"Sit down Trezlan." Her office was sparse though I could see she had paintings up, one of Hanlon that had an "Our founder" nameplate, which wasn't entirely accurate from what I knew of the company, but honestly the Hanlon arms that exists now hardly bears any resemblance to the company the old man I ran into hundreds of years ago ran. The chair was nice though, comfy cushions hard backed, from my time in prison and the airship this was a creature comfort I missed.
"Are we actually related?" It was the question that kept hitting in my head, I didn't recall being with a woman who could have borne a child, but its not impossible I mean I do have a lot of lost time incidents.
"No, my people were of a tribe that had never had interaction with anyone of your blood line until recently." My people at least explained the extremely black skin, she wasn't from around here, which opened up more questions.
"And so you took my last name?"
"Because Hanlon bought your store and needed someone to run it, instead of claiming to be a new owner I took over it as your niece, it worked fairly well and I liked the name so I kept it. My first name is Shadelia."
"But your friends call you Shad?" Behind her eyes I saw a flash of something I couldn't place.
"No one calls me Shad Trezlan, just like no one calls you Trez." This was true, I'm not exactly a nick name kind of guy.
"Where is Hanlon anyway? He never had factories before and now he has a massive complex." It was confusing even more so than the scarred woman who bore my last name.
"Things have changed, Hanlon is away," She paused before saying away, it was odd as if he had been banished or left for some reason, "Though he's still around, finding you was one of his last orders to me before he left, everyone else thought you were dead, but not Mr. Hanlon he knew you were not, how he came to that knowledge I do not know, but he was not incorrect."
"Well I'm glad he still believed in me."
"Indeed, and you came at a great time for me, we're supplying a war and with a foe you well know."
"Who?"
"The lands of the west."
"The guard attacked the lands of the west?" Shadelia chuckled.
"No they attacked us." And with that I realized the world I knew had really changed in a way I could not understand for some time.
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