Chapter 464: Next Morning

The next morning, Damon discovered that small problems could also be irritating.

The specific problem was approximately the size of his hand and was sitting on top of his shirt.

He stared at the animal.

It looked like some kind of gray lizard, with two small membranes on its back and eyes that were far too round for its head.

The lizard stared back.

"Move."

It did not move.

Damon reached out his hand.

The animal spread the membranes and made a low sound.

"You’re not scary."

The sound grew louder.

"Still not."

The door opened.

Jian Li entered carrying some clean clothes and stopped when she saw the scene.

"Are you arguing with a lizard?"

"It took my shirt."

"It’s a stone drake."

"Does that change anything?"

"It’s probably looking for warmth."

Damon looked at the window.

"The sun is right there."

"Maybe it prefers you."

"That’s its problem."

Jian Li placed the clothes on the chair.

"Why don’t you get another shirt?"

"Because that one is mine."

She remained silent for a few seconds.

"You really are getting better."

Damon narrowed his eyes.

"Don’t use that phrase."

Jian Li smiled and left.

Five minutes later, Damon arrived at the dining hall wearing another shirt.

The drake won.

He did not comment.

Ester and Mu Qing left for Eir’s territory shortly after dawn.

Damon accompanied the two of them to the Transfer room.

"If anything changes, send a message."

Ester adjusted the bag containing her instruments.

"You know I know how to use a tablet."

"I’m reminding you."

"You’re trying to find an excuse to go."

"No."

Mu Qing looked at him.

"You are."

Damon pointed.

"You’re usually nicer."

"Usually you’re not this transparent."

Ester smiled.

"We’ll be back tomorrow."

"Neria is fine?"

"According to this morning’s message, yes. She walked sixty-two steps."

Damon frowned.

"How many were authorized?"

"Fifty."

"She’s escalating."

"I know."

Mu Qing asked:

"You actually count?"

"I do now."

Ester activated Transfer.

Before disappearing, she looked at Damon.

"Rest."

"I’m practically recovered."

The light surrounded the two of them.

The last thing he heard was:

"Practically."

Damon was left alone in the room.

"That was unnecessary."

The black tablet on the table vibrated.

A short message appeared.

I AGREE WITH HER.

Damon stared.

"Eir?"

Another message appeared.

LIORA.

"Widespread betrayal."

No response came.

Probably because Liora was busy eating something.

Orven and Saela would remain in Mirath for another three days.

During that time, the research on Arvell progressed slowly but consistently.

No secret map appeared.

No document said where the inhabitants were now.

There was no convenient list of living descendants waiting to be found.

Damon considered all of that a good sign.

On the second day, he found Orven surrounded by piles of trade records.

"You’re starting to look like Aria."

The historian looked up.

"Is that a compliment?"

"I’m not sure."

Aria, seated on the other side of the table, replied:

"It is."

Damon ignored her.

"Did you find anything new?"

Orven pushed three documents toward him.

"Arvell maintained trade relations with different communities over the centuries. That makes migration difficult to trace through names."

"Because they changed names?"

"Because they stopped using administrative names."

Damon sat down.

"Explain."

Saela pulled a chair closer.

"When a community begins avoiding formal records, it tends to trade through intermediaries. Arvell seems to have done that progressively."

"Because they were afraid of the Order?"

"Maybe initially," Orven replied. "But later it became part of their culture."

Aria showed him a sequence of symbols.

The three curved lines appeared repeatedly.

Not as a biological mark.

As a signature.

On boxes.

Contracts.

Transportation records.

"So they started using the symbol as identification," Damon said.

"Yes."

"For how long?"

"Almost three hundred years."

Damon looked at the last document.

The date was from fifty-eight years ago.

"That’s after Arvell disappeared."

"Exactly."

Aurelia entered the room at that moment.

"Then the community didn’t disappear."

Orven nodded.

"Administratively, yes. Commercially, no."

Damon understood.

"They continued existing without saying where."

"That’s what it looks like."

Aria opened a map.

Damon looked immediately.

She raised one hand.

"Contextual."

"I’m watching."

The map showed small towns west of Mirath.

There was no direct line.

Only points where goods associated with the symbol had appeared.

"All these places received products?" Damon asked.

"Yes."

"Recently?"

"Not very. The most recent confirmed record is from forty-one years ago."

"Then it doesn’t help much."

Saela disagreed.

"It helps in one way."

She pointed at the shipped items.

Medicine for thermal regulation.

Concentrated animal blood.

Preparations for spiritual absorption.

Compounds intended for organisms with variable metabolism.

"These products still appear today," she said.

"Without the symbol."

"Yes."

Damon became serious.

"Then someone may still be producing them."

"Maybe."

"Or other people copied them."

"Also possible."

He looked at Aria.

"Possibly."

She smiled.

"I’m proud."

"Don’t start."

Orven separated a small sheet.

"There’s something else."

Damon sighed.

"Naturally."

"Arvell used a phrase in transactions with outsiders."

"A password?"

"More like a guarantee."

Orven read:

"We don’t ask what someone should be. We ask what they can sustain."

Aurelia stopped.

So did Damon.

That was very close to what Eir had shown.

Not restoration.

Not an ideal model.

Capacity.

Compatibility.

"Is it old?" he asked.

"Almost two hundred years."

Aria looked at Damon.

"That’s quite specific."

"Yes."

"Want to go now?"

"No."

She looked surprised.

"Not even a little?"

"I want to."

"But you’re not going."

"Not yet."

Saela watched the exchange.

"That must take effort."

"You have no idea."

That same day, Ester sent a message from the Valley.

Neria had authorized the removal of the first filaments without function.

Seven small structures were removed.

None were part of the mechanisms that allowed her to remain away from Eir.

No memories were affected.

No circulatory function worsened.

Damon read everything carefully.

The final line had been written by Ester.

SHE TRIED TO WALK RIGHT AFTERWARD.

He replied:

HOW MANY STEPS?

The answer took a while.

NONE. I MADE HER LIE DOWN.

Damon smiled.

Then another message appeared.

SHE’S COMPLAINING ABOUT YOU TOO.

WHY?

The response came from Neria.

YOU SET A PRECEDENT. NOW SHE THINKS EVERYONE IGNORES MEDICAL ORDERS.

Damon stared.

Then wrote:

THAT’S SLANDER.

Liora replied:

IT’S TRUE.

He placed the tablet on the table.

"This family is becoming impossible."

Jian Yue, who was training nearby, asked:

"Whose family?"

"The forest’s."

She decided not to ask.

It was a good decision.

At the end of the afternoon, Ester sent another report.

This time more technical.

Neria’s modifications could be divided into four groups.

The first were completely artificial and connected to Serik’s recording systems. They would be removed.

The second were medical alterations necessary to maintain damaged tissue during the first years of captivity. Some could gradually be replaced by natural processes.

The third increased Neria’s ability to remain away from Eir.

She wanted to keep them.

And the fourth group was still unknown.

Not because no one understood their function.

But because some alterations had been incorporated by the body itself over more than a century.

Removing them no longer simply meant "removing Serik."

It meant altering the organism Neria had become.

Damon read that part more slowly.

Aurelia was beside him.

"That was inevitable."

"I know."

"She spent more time modified than she lived in her original state."

"Then original stops being a useful definition."

"In part."

Damon handed her the tablet.

"Does she know?"

"Yes."

"Eir?"

"Also."

"How did she react?"

Aurelia read the response sent by Ester.

"She said: ’Neria chooses.’"

Damon smiled.

"She really learned."

"Yes."

Aurelia handed the tablet back.

"And you?"

"Me what?"

"You’re doing the same thing."

Damon remained silent.

She pointed at his chest.

"You’re not trying to discover which state would be your true body."

"Because there probably isn’t a simple answer."

"Exactly."

"Don’t turn this into a lesson."

"I wasn’t."

"It sounded like one."

She smiled.

Saela finished analyzing the Order’s marks the next day.

The result was better than they expected.

The third layer could be removed without destroying the original authentication functions.

It would not be easy in every agent, because some marks had been updated several times, but it would not be necessary to rip entire structures out or replace everything at once.

Damon found Saela preparing the report.

"How many people does this affect?"

"Thousands."

"Then it’ll take a while."

"Months, if there’s cooperation."

"And if there isn’t?"

"Years."

Damon nodded.

"Administrative."

"You say that like it’s a category of disaster."

"It is."

Saela continued writing.

"Varos will like this."

"If he still has the authority to like anything."

"Even suspended, he’s still participating in the audit."

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"Because he was the one who presented the evidence."

"That sounds sensible."

"Sometimes institutions do sensible things."

"Don’t exaggerate."

She smiled.

"You really hate organizations."

"Large organizations."

"Mirath is growing."

Damon fell silent.

Saela looked at him.

"Did I just discover a new fear?"

"No."

"Your face."

He pointed at her.

"You’ve spent too much time with us."

Orven found Damon at the end of the afternoon.

The historian was carrying only one sheet.

That was suspicious.

"You look pleased."

"I found the most recent record directly associated with Arvell."

Damon became attentive.

"How recent?"

"Twenty-six years."

"That’s much more recent."

"Yes."

"Location?"

"No."

Damon relaxed a little.

"Then what is it?"

"A letter."

"From whom?"

"We don’t know."

Orven handed it over.

The letter had been sent to an old merchant who traded rare medicines in the west.

It did not mention Arvell.

It did not mention lineage.

But it bore the three curved lines.

And contained few words.

Damon read.

DO NOT LOOK FOR US.

Below:

IF WE NEED TO BE FOUND, WE WILL KNOW HOW TO BE SEEN.

He stared.

Aria approached from behind.

"That seems definitive."

Damon handed the sheet back.

"Yes."

Orven studied his expression.

"You’re disappointed."

"A little."

"Will you respect it?"

"Yes."

Aria did not ask.

Damon looked at the sentence again.

It was possible those people really were descendants of Maerin.

It was also possible they were not.

But whoever had written that had made a clear decision.

Do not look for us.

Damon knew far too well what happened when someone decided that knowledge, curiosity, or necessity justified crossing boundaries.

"Keep it."

Aria nodded.

"No map?"

"No map."

"No trying to reconstruct the route?"

"No."

Orven looked satisfied.

"That’s what I expected."

Damon looked at him.

"Were you testing me?"

"No."

"Your face."

Aria started laughing.

"Now everyone uses it."

"I created a problem."

That night, Damon returned to the courtyard with his sword.

Ester was still in the Valley.

That did not mean her rules had disappeared.

Unfortunately.

He began with simple movements.

His shoulder was better.

His ribs barely bothered him.

On the fourth sequence, the connection near his heart warmed.

An alternative appeared.

Damon felt it.

He did not use it.

He continued along the usual path.

No pain.

The sensation disappeared.

On the fifth sequence, nothing happened.

On the sixth, nothing either.

He stopped.

It responded to necessity.

Not desire.

Interesting.

Jian Yue appeared behind him.

"You’re smiling."

"No."

"You are."

"A little."

"Did you figure something out?"

Damon sheathed the sword.

"My body isn’t trying to replace what works."

"That’s good."

"Yes."

"Arvell?"

"We found a letter."

"And?"

"They don’t want to be found."

Jian Yue remained silent.

"You’re going to respect that."

"Yes."

"Even though you want to go."

"Yes."

She looked at him for a few seconds.

Damon already knew.

"Don’t say it."

"You’ve matured."

He closed his eyes.

"I warned you that phrase was banned."

Jian Yue started laughing.

Damon walked past her toward the corridor.

Behind him, he heard:

"Where are you going?"

"To eat."

"And then?"

"Sleep."

"Without investigating anything?"

He kept walking.

"Not today."

There was no frustration in the answer.

Curiosity, yes.

Arvell continued to exist somewhere — as memory, community, or descendants.

Maybe one day they would choose to appear.

Maybe not.

Damon could finally accept both possibilities.

Not every closed door needed to be opened.

Some were closed because someone on the other side had chosen it that way.

And he knew better than most the value of that choice.