After Patrick returned, both Quelrintis and Yanida expressed surprise. They had not expected him to return to Sunfury Spire to continue serving there. After hearing his explanation, the two seemed to be in much better spirits, though Patrick did not press them further.
Operations at Sunfury Spire began returning to normal.
Meanwhile, the family head sent an assistant to help Patrick at the Sun Temple: Higgins Eil Cabrolon, a descendant of a collateral branch of the family and roughly Patrick's peer in generation. His profession was rather unusual. He was not quite a warrior, but a melee ranger.
He had once joined the Ranger Forces and served in the garrison at the East Sanctum in Eversong Woods. When the trolls of the Life Forest threatened the sanctum, Higgins Eil had helped the troops repel them many times, though he used swordsmanship rather than archery. Later, Alleria had kicked him out of the Ranger Forces, saying, "A ranger who can't use a bow? Go back to playing with alchemy."
Higgins Eil had been annoyed, but there was nothing he could do. He knew nothing of archery, and there was no such thing as a melee ranger. He really did stick out in the Ranger Forces. As a member of the sanctum's garrison, he had earned considerable military merit, but whenever the Ranger Forces were reviewed, every ranger raised a bow in salute, while Higgins Eil alone raised a longsword. The sight was simply too glorious.
So the Cabrolon family could hardly say much about Higgins Eil's situation. Besides, during joint training, he had failed to meet almost all the ranger qualification requirements, including firing speed, accuracy, Eagle Eye, and detection and identification. The only ranger requirement he met was agility. When fighting enemies at close quarters, he was as nimble as