Nemo did not like parties. Large social gatherings in general made her nervous, but parties lacked that certain sense of professionalism that, for example, a coronation, sported. People attended with the expectation that conversations would take place, and that you could let loose a bit. Nemo could not allow herself to relax.
Especially not after the Arboreal Maiden's rant.
"Excuse me, madam. Might I learn your name?"
Another drunk lord approached her, the fifth of the night. Perhaps she would have been flattered if she was raised a normal girl, maybe she would have been offended. Nemo was completely indifferent. Part of it was a symptom of the Velar's proclivity towards isolation, they naturally preferred independence to companionship, but the primary motivation for her rejection of his advances was his intent. He was after her body.
He wasn't interested in her as a Velar, he probably didn't even know she was one, but she was not above acknowledging that her body was attractive by human standards, at least on a surface level. Covered in a dark cloth from head to toe, her curves could be described as enticing, the mystery of her exact proportions providing that extra little bit of tantalizing attraction. Normally most men would not even think of approaching her, her cold and aloof personality carefully crafted to drive strangers who did not have business with her away, but with the help of some liquid courage more than just a few would take their chances.
Every time it happened she considered removing some of the cloth, just a little bit around her forearms to show them just how unattractive she was underneath, but she held herself back. Young Velar, 'immature' Velar, were unable to retract their quills. They were unable to sheath them beneath their skin. These quills, long with a sharp point, are one of a great many natural weapons the Velar have at their disposal. They grew along the arms, back, and legs, and could grow back in about half a day. Depending on the location, they could easily be removed and used like darts, or as a means to weaponize their blood.
Unfortunately, their inconvenience extended beyond the realm of aesthetics. Just like a porcupine, they could embed themselves in the skin of any person who rubbed against them the wrong way, and they had a tendency to shred lighter clothing. That was the reason for the cloth wrap, a heavy textile with a dense enough weave to prevent them from stabbing through while the 'loose' nature of the wrap permitted her access to her quills to be used as throwing darts should the situation require it.
Also, the black cloth looked cool paired with her sky blue hair, but Nemo wasn't about to admit that.
One day, when she finally matured enough for her quills to fully retract, she would like to look for more outfits. Every Velar felt the same in their youth, the quills being a colossal inconvenience in a plethora of circumstances, so it was customary for them to take a portion of their earnings from jobs taken during adolescence and spend it all on clothes. The Nameless were the clan most suited for covert operations, and cloth wraps stood out like a sore thumb.
"Hello?" The man waved his hand in front of her eyes, trying to see if she was daydreaming.
Evidently he hadn't gotten her message, so she made it abundantly clear by walking away, never having acknowledged his presence. She wasn't particularly attached to this spot in the room, or this room in general. It wasn't like she would be punished for leaving either.
Perhaps it was time for her to find Titanyana.
"DONOVAN!!!" Diana's voice, a yell, faint from this distance but definitely hers, her cry for help.
Nemo's gut reaction was to rush to her aid. Diana was the Empress! If she was in danger she needed to be there! However Nemo understood that was not necessarily the best option. She was already on thin ice, and she needed to tread lightly. She would disturb people no more than was strictly necessary.
She was still going to hurry though.
- - - - -
Titanyana had heard Diana's call for help while heading back upstairs. It was faint, even for her ears, but it was distinct enough for her to attach a name to it. Temporarily abandoning her plan to turn in for the night, she leapt down the stairwell. She was light and had strong legs, she could take the impact so long as she landed on her feet.
Adjusting her impact angle with a few twists of her tail, she gave herself a brief moment to recover before sprinting off in the direction of the shouting. The halls were a little less crowded this time around, only three or four people along the entire stretch. One of those people, unfortunately, was Nemo. Nemo, ever alert, noticed Titanyana the instant she touched the floor.
Titanyana went through the five stages of grief in as many steps. Was this an extreme coincidence, or was it just a product of the events transpiring around them? Certainly, Nemo too would respond to Diana's call for aid, such was the duty of a servant like herself. That did leave Titanyana wondering why she wasn't sprinting though, was Diana not her top priority?
Titanyana hoped Nemo's face would give her a clue, but it was covered. Titanyana didn't like that. How could she trust someone who didn't show their face? Perhaps only one who tried to hide it as a courtesy, someone who had been wounded, maimed, and scarred so horribly that they believed most people would find them revolting, but Nemo did not mention having suffered damage to her face. It could just be a touchy subject, something she did not lie to bring up in her already quite limited number of conversations, but Titanyana didn't trust her.
After all, Nemo used poison.
Ignoring her, or at the very least not paying attention to her, was probably the correct option if she wanted to avoid trouble. Maintaining her speed, eyes focused on the room in front of them, Titanyana danced around a small group of partygoers who seemed to be frozen in place. Hand on the hilt of her blade, she too froze. Unlike that group, which had stopped out of shock and awe, Titanyana's instincts forced her to stop. She felt it before she saw him, just like Len, and it didn't take her much time to figure out what was happening.
Len had positioned himself between Diana and an angry man, a man who was only just beginning to slap towards Donovan.
Had she felt this man to be stronger, had she felt the situation to be too far gone, she might have intervened. She might have knocked that individual out in the same way she did earlier. However she didn't feel the need to do that this time around. If anything, she felt it was that man who needed her help, needed her to knock out Donovan.
Even if she had the incentive, there was no way she would ever do that now, not when Donovan was like this.
krrk
Titanyana's eyes were glued to Donovan, yet she could only barely figure out what he had done. He wrapped his arm around this opponent's forearm, the man's hand pinned between the side of Donovan's chest and his bicep, with Donovan's forearm placed perpendicular on his elbow. Then, with one sudden jerk of his body, Donovan bent that arm the wrong direction.
It was something she had never seen before, the sound sending a jitter down her spine. She had involuntarily dropped her stance, jumping up out of her crouch and standing up straight. She had also backed up a tad.
POW
The first punch made her take a step backwards, possibly the first time she had done so. It was a vicious strike, but contained no emotion. It was controlled, indifferent, apathetic. Titanyana could have believed that it was only an unfortunate accident that fist meant face.
POW
The second punch made her shiver in earnest. The sound of the impact causing her to tense up.
POW
The third threatened to make her legs numb, and she stopped breathing.
POK
The fourth lit a little spark in her stomach, giving her an energy that she didn't have an outlet for.
POW
The fifth added fuel to the fire, the building energy making her ears flicker.
The crash of an almost corpse onto the floor caused that fire to spread, her body growing hot in anticipation. Her tail swayed slowly from side to side, fingertips twitching out of some grotesque anticipation as Donovan raised his boot over his foes head and-
"DONOVAN!!!!"
The fire was extinguished by Diana's outburst. Titanyana started breathing again, shaking her head and averting her gaze from what had just transpired. Despite being rapt at attention only moments earlier, she could no longer bring herself to look on with a clean conscious. What Donovan just did was not something she could smile on, but the heat from that fire had yet to disperse.
What exactly that fire was eluded her. Part of it felt like the sensation from an hour or two earlier, part of it made her want to run away, part of it made her want to join him. It was odd in that way, equal parts lust, bloodlust, and cowardice. confused by her emotions, she didn't even notice Donovan escorting Diana away.
- - - - -
Vindication. More than anything else, what Nemo felt most in the moment she witnessed Donovan in that state of calm rage was vindication. This was the Emperor, her people's promised leader.
She was certain that Donovan was the Emperor from pretty much the moment she laid eyes on him, the radiance he exuded was all the indication she needed, however she still had some reservations about who he was as a person. Donovan was weak, understandable given his situation, but it did make her nervous.
How was he supposed to rein in the clans if he could not control them by might? He wouldn't be able to. Even now, the only reason the Velar obeyed the Progenitor's decrees was because she possessed the ability to destroy them, it had nothing to do with age.
She also had reservations about his attitude. He was diligent, a hard worker by all accounts, but otherwise there really wasn't much of substance. There was little ferocity, no ambition, and a frightening lack of imperiousness - all important qualities in an emperor.
What she had just born witness to swatted away her fears. Minor qualities like ferocity and ambition were nothing in the face of that Donovan. There was no ferocity in his eyes, no ambition in his mind, and the cold demeanor he assumed showed he had no need to act superior. It was a display in the extremes of the qualities the Velar admired and feared the most, protectiveness and apathy.
The Velar knew more than any other that a foe acting to protect something was far more dangerous than a foe who was trying to take. This danger increased relative to the importance of that thing. For Donovan there was nothing more important than Diana, an 'object' he was so hyperprotective of he would go so far as to murder those who even attempted to harm her.
The other aspect was the apathy. Velar are by nature creatures of emotion, requiring great amounts of physical and mental training that bordered on torture in order to keep themselves in line. For many, the Progenitor was the embodiment of this ideal, the image of divine indifference. However indifference, neutrality, is not entirely apathetic. The Progenitor might not let emotions dictate her actions, but she still had to consider the feelings of those involved when making a decision.
To Donovan, Rishtahn was nothing more than a threat to his treasure, and he acted accordingly. He did not harbor hatred towards Rishtahn, emotion did not play a role in his decision making process, he was just an obstacle, a threat that needed to be neutralized. Most people would have stopped at knocking him out, rendering him incapable of threatening Diana, or otherwise inhibiting his ability to harm her, but not Donovan, not the Emperor. The Emperor needed to be completely certain that the threat was gone and would not resurface in the future. The only reason he stopped before that point was because of the Empress' will.
If this man, Donovan, had not displayed the signs of being the Emperor then she would have attempted to take him for herself. Even if reproduction was impossible, the ecstasy she would receive from being the reason for such a reaction would be unmatched. Unfortunately that would be unlikely to happen, she could see Diana had already taken that top spot. Nemo would never be able to evoke a response of the same magnitude.
But that didn't mean she couldn't get something close.
The Emperor was protective of that which belonged to him and had value, be it emotional or utilitarian. If she wanted to be 'protected' she needed to become 'valuable'. How could she become valuable? How could she allow the rest of her people to become valuable? It was going to be a slow process, but that didn't bother her. What gave her reservations was the difficulty involved with achieving that status of 'valuable'.
Loyalty, undying and absolute, would be the first step on that path. However loyalty was easy, and it didn't mean much unless she had utility. Nemo felt she was useful, combat and stealth being two of her strong suits, but could she truly say that she had value? Anybody with a significant base of split could 'fight good' if they were given sufficient time and training. Likewise, even someone not strong with split could be made an excellent infiltrator with training. Others might not possess the anatomical peculiarities of the Velar, but it was definitely possible to poison people without the use of blood arts.
Nemo needed skills and abilities that Donovan could not go without. All of the Velar did. She didn't know what that would take the form of, but there was definitely something. Her Emperor did not have an Empire, at least not yet, so it went without saying there were a great many gaps in his capabilities to affect his will on the world.
Nemo turned her head to Titanyana.
She hadn't really recognized it before now, but the Emperor had displayed similar qualities when resuscitating Titanyana hadn't he? He was, perhaps, a little bit more ferocious, more emotional, but he wasn't dealing with an obstacle then. The threat was poison, something he was not equipped deal with. His actions were more of a plea, a desperate effort not to let something valuable to him be destroyed. The Emperor was angry because he lacked control, because he could not protect what he deemed precious.
What had Titanyana done to achieve such a status in his eyes?
There was no romance between them, at least no romance that she could see, so it was unlikely that he valued her on emotional grounds. His attachment must have been to her utility, but what was that utility? Titanyana might be a pretty good fighter, excellent by all means, but Nemo had proven her ability to best her in combat. Given that she had already sworn fealty to him, it couldn't be a difference of loyalty. Titanyana must have been able to provide something that Nemo just couldn't, and Titanyana was not the person to ask if she wanted to find out.
Given she still had business with her, Nemo still approached.
- - - - -
"Princess Strapper." Titanyana almost jumped at the mention of her name. "I believe it is high time that I formally apologize for my mistake."
Titanyana turned to find Nemo bowing her head, arms straight at her sides. Titanyana panicked for a moment, wondering why she had chosen to do this now, but she collected herself upon realizing this was probably her last chance anyways. Titanyana was headed back upstairs after this.
". . ."
"So that alone is not enough. Very well." Nemo dropped to the ground and prostrated herself, her posture similar to a dogeza.
This was a humiliating gesture, the act of prostration making a mockery of one's status. It would mean very little to one who did not value their status in society, one such as Nemo, but she lacked methods that would otherwise demonstrate her feelings of remorse and guilt for her actions. If anything, this was embarrassing Titanyana.
Her cheeks, already flushed from those emotions earlier, were climbing to the infrared scale on the spectrum of light.
"Please stand." She managed to maintain her composure though. She had participated in her fair share of 'royal' events, it was common practice for the monarch to ask the party displaying deference by way of kneeling or a bowed head to 'rise' once they felt enough time had passed. That same logic should apply here.
". . . am I to assume I am forgiven then?"
Titanyana had not expressly given amnesty for the offense, so Nemo had not yet officially been forgiven. Titanyana did not completely believe in Nemo's sincerity, she could not trust one who hid her face, but she wasn't going to hold a grudge forever. She might hate Nemo, but she realized that they would be fellow subordinates in the future. If at all possible, she would like to keep their relationship cordial at worst.
"I cannot say that I am completely over what you did to me."
"Is there anything I may do to repent?"
Titanyana frowned, not quite sure what she could even ask for. She didn't think she had much time though, she didn't want to stay for much longer.
"How about a favor? I have nothing I need at the moment."
"Very well. I shall do whatever it takes."
"Then we can consider our grievances buried. Please excuse me." Titanyana turned back towards the hallway, walking this time. It was time for her to go to bed.
cakeonfrosting They didn't exactly kiss and make up, but this will put their conflict to rest. It is important, because a few big changes will be happening soon and it is imperative that they get along. Expect Nemo to start appearing more frequently, as our 'primary group' is almost set. Nemo is also going to start her journey of being a tool (in the good way) for Donovan.
*Trump voice* "Nemo, Nemo sit Femina? Was that her name? Anyways, Nemo is going to be a great tool, maybe the best.
Nemo did not like parties. Large social gatherings in general made her nervous, but parties lacked that certain sense of professionalism that, for example, a coronation, sported. People attended with the expectation that conversations would take place, and that you could let loose a bit. Nemo could not allow herself to relax.
Especially not after the Arboreal Maiden's rant.
"Excuse me, madam. Might I learn your name?"
Another drunk lord approached her, the fifth of the night. Perhaps she would have been flattered if she was raised a normal girl, maybe she would have been offended. Nemo was completely indifferent. Part of it was a symptom of the Velar's proclivity towards isolation, they naturally preferred independence to companionship, but the primary motivation for her rejection of his advances was his intent. He was after her body.
He wasn't interested in her as a Velar, he probably didn't even know she was one, but she was not above acknowledging that her body was attractive by human standards, at least on a surface level. Covered in a dark cloth from head to toe, her curves could be described as enticing, the mystery of her exact proportions providing that extra little bit of tantalizing attraction. Normally most men would not even think of approaching her, her cold and aloof personality carefully crafted to drive strangers who did not have business with her away, but with the help of some liquid courage more than just a few would take their chances.
Every time it happened she considered removing some of the cloth, just a little bit around her forearms to show them just how unattractive she was underneath, but she held herself back. Young Velar, 'immature' Velar, were unable to retract their quills. They were unable to sheath them beneath their skin. These quills, long with a sharp point, are one of a great many natural weapons the Velar have at their disposal. They grew along the arms, back, and legs, and could grow back in about half a day. Depending on the location, they could easily be removed and used like darts, or as a means to weaponize their blood.
Unfortunately, their inconvenience extended beyond the realm of aesthetics. Just like a porcupine, they could embed themselves in the skin of any person who rubbed against them the wrong way, and they had a tendency to shred lighter clothing. That was the reason for the cloth wrap, a heavy textile with a dense enough weave to prevent them from stabbing through while the 'loose' nature of the wrap permitted her access to her quills to be used as throwing darts should the situation require it.
Also, the black cloth looked cool paired with her sky blue hair, but Nemo wasn't about to admit that.
One day, when she finally matured enough for her quills to fully retract, she would like to look for more outfits. Every Velar felt the same in their youth, the quills being a colossal inconvenience in a plethora of circumstances, so it was customary for them to take a portion of their earnings from jobs taken during adolescence and spend it all on clothes. The Nameless were the clan most suited for covert operations, and cloth wraps stood out like a sore thumb.
"Hello?" The man waved his hand in front of her eyes, trying to see if she was daydreaming.
Evidently he hadn't gotten her message, so she made it abundantly clear by walking away, never having acknowledged his presence. She wasn't particularly attached to this spot in the room, or this room in general. It wasn't like she would be punished for leaving either.
Perhaps it was time for her to find Titanyana.
"DONOVAN!!!" Diana's voice, a yell, faint from this distance but definitely hers, her cry for help.
Nemo's gut reaction was to rush to her aid. Diana was the Empress! If she was in danger she needed to be there! However Nemo understood that was not necessarily the best option. She was already on thin ice, and she needed to tread lightly. She would disturb people no more than was strictly necessary.
She was still going to hurry though.
- - - - -
Titanyana had heard Diana's call for help while heading back upstairs. It was faint, even for her ears, but it was distinct enough for her to attach a name to it. Temporarily abandoning her plan to turn in for the night, she leapt down the stairwell. She was light and had strong legs, she could take the impact so long as she landed on her feet.
Adjusting her impact angle with a few twists of her tail, she gave herself a brief moment to recover before sprinting off in the direction of the shouting. The halls were a little less crowded this time around, only three or four people along the entire stretch. One of those people, unfortunately, was Nemo. Nemo, ever alert, noticed Titanyana the instant she touched the floor.
Titanyana went through the five stages of grief in as many steps. Was this an extreme coincidence, or was it just a product of the events transpiring around them? Certainly, Nemo too would respond to Diana's call for aid, such was the duty of a servant like herself. That did leave Titanyana wondering why she wasn't sprinting though, was Diana not her top priority?
Titanyana hoped Nemo's face would give her a clue, but it was covered. Titanyana didn't like that. How could she trust someone who didn't show their face? Perhaps only one who tried to hide it as a courtesy, someone who had been wounded, maimed, and scarred so horribly that they believed most people would find them revolting, but Nemo did not mention having suffered damage to her face. It could just be a touchy subject, something she did not lie to bring up in her already quite limited number of conversations, but Titanyana didn't trust her.
After all, Nemo used poison.
Ignoring her, or at the very least not paying attention to her, was probably the correct option if she wanted to avoid trouble. Maintaining her speed, eyes focused on the room in front of them, Titanyana danced around a small group of partygoers who seemed to be frozen in place. Hand on the hilt of her blade, she too froze. Unlike that group, which had stopped out of shock and awe, Titanyana's instincts forced her to stop. She felt it before she saw him, just like Len, and it didn't take her much time to figure out what was happening.
Len had positioned himself between Diana and an angry man, a man who was only just beginning to slap towards Donovan.
Had she felt this man to be stronger, had she felt the situation to be too far gone, she might have intervened. She might have knocked that individual out in the same way she did earlier. However she didn't feel the need to do that this time around. If anything, she felt it was that man who needed her help, needed her to knock out Donovan.
Even if she had the incentive, there was no way she would ever do that now, not when Donovan was like this.
krrk
Titanyana's eyes were glued to Donovan, yet she could only barely figure out what he had done. He wrapped his arm around this opponent's forearm, the man's hand pinned between the side of Donovan's chest and his bicep, with Donovan's forearm placed perpendicular on his elbow. Then, with one sudden jerk of his body, Donovan bent that arm the wrong direction.
It was something she had never seen before, the sound sending a jitter down her spine. She had involuntarily dropped her stance, jumping up out of her crouch and standing up straight. She had also backed up a tad.
POW
The first punch made her take a step backwards, possibly the first time she had done so. It was a vicious strike, but contained no emotion. It was controlled, indifferent, apathetic. Titanyana could have believed that it was only an unfortunate accident that fist meant face.
POW
The second punch made her shiver in earnest. The sound of the impact causing her to tense up.
POW
The third threatened to make her legs numb, and she stopped breathing.
POK
The fourth lit a little spark in her stomach, giving her an energy that she didn't have an outlet for.
POW
The fifth added fuel to the fire, the building energy making her ears flicker.
The crash of an almost corpse onto the floor caused that fire to spread, her body growing hot in anticipation. Her tail swayed slowly from side to side, fingertips twitching out of some grotesque anticipation as Donovan raised his boot over his foes head and-
"DONOVAN!!!!"
The fire was extinguished by Diana's outburst. Titanyana started breathing again, shaking her head and averting her gaze from what had just transpired. Despite being rapt at attention only moments earlier, she could no longer bring herself to look on with a clean conscious. What Donovan just did was not something she could smile on, but the heat from that fire had yet to disperse.
What exactly that fire was eluded her. Part of it felt like the sensation from an hour or two earlier, part of it made her want to run away, part of it made her want to join him. It was odd in that way, equal parts lust, bloodlust, and cowardice. confused by her emotions, she didn't even notice Donovan escorting Diana away.
- - - - -
Vindication. More than anything else, what Nemo felt most in the moment she witnessed Donovan in that state of calm rage was vindication. This was the Emperor, her people's promised leader.
She was certain that Donovan was the Emperor from pretty much the moment she laid eyes on him, the radiance he exuded was all the indication she needed, however she still had some reservations about who he was as a person. Donovan was weak, understandable given his situation, but it did make her nervous.
How was he supposed to rein in the clans if he could not control them by might? He wouldn't be able to. Even now, the only reason the Velar obeyed the Progenitor's decrees was because she possessed the ability to destroy them, it had nothing to do with age.
She also had reservations about his attitude. He was diligent, a hard worker by all accounts, but otherwise there really wasn't much of substance. There was little ferocity, no ambition, and a frightening lack of imperiousness - all important qualities in an emperor.
What she had just born witness to swatted away her fears. Minor qualities like ferocity and ambition were nothing in the face of that Donovan. There was no ferocity in his eyes, no ambition in his mind, and the cold demeanor he assumed showed he had no need to act superior. It was a display in the extremes of the qualities the Velar admired and feared the most, protectiveness and apathy.
The Velar knew more than any other that a foe acting to protect something was far more dangerous than a foe who was trying to take. This danger increased relative to the importance of that thing. For Donovan there was nothing more important than Diana, an 'object' he was so hyperprotective of he would go so far as to murder those who even attempted to harm her.
The other aspect was the apathy. Velar are by nature creatures of emotion, requiring great amounts of physical and mental training that bordered on torture in order to keep themselves in line. For many, the Progenitor was the embodiment of this ideal, the image of divine indifference. However indifference, neutrality, is not entirely apathetic. The Progenitor might not let emotions dictate her actions, but she still had to consider the feelings of those involved when making a decision.
To Donovan, Rishtahn was nothing more than a threat to his treasure, and he acted accordingly. He did not harbor hatred towards Rishtahn, emotion did not play a role in his decision making process, he was just an obstacle, a threat that needed to be neutralized. Most people would have stopped at knocking him out, rendering him incapable of threatening Diana, or otherwise inhibiting his ability to harm her, but not Donovan, not the Emperor. The Emperor needed to be completely certain that the threat was gone and would not resurface in the future. The only reason he stopped before that point was because of the Empress' will.
If this man, Donovan, had not displayed the signs of being the Emperor then she would have attempted to take him for herself. Even if reproduction was impossible, the ecstasy she would receive from being the reason for such a reaction would be unmatched. Unfortunately that would be unlikely to happen, she could see Diana had already taken that top spot. Nemo would never be able to evoke a response of the same magnitude.
But that didn't mean she couldn't get something close.
The Emperor was protective of that which belonged to him and had value, be it emotional or utilitarian. If she wanted to be 'protected' she needed to become 'valuable'. How could she become valuable? How could she allow the rest of her people to become valuable? It was going to be a slow process, but that didn't bother her. What gave her reservations was the difficulty involved with achieving that status of 'valuable'.
Loyalty, undying and absolute, would be the first step on that path. However loyalty was easy, and it didn't mean much unless she had utility. Nemo felt she was useful, combat and stealth being two of her strong suits, but could she truly say that she had value? Anybody with a significant base of split could 'fight good' if they were given sufficient time and training. Likewise, even someone not strong with split could be made an excellent infiltrator with training. Others might not possess the anatomical peculiarities of the Velar, but it was definitely possible to poison people without the use of blood arts.
Nemo needed skills and abilities that Donovan could not go without. All of the Velar did. She didn't know what that would take the form of, but there was definitely something. Her Emperor did not have an Empire, at least not yet, so it went without saying there were a great many gaps in his capabilities to affect his will on the world.
Nemo turned her head to Titanyana.
She hadn't really recognized it before now, but the Emperor had displayed similar qualities when resuscitating Titanyana hadn't he? He was, perhaps, a little bit more ferocious, more emotional, but he wasn't dealing with an obstacle then. The threat was poison, something he was not equipped deal with. His actions were more of a plea, a desperate effort not to let something valuable to him be destroyed. The Emperor was angry because he lacked control, because he could not protect what he deemed precious.
What had Titanyana done to achieve such a status in his eyes?
There was no romance between them, at least no romance that she could see, so it was unlikely that he valued her on emotional grounds. His attachment must have been to her utility, but what was that utility? Titanyana might be a pretty good fighter, excellent by all means, but Nemo had proven her ability to best her in combat. Given that she had already sworn fealty to him, it couldn't be a difference of loyalty. Titanyana must have been able to provide something that Nemo just couldn't, and Titanyana was not the person to ask if she wanted to find out.
Given she still had business with her, Nemo still approached.
- - - - -
"Princess Strapper." Titanyana almost jumped at the mention of her name. "I believe it is high time that I formally apologize for my mistake."
Titanyana turned to find Nemo bowing her head, arms straight at her sides. Titanyana panicked for a moment, wondering why she had chosen to do this now, but she collected herself upon realizing this was probably her last chance anyways. Titanyana was headed back upstairs after this.
". . ."
"So that alone is not enough. Very well." Nemo dropped to the ground and prostrated herself, her posture similar to a dogeza.
This was a humiliating gesture, the act of prostration making a mockery of one's status. It would mean very little to one who did not value their status in society, one such as Nemo, but she lacked methods that would otherwise demonstrate her feelings of remorse and guilt for her actions. If anything, this was embarrassing Titanyana.
Her cheeks, already flushed from those emotions earlier, were climbing to the infrared scale on the spectrum of light.
"Please stand." She managed to maintain her composure though. She had participated in her fair share of 'royal' events, it was common practice for the monarch to ask the party displaying deference by way of kneeling or a bowed head to 'rise' once they felt enough time had passed. That same logic should apply here.
". . . am I to assume I am forgiven then?"
Titanyana had not expressly given amnesty for the offense, so Nemo had not yet officially been forgiven. Titanyana did not completely believe in Nemo's sincerity, she could not trust one who hid her face, but she wasn't going to hold a grudge forever. She might hate Nemo, but she realized that they would be fellow subordinates in the future. If at all possible, she would like to keep their relationship cordial at worst.
"I cannot say that I am completely over what you did to me."
"Is there anything I may do to repent?"
Titanyana frowned, not quite sure what she could even ask for. She didn't think she had much time though, she didn't want to stay for much longer.
"How about a favor? I have nothing I need at the moment."
"Very well. I shall do whatever it takes."
"Then we can consider our grievances buried. Please excuse me." Titanyana turned back towards the hallway, walking this time. It was time for her to go to bed.
cakeonfrosting They didn't exactly kiss and make up, but this will put their conflict to rest. It is important, because a few big changes will be happening soon and it is imperative that they get along. Expect Nemo to start appearing more frequently, as our 'primary group' is almost set. Nemo is also going to start her journey of being a tool (in the good way) for Donovan.
*Trump voice* "Nemo, Nemo sit Femina? Was that her name? Anyways, Nemo is going to be a great tool, maybe the best.
