Shopping for Sael was like for most men, he hated it unless he was buying something fun. So he enjoyed skill shopping and hated the part where they went shopping for materials for Beth to work with. It wasn't like in a game where you could go to an auction house and compare items. So mostly it was tracking down different people to haggle with, surprisingly Beth was really good at haggling. He'd been afraid she might be too passive but nope she was a real beast at it.
So they spent the next few days spending the prize money and enjoying proper civilization for a change. Aarun invited them to Guild Master Sele's place for dinner and Sael was surprised to find Dinn in attendance as well. During the dinner both Sele and Dinn had many questions about his skills and his connection to the fairies. Sael trusted the two Guild Masters…. Just not enough to tell them the truth. While he was pretty sure they didn't believe his made up story about the two fairies just being some he really really liked and totally not princesses they didn't push the point.
In fact by the end of the dinner he realized just how many secrets he was now keeping as he was forced to try and explain his relationship with Silver. Including her odd appearance and absolutely atrocious table manners. Again, they didn't push the point to which he was grateful. Both veterans had a ton of stories and useful information, while Sele was a bit reserved. Dinn was exuberant and over the top with one story after the next. On the topic of the Duke and his son they confessed to not knowing what he was up to but warned Sael that the duke wasn't likely to let things end.
"Neither of us can do much to help you with him. But it isn't like you have much to worry about, plus you said you are headed out of the human lands right?" Dinn glanced at the fairies.
"Yeah. I think we will be out of pocket for a while." Sael maintained eye contact with Dinn and kept his face as blank as possible. While jabbing Silver every time she tried to put her face in her plate. 'I get the feeling they know about the Winter Castle and my having a crown… but if they aren't going to say it straight out. I'm not going to bring it up.'
Aarun and Avi were far less tactful with their questions, the twins were extremely interested in both his abilities and his relationship with the odd mix of girls. A situation made even more awkward by Silver still referring to him as Papa. Since he didn't think telling them she was a Silver Conri, a legendary magical beast, who also happened to have learned to shape shift into a mostly human form was a good idea. So he did the worst thing possible and claimed to be her father.
After that most of the rest of the meal consisted of Silver, who was smarter than he expected only when it suited her, asking her "Papa" things ranging from helping her cut her meat to promising to tell her bedtime stories.
Beth joining in to tease him relentlessly while Ara managed to complain about wanting her own kid. When the question of who the mother was brought up, while most of the table eyed the silver haired fairy things got even more awkward. At Least Nee acted normal through the rest of it, though something about her contented smirk made him nervous. Still it was a mostly pleasant evening and he learned a lot.
The city of Amalor was ruled by the Duke Kindle, it included a pretty wide region around the city. Luckily, Little Well was out in the boonies and considered a frontier town so had no real lord. It meant it didn't have taxes but also didn't have the resources of a ruled region, including guard patrols. There were six dukes who ruled over the most populated regions of humanity which had grown exponentially since the last Demon Wars.
Above the dukes reigned the human King Belarian, he possessed the Crown of Humanity. Sael thought the ability to gain powers from consorts was the power of the crown. As it turned out that was only the case for the fairies and only half of it's power at that. The primary power of a fairy crown was the castles, roaming fortresses which were weapons of great destruction when fueled by a crown wearer with sufficient magical powers. Bastions of war that held countless utility features, hearing this Sael knew where their next stop would be.
Humanities crown allowed their crown bearer to boost the moral and fighting power of all those loyal to them. Since humanity was the most numerous of the four crowned races they apparently were used as shock troopers to swarm enemies. Supposedly it was the perfect crown for them. Dinn said this mockingly. When they explained the Elves and Dwarves had the remaining six he was more than a little annoyed that both races had kept the power granted to them by the crowns from even their allies. Since both races had withdrawn contact with the others after the war nothing new had been learned. The only elves and dwarves that had anything to do with humans or even the fairies were outcasts. Even why they were outcast seemed to be a secret.
Sael considered staying in Amalor to see if completing quests for the adventurer's guild would result in experience for him like most Arrived. But after the long string of wild events he was ready to get back to peaceful Little Well. So after saying his goodbyes to the many new friends he'd met, him and the girls decided to head home. Or at least stop off there before heading to the Winter Castle.
**********
After the wild events in Amalor the weeks to follow were surprisingly quiet. Beth was working away with the new materials, although she could now utilize her access to his menu she discovered it was limited. So her work bench was still needed for unlocking new recipes and she was currently focused on grinding up her skill.
While she worked away the fairies helped him start the process of getting the castle back up to snuff. Mostly this meant taking trips to the castle and him sitting in the throne while it repaired sapping his mana. There seemed to be a limit to the amount of mana the castle could handle at a time. He'd fill it up and it would take a few days to use it up as the castle fixed itself up. During that time he'd either return to Little Well or take the fairies and Silver out farming. Nee had mentioned once before that they weren't helpless and for her that was a fact. Her mana pool was tiny compared to his but she could utilize Winters Ability quite well, he expected her to be a caster type but instead she turned out to be most proficient with a dagger. A tiny cold blooded assassin in fact.
Ara and Silver sadly had no real combat experience. Ara benefited from Summer's Blessing. Now that their bond was complete she could soak some incredible amounts of damage for some one so tiny. Silver possessed an impressive combination of both speed and strength in both forms. Though she couldn't get the hang of any of the weapons they'd tried out with her in her human form she was growing at a crazy rate in her true form. Her animal form was already the size of a normal wolf making her more dangerous when transformed than in her still tiny human form.
That was where they found themselves nearly a month later in the Winter Castle. "Alright. Thats the last of my mana!" Sael hopped off the throne to stretch. "That should keep it full for a few days. That last tower is fully repaired too. I think we are almost done!"
"We started cleaning up some of the rooms. So far we only have the master bedroom cleaned up but there really is only us going to be living here." Ara had a cloth tied up around her head to keep her hair from getting dusty. On top of that she wore an apron, the entire get somehow was charming on her. Though Sael refused to tell her, afraid she'd start wearing it exclusively.
"That's great but I'm tired of sitting in a chair all day. I'm going to head out and do some farming. Y'all want to come?"
"I'd rather work on the kitchen. Once we get a few more rooms ready we can stop moving between here and Little Well so much." Nee poked her head in to agree but Silver rushed in excited to get away from work. "No, we need you to do the heavy lifting!"
While Silver pouted Sael started to feel bad. "If you need help I can…" He was cut off by Ara.
"No you go get some exercise, sitting all day isn't good for you. Can't have you getting out of shape!" Sael rolled his eyes doubting they'd let him get out of shape but really wasn't in the mood to do more cleaning.
Feeling only slightly guilty he set out from the castle as he'd done many times before. There were a number of good hunting spots they'd found that yielded some useful materials, it still irked him that he didn't get experience for anything but the materials were nice. Yet this time he'd barely left the castle when the ground fell out from underneath him and darkness swallowed him up.
**********
"Where is Papa! I'm tired!" Silver was carrying a large oaken table over her head as she complained. The castle could make furniture, but only out of stone. So unless they wanted everything made out of stone they had to bring in stuff. Sael had opted for the cheaper option of an all stone décor. That was one fight he lost.
"He will be back soon I'm sure." Nee tried to reassure the Conri cub while glancing out the window at the night sky beyond. She chewed her lip nervously before touching her chest to reassure her that their bond was still intact.
"He should have already been back. What is he doing? Worrying me like this." Ara was pacing and didn't miss Nee's actions as she'd done the same thing several times herself.
Both fairies felt that something was wrong. He'd been gone too long, it wasn't unusual for him to take a trip off hunting but never before had he gone so long without letting them know. "That's it, I'm going looking for him." Ara stopped pacing in a circle and headed for the door.
"Me too!" Silver was already pulling off clothes so she could transform.
Nee wanted to stop them, to tell them they were being foolish but she too felt the same way. "I'll stay here in case he comes back. Otherwise he will panic over us being gone." Nee resisted the urge to take over Ara's pacing as the other two left out.
Dawn broke before the two returned to the castle, when Nee spotted them alone her heart sank. Ara's face was pale and drawn from exhaustion while Silver flopped down whining still in her Conri form "I can't even find Papa's scent!" Her voice sounded odd in her animal form, deeper and almost menacing.
Ara asked though she knew the answer. "Did he come back?"
Nee shook her head and Ara blurted out. "What could have happened to him? He would never leave us. Never. Something bad has to have happened, I can feel it. But… what?" Ara collapsed down into the floor beside Silver on the verge of tears.
Nee turned to look out the window not having an answer before whispering. "Where are you, my king."
**********
Sael blinked several times but still couldn't see anything in the darkness. "Fine. Light Wisp." Calling his light wisp from his inventory he expected the darkness to be illuminated. Instead he got a system message.
[Inventory Access: Denied]
"What the hell?"