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Lucky Desire
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"Tea, please." Usha seems disappointed, but gestures for the quiet man at her shoulder to serve some.
> "Too bad. Usually people get much more agreeable after a few drinks."
Well, that's... honest. Grace quietly extends her senses, and confirms to her satisfaction that there's nothing she can detect amiss in her tea or in Xabi's tea. Furthermore, it's identical to what Usha is drinking, so if something escaped Grace's detection, she should be vulnerable, too. Satisfied, Grace sits back to wait--she'd rather not take the lead. Usha takes a long drink before speaking again, looking at Xabi.
> "So... let me see if I got the order of events straight, here, just so we're all on the same page. Yesterday, I sense one of Leander's guard beasts, escaped from its pen and lost. I send Ves here to deal with it, and he comes back a few hours ago, telling me that not only did he have to chase it into town, but he's met a new Elemental there, not only living in town, but seemingly completely unaware that she should be circumspect. Then, sure enough, she shows up on my doorstep just to let me know that Ves didn't have some fever dream. Leander is going to check up on his little beastie, and it won't take him any time at all to notice what happened."
Usha folds her hands in a gesture of deep contemplation.
> "Very well. Then here are the immediate problems: first, the guard beast's memory. It's linked to one of Leander's more powerful magical devices, and it records what the beast sees, real-time. It's already seen Grace, as he will find out when he plays it back and finds out how it was put down. An unknown girl, putting down one of his stronger creatures in, according to Ves, two strikes. Two magical elements used, and clearly Elemental appearance. It doesn't get easier to put together than that. So that leads to the second problem. Leander is going to be quite upset that no one's told him about Grace, and given that he can't leave a town alone that's openly flouted a rule of his, he's probably going to want to level the town. Hell, Xabi, if I had any less self-control, I might just pitch in! Do you know how incredibly stupid this was? Signing an agreement not to harbor Elementals and then raising one there is like... like showing up to peace talks with a sword across your back!"
"Hey, now!" Xabi comes to his feet, irate. "By the time I ever even heard about Grace, she was seventeen, alright! I never met her until today! Whatever she is, she's never caused any uproar I've heard about--she's just been another normal person, and you're telling me I should have thrown her out two years ago just because, 'hey, sorry, someone else put you in a bad spot and I don't want to have to deal with this so get out'?"
> "Oh, and if everyone dies because of that, I suppose it would be a moral victory. I've spent a human lifetime trying to curb Leander's excesses, and today I find someone's spent almost two decades sitting on top of an excuse for him to rampage!"
It seems like it's going to be up to Grace to prevent the argument from escalating... so much for not taking the lead.
Oh, look, the tea's cold, too. This seems like it's taking forever.
Sorry--sidetracked, not abandoned. Next update will come rather quicker.
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