Carmilla laughed softly, and the three of them stayed there for a while longer, not in a hurry, talking about nothing in particular, trading thoughts on the morning light, the fish outside, and what they wanted for breakfast.
Rick hadn’t felt this normal in a long ti. Not brave, not responsible, and not with the weight of the world on their shoulders.
Three people who really liked each other spending a quiet morning together in the best way possible.
Carmilla finally said she wanted to get so real training in before the day was over, and Natasha said she wanted to go over so notes she had made about ward optimization while her mind was still fresh.
They said goodbye in a way that was easy and natural, like people who didn’t need to make a big deal out of their feelings. Rick watched them leave with a warm, simple, and positive feeling in his chest.
He took a mont to really enjoy that feeling before getting up to face whatever the rest of the day had in store for him.
As it turned out, the rest of the day would be spent with Sylvia and Zara, which was both wonderful and required a very specific kind of emotional strength.
He saw them in the ocean gardens outside the east wing of the palace. This was supposed to be a peaceful place with flowering coral and sea life that drifted by.
The word that mattered was ’supposed to,’ and when Rick got there, Sylvia was floating with her arms crossed and a look of imperial displeasure on her face as she looked at Zara, who had her arms crossed and looked like she was about to start a fight that she was sure she would win in thirty seconds.
Between them, sothing sharp and strong had slashed one of ridia’s decorative coral sculptures clean in half.
"Ladies, ladies, calm down... it seems I really need to keep in touch with both of you." Rick asked with a sigh, "So... do I want to know what the current problem is here?"
At the sa ti, both won looked at him.
Zara said, "As always... this bitch started it."
"What!? Fuck you! I did nothing of the sort," Sylvia said, in a tone that made it clear she had done sothing of the sort but wouldn’t admit it.
"I just said sothing about how the demonic fighting style is worse than the draconic martial tradition, and she overreacted like a fucking slut."
"Don’t act all innocent like that! You fucking said my technique was sloppy," Zara said in a flat voice.
"I said it was good enough for the demon realm, which is—"
"Sa FUCKING thing."
"It IS not at all—"
Rick said, "It really is."
Sylvia’s golden eyes turned to him with a look that said she was thinking about whether or not to be angry. In the end, she chose not to be, which Rick was thankful for because it saved them about fifteen minutes of arguing.
"Regardless..." Sylvia said, with the dignity of soone who is moving on from sothing they definitely did, "I was just spending ti in this garden..."
"The damage to the sculpture was just a coincidence..."
"You cut it in half to show a sword form," Zara said.
"As I said, it was just a coincidence."
Rick looked at the neat cut in the middle of what had been a very pretty coral arrangent. Then he turned to Sylvia, who was looking at sothing that wasn’t there on her sleeve.
Then he looked at Zara, who looked pleased, like soone who had made their point.
"Okay," Rick said. "Both of you... co with now."
Zara and Sylvia exchanged glances and simultaneously made disgusted faces when they realized they both had to accompany him; they both prefer to be alone with him.
Rick thought of the next few hours they spent together as "organized chaos," which was the only way to describe what happened when Sylvia and Zara were in the sa room for a long ti.
Both won were in charge of their own areas and had no desire to be anything other than themselves around the other. This created a very specific dynamic that was both tiring and genuinely fun.
Rick suggested that they go to more of ridia’s outer districts together, and both won agreed that it was fine. This ant that they agreed on sothing but didn’t want to admit it.
The ocean gardens near the hos were quieter than the central plaza. Ocean dweller kids watched with wide eyes from a safe distance as the Dragon Queen and Demon General drifted through their neighborhoods.
Rick stopped to talk to a few of Nerissa’s younger kids who were doing small administrative tasks in the area. Zara then tried to help one of them fix a problem with a ward relay’s structure right away, because Zara helped people no matter if they needed it or not.
Sylvia watched the pair for a while, then went over to explain to another young ocean dweller, in great detail and with the calm authority of soone who had been alive for a thousand years, exactly why the way they were patrolling was not working.
The ocean dweller seed a little overwheld, but Sylvia’s advice was technically correct.
Rick thought as he watched them that they were both doing the sa thing and would never admit it.
He said this out loud without aning to, and Zara imdiately said, "We are not doing the sa thing."
At the sa ti, Sylvia said, "That is not what is happening here," and then both of them looked at each other and then looked away with the sa look of mild annoyance.
Rick closed his mouth tightly and didn’t say anything.
’They’re always like this... but it feels arousing for , and I know... it’s a fucked-up thing to say.’
...
The vendor was so nervous about having two well-known Major Power representatives at his stall that he kept giving Rick things he hadn’t ordered when they stopped to eat at one of the smaller market areas.
Rick gratefully accepted everything, which made the vendor calr. Rick then had way too much food, which he shared with both won.
Sylvia ate with the careful grace of soone who sees grace in small things as part of who they are. Zara ate like she was doing the food a favor by eating it.
"Just look at you..." Sylvia said, "You don’t know how to behave."
"I have good manners," Zara said, "but only when I need to... and this isn’t one of those tis."
"All situations need—"
"Does the front line need manners, I ask of you, B-I-T-C-H?"
"That’s a whole other thing, S-L-U-T—"
"Ohh...? Is it?"
Rick was eating a piece of seasoned kelp and watching this conversation with the resigned enjoynt of soone who has accepted that this is just how things are now.
At one point, without really aning to, he reached over and put one hand on Zara’s arm and the other on Sylvia’s shoulder. This was a quiet, steadying gesture that made both won stop arguing.
Sylvia saw his hand on her shoulder. Her face changed, and the golden warmth in her eyes softened in a way that she didn’t try to hide.
Zara looked at his hand on her arm. She didn’t say anything at all, which was just as expressive as most people’s long speeches.
"Can we at least enjoy our food without arguing?" Rick asked, "Just this once, please?"
"She provoked ," Zara said.
"She provoked HERSELF," Sylvia said.
"That doesn’t even make sense."
"It ans exactly what I wanted it to an."
"Oh my milfs..." Rick didn’t move his hands. "Please, both of you... just enjoy the food and be quiet, okay?"
There was a pause for both of them. After that, both won picked up their food and kept eating, without talking to each other or planning ahead.
For almost four minutes, there was silence. Then Sylvia made a small comnt about how well the local spices were grown, and Zara imdiately disagreed.
Rick noticed that neither of them moved away from him, and both of them kept their voices down.
Progress, he decided. Relative and asurable progress.
"Well... for now, it’s good, I think...?"
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