"...and those two fairies, along with three gentlefolks left at the entrance, are part of a Nexus Order company seeking to investigate an area in the Red Sand Realm around coordinates where there was once a fully-autonomous atmospheric research station that could theoretically have survived to this day."
Like that, I finished introducing Ethna and Quirina—the only two who could fit through the fairy-sized entrances and streets of the Fairy House—to Stavros in the most straightforward manner I could, aware that he really liked it when things were said in a frank and uncomplicated way.
"They answered a lot of my questions and even shared with me some knowledge I wouldn't otherwise have had access to until I journeyed to another Sector, like some bits about my [Will] Aspect that now allows me to weaponize my history."
"It even allowed my [Awareness] Aspect to start advancing to Tier 1, so... hear them out? Please?"
With that, introduction plus commendation—the price demanded for my accompaniment and the opportunity to have all my questions answered to the best of their abilities—were done.
Ready to witness the unfolding battle of wits that mixed interests and politics in a way I had yet to personally live through, I retreated to the side.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Ethna."
"And I'm Quirina. Nicer to meet you."
"We're part of an exploration unit, but we brought a leadership lass along, and she knows her politics and diplomacy, so could you take it up with her? Pretty please?"
"We already know you’re liquidating the Fairy House and selling off assets, by the way, and our company arrived with a generous operational budget, so... perhaps this is an opportunity to transfer anything requiring the management capabilities of a proper faction like the Order? Just saying, of course..."
Upon hearing their first words, it became manifestly clear that the two sisters had been the wrong choice to send as first contact.
What had clearly been intended by Evija as diplomatic outreach instead ended up sounding like a poorly disguised acquisition attempt.
Their words were the sort I expected to hear in an entertainment book between an overfunded conglomerate and a struggling local business, rather than between two factions negotiating cooperation.
Worse still...
"Where are your manners? Did your parents never teach you how to properly greet your elders?"
...was how they completely forgot about going through the most basic fairy manners, resorting to cosmopolitan ones suitable for every situation.
And Stavros was nothing if not an old and stubborn fairy who really liked his manners and decorum kept and respected.
"Oops?"
"Was it something like... that?"
Seeing them end up squirming on the ground while bumbling through bowing postures brought an unavoidable smile to my face.
I was exactly the same when I first went through the dozen different bows that depended on who was talking, to whom, in what circumstances, for what purposes, who else was present...
Yeah.
It was complicated.
Nevertheless, it became a lot more fun when you started understanding why each of these bows and subtle differences came to be, as it allowed wordless transmission of information and intentions while simultaneously presenting oneself as educated on tradition.
That's when I caught Quirina sending me side glances.
Pleading side glances.
Well, I could arguably consider this an extension of my duty as their recommender.
I recollected my intensive fairy manners lessons and the books I read then snapped my fingers blatantly, calling for the two's attention, then I brought a single knee to the ground, lowered my wings mid-way, extended an upward-turned palm forward in an elegant swirl, while keeping my head level.
"Stop looking at the answer," Stavros immediately said without turning, his eyes looking gravely at what he could only consider savages, given their age.
"I didn't look! I remembered it looking at your magnificence!"
"Absolutely! A single knee for respect towards someone of a higher standing, an upward palm to signify we come with pure intentions," Quirina explained as she and her sister copied what I did.
Why did she have to try to explain what she was doing, though...
And they even missed like three things...
"And the swirl?" Stavros asked.
"The what? What swirl?" Ethna looked completely lost.
"Ah, yes! The swirl is for... for..." Quirina looked like she was getting there, though with some major memory haze. "The swirl is for intentional display?"
"Let's stop here. Don't even try to explain why you need to maintain your head levelled or what aligning your hands in the direction you're bowing means," he said, his tone cold and his demeanor growing more irritated by the seconds.
"You need serious remediation lessons if you're to ever not pass for bumbling fools. Return to this 'leadership gal' and tell her I'll meet her in an hour at the transition area. Also, tell her that manners lessons will be part of the deal for you two."
Like mischievous children a couple of years older than me, the two took off right away, not bothering with the politeness that would have them do another, different bow.
"Now you see what the un[Worthy] are like, even when they're part of a greater faction. No manners, no [Ambition]s, hopeless."
Evidently, the moment they left, Stavros started rambling about his [Worthy] spiel for a bit before turning his head to take in my indifference.
"Have you been lazing as of late? It's been months since I stopped hearing about you going on Sentinel assignments."
"Essence overdevelopment complications, no can do." I shrugged. "Even without trying, I'm maxing out my daily Essence development quota in eight hours. I had to forget about synthesizing the [Secrecy] Aspect in favor of pursuing my [Will] and [Cultivation] Aspects' advancement, Tier 3 and Tier 1, respectively."
"[Cultivation]? So you really formed it? Not bad. I was uncertain whether to believe the rumors," he acknowledged, the glint of approval in his eyes only growing in intensity.
"Why don't you show me how far you've come with your [Secrecy]? Maybe some targeted pointers will allow you to skip some pesky [Darkness] transition steps."
I did some quick maths in my head, taking into account my already exceeded daily Essence development quota...
The upcoming surge of overdevelopment disorder originating from my [Awareness] Aspect advancement to Tier 1...
Plus the opportunity cost of a simple [Secrecy] display, followed by the potential [Cultivation] of whatever [Insight]-s Starvos allowed me to gain...
Minus the benefits I could get out of it through the long-term optimization of my future [Secrecy] [Insight]s...
"Why not," I ultimately said, [Guided] already urging me to go through this Essence development excess that could potentially unfold into a short-term idle grounding, all for hypothetical [Secrecy] Aspect [Cultivation] benefits that may or may not come to fruition.
As Stavros made his way to the castle and then started talking to other fairies to prepare for the upcoming official negotiations with the representative of the Nexus Order, I showed him everything.
As part of my lowest priority Essence development category, the [Darkness] Aspect and its associated [Secrecy]-synthesis [Cultivation] had been thoroughly relegated to the background.
I kept my mind open to whatever accidental [Insight]s I could derive from every opportunity, but that was it.
No dedicated [Cultivation] sessions.
No merging into my every movement.
It didn't mean I stopped developing it, I simply let my own nature be [Guided] towards achieving an instinctive and organic [Comprehension] of it.
As a result, whereas my [Darkness] Aspect remained undeveloped, my application of it incrementally leaned towards embodying more and more facets of the [Secrecy] Aspect as Stavros transmitted it to me.
I no longer embraced [Darkness] for the absence it brought, instead finding myself drawn to its capacity for deliberately controlling information.
Where it had once been mere concealment, I now perceived it as the boundary of what others were allowed to perceive of my actions.
And I enforced this reality through [Comprehension] manifested through [Will].
"Astonishing progress," was Stavros' first observation by the time he finished talking to other fairies to get a comprehensive grasp of what the Fairy House would demand out of these negotiations.
His head turning towards my exact location was how I knew his comment was directed at me, rather than only at Selen, with whom he was talking business or whatever.
"Yeah, with the revival of the Order plus the infighting of Red Sand, we're really liquidating everything faster and at a higher price than we anticipated. If we continue like that, we'll be ready to depart in less than a year, just the time to gather supplies."
Selen, being completely oblivious to my presence, didn't suspect anything and took the comment in stride, only further curling old Stavros' lips into a chilling grin.
An hour later, Stavros and a dozen other fairies had made their way to the transition area, the only space in the Fairy House where giant-sized beings were permitted to reside.
There, all five Order members were waiting in various states of idleness, with the only exception being the two fairies who were made to sit in a very uncomfortable-looking position on top of Heimir's massive shield.
[Will]ing my [Secrecy] to be broken when I approached them, I waited until they had their watery, pleading eyes on me before saying my piece, "How could you fail when I showed you exactly what you needed to do? Are you dummies?"
"We had those lessons years ago!"
"It's not like we'll ever join the Fairy Court anyway!"
Their worthless complaints flying way over my head, I looked with contempt at the duo squirming while small heavy-looking metal weights were laid on their legs while they were sitting on their heels.
"I apologize for my mannerless companions' disrespect. I should have sent an invitation first. I will incur the price of having them take remedial manners lessons from whom you see fit..."
Behind me, Evija efficiently commenced the diplomatic negotiations in the way I was taught through both words and books, with respect, with proper gestures, with appropriate words.
The Fairy House's delegation returned her politeness in kind, and soon enough, the talks began, with, shockingly, Vesp being the one assisting Evija, presenting a whole new facet of himself, one obviously trained to interact with others on a diplomatic level.
Another reminder that appearances can be deceiving...
As the negotiations unfolded, with nothing better to do while I listened and took in all the subtle cues and word usages, I landed on Heimir's shield and gave a try at enduring the punishment the fairy sisters were sentenced to.
"The failure of the student is the responsibility of the teacher," I fabricated an excuse, straightened my back, and put on my best noble placid expression.
"How dare you mock us!"
"Wait half an hour, then we'll see!"
I kept my posture steady, letting the pressure settle into my legs and ankles without resistance, observing how the sensation shifted from simple discomfort into a persistent, background weight that demanded attention but never truly escalated beyond it.
Half an hour later, it had grown a bit uncomfortable, and was still growing minutely more uncomfortable with every passing minute, but that was all there was to it.
"How‽"
"My legs! I can't feel them anymore!"
"Hold on, sister! We need to prove our determination to the kid!"
"I can't... the ants are crawling ever upwards... I feel numb... sister..."
With the weirdest expression on her face, Quirina, the smart one, fell to punishment.
"No! Sister! Wake up! Remember how we said we would prove the one who dared to challenge us wrong‽"
It was a beautifully acted scene.
A shame my [Awareness], fluctuating as it was
I wondered if they had some sort of [Acting] Aspect they were practicing.
That’s the only explanation that could explain why they weren’t [Focus]ing on the negotiations and learning from how the two sides bartered and counter-offered, weighed concessions against leverage, and iteratively adjusted their bargaining positions to reach a mutually acceptable accord, right?
Unless they were prioritizing building a rapport with me, having beheld my potential and wishing to become the earliest believers of Solaena's [Faith]?
What could be the interests that motivated them to do so? It made sense as a long-term investment, but forgoing personal growth for that? I would only see them as lesser for it...
In any case, those mixed business-diplomatic-politics talks were really getting to me.
Hundreds of points had been discussed by that point, and I just couldn't believe both parties had kept perfect track of what was going on.
The more logical way of looking at what they were doing was that they were each pursuing their own interests while making sure they gave the least in exchange.
Hence, keeping what really interested them hidden from the other party was an utmost priority, and the most efficient way of achieving so was to muddy the waters. Figuratively speaking.
So that's what a battle of wits looked like...
But then there were still the public interests to take into account.
After all, it was evident what the Nexus wanted out of those talks.
They wanted fairies, inexhaustible flyers, to help them scout the highest reaches of the Red Sand Realm.
And what the Fairy House wanted was also clear as the sky of the Red Sand Realm without a sandstorm blurring the scenery.
They wanted to sell their aggravating properties, up to the Fairy House itself, exchanging everything for the highest value they could get out of it.
Both sides wanted something the other side could provide, and thus, they slowly overcame the marginally conflicting nature of their respective interests by making concessions.
The Fairy House would initially provide two full-capacity units—sixteen fairies per Nexus Order unit—composed exclusively of individuals capable of sustaining prolonged high-altitude flight adapted to the conditions of the Red Sand Realm, and that, for a projected operational duration of one month, beginning from the moment the expedition entered the Realm proper.
In return, the Order guaranteed that the assigned fairies would remain subject to regulated exploration rotations, including a minimum of six hours of rest for every sixteen hours of activity, alongside access to the most extensive logistical and operational support framework the Order could reasonably provide.
Furthermore, the Order committed itself to ensuring the fairies’ safe return through all acceptable operational measures.
From what I managed to decipher beneath the suffocating layers of diplomatic and legal phrasing, however, "acceptable operational measures" translated into a far simpler reality.
Should the situation deteriorate beyond recovery, the Order was merely obligated not to deliberately sacrifice the fairies as expendable decoys.
On top of that, the Order committed itself to purchasing a substantial number of Fairy House-owned properties—including the Fairy House itself—through a performance-adjusted compensation structure.
The exact valuation would scale according to the expedition’s success, reaching its highest threshold should the atmospheric research station be successfully located and scouted with significant contribution from the deployed fairies.
It appeared, honestly, that both sides had gotten what they wanted from the agreement.
The last step was both parties committing the exhaustive details of the deal to paper, formalizing it through making a physical proof of its existence that, should it be broken, would inevitably engender a whole plethora of severe long-term credibility loss for the side that broke the contract first.
For that, as it turned out, both Evija and one of the fairies had Aspects capable of manifesting the contract within the very Essence of the other party, thus sealing the agreement in a way that, should one party unilaterally breach the contract without the means to handle the repercussions...
Things would happen, I guessed. Bad things.
I remembered reading somewhere that the higher order Aspects capable of manifesting contracts ended up being absolutely devastating, to the point that many who had been forced into the likes of a slavery contract didn't dare to break it, lest their Essence be entirely corrupted from the aftermath.
Civilization had truly developed both the best and worst tools to ensure its interests were upheld, regardless of whether those tools could be wielded for both selfishly destructive and objectively beneficial endeavors.
With the negotiations having culminated in an official Aspect-backed contract, the ensuing discussion, where they debated the best course of action given their respective constraints, unfolded in a visibly and audibly closer manner.
Concrete objectives were stated.
Exploration methodologies were argued over.
The Fairy House's legacy as a former core faction of the Red Sand Sector that pioneered hundreds of sensible remnants shone here in a way that clearly took Evija by surprise.
When Stavros himself declared that he would partake in the exploration as a last homage to his century of life spent here, the surprise turned to apparent glee.
Before long, the preliminary post-contract negotiations were done, and the two sides parted on manifestly good terms, with both sides seemingly wanting this operation to work out and neither having discerned any sort of deceit.
Was that how diplomacy and politics were traditionally employed and executed on the level of factions?
How... fascinating.
As the rest of the Nexus Order company members readied themselves to depart, Ethna and Quirina finally dropped the act after a gesture from Evija accompanied by a heavy gaze, and they effortlessly stood up-
"I can't feel my legs! I can't feel them!"
"Stop looking at us like that, little one!"
Had they really not been acting?
There was no way such a simple punishment could have made them suffer to such an extent...
I infused my [Awareness] with a pulse of [Will].
Fascinatingly, their lower bodies did present some remnant minor trauma from sustained pressure on their nerves, with their blood flow barely recovering.
"Have you two never formed a [Tempering]-related Aspect?" I asked them, astounded by the possibility that the two sisters, part of a dangerous exploration unit that could at any moment face unexpected dangers...
Had forgotten to neutralize one of the critical weaknesses fairies were known to have.
"We're scouts!"
"Explorers!"
"Not brutes!"
"What's the use of [Tempering] ourselves‽"
"But what about preparing for the worst? A single Aspect-enhanced, perfectly-angled blade strike would be all it takes to-"
"Ah! Another Edmun! I don't want to hear about being cut in two!"
"My ears! My legs! Nooo!"
Rolling my eyes at their antics and recognizing their mental states to be unsuitable for any serious discussion, I arched my back and planted my palms firmly against the ground behind me.
Then, with a controlled tightening of my abdomen, I slowly lifted my lower body despite the heavy metal weights resting across my legs, balancing their shifting mass as I raised myself further and further until my arms stood fully extended and my entire posture inverted upside down.
"That’s what [Tempering] does," I commented, leisurely shifting within my pose.
I had long since trained my body to near-perfect flexibility, and that same flexibility was a trait my ongoing daily [Guided] [Cultivation] was steadily pushing toward increasingly absurd extremes, so doing something as basic as that was really...
Basic.
Not a drop of manifested [Will] was required of me to maintain this form.
It was simply [Mastery] achieved through relentless [Cultivation] under the purview of [Guided] and an uncompromising [Will].
"No way!"
"[Tempering] is cheating!"
"You're using your bullshit [Will]!"
"Can you do another of those rotations? Woah. Again, please?"
"Wake up, sister! She's enthralling you with fancy tricks!"
"Oh! You're right! Stop provoking us, brat! Here, balance another weight!"
"Hahaha! Perfect idea, here, feel the weight of my wrath!"
"And another for the weight of my jealousy!"
"And my envy!"
"Take my greed too while you're at it!"
"She's weakening! Add your gluttony, sister! Do it for all the snacks you've ever eaten!"
"Huh... I'm not. I'll do it if you add in your narcissism, though."
"But I'm not narcissistic?"
"Call it vanity then."
"I perceive malice within you, sister, add that to the pile while you're at it."
Under the onslaught of the two sisters who repeatedly threw additional weights on me while mischievously poking at my sides, no amount of balancing and core strength prevented my eventual collapse, which happened following a single over-compensation I failed to in turn over-compensate.
"She's down!'
"We wind!"
"[Temepring] is worthless!"
"Freak Edmun and his endless pestering!"
A couple of minutes later, the five company members were ready to escort me back to the Prime Temple.
Not that I actually needed or even wanted an escort.
Stavros had also yet to give me his promised pointers.
And my [Awareness] Aspect was advancing to Tier 1, making it unreliable for the duration the advancement lasted.
"I've decided to remain in the Fairy House for some time, at least until my [Awareness] Aspect finishes advancing to Tier 1," I explained to Evija.
"So, no need to escort me back. And don't worry about my safety, my age is just a number best used for deception. I've done the journey from the Fairy House to the Prime Temple dozens of times by now, and I've travelled the city hundreds of times while doing Sentinel assignments."
Seeing the five Order members depart after we shared an efficient parting period, I internally apologized to the hypothetical Veiled who was shadowing me and turned towards the Fairy House delegation.
Where was Stav-
"Should we start with some much-needed advice on what you did wrong before getting to what you did right?"
Stavros manifested directly within the boundaries of my [Awareness] like it was nothing, an insufferable and knowing grin plastered onto his lightly wizened face.
Of all times for him to be feeling playful,..
Just my Nexus-forsaken luck.