Policeman and the cat

36 - Cute cousins

After that, till the sun came up - Ian and Nelly read the Gemheart exclusive Chair Insider, while Mom, Dad, and his cousins all read through the Guild APPs FAQ. Grandparents and Two pairs of Uncles and Aunts started up a conversation about another novel, the only questions Ian asked, at the point when he realized the journal was Gemheart exclusive - "Is Hans also a Lacrimosa?"

"No, he's an Ein," Dad replied. "That's a far stronger gemheart type than Lacrimosa, but they also don't get the benefit of being ignored by astrals."

There were three Eins among the top-ranked ones, seven were Steions, none were Lacrimosa. That was telling.

"Did you pick to live here, because he is here?" Ian asked.

"No," Dad replied. "I liked the silent, natural feeling of this area, the air is good, most people around are normies, everyone minds their own business, it's a good place for a rather introverted bookworm to relax. Neighbors are also similarly minded and didn't mind sharing what delivery and cleaning services they use."

"Does anyone even use that bus stop?" Ian asked.

"Ah, yes," Dad replied. "Up the mountain are houses like this one but down are middle-class ones, most of their kids go there for their school bus." Which meant - Mom and Dad were living kind of on the edge between the communities, but that said, there was a fair distance to climb up to get here, even if that wasn't really a problem for a person who moved around a lot. The distance was enough for no sounds to reach, though.

The journal was mainly news - major happenings, which group did what, some Gemheart events, expected Gemheart events, a small page on resources - rather than public facilities Gemhearts invited people to their houses and gave them access to their private libraries on topics that interested them. Platinum and Gold ranked ones could give temporary guild library access to gemhearts who needed it to learn certain things in advanced sections. There were gemheart stores, gemheart alchemy shops, contacts to inquire about deliveries, gemheart friendly hotels-- one of which was Mom's previous working place. Guild contact people for regions, for checking out and reporting strange happenings other gemhearts spot or even resolve.

It looked like Gemhearts bunched under other gemhearts to push them up hierarchies in other groups. They seemed to have a pretty good relationship with Mage academies, there were offers and recommendations to come and study at some. Guild and Alchemists looked to be semi-suspicious from their side, the Church and Necromancers were completely suspicious, Witches, Mythical beasts and Undead were all - well, savages. It was easy to tell from their language.

But the journal itself was - good, it observed movements from all groups. One detail Ian noticed right away was that August appeared, but it didn't tell much if Ian had no idea what came before - "Chase for information on August Galord is over, he agreed to go under Grisham's wing and, we suspect, sold his own information to Purple to end the chase on the mythical beast side. He contracted Riveria and two unknown figures as familiars and has included an unknown ghost in his permanent party. Knowing his personality it's unlikely anyone will try to demand reparations for Riveria's past behavior."

Ian nodded, apparently, August's temper wasn't a secret. 

The Gemhearts, too, noticed some odd behaviors around captial lately - Railgun family was doing some snooping around places they don't really frequent, witch groups were more active than usual before the solstice and various odd astral activities peaked - this magazine also mentioned the rosewater murders and odd happenings around one high school near August's and Ian's living place, likely related to that spider-like astral reading.

[Herman reports an odd sighting of a silver-haired person on the night when Tharurun was eaten, but he didn't get a clear visual. Currently, a bronze-haired Hadean girl is dwelling in Tharurun's temple and fights off incoming astral invasions.] Mention of a Hadean appeared and silver-haired-- looked like Gemhearts were onto something a bit extra, if alignment and hair color had anything to do with one another.