2372 Iclis 31, Kindreth

The wind tore Elred's hair off her forehead and drove her pale blond locks in a frenzy behind her. Green and brown sped past and towards her as her descent from the Upper Cities brought her closer to Rabante, the city of the workers and those who didn't want to meddle with political affairs.

She narrowed her eyes to prevent dirt and other unholy particles scattered in the wind from blinding her. Tall trees with leaves of different shades of green, orange, and yellow carpeted her view, accented by an occasional punches of roofs and smoking chimneys. Even from up here, the smell of the oil and chemicals used in mining lesium ores wafted in the air, so thick that it made Elred's eyes water. Damn, she should be thankful for the fresh air Abshire has.

Her wings buzzed and clinked behind her, filling her ears with the busy sound and preoccupying her in the long flight down. Why didn't she just ride a glass ledge down? One—someone might see her going down and she didn't want that. Two—the ledge was slow. Elred didn't have a lot of time with the Feast coming closer by the second.

So, flying it was.

The sky was, as always, brightly blue. Clouds whisked by in a slow droll, like they're bored of floating in the air and bringing rain to where it was needed. Elred scoffed. Being a cloud didn't seem so bad. At least they didn't have to plan Feasts or find rebels in Abshire.

She shook her head. Dangerous thoughts like that shouldn't be entertained. A task. She's here for a task. She should focus on that.

The ground sped closer. Just before Elred burst through the first line of the canopy, she spread her wings to stop her fall. It brought a strong pain in her shoulders but it's bearable. She's got strong wings, anyway. Her feet hovered over the vast expanse of trees and land, the high-rising plateau bearing the Upper Cities a solid wall behind her. Thank the gods she deicded to wear a nondescript tunic and trousers today. Her skirts would have torn and got dirty. The Queen wouldn't like that.

Without another word, Elred flapped her wings and dove once more, slower this time. The wind didn't bother her hair that much as it did when she was just free-falling from the plateau's rim. Her arms reached out and grasped the tallest tree rising from the rest of the forest's height. Curse these overachievers. Her fingers closed around the thriving shoot. The branches haven't even hardened yet.

She braced her foot against the tree's lower and sturdier branches and looked down. Past the shade of yellow-green leaves, shard fairies dressed the same way as her milled about the well-worn roads in their own businesses. Nobody looked up to see a noble hanging onto a tree, watching them from high up. Perhaps they're used to being so close to the ground?

Elred waved a hand behind her, tucking her wings close to her body until they melded into her skin. With how the roads were packed with people, cart animals, and thick trunks, wings would surely get her the attention she wouldn't want out of Rabante.

She gritted her teeth and began shimmying down the tree, jumping from the last layer of branches in a hopefully perfect landing. Along the way, her foot hit something solid, sending her careening towards the tree. Her head smacked the trunk, sending pulses of black and white light to her vision. A yelp tore off her lips, definitely making a few heads turn, and she slammed butt-first into the hard, compact soil.

Ow.

She massaged her arm and her temples as she regained her bearings. Stupid tree. She clicked her tongue and scanned the crowd giving her a side-eye. Nobody stopped to make sure she's alright. Well, they probably saw her stirring and cursing. Not exactly a dignified entrance but it's an entrance, nonetheless.

Elred squared her shoulders and called off her glamours. If she was to blend in, she would have to look like them. Judging from the fairies around her, she passed her hand over her form, making sure to add more coal stains and other miscellaneous rips and tears in her tunic and trousers. The boots she purchased from a passing merchant in Xixora from way back gained a few more creases and thinner soles. Finally, as a finishing touch, she reached behind her and propped her hair up in a messy bun. Magic crackled at her fingertips as a glass hair pin speared from her skin and through her hair, securing it in place. Hmm. That should do.

Then, she began walking, tucking her hands into the pockets of her trousers, for once grateful of how well they hugged her legs. She might as well take a liking to these things and start to wear it around Abshire. Gowns and dresses were so last season.

She craned her neck at the canopies shielding her from the sky and the Upper Cities, in general. A sense of calm and indifference crept in her system. It's like both of those things didn't even exist when she's down here. It felt...freeing.

Elred clenched her jaw, ripping herself off that silly fantasy. As much as she hated to admit it, the Upper Cities was where she belonged eand that's where she would always go back home to. No amount of gallivanting in Rabante would change that.

Her footsteps scratched against the grass-covered soil. She dodged miners carrying sacks upon sacks of raw lesium. The smell of the chemicals had never been stronger. Caravans pulled by snorting dagrine sped past her, with one almost knocking her over. She bit her tongue and forced herself to not demand her rights as a noble. Children, with presentable tunics and dresses, ran in undeterred cheer through the crowd, weaving past legs and barely apologizing when they knock over wares or bump into a passing adult.

The noise was certainly something Elred has to get used to. Unlike the perpetual silence and calm in Abshire and in the estates in the other Cities, Rabante burst to the brim with activity. Bustles. Canters. Chatters. All the possible noises a shard fairy could make existed in Rabante. All at the same time.

The air felt thick to breathe, the humidity driving Elred's sweat down the side of her face and along her back. Thank Crintine what she wore today was disposable. She had to find the Deputy and fast.

"Excuse me," she approached the first fairy she could find loitering under the shade of a bigger tree. The smell of oshella wafted in the air as the man sparked a flint at the rolled parchment stuck to his mouth. "Which way to the Deputy's office?"

A snort resounded from the man as he gave her a look over. He forgot lighting his oshella stick as he leaned away from the tree's bark. Someone struck a metal basin behind her. The sound reverberated in uncomfortable ringing in her ears and scared a flock of pink-feathered birds from one branch to another, sending them squawking as they went.

"Deputy, eh?" the man bent down and gave his flint a few clicks. Sparks looked unnoticeable in the bright, morning light. He gave a satisfied sigh as he drew up and puffed his vice. "It's been so long since someone called dear ol' Pulrin that."

Elred didn't speak. Her cover's blown already. "You not from around here, girl?" the man raised an eyebrow.

If he talked like that to her in Abshire, she could have him strung and beat to death. Still, she's not in Abshire and she didn't come here as the Crown Princess, so she crossed her arms and raised her chin. "What about it?" she said.

"Ah, nothing much," the man blew smoke from his mouth. Elred waved a hand in front of her face to prevent it from going through her nose. Blasted oshella and blasted smokers. "Pulrin don't got an office, girl. His house's in the west side, past the mines."

Elred pursed her lips. "And where would that be?"

The man shrugged. He began to walk away. "Eh. You'll figure it out."

So that's how Elred spent a few hours getting lost and talking to more people than she'd care to in her lifetime. By the time she stood in front of a shanty made up of discarded planks and rotting shingles, she didn't even need her glamours to simulate the stains and her thin soles. She cursed. Damn. She didn't know shard fairies being bad at giving directions wasn't limited to the nobles. This was the absolute worst.

It's too late to turn back now. She puffed her chest and walked with purpose towards the flimsy door blotched with spots of lichen and rot. She raised her hand and closed her knuckles to knock when a voice spoke behind her. "Elred? What are you doing here?"

She jumped and turned to find Pulrin standing behind her, carrying a basket of ajilte in his hands. They blinked at each other before erupting into a chorus of squeals and screams. Soon, Pulrin's arms wrapped around her neck and they were jumping up and down like mad pelgaris in front of the man's house.

It was a normal reaction between them. She had known Pulrin before she was crowned in Abshire. His family was, in fact, previously nobles in the Upper Cities and, as children, they have become friends after they met in several functions and formal dinners. Then, something blew up as an issue between the Pulrin clan and some other noble clan and soon, Pulrin was moving from the Upper Cities and into Rabante.

That's the last time Elred had seen him. Of course, when she heard there was a new deputy in town, she was excited to hear it was by the name Pulrin. She didn't expect she'd find her friend after all this years, in this flimsy house, though.

When they pulled apart, she took him by the shoulders. Without glamours and the buzz of nobility, he looked almost unreal. "How have you been?"

Pulrin shrugged. "Why don't we go in first?"

"Oh, right," she said as Pulrin pushed past her and unlocked his door with a key from the ring dangling in his hand under the basket. The inside of the room shocked Elred. Apart from fixtures she could count with one hand, there wasn't anything else inside. The fireplace was void of warmth and the dining table pushed close the window contained one piece of a round, yellow fruit.

Pulrin set the basket of ajilte next to the fruit before turning to Elred. "Shut the door if you're through," he said, moving to the cupboard she hadn't spotted in a dark corner. An extension, maybe?

Elred pushed the door as instructed, keeping care as to not break it by accident and leave Pulrin doorless. The lock clicked shut as the door blocked most of the light from the outside world and plunged the room into a dim light. She joined Pulrin on the table as he set a cup of cousa in front of her. "Care for some?" he said with a smile.

She ducked her head in thanks and wrapped her fingers around the cup made out of hollowed gourds. She pursed her lips and stole a glance at Pulrin who pulled up two stools from underneath the table and gestured at her to take one.

"I know what you're going to say," Pulrin said.

Elred clicked her tongue. "Is this how you and your family has been living—"

"Me," Pulrin tapped a hand to his chest, setting his steaming cup on the table and propping an elbow beside it. "This is how I am living. My clan's alright in the other side of the plateau."

She knitted her eyebrows. "But why?"

Pulrin rolled his shoulders. "Gotta keep up appearances," he passed a hand over his face and an image of a wrinkled fairy with a balding head and red-rimmed eyes contorted his features. Elred blinked and it was gone, replaced by Pulrin's familiar smooth skin and soft, sky blue eyes. "You never know where the Herkalyns are hiding. They might ambush me and my clan if they knew I got a position even in Rabante."

Elred nodded. She didn't want to dip into the political drama of other clans. That's her mother's job. "So...is that why you insisted on being called just Pulrin now?" she inclined her head to one side.

The fairy stuck his bottom lip out. "Yeah, I don't want to shed the one thing that makes me...well, me, but I need to keep myself safe too," he shoved his fingers in his pale brown hair and gave it a light muss. "So I let them think it's just an old man with a first name that is coincidentally Pulrin. Genius, right?"

"Yeah," Elred agreed. She had to give it to the man.

"So, why have you pierced through the clouds and visited me here?" Pulrin said. Elred couldn't even remember what his first name was. "I assume it wasn't just to catch up."

Elred's gut twisted. "Yeah," she said. "Although, catching up was nice."

Pulrin hummed. Elred ended up telling him everything that's happening in Abshire. When she finished, Pulrin's eyebrows almost reached his hairline from being arched too long. "So you need me to accompany you to Entobern to get their support in the upcoming Feast?" he tapped his chin. "Why me?"

Elred blew a breath. "You and Savel are the only ones I can trust right now," she said. "You wouldn't have anything planned against Abshire, would you?"

Pulrin chuckled. "If I do, I wouldn't tell you," he said. "But I'm all too tired from all the political maneuvers you guys do up there. Count me out," he ran his tongue over his teeth. "But if it's just Entobern...yeah, I could do that."

Hope blossomed in Elred's chest. "Really? Thank you so much!" she said. "We really could use some extra protection since I'm sure they would strike during the Feast to humiliate our clan."

Pulrin nodded. "When do we leave?"

Elred checked the light shining past the dusty windows. "Right now."