"What are you doing here Derek Moonspeaker?" Firion growls.
He was quickly met with a polite response, "Now...now...I am not presenting any visible hostilities! So why don't we just calm down a bit, former 12th captain of the Lustrodos army?"
Kaida was beginning to shake, she had no idea what was going on, but she was experiencing a variety of different emotions that were pulling at her mind from all corners.
Derek noticed the girl trembling, and quickly realized that he just made the situation more tense than it needed to be.
"Alright, alright! Calm down! I just stated that I am not doing anything malicious! I am actually here to help you with your situation!" He carefully explained.
Firion did not look convinced. Something about Moonspeaker always comes off as eerie if not domineering from the few times he would cross paths with him. Back then he was always stern when interacting with military officials and never tolerated any form of perceived disrespect.
He sneered at the duke. "Why are you in a rural town like Taraji? From what I was taught from the ruling class that Junai was full of uncultured savages, so why is it that nobles like yourself are apparently welcomed here?"
His body language and tone made it clear he was still not convinced, why should he trust someone who always look down on him?
"Please, listen to my husband, he can be eccentric with his words, but he speaks the truth when he says he wants to help you and that red-haired blue horn from being found by the ruling family." A very feminine interrupts.
A beautiful, voluptuous woman trots into the room with her glorious white locks trailing behind her. From her ears and tail its obvious she's a white fang deva along with her distinctive violet eyes but, somehow, she almost resembles Nkiri in a way?
"My niece you informed me that he would behave himself and then he's dressing up and terrorizing everyone by popping in unannounced when I'm trying to explain the situation of this elf and blue horn deva with red hair!" The oracle growled!
But Derek quickly clarified himself! "You are mistaken! I meant to keep my identity obscured so I could approach the pair and determine myself what transpired in the Untouched Forest, I just wanted to make sure the girl was not forcefully taken!"
As Firion listened, he could tell from the steady vibrations under his feet that Derek is actually being truthful and honest; even Kaida was calming down after checking the different emotions that dampened the air.
Duke Moonspeaker exhaled and pushed his monocles back onto his eyes. "Firion was well known for his military contributions in the front lines and his notorious history with blue horns and the burning of the Jade Forest, one of my observations was to ensure that the girl did not appear to be mistreated, but from what I observed she obviously trusts you. Also I investigated your botched assassination attempt that was conspired by that imbecile Adan."
The forest elf expression became less angrier and more intrigued now, his wife was still a little guarded, she knows first hand the nightmares he went through.
"Yes, I am aware of the crimes committed against you ,even though you served Aldenburg faithfully, I am not here to persecute you Firion, I am here to help you and that Min-ari girl go live your lives unbounded." Derek further revealed.
Everyone in the room was now huddled around the magic stones as the duke revealed many secrets that brought them there. The first one is that his deva wife, Nafula, is actually Nkiri's niece who was abducted as a child; apparently human flesh merchants killed her parents and attempted to take her, except Derek saved her by killing the kidnappers and then bringing her to be raised in one of Aldenburg's monasteries where she was brought up alongside some blue horn girls.
What Firion had speculated turned out to be true based on the ancient tome and the words of those soldiers. Deva's girls, mostly blue horns, were being carefully raised to be wives of elf nobles. Since their divine-beast traits evaporate when they breed with the elves, they discovered that deva spouses can produce pure-blooded elf children with stronger mana-rich bloodlines.
Then the atmosphere became tense once more as Derek confesses the reasons why the high elves were able to take the girls from Mycean in the first place, it involved the burning of the Jade Forest, the very same incident that destroyed Firion's life the first time.
His expression became more stern again, he knew he was going to hear something that was going to cause him great anger. Kaida sensed this and wrapped her hands around his to help remain calm, a gesture that soothed him no less.
"You see the incident regarding the burning of your homeland was not a completely one sided incident, numerous circumstances caused friction between the forest elves and the blue horn devas. One in particular was when the forest elves built a dam on one of the boarders of Mycean and unfortunately caused a drought in several neighboring villages. The blue horn's begged for the dam to be torn down, but negotiations were impossible, because at the same time it was reported that a young elf girl and an adolescent deva boy went missing..." Derek carefully monologue before pausing.
Firion's eyes narrowed as he asked, "Wait a couple of kids went missing? And what exactly led to the dam burning down??! I was informed that blue horns did so out of malice!"
The duke scolded the forest elf for his open hostility, "I said I am here to offer you help, but if you continue with you tone I might change my mind, so do you mind easing up a bit? Anyways, the actual dam burning was a miscalculated stunt, the blue horns were originally just trying to burn its foundation but what they didn't realize was that the wood used to build the damn was covered in tree sap, causing the fires to quickly develop as is soon not only destroyed the bridge but burned down the surround forest and contaminated the river. Though this situation could have easily been avoided if both sides were more willing to talk with each other..."
"Hmph, so it was a poor choice of decisions? Alright, how did the burning of my home enable Aldenburg nobles to acquire blue horn women?" Firion pressed on.