Chapter 155 Bloom

Talia took a small sip before placing her cup down. "Yeah, there's something off about that girl, Senior."

She leaned back in her seat, folding her arms as she stared down at the cup. "It's not like she's acting suspicious or anything like that, and maybe we're the ones missing something because we don't have the right context."

Lucien shook his head. "Even if we take that into account, it doesn't explain some of her actions. Such as going as far as to deliberately learn my name first within the few weeks since she was rescued by Sera."

He gestured to Talia. "Have you found out how old she is exactly? It might explain certain things."

Talia rubbed the back of her head. "Kinda? It was hard to broach the subject, but I tried asking how long she had been kept by the orcs. Her words were, 'The fifth turn of the seasons,' so I assume it was around five years at least?"

She perked up, lifting a finger before adding, "Ah! She mentioned something about before the Great Mother's ceremony..."

Her words trailed off, hand falling back down. "But honestly, the language barrier is hard to get past, so I probably didn't get the full picture behind what we spoke about."

"So yeah, I didn't find out her exact age, but if we assume it's been five years..."

In the early days after Kyrïe began recovering from her ordeal, both Talia and Lucien had scoured the library to see if there was anything they could find about elven culture.

When he had first woken up in this world, it was not something he had prioritized, given that Ashridge did not share any borders with elves.

Though he supposed it would not have mattered, considering how little they had actually managed to find out in the end.

Lucien exhaled through his nose. "Let us start with what we know and have observed so far. The records showed that this world's elves are not the immortal race usually depicted in the fantasy books from back home."

"Yep. Though three hundred years is still pretty long," Talia muttered as she took a sip from her cup.

He gave a nod. "That is the...Blooming Period. We don't know if three hundred years includes the other two periods for them as well."

As with many of the books in his library, the information within was often filled with contradictions and biases. The only thing universally stated was that an elf's lifespan was at least three hundred years.

Given the hostility between the races, he didn't know how human scholars had acquired that information. Perhaps there had been rare cases of friendly, or even romantic entanglements between humans and elves.

Setting aside his speculations, Lucien rested his hands on the desk. "We know that there are three periods in their life cycle. According to the records, they are the Budding Period, the Blooming Period, and the Withering Period."

Talia winced, her head resting on her palm. "That last one still bugs me, Senior."

"Considering our sources were written by humans, and taking into account the tumultuous history between the two races, I would not take the translation too literally," Lucien replied, shaking his head.

His finger tapped lightly against the desk. "According to Dorian, elves stopped visibly aging once they reached their age of majority, though the books were frustratingly vague on what that actually meant."

The tapping stilled as he met Talia's eyes. "Perhaps that ceremony she mentioned to you was related to that."

Talia gave a slow nod. "Maybe? Given that we were talking about age and all...I guess it's fair to assume that's what she was referring to."

She let out a breath. "So she's at least our age, give or take. That makes her reaction even weirder."

Leaning back in her seat, Talia crossed her legs and gestured to him. "Elf or not, it's kinda strange that she would be so calm after just a few weeks. We're talking about months, if not years, of captivity here, Senior."

Slowly, he inclined his head. "Then there are the things we did learn. Such as how quickly her wounds healed."

Lucien's gaze lowered as he rubbed his chin. "When Sera brought her back, I tried not to look too closely given her state. Even so, I could see more than a few nicks on her arms."

He glanced up at Talia. "How bad was it when you were helping Alicia with her back then?"

Grimacing slightly at his question, Talia raised her hand to show a sliver of space between her fingers. "There were cuts and bruises, but they looked more like they came from rough living conditions. I don't think the orcs physically attacked her...or any of the women, really."

"...Other than the ones that the Broken Tusk had taken a liking to," she muttered, looking unsettled.

When Talia looked up, she waved her hand at his look of concern. "It's fine, Senior. I wasn't the one who had to go through all that."

She clapped her hands lightly. "Anyway! So she heals pretty quickly. I don't know how good that is, but seeing how open she is about it, we can assume that's normal among elves."

Lucien gave a nod. "Almost too open...among other things." His eyes narrowed at her as he remembered the embarrassing sight from earlier. "Did you have to make those sounds just now? Walking to the village with you two at the same time was bad enough as it is."

He exhaled through his nose, imagining what the word around the village would be by now.

Talia looked utterly unrepentant as she pointed at him, or rather at the sweat on his face. "It's hot and her body is cool! It's like having an ice pack against your skin in the middle of this heat!"

She placed both hands on her face and wiggled in her seat, ignoring his dry look. "Ughhh, I can't stand it! Maybe she'll let me borrow her hand to put it on my belly?"

"Or...maybe she'll let me hug her arm while I sleep!?"

He made a note to warn Alicia to keep an eye on his shameless junior's antics.

Lucien let out a cough, his hand lightly slapping the desk to knock Talia out of her heat-addled fantasies.

She jerked her head back as though to avoid something, only to realize there was no way he could flick her forehead from where he was sitting.

That was fine. He would have plenty of opportunities in the future.

"There is one more thing I noticed earlier when you weren't around, Talia."

At the serious look on his face, Talia uncrossed her legs and leaned forward. "Oh? What is it?"

Lucien gave a slow nod. "During lunch just now, the topic of a mage coming to help with Cora came up. Kyrïe seemed cautious about it."

Talia tilted her head. "Maybe human mages in their lands have a bad reputation or something? Even if they aren't immortal, a long-lived race would probably still remember the last war between humans and elves."

He shook his head, slightly frustrated at the uncertainty. "I don't know. But it was the first time I saw her composure slip since..." His words trailed off before he let out a breath.

"Either way, I will make arrangements to ensure the mage Lord Rathenfell invited is housed as far from Kyrïe's room as possible."

Lucien picked up his cup, judged that the coffee had turned to just the right temperature by now, and downed it in one shot.

Talia stuck her tongue out at that. "Beeeh. I don't get how you can drink coffee like that! And I thought you preferred to savor it?"

"When I am alone, not having to talk about elves or manage a village. Besides, it was the right amount of lukewarm for this heat," Lucien replied, rising from his desk.

He walked to his window and opened the shutters wider to let the air in, stopping when he felt a light breeze brush against his skin.

Talia watched for a moment before she rose to join him, a slight grin on her face. "You could ask our resident elf as well, ya know?"

Lucien turned slightly to her, brow raised. "No, I could not. Not without fanning the flames of my reputation even more than it already is."

Speaking of flames, there was something he was curious about.

He gestured to the village beyond the window, to the same place where they had once conducted tests on the limestone mortar.

"Did you make any progress with the small shipment of coal that Lord Vaelric sent?"

His junior's grin faded at his question, her body slumping against the wall. "Ughhh...don't remind me, Senior!"

It seemed the problem was more complex than he had thought.

Unlike with the lime mortar, Talia had confidently stated that she knew the right temperatures for baking coal when he offered to help. So he had largely left that to her for the last few weeks.

"What appears to be the problem? The men you're working with are the same charcoal burners from before, so it shouldn't be the labor."

"Aside from their constant complaints about burning stone?" Talia griped before she slowly shook her head. "That's not really the issue. Setting up a clamp kiln to bake the coal isn't all that difficult either."

A groan escaped her lips as she scratched her head. "Something about the process isn't right whenever we try baking it."

Lucien rubbed his chin. "Not enough heat or too much? We don't have any way to measure it, so-"

"No. That's not it, Senior. I mean the signs are wrong."

He turned fully to face her. "...What?"

"I mean the smoke, the color, the way it breaks afterward...that kind of thing. Those signs don't match what I'm used to..."

Only after the words left her mouth did Talia seem to realize how that sounded. She gave a dismissive little wave, as though there was nothing strange about knowing that much.

"I wasn't kidding about knowing the process and that you could leave it to me, ya know."

She glanced away from him, slightly flushed when he continued staring at her. "I might have attended a blacksmithing workshop once? Just purely out of curiosity, of course!"

'This addict...'

Ignoring the dry look forming on his face, Talia flapped her hands as though to brush aside the entire issue. "Anyways! I might not have built a clamp kiln using medieval tools before, but I do have some experience making smaller versions!"

Lucien considered the matter, brows creasing. "Perhaps that's the reason why? Have you asked Alicia to take a look at it? She might be able to spot something using her blessing."

Talia shook her head. "Not yet. I wanted to run it through you first before approaching her about it."

She exhaled faintly, resting her hands on the sill. "I wanted to avoid depending on her for things like this too. It's not as though we are in that much of a hurry now compared to before."

Lucien's gaze drifted to the village outside as he remembered how Alicia had accepted whatever decision he might have made regarding her blessing.

And how easily she had accepted it.

It was the same reason he was reluctant to send Kyrïe away by force. He had a feeling that once he started along that road, there would be no going back.

When he looked back at Talia, the usual grin had faded from her face, brows drawn slightly together.

"Ask her for help, Talia."

He raised a hand when she made to speak. "I know there is no rush, but you've built something that is roughly finished, yes?"

Talia bit her lip before nodding slowly. "Yeah, I guess. Other than that issue, the thing is pretty much done."

"Then perhaps the strain on her blessing wouldn't be as bad. We can use this opportunity to test and see where her limits lie, so she won't accidentally overuse it in the future."

His junior still looked reluctant, though he was likely much the same despite his reasoning.

After that, they moved on to lighter topics such as tomorrow's event with the village. When he mentioned that Garrick was one of the people to submit a proposal, the knowing grin on Talia's face caused him to eye her suspiciously.

She refused to tell him anything, of course.

It was only fair that he would make certain to let Alicia know about her plans to bribe Kyrïe into being a portable ice cooler later at dinner.