Chapter 324: 324. I Arrived Back At Aethelgard Just To Elaris In Disguise (She’s Not Slick)

Mordecai didn’t say anything after hearing all of those statement from Rex.

“Yes,” he said. “I believe it is.”

Rex nodded once and then walked down the hallway that led to the transit point.

“I’ll be back when the expedition is over. Three days, maybe four.”

“Just try not to do anything significant while I’m out in the field.”

“What do you mean by significant?” Mordecai asked.

“If you have to ask,” Rex said, “assume it is and wait.”

He turned the corner and found Lilith was already at the transit point, standing with her hands folded in front of her. Rex already had a bad feeling just seeing her act all weird.

She had also, Rex noticed, prepared a small bag.

“What the fuck is that?” he said.

“Oh… this? It’s a gift,” Lilith said. “For the expedition.”

She held it out with both hands, wearing the expression of someone who had rehearsed this moment but was now realizing that the rehearsal had not fully prepared her for reality. “It’s dried provisions from the fourth district.”

“The kind that don’t spoil in high-humidity cave systems.”

“I asked the monitoring sector kitchen about the specific conditions in the northern canyon, and they told me the humidity range and I—”

She stopped.

“I just thought it would be useful,” she said.

Rex took the bag.

He looked inside it. The provisions were properly packed, labeled by caloric density, and sorted by the order in which they should be consumed relative to exertion level.

“You labeled them,” he said.

“The fourth district kitchen staff helped,” Lilith said quickly. “It wasn’t just me.”

“They did most of it. I only told them what to—”

“Lilith.”

She stopped talking.

“Thank you,” he said.

Lilith’s expression shifted. Her tail moved in a small, involuntary arc that she immediately stilled when she noticed it was happening.

“I also… uhm… wanted to say,” she began, “that regarding last night and the way I handled the situation with Gelion before you gave instructions, and additionally the barrier testing where I may have implied that the experience was unpleasant when, in fact, your progress with the new skill was clearly significant and I should have—”

“You’re doing it again,” Rex said.

“I’m just trying to—”

“You’re listing things so that the apology sounds more complete than it is.”

Lilith closed her mouth.

She opened it again.

“I overstepped,” she said, simply. “With Gelion…”

“I acted before you gave the order because I wanted to, not because the situation required it. And I should not have done that.”

Rex looked at her for a moment.

Then he reached out and flicked her forehead.

The sound was subtle, yet its impact was immediate.

Lilith’s head tilted back, her eyes went wide, and she made a noise that was somewhere between indignant and surprised.

“MASTER—”

“Forgiven,” Rex said. “Now send me up.”

Lilith straightened, rubbing her forehead with one hand and trying to locate her dignity with the other.

“You could have just said forgiven,” she muttered.

“I just did, but after the flick.”

“That’s not how the order is supposed to—” She caught his expression and stopped. “Yes, Master.”

She raised one hand, and the transit working opened around Rex, the specific teleportation channel she used for surface return, calibrated to his resonance signature.

“Three days,” she said.

“Maybe four.”

“I’ll have the monitoring sector review ready when you return.” She paused. “And I’ll try not to do anything significant.”

“If you have to ask—”

“Assume it is and wait,” Lilith said. “Yes, Master… I heard you the first time.”

“Good girl.” He enters the working.

The working closed around him.

The last thing he saw before the transit completed was Lilith still rubbing her forehead with her tail moving in the arc she had stopped trying to control.

…

The rooftop of the Silver Rest exhibited the unique quality of Aethelgard during the last hour before dawn, a quality that was exclusive to that time and nothing else. The harbor lights were still running, but the sky to the east had begun the process of changing its mind about being dark.

Rex stood at the top and looked down at the city.

The transition out of the Lustful Villain’s form was the reverse of the entry: the mask came off first, then the armor’s specific posture, then the second identity’s weight lifting from him the way a coat lifts from shoulders, leaving the familiar presence of Rex Rexilion occupying the available space.

He looked at his room’s window from outside, where the Avatar was visible through the glass in the posture he had designated when he activated it. Looking too much like Rex sitting and thinking.

He reached inward and dismissed it.

The Avatar dissolved in a manner reminiscent of expensive items that had been properly cancelled, resulting in a complete and immediate resolution without any residue. The energy channel that had been sustaining it closed, and the room below became just a room.

Rex looked at the city.

At this hour, Aethelgard was still processing the previous week as cities do when they experience significant events—through the slow work of reconstruction, conversations in the market district, and the unique quality of a population that had endured challenges and was now figuring out what it meant for the future.

He had been in the city for several months, and during that time, he accomplished more than most people would in a decade of diligent effort.

He reflected on the expedition set to begin in just a few hours.

He considered the canyon system and the Key, as well as the second-stratum personnel who were standing down. He contemplated the challenges of navigating the system, locating Aurelia’s group, retrieving what needed to be retrieved, and destroying what needed to be destroyed—all while managing nine other individuals, each with their own capabilities and priorities.

He thought about Nerith’s amber leaves and Iris’s worn expression at the Academy gate and Alexander’s stubbornness in the practice field.

He was still looking at the city when the Foresight updated.

The update did not indicate a threat. Instead, it pinpointed a location two streets from the Silver Rest, where an individual stood in a way that suggested they were attempting to be less visible than they truly were.

Rex looked at the location the Foresight was indicating and ran a quick assessment.

The figure was moving slowly and was wearing the kind of clothes that were designed to blend into the street’s ambient population, the city-neutral colors that the underlayer’s night cloaks used.

“Who the fuck is that…?” Rex tried to focus his gaze on the figure. “Wait a minute…”

The figure turned a corner and walked slowly toward the Silver Rest, as if they had made a decision and were following through with it, but also as if they had changed their mind twice before getting there.

Rex tracked it from the rooftop.

When the figure paused below the inn’s sign and looked both ways with the studied casualness of someone who was trying to look like they were not doing exactly what they were doing, Rex recognized the movement patterns.

“Oh my fucking lust…” Rex smirked. “Perfect fucking time for her to come here…”

He descended from the rooftop without sound, using the wall’s face and the Earthen Authority to navigate the vertical distance, and landed in the shadow of the building’s doorway alcove.

He stayed put.

The person turned to face the door.

Rex stepped out of the alcove.

“What’chu doing there, Elaris?”

The mysterious figure turned out to be Elaris, who was in disguise. She spun around quickly, moving like someone who believed they were alone but realized they weren’t.

The sound that began to form in her throat was silenced before it could escape, as Rex’s hand gently but completely covered the lower half of her face.

“Easy there,” Rex said in a very low voice.

Elaris’s eyes were wide open in a way that showed she was really shocked, and they stayed on Rex’s face with the speed of recognition coming right after the shock.

He took his hand away.

She looked at him like someone who had just been embarrassed, and it only made things worse that the person who had done it was the same person she had come to see.

“How did you know I was here?” she asked, her voice reflecting the register she used when she had accepted that the relevant facts were already established and wanted to understand them rather than dispute them.

“I was on the roof,” Rex said.

She looked up and then back at him.

“Huh…?” She said, “The roof…?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said, which was true in the sense that he hadn’t been attempting to.

Elaris looked at him with a meaningful expression, indicating her thoughts without words, and she chose to keep the door open rather than close it.

Rex noticed that her disguise was excellent. The Nightwing family liked things that were dark and structured, but the clothes she was wearing were the opposite of that.

However, the contrast was intentional. She had genuinely made an effort to appear different.

The clothes were not the type one would choose if they aimed to conceal their identity for practical reasons. Instead, they were the kind of attire someone might select after carefully considering how they wanted to present themselves in the darkness.

“Come inside.” Rex said, “You’re not supposed to be in the street.”

“I was going to knock,” she said.

“I know,” Rex said. “Come inside before someone sees the Nightwing household’s senior member standing outside an inn in the market district at this hour.”

The corner of her mouth moved.

“That would be a situation,” she said.

“Yes,” Rex said, and opened the door.

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