The Primal Hunter

Meira thought it was overdoing it… but Izil and Irin had both insisted this was necessary. Even Viridia had come by to insist that if Meira really wanted to break out of her shell and completely throw away all the burdens of who she had once been, she had to embrace her new identity fully. Teacher hadn’t seemed to care either way but had simply said:

“What you choose to do has nothing to do with me. You are now my Chosen, that is true, but I have no intent on limiting what you do, even if your actions are done through taking advantage of my position. If you feel that visiting or even taking charge of your old clan is what’s best, just go do that. No one will oppose you, and if they do, just tell me, alright? Can’t have any unnecessary conflicts delay you from fixing your personal issues and returning to doing alchemy. Ah, just don’t make any promises that I will do something or show up somewhere… because I won’t.”

While it didn’t sound like Teacher was overly supportive, Meira knew he cared. She even knew that should she ask him to come with her to visit her clan, he would. Not as himself but disguised as someone else to not attract unneeded attention, but he would come. She wouldn’t ask him, though. This was something she had to do without him… even if she did borrow his name and influence.

The problem was just that Meira had no idea how she would go about visiting. Should she disguise herself and go? No, that wouldn’t work, as she wanted to actually help her family there, and her only way to do that was to leverage her position somehow. She had considered for a long time how to do that, as Irin had made a suggestion… why didn’t she just take it over? Why didn’t she just declare that the entire Willowood Clan now belonged to her? No one would oppose that. Who would want to argue with the Chosen of the Grand Elder over some random small elven mining clan that only had a few C-grades in it? It was the type of faction where even if some A-grade from the Order destroyed it on accident, he wouldn’t even have to file any paperwork or be questioned for not reporting what had happened. In the grand scheme of things, the Willowood clan was that insignificant.

After some deliberation, Meira decided that was what she wanted to do. She would take over the clan and have that work as a shield of sorts. While no member of the Order would get in trouble for destroying a random C-grade clan, they would certainly want to avoid messing with somewhere of interest to the Chosen of the Grand Elder.

This was when the next problem arose. How exactly would Meira take it over? As in, what practical steps would she take? Well, luckily, she had people around her with ideas. People who knew far more than her and were more than willing to help. Some of them because they were her friends, but many because – as Izil put it – they wanted to earn her favor, as she had the ear of the Grand Elder. Some even wanted favor directly with Meira as they concluded she would become a far more influential figure in the future, even without relying on others.

It did still feel odd that people wanted her favor and not just the favor of others through her. But she wasn’t going to say no to help when offered.

So, in the end, Meira had just listened to what the people around her recommended as they laid a plan to claim the Willowood Clan for herself.

During this, Viridia had sent someone to help her. It was an A-grade peak administrator who worked closely with the Hall Master, sent solely to plan Meira’s trip to her old clan. It was her idea to get a newly evolved S-grade Malefic Dragonkin to come along to truly communicate the meaning of this visit, and it was her idea to make a spectacle of it all.

In her words, Meira needed an entrance worthy of the Grand Elder’s Chosen. She couldn’t just be teleported there with a few guards, or worse, with just some of her close personal friends. No, they needed to go all-out, especially considering this was her first public action as a Chosen. After all, she didn’t have some grand reveal, so many would also view this as her first public appearance.

Meira even had to step in and reduce some of the spectacles… having a bunch of dragons circling the platform combined with an army of more than ten thousand to flank her just seemed like too much, and it was only through struggle she managed to get this army reduced to “just” a few hundred enforcers. It was a compromise of having more powerful but fewer people to still show roughly the same level of prestige.

When the time came for the actual ceremony, Meira simply walked out of the massive gate as she tried to remember all the tips she had been given. She tried to remember how Jake had acted during his own Chosen ceremony, and while this was far more private and not a grand announcement in front of the whole Order, she still didn’t want to embarrass her Teacher.

Holding her head high and spreading her presence, she hoped it would work. Meira knew that her aura was far from Jake’s, but based on the reactions of the crowd, it apparently still seemed intimidating. She knew a big reason for this was her Blessing getting mixed in there, but things were still better than she had expected. Oh, it definitely also helped she was a high elf now.

Glancing down toward the crowd, she tried to get a sense of how many people there were in her former clan. If she had to do a rough estimate, she would say it was about a million elves total, with nearly every single one of them gathered below. It was a testament to just how big the mine was to keep them all employed… but she also remembered how her grandfather had talked about the clan once being tens of times larger.

However, more than counting her audience, she looked around for a few specific people. Meira had already made sure they were still around before coming, and after looking for a few seconds, still just standing there while radiating her presence, she saw them.

She saw her two sisters and one of her brothers – the youngest and one of the twins. She didn’t see her four other half-brothers anywhere. They were brothers from her father’s first and second wives, whom Meira had rarely interacted with, and she honestly didn’t care much for them. They were all older than herself by quite a few years, and even before everything had happened, they were already very much living their own lives as miners and builders, a Path her youngest brother also wanted to follow.

“One of the things my former master made clear from the beginning was that he didn’t want any slaves. He would still accept people working for him, but never as slaves. That is one of the reasons he freed me… and today, I will do the same. For my entire life, the Willowood has been a clan that has lived in slavery in all but name. No contract may bind you, but your fates are not yours to control. Today, that changes. Call it my final gift to the Willowood tribe that put me into this world. You may not have my lucky encounter or my opportunities… but I can at least give you all a bit of hope for a better future.”

Silence followed as no one did or said anything. Meira looked over at the dragonkin and gave him a nod, the man smiling in return.

The Malefic Dragonkin once more stepped forth, his voice booming. “Details as to how these desired changes of Mistress Dawnleaf will be implemented shall follow in the coming days. Rejoice, for not only was her fate changed due to her fortunate encounter… but so has all of yours.”

The voice of the dragonkin faded as Meira hoped she had done well with her speech. She had stuck mostly to the script, so it would be okay. She also felt incredibly nervous about what was coming next. It was the thing she had both dreaded and looked forward to the most:

Her family reunion.

Duskleaf smiled as he watched Meira perform the speech she had spent so long preparing. She had done well, and even if she was clearly nervous, no one seemed to notice, and those who did wouldn’t bring it up.

Truthfully, he did not have a smidgen of care for this small elven clan. They were one small clan of millions on the Great Planet alone, with truly nothing of interest about them… except for the fact that Meira had come from there. Which was enough to at least make Duskleaf a little interested. Not because he believed the place had something unique from it but because he believed understanding the environment she grew up in could help him understand her better. Natural affinities and such were partly environmentally based, after all.

He also thought that going to her old clan would be healthy for Meira. It would allow her to fully close a chapter of her life and potentially begin a new one. After she had begun all this planning to go visit, her alchemy had suffered as her mind was elsewhere, and it would be good for her to get everything out of her system.

Duskleaf did hope Meira would not feel too responsible for the clan. That could become a chain that weighed her down, after all. While she had promised she didn’t want to actually rule the clan, there was always a chance, however slight. So many young geniuses had been lost to meaningless responsibilities or drowned in useless emotions toward families or clans that had ultimately only served as distractions on their true Path.

He did believe she could go far, if not all the way. Sure, before her latest evolution, her class and profession had been, to put it nicely, garbage. But by the time she reached just B-grade, none of that would really matter anymore. Much less in A-grade or beyond. No, the biggest threat to Meira was getting distracted and no longer feeling the rush of inner motivation she currently had.

Alas, only time would tell if reuniting with her family would become a burden that would drag her down and hurt her Path… or another source of motivation to keep her going. At this point, it could be either, and all Duskleaf could really do was guide her as best he could, whatever happened.

For now, he would just be happy for her and sincerely hoped that this reunion could bring her some genuine happiness. Because a happy alchemist was definitely better than a sad one.

Unless they worked with curses.

Well, that, or certain poisons.

Or some elixirs… and flasks… also rituals… formations too… and, well, a few more things here and there…

Anyway, in conclusion, Duskleaf just preferred that Meira would have a happy reunion.

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