ERIS
I didn't hate him. Honestly, I didn't. But watching Soren, the absolute monarch of the most powerful empire in the North, dissolve into a puddle of dramatic despair was far more entertaining than it had any right to be.
"I don't hate you," I said, my voice level and calm as I began to unlace my leather bracers.
"You DO!" Soren's voice cracked, echoing off the ancient pines. He looked like I'd just told him I was planning to set his favorite horse on fire. "You actually want to see me die! You want me to freeze out here in the dirt while you luxuriate in the earth's warmth!"
I didn't answer. I just pulled the leather from my arm and started on the other.
"Is this revenge?" he demanded, pacing a frantic circle in the snow. "For the bow lesson? I admitted I was a creep! I admitted the instructional breathing was a lie!" He stopped suddenly, his eyes widening with a sudden, wild suspicion. "No, someone paid you to do this!"
