The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'
Chapter 96 - Powering The Flowering & The Glow of Gifts

Chapter 96: Chapter 96 - Powering The Flowering & The Glow of Gifts

A gentle chime rang out from a silver bell. Everyone at the Feast turned their attention to the officiant from the Argent Braid Fellowship, who stepped forward while holding the instrument.

"Honored guests, as the night embraces our festivities... we welcome the Starbloom ritual. Would our newlyweds please approach their gift table?"

Elua stood up gracefully while tugging Qatrand to her feet. She was excited to examine this piece of regional culture firsthand. Or at least, the sigils for it! The bride’s eyes darted from face to face, cataloging reactions to their movement.

Her two parents beamed with pride, while the Yecine elders watched with carefully neutral expressions. Even Anper seemed calm and aloof as they neared the ritual location. The center of the gift table housed the Unity Crystal-

’Fancy name given to a rather simple device meant to be the focal point of transferring essence!’

Its clear coloration glowed faintly due to the light of lanterns in the area. As each one of those winked out with the help of servants to set the scene, the reincarnator’s steps slowed. Her expert leer had been studying the geometry etched around its base with her spiritual sense - and she was unhappy with what she saw.

Something about the sigil work struck her as unusual, but she couldn’t quite place why. Qat could sense her intensity had locked onto something ahead of them and her tension grew. Her spirit prodded at the girl with concern.

"What’s wrong?"

"These sigils... ah, there’s no limiter on the essence draw. Well, that shouldn’t be a problem. It’s not like it’s been tampered with, just designed badly."

Calloused fingers tightened around the smaller and softer set. The sigilist filed the observation away for later consideration. It was time for presents! A ’honeyed’ voice called out to the taller within the low light.

"Are you ready, my love?"

"You’re here by my side, El. Together with you, I feel ready for anything."

After both of them recovered from the spiritual blip of the brunette’s ’Hngg!’, they reached for the Unity Crystal. The pair of teenagers placed their free hands on its surface, allowing it to draw their essence into it. The sigils started their work of ’assessing’ the gifts.

Along the terrace edges, the silver flowers quickly began to turn into luminous points of ’starlight’ as the vials glowing within received the item count from the table. A collective susurrance from the guests rose as the dark plateau transformed into a sea of twinkling lights, one for each of the gifts given.

The number wasn’t small... and many watching from below felt like it was intentional - that it was a statement from the two affluent families. This was reinforced when one after another of the terraces gained a more brightly glowing Starbloom of differing color. The special gift assessment lit up a dozen hues on the table in front of them as it identified materials of exceptionally high value.

Around that time, the drain on their essence reserves intensified quite rapidly. It was so strong that the fields adhered to that of the Unity Crystal. The illusionist’s face blanked its emotions as her facade broke apart. Her spirit festooned the entire plateau, searching for the culprit.

’Something on the table is doing it, but which-’

The swordswoman’s tendrils wrapped protectively around her wife, sensing her struggle and worry. Her listless gaze darted to Qatrand, seeing the strain etched on her beloved’s face - and the trust. Decision made, she prepared to forcefully sever her husband-wife’s connection to the crystal.

Before she could grip down and ’judiciously’ destroy the cultivator tool trying to harm her beloved, another gifted material on the table started to do something it shouldn’t have. The drain near-instantly stabilized to the point that the oppressive pull on their essence disappeared.

Her hand darted over and pulled Qat away from the object she felt she still might crush before it was all over with. Her spirit isolated the two unusual objects that interfered with the Starbloom ritual. Both had fairly crude sigil work, but one of them - the one that ’saved’ her from being the bride that crushed the Unity Crystal - had details that were entirely too familiar.

"That sigil style..."

"What is it? Do you need me to do anything?"

Qatrand leaned closer as she asked in her calmest voice - even though she understood that something was clearly alarming and must have been dangerous. She wasn’t entirely sure what had just happened, but being looked at moments ago before that ’determination’ surged through the fragment in her chest... made her feel antsy.

’Leaving it all to her feels wrong. But I also don’t know what the threat even was. How frustrating.’

The Goltbred heiress shook her head, her mask of ’sweet’ celebration sliding back into place. She showed a light smile to the Yecine... though her spirit was still paying extra attention to all of her suspects. Frustratingly, none were giving a single thing away!

"Later, my love. It’s fine for now. Let’s just enjoy our blessings like everyone expects."

The Starbloom ceremony concluded without further incidents. The venue was bathed in the soft blue glows from hundreds of gifts - and the stronger dozen of varied tint. She separated out the two ’problematic’ pieces... a variety of miniature potted tree that seemed to be centuries old and a certain stone with a pattern like a galaxy.

One behind the sabotage and the other an unexpected solution bearing marks of her ’ghost’.

"Thank you all for your generosity. I’ve picked these out first and would like to ask for the opportunity to thank the person who provided them. Please, allow me the chance~"

Her ’sugary’ words were loud enough to carry far, but no one reacted as the lanterns were lit to allow better sight of the items. At least not in a significant way. Mint eyes swept the crowd looking for the slightest changes. If she had to mark more people today, she was willing!

Anper’s impassive face revealed nothing. Sevra lurked at the edges, her dark eyes watchful and her spirit lacking any of the fear from before. And somewhere among the guests, might still lurk a phantom from a life long past.

’Though why she would both sabotage and save her former master in the same event makes no sense. Nor does what I felt about her spirit.’

El’s grip on her hand tightened, and the blonde returned the pressure.

"I guess I’ll have to consider them to be anonymous. Very well. Then as per the tradition, I request for any benefactors that wish to make known their rare gift to come forward."

Almost before she finished speaking, the scout darted through the crowd. She really wanted to leave earlier, but ignoring her job in favor of her feelings twice would just make things worse!

"As a representative of the Shadow Whisper Sorority, it is my honor to name the pair of cloaks in that white parcel as from our Guild. They are weatherproof, made of prismed lacewing silk and should serve you for many years to come."

Elua noted the package she spoke of, realizing that it was likely either the painstakingly gathered material from the insects - or possibly something used in the weatherproofing agents - that caused the assessment to react. She thought for a second of two to *snub* the woman... but the calm ’interest’ she felt from her spouse about the mentioned item made her ’play nice’.

"Thank you. We will be sure to make use of such an expensive but practical gift."

She curtsied before the crowd at the woman they all knew had done something strange earlier. A few had tried to chat with her during the feast to learn the truth behind the matter, but most felt it prudent to simply ignore her existence entirely. Sevra returned an awkward curtsy and started to retreat even as a new man broke through the lines.

"I’m happy that you like practicality, because the spyglass is a common gift from the Void Defense Society. Nonetheless, it has been my pleasure to attend and serve as witness to your ceremonies."

The elderly gentleman bowing graciously to the couple was one of the librarians that the brunette worked alongside when keeping herself busy while Qat was in training. The heiress was familiar with the object on the table because she’d seen the same design in her father’s study.

’Another thing for Qat to be reservedly giddy about. Ah, how precious. I think I might like this more than her being ’shocked’ and ’touched’ back when I gave her that sword...’

It was a brass-clad scouting tool with an ingenious enough set of simple sigils for further improving the magnification. There were lots of techniques and principles she knew of, in a more theoretical sense, that might accomplish similar things without sigils. Still, the craftsmanship quality was fine and neither cultivator felt it looked out of place in the lineup of items.

"It has been our pleasure to have you here - and that goes for all our guests today."

The Yecine teenager’s low voice projected out in the low light and her small wife’s ’smile’ shifted into a bit of a grin. She was pleased at Qat’s immediate diplomacy... even if there were still a handful of questions over whether certain guests were ’pleasures’ to host. A man in near white dress-uniform with orange accents stepped up next.

"Yes, while we are concerned with practicality, the Saltfire Storm Alliance would like to identify our gift. If I may approach?"

There was ’conspiracy’ written all over the man’s spirit, but his question wasn’t exactly uncommon. Lots of times, the representative would prefer to hand over the item personally so that words could be exchanged more intimately within the public view - and the gift table for the Starbloom got in the way! There was also the matter of not waiting until the last moment so that the value of their gift was not upstaged.

"Of course. I trust that no one here thinks you shouldn’t."

The schemer lied shamelessly. She was still on guard against the unknown saboteur and would prefer everyone to stay away from her ’fortress’. After picking up a box that seemed to be worth more than the contents - and thus was would be deemed the likely reason for the ’special’ category - he presented it while bowing.

"Congratulations on your union. The Alliance offers this token of our... appreciation of things to come."

Elua accepted it with a ’gracious’ smile. She had a *lot* of things she wanted to say about the choices!