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Emiliana wasn’t sure she believed Chergoa. The reaper didn’t seem like she was lying, but all the same, it was difficult to tell what went on in the mind of someone thousands of years old.

She tried to go about her day as normal, but it was impossible. Knowing that the siege of Rheinhal was beginning today left her in a constant state of worry. There would be no meditating, she realized, so she spent her time just trying to stay close to Marcos and Ramira. She wasn’t letting them out of her sight. Not today.

Collectively, the Elroy children ended up mostly hanging around Diego Redwater or Dimas Sebolt, as Marcos had taken a liking to them both due to their relative fame among the Rainlords.

In a very short time, Emiliana had come to know more about the distribution of power among her brethren than she ever had before. According to Shenado, the title of the strongest living Rainlord was a matter of dispute with four possible candidates: Octavia Redwater, Rayen Merlo, Melchor Blackburn, and Xuan Sebolt. Strangely--at least to Emiliana--Melchor and Xuan did not serve as the heads of their families, instead yielding the responsibility to their younger cousins.

Including those four, Shenado proceeded to rattle off the names of the strongest twenty servants, and while Emiliana didn’t remember most of them, she’d taken particular note of her father being ranked as eighth. Dimas Sebolt, Diego Redwater, and Joana Cortes had been ranked as tenth, eleventh, and fourteenth, respectively. Emiliana wondered where Shenado would have ranked her mother, but she didn’t have the heart to ask.

With everyone gathered in the Red Den, Emiliana chose to stand in the corner with Chergoa, looking through the panoramic windows that made up the chamber’s eastern wall. They offered a clear view of the endless rain and flood waters, while the windows on the other side of the room displayed the vast cityscape of Aguarey.

“Is it true that you once took on thirty Abolishers all by yourself?” Marcos was asking.

“...Yes,” was all Dimas said. He was a statue of a man, tall and solidly built and always wearing a dark suit with a black tie. Whenever Emiliana saw him, he never spoke unless spoken to, which translated to him only speaking when Marcos and Ramira pestered him with questions.

“And you beat them all?” said Ramira.

“...Yes.”