"Ugh." Minthara grunts in disgust as she bites down "That is still as vile as I rember." Happily crunching the disgusting roast horker I shrug "I quite enjoy it personally."
We were sat in the vast gardens of the Blue Palace, the place was empty and quiet with the only real sound being the buzzing of insects blessedly kept away by the light wind barrier I had around at all tis. The garden was lit up by a number of iron lanterns commissioned about a year ago on my recomndation, perfectly lighting up the familiar pavilion below the mage's tower.
She turns her head to slowly and raises an eyebrow "You have so of the best cooks in the province and you choose to eat this?" She waves the 'al' with amusent clear in her eyes "Oh, who am I kidding? This fits you perfectly."
"Already so familiar with my wiles?" I chuckle and take another bite, still chewing like a barbarian I go on "I'd have thought I was harder to see through than that."
"I am used to it at this point." She smirks "Honestly you are far weirder when you are serious."
"My prestigious image, ruined!" I gasp and we share a chuckle, I shake my head "Still, are you telling that after all those years in the slums you aren't used to shitty food? I'd think you'd have grown to appreciate it by now."
She deadpans at that "So I should keep eating slum food because I am from the slums?" "Oh I would never dare question the tastes of soone of your... prestigious pedigree." I cackle "Maybe you were the prissy noble instead of all along?"
She huffs and turns back to look at the gardens "Ass."
"And yet here you are, spending your ti listening to the ramblings of an ass." I retort with so humor but also a question.
She crosses her arms and looks opposite of "It's not like that."
"Oh so you weren't feeling masochistic?" I ask, earning a grumble "What is it then?"
It is only after so thirty seconds that she speaks "You are the only one who doesn't care about what I am." She sounds lancholic before adding with a light smile "My little sister notwithstanding everyone treats like so... thing."
"I'd have thought that would earn them a quick eting with your fist." I quip.
"Not in a bad way." She shakes her head, though obviously amused, and a bit tempted, by my comnt "Ever since my reveal as the 'Dragonborn of legend' the Nords look to with awe and everyone else treats with caution." Her voice lowers as she goes on "It isn't like I don't like it, a part of relishes the feeling of others wishing to prostrate themselves!" She winces guiltily as she says it out loud "But... at this point even Marco seems to walk on eggshells around , he tries to hide it behind his humor but I learned to see the signs."
"So what?" I snort "You invited to this little sitdown of ours because I don't give a shit about you being a literal demigod and prophesized savior of Mundus?"
She turns to face again with a light smile on her face, she nods firmly "Exactly."
I let out an amused huff "Well, I can't argue with that."
"It is odd." She speaks up after a mont.
Seeing her waiting for my prompt I ask "What is?"
"Being so similar to everyone yet so different at the sa ti..." She mumbles "You are the only other person I know that is in at least sowhat of a similar situation."
"Oh please." I roll my eyes "I may have the tiniest shred of stolen divinity coursing through my blood but compared to the literal sun that is your own power I am but a flickering candle."
Instead of getting caught up in my retort she laughs "Was that a complint from the ever sarcastic Lord Dagoth himself?"
"A re observation, I assure you." I raise a finger and huff 'indignantly' "I will have you know I am most gracious with my complints when I feel like it."
"Of course, of course" She nods 'seriously' "I wouldn't dare to presu."
Rolling my eyes I decide to shift the topic "I do wonder however, how does it feel to have three fathers?"
She blinks "What?"
"Oh, you know." I grin "Your actual father, good ole' Akatosh, and now Titus."
She stares at for a mont before looking ahead with despair in her eyes, slowly covering her face and muttering "What even is my life at this point?"
I just laugh.
And I don't stop for a full minute.
She punches my arm "Stop that you damned bastard, I am having a crisis here!"
I don't.
She glares at for a while before my own mood infects her and she lets out a light chuckle herself "Bastard."
"Oi!" I stop laughing and suddenly turn 'serious' "I will have you know my parents were happily married!"
She lets out another chuckle "Fine, I apologize."
"They were a pair of fucking weirdoes though." I add "A Dagoth who escaped his father's ambitions and an Aren who escaped her own father's obsession."
"What were they like?" She asks rather quickly.
I hum and cup my chin "My father was an Imperial Legate, and probably a Blade as well."
She goggles.
"Yeah" I chuckle "He was a spiteful cunt."
"For so reason I find myself unsurprised." She gives a pointed look.
"Who is giving out complints now?" I wink and she huffs "Back to the point though, he was a dutiful man and a bit playful when he had the ti. My mother on the other hand... oh she was definitely the one wearing the pants in that relationship, no matter Vyren's strength, when she got her hands on the pan he would quickly learn that she didn't need her family's magic to kick his shit in."
"Honestly, I expected sothing a bit..." Minthara trails off.
"What?" I smirk "You think I got this mad on my own?"
She deadpans "Yes."
"Well I am sorry to disappoint." My grin doesn't falter "Even in death they are still a pair of little shits, why I even talked to them today and nothing has changed."
Minthara's eye twitches "I keep forgetting about that."
"But of course, the n'wah couldn't possibly understand the glory of Dunri traditions!" I offer a flamboyant bow while still seated. Before she can answer however, I speak again "What of your own parents?"
"Oh I wouldn't know really." She pretends to hesitate "Apparently I have more than most." "If you can tell how Akatosh is at raising children I am all ears." I cackle. Grumbling at my retort she looks away "I never t my father really, the only thing I even know of him was that he was an Altr my mother t after the great war... My mother though" She pauses "I would rather not speak of her right now."
I raise an eyebrow at that but quickly nod "Fair enough." No point in dredging up old mories if they were going to ruin the mood.
"You know..." She begins after a brief pause "For all of the ti we had spent together it was always so kind of training, or planning, or working toward so kind of goal... I never really even thought to ask about you... well, besides your family that is."
"What about ?" I quirk an eyebrow, still chewing on my fourth slab of horker.
"What do you actually want to do?" She asks a bit more animatedly "When all this is done, when the world isn't under threat of destruction, when there is no war looming ahead and we are all still alive... What is it that you wish to do?"
"Been thinking about this yourself, have you?" I ask in turn and she nods. "It has been a while since soone asked that." I frown slightly in reminiscence, I hesitate to answer but quickly find myself quite at ease and so I point to the skies and speak "What do you see
there?"
She tilts her head slightly and looks up "The sky and the stars?"
"That is the rather obvious answer, yes." I nod "But what else can you think of?"
She frowns in concentration "The paths to Aetherius? Oblivion itself? Manifestations of
gods?" She shrugs "I could list a whole bunch of things attributed to the skies to you but I
don't think that is what you are really asking here."
"Quite true." I nod, making her raise her head in pride "Want to know what I see?"
She seems a tad confused but still waves for to go on "Of course."
"Infinity." I say with a serene smile.
"Infinity?" She raises a confused, if curious, eyebrow.
"What do you think lies beyond the stars?" I ask "Beyond Oblivion and beyond Aetherius?"
She ponders the question for a mont before shrugging "I don't know, it could be nothing."
"Or..." I add leadingly "It could be everything."
"Everything?" She hums "What, like a whole another world or sothing?"
"An infinity of them." I grin.
"So, what?" Her brow scrunches into the tiniest of frowns "You want to find out what is out
there?" "Exactly!" My grin is filled with teeth, an rather terrifying image out of context "I want to see new and unimaginable places, et new people, learn of their cultures and beliefs, and then
kill them!"
She seems almost sad for a brief mont laughing it off "Of course you would add that last
bit."
I shrug "What can I say? My life has made a warrior more than it has a scher."
"Uh huh." She deadpans "Says the Chosen of phala."
Before the ever thirsty spider lady can appear to troll her I block the connection. I tilt my head
and shrug with a light smile "No one said I couldn't be both."
"True, true." She allows magnanimously.
Once more we descend into a calm silence, only interrupted by my constant chewing.
After a full minute of this, Minthara's eye starts to twitch "Have you not had enough
already?"
"I shall never have enough!" I proclaim defiantly, before quickly depositing the food in my storage "But yeah I can stop now."
She gives a flat stare at this, obviously realizing I was doing it just to annoy her "I will not
give you the satisfaction of a reaction."
"This is already a reaction though." I smirk triumphantly "Which ans that I have won!"
She grumbles, but fails to hide the slightest smile on her face.
"Say, Minthara?" I speak up after a mont.
"Yes?" She seems almost startled, having drifted off a bit.
"Would you mind if I tried sothing?" I ask.
She just shrugs, not hesitating for a mont "Sure."
Nodding I focus my divinity into my hand and poke her forehead with two of my fingers,
imdiately causing her to relax and lt into the bench letting out a sound that was quite akin to a relaxed purr.
The two gigantic golden eyes I felt staring at my back from everywhere was definitely not a feeling I would soon forget though.
As I pulled my hand back Minthara blinked in surprise "What was that?"
"An experint." I explain "I theorized I could block off a bit of your draconic side if I
dampened your divinity a bit and it seems like it worked."
"It definitely did." she looks at my hand curiously "Like a weight was lifted off my shoulders." She then quickly adds "It is back now though."
"Well duh." I deadpan "I can dampen such effects, not utterly cut them off."
She nods in understanding "Makes sense... Still, could you do that again? That was very
relaxing."
I shrug and summon forth my divine power, this ti poking her in the shoulder because I didn't want to stiffen my hand like an idiot, a full three minutes later I felt my power
flickering as it retreated back into .
Minthara was out like a log.
Shaking my head I grabbed her and teleported us back to my tower, quickly summoning a pair
of servants and having them carry her to her room.
I was not blind to what was going on, she had been crushing on ever since we fist t and I
started to give her the power she craved, and it wasn't like she was trying to hide it either. Thinking about it briefly, I found that I wasn't wholly opposed to the idea, she was quite beautiful and sharp when she wished to be and her seeming resistance to my ability to sense emotions was a definite plus as well, even though the whole proposition ca with the massive headache that was her future position...
No matter, it wasn't a decision I would be making anyti soon and I knew damn well she
would co out of this whole ordeal quite changed. I wasn't even sure how I felt about it yet.
As always, I had ti and thus I would procrastinate.
.oht etanitsarcorp ton lliw,htogaD droL deronoh eht ekilnu,I
!pu yap os detcelloc eb tsum sehtit eht
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