Virion Leywin
I sat at my desk chair, staring at the dragon that came all this way to be with me. "You know you didn't have to come, right?" I asked her as she sat on my bed, with a calm look to her. Everyone had returned, Callias was preparing the report with who died, so Elder Virion can let their families know.
"I wanted to fight with you, isn't that enough?" Sylvie tilted her head as she looked at me, I don't know, something about her horns made me smile, and this caused her to ask another question. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing." I replied. "You are right, at this time, you would be absorbing Uto's horn, while Arthur trained, but you did that already, so you must be bored at the castle." I smirked. "You missed me, didn't you?"
"Shut up." Sylvie shook her head but smiled. "I wanted to be useful, and I wasn't staying in the Floating Castle, here with you, I can be useful." That's fair, I wouldn't mind fighting with her. "And Arthur assigned me the task of keeping an eye on you."
"Oh, did he now?" I rolled my eyes. "He probably did, he worries about me too much, but who knows what will happen." A Retainer or Scythe could show up at any moment, I could slip in a middle of a battle, and a weapon could kill me.
"I intend on keeping you safe." Sylvie said once again.
"Tch, Sylvie, come on." I scratched my chin as I spoke. "You know I am the one who will be keeping you safe, like I have been since the war started, you won't be sacrificing yourself for anyone."
"Fine, we'll just promise to keep each other safe." Sylvie said, causing me to smile for some reason. "You agree?" She said seriously, looking for an answer to what she just said.
"I promise, Sylvie." I stood up from the chair and walked in front of the desk. "How's Arthur been?" I faced her, standing a couple of feet away from her. "I'm sure he is happy now that he is officially with Tess."
"He is." Sylvie answered me. "You know that he loves her, she loves him, they are meant to be, so of course he is happy." I nodded at her, knowing that was true. "His training is going well, and he's always asking about you."
"I figured." I faced the entrance of the tent and shouted. "Charley, come in here." The soldier that guarded my tent walked in at my command, I didn't need a guard, but at this point if it keeps people from just entering my tent, so it's fine. "Go get Callias for me, I would like to introduce him to Sylvie."
"Yes, sir." He bowed and left the tent.
"Wow, you speak with such authority around here." Sylvie said sarcastically. "I would have never thought that."
"Sylvie, I am a Lance, I have to act formally." I said with a straight face, but as we made eye contact, the two of us started to laugh. "Hahaha." I smiled and said. "I am the least formal person here, and everyone pretty much knows it at this point, but they still respect me."
"That's a good thing." Sylvie's golden eyes followed my every movement. "You want people to respect you, after everything you have done for Dicathen, I don't see how people don't respect you."
"Cause I am kid." I shrugged and made my way closer to her, sitting down on the bed by her side. "A kid that is mentally unstable, capable of killing most humans." I shook my head. "But who cares?"
"How are you doing mentally?" She asked as we sat together, and my thoughts immediately went to the Alacryan soldier I tortured by accident by implanting a Retainer's blood in him.
"I'm doing okay." I said and went on. "I mean, I'm killing a decent amount of people daily, so that never helps, but I am doing what I have to." Sylvie was looking at me, trying to examine if I was telling the truth, but I was an excellent liar.
"Are you sure?" Sylvie asked me again, and I nodded my head.
The tent flap opened, and Callias, one of my best friends walked into the tent, his eyes widened as he saw Sylvie and I together. "And who is this?" Callias asked with a smirk, and the two of us stood up.
"Callias meet Sylvie, Sylvie this is Callias, the person I fought with in the dungeons and now together here." I introduced the two, Callias reached his hand for her to take, not knowing the right response was probably bowing.
Sylvie took it, and they shook hands. "It's nice to meet you, Sylvie." His eyes wandered to her horns. "But I have to ask, are you human?"
She shook her head, and answered the question as she backed up to my side. "I am not, I am a dragon." His eyes widened even further, and she turned to me. "That was okay to tell him, right?"
"I don't see why not." If she fights in her dragon form, they'll find out anyways.
"So, are the two of you close or something?" Callias asked, smirking in my direction.
"Yeah." I answered. "We've been together for a while."
"Together?" He said questioningly.
"Callias." I just shook my head. "I wanted the two of you to meet, she'll be fighting with us from now on." I placed a hand on Sylvie's shoulder. "And Callias, she is quite strong, probably close to my strength in a way."
"Oh, wow, that makes sense if you are a dragon." Callias had a point. "Where will you be staying? Should I have a tent set up for you?" I removed my hand and waited to hear what Sylvie had to say.
"No, it's fine, I'll be staying here with Veer." Sylvie answered, somewhat catching me off guard, but it didn't matter.
"Really?" Callias asked questioningly.
Sylvie turned to me, so I answered. "Yep, I guess she'll be staying here with me." I'll need to get another bed, but it's fine. "That's really it, I wanted to introduce the two of you."
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Sylvie, I hope Veer is kind to you." Callias said to her, causing a smile to creep onto her face. "I sent the report to Commander Virion, we lost a total of seventeen soldiers today, their families will know by the end of the day."
"Okay." I replied, those seventeen lives died because they wanted to fight with me, instead of staying safe away from the field. I could have killed those seven hundred troops myself with the help of the conjurers and archers from above. "Have Melody join you, and the two of you should go see Daryl and meet the Captain of the Division that joined us, his name is Geist or something."
"Oh, you met him?" He asked, and I nodded, starting to laugh slightly. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing, the guy actually is nice, Sylvie, he's the professor Arthur beat in the one class and took his job." Sylvie turned to me with a questionable look, seeing if I was serious. "I'm telling the truth, I thought he was going to be a dick, but he was actually quite pleasant. I think Arthur beat some sense into him."
"No way." Sylvie replied. "I didn't see that coming."
"I know, right." I added.
"I'll go grab Melody and Daryl and go meet him." Callias answered, then went on. "You two can spend some time together." He left the tent, leaving Sylvie and me in here alone.
"He seems nice." Sylvie answered as she backed up to the bed again and sat down. "It's good to know he's been here for you while Arthur and I have been at the Floating Castle."
I faced her and spoke. "Yeah, he's been great to have around, and he is one of the strongest mages here." I tilted my head towards her. "I am happy you are here, it's nice to have another person I know here." I was starting to get to know the people here, but they were never going to be good friends of mine.
"I'm happy to be here too, Veer." She smiled at me, and I laughed slightly, but then she got serious. "Veer, there is one more thing you should know, it's good news, but I don't know what it means."
"What is it?" I was looking at her, waiting for what she had to tell me.
"Cynthia Goodsky is up and alive." My eyes widened. "She is doing well supposedly, no one has seen her yet except Commander Virion and the doctors."
"That's great." I was starting to get worried: it's been a while since we tried to save her, and remove that curse, but I am happy to hear she is fine. "Wow, I mean, you're right, I don't know what it means for us, and the Continent, she probably won't fight in the war unless she has too though."
"I was thinking the same thing." Sylvie responded. "Cynthia is smart, so she'll probably help plan future attacks or other things." I nodded, Sylvie was right, she, I know it's rude, but she is old, it's the truth. The thing was, Cynthia was a silver core mage, and could possibly hit white core with the right work.
"Yeah." Sylvie was looking at me weirdly, like something was on my face. "What? Is there still blood on me." I rubbed my cheeks, trying to get it off if there was some, but there was nothing there.
"Who has been tying your hair up?" She asked me, and I tilted my head, wondering why that mattered. "Veer, it looks like a child tied your hair, it's not even all in the ponytail." I reached up and felt it, some of my hair was not tied up.
"Uhh, I did, I tied it up quickly."
"Come here." Sylvie said, motioning to the ground in front of her. "Sit on the ground in front of me, and let me tie it for you, it is a complete mess, Veer."
"Ha." I laughed slightly, looking at the girl on my bed. "Fine." I took the hair tie out, handed it to Sylvie, and sat down in front of her with my back against the bed, her legs on either side of me. "I doubt you can even tie it better."
"You watch me." She said from behind me as I looked across the tent as Sylvie grabbed my hair, and pulled it back, so she could tie it. "Do you brush your hair, it's so messy?"
"You know I don't." It was messy cause I never brushed it. "I was gonna have it cut when I was in the Floating Castle last time, but never did, so it's gonna have to wait until next time."
"I see." She said. "You definitely need to have it cut."
Sylvie pulled my hair back with some force. "Jeez." I said, tilting my head back so it was on her lap, and I looked up into her eyes. "Can you not pull it so damn hard."
Her face was somewhat red. "It's the only way to make it good, you know it doesn't hurt you that badly." She's right, it didn't really hurt, I just didn't want her to rip my hair out. I was still looking up into her eyes with a smile on my face as she held my hair that was across her lap. "Now let me do this." She pushed my head up and pulled on my hair some more.
"How do you even know how to do this?" I asked her as she continued going.
"I've been watching the maids tie Arthur's hair for the past weeks, and I've picked up a few tricks." Sylvie said, slipping the hair tie on. "There you go, it's perfect now."
I moved away from her, getting to my feet. "Thanks, Sylvie." I felt the top of my head, it did feel like my brain was being stretched, but I was thankful she helped. "How do I look?"
"Better." She answered, causing both of us to laugh. "Haha." This was nice, having her here like this, I really do enjoy being with her. "Veer, there is something you should know." Sylvie said, looking away from me. "And I know it's a little embarrassing, but I want you to know the truth on how I feel."
I leaned on the edge of my desk, looking at her. "What is it?" I asked, wondering why she would be embarrassed, oh, shit, never mind, I knew. "You can tell me." I smiled brightly, assuring her she could speak truthfully.
However, her whole demeanor changed for some reason, her eyes closed, and as they reopened, they somewhat looked at me curiously. "Hmmm." Sylvie hummed for some reason, then spoke again, this time though, what she said, gave me goosebumps. "You must be Virion Leywin."