39 The Elders

Leaving Ede and Alistar to argue, Lex guides me in meeting more of the locals with the ever silent Garon trailing behind. As we made introductions, they too were concerned why a "little girl" showed up here. I huff in annoyance.

Alistar and Ede stopped bickering in time to hear the question. Alistar found this to be hilarious. While laughing, he throws an arm over my shoulder and leans in. "Don't be so annoyed. It's an honest mistake. You're such a little thing it's easy to mistake you for a child."

My eye twitches, but before I could make a snarky reply, his weight lifts from my shoulders. Shoving Alistar away Lark appears, standing between us. Growling deep and seconds from biting Alistar's head off. A change comes over Alistar. He goes from friendly and relaxed to defensive and dangerous in seconds. I could practically smell the gunpowder in the air.

To defuse the situation, I lean into Lark with my hand squeezing his shoulder. With a bright smile I introduce him, "Alistar, this is Lark. One of my companions I was telling you about."

Lark takes the hint and stops growling, though he keeps his eyes narrowed and trained onto Alistar. To maintain some semblance of civility Lark stiffly nods his head to Alistar, which Alistar returns. Everyone falls silent, while I grasp for anything that can get someone talking about anything.

"Weren't you saying something about taking a scan of the mine?" I blurt out.

Alistar stares at me for a moment before he loses his defensive position. When his cheeky smile comes back, I sigh in relief.

"I'm not too good at explaining things properly, so I'll leave it to Vivi to explain," he looks around and upon finding his target says, "Hey Vivi, be a dear and explain how the mine is set up?"

A young woman comes forward plastered with as much blood and dirt as everyone else. She has a thin frame and stands a few inches shorter than Ede. Straight black hair that falls to her shoulders frames her small oval shaped face. Familiar chocolate brown eyes turn towards me. Looking between her and Ede, I quickly make the connection between the two. Ignoring me, she looks at Alistar with annoyance.

"Will you stop ordering me about like I'm some sort of lackey?" she huffs, "and stop leaning against my sister like she's a Goddess-be-damned tree!" Vivi says, confirming my guess.

I look over. Sure enough, at some point, Alistar found his way over to Ede and props his arm on her shoulder as he leans on her while talking to Vivi.

Still carrying a cheeky grin, he replies, "Don't be like that, Babe. You know you'll always be number one in my heart, regardless of how close I am with Ede."

I could practically see the blood vessel pulsing on her forehead, seconds from bursting. "Will you stop calling me that! What if people get the wrong impression?! Goddess, you're lucky you're friends with my sister, or I'd have ended you long ago!"

Alistar's smile gets wider. I intervene knowing he was about to further piss off Vivi. "Um...the scan?" I cut in. Before, when I was little more than observing spirit, I spent most of my time watching people learning secrets rather than learning asura.

Vivi blinks at me, the only sign of her surprise. "Uh, whose kid is this?"

I take a deep breath. /Who the hell is a kid! You're a kid! Your whole family is a kid! I'm a well-developed woman!/

I ignore the question, too irritated to explain once again. "How is the mine scanned?" I snap.

She looks me up and down. Sees the dirt and blood I'm covered in and drops her question. Instead, she says, "We'll do a scan by Spell Weaving using a Soma Mage and a Mind Mage."

"Spell Weaving?" I question.

"Well, the actual process is quite difficult, but basically it's having three or more mages working together to create a spell. Two provide the asura while one acts as the Orchestrator creating the spell."

I think through my rudimentary knowledge of asura. Soma Mages tend to use asura that's capable of manipulating the body while Mind Mages tend to affect the earth. "Don't those two repel each other?"

"Not exactly. Soma and Mind Asura aren't the others opposite, so they won't explode when in contact, but they're different enough that they'll strongly resist each other; this is why we're waiting for the Elders to get here. No one else has the level of control they have."

I ponder, "How much will the scan tell us?"

"We'll get the location of anyone in the mine, find the cave-ins, and the weak spots."

Before I could ask another question, Alistar speaks up, "Speaking of the Elders, looks like they're finally here."

The gathered group part, allowing three people to come forward. When I don't see the old and white-haired Elders I expected, my eyes widen in surprise. Rather none of them look older than thirty. Momentarily forgetting Asterians age rapidly to a certain point, then drastically slow down. Which is why all these lovely people believe I'm a child. In Asteria, a child that's ten will appear fourteen, and by the time they're fifteen, they sprout into these seven feet monstrosities. In the time I've known Daric, he's grown nearly an inch, and within five years he'll grow two feet. So I should have been prepared to see a group of "Elders" that appear to be in their late twenties when they're pushing ninety.

Standing at the front is a woman with long wavy brown hair flowing free. Her face is carefully blank, but I could detect boiling rage within her black eyes. Round curvy hips sway, drawing the eye to her long legs. There's a bounce to her step and approachable nature to her that makes me think of a cheerleader. Behind her to her right, is another woman who looks like she is walking with a permanent stick up her ass. Her thin frame ramrod straight with straight red hair, and blue eyes. Her thin lips pinched in disapproval as she peers around and looks moments from giving a lecture like an angry school teacher. From what I see other than the people who came with me, she is the only one wearing something other than black cargo pants and shirt. Instead, she's wearing a purple hooded robe that hangs down to her ankles. To her left is a heavily muscled man with a bald head reflecting the light hanging around. Midnight blue eyes narrowed in anger and strong jaw clenched tight while thick corded hands ball into fists. He radiates strong, stubborn, and dangerous with every step, making him the type of man that makes a great ally and a terrifying enemy.

Everyone bows and I belatedly follow suit, "Elder," they all respectfully say.

The cheerleader in front waves them away, "Now is not the time to stand on ceremony. We were briefed on the... Why is there a child here?"