"What do you mean Uncle’s dead?!"
"As I said patriarch, the Marquis de Howlite has been slain, his mansion has been burnt to the ground and his ledger has been stolen or destroyed."
"Godsdammit!," the man cursed while shattering the cup of tea in his hand with an angry grip. Unsurprisingly, neither the shards of ceramic nor burning hot tea had so much as damage his skin, the perks of being an Aether Warrior in general, a Grand Master specifically.
At the same time as Zhen Liu and his family were about to leave, news from Emerald Eye had just arrived to Stone Claw, in regards to the sudden death of the Marquis and the circus accident.
The latter piece of news was of a bigger deal to the Zhen Clan, since it was public showing of their clan’s capabilities in handling aether beasts and the quality of their warriors, while the former piece of news was important to none other than the Wolfe Family, more specifically, the family patriarch: Jacob Wolfe.
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A little known fact about the Wolfe Family is that, aside from having been around for the founding of Stone Claw City, their origins are actually much older and surprisingly similar to that of the Zhen Clan, in the sense both were exiled families.
Once upon a time, in the Crystal Blossom Kingdom, the House of Howlite was once a premier nobility that had once been a part of the Diamond Rose King’s inner circle.
This lofty position was thanks to the household’s head/pillar, Duke Howlite, an Aether Lord of grand repute with several military accomplishments under his belt. Unfortunately, this all soon fell apart when the Duke was unceremoniously assassinated: poisoned by a prostitute, or so the records say...
With no Aether Lord to provide support, the House of Howlite was downgraded to a middle tier nobility, as their members fell victim to infighting. Eventually the House split in two, with some members sticking around to try and maintain their Household, the other half forming the Wolfe Family in Stone Claw City.
The two families were basically isolated from one another due to distance, until the subsequent banishing of the Marquis de Howlite to Emerald Eye.
The patriarch before Jacob decided to try and make amends with this distant relative of theirs, making plans to try and rule both of their respective cities, one overt and one covert, with an understanding to provide aid to one another.
Granted, this predicated on both parties to not be dead.
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The patriarch of the Wolfe Family wanted to lash out against his subordinate, but restrained himself. It was hard to find loyal yet competent henchmen, and it would behoove him to damage such assets. He placed his fingers on his temples as he tried to calculate the reprecussions of this event.
"Uncle’s enterprises in Emerald Eye make up at least 20% of the family’s revenue. Without his presence, our ability to cultivate and expand will be harshly diminished from now on... tell me, do we know who killed him?"
"That is...," the servant hesitated.
"What’s wrong? Speak."
The servant was silent for a moment before reaching into his pocket and producing what appeared to be a scorched, silver locket.
When Jacob saw the locket, his eyes went wide.
"Isn’t that Uncle’s Last Will Locket? Why is it so mangled?!," Jacob exclaimed as he took the locket into his own hands.
Last Will Lockets we’re a type minor to intermediate aether tool that had a very simple purpose: provide a record of death to the wearer’s next kin. Depending on the quality of the locket in question, it could provide the holder of the locket information such as time of death, place of death and specificity of death with or without visual aide. On top of that, the materials and arrays used to construct such lockets usually made them indestructible...keyword: "usually".
The Marquis’s locket happened to be one of the mid to high tier quality, so it could provide Jacob a detailed image of who did the Marquis in.
However, when Jacob attempted to open the locket and access the information with his aether to see what had caused such damages and find out who did the deed, he greeted by the mental equivalent of scramble and static. The stimulus was so overwhelming that he had to forcefully cut off his connection.
"Gah! What the hell happened to this locket?!"
"We’re not sure patriarch," the servant began to say, "It appears that the locket was somehow, for lack of a better word, infected with a strange type of energy that none of us had ever seen before. But we did manage to squeeze out a small piece of information: a location."
"Jade Lake?," Jacob repeated in a confused tone, "like the one that’s a few days out from here, that Jade Lake?"
"We believe so patriarch."
"Why would...," Jacob mumbled to himself while scratching his chin in thought. After a brief pause, he addressed the servant once more.
"Send a squad over to the Jade Lake and scour the region. And have our spies keep their ears open for anyone talking about Jade Lake in town, understand?"
"Of course, my master."
The servant disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Jacob alone to his thoughts.
’Uncle. I don’t know who did you in, but I promise on both yours and Father’s honor, that I will make them pay. Eye for an eye, life for life,’ Jacob thought as he tightly gripped his cane.
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’Thanks, Hurricroak.’
"Here Xiao Liu, wipe your nose," Daria told her son as she presented him a handkerchief, which he gladly took to do just so. Once the deed he was done, he held onto the handkerchief and proceeded to lean against the wall to look out the carriage’s window.
It took about an hour for conversation, but Zhen Liu and his family eventually left the Goldshire estate and Emerald Eye City, in order to head home and report to the main clan.
’Would’ve been sooner if they didn’t have that "polite off" about using a bigger carriage...huh? What’s that?’
Off in the distance, Zhen Liu could see a spot ascending into the air and floating above and away from the city. He was tempted to summon one of the kaijin to look for him, but decided against it for the time being.
As Zhen Liu began to squint his eyes to try and see the spot better, it finally clicked on what, or rather, who he was staring at.
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Draigo ascended into the air in a slow and slightly bumpy manner, making use of an ability that he had long since thought he had lost.
’Bleh! I am definitely getting back on the training wagon after this. But at least I can still use it for this,’ the old bard thought to himself as he climbed higher and higher. Eventually, he stopped going higher, reaching his maximum height, and just floated right where he was.
The bard took in the landscape a bit, basking in view before spotting a certain carriage driving away from the city, recognizing the face of a certain young man who had overturned his life in a single night. He was tempted to go down there and talk, but decided against it. Draigo had something important to do, which started with him taking a deep breath.
’I’m damn sure you’ll be able to hear from up here right, my love?’
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’What’s that old guy-’
"HEYYYYY! WYVARA, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!," Draigo shouted to the wind with an aether enhanced voice.
Everybody in the city, whether on the ground or in a building, turn to see what the commotion was all about. Some of the more powerful onlookers initially thought the old man was a threat, but quickly sensed that this was something else entirely.
"Huh. Never seen a Grand Master act so freely . How strange."
"I DON’T KNOW IF YOU CAN HEAR ME AND I DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU ARE NOW! BUT I’M GONNA KEEP OUR PROMISE THIS TIME AND I’VE DONE SO, I WILL FIND YOU AGAIN! I SWEAR IT!"
With this declaration made, the old bard proceeded to float back down to the ground, away from the city though. He had a long journey ahead of him.
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Meanwhile, in a certain carriage, occupied by a certain clan, a young man held aloft a recently acquired necklace, rather a ring on a string, that appeared to be made of bone and have a small purple gem embedded in it.
As he leaned out the window to see the shouting old man, he stared at the ring a bit before asking it’s occupant a single question.
’Did you catch all that, Hurricroak? Sounds like your...origin is making good on his promise. Think he will keep it?’
Zhen Liu couldn’t see the frog woman’s expression, but he could feel the emotions through their link. It was a mix of relief, joy, assuredness, confusion and...love.
[Yes, maestro. I think he will.]
With this confirmation made, Zhen Liu quietly placed the ring necklace back under his shirt and leaned back into his seat.
’Well then...I wish the two of you, a happy future reunion.’