The Martial Unity

That name made Arastia’s eyes darken. “That fucking bastard…”

But her expression crumpled with a hint of regret. “I shouldn’t have talked to Ria then, but…”

She couldn’t not accept Ria’s calls. What if she were in danger?

What if she were in some kind of emergency and needed urgent help?

What if she needed to speak to her aunt right away?

These fears overwhelmed a more prudent approach, making her accept every call from Ria at all times. The unfortunate part was that this happened in a meeting with the President of the entire planet. The man must have sensed that the Blood Empress was talking to someone extremely important to her. Arastia tried playing it cool with a smooth excuse that made a lot of sense.

But the man was not incompetent. He had sensed how much Arastia cared for whoever she was speaking to. He had managed to deduce that this wasn’t simply one of the many millions of nieces she had. This was someone truly special.

“Has he figured out her identity?” Arastia’s tone of voice tightened as she directed a grim look at Sayfeel.

“Not yet, but he managed to track down her purchases at Exottire,” Sage Sayfeel replied with a serious tone of voice. “He sent some spies to track her down and surveil her from a distance. I disposed of them, of course. He has yet to send any more spies.”

“…” Arastia heaved a deep breath, maintaining her composure. She would not be helping Ria by being as erratic as the teenage girl was. Her first instinct was to rush to the man’s office and reverse the blood flow in his body, making him die a painful, agonizing death. But she knew that that would not help.

If he had made use of the state’s surveillance capacity to locate Ria, then there would undoubtedly be logs, documentation, reports, records of executive authority etc, that could pinpoint exactly what the president was trying to do before he died.

Any semi-competent investigative authority would realize that his death was most likely connected to this attempt at investigating the relative of the Blood Humanist Society, and the Jarkarthar Federation would immediately become extremely suspicious of the Blood Humanist Society, and their relations would sour.

She didn’t want that to happen. Even though she had been curt with him the last time, it was only because he had truly asked her to do something ridiculous. She didn’t have to maintain courtesy with someone who had the sheer gall to ask her to summon the Emperor of Water.

She knew they needed to be careful about how they handled this. Ideally, she would have wished that Sayfeel hadn’t killed those spies instead of doing something else, but she knew that he had a no-tolerance policy when it came to people who represented a true threat to Ria. “…For now, keep an eye on the movements of the Jarkarthar Federation,” Arastia remarked seriously. “I will ensure that Ria doesn’t leave the branch office of the Society until the operation arrives. And ensuring that you’re gone will keep her calm. Hopefully she hasn’t changed her mind on that just yet.”

Arastia heaved an exasperated sigh. “I will have to go check up on her.”

She was the President of the Society, she was tremendously busy, but she family to Ria first. She would never forsake her niece for her work. Work that could be handled at another time.

She didn’t even need to spend much effort finding her. Her powerful blood senses allowed her to sense her blood signature in a specific part of the building. She activated the negatron matter in her blood, warping the very fabric of space and time before tearing a hole through reality.

WHOOSH

She teleported away. Sage Sayfeel teleported shortly after she did, going to fulfill his role in investigating what the Jakarthar Federation. WHOOSH

Arastia arrived in front of a door. [Terrace]

She heaved a sigh, unlocking it.

CLACK

She opened the door to find Ria sitting down on the ground with her head buried in her lap, her arms wrapped around her legs. In front of her was Runark, kneeling out of concern. The sky was a brighter red, as the two red-dwarf stars had risen in their harmonic dawn over Planet Sarantel as they did periodically. The air was filled with the sound of the strong winds of the planet, along with the electric whirs of automobiles that floated over ferromagnetic tar laid on the streets.

Arastia could hear a light sniffling sound from a balled-up Ria; the golden hair that she had inherited from her grandfather was messy and unkempt. The flowing bluish silver liquid of the Water Integument exo-Martial suit was distracting. Runark turned towards Arastia with a complicated expression, unsure of how to console his childhood friend.

“Ria.” Arastia knelt beside her, patting her back gently, in a soothing, reassuring manner. She could feel her niece relax slightly under her touch. “Come now, won’t you look at your aunt?”

She raised her head from her lap, glancing at Arastia with red eyes. Tear tracks could be spotted on her cheek. Arastia smiled at her niece. “I sent him away for now. I’m sorry for calling him, alright? I shouldn’t have done that.”

Ria’s eyes lowered. “…No, I overreacted. I shouldn’t have cursed him out like that. I’m sorry for saying everything I said.”

She quickly wiped her tears, cleaning her face hurriedly as if embarrassed by her own tears. “I’m fine,” she muttered, getting up, dusting her exo-Martial suit. “I think I’ll go, though. Thanks for the offer.”

“Don’t be like that, don’t you want to spend some time with your aunt?” Arastia consoled her niece. “Tell you what, we can have a sleepover tonight. The three of us. Just like we used to back in the day when you two were adorable little toddlers.”

Ria’s amber eyes lit up at those words. Arastia referenced an activity from what Ria considered to be the best time in her life, before she had learned of her identity. She nodded slowly.

“Fine.”