched the face of her ’fortress’... just waiting for the shock, disgust, and disappointment.

Of course, she saw only determination as Qat stepped a bit inside. The young sense she owned could not reach that far yet, except when it seemed to be drawn to curl around the brunette.

"Careful, please. It’s... intense."

Qat nodded at her warning as she closed her eyes. Her spirit unfurled cautiously and extended in its search. The tips of the tendrils brushed against the detritus of a Breacher’s emotional outbursts. Her breathing hitched and the orbs underneath her shut lids quivered.

’Are these feelings stronger than the love that her letter once expressed to me? Or was she just being that cautious before...’

The young cultivator felt that the latter was most likely. She knew that her El wouldn’t have forcefully overwhelmed her like this. It was worse than reading that paper, and not just because there were no words to make sense of things. The feelings buried in the materials stoked her own... but multiplied by the lack of the illusionist’s careful maintenance.

The blonde’s heart clenched, her own rising emotion threatening to spill over. The drastic amount of turmoil she was experiencing seemed like an unbridgeable chasm. Her experience simply didn’t seem sufficient to cross over it, but she knew she had to try - she knew she *wanted* to.