TYWS Chapter 37
AN: And of course, now that I'm not busy I've managed to get sick again, which is pretty freaking typical lol~. Took me forever to edit this chapter, and I'm not 100% sure I did a good job of it! So sorry ahead of time if that's the case. ^^;
Promise next chapter will be on Friday though, and if not it'll have to be on Saturday lol. Ok thanks for reading this I hope you're enjoying it I love you goodbye~!<3
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Siffia was stunned into silence, only able to dazedly clap in appreciation of what she’d just seen. Even a novice like her knew how difficult dealing such deadly damage to so many spread out enemies in such a miniscule amount of time could be, let alone while holding such a large sword. And the fact that Eris had practically been a blur while doing it all was… Well, certainly none of the knights under Viscount Heston’s employ would ever be able to display such a feat, Siffia was certain of at least that much.
If their enemies had moved anywhere near as swiftly and skillfully as her during the war, Siffia would never have seen the end of it in one piece.
As Siffia clapped for her, Eris nonchalantly performed a graceful curtsying bow, offering the sword she’d just used towards her, as a knight might do towards one's liege, before carefully placing it back where it came from.
“I’m glad I could properly perform for you. It’s been quite a while since I’ve gotten to peacefully train, so I was a bit worried that I might have been too rusty.”
“Oh my… I doubt even years without training would be enough to dull you, Lady Eris.”
Eris’s eyes seemed to squint for a moment at those words, and her eyebrows curled dubiously in thought. But soon she just sighed, returning to her usual neutral and stern expression.
“Your words are kind, but they are certainly untrue. Even now, I…”
Her mouth closed, and her gaze seemed to harden for a second, before she suddenly made her way over to the couch, sitting herself next to Siffia.
“Well then, go on. I’ve put on my little show, so now it's only right that it’s time for yours.”
“Wha- Huh? Oh, I-I…”
Blinking a few times, Siffia finally remembered that they were meant to take turns. She hesitantly stood up, pressured by Eris’s silent gaze, and made her way a few steps forward before finally stopping and nervously peeking back.
“Um, but… W-What exactly… um, am I… W-What should I... do?”
Having been put on the spot, Siffia was unable to think of any grandiose display to put on for the waiting Eris. It was as if her mind had gone completely blank, unable to grasp at anything even vaguely suitable.
Thankfully, after thinking for a seconds, Eris opened her mouth to make a suggestion.
“...I’ve seen plenty of your prowess in telekinetic magic; It would be good if you could display your proficiency in other disciplines as well.”
Siffia’s mouth squirmed for a moment, both understanding the suggestion and feeling slightly put off by it.
“B-but I… I’m not very confident in-”
“That doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I wish to see you doing it. Is that so unacceptable after you were the one to propose coming here, Lady Siffia?”
“...”
There was nothing that Siffia could say in response to that. All she could do was turn back towards the training dummies once more and think about what magic to use.
“...T-Then I suppose I’ll… I’ll start with what I believe myself to be second best with?”
“Yes, I believe that would certainly be a good place to start.”
Though the words agreed with her, something about Eris’s tone almost felt to Siffia as if they were impatiently prodding her into action. She couldn’t help but bite her lip at the mounting pressure that she was feeling. For some reason, the idea of leaving Eris to wait on her for any longer felt unbearable.
Unable to stand it any more of the silent pressure, Siffia’s hands flicked upwards, her pinkies straining themselves as far away from her other fingers as they could, while the rest of them stayed pressed together. A bright light seemed to erupt on the most central target dummy, and when the rest of her fingers suddenly spread apart from each other the target seemed to explode into flames, continuously launching several other chunky orbs of fire at the other targets like a flamethrower, even managing to reach the remains of the target that was once in the window. It was a dangerous bit of magic, far reaching in its deadliness. And yet, for some reason, the explosive fire seemed to stay back from approaching towards Siffia, keeping her perfectly safe despite her worryingly close proximity.
As the flames died down a few short minutes later, leaving only the scorched but brightly glowing dummies behind, Eris finally spoke up.
“Hmm, midtier pyrokinesis magic. Very impressive.”
Siffia looked back, noting the genuinely appreciative tone that came from Eris’s words. She felt like she might just blush a bit, happy to hear such kind praise for something that she still felt so inadequate with.
“Ah, thank you… One of the more prominent mages in my family’s employ likes to use a lot of pyrokinetic magic, so sometimes I would sneakily watch them and practice it later.”
“...So you mean to say you’ve learned to such a degree without a proper teacher or gem to guide you. Yes, that too is quite the impressive ability... one similar to the mages of old.”
Eris’s eyelids seemed to droop, her expression becoming disquietingly serious as her eyes stared heavily into Siffia. However, just when the weight of it began to feel like too much and Siffia was about to speak up, Eris simply blinked a few times, regaining her composed expression as if nothing had ever even happened.
“Well then, on to the next one. Go on.”
“O-Oh… Okay.”
Although still feeling slightly worried and unsure, Siffia turned around once more, her hands raised up, quickly deciding on the next spell. And then, with a sudden flap as if she were about to clap her hands, and a quick bend of her middle and pointer finger on both sides, the air suddenly condensed, almost visibly falling downwards to the ground. Once it all seemed to land less than a second later, a shimmer twinkled across the floor, and with a snapping sound a thick encasing of ice seemed to splash outwards from the center of the room. The ice crept steadily upwards on every single thing that it managed to touch, taking less than two seconds to completely cover the target dummies, leaving them theoretically immobile. And yet, disappointingly, this was not enough damage to trigger the dummies to glow.
After a moment of letting the magic run, Siffia regretfully dispelled it and turned around.
“It’s not quite as deadly as would probably be preferred in a spell of this type, but-”
“Nonsense. I remember this spell… I recall you using it once when our squadron was beginning to be overrun.”
Though Eris was still sitting there with her arms and legs crossed authoritatively, the way that her eyes stared off into the distance as she looked towards the dummies told Siffia everything.
She must have been reminiscing about that day with perfect clarity, remembering Siffia’s desperate actions.
“...Yes. It’s that very same one, although I’ve managed to practice it a bit more since then. …Were we in the same situation… I would do much better this time.”
Magic was always a careful play of control, easily running out of hand without dutiful practice and precise surveillance. At the time, Siffia had been quite new to this discipline of magic, only having studied it briefly before heading to war on the off chance that it might have been of some use. And it had; She’d managed to stop the enemies that had ambushed them like a flood in place… while also immobilizing all of their side as well.
As opposed to the way that Siffia’s face drooped dejectedly as she spoke, Eris couldn’t help but smirk.
“You talk about it as if it were some great failure, but I recall us winning precisely because of that spell of yours. Our enemies weren’t as skilled at attacking from range as we were, after all... If anything, it was quite a remarkable choice of magic.”
“Mmm… Thank you for such kind words, Lady Eris… b-but if they had brought along people capable of such things, then I might-”
“Oh please.”
A scoffing sound came from Eris, her legs uncrossing with a loud stomp before crossing once again in the opposite direction.
“There is no point in discussing such things. We lived because you made the right choice at the right time. There’s nothing more to it. Now let it go.”
Siffia trembled for a moment under the weight of Eris’s stern words and disapproving gaze, clasping her hands and tucking her head down obediently, feeling as if she’d just been caught saying something blasphemous.
“I… I’m sor-”
“And besides… you learned from that experience, and you grew from it, didn't you? As you said, you would definitely do better next time, capable mage that you are. I'm sure of it.”
This continuation was spoken much softer, much kinder than the previous cold admonishment that Eris had spouted at her, so much so that Siffia felt like she might get whiplash from how her heart was being thrown around. She quickly jerked her head up in surprise at the unexpected kindness in Eris’s words, catching a warm and benevolent smile upon her lips before Eris’s face quickly smoothened out back into its usual stern expression.
“...Now, that’s enough of that. Show me the next one.”