Chapter 569: Chapter 569 - Dima, Dimalingaling! Makin’ Copies! Going To Dinner, Dimama!

A certain sigilist had grown to find the sound of a number of things quite pleasing in her unexpected life. The yips of a lazy but demanding fox, the voice of a caring mortal woman, and the humming buzz of a certain cultivator tool in her private possession were just three of the best examples. Each pass of the laser inscribing mechanism was almost more soothing than silence... because it was proof of productivity of some kind.

While it created another page from the memory fragment’s stored contents, Dima quickly checked the contents over over. Lately it had mostly been in use for mundane things... like making easy copies of extra important work documents. However, that was not how the Branch Manager for the Coiled Serpent Guild had first made use of it after acquiring it - which had actually upset Klaytei quite a bit because of the amount of time and focus that the newly returned cultivator was spending on the project.

Forty-three full copies - after going on a spree of testing and sourcing paper that worked well with the device - now existed of the volume that Elua had hidden in her bag. All of them stored away and waiting on the nerve to actually share them with colleagues. After all, a book that discussed and diagramed ancient elementary sigils in ways that had led to so many improvements in her understanding felt like a setup!

She ran her thumb along the edge of the newest page as it settled. The sigil design captured in print was one modified from some of the essence and other specialized energy containment fields that had been used during what was still known as the failed Gravity Trap Gambit. While the Goltbred heiress had documented it well - and others at the scene, including Wohjat but mostly his husband Jevri - seeing some of what the reincarnator had been up to in the Astral Exclave had opened her eyes to how...

Incredibly *minimally* someone could improve something inherently flawed. All while making it look like they were helping, even when they had answers much closer to perfection. As a sigilist at heart it frustrated her knowing that there were methods she couldn’t understand or replicate yet. However, as a person that spent years being a liaison between her Guild and others... she also understood the value in holding back your cards and only delivering on what was asked.

Going above and beyond sounded nice and clear when it rang in tune with a cultivator’s sense of duty to protect others. But as a humbled individual - one who had to live in the space between the greatest of her own moments instead of those of others - Dima was pretty confident in her opinion... and that of the person that loved her. Releasing information at full scale could bring problems she hadn’t considered. Even the ideas she had were a bit terrifying, as there were some use cases for certain sigils that could modify not just defensive but offensive warfare for whoever mastered them first.

’Or whoever hires all the sigilists to finish them properly... or even the Coiled Serpent itself if they decide to monopolize things. Which is why I made so many copies to spread around in secret.’

Since she couldn’t bring herself to do a thing that seemed clear Elua actually wanted her to do - because the former liaison had full belief that pairing such a cultivator tool with such a gift had been intentional on the brunette’s part - the dark haired woman instead decided she would emulate the plan of the ’young ’prodigy’. Dima was perfectly capable of trying to splice ancient knowledge with modern forms and finding points of improvement.

Perhaps her research wasn’t as quick, because her comprehension required time and effort that the Goltbred girl had long, long ago put in to these things. But it was steady... and the documents she sent in for review had already gotten her *bonus pay* from her Guild - as well as a pen-pal arrangement with her former idol. Wohjat finally wanted to show an interest in her work and be the first to see, review, and comment on any of her designs and dissertations.

Of course, he was absolutely always the second. As while the mortal woman’s understanding of the details was not that high, Klaytei was at least very competent in calculations and editorial decisions. Plenty enough to fix mistakes that the sigilist sometimes made... plenty enough to request the woman sign her name on the papers too.

Klaytei really had grown quite invaluable to Dima, both for work and life. A fact that often made the cultivator ponder the future with a thread of melancholy that wove across the pattern of that imagined tapestry of their fate. It was easy to accept intellectually that you could lose the person that cared for you and that you cared for in turn... purely because that was how life *worked*. Yet while she was adult and had felt various losses in her time, she was aware this would be a new one.

And while she was happy now and felt she would be even happier later, that only made part of it worse. The expected drop down from these greatest, safest, warmest moments of her life were going to be harsh. Whatever the threads would weave after that would surely form much less beautiful lengths of cloth. More people than just Elua had sharply or obliquely warned her of this, including the person she’d been spending many evenings with ever after delivering that tea set back to the Talcres.

Dima smiled as she thought about holding each other in sleep again, while standing and collecting paperwork together for tomorrow. A stack of requisition forms for the branch’s quarterly bulk orders still sat untouched beside her other work and she’d planned to get to them before leaving... but the Guild duties that had once been the whole of her identity now occupied less of her attention than they used to.

Not out of willful neglect, but because she had trained and hired the staff at this building well enough. Something that Klaytei had actually commended, knowing that they were the main reason this place survived Wohjat. Although the sigilist was sure that the personal servant ’lent’ from the Goltbred family was a lot bigger part of everyone else’s ability to stay on track than the mortal woman wanted to expressly take credit for.

"She really should be prouder and ask for things more directly."

Her hand paused over the printing device as that voiced thought came back to her. Tilting her hand, checking her well manicured nails for damage, she knew that they were a vanity she would never relinquish. She’d always loved taking care of them... even before working with chisels and stone made it a wise decision to keep their growth in check using certain physical energy techniques alongside a popular topical coating that helped strengthen them against damage.

But she’d never been more proud of them than today!

This morning, after waking up a little late and not getting up quickly because of the softly snoring woman beside her... the drowsy Klaytei had absolutely *insisted* on helping her get ready in apology. Allowing someone other than herself to hold her hand and paint the medicinal coating on was a new experience to the sigilist. Yet it was the praise about her ’pretty Princess’s fingers’ and the tiny, absolutely not time saving kiss to a knuckle on each digit that had injected a giddiness to sudden parts of her day.

"I can’t imagine it would ever be wiser to not know these feelings... or to subdue them."

Asleep on a patch of sun near the window, their spoiled fox had been staying at the branch more often lately. It had essentially become the mascot of the grounds, now that she was back to living in the dormitory. A new member which made many of the female staff quite happy and none of the males, who were constantly struck with vulpine-human microaggressions from the opinionated creature. Its ears flicked and it rolled out into a less curled shape before standing slowly to what passed for ’alert’ these days.

Footsteps coming from below had attracted it. Heavier and more than one set. Men were coming to intrude on its resting location again! It thought it had made it plenty clear last time by yipping over every third word one tried to voice that they were not welcome and to always send the woman that scratched its stomach fur while delivering reports...

"Manager Dima. There’s someone here with news I thought you’d want to hear."

"The Yecine estate has been attacked - their main gate destroyed!"

The receptionist had barely gotten his words out before the next voice, a cultivator courier that often took on the jobs around the city for spare money, yelled out the gossip that was currently buzzing on the streets. For the woman standing in the office, she had only one real thought. Especially after connecting the proximity with some other event that was supposed to take place days from now.

’...I can’t imagine it would be wiser to know these things for sure. I should subdue my curiosity.’

"Destroyed how?"

However, another familiar voice had a different opinion as she pushed past those gathering outside the door. Her hand found the handle and opened it for herself - while eyeing everyone and making it clear that this was not a full on invitation for the others. Klaytei had long stopped bothering being excessively polite about work matters here, especially when an amount of respect had been born for the woman capable of inserting in any role outside of sigilist itself.

"Reports are... unclear on that. No fire. No other obvious damage."

"You saw it yourself?"

"Well... no. The Yecine guards are posted on the outside of the path and preventing traffic from getting close. But I did climb up a building to see. Thing is just gone!"

"So you’re back to bringing rumors with your letters now, what would your wife think?"

"No, I didn’t even have a letter to bring! But it’s big news."

Such rapport was something that the servant had built with all of their regular contacts. Honestly, sometimes the former liaison felt like she was very lacking in ability not just with sigils, but with people. Elua on one side made her feel small because of the depth of experience, Klaytei on the other side made Dima feel... unsettled. Like the way she had ingratiated herself with men during her old job was perhaps one of the lazier methods of succeeding and she had ignored it purely because she had been *unhappy* in the position.

’Not that flirting often made me happier.’

"Seriously. I’m not just telling tall tales, you could go check it out yourselves. Others around the area say that there was a single woman in Silver that flew-"

"Okay, stop."

Clarity flickered instinctively, feeling like she was being drawn into something intentionally again. It had been a while since everything looked like a trap to her. The Yecine gate was one of the most sophisticated pieces of sigilwork she had been allowed to study a private document about in her career. Or rather, two of them... one written by the original designer and donated to the archive of the Coiled Serpent.

And another on the notes of the ’masterwork’ and its flaws and successes written by someone who claimed they had never *bothered* to sneak inside and steal that information like she might have in the past life. On the many times passing by it or waiting to be let in... and once or twice at night after getting distracted by her thoughts and just standing in front of the thing... the heiress had just ’casually’ assessed it. On a level that made the maker’s notes look like chicken scratch!

"Everyone back downstairs, back to work so you can get to dinner."

"Speaking of that, I came to retrieve you for a meal."

"...Oh?"

It felt like something malicious and tingly just crawled inside her and made her make the questioning noise. For she didn’t want to know! She could already guess thanks to the smile on the Young Lady Goltbred’s personal servant’s face. And-

"The other estate is also busy - and I want nothing to do with that unplanned behavior of that girl tonight."

’Ah. Was I wrong?’

"So instead, we’re going to go have dinner with my family. Finally. Maybe stay the night there. Okay? Is that a fair trade for not making you come deal with my Lady this evening?"

Dima felt like she needed to learn to trust herself a bit more and distrust a certain person less. She could masterfully recognize incoming social traps these days, but pinpointing the source was still difficult when she made Elua er Goltbred the only little Silver lightning rod around. But this one from Klaytei made her belly feel full of electricity - the kind with nowhere ’good’ to ground to all the same!

"...Alright."

Whatever electric demon crawled inside had crawled back out. Taking all her limited courage, but leaving plenty of willful resignation...