Triiffic-Soul: Can I Be In Control?

"I'm sorry about this, Syrus.” Elly apologised to Anlesa as the two of them walked down the street, only a few turns towards the children’s home. 

“It’s no problem.” Syrus sighed, “But onto an actual problem, has money been okay?” 

“It can be tight.” Elly was honest. There were a lot of upfront costs for the house and buying supplies to keep the children dressed, fed, and working. “But we have been managing thanks to your help.”

“If you need more—” 

“Please don’t. We are fine at the moment. We already have merchants buying carvings and trinkets."  Elly quickly refused. She had been calculating all the money Anna had given them, and she couldn’t imagine how much pain it must’ve been to acquire it all. Every donation was important, but she was deeply worried that she was sacrificing personal health because of it. 

Passing by the last corner, Elly sighed again. “Thank you.” 

“It’s all good. Kids can be curious after all.” 

[At least we aren’t teaching the kids.] 

[I would hate that… We aren’t—] (Eva)

[Don’t continue that sentence.] Luna interrupted Eva. 

[Thank you.] Eva replied. She was about to make a comment about Jen, who had taught the children in the village many times, and how they would never compare, but she was glad she didn’t.

[I mean, in a way it's teaching. Recaps can be educational.] (Syrus)

[You are technically correct.] (Luna)

The kids had requested that Elly ask Syrus about what happened to her recent children. They were curious and knew Syrus had gone on a long trip to a whole other country. Arisea Station had already been so different to Greenvale, which was already different from their small village. They heard little snippets about Eletscoep, and now they wanted to know more! 

As they reached the door of the house. One of the children was leaning out, almost ready to fall over with how they were steadying himself. 

Jerry yelled out, “She has returned!”

Ella pulled Jerry back before he tripped on his own feet.

“It’s good to see everyone.” Syrus chuckled and welcomed herself inside

Before any talks about the trip could happen, first Syrus had to deal with the barrage of everyone saying hello to her. 

Upon her entry, a soft smile appeared on Leah’s face. She had been doing better since arriving at Arisea Station.

Anlesa did a few passes of the room. 

She raised her eyebrow. “Where is Susan?”

Billy answered, “She… went out for a run. She should be back in a moment.”

[Really taking your advice…] (Eva)

[Well, she wanted to get fit.] (Syrus)

[Though her motivation is a bit skewed.] (Luna)

[Nothing skewed about wanting to look good.] (Syrus)

Susan had been given a simple ‘training regiment' by Syrus. Nothing like what she made Ethan do, but something that if Susan followed would help increase her strength and, in her own words, get a body closer to Velelenra and Syrus’s form.

Syrus wasn’t one to crush a child’s dream, but she was definitely too young to be doing anything too strenuous. Growing up healthy was the most important. So the ‘training regiment' involved basic movement. An easy run and ensuring that she continued to eat. 

Luna wasn’t happy with the motivation, but she appreciated Syrus twisting said motivation into a simple healthy activity. Susan looked very determined after Syrus said she was too young the first time, so he gave her something so she wouldn’t risk doing something without supervision. 

“Good to know. We will start when she is back.” 

There were some groans, but Syrus just told them to calm down. The stories weren’t going anywhere. 

Susan returned and was excited to see that Syrus had already arrived. She wanted to tell her that she was keeping up training and she was now the fastest one of her age, but Anlesa asked her to wait until afterwards. Syrus promised she would go on a run with Susan tomorrow, which the child happily agreed to. 

Everyone gathered around. Elly stood in the corner while Syrus sat in the centre of the room, being the centre of attention.

“Let’s begin at the beginning. I got a job to help someone return to their home of Eletscoep after being gone since childhood." 

Syrus started with the journey to Eletscoep. It was always important to start at the beginning, and there was a lot that could be learned with travel. She explained what they did while they travelled. How they conserved resources and what they did to stay clean and healthy. Of course, this part of the story got mixed reactions from the children. Some really wanted to hear the tales of the bizarre country, while others found what was required for such a long trip fascinating. 

She did answer the question about why they did certain actions and follow-ups on the survival process.  Even the ones who weren’t too interested in the technical details did find it a little cool. 

Of course, the moment she reached the moment they were attacked was when the children's eyes locked on. She did smudge the tale truths a bit. There was no way she planned on saying how they found Maca uninjured, the existence of Beara, or the secret royalty. The last part could be saved for a later reveal in their story.

There was the option of completely fibbing the whole story, but they wanted to be somewhat truthful, in case they ever had the children move to Eletscoep. It definitely was the safest of countries out of all the options. Arisea Station was decent, but it was close to the people who had done them and the children harm. 

Though moving now was impossible. Moving everyone that long of a distance required logistics, planning, and money. Then even more money for the actual acquisition of a residence in the city, among other required purchases. 

The positive part was that Anlesa was friends with multiple high-ups of the city, and depending on the path Mary and Max take, possibly even future rulers of the country. This could handle multiple issues with the acquisition of houses and even work for the children if they wanted to try something different from what Elly had been teaching them.

The other negative part that made moving now impossible was just the chaos the city was currently facing. Anlesa refused to have the children walk into that mess while it was still hot. Everything needed to calm down before such plans could be made. The children were also only now getting used to their place in this city, moving them any time soon felt harsh. 

“Do attacks on the road really happen that often…?” Billy asked. 

A few of the children looked at each other, and there were murmurs about a lot of escort requests. They did hear talk from various hunters frequently. Hunters themselves weren’t exactly quiet, and curious children were going to listen. 

“Less often than what you hear, but more than it should be.” Syrus had gotten used to the cycle of escort missions. “There is a limited number of people that can attack caravans, and they need to focus on their own survival as well. Because since they are criminals, they wouldn’t be able to enter cities without getting arrested—I am getting off topic. Story for another day. But yeah, attacks happen, but when they do, it is mostly just a few arrows. When the arrows are fired is when the hunters reveal themselves, and that is when bandits usually retreat.”

Ella nodded. “The moment risk is noticed, they retreat.” 

“Bingo. Escorts are mostly a deterrent.” Syrus gave Ella a thumbs up. “But from the numbers, only about 40% of the caravans get shot at without conflict escalating. 1% escalate into bloody conflict. While the last 50% of trips have nothing happen.” She looked over to Billy. “It depends on perspective. I’d say that is too much, but plenty of people say that is a reasonable amount.”

“Eh…” Billy didn’t like those results. 

“I jump back to the fun part.” Syrus leaned back. “After Ethan made his decision, we continued to the city—” 

Finally, they reached the moment they got to describe the city. Large farmland with paths towards the city, with large stone walls surrounding the country. 

The sight was almost impossible to imagine. So Syrus took out a little notebook Eva had prepared and showed them some drawings she had made. These pictures helped the kids' imagination bloom as they imagined walking toward the large walls themselves and being unable to bend their heads up enough to see the whole structure. 

“So we entered through the walls and eventually made our way to the house of a local noble.”

“Noble!” The kids yelled out.

“Were you in trouble!?”

“Did you beat them up?!” 

“...No, but we did learn something interesting.” Syrus chuckled and then ‘revealed’ that the person they had escorted was actually forgotten royalty. She only spoke about Mary and not Max. They spoke about how the royal family had been attacked and poisoned years ago, and everyone assumed every member had been killed. Not exactly the truth, but discussing the manmade plague was a topic they, for many reasons, didn’t want to discuss with the children. 

The children were shocked by the reveal. “Wow… they were really royalty?” 

The idea of royalty caused a mixture of sparkles and fear to appear in the children’s eyes. They knew their old home, Cancole, had a king, and that was even a higher prestige than to the nobles, whom they also never interacted with. So the fact that Syrus interacted with one was amazing and scary. 

Syrus laughed and told them everything was alright. Thanks to completing their job, they were given a place to stay, and they eventually met up with a friend who was in the city. So Maca was introduced to Syrus’s story. 

The next part of the story was giving all the children details of the city itself. The shops, businesses, food, newspapers, the entertainment, and the fancy machines and buildings they had. Each topic had its own fans from among the children, but they all found the different elements exciting. 

“We were having so much fun, but some trouble did emerge.” Syrus shushed the group with a motion, a sign to keep this next part quiet. “There were some people who wanted the missing royalty dead, but there were also some people who returned to get revenge on the royalty that had been murdered before.” 

Another point they really couldn’t talk about was Rose. Because there were three individuals who might be able to pick up on certain inconsistencies with everything. Though the trio had talked about it, there was the issue that avoiding the topic meant that if the children ever learned about Rose, the very powerful blood Attribute user, they would figure out it was them. 

Of course, not much thinking about this possibility happened when they were in Eletscoep. They had bigger problems at the time. 

Syrus's story shifted from the vacation episode to the mystery and survival. She spoke about how she avoided assassination attempts and attackers from gangs who had been paid off. Tales were spun about how she had been roped into investigating the attackers. How she explored places like the newspaper factory. The history museum. The underground catacombs. Hidden tunnels. 

Then, while avoiding details of Rose exactly, told how she was saved by someone who was looking for revenge. She paused, then told them the next part of the story she didn’t see happen as she was outside the city, but the group looking for revenge had attacked the parliament and killed the prime minister, and with that, evidence of his heinous acts was revealed. 

Syrus finished her tale, and during that moment of silence, Ella asked, “Did all that really happen?” The tale Syrus provided was a lot. Even Elly was concerned. 

“Sadly and likely for the best, yes, it was true. An evil man was removed from power, and now the country is fixing up the small problems that had been caused by him.” Syrus glanced over everyone. “Feel free to keep asking questions; I have plenty of answers to give.” 

The children looked at each other before speaking over each other as they had their own questions for Syrus.

It was a little exhausting, but Anlesa eventually answered all the questions the children had. Though it might’ve taken all day.

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