Chapter 572: Chapter 572 - Pure White Betrayals Are Always Connected By A Half Dozen (Or Fewer) Degrees Of... Preparation

Mint eyes squinted in contentment as Elua licked the crumbs from her fingers, walking precariously along the roof ledge. The whole rhythm of the place beneath her feet and the world at large had continued without her, just as she knew it would. Some things would never change, some would alter only on the surface like she had done to herself for the first years of her new life. The cosmos was a beautiful place of cycles and constants which the cultivator adored...

And as her spiritual sense surveilled the rifled through contents of her room - done first rigorously by officials when she went missing, second passingly when the family was under investigation, and third premeditatedly when the fox with her Avatar inside it wanted various hidden food... she was just *slightly* looking forward to surpassing the bounds of their current existence. For if any Divinity, or any sets of them, were going to steal her snacks and nudge her things around wherever they lived? She would get to learn and experiment on something new.

’Do we feel fear and pain in that highest realm? I’m not even sure. But I imagine I can make them *think* they do, with an Illusion!’

She hopped down onto the railing with that thought in mind. Her body’s trained balance and the essence control of Levitation pressing no more impact on the surface than that of a windblown leaf settling down briefly. A feat repeated as she slipped away and closer to the balcony doors that led into her room with their specially sigilscripted latch.

One that responded to her proximity to sling out the locking lever from the catch. A feature deemed quite necessary when you occasionally made secret trips out into the city alone at night... or just to raise the efficiency of stargazing on the rooftop by skipping one step. Both truths told freely to a visiting Qatrand years back, the time she saw them pop open on their own.

For a long moment she did not step inside. By sight alone she could tell most everything was *almost* perfect. The vanity held the same expensive brushes and absurdly detailed carved box that held various trinkets her father had gifted her. Nothing was missing from inside that she could tell, but the box was two and a half degrees off from where she had left it the last time she had touched it... because the *entire* vanity was that much askew.

Klaytei knew the room better than anyone and would have tried to set everything that others had moved back exactly where it belonged. She had managed the placement of items near each other wonderfully, as most humans tend to do with close references to square with each other. However, the difference in various furniture to room size adjustments must have been too small for the mortal’s depth perception to flag as ’off’.

"Or maybe this is some sort of twisted revenge from her. Leaving me to walk back into this absolute disorder..."

Her gaze tracked along the wall and found the horrific main bookshelf. Some that were stacked horizontally were now stacked vertically. Three books in particular were incorrectly spine out instead of cover out on the second shelf. She had organized those specific ones to see their face, because the artists that made the bindings had produced mosaic patterns she liked quite a bit more than the contents of the histories themselves.

The investigators had likely taken them all down to leaf through them, looking for any notes or maps or other hidden papers that might explain where she had disappeared to. Klaytei had probably noticed that they were in the wrong spot but had not corrected them yet... despite the book lover and great servant surely having a detailed record. Especially after the incident of being ignored by a five year old all day for not putting *one* back in the right spot!

She finally stepped inside with a sigh, closing the balcony door behind her with the back of her foot. The next detail she noticed was that her bed was made with fresh linens, though whether that was done today by coincidence or after her presence was understood thanks to leaving Rezzue behind suddenly... was unknown to her. At least until she would later ask and learn the facts. That the regular weekly changing schedule had *never* stopped despite her long absence, known location, and passed along plans.

Even though they could have used a dust cover over the mattress instead, like they did in the guest bedrooms while storing the cloth away in their linen presses... Yatrel firmly believed that her daughter *could* return unannounced at any moment. Burdening her house staff for over two hundred weeks with a single extra unused bedding set added onto their wash days was hardly the most eccentric demand any servant had ever received.

It was also one whom the people who watched Elua grow up were glad to carry out, whether the heiress was really alive or had perhaps perished somewhere, leaving the Dame Goltbred a touch off kilter. A touch *more* off than she was already rumored to be in the city and beyond, after leaving her position at the Earthen Fellowship in order to form the Clearer Skies Society.

Elua walked the perimeter slowly, until she suddenly moved straight to the wardrobe and opened it. Many of her favorite childhood clothes were still inside, hung neatly. Some had not fit her in the years even before the trapped realmshard stole her away. But Yatrel had not allowed them to be handed down to Onya, even though the brunette wouldn’t mind some pieces going to her eventually.

Brushing her fingers along a blue dress of a very specific match to the eye color of a ’fiancé’, the memory of having worn it to one of her first meetings with Qatrand sprung to mind. Back when her arranged partner had been a child that she was still learning to match the energy of in their initial talks. Finding the mix between ’sweet’ facade and *scheming* helper without drowning ’him’ with her ancient intelligence had been taxing.

Though Qat often surprised her back then, in many ways, yet that only made the infrequency of the visits worse. El still understood a certain amount of patience and restraint back then. Not that she *didn’t* understand it now, but having everything you needed right at your fingertips rather than in some amount of distant years made it far harder to refrain from touching your desires. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"Well, she might learn some things I don’t want her to from this dress, so it goes in the ’no’ pile. I’ll have to really think about what I gift my sister from now on..."

The heiress crouched down and pressed her palm flat against the back panel of the wardrobe. After three seconds and a quick, mentally projected pathing puzzle that no one was likely to decode let alone figure out how to force essence into just to begin... a portion of the wood slid aside with a whispered click. Revealing what she could already sense - an empty cache.

She had not fully expected *this* one to have been raided because she intentionally left a few blank memory bits out of the Avatar. In fact, while she was not exactly confused by the result, knowing that she hadn’t had the time to remove *enough* from the copy of herself to prevent it from coming to the conclusion of her additional hiding spots on her own... she was quite irritated.

The first wave of fox-based food seeking mischief would have hit things the Avatar knew about. The one in the wall behind the bedpost, the one under the windowsill, and of course especially the one in her desk drawer that had the most expensive treats. All standard hiding spots she had learned by stealing... by *borrowing* items from other ancient cultivators.

Only for her case, she rarely stored away wealth or secrets in places that were within reach of her daily life - just food. After her previous life, or more correctly after her initial years of believing herself to be mortal, Uvraneht did not intend to ever again be in a position where her choices were narrowed by an empty stomach. That habit had simply stuck in this one, despite knowing that Yatrel and Ondua would never have let her starve.

Partially because she knew she was hiding her abilities - that her Ogre Physique’s actions really did steal an annoying bit from her physical energy reserves. Except she could also admit that the food insecurity behavior was simply a pivot in the philosophy that her first father had taught her.

’If you only give to others when you have excess, then you should also plan to give to your future self first. For there will be times when you will not have enough if you do not prepare. Times when no one will have the surplus to gift you.’

"...Except I am quite certain any spiritual avatar I produce should have known that it didn’t count as myself in my personal code of morality. So it very much stole from me, to sate the desires of a fox I hear has gotten quite fat on pet life..."

For a long moment Elua just looked at the bare wood before sighing and resealing the spot.

"I will never make another avatar that clever. Definitely not putting it into a creature that wants that much food. I swear it on every meal I have missed or will ever miss... and every meal I have ever eaten or will ever eat."

She knew she would not actually have constructive words with the current fox, for it was severed from her now and was making its own choices. Ones that involved laying on a different sigilist’s chest as much as possible. And seemingly a decision that involved fleeing from the city on a departing train with that former liaison.

And perhaps *former* personal servant, depending on Klaytei’s desire for the future.

⟠ ⟠ ⟠

After Elua er Goltbred finished dressing in something she was not too surprised fit her, she walked toward the window to open it up. While she did wish for Qatrand to see her for the first time in this form and be pleased, she also knew there wouldn’t be a lot of ’surprise’ involved. Which is why she had sent her *exact full measurements* in letters after reaching her Prime maturation.

"I wonder if this is one designed by the seamstress I had her hire? Or if this was mother’s doing..."

The Whispering Skydancer landed on the sill before she had finished voicing the thought. Dusky twilight feathers ruffled by the journey, it’s head tilted with its white eye attentive to her like it had been trained years ago to indicate successful return from a request. It hopped closer twice and trilled once... for the long, long mission was now completed the same as each smaller one it had accomplished for Qat these years.

The greenish one arrived only a few seconds later, wings flared a little wider than necessary and a small flutter of show-off energy aimed at making their Queen look away from the ’original’. But it still tucked them close without delay, while feeling the satisfaction of an intelligent creature that knew it had been working hard - and might even be grandly rewarded for it. Mint eyes appraised the pair as she crouched low, bringing her shoulders level with the sill.

"Good work."

She said it softly, but her spirit said more - pulsing her ’pride’, ’appreciation’, and ’benevolence’ to the avians. Purple and orange hopped onto her brown-haired head without hesitation, because it was sure it deserved the nesting location even if Elua wanted to grant it to one of the others! The other one didn’t care about their supposed ’leader’ and his behavior...

She just climbed up the returned woman’s white sleeve to perch on her shoulder with a little settling motion - and for some reason a ’smug’ adjacent feeling while Elua gave them each a small scratch behind the head. Standing up with them in their desired spots, in the clothing that she felt really clashed with the Yecine a bit too much even for someone who seemed born to do just that, she spoke to two of the five in her flock.

"We’re going back down to dinner, so please behave. We can’t both make dramatic scenes, hm?"