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Mid Afternoon - Mid Winter : Atlas, Bahamut

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"Lord Vasilias, this way, please." A middle-aged ancient bowed deeply as I approached the gate of a massive estate just outside the Academy.

-To have such a huge dragon bow to me... I could get used to this feeling...-

Quickly making my way through the gate, I passed through several barriers and immediately smelled a wonderful mix of scents before noticing that the empty courtyard had suddenly filled with statues, greenery, and flowers.

It was like I had stepped into another world for a moment.

"From here, no one outside will be able to see you, so please treat this place as if it were your own. A maid will meet with you shortly."

Glancing back at the ancient, I spoke calmly, "Thank you for your consideration."

"It is our pleasure."

Turning away, I continued into the courtyard and spent the next few minutes inspecting the various statues of historical figures spread around the garden.

The statues were simply breathtaking, taking advantage of beautiful stones, gems, and rare metals to piece together a masterpiece. But no matter who they were, their statues were all in pristine condition, as if not a single particle had ever been removed from weathering.

All except one.

'Hera Monachikós - The Queen with Claws of Mythril'

Looking up from the mythril plaque on the statue's base, I saw nothing but stone nubs where the paws were meant to be without a single detail still remaining, as if water had eroded every bit of what used to be there. -The world really turned its back on her, didn't it...-

To an extent, it made sense: a war of unprecedented proportions begins, and suddenly, one of your beloved rulers disappears.

Even without knowing the whole story, I could see where the redirected hatred came from.

-But at the same time, it feels like there is more to it.

.. It feels like someone or something compounded their anger and simply used her as the scapegoat. ..-

In all honesty, the more I thought about it, the more anxious I became about how Bahamut would even react to her return, but at the same time, her return was inevitable. -Maybe I will have to keep her on the low for a while...-

But before I could give it much thought, I put it on hold and glanced over my shoulder to see a massive ancient with sky-blue scales and a mix of white and blue feathers along her crown, back, and wings walking out of the gigantic main doors of the estate. -Her dragon form is quite pretty...-

As if sensing my gaze, she immediately looked over at me and smiled slightly. "I knew you were an odd one, but I'm not sure I could have ever imagined you would look like that."

Turning away from the statue, I started walking out of the garden. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Why, of course! Your scales are unlike anything I have ever seen!

Typically, what people consider 'black scales' is the result of incredibly tarnished bloodlines, but your scales.

. they are more pure than even the finest of gems." As she finally got close, she looked me up and down before shrinking herself down to my size and stretching out her wing.

"It's a pleasure to greet you more formally. Please just call me Poniriá."

Following suit, I outstretched my wing as well, pressing it into hers and matching the pressure from her aura. "You can just call me Vasilias, then."

Her smile momentarily turned sly before she pulled away her wing. "In that case, I won't be polite, Vasilias. Shall we head inside? We have much to discuss."

With a light nod, we quickly made our way into the estate and into the main hall.

Similar to the outside, the estate's interior was incredibly extravagant, with beautiful carvings and statues lining the walls and a colossal chandelier hanging over the main hall, but rather than going down one of the warmly lit and beautifully decorated hallways, we wrapped around the main staircase and eventually squeezed our way into a long stone tunnel leading underground.

-What in the world? Where are we even going? -

The tunnel was cramped, only big enough for me to walk through if I ducked my head down below my shoulders, and was incredibly dark and quiet, but even though you could hear even the faintest of noises, we moved down the tunnel in complete silence.

At least we were until Poniriá spoke. "We are heading to an old meeting area built during the Great War. Although I wouldn't typically worry about things as petty as spies, lowering the odds of coincidence will be of great help."

She spoke as if we were still outside, completely contradicting her actions of trying to be quiet.

But right as I questioned it, her smile faded, being replaced by a look of caution, and she momentarily surrounded us in extremely strong silencing magic and spoke through wind magic.

*vwoom* "This place is connected to a massive maze of tunnels beneath the city, and sound travels very easily through them, but rather than using normal silencing magic, try to taper it and only use it on the edge of your aura. "

-Huh?- She caught me quite off guard. "Why?" -Why not just use normal barriers?-

She quickly glanced back at me with a slightly cold gaze. "To bait a hook. Just make sure you don't let them get away if there is a bite." *vwoom*

She let down the silencing magic the moment she finished, but I didn't have anything to say anyway.

-Is that why she was speaking so loudly? Was she banking that there was a spy in her estate that would hear it?- The next thing I knew, I was questioning just who I was getting involved with, but even if I wanted to turn back, it was too late.

We walked for several more minutes after that, idly talking while winding our way through several tunnels before finally coming into a large room where 6 separate paths met. -Is this the room she was mentioning?-

The room was fairly large, being about 300 meters by 300 meters with a 90-meter ceiling, but the only source of light it had was a single light artifact at its center that was too dim to illuminate much of anything.

But it's not like there was much to illuminate. -This place really is empty...-

The tunnels around us were each several kilometers long, but even though my aura could reach deep into them, I couldn't really detect anything at all.

-With my aura, watching these tunnels is like looking over an ice flat.

There is simply nowhere to hide... I wonder if that's why she wanted to have the meeting down here. ..-

"Hooh..." *crackle* Breaking the eerie silence with a deep breath, Poniriá finally laid down.

"I believe it's about time we get started, shall we?

" Without wasting any time, she quickly pulled out a stack of papers I didn't even notice she was carrying.

"Over the past few days, I have had a group of people gathering intelligence on those supposedly related to the Holy Kingdom in Atlas.

.." Moving the stack of paper in front of her, she split it into separate piles and lined them up next to each other.

But it didn't take long for the stacks of paper to essentially form a wall. -Just how many...-

"Thanks to that kid I used to call my nephew, it didn't take much for us to start getting names, but while many of them had fairly open relations to the church, others had not left Bahamut in hundreds of years.

" In total, there were around 600 separate stacks of paper, each with a different name on it, and labeled by level of suspicion and level of evidence.

-But these all seem to lack evidence...- It didn't take long to piece together what was going on. "So you are unsure who is guilty and who is not..."

"Exactly. Through my independent investigations, countless people popped up as suspicious, but the more I dug, the less evidence I found. It was a very similar case with many of the names my nephew tossed out."

-So she's worried about false positives...- "Hmm... Do you have any ideas?"

She sat in silence for a moment before speaking.

"We have a few options, but if you have any better ideas, please chime in.

" *crinkle* Stacking the papers once again, she set them aside.

"Our first option is to wait. The more time we have to investigate, the more targets we will find, and the fewer innocents we will involve. "

-Time, huh...- It was a troublesome one. -I can't risk missing the opportunity when the executives within the academy meet...-

"Our second option is to take it from the head down; investigate the executives, which you seem to know a few of, and work our way through their subordinates one layer at a time until we clean out everyone down to the grunts."

-That's not bad.. but...- Seeing her fall into silence, I spoke with a bit of hesitancy. "What's the third option?"

After a brief moment of silence, she continued, "I'm not sure how I feel about it just yet.

. but our third option is to push for the settlement of Siratha and try to point those who wish to worship a god to the Ancient Fenrir.

There are many issues with that, though; not only would it require the support of the Elder Hall and the widespread acceptance of breaking the taboo set by Bahamut, but it would also require the Ancient Fenrir to show themselves again.

.. And that's assuming the people would turn their backs on the Aesir that easily. "

My expression quickly darkened. "I think it may be too much to expect to change the minds of those who have already committed to the Aesir by simply opening a new path."

Her expression quickly darkened as well. "So, what do you suggest?"

I paused as I straightened my posture. "If we open a new path, we should show enticement beyond morality to turn around and take it. To do that, we either display strength beyond what the human gods are capable of, or we simply spread the word of what has already happened."

She immediately tilted her head slightly. "I'm not sure I follow."

My smile quickly turned sly. "The recent happenings at the Elder Hall were at the hands of the Ancient Fenrir.

If we tell the world that the Fenrir have already claimed the lives of three human gods and, at the same time, caused a scene here in Atlas and expanded our borders over Siratha, wouldn't those who haven't fully committed completely switch sides? "

Her eyes quickly widened. "Who were the three gods?"

"Magni, Tyr, and Hel. Magni was killed in Siratha, and Tyr and Hel were at the Elder Hall."

Her aura tensed as she lowered her gaze to the ground and fell into thought. "If that's the case.. we have much more to work with than I thought." Before long, a smile had returned to her face. "Let us speak of this in detail. That is a reasonable plan, but it is lacking some.. 'detail'."

Seeing her slightly crazed look through the darkness, I felt a chill pass down my spine. -Why do I suddenly feel like I gave an idea to someone I shouldn't have...-

But the next thing I knew, I was wearing a similar smile, and my thoughts had been flipped on their heads.

-She was the perfect person to discuss this with...-

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