A rapid knocking on her door made the ill-resting Goltbred temporarily *irritated*… finding through her spiritual sense that it was a servant who looked an odd mixture of excited and 'alarmed' loosened that all down to a softer 'dissatisfaction' at having to interact with anyone. Her abdomen was *tight*, her head was *pounding*, and worst of all today would have been the day of the week that she'd meet with her beloved at the Youth Guild.
It was a bad day.
'Everyone here knows what week this is, what could be so important?'
There was a limited number of days left until Qat turned thirteen and they wouldn't be able to spend nearly so much time together. All the Guild specific training one had to undergo after joining was non-negotiable even for affluent houses.
Each of these debilitating cycles she forced herself to go through - mostly for the sake of hiding her Physique - grew less and less like a 'good' idea in the face of lost chances to be together.
One would think that sitting on the verge of being a physical Primalist alone would be enough to subdue the worst of the uncomfortability, but it seemed to be a vain thought. Without intentionally using the 'proper techniques' to control everything, the downsides of 'mortality' showed themselves with equal vigor - as *enhanced* muscles tensed EXTRA hard and *enhanced* blood channels inflamed EQUALLY stressfully when fueled with *enhanced* SUPER withdrawals from the necessary hormones.
What had never made the slightest 'logic' to her was that the body still did these things to cultivators even *with* the Divinity forced limitations to childbirth. The brunette expected everyone would be okay even if there was only one short time a year for this cycle to occur. To her, it hardly seemed necessary to be subjected to the entire original human ovulation cycle without 'cheating' by bluffing your own body into thinking it was constantly partway.
Though *she* was one to talk about 'bluffing' herself into things… the hypocrite!
'How come no ascender made a 'simpler' way for two partners to combine part of themselves into a new being! I'll have to seriously consider that as my mandate for when I try my hand at another ascension.'
Elua tried to open the door without glaring, to moderate success. Luckily the professional workers were accustomed to her new adolescent changes. Though like with her father, the 'loss' of the sweet and amiable child at these times of the month was *keenly* felt.
"Young miss, you have a visitor."
If the girl's brain had been working at proper capacity, she might have surmised who it was pretty quick. Instead-
'Someone dares? Is it one of the potential opponents I've been fertilizing at the Youth Guild for Qat? Ugh, *fertilizing*. Bad choice of words considering… anyway, I did assume one or four would eventually work out the 'bright' idea of bothering me at home. I just didn't think they'd be so bafflingly *foolish* as to come during the week I am *always* absent from the lectures.'
What if she used the week to travel! As the mint eyed girl stood in the doorway with her head tilted and eyes narrowed, the servant waved her palm in her charge's line of sight until the woman was once again the focus of attention. She looked truly concerned.
"Are you feeling so unwell at the moment? Should I ask your fiance to wait and let you rest longer or… send… them away…?"
The woman blinked while slowing her speech at the end - because the heiress had already bloomed into a *different person* from before that. She also began to march away, only to pause violently dozens of feet down the corridor. The once again 'different' and red-faced brunette then stepped just as rapidly back before tugging 'impatiently' on the servant's sleeve.
"P-please help me get presentable first. My hair is like this and these clothes have sweat stains and also… also…"
Elua couldn't bring herself to say the words! To think that a reborn individual who, in their last life, had actually witnessed more than a few people *melt* into gorey puddles because of her Acid Element (or also sometimes only 'parts' of them)… would be *embarrassed* and ashamed over a 'little' bloody discharge that countless women across the cosmos dealt with much more aplomb.
Yet it was truly a first for her, in ways.
The situation being what it was in that life, there had been absolutely no room for romance or even consideration of it until well after she'd gained the ability to make null such a 'useless function'. It was also hardly the first time her *new* age/body seemed to be having… *mildly* deleterious effects on her 'actual' mentality.
In any case, it was all as simple as completely disrobing when the pair re-entered the girl's room for her helper to see and understand. Fifteen minutes later, with a fresh outfit of a baby-doll dress and her wavy locks brushed out, Elua 'rushed' to the reception room her Qat was… waiting quite patiently in. Alone!
For a moment, she was surprised that the tall youth was unaccompanied, but it only made her smile brighter.
"I didn't expect you to come and see me while… you know."
The Yecine scratched at the side of their neck.
"Well. It was kind of a sudden decision. You were the first one I wanted to see and tell about it."
Qatrand was actually rather unsure how things had ended up this way herself. No one had 'bothered' to stop her from leaving and coming here. Like the time she snuck away to show El a spar at the Youth Guild and prove she *could* fight well enough to not be 'worried over'…
It seemed as though any time she had done something her elders hadn't actually *told* her to do had all been related to the girl standing there in the doorway. Part of her knew what compelled her was still the usual: seeking praise. But it was also-
"I'm a double Enchanter now and… it's thanks to your advice."
She really didn't understand the Astralism at all - which was true of a lot of things… now that she had begun thinking more deeply about them. Even still, when she felt the change while cultivating and the birth of that spiritual Aspect, she had been: happy. She wanted to share that feeling with the one who helped make it possible.
Only she didn't know what more to tell her than she just did… or what was supposed to happen after they were both 'happy' about one small event so many others experience every day somewhere in the world.
The small Goltbred looked upon the fiance's overall confusion while seated on the sofa and looking down with a little concern, but also noted the smile at the edges of her lips that wasn't usually there. That, alone, almost made all the recent suffering *worth* it.
'I never would have seen that face in this room, in this way, all to myself…'
"That's very sweet. I'm really happy for you, Qat."
The dull undertone in the soft and silky voice made the one spoken to look up. Half lidded mint eyes were paired up with a demure, closed-mouth smile that made the young girl look far more mature than her 'usual' smirks. It still wasn't quite 'real', because she wasn't ready to burden the Yecine with that, but it *was* at least how she'd want to 'act' when she was an adult.
The dark-haired girl's hand went to her own chest as the confusion that had been 'stable' in her spirit rapidly deepened.
"What's wrong?"
The smile that was there morphed into 'worry' as the brunette took quick short steps closer. As she had mobilized her spirit to really try and figure out what kind of Aspect her 'fortress' had obtained, knowing her beloved would have questions, she had been paying a lot of *attention* to the fluctuations. That was why… it wasn't that Elua didn't have a 'hunch', but-
"I… don't know. It was just… when I looked at you…"
She hadn't wanted to be so *vain* as to assume this time, even though she was very good with her sense. Enduring her womanly cycle could easily throw it off! That's what she 'deluded' herself with… so when she heard the answer it would be more 'genuine'.
'Qat could have been thinking of nearly anything, even if I was the trigger…'
Pigeon blue eyes looked up from the floor with a bit of an 'upturned' cut to the angle of her face before she let out a strange sigh.
"You were somehow cuter than normal. I felt my heart… stop - for a second."
'Hnng! How can she just~'
Once again the reborn cultivator blinked twice after saving a detailed illusion of the situation - before becoming 'unpetrified' by what she just heard. She *also* brought a hand to her chest in a move that *completely* wasn't 'mirroring' to help establish endearment! Then finally, she looked down and to the side with 'rosy' cheeks.
"Y-you must be joking. I barely had any time to get ready and as you can imagine I am not feeling the best. To tell me that I'm… more than usual… that's~"
The actress 'complained'. Even though she truly had 'no room' to do so. While she did get presentable *quickly*, she wouldn't have left the room if it wasn't up to her minimum standards! A proper scheming cultivator doesn't go near battlefields they *expect* to get defeated on.
Which is why her 'defeat' - also known as falling for Qat the moment she had really *seen* her - was still as wonderfully 'without warning' as finding herself in this second chance of life. But being 'beaten' once wouldn't change a leopard's spots. She would continue to 'plot' and set 'traps' until the number of times of win and loss grew… 'reasonably close' to a draw.
"A-ah. You're right. Maybe I made a mistake?"
The side of the face that was out of view of the Yecine twitched a little as Elua thought she may have 'grumbled' too far. The 'trap' was sprung but somehow 'rebounded' back on her own troops - it wasn't that the girl *wanted* the compliment to be taken back!
It would be a later shame of the Goltbred… that a lucky strike-force on its way out of the 'fortress' came across and decimated her battlefield saboteurs. For the young Qat was not at all done explaining herself!
"…I think there is probably a more appropriate word. I'm just not used to using them. Pretty? Elegant? Beautiful?"
She might have been able to *handle* the first with 'poise', but the second and third were too much for the honestly infatuated young heiress. A flurry of air suddenly burst and rattled every loose and light item in the room, leaving an alarmed swordswoman and an open mouthed and speechless culprit with lifeless eyes.
Elua had started keeping 'constructs' of air formed, and hidden with illusions, floating above herself - ever since she'd begun her 'games' with Qatrand. They were usually just 'balls' of compressed gas that she sometimes spun at different angles and speeds for practice.
While she was keeping her lesser two cultivations locked in place, that didn't mean that regular effort using her Aspects couldn't lead to tangible gains. After all, despite her spirit only being 'a step away' from Breacher… her experience and control over manipulating the raw energy left it leagues more useful than any 'normal' person at an equivalent Echelon.
Though in this case, her supposed stronger 'spirit' had utterly failed her. Loss of *true* mental composure had sent the essence spheres berserk… leaving the room a mess of disheveled light items - and two young girls looking at each other with expressions that were complex.
"That… was you, wasn't it?"
The brunette thought for a moment but could only nod. She of course could have blasted her fiance with her Astralism to convince them that nothing had happened in the room but… she just honestly didn't want to. She did have *some* plans to allow herself certain limited uses of illusions when it came to Qat, but none of them involved actually 'deceiving' her.
It was *enough* that her 'sweet' and 'gentle' facade was persistently kept up at most times!
"You hadn't ever seemed to use that much… essence before."
While the Yecine's actual ability to accurately sense essence was small without progressing to Enchanter in that field, the effects of what happened were clearly far more 'impressive' than the times they trained together. The dark-haired girl did consider that the enclosed room with lots of small objects might have made it seem worse - but 'accurately' judged that to be only looking for a reasonable excuse.
"I-it wasn't like I just blasted it out all at once, okay? It was already there! F-floating and contained. I train in secret all the time so that… so that…"
She didn't have a reasonable excuse!
Elua was simply *bored* all the time and needed distractions. The region was so peaceful - and even the coming 'war' with the Voidlings in a number of years was likely to be so uneventful for her, particularly. She was running out of reasons to justify becoming as strong as possible as relatively quickly as she could - beyond a vague and ingrained impetus to not be the weakest again.
She understood herself *already* to be one of the region's top cultivators, but that didn't include potential visitors and other unexpected situations.
'Also there is protecting my new romantic obsession here, but that - well I also don't understand why I don't want her to know! About my actual strength. Am I scared she *won't* try as hard to uphold her promise for me or that she'll try *too* hard, in a negative way, if I'm revealed as already being so much stronger than her?'
This was why her few disciples had all been chosen a little 'older' than other teachers preferred, in her last life. Part of it was finding common ground as a late starter herself, but the main reason was that the core of who they were had been set which made a lot of cultivators neglect anyone who hadn't become an Enchanter by fifteen as 'hard to train'.
In many ways, her rather young fiance was the 'same' in that 'who she was' was well beyond *solidified* - it just wasn't shining in ways that the person herself could see… and was why she often considered her a 'gem' that needed 'polish'. But… Elua just couldn't be *honest* about all that out loud!
The last time that she compared a *potential* partner to an 'inanimate' object…
The mint eyed girl pursed her lips and puffed out a cheek in frustration. The whole visit had gone wrong!