The steeping finished and the face-down brunette, laying in a very soft charcoal sleeping dress, sighed into the pillow and chose to acknowledge that by dry-cleaning the bed. She would never move if she didn’t reset everything and besides - she figured it would be easier on her heart if that quality at least began fresher together when they later slept. Rolling off the side, she watched as a warm and deep amber liquid was strained into one of only two deep violet-blue cups.
A color that she knew would shift into an almost gray-yellow or even clear in the right light angles, as iolite - gem quality cordierite - simply had that anisotropic property to it. A variation in wavelength absorption known as pleochroism that, in some more common stones, could be useful for finding the direction of the sun when lost on an overcast day.
’Though if you don’t know if it is closer to dawn or dusk, say because you were knocked out and woke up in the ocean, then you can still be quite lost and drift in the wrong direction fifty percent of the time.’
Elua’s nostalgia aside, she could tell that they had been grown and then worked into delicate teacups from a whole patiently produced Crystal. Considering her father actually did know an Element technique to join matching substances, just like her mother knew one for Earth quite useful in seamless construction, it made the set quite a show of commitment to perfection for him. Which is why she planned to keep to herself...
The fact that the handle on the one she was about to use was just a *fraction* uneven along one part of its curved plane. And that the fluting attempt to make it look more like a gemstone had a tilt to it on one plane that she thought he didn’t intend. At least she would keep it to herself until she saw her father again, anyway, when she would whisper it into his ear while hugging him.
In any case, the thoughtful gifts would always shrug off the same heat which could have cracked a material like porcelain. Though it was also just a bit heavier than that more common piece. So as she sat at the table, fingers gratefully curling right around that little mistake - that she was going to keep forever to hold over Ondua’s head once she engraved the cups with protective sigils - the reincarnator chose to speak one sentence to start the coming argument off.
Before taking a lovely, quenching sip of very warm bliss. Aided by the nicely everted rim that helped control the liquid’s flow into her lips. With the thought that she would indeed use some of the fruit jam on the tray today that a calloused finger pushed over as she spoke.
"You realize that I have now informed your city that their Warden Patrician keeps a taboo illusionist of indeterminate, but obviously alarming power, as a supposedly beloved household fixture."
Qatrand hummed, neither admitting nor denying the severity. Pigeon blues were fixed on her wife’s movements instead. The line of that jaw as she took another quick sip and closed her eyes, bringing down the quite strong cup so gently that it could have just as easily been a bubble that would pop if mistreated. The other woman felt that gaze, but was too busy thinking that her father was also a little cheeky.
She decided the ’wrong’ angle flute was actually intentional. Painstakingly oriented so that most of the cup would look the same to the nearby viewer, but when it was tipped just enough to send the contents beginning to flow, that section would shift colors in a way the other panels would not. Almost like a warning not to tip further and spill - as if she had done that since she was four and still pretending to learn her balance!
The Goltbred heiress huffed and stirred the sweet addition just shy of vigorously. At least she could still tell him he didn’t have a good handle on things!... she thought before turning fully vigorous, because she was sitting there making *puns*. All while a mildly oblivious swordswoman thought that she was quite a beloved part of this household, indeed.
"Do *you* realize just how alarmed everyone would have really been when you included accurate sound into your sudden ’Projection’ of my first fight with Voidlings?"
"Rather alarmed, I would think."
"And I would almost think you were not trying to stay so hidden anymore. Just like with how much you told me was shown to the Yecine council members."
"...I am just having trouble regulating myself is all. But no matter how good you are at defending yourself, you still need to properly explain the other part. Why?"
Instead of asking what the pouting woman meant with her question, Qatrand took her first sip of tea. She hadn’t liked the variety much at first, and if she was being honest she still preferred water or occasionally fruit juices... but some habits had a way of growing on you, just like some people did. If they actually showed their appealing and interesting sides off.
"You do not particularly care what anyone says about where you should remain posted, when I am out in the dark with the sort of monsters."
"No. They didn’t need to know that, though. I did a good job of burying my involvement when I had that fake Whispering Winds scout ’die’. So, why?"
"Because I don’t want you to perform who you really are from the shadows next Descent. If you want to stand at my shoulder - or on them - and have the whole world look the wrong way with your illusions because they need to, you can."
"That is too much leeway and doesn’t solve the fear of-"
"You said you would risk the most troublesome situations for my sake."
After being cut off, El quieted down. It wasn’t that her darling never interrupted her - actually she did it a lot. The fact that she didn’t hold back when she thought it necessary was one of Qatrand’s most charming points. Despite it irking the ancient spirited woman when anyone else at all did it.
"I would. I have. And I will."
"Then at least think about listening to me on this. Openly, without restraint at my side... that is troublesome for you and myself. And yet it is also for my sake. Because if I have to watch your role in things disappear even more completely than mine, achievements that were covered up in the aftermath of the invasion, then I feel that I am not doing my most important job."
"...And what is that?"
"Protecting and cherishing you."
Mint eyes quivered and closed, draining the last of her cup. She had a good idea what the blonde would say, but accurately expecting... and it genuinely happening were two entirely different modes of reality. With very distinct emotional explosions. For her part, Qat copied her rapid imbibe then set down her own cup.
"You’re going to go after the thing that’s eating at this continent and beyond. We both know it. And because of who you are, how you are, I’m going to be the one who gets to choose to send you."
That eventual fact was most troublesome to the both of them, indeed. After all, the swordswoman would have fought the entity already if she could find it - and the sigilist would have come back to turn over every stone and obliterate it if she truly expected it was a real danger.
...To her beloved, anyway.