The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'
Chapter 39 - One Little Snake, Two Hissing Serpents

Chapter 39: Chapter 39 - One Little Snake, Two Hissing Serpents

Two months after their date, the Goltbred heiress waited for her new ’mentor’, again. They had been together for over a month and it was not at all by her well thought out decision. He had seen her paper about the adjustments to the defensive sigils and became enamored and relentless! She tried to tell the man that she had a mysterious old crone that filled that role hiding in the wings, but he wouldn’t have it.

"The very fact that you memorized this and could recreate it on paper makes you worth teaching. You can just work directly under me while you are training."

Mint eyes showed off a ’troubled’ expression. She could not refuse without seeming strange for being a young member of the Guild that wished *not* to have more personal teachers. The brunette knew he was right, in a cruel way.

Those with ability are more sought after to both teach and polish - as well as just to work with on joint projects. An incompetent student may be loveable in other ways, but you would always regret that they didn’t amount to more at the level of effort you were spending on them.

The fact that he had been less interested in teaching - and more on showing old work that needed a fresh set of eyes and asking for her opinion on them - helped their relationship. The reincarnator didn’t need to be annoyed at a person insisting she do things in ineffectual ways. She just got a ’little’ irritated when he wasted her time like now... or when his husband and him argued back and forth about research topics.

"Sorry, Little Snake. We got into another argument about communication rituals."

’So it was both things combined. Wonderful.’

She watched the middle-aged man approach his office in a hurry. Despite - or perhaps because of - being a long time senior member of the Coiled Serpent, he was a lot more ’free’ than most. Her unchosen mentor kept working hours whenever he pleased. It was usually late and *late*. Neither of the couple were morning people and the one who the Goltbred was supposed to be technically assigned under loved to work well past dark.

At least until his husband showed up and cuffed him on the neck for missing dinner again. Which often inexplicably turned into another argument about the technical details of whatever her mentor had been working on. She curtsied politely to him in greeting. She knew he hated it!

"It’s alright. What was it about communication this time?"

It was one of many old projects in the Guild catalogue she’d noted as ’abandoned’. She understood perfectly well why, as the documentation explained it... but she had been waiting on an opportunity to make the corrective suggestions they would need to deal with it.

"Just the usual. I still think there is a way to deal directly with the Voidling spiritual interference that keeps junking all of the infrastructure behind the rituals."

The reborn cultivator knew what he was talking about, of course. The creatures all possessed the same Trinity of Aspects, with their Astralism being ’Hive’. They could coordinate and share information among themselves as one. This also meant they could somewhat blanket entire areas with spiritual energy and overwhelm unprotected rituals.

The nature of a communication ritual required a certain amount of being ’open’ to receiving the spiritual signals from others of its kind. Which meant that every Descent cycle, the creatures would *take out* these valuable sources of military planning in a very expedient manner. Any invading force would obviously take advantage to make the playing field as uneven as possible. It was basic cultivator scheming!

Losing them in the middle of the war when your defense was built around counting on them seemed unwise to many. The sigil work was also complex, the materials that were damaged valuable, and the time to remake everything long and manpower heavy. Eventually, no one wanted to ’foot the bill’ to keep the project going when there were other tactics to survive.

"I’ve been thinking about that, actually. The problem is that their spirits are targeting the unprotected pseudo-spirit of the ritual. But we can’t really protect it like with others, because that kind of targeting is also how the ritual is able to send and receive messages."

"Yes... that is right. I’ve been considering a plan to try and counter their method of attack."

"Hmm... directly countering? I’m not sure that would work. I can’t say for sure they can do this, but if they were able to modify their spiritual attack enough then they could get around whatever defense you make specific to them."

Despite her voiced ’uncertainty’, Elua knew for a fact they could do this. The only real thing that could be done is suppress an individual Voidling by wrapping the area with a higher spiritual cultivation. She rather had another idea in mind that she was trying to lead him towards, but he could only frown at hearing his apprentice refute his plan just like his husband had.

’Are they in cahoots?’

She could feel his suspicion and the rousing argument, so she pretended to be in ’intense thought’ before looking back towards his face.

"Maybe... the problem is the very idea of using spirit for the relay of messages?"

The brunette didn’t expect he would jump immediately to the perfect answer, but it would get him thinking and experimenting!

"Not using spirit... so then through physical means? Something like the flag system of the Continental Army. Requiring open sight lines as long as it doesn’t break every cycle could still be beneficial. I’ll keep your suggestion in mind and think on it more."

Even her facade couldn’t quite keep the ’strain’ out of her ’smile’. She had been thinking of essence, but forgot for a small moment that she was dealing with a backwater sigilist.

"Of course, we can talk about it more any time."

...

A few hours later, after much reading in silence and some small talk in between, the pair took a break for lunch when the mentor’s husband brought it. The man also worked as a member of the Coiled Serpent Guild and was arguably just as talented of a sigil researcher as his marriage partner. However, many years ago they were banned from working together on any project because their constant ’infighting’ was bad for morale on the other members.

The young heiress wondered exactly how that detail of the past ended up with her being signed to one of their care as an apprentice. Surely her morale was being quite affected too?

"Elua, is he treating you right today? Want to come hang out in my laboratory?"

"I’m treating her perfectly fine, thank you. Stop trying to poach my apprentice."

"I would like to see what you are working on. Is that fine?"

She said the first part with a little ’excitement’ before turning ’puppy eyes’ at her mentor. He looked like he wanted to refuse on principal, but sighed and nodded.

"Consider it a favor for being late again today."

She smiled and nodded ’happily’. Nearly this same conversation had already happened once a week, with him apologizing for some small shortcoming and caving to her request to go with his partner somewhere. They finished their meal and traveled toward the other side of the Guild.

"What I’ve been working on this week is a spiritual resonance identifying tool. It’s not the first time that it has been attempted, but if we could get a sample of information about the Voidlings then we can try and mitigate the damage done by their interference to rituals."

Even though they constantly argued about little things, they were truly on the same page.

"Wouldn’t that kind of tool be one of the first things they target in an area? It has the same problem of the communication rituals in that it needs to be open to the reception of spirit..."

"You’re obviously right, which is why we hope to refine the activation window and have it turn itself off after recording the data. Then of course, quickly protect the area from the expected assault."

The mint-eyed girl nodded. While the sigilists here remained unadvanced in many fields, their methods and ideas weren’t entirely *bad*. Trying for a quick ’snapshot’ of their spirit was certainly a good idea, if one bound to fail. The invasion leader’s combined spirit on the other end would quash any weak attempt. Even discounting that, a success would mean that the area the tool was in would become a priority target.

Quickly protecting wouldn’t be nearly good enough.

"I worked at a Void Defense Society branch library before I came to train here. The records of attempts to learn more during the conflict like this usually turned into big events... and not the remembered fondly kind."

Elua looked incredibly ’worried’. However she was actually kind of hoping she could use this bit of foolishness to aid her Qat. Knowing a location of intense fighting that she could have her then official husband-wife lead the charge to protect... that would be valuable!

"This isn’t a secret project is it?"

"Hm? Oh, of course not. The Guild knows all about it and we are working with a number of others to secure the location we will perform the ritual in. The leading defensive staff on the effort is a contingent from the Steelbound Tempest Brotherhood."

The small girl sighed in ’relief’, even though she was a little, *just a little* annoyed. It was the same Guild linked in an alliance of sort to Qat’s that ended up recommending her to the Continental Army. The Ironclad Order definitely annoyed her for sending her away some weeks when they were having dinner regularly... but the Brotherhood cost her nearly a solid YEAR!

’Maybe I should just let them all die?’

Looking up at the man who had just brought her lunch of his own volition, her darker thoughts warmed... enough. Enough to think of another soon-to-be spouse and what they might desire of her if they knew what she knew.

"Okay, well be careful if you are going to the site. None of the histories I read were ever good."

He turned back, offered a smile and pat her head once.

"If I thought it would fail, I wouldn’t go. However if you want to look more closely at what we are doing and provide your marvelous little touches, I would not complain either. Come, give our design a look with your young and sharp little eyes."

She nodded and felt regret. There was a lot that she could do to make it work, as well as a lot that she could do to make defending the area afterwards a breeze, but doing both of those things would draw a lot of attention to herself. While she was okay with telling Qat - even though the timing had been forced - she really didn’t want everyone else to know her past.

That conviction would probably cost some lives in the war.