Noah sat on a leather armchair, wisps of steam escaping from his mouth as he exhaled, the leather chair squeaking as he sank deeper into it, closing his eyes slightly.
"Oh my… is the one born of flames dozing off in my living room right now?" A sweet voice chimed through the room, coming from a balcony above the living room, waking Noah from his daze, making him jolt softly as he sat upright.
"Well, as you can see, I'm quite too tired to look up and gaze at your beautiful dress, Nilith." Noah teased, looking straight ahead as heels clicked against the tiled stairs just behind him.
"I even wore the ball gown you adored during our after-service prom. You still wouldn't look even then?" the sweet voice whined as it drew closer to Noah, the clicking stopping a few meters behind him.
"How does that still fit?" Noah asked calmly, drawing his hands towards his face as he stroked his moustache, his nostrils flaring as a soft, pleasant scent hit his nose.
"Oh, I see you held nothing back this time, even that perfume…" Noah paused, not expecting an answer but to see where the conversation would lead.
"And I see it worked", the voice said as she walked beside Noah, slowly fading away.
"Why didn't you use your flames?" The same voice asked, but this time not from the figure beside Noah.
"I'm not sure you would have been able to handle it," Noah replied, as the world around him crumbled, the contents of the real world not being different from the one before, only this time the lady in red was now releasing her grip on his head, his reddish brown hair falling as she did so.
"When did you realise?" The lady asked, flinging her hair back as she walked around the chair Noah was sitting in, making her way to sit on one just opposite of him, adjusting her flowing gown as she sat.
"I'm guessing you know why I'm here…" Noah said, changing the subject.
"The boy?" She questioned, raising a brow as she leaned forward.
"I did not see much, but I got the gist of it, so what do you want me to do about him?" she added as she crossed her legs, the gown falling to her sides.
"I need a good cover-up for the entire situation," Noah replied, not mincing words.
"Straight to the point again, do you know why I hate you?" Nilith asked, her fingers dancing on the decor of the armchair.
Noah did not answer, instead looking intensely at Nilith, who looked on, locking eyes with him, her blank golden eyes not revealing but collecting information.
"You know my gift, and you use it against me…" she added after a long period of silence, her emotionless eyes wavering for a split second as her dancing fingers slowly came to a halt.
"I'm sorry, I just cannot trust you," Noah said, looking deeper into her eyes as they wavered again.
"But you have no issues asking me to go against the empire for you?…" she asked, the calm in her voice audibly shaken.
"You know that's not what I meant… You know what you are capable of, you know what happened in the academy…" Noah trailed off, still looking sharply at Nilith, still keeping his stern demeanour.
"So what's in it for me?" Nilith asked, regaining her composure as she changed the pace of the conversation, her ever observant eyes scanning Noah.
"And stop forcing useless information into my head," she added, snapping at Noah.
"I've long given up on reading that head of yours," she scrawled, grasping her head with her hands, her eyes narrowing, losing her previously gained composure, her rasped breathing giving away the fact.
A large plume of smoke forced itself out of Noah's mouth as he began speaking.
"Can we talk now?" he asked, his brows relaxing as he looked on at Nilith, whose breathing seemed to have calmed down.
After a few minutes of silence and stolen glances, Nilith finally broke the air with her voice back to its former syrupy flow.
"So, what's in it for me? This request of yours," dabbing some sweat from her forehead with a small handkerchief, despite the room being temperature controlled, the experience from earlier had left her shaken, plus the heat exuding from Noah did not help issues in the slightest. At least he had stopped his bombardment; the relief was visible on her face.
"I will pay whatever monetary fees it may entail," Noah answered, stressing the fact that he was only going to be paying with currency and nothing else. Nilith bit her lips as if she had just lost something valuable.
"Oh, stop it, you know you will not be finding a single being apart from the Divine Marshal as wealthy as I am anywhere in the empire, so now tell me, do you think I, the Golden Midnight, needs any of your money?" She said, ending her little tangent with a hint of mocking as she finally finished repairing her makeup.
"What do you have for me?" she questioned, looking him straight in the eyes. If it were any ordinary man, he would have long fallen, becoming nothing but a pliable puppet to be toyed with by her. Her deep golden irises dilating and contracting as she unconsciously gazed not at Noah but deeper past the skin that covered his skull, past the bones that made his skull, past his very brain matter…
"Ahhhhh!" She screamed as she jolted out of her chair, crashing with a heavy thud on the rugged flooring, Noah just staring on, his face as stern as ever, brows furrowed as steam escaped his lips.
She did it again, it's not like Noah did not know how her abilities worked, for him to be so strict when dealing with her, he knew, and that was exactly why he had to be.
"I'm sorry! Please! Please make it stop!!! Stop!!" Nilith screamed, pulling at her hair as she rolled on the rug
Noah's brows unfurrowed again, her pleas finally going silent as he stood moving to raise her from the floor, rubbing his hands on her back as some sort of apology, his eyes showing concern and pity, but he did not speak.
After a few minutes of more awkward silence, Noah, now back on his chair, sat upright, spoke up. This time his face relaxed, letting a warm smile surface as he turned to look Nilith in the eyes, his crimson irises showing embers of a long-lost passion waning with pity as its fuel.
"I'll give you one request, no limits on what it would be, but you will have to wait three years to reclaim your request…" That was the calmest he had sounded throughout their very turmoil-filled conversation, if you could even call it that.
Nilith just looked at her previously redone makeup, now totally washed away, streaks of tears still visible on her cheeks as she listlessly stared at her hands, unable to give Noah a response; it was like looking at a mere husk, unable to interact with the world around it.
"I will await the message from your house when I get to Abroth Barracks. I will be there for a few more days. I heard that bastard Hansen is now based there," Noah added, a slight scorn in his voice as he ended his sentence.
"Also–" he paused, standing in a blur of motion, turning swiftly and grabbing the air in a choke hold, lifting his hands slightly, steam escaping his lips.
"You seem to have gotten a bit better at using your gift, Sillia–" he chuckled, more steam escaping his mouth as he grinned, a petite frame slowly revealing itself as it struggled to get out of Noah's choke hold, thrashing around, punching and kicking at Noah's chest clearly doing no damage to the giant with her tiny fists, hate burning in its slowly revealing eyes.
"You should probably have taken the hint from the other two hiding at the doorway and behind Nilith's chair; you cannot win, not in a thousand years or when I'm seven feet under," Noah said as two other hidden figures revealed themselves, walking to stand around Nilith, blades drawn, almost making Noah laugh.
"Katharine, I'll ask you this favour, please continue to protect her as you always have, and please tell her about the payment plan whenever she comes through", he said as a dagger revealed itself on his neck it's weilder revealed to be a woman advanced in age, biting her lips as she put down her dagger.
"I have hated you since the Kazarma", she said, her voice cold and sad, a heavy northern accent strongly present.
"I know…" Noah replied, smiling softly, still holding the petite frame up in the air, now struggling to breathe.
"You know all about her more than even I, so why still do all that?" she asked as she walked around him, putting her arms around the person he held, yanking them out of his loose choke hold and resting their head on her shoulders as their form finally revealed hair flowing down to the waist, a beautiful blonde crying bitterly into Katharine's embrace.
"..." Noah stayed silent.
"...You will get your coverup, now, Kindle depart from house Esquil before it descends on the last flame," Katharine commanded, staring Noah down, a cold flame raging in her eyes. The air was getting heavier as time passed, and the entire mansion seemed to have been surrounded during their short talk.
Noah took a last look at Nilith, who still sat there listlessly, her guards standing before her, their weapons drawn, waiting for the order from Katharine.
"I no longer bear the name of House Kindel, " he said, steam violently escaping his mouth as he spoke, his hulking form suddenly vanishing from view, now replaced by wisps of steam, the drapes covering the large windows waving violently before slowly coming to a standstill.
"Get the medics to look at this child and the lady," Katharine commanded as she handed the child over to a figure that materialised just next to her, anger plastered on her face.