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But if crime kept going down, then he wouldn't be able to justify going out on patrol very often, and then his free time really would disappear. He'd have to find some other way of unwinding while still feeling like he was being productive. Soaking in the hot spring was great for the prior, but not so much for the latter.

Hmm, maybe he could find a hobby that included the Elroy kids, somehow. That, alone, might make it feel more productive. He felt responsible for all the Rainlords in Warrenhold, of course, but when it came to Marcos and Ramira, that feeling was... magnified, in a way.

Perhaps it wasn't quite accurate to say that he was "closer" to the Elroys than with the other Houses, but there was definitely something different about his relationship with them. Between the familial link of Garovel and Chergoa, Zeff teaching him so much about materialization, and Axiolis being the one who introduced them to all the other Rainlords--he couldn't deny their special status in his mind.

And even aside from Emiliana, there were more Elroy kids out there whom he hadn't met. Francisco and Gema Elroy, wherever they were.

Regarding Emiliana, she'd been fairly quiet, recently. She must've been busy doing... whatever it was she did. Research under Gohvis or something. She hadn't tried to contact him, as far as he'd been able to tell. He wanted to think that no news was good news, especially with the war going on. If she was getting roped into the conflict, he hoped that she would tell him, but maybe that was foolish.

He hadn't exactly volunteered information about his own, insanely dangerous adventures, either. He didn't see much point in giving her cause to worry about her family any more than she probably already was.