To You, Who Shines

With a sound akin to a crash, Eris flung open the door, turning with alarm and fury in her eyes as she saw the situation. She bore her teeth in anger, looking like a furious predator as she reached forward faster than Siffia’s eyes could follow and ripped away the nobleman who’d been frozen stiff from shock, flinging him across the balcony with a loud thud.

Siffia, now freed from the man’s clutches, collapsed to the floor from the momentum of the man being torn away, painfully landing on her knees. She quickly tried to stand up to get off of the stinging flesh, but her legs had practically turned into jelly, unwilling to listen to her. On instinct she looked up to where Eris had just been to ask for her help, but soon realized that Eris was no longer there.

No, Eris was making her way at a menacing pace towards where the man was now laying.

Though Siffia couldn’t see Eris’s face from this angle, just the view of her from behind practically radiated with an intimidating, livid energy. The man tried to scoot away from her approach, but soon ran into the balcony’s railing, his path of escape quickly cut off. Although his face clearly showed how terrified the man was, he still seemed to have the wherewithal to react to how slowly Eris was coming towards him, smartly leaping up and attempting to run past her. Eris was much too swift for him however, calmly sticking out a foot and tripping the man, causing him to smash face first into the hard floor of the balcony, the sight and the sound of which was enough to make even Siffia wince in sympathy.

She winced much harder at the crunching sound that came from Eris stomping on the man’s ankle with her high heels though, the following scream coming nowhere close to how awful it had sounded. Siffia had no doubt in her mind that the man’s ankle must have been absolutely crushed by the well trained Eris.

As if unaffected by his screams, Eris slowly raised her beautiful rouge shoe and aimed it threateningly towards the man once more, this time coldly aiming for the man’s already bleeding face. Siffia jumped in alarm at the sight; She held not a single bit of forgiveness or care inside of her towards the man, but the thought of the trouble that would ensue if Eris were to harm him any further was absolutely terrifying.

“Lady Eris, wait!”

Unable to ignore her, Eris did indeed pause for a moment, her frigid eyes turning dutifully towards Siffia. However, when the man took that opportunity to try and drag himself towards the door, Eris’s gaze turned demonically towards him once more.

“...Just a moment, Lady Siffia. I must take care of this worm first.”

“You can’t!”

This time Eris seemed determined not to let Siffia’s words stop her, taking a predatory step towards her squirming prey. But just as she was about to raise her foot once again, some invisible force seemed to block her way, as if a large hand were wrapped around her legs, holding them in place. Quickly identifying the problem, her gaze dragged its way across the balcony, blankly observing Siffia. There, Siffia leaned forwards on her reddened knees, one hand bracing her against the floor as the other reached out to her in a slightly strained curl as if it were holding something with great care. Her face was a mixture of angst and worry so potent that it could have stopped Eris in its tracks all on its own.

“...Lady Siffia, why-”

“Eris, you can’t do this! Not here! Not in the palace! That nobleman is absolutely worthless, but you shouldn’t have to be punished over him!!!”

“...Hmm?”

Eris batted her eyelashes rapidly, her already frazzled mind taking a moment to think through Siffia’s words. The idea that Siffia was saying this out of concern for her and not an ounce for that man seemed to cool down her raging feelings by a good margin.

-That, and the fact that Siffia calling her by only her name was actually quite a bit more appealing than Eris had expected.

“...Haaa…”

With a large sigh, Eris slowly relaxed her aggressive stance, rustling her hair as if annoyed.

“Fine. If that’s how you feel, Lady Siffia, then I have no right to continue this and agitate you further.”

“Ah! Thank- Thank you, Lady Eris!!!”

Siffia’s hand loosened and fell, and the smothering, restrictive magic that had been holding Eris in place pulled away. Though Siffia’s face reflected how relieved she was, Eris could only frown, unhappy at the honorific that had found its place back in the front of her name once more.

The man, who’d been glancing back and forth between the two all this time, seemed to take this as his cue to once again attempt to flee.

He completely froze in place when he heard the icy tone of Eris’s next words, however.

“...You. Don’t think this is the end of this. If I ever hear of a single mention of you ever again, even the smallest of whispers... then know that the full wrath of my house will be upon you. Never again will you escape me so lightly.”

Though her arms were crossed loosely and her face was neutral, the murderous glow in her eyes proved that her words were more than just an idle threat.

“Eep!!!”

With a squeak, the man nodded repeatedly with terror written all over his face. Once again he attempted to scoot himself backwards with his hands, aiming towards the door. When Eris didn’t stop him this time, he flopped himself around into a haphazard crawl, scurrying his way out of the room only seconds later. Eris watched him closely the entire way, only uncrossing her arms and making her way towards Siffia once the man was firmly out of sight.

“Lady Siffia… Are you alright?”

Having spent so much time with her over the past week, Siffia was actually quite surprised that Eris’s usually serious and stern face could droop in such a concerned way, even if it was only slightly. The gentle hands that came to rest supportingly on her arms as they helped her finally stand up felt like they were radiating warmth back into Siffia’s body. She couldn’t help but brace herself against the wall a bit, worried that she might relax so much that her legs might just give out on her again.

“Hoo… Yes, I’ll… I’ll be alright. My knees hurt a little bit, but I’ll… be fine.”

Even now, her knees were still stinging, her legs trembling slightly from the pain. She didn’t seem to be bleeding, but her skin was certainly worse for wear at the moment, and the way that the thin tights under her dress were stickily pressing and rubbing against them only made the pain feel worse.

As Siffia was unable to successfully hide the small traces of pain from her visage, it was no wonder that Eris wore an unconvinced frown. Her gaze trailed down slowly, heading towards Siffia’s knees doubtfully, but before she could do anything further, Siffia clutched at the skirt of her dress, pulling the fabric forward to bunch around her front, desperately hiding her knees from Eris’s worrying gaze.

When Eris looked back up her questioningly, Siffia simply averted her eyes as if she hadn’t even known that she’d done anything. Even as Eris’s eyes seemed to bore into her as if silently demanding for her to behave, Siffia only looked away, her lips pursing from the intensity. In the end, Eris could only sigh and once more ruffle her hair in annoyance, unwilling to continue this battle of wills.

This was no time to be fighting with Siffia like this.

“Haa… Fine, then. Excuse me for a moment, Lady Siffia.”

“...Hmm? AH-!”

Suddenly Siffia was picked up, being lifted into Eris’s arms as if she were as light as a feather. She was placed into a careful princess carry of which she was unwittingly slowly becoming used to, and before she could say a single word about it, was already being carried down the hallway.

~~~

Once she’d sat down and relaxed sufficiently, Siffia’s mistreated knees had been quite easy to fix. Although having spent only a little over a day practicing with it, Siffia had still managed to learn enough of the beginner’s basics from the Emerald magic tool that Eris had gifted her to very slowly repair her knees. It had taken her several minutes to finally get them to a point that they no longer stung and the flesh had mostly mended, but Eris still nodded stoically as if she were impressed once Siffia was done, praising her for having already learned so much, before she sat down next to her and began to do some fixing of her own.

Eris’s handkerchief dabbed at Siffia’s reddened face, slowly and carefully salvaging what she could of the smeared makeup. Embarrassed at the close proximity and unable to meet Eris’s concentrated gaze, Siffia simply sat on the luxurious couch and let her eyes explore around the room. It was the standard layout for a palace side room, the kind that a group of nobles would often go off to to talk business with each other, or perhaps a gaggle of young nobles might gather together with their friends in. It was also quite a popular spot to sneak away and have intimate moments in together.

It was also coincidentally the same kind of room that Siffia had rescued Eris in during the previous banquet, causing Siffia’s mind to churn until she couldn’t help but blurt out the question.

“Lady Eris… Why were you with that nobleman at the last banquet?”

Eris’s eyebrows scrunched in confusion for a moment, even while her gaze stayed laser focused on fixing Siffia’s makeup.

“A nobleman…? Oh, you mean the fool that you helped me with. Yes, I’d wandered there alone for a brief respite from the constant inane chattering. It seems he snuck in after me while I was resting.”

“Oh my. I see…”

Siffia nodded along, finding it quite expected that such a thing might happen to the lovely Lady Eris. However, her gaze soon snapped up in surprise.

“Wait a moment… Lady Eris, you… You were hiding...?”