Helare Clearsea walked down white halls filled with mostly decorations and paintings of people with the bluest hair that could not clash or compete with the blue theme of their society.

She found two people she knew among the crowds of unfamiliar bureaucrats rushing this way and that. Sometimes her siblings communicated with each other, and a few of them even seemed close. For example these two. Born to different mothers, but only about a month apart, they'd grown up as almost twins, Larana and Tadaro Clearsea.

Even when they realised they would have to compete for the throne at some point, they remained close confidantes.

Helare admired them before. Now she could read the tenseness with which they leaned into each other to whisper. An elaborate act. They weren't trying to fool the rest of the world. No. They were trying to fool themselves. To convince themselves they weren't monsters who were going to kill each other as surely as they were going to kill the rest of their family. Monsters spawned by a manipulative system.

"Hey prince and princess Clearsea," she said as the two made to circle around her. She got into their way with a big goofy smile. "It's me. Helare. Your sister? Do you remember me?"

Their surprise at seeing her moving around had been far from normal. Indeed many people around the white spire were acting rather strange upon first seeing her, doing wide eyed double takes and shaking their heads in confusion. Her siblings were even more shocked she was talking to them the way she was.

"Princess Helare," her sister, Larana, said with a formal bow. "It has been ages since your hair has frolicked around the spire. What brings you back to the city, if I may ask?"

"To report to the king of course," she replied. "I kept getting notices that I was late with my report, but I've been here three days and still no audience granted."

When she said to report to the king instead of father, Helare saw her sister blink in confusion. Larana froze, and their brother, Tadaro, stepped in to help her.

"You know how busy our father is, little sister. Why don't you wai—"

"Yeah," Helare said. "I do not intend to burden the king. I just wish to speak with any of his lower secretaries like I usually do. I am in a rush, and I cannot wait for the king's limited time. Only, even the lower secretaries are trying to waste my time. I wonder why?"

She saw them tense minutely every time she said the word king. Was it a very big shift from her previous behavior? They must have thought her so easy before, Helare realised. Was there some reason her return was a surprise to them?

"Huh? You just want to meet the lower secretaries?"

"Yeah. I figured the middle and high secretaries were too busy ignoring me to care, sucking up to all my other siblings as they always are. And don't mention the higher secretaries and highest secretary. He isn't even around."

"Actually…" Tadaro's voice trailed off.

That explained the bustle all around the halls, so atypical was it in normal times. Helare had stopped her siblings to try and figure out what was going on, and now she had. The highest secretary, the hero of Primus and the Ma'la, Bodhia Benhaven, had returned from his journey into the multiverse.

That meant whatever meetings had taken him out of the tutorial sector were now done with, and that very soon Primus was going to ascend. More pressure for Helare to hurry and get back to Rafael so they could escape.

The next day, Helare planned to give the written report to any secretary she saw, no matter their rank. She had stayed long enough that more than three quarters of the court knew she was here. There was no need to stay any longer. Her objectives had been met if she said so herself.

She looked down from her window all the way up on the ninetieth floor. Their tower was the longest building Helare had ever seen. At its highest, it breached the clouds. There were whole garrisons camped at its peak though, and two floating islands moored there. There they fought the sky beasts almost daily to protect the whole city. The beasts were blindly lured to those islands. Like moths to a flame. There was probably some kind of magical reason for that, but it had perhaps gotten buried with the race of fliers.

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And then the city which Helare was looking over now. It was like ant watching, is what it was. But she knew the city's layout well, very well even, so she could see the quarter in which the temples resided, she could see the merchant district, the inner circle, the noble district. She could see the foundations being set for this year's blue moon festival.

She wanted to come here with Rafe for that festival. To show him that Primus, and by extension the Ma'la, her people, were not all about killing other Elemenoids with flimsy justifications. They were also fun people, happy people, people who deserved peace and cherished it too.

Under the right conditions, the Ma'la could be happy as well. Innocent.

She sighed in regret. She would probably not be seeing this city again. It was such a shame. At the height of her misery, escaping the palace and going down there had always kept her entertained and fulfilled her need for community. Of course she always dyed her hair a dirtier blue or wore a hood as a rule. No one had to know she was a noble lady of any sort.

Maybe that was why the trips had ended up being fun. Because she was not a noble. When she went to Rafe's world, her noble status would be no more. Maybe that was why she was looking forward to it so. Yeah that was definitely why she was looking forward to it.

For now, she had to return to the Deufont Dungeon. Which meant she had to find any secretary she could and hand them her report.

There was a man looking down at her when she turned.

Helare startled and almost fell out of her body length window, but he caught her. He had short cropped aquamarine hair and aquamarine eyes. His body was more built than most Ma'la or indeed Elemenoids, and he kept a sword on him at all times, and he was holding her by the waist and smirking down at her knowingly.

Helare found her balance and slipped out of his arms as fast as she could. That smirk told her something. Did he perhaps know of her long term crush? It had been stupid, Helare admitted, having a crush on her only friend's father. What was even more stupid, was how this man had taken advantage of her because of it.

Helare felt a hint of revulsion towards her old self, but also towards this youthful fossil. Turned away from him as she was, Helare used every ounce of coordination she had to think of a way out of talking to this man.

"Oh, highest secretary," she said in a rush. She realised the blood had flowed to her face again, and it was burning up, just like it did whenever she was around Rafe these days. But it was different this time. This time she was blushing in remembrance of all the times she had been weak in front of this man. How embarrassing that felt, now, how reprehensible. "I was looking for someone to hand this too anyway."

The man's charming smile froze on his face, and he reached out and grabbed the envelope she was trying to force into his hands. He opened it and read through it. Then he frowned at her.

"This report is supposed to be given to his Majesty," the man told her.

Helare snorted. "What? No. It is clearly addressed to the secretariat, which you head. I was just going to give it to the lower secretaries, but since the highest secretary appeared in front of me, well." She shrugged, ending her explanation.

"Hmm," the highest secretary said. "So the current instance is likely to last longer and there are portals opening to other worlds. There is even an out worlder in your camp. A blacksmith, hmm? Maybe I ought to give your little camp a visit."

"Yeah?" Helare asked, though she cared not for the answer. "Listen uncle, I have delivered my report now. I guess I don't have much more to do here, so I'll be heading back to the dungeon."

She already had a knapsack packed full of a few things she would have missed if she'd left them in her room on Primus. Sentimental value was all most of these things had, but she was not leaving them here if it killed her.

"Why are you in such a rush?" the hero asked. "Were you unaware I had returned?"

She wondered why he'd thought to ask such a question. Maybe he had an overinflated ego, which she had been unable to see all this time because she was so busy secretly mooning over him, just like half the noble female population who weren't married. Even a few who were. Even more than a few males.

It was embarrassing to think of now.

"No, I found out yesterday about your return," she said. "And that's why I thought I ought to return to my duties too, and finish them as soon as I can. Your safe and fast return inspired me."

"Is that so?" the man said with a smug smile, his confidence returning full tilt. "There is no need to push yourself though. I have some things I gained in my travels around the multiverse. I will be presenting them to the court today. Why don't you come?"

Helare's eyes started to flit from one corner of the room to another. She had no idea what the bastard wanted to hear, but she wanted nothing to do with the court anymore.

"I will send your guards back to the dungeon though. They are not needed here. After all, I will be personally escorting you back to the dungeon myself in a few days. After we are both done meeting his Majesty."

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