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Anaire left the palace as soon as the breakfast was over in the company of a pair of royal guards. She was still fuming about the behavior of her brother. She knew it was a little unfair and she couldn’t quite explain why it vexed her so much, but the fact remained. Part of it was that she had placed her brother on a pedestal. He’d always been a shining example of what a proper elven man should be for her. That was why she was so disappointed when he did something she considered to be beneath him. She wasn’t as judgy when her other siblings did something similar, Divinities only knew what Finuwar got up to, and what Cendirion had done wasn’t exactly wrong. It was something that was actually encouraged during the festival of life, although not by everyone. She just thought he was better than that.

They reached the inn while she was still lost in thought and she would’ve walked past it if she had not been reminded by one of the guards. As she entered the inn, she noted that it was a rather cozy one. She didn’t notice anyone wearing the Academy uniform in the common area, which made sense as they’d likely use normal clothing to blend in, so she approached the innkeeper. The surprisingly chubby elven woman faced her with a practiced smile, clearly not recognizing her. “Greetings! Welcome to the Faerie Ring! How can I help you this fine morning?”

"I have a message I need to deliver to some of your patrons," Anaire announced.

“Aah. And which guests would you be referring to? You’ll understand that I can’t confirm or deny the presence of any person without their permission of course? And the guests might not have registered with their real names.” The innkeeper explained carefully. A certain amount of discretion was expected at fine inns like this.

“Naturally. The group I’m looking for is made up of a group of students from the Academy. They likely have at least one teacher with them.” Anaire explained patiently. Sending the princess on these kinds of errands was a nice touch from her mother. It was a gesture of good will, but not one that was too blatant since the royal family’s position was a little different in the elven court. It might have seemed excessive in many other countries, but here it was rather standard as the royal family had to earn any positions they wanted to fill.

“You’re in luck.” The innkeeper looked towards the edge of the dining room. “I believe two of the people you’re looking for are sitting at that table.” She pointed towards a table near the corner where two young people were sitting.

“My thanks for your help.” Anaire slid a coin over the counter to the innkeeper. The coin wasn’t valuable enough to be a bribe, as it was only meant as a token of appreciation. The innkeeper snagged it up anyway, and with speed only innkeepers, barkeeps, and beggars could display.

She noted that the two sitting at the table were a slightly odd pair. One was a Dark Elf, a relatively common sight in Teleriand, but the girl's light brown skin and clan markings showed her to be from the Magocracy. That was a little more uncommon as most Dark Elves were of the pale variety, and her age suggested that she might be one of the students. The elves from Magocracy also didn’t visit the city that often due to distance. All in all, she wasn’t out of place exactly, but decidedly stuck out to anyone keen enough. It seemed like she was the right person, and it made sense for the student group to bring an elf to smooth things over. ‘Not a bad decision on the part of the Academy. Sending the other one though…’

The young male that sat at the table with the Dark Elf girl was a fair bit more out of place. He looked like a Half-Elf mix with several other races. That couldn’t be easy in this city. People in Teleriand were not fond of mixed elves, unless that mix was with very specific other races like High Humans. Some even called them ‘mutts’, which Anaire thought to be very impolite and quite inappropriate. As a High Elf, she was very proud of her own heritage and would never stoop to diluting that blood, but she understood it if the other clans might choose to do so and didn’t much care if someone was of mixed heritage. And the whole thing seemed a little hypocritical, considering the festival of life was currently happening. Only certain other races were popular during the festival of course, and those races were usually the ones that were considered worthy to mix with.

As she approached the table, the female elf turned around with a pleasant and polite smile as she spotted Anaire approaching them. “Hello. Did you have some business with us?” She clearly seemed to recognize the guards escorting Anaire, but didn’t seem to be entirely sure why palace guards would show up here.

With a disarming smile of her own, Anaire extended her hand in the traditional gesture, which the girl returned after a moment’s consideration. “Greetings. I am Princess Anaire and we’re here to extend an invitation to you.”

“An invitation?” The girl asked with a slight tilt of her head, not showing too much surprise by the revelation of Anaire’s rank. Good. The girl had at least some potential as a diplomat or a courtier.

“Yes. The Queen has expanded the guest list to the party celebrating my younger brother’s coming of age and my eldest brother’s recent achievements. Your group is one of those that have been invited. You’re the group of students from the Academy, yes?” Anaire asked to confirm and handed the girl a decorated envelope with the royal crest.

“We are. Well, this is certainly good news. Anything particular we should prepare for the party, aside from the obvious gifts?” The girl asked, visibly pleased with the turn of events. Anaire felt a little bad as she knew the party wasn’t really going to go as the girl hoped. Hopefully, they'd get another chance.

At that point, the male started showing some impatience, and Anaire realized he probably couldn't understand them. She had almost instinctually spoken the most common elven language, as she was dealing with two elves. "The party is themed relatively casual as it was planned to be a smaller event originally, so wearing something like full ball-gowns might be inappropriate. Other than that and standard party etiquette, no. The invitation is for five people. We were not entirely sure of the size of your group, so we settled on that number.” She stated, shifting to a language used commonly all over the plane.

“Please pass our thanks to the appropriate parties. We shall be attending.” The gorgeous brown-skinned girl replied, and Anaire found herself rather expecting the whole thing despite everything. The girl seemed nice, and it might be interesting to talk to her further. She was rather cute too. Maybe Anaire would be able to wrangle them an invitation to a celebration that would actually have a better ending. 'Hopefully, Finuwar doesn’t get any ideas. He’s always liked the exotic types.' Her brother could be a bit of a ladies' man, and getting involved with a clearly too young representative of the Academy could backfire. Badly.

“In that case, I bid you good day.” Anaire gave a slight polite bow and made her exits. Maybe the party wouldn’t be as bad as she feared.

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“I heard you had an exciting time last night," Mayumi commented as she found Karna sitting on the roof of the inn, enjoying the music that was played in the vicinity by the festival attendees. The flat roof had been turned into a mix between a small garden and a terrace. Usually, it would've attracted quite a few people, but with the festival going strong, the two of them were alone, which was exactly what Mayumi had been hoping for.

"Word travels fast," Karna replied with a wry smile. Mayumi still had trouble trying to tease her, but at least she made the effort now.

"People aren't quite used to someone like you in the Magocracy. They're much more prudish while you're…shall we say more open." Mayumi smiled. The two had become much more open in the last few years. In many ways, Mayumi respected Karna even more, but she had at least gotten over the need to treat the other woman as almost a second mother. The feeling wasn’t going away entirely, but it was no longer dominating their interactions.

“Hard to get all that excited about losing something when you’ve done it literally thousands of times before.” Karna shrugged with an oblique reference to her first sexual encounter. That was not the first time she hinted to the number of times she’d lived, and Mayumi suspected she was still downplaying it, as hard as that was to believe.

"How old were you when it happened in your first life?" Mayumi asked, curiously. “For myself…gosh, I was a late bloomer, so I was well over twenty.”

“I…can’t even remember exactly. Neither can I remember who it was with.” Karna had a nostalgic smile on her face, but it was marred by a small frown. “I faintly recall it was pleasant, but that’s about it.” Her face grew a bit darker. “Unfortunately my memories of that time have been tainted by how that life ended.”

“You’ve made vague references before. What happened, if I may ask?” Mayumi gathered her courage and posed the question she had been wondering about. Karna’s first life had seemed like a touchy subject.

“Oh, it’s not quite as interesting as you’d think, though I think I’ve already mentioned that my first life was in this universe. I had reached the Divine Planes from the Mortal Planes back then, and I was quite proud of myself. For a good reason too. I was rather talented, and my looks also drew attention. I…was quite similar to Miralen in appearance actually. Anyway, my meteoric rise in the Divine Plane came to the attention of people that saw me as a threat. They…wronged me in the worst of ways and killed everyone that mattered to me.” Karna’s expression had grown cloudy and dark.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Mayumi asked carefully.

“I’ve already gotten over it. Mostly. I don’t mind telling the outlines though. I was married back then. To a rather new and relatively powerless Divinity. He was…one of the Gods of the Arts I think? I’ve forgotten. It wasn’t some grand romance, but we cared for each other, and we were happy. Until what I much later learned to be a reincarnator, decided to take us out. She and her friends killed my husband in front of me and banished me to the Netherworld. That alone would’ve been bad enough, but I had just given birth back then, and they banished my baby with me. The Netherworld is not for the living and it certainly isn’t for newborns.” Karna looked stricken as she told the story, but Mayumi found it impossible to stop her. Clearly, there was lingering pain even after all the lives.

“Oh no.” Mayumi managed to say sadly. “The baby…didn’t make it?”

“No. It was…I tried to…” Karna’s voice almost broke but she pushed on. “The Netherworld drains away your lifeforce constantly. I tried to replenish my child’s and keep her fed, but…by the time I made it out, I was carrying a dead child. To this day, I have no idea how long she had been dead. I faintly recall that the person who found us mentioned that I was only cradling a skeleton. For all I know, I might have been wandering for years in those dead halls. I can’t remember, because I was...not myself by that point. I took my own life only days later. I’m afraid the next few lives were…not much better. Not for me, and not for the worlds I was reborn in. I firmly believe the Judges of the River of Souls should’ve prevented me from being reborn, but even back then they couldn’t. Much bad karma was earned during those lives.”

“If…if your first life was that unhappy, then what about a good one? Tell me about the person you’ve loved most in all your lives.” Mayumi tried to change the topic almost desperately. There was nothing she could say about Karna’s first life that would be any consolation. She only silently counted her own blessings that her two lives so far had been relatively positive, although the way she died in her previous life bore some resemblance to how Karna’s first life had ended.

Karna noted her distress and flashed a small but sad smile. “Don’t misunderstand. Despite how it ended, my first life was not all unhappiness. I forgot that myself for a long time, but there were happy times as well, and I try to focus on those. As for the person I’ve loved the most…well, I’m not sure if that story is all that cheery either.”

"Oh no," Mayumi muttered.

“You often desire those things the most that you can’t have. It was actually one of the relatively few lives I lived as a man. It was also one of the many I spent entirely as a mortal. A girl caught my eye. Or I should say we caught each other’s eyes. I’d like to say it was love at first sight, but I know it was more like lust. Lust that turned into love over many passionate nights. She was a mortal as well. I was a traveling handyman, and she was the daughter of a farmer. Not a bad match in general. The problem was that her family was part of a very insular group that wasn’t all that fond of outsiders. They were especially leery about their daughters marrying outsiders.” Karna shook her head thinking about her stupidity in that life.

“I’m guessing things didn’t go well?” Mayumi asked with a grimace.

"Oh, they went quite well for a long time. As I was a traveling handyman that actually got things done, people were happy to see me visit back then, and the fact that our trysts were short but passionate every time I visited kept it from becoming a problem. Until she became pregnant and I stayed too long. There had been suspicions before, but there had been no real proof until then. She was getting a bit too old to stay unmarried though, and I wanted to do the honorable thing. That’s when things went wrong. I knew what would happen when they came for me. I could’ve run. I could’ve fought. Even as a mortal, I wasn’t completely defenseless. But these people were her family. What kind of basis would that have been for a happy life if I had killed her family? That’s what it would’ve taken since there was no hope of reconciliation. They would’ve only come back if I had let them live and running away would’ve still left her alone. And I knew she would be taken care of. It was not an optimal solution, but it was the best I had at the time. I was still relatively young and stupid back then, and I would handle things much differently now. Still, we were happy together for the brief time we had together.” Karna told her story in warm tones despite the slightly dark ending.

“I assume you’ve had happy lives?” Mayumi was forced to ask gingerly.

“Of course I’ve had them. More than unhappy ones.” Karna burst into near-hysterical laughter. "There will be both happy lives and unhappy ones. I've also had lives that were much darker than the ones I already mentioned as well. If you live enough lives, you'll also have both. I suggest you get out of those fast where you end up as a slave. Especially an attractive slave. Those lives are the worst. They can leave you traumatized for…I don’t even know how long. The only real way to get over them is a proper palate cleanser. A life filled with peace and happiness. I suggest becoming a druid or a hermit for the best results.”

"That's…I'll keep it in mind," Mayumi muttered while her body shivered. She really didn't want to imagine a life as a slave, not to mention one where your uses as a slave were…indecent.

“Well, the upside of being a reincarnator is that you can easily escape those lives without really losing anything, except maybe bits of your sanity. We all learn coping mechanisms." Karna shook her head. "Well, that talk got a bit dark. How was your evening?"

“Rather dull. I’m not all that fond of crowds. I would’ve enjoyed the festival otherwise, but the crowds got to me. Also doesn’t help that it’s summer.” Mayumi went along with the shift in topics.

“Oh? You could’ve just found some fun for yourself as well. No crowd when it’s just the two of you. Or three. I don’t judge.” Karna teased. “In fact, three can be very fun as well.”

“I actually considered it. Finding company I mean, not the threesome. I just didn’t have enough time, until I got tired with the crowds.” Mayumi explained with a small shrug.

“Ah. Do you want me to help you find some company?” Karna asked with a small smirk.

“No thanks. I’ll handle that all by myself, thank you very much.” Mayumi shot that idea down immediately. “So why aren’t you out there, finding your threesome?”

“Hah! Nice one.” Karna gave her a quick appreciative thumbs up and avoided the question. “Now enough about me. How was your previous life?”

“Well, I’m afraid it’s going to seem quite dull, after all you’ve been through. I was a mage then as well. I got up to the seventh circle, though only barely. I knew I had tapped out on my talent by that point and had mostly reached that rank due to luck. I had a rather enjoyable life as a tower mage. It wasn't all that long either. I was not very old when I died…” Mayumi thought wistfully.

“What happened?” Karna prompted her to continue.

“The usual. Jealousy, competition, betrayal. I was being courted by a man. He was…well, there was potential for something good between us, so I was giving him the chance to prove himself. Unfortunately, he wasn’t as talented as I was, and he was stuck at the sixth circle. He didn’t take it well when I came by that bit of luck I mentioned and kept it for myself instead of sharing. That’s when the cracks started showing. He was…tempted by one of my old rivals and he stabbed me in the back. Quite literally actually. I could've dealt with it, if not for the fact that we were in the middle of a rather sizeable battle at the time. A lapse in judgment, due to being stabbed, caused the spell I was casting to go haywire. Blew both of us and everyone around us to bits.” Mayumi explained with a shrug. She didn’t seem too fazed by the betrayal all things considered, though Karna suspected that it had left a mark in Mayumi’s soul.

“A story that’s unfortunately common. I’d love to say that we all become better judges of character as we go through many lives, and in many ways we do. However, we also tend to lose our grip on what’s normal. The fact that we can be born again twists our perspective, so keep that in mind.” Karna warned Mayumi.

“I suppose it would. I already think of things differently, and it’s only my second life. Although…” She looked at Karma. “That’s partially your fault. Your little stories and lessons have changed me.”

"Hah! Hopefully, some of that change is for the better. I love to corrupt young maidens. Muahaha!” Karna imitated her best evil laugh.

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