Elias glanced at the small woman. There was a quiet strength in her body that made her bigger than the prey he hunted. It was a strength born from conviction, and this was the mont Elias recognized another form of strength.
The first form he had witnessed from that old woman who drove away a Fury Forge with just her gaze, and that was the strength of reputation, and now Mira was showing him another kind.
"You want to be my maid," he said.
"Yes."
"I don’t need a maid."
"You need soone to cook for you. Soone to clean. Soone to run errands for you in the city, and do not forget I am a peak-level Fury Forge with a talent, and I am just fifty years old, and there is a chance I will be reaching Mist Phantom soon, making a good choice as a helper." Mira ticked items off on her fingers. "The Commander said you’re starting training soon. You’ll be busy and most likely tired by the end of every day. You’ll need soone to handle the small things so you can focus on the big ones... I can be the one who takes charge of the small things."
Elias considered this. It was... not wrong. He had spent years handling everything himself, cooking, cleaning, maintaining his tools, and planning his hunts. But those years were behind him. He was an Ascendant Candidate now, with training that would push him to his limits and beyond. Having soone to manage the mundane details...
"The Commander approved this?"
"She gave the key shard."
Of course she did. Commander Yseult, his Master, saw everything, planned everything. If Mira was here, it was because the Commander wanted her here. Another piece on the board, another variable in whatever grand design was unfolding.
From the mont she rescued Mira from the oasis, she must have placed her aside as a piece on the board. If Elias had failed his Void Incursion, she might have just placed her in a random place inside the city, but with his success, she already had a helper waiting for him.
Elias did not know how to feel when it seed that a large part of his life was being managed by soone else, but he was not foolish enough to look the gift horse in the mouth, and it would be the height of hubris and stupidity to believe he would be able to reach his present level using his own strength alone.
He may not like his life being controlled in such a manner, but this was the price of growth, and he would be paying this price until he was able to, and when he looked at Mira’s face, and saw the hope, fear and desperate need for purpose that warred behind her eyes, Elias found that he did not mind being used in this particular way.
"Alright," he said.
Mira blinked. "Alright?"
"You can stay and be my maid." He picked up his spoon and resud eating. "But I have rules."
She straightened, suddenly businesslike. "Tell ."
"First, you don’t follow into battle. Ever. If there’s fighting, you find sowhere safe, and you stay there until I co back or until soone tells you it’s over."
A fleeting mont of contemplation passed through her eyes before she nodded, "Done."
"Second, you don’t touch anything in my workroom without asking. So of the things I have are dangerous, and I will be adding more dangerous substances and tools as ti goes by. Do not touch anything without hearing from first."
Mira nodded solemnly.
"Third, you don’t pray to ." He t her eyes. He felt he needed to address this issue. Even though she was fifty years old and was mature, Elias could recognize the growing look of adoration and infatuation in the depths of her eyes, and his otherworldly appearance would not help matters, so he needed to correct this mindset from the start before it beca a problem. "I’m not a god. I’m not an Angel. I’m a man who kills things. That’s all. If you need to pray, pray to soone else."
She was quiet for a mont. Then, "I understand."
Elias frowned inside as he felt that sothing about her answer felt off, but there were too many things for him to deliberate on, and he pushed this aside and finished his al in silence.
Mira cleared the dishes, moving around the kitchen with the sa quiet efficiency. When he stood, she was already at the door, holding sothing, a bundle of cloth Elias had not noticed before.
"Your clothes," she said. "From your old room. I brought everything: your old work clothes and your work bag. I did not know what else you might need, so I just brought these. It’s all in the bedroom now, sorted and put away. Oh, and they have all been adjusted to fit you."
Elias stared at her. "You did all that before I woke up?"
"The Commander said you sleep deeply after big fights. I had ti." She smiled, and this ti it was less broken, just a small, satisfied curve of her lips. "Also, your old apartnt is very small. It didn’t take long."
Elias found himself almost smiling in return.
"Thank you," he said. The words felt strange in his mouth; he could not rember the last ti he had said them to anyone, in this present context.
Mira’s eyes widened slightly, as if she had not expected gratitude. Then she nodded, once, and turned back to her kitchen.
"I’ll have breakfast ready at dawn," she said over her shoulder. "Go explore your new ho. Get used to it. I’ll be here when you need ."
Elias walked past her into the corridor, pausing at the door to look back. Mira was already at the hearth, stirring sothing new, her small form silhouetted against the warm glow of the fla.
A cook from a dead oasis. A woman who had crawled through bodies and prayed to a stranger, and now his maid. The world was strange.
When Elias left, Mira clutched her chest, her heart beating wildly, and she took several deep breaths as sweat poured from her brows and she stood still for almost three minutes until her wildly beating heart settled.
She had t powerful Siphons at the Mist Phantom and Amber Exile Stage, but none of them had half the presence of Elias.
Elias had just woken up, and his swarm robe had covered his body automatically. When he was speaking to Mira, he did not know that his eyes were occasionally flashing with prismatic colors, and his robes were moving by themselves, rippling in a way as if he were underwater.
From his intense beauty to his voice, deanor, and the sheer strength that just effortlessly erged from his body, Mira knew that the only reason she had not collapsed to her knees and was able to speak to him normally was all due to her talent, Cold Mind.
This talent was not so powerful, as it allowed her to suppress her emotions and gave her greater control of her body. In a tense and dangerous situation, she should be able to fight with a clear head and move her body in a way that was unnatural.
She had survived the massacre because of this talent, and also survived her first eting with Elias with it. She had always wanted to train this talent, but she hated how it made her feel, and now she knew she had to get used to this feeling, or she would not be able to function.
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