Death, Devotion, Dissonance

Evin regarded Bella's sudden intrusion for a few seconds before thinking of an answer.

"He's fun to talk to and doesn't treat me like a child, which I really like. Also, he's someone wouldn't hurt a fly."

"Well, that's the problem, isn't it? He's so pacifistic that he doesn't even want to clean up the festering filth inside his own house, as that would mean he'll have to confront it."

Evin was slightly worried about Talismans in the room, so he asked it from Bella with a gesture they agreed to use at some point. Bella seemed amused by Evin's carefulness, but she did shake her head at him, reassuring him that there was nothing to worry about.

"I noticed it as well. He seemed like a really fun person when I was only focused on him, but it was like he was avoiding the dreary atmosphere that surrounded the rest of the dinner table."

"He ignored bigger things, so a gloomy atmosphere during dinner is nothing," Bella spat out. "It's like he's unable to take anything seriously."

"Well, it is what it is," Evin shrugged. "Oh also… how did you get here in the first place?"

"I just flew over. Nothing so complicated."

"In that case, maybe it won't be so hard to kill your dad as I imagined it would."

"And why would that be?" Bella replied, her eyes fluttering.

"Since you could so easily come over without being disturbed, it would probably easy enough for us to sneak into your father's room and off him. The only problem would be how to get away with it."

"Hah, that's just delusional. Me meeting you here without being interrupted was only thanks to my talk with Komarokh." Bella explained. "I'm actually pretty sure the man's observing us from a distance, making sure you don't do anything inappropriate to me," she winked.

"Me doing something inappropriate to you?" Evin hmphed. "I should be the one who needs protecting."

Bella smiled and grabbed Evin in a hug. She refused to let go, so Evin was forced to go around his room with a girl clinging onto him. He acted as if she was a bother, but he was grinning all the while. Finally, they ended up on the bed, enjoying the simple physical contact and the peaceful silence.

Evin really liked these moments. They both did not feel the need to talk, only enjoying the comfort of each other's presence. He wondered if he should feel shameful now that Endra was watching him now, but Evin was past the point of feeling aversion from the Voice's eyes. He got used to it years ago.

'Ah, now that I think about it…' Evin suddenly thought and began speaking.

"Bella? I think I should tell you something."

"Mm?"

"The Voice spoke to me today."

The information seemed to surprise Bella, as she broke free form their hug and looked at Evin's eyes, her head cocking. "Really? What did he say?"

"Yes. Told me your father's just craving for conversation, since he can't find a one that satisfies him among his family members. Told me it was the reason he talked me so sincerely even though I was just a child."

"Hmm…" Bella pondered.

Evin wondered if she was going to comment something more, but she just went silent again. But this time, the silence felt off… somewhat suffocating. Evin was good at noticing these subtle changes in the atmosphere. Most of it was thanks to him trying to read his father's moods and later on with the Voice pointing it out and teaching him how to notice them.

"Don't worry about your father too much, I just wanted to tell you that the Voice was back," Evin added.

"Oh… Is he watching us now?"

"I'm not sure. He probably is…"

"You sound unsure?"

"He's as mysterious to you as to me," Evin shrugged. "He can definitely watch and listen to us if he wants to, but I just don't know if he's doing so now."

"Can't you ask?"

"If I do that, he's definitely going to be listening to us. For now, I just want to bet otherwise and enjoy our privacy," Evin explained.

Bella frowned in thoughtfulness, her head cocking to the side again. "I guess I should expect some of these odd things to pop up when dating you, huh?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Well… whatever I guess?" Bella hummed. "Since there's nothing we can do about it… then there's nothing we can do about it," she concluded playfully, her frown turning into a smile.

Evin didn't follow her somewhat rash conclusions, but he was glad that at least, her mood seemed to have improved somewhat. He was also glad that she wasn't as creeped out by the Voice's existence as he first expected.

"I'll have you spar with the mage guards tomorrow," Bella suddenly changed the topic.

"What?"

"Are your ears going deaf?" Bella grunted. "I said you'll spar with my manor's mage guards tomorrow."

"So I can learn how they fight?" Evin could only think of one reason.

"I guess..."

"But I'm afraid I won't be able to push them so hard, considering my foot and all. Maybe I can fly during the fight, but I'm afraid I'll only be useful for running away."

Evin always imagined fights between mages to be spellcasting competitions, but the previous five months told him that most of it was legwork. Evin could now walk on his metal prosthetic, but he wasn't so sure if he could run around on it.

"We can do paired fights," Bella said. "There's a mock fight the Mage Guards do often, where one person fights in the front, acting as a guard, protecting another one who's behind, who acts as the guard's employee. It's a method that gets new guards used to protecting someone during a fight."

Evin nodded.

"I can change the rules a bit for the mock fight, making it so that the employee can cast magic, but become unable to move around," she finished explaining.

"Perfect conditions for me, then," Evin concluded. "Won't they complain, though? It kinda sounds like I'm a child, who wanted to spar with real mages for whatever reason, but also wanted to fight on his own advantageous terms."

"Don't worry about that. Some of them were itching to fight you, so they'll be happy to do so on whatever terms I offer them."

Evin's eyebrows creased. "They've been wanting to fight me? Why?"

'Am I that popular?'

"Before you get over your head, they don't want to fight you because they think you're strong. No, it's because they just want to teach you a lesson."

"What?"

'What did I do to these people?'

"The mage guards see me as their little princess or something so, of course, they'll feel bad about some random boy snatching me away from them. Horak's especially bad."

"Huh, so you're like their little mascot?"

"That's a rather rude way of saying it, but I guess I am," she beamed like a child bragging about her mom.

"Huh."

It felt like it was Evin's first time seeing Bella act in a genuinely childish way in front of him. Before this, even when she acted silly, she seemed to do it in a weird, mature way. Like he did.

Suddenly, a part of Evin felt a great deal of similarity to Bella. In a way, she was just like him, someone who was failed by her real parents, and instead saw other people as her actual guardians.

"Also," Bella continued. "Even though I said all those things about the fight being a means to get to my father eventually… well, don't take it too seriously."

"Don't take what too seriously?" Evin asked. "The fight, or your revenge?"

Bella paused slightly. "Both, I guess," she replied, her tone going wrong again.

The weird silence fell upon the room again, and Evin scrambled to find what went wrong this time.

'By the Empress's tits, I'm terrible at this relationship thing, aren't I?' Evin cursed, feeling like he was saying all the wrong things today.

A minute inside the silence, Evin felt like he'd found the right answer.

Of course, she would feel reluctant to actually kill her father. Even Evin felt the same with his father, missing him for his first few months at the Academy. And at the end of it, he killed him completely accidentally as well. Sure, he took it much better than he imagined it, but he was still shocked by the events.

And here he was, so passionately and diligently talking about killing his girlfriend's father. Of course, she would feel weird about it.

How many times did Evin think of killing Decatur and being done with everything? But did he ever plan what he was going to do exactly to kill the boy? No. That would make it too real.

Realizing this, Evin decided to shut up. He pulled her back to himself and casually began humming some tune he heard somewhere. Bella was already his, so why try so hard to ruin it all? He just had to be someone that could offer her comfort when she was sad, and fun when she was bored.

He figured that it was best for him to be with Bella, instead of trying to meddle in her revenge. If she needed help, she'd ask.