246 Chapter 246 : A pot of tea

historical

Elric scoffed and studied the young woman standing in front of him, it was amusing how she was clearly here to ask for his assistance in the matter but was still as arrogant as ever.

“So are you going to put a shirt on so we can have a proper conversation, or are you just going to sit there on a stamp naked like a barbarian?”

“Does the sight of me shirtless make you uncomfortable princess?” Elric responded in a taunting tone.

Eira knew that the title he had used to refer to her, ‘princess’, was merely a jab at her attitude, the man obviously had no idea who she was in the slightest, and in all honesty, she preferred it that way.

“As a matter of fact it does,” Eira responded, “I do not wish to converse while you reek of sweat.”

Elric rose from his stamp of a chair and shook his head, “I shall go bathe if it pleases her majesty,” he teased with a bow. As he turned for his door, he coked his head towards it gesturing then woman to follow him.

Much to her own surprise, Eira followed Elric into the wooden barn without question. He offered her a chair near the fire and excused himself to clean up.

While Elric was gone, Eira took the opportunity to look around the room she was sitting in. It was a rather simple yet elegant household, clearly self built by a man with good taste. It was obvious that this man was not some ordinary civilian, the way he talked, they way he dressed and even the way he decorated his house, all signs that he must have been, or still was, some kind of noble man.

The princess wondered what could have happened for him to be living here? Had it been by choice?

.....

“You have that look on your face..”

Eira threw her face at the doorway where the silver haired lycan was standing. He had on some fresh clothes which even though simple, he wore with elegance. His hair was still damp from his bath and left freely flowing down his shoulders mostly likely to dry.

“What are you talking about?” Eira asked.

“The one you get when you have something you wish to ask.” The man walked to his armchair and plastered himself into it. “And now that I’m feeling fresh, maybe I could indulge you and answer them?”

*

After her rather odd conversation with Zhelimir, Janis went straight to her brother’s room. He was the only one she could think of who would react instantly to whatever was going on.

She pushed the door open and found her brother taking off his armor from training, walked towards him and yanked his shoulder.

“Janis please, in case you forgot we are not five years old anymore, you can’t just walk into my chambers when I’m dressing up.”

“Shut up and listen to me,” Janis closed the door and walked to her brother’s bed. “I think you’re right, something weird is happening with Eira, and I have a feeling Zhelimir knows something he’s not telling us.” She trailed her fingers over her brother’s sheathed sword before looking back at him, “the man who you say ‘kidnapped’ Eira, are you sure they don’t know each other?”

The knight buttoned up his shirt and moved slowly towards his sister, “what do you mean? Are you insinuating that Eira has something going on with him?”

“I’m not insinuating anything, I’m just hypothesizing.” Janis crossed her legs and looked up at her brother, “think about it, she gets kidnapped at a party by some man no one has ever seen in the kingdom before, and she comes back home unscathed. And now after the whole ordeal, she’s suddenly going on random errands on her own that even Zhelimir has no idea about.”

Janis stood up and walked towards her brother, she fixed his collar and then took a step back. “It’s either Eira is in huge trouble and she’s keeping it from everyone, or she’s having a love affair with someone she’s not supposed to. Either way, I suggest you act fast if being with her is truly your goal, someone might just swipe her from underneath her nose one way or another.”

Jacob folded his hand into a fist and drew in a deep breath, all his life he had never actually worried about anyone making Eira their own because she had never shown interest in any man. Sure he was a little insecure about Zhelimir sometimes, but that was all in his head, he knew nothing would ever come if it, they were practically siblings.

But now the mention of someone potentially catching Eira’s fancy made him panic a little, he couldn’t lose her to another man. Jacob zipped up his boots and was about to leave the room when Janis grabbed his collar and stopped him.

“Don’t be in such a rush brother, where are you running off to?”

“Where do you think? I’m going speak with Eira about this supposed mystery man of hers!”

Janis sighed, “don’t get so heated up, I told you it’s just a theory. And even if my theory is correct, she is not home right now, she has already left to ‘run errands’. Zhelimir is the key, if there’s anyone who can tell us what is really going on with Eira, it’s him.”

Jacob did not like how he was feeling about all of this, he really hoped all of this was something else entirely, not Eira falling for another man, in fact, he’d rather she was in trouble. The dark haired elf turned to his sister whose eyes had not left him. “Why are you helping me with Eira? Last we spoke about my intentions with Eira, you graciously slapped my face and kept reminding me that Eira doesn’t even love me.”

“I’m aware of what I said,” Janis responded flatly, “and it was the truth, Eira feels nothing for you, she may actually find you a little annoying. But if that portrait of the man who took her is accurate, there is no way I’m letting my friend end up with some one like that, he may be blackmailing her into a relationship. So you’ll have to do for now.”

Jacob half rolled his eyes, couldn’t his sister just admit that she was on his side and wanted to help him win the woman he loved? Sibling relationships were so odd sometimes.

*

Eira sat in her seat frozen after Elric had elaborately explained how years before she was even born he had been seeing some sort of vision of her, hovering around him like a ghost.

What confused Eira other than the unrealistic sounding tale that Elric had just told her, was how he had many blanks in his story. She noticed that he was deliberately leaving out names of places where these events were occurring, the names of people in the story, he didn’t even hint as much as their physical features, nothing. It was strange.

“You still have questions..” Elric muttered, his brown eyes fixated on the wrinkle between her knitted eyebrows.

“How can I not? You realize how vague you’re being right now don’t you?”

“I’ve told you all the things that may involve you princess,” Elric responded. He uncrossed his legs and leaned his elbows on his knees. “I don’t think everything else is relevant to our conversation. Knowing who I am, the people I’m connected to and where I’m from will have no impact whatsoever on our conversation.”

The redhead sighed and looked to the side, this whole endeavor to try and get answers from Elric was proving to be a waste of a time. She glanced back at him and found his eyes fixated on her face and for a flicker of a second, she saw a hint of sadness in them.

“Who did this to you?”

Elric looked like he had just awoken from a deep reverie and gave her a very indifferent look. “Excuse me?”

“I can see it in your eyes,” Eira spoke, her voice soft and controlled. Just from his first expression she could tell that this was a sensitive topic, and it also proved to her that whatever pain he had experienced had a significant influence on how he was living now. “You’ve buried a lot of things that are troubling you, and from the looks of things..” she looked out the window where only rolls of forest went on and on. “I think you haven’t talked to someone about it in years. This could be your chance.”

The silver haired man pursed his lips, what was the young woman trying to do? Push him into some kind of therapy session? Who did she think she was trying to get him to open up about his past? His past was his past, and he didn’t want anyone uncovering it no matter what connection existed between them.

He stood up and gave Eira a small smile, “it’s getting chilly, I’ll put on a pot of tea.”

The princess nodded slightly, she was a smart girl, she knew when she had crossed her boundaries and she had done exactly that. “A pot of tea sounds lovely.” She responded.