Chapter LXXIV: Lounging

A loud slurp echoes throughout a silent room as a bathrobe clad Reyvin considers the scroll in his hand, his other currently occupied by a mug of some thoroughly overpriced coffee "Quieter than usual huh?" He mutters.

"That is the thing Boss, they were quiet even before this." A worried Davos points out "Someone kept attacking them the moment they left their little hidey hole but recently they just stopped moving whatsoever. Even the constant complaints sent to the Blue Palace have ceased."

"I will have to ask Shalazar to take a closer look then." Reyvin notes "I don't know why exactly he chose to butcher them in the first place but honestly I rather prefer not knowing how his mind works."

"The mad little lizard was the one doing it?" Davos gawks for a moment but recovers swiftly "I guess he must have seen something then. What do you want us to do?"

Reyvin ponders the question for a moment "Send only our best to observe from a distance. Their recent bout of helplessness may have provoked their superiors and I don't want to waste people unnecessarily if they decided to change tactics."

His right hand hesitates for a moment "Should I go myself?"

"No." Reyvin shakes his head "I need you to oversee our whole operation and wasting your time on scouting duty will just get Nightshade pissed at the both of us."

Davos shudders and gulps in fear "Yeah... Best not do that then."

Reyvin swings his hand, a bit of illusion magic producing the sound of a cracking whip.

The older Dunmer grumbles to himself and decides to shift topics "Right then, I will send Hound and Jackal over and have them outfitted with recall scrolls."

Reyvin nods "Anything else?"

"Nothing from my end." Davos shakes his head.

"Mhm." His lord hums "One last thing."

"Yeah?"

"You can reduce Terryn's oversight." Reyvin decides after a moment's pause "I think I may have earned his loyalty but I am not fully confident yet. The old fucker is hard to read even to me."

"You sure you don't want me to double the oversight then?" Davos quirks an eyebrow "He might be planning to woo you into a false sense of security before trying to escape or something."

"He seemed genuine, even to my blessing." Reyvin explains with a wave of his hand "If he really is proficient enough to go even around that then good on him, otherwise I don't want to waste my people's time on what is obviously paranoia." He pauses "You know what? I will leave it under your discretion, I can't be asked to micromanage every potential issue."

"Sure thing Boss." Davos nods easily "You focus on the Daedra and the dragons and I will make sure no one does anything stupid."

"Good." Reyvin smirks slightly "Maybe you will finally learn to show some initiative then."

Davos rolls his eyes but says nothing.

"You can go if you want." Reyvin shoos him away "I know the ball and chain gets cranky when you aren't nearby."

The older elf snorts "You just have to get the last hit in, eh?" He shakes his head and goes to leave, waving his hand as he did "See you later Boss."

Lightly chuckling, Reyvin grabs a report from a nearby table and begins to read through it.

The population of Silruhn Fell had effectively exploded after the assault on Windhelm and the massive intake was finally starting to slow down, whoever had enough good sense to seek his protection had already done so and any further immigration had slowed down to a trickle.

The not so silent grumbling of some of the Jarls and more influential Thanes had him subtly retract his offer toward the Nords and focus fully on attracting elves instead. Not that he minded terribly, tolerant as he was by his very nature he knew that integrating differing cultures was a pain in the ass, especially when he was not the closest thing to a living saint to those getting integrated.

Which then naturally slowed down the trickle even further.

Good, he really preferred not having to make the buildings to house the new residents with magic, excluding the necessary enchanted components of course. The burgeoning builder's guild in the city needed the business and him solving everyone's problems by waving his hands and conjuring miracles a stable society did not make.

The issue of education was also something that cropped up recently.

With the intake of citizens came the increase in the number of children of all ages, and while he could have just lave things as they were and let the parents be the ones to take care of it (both the expense and the educating itself) he was still once a man of a more civilized society and considered the lack of opportunity the children were cursed with a travesty.

The obvious perpetuation of disparity between the children of the wealthy and those less fortunate, orphans especially, was another rather hefty nail in that particular coffin.

Oh sure, he had already ensured that orphans were well and truly taken care of in his domain but it was generally expected that they would seek their own opportunities when the time came... Which was just unacceptable in his eyes. And thus came the idea to form a school, fully funded by the house itself of course, those taxes had to go somewhere and he certainly had no real use for the relatively paltry amounts of money he gained from them.

There were only around three hundred or so children at the moment, what with elves being distinctly less fertile than humans and all, but he was not satisfied with merely doing a good enough job so a full complex would be constructed, in the relative proximity to the safety of the tower as well and with those knowledgeable in the relevant fields being hired and trained up in advance.

He was not fooling himself for a moment here, the comparatively immense safety and prosperity provided to his people by his protection and oversight would in time lead to an inevitably massive population boom.

This was especially true in the case of the Falmer, who were to put it bluntly, fucking like rabbits.

Whether it was a psychological thing with their subconscious needs to repopulate dominating their minds or something greater than that mattered very little, all he needed to understand was that there would be a lot of albino-looking elven kids running about in the coming years.

Now if a bunch of said kids got interested in the totally optional and not at all peer pressure required classes that were to be offered by some of his more diligent tower apprentices and he ended up getting a bunch of magi out of the deal then that was a total accident and not the end goal of this whole endeavor.

He could practically feel Scorch's doubt filled stare searing into the back of his head.

Any further pondering was stopped by the barely perceptible noise of a door opening and swiftly closing a moment later, revealing a rather unusually red-skinned Minthara who too was clad in a bathrobe as opulent as his own, the only true difference between them being the coloring with Reyvin wearing his usual black and purple and Minthara clad in red and black.

"Finally done?" Reyvin quirks an amused eyebrow.

The pointed tips of her ears redden slightly "I um, may or may not have fallen asleep while floating?" She mutters sheepishly, her right hand tugging at the tip of her hair nervously.

"Good thing you didn't drown then." Reyvin snorts.

"I am not that bad" She crosses her arms and pouts.

His eyebrow raises further.

She holds back a wince, her voice suddenly a lot less certain "I am not!"

"Uh huh." Reyvin deadpans and twitches his head to the right "Sit down and relax, I am just fucking with you."

Her pout doesn't lessen but she does make her way across the room and immediately sinks into the opposite corner of the large sofa, a contented groan leaving her as she barely kept herself from falling asleep again.

"Still worn out?" Reyvin asks, mug of coffee once more in hand but now accompanied with another.

Her hand whips out as she grabs the drink and downs it immediately, uncaring for the searing heat of it as she was thoroughly immune to burns of such a level by this point. She sighs and straightens her back "I am feeling fine physically, my mind is a whole another story though."

"You could always just go to sleep?" He points out "Not like we have anything important to discuss."

"Yeah but I want to spend some time like this." She says, a bit more quietly than usual.

"My oh my, Minthara." Reyvin's voice takes on his usual irritating drawl when he decides to annoy someone "I am flattered, truly!"

Her face reddens "Shut up." She demands quietly "Weren't you the one to invite me in the first place?"

"But of course." He smirks "What with you being technically homeless and all."

Her eye twitches and she sighs "Divines damn it Reyvin."

He just laughs.

"You know, the way you act really makes me doubt myself." She mumbles after a few quiet moments "You always joke around, never stating anything outright." She directs a light glare his way "And don't even pretend you don't know what I am talking about."

He huffs amusedly, only for his expression to sober a moment later "That is because I myself am unsure of what I want from all this." He says after a brief consideration, his sudden openness surprising her thoroughly "I am not against the idea... merely paralyzed by what might be."

A part of her wants to rejoice at the tiny 'victory' but a larger one is frustrated and she says as much "You need to stop living in the future and start living in the now, Reyvin."

"Oh?" He looks at her with a sudden spike of annoyance he could not quite place the source of "And should I simply rush into everything like an idiot then? Trusting that everything will go well?"

She rolls her eyes "No, of course not. Just don't..." She pauses "Don't forget to live for the sake of surviving, ok? You helped me pull my head out of my ass but you seem to have fallen into the same trap."

He stares at her briefly, before huffing in annoyance and muttering something about 'Bullshit perceptive demigods.' Unwilling to admit to himself or her how moved he was by the sincerity of her expression.

Minthara allows herself a hint of smugness then, smirking in victory.

"Yeah, yeah." Reyvin rolls his eyes "Miss 'I eat souls' has gained a bit of wit, I get it."

"Jealously is not a good look on you." She fires back immediately.

Now it is his turn to have his eye twitch "Touche." He admits grudgingly.

"Heh." She smirks "Now if only you would actually listen to what I said instead of deflecting that would be great."

He gives her a dry, if intrigued look at that "Stop stealing my job."

"No." Her smirk widens "Stop being stubborn."

His lips thin as he stares at her for a long while, before sighing and releasing a long groan "Fineee."

"That is what I thought." She raises her nose, and spreads her arms "Now hug."

"Whut?" He blinks.

"Your stubbornness has hurt my feelings and I demand a hug." She reiterates, looking at him expectantly.

"Who are you and what have you done with Minthara?" He narrows his eyes, this was way bolder she usually is. Not that he minded terribly.

"I am me, and I am sick of your shit." She grins, thanking the gods she was able to get rid of the smell of the spirit she drank before coming in.

"Alright then." He chuckles "As you wish" And being a petty little shit he teleports behind her, hugging her from behind and making her squawk in surprise.

Stopping herself from jumping up on reflex she leans into it "Why do you keep doing this?" She whines. Can he not tease her for one bloody moment?

"Because your reactions are adorable." He smirks and pats her head.

Something she enjoyed much more than she cared to admit.

He waits just a moment for her to relax before adding "Oh and because you secretly enjoy it" without inflection, his tone that of a man talking of the weather.

Minthara's mouth clamps shut as she registers his words, before her whole face turns red and she grabs a nearby pillow and immediately buries her face in it.

A muffled whine of shame escapes the pillow and Reyvin's face twists into a smug grin "Heh."

He doesn't even dodge as the pillow smashes into his head.

Not a very wise decision, he noted as his head was slammed against the wall due to the force.

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(The interest on the loan shall only be revealed after the deal is signed, we of the house do not appreciate a lack of decisiveness)

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