Part 3
Birth Of A Warrior
"I want to see him!" Eleanora protested.
Syphon stood nonchalantly by the entrance, but she knew him better than to believe that he was relaxed. After the boy won his bout, instead of being allowed to attend the knighting, Eleanora was forced to go and get checked out by the royal physician, Albert, for her bleeding ears, accompanied by Syphon who had been suspiciously quiet ever since the match ended.
Albert smiled, "There is always the banquet tonight, my lady."
She smiled brightly. The banquet! It had completely slipped her mind. All of the newly appointed royal guards had a banquet in their honor where they drank a bit of daddy's blood from out a chalice cup symbolizing... unity... and... officially making them family.
"Thanks Albert you're the best."
He chuckled. "Let's not tell your father you said that. He may have me beheaded."
Her smile turned sly, and she lowered her voice, inching her head in close, prompting him to do the same. "It'll be our little secret, I promise." She held out her pinky, and he did the same.
"I appreciate it." He said as they locked fingers sealing the promise.
******
Eleanora couldn't explain why she was so nervous. This wasn't her first banquet, and it definitely wasn't her first time meeting a royal guard; seeing as she, her mother, her father, and her brat of a younger sister were currently surrounded by eight of them it couldn't be that, so what was it about the thought of meeting this boy that made her so jittery.
Her mother sat next to her father stunning anyone who gazed upon her like usual. Smiling and waving to the crowd every now and again in her infamous lilac purple dress. Her mom was never a fan of jewelry. However, she did always wear the gold necklace that her mother had given her and the wedding ring daddy had given her. The giant swirling ocean stone pair Eleanora's mother and her father wore were apparently the most valuable items in all of Crescent Gamma and were apparently gifts to her great, great, great, etc, grandmother and grandfather, from some ancient dead witch.
Eleanora frowned as she watched her father smile at Lisa Solest, one of his two consorts. He and mother must be fighting again. Those were the only times he paid his consorts any attention.
Eleanora didn't really understand why he needed consorts. Their uncle Moka and his wife Sierra fought all the time, and he didn't have consorts. She had asked Syphon about it a few times, but all he said was that "it was necessary and that one day she'd understand."
She met her mother's eyes, and something must have been written on Eleanora's face because her mother's eyebrow slightly raised, and she waved her over.
"What is the matter, my little sea horse?" She didn't know how her mother did it. Ontop of being the most beautiful person in Crescent Gamma and having the most beautiful sounding voice Eleanora had ever heard. She was also the most intuitive person she knew.
"How do you do that?" Eleanora asked, staring up into her mothers eyes, mystified.
The worry on her mothers face softened a bit, but it didn't completely vanish. "You are avoiding the question." Her mother accused, looking up from Eleanora and over at father, who was now conversing wìth Lisa. "To answer your question, women must wield more than just their looks if they want to survive in this world, that goes double for women like us."
Eleanora looked from her father to Lisa and then back at her mother. "I understand."
Her mother smiled down at her. "No, you don't, not yet anyways."
The murmuring of the crowd pulled her attention away from her mother and onto the boy standing at the entrance to the banquet, late, and wearing a wrinkled suit with no tie. Talk about making an entrance.
******
He was staring daggers into her, but she couldn't show him fear. He was the subordinate, and she, a princess.
"If you don't drop your gaze from off her majesty, I will happily make you." Warned Syphon. Apparently, he got stuck with making sure Lycan adjusted to his new role as royal guard. Of course, Syphon, being Syphon, accepted the task without complaint, but it was obvious that he didn't like the boy.
"No, it is ok Syphon, he has yet to learn his place, and I wouldn't expect him to so soon," she smirked smugly, "he is still just a child after all. A gutter boy at that. It is only reasonable that he.."
"What did you just call me, you bratt?"
She stopped speaking. She had never been spoken to like that by anybody but her sister.
She heard the "Hiss" and then the "Clash!" Of steel on steel, and she had to shake her head and do a double take to make sure she was seeing straight. Lycan had gotten the best of Syphon. Somehow, in a single exchange of blades, Lycan had invaded Syphon's space and now held the edge of his blade to Syphon's neck.
"You. Will. Apologize." Syphon said stubbornly.
Lycan turned that horrifying look of rage onto her, but there was something else hidden behind it. She just wasn't sure what it was.
"Ok, your majesty." He spat out the last part as if it were poison. "I'll apologize, but only if you can strike me even once, anywhere on my body."
"Are you crazy! I will have you executed just for suggesting such a thing!" Syphon roared.
Lycan ignored him. "I will not protect a coward, who lays in comfort drinking and fattening herself off of the taxes that only oppress the poor, and then have the gull to judge those who have been forced into their situation due to the greediness of people like your family."
"Shut up! You're wrong! We provide housing for those who can't afford and clothing.."
He scoffed. "Do you do that? Or do you have your trusty little minions do it for you because you're too good for the poor people who keep you and your family sitting pretty on your tower of coralstone?"
She hissed, and before she knew what had gotten into her, she charged forward.
Lycan headbutt Syphon and then kicked him away before turning his attention back to her incoming attack.
She wanted to claw his eyes out. She was going to make him take back all those awful things that he said about her family. She'd make him pay.
She lept at him, her body moving on autopilot protracting her claws, aiming for his throat.
He ducked down, but he didn't retreat, nor did he avoid the attack completely. Instead, he took a swipe down the right side of his face and caught her in his arms.
Blood ran down his face, and he had that right eye shut tightly but... the smile on his face... that was it. That was all it took to disarm her.
"You have a beautiful tail, my lady, but I think your legs are much more sexy." He said, lowering her back to the ground. She hadn't even noticed that she had shifted into her Lamia half.
She was aware of Syphon's presence nearby, but her world had shrunk to the marks she had given him.
He gently, but firmly, shook his head. "I can tell what you're thinking right now, and don't. I was the one in the wrong. I had to see if you would stand up for your family, being as your life is in my hands, and mine in yours, I needed to know if it came down to it, that you would stand up and fight. My lady, I said many horrible things," he scratched his head, "some of them truthful yeah, but all of it unnecessary, and for that, I'm sorry and I would completely understand if you wanted my head for such a stunt."
"What would a princess do in this moment?" She thought.
He thought she didn't see what he was doing. Using his charm to distract her from all that he had said, even if it were all just a test. He wasn't even on his knees, begging and pleading for forgiveness. He had to be punished. She retracted her claws and lifted a hand to the gashes on the side of his face.
"Does it hurt?" She asked, bringing her hand close but not touching.
He nodded once.
She loosed a breath and dropped her hand. "The correct way to respond when a royal is talking to you, especially the princess of the nation. Is by using your words."
When he didn't respond, she turned her back, focusing on a spot on the other end of the gianormous training facility. Syphon was never going to want to let her sit in on him sparring again after this. Too bad for him.
"You are correct. You were in the wrong. You said many outrageous things to me about my family. The royal family. For that, you must be punished." She paused for effect. "Your punishment is thus. For now on twice a week you will train me in the way of the sword, and once a week you will be my escort out into the slums, where we will provide our personal assistance to it's residents."
She glanced back just in time to see him flinch at the command, and she felt strangely proud of it.
"Your majesty." Syphon exclaimed, clearly shocked by her decision.
She held up her hand before he could argue any further. "I have made my decision."
"And if I just tell your father?" Syphon threatened.
"I'll deny it."
"Please be reasonable, my lady I.."
"Syphon. My decision has been made, will you respect that or not?" She said, using her best queenly voice.
Syphon dropped to a low bow hiding his face from her, and she felt bad, but he worried too much for his own good. It would be fine. She would be fine... right?
She looked into Lycans eyes, trying to read him, but he just smiled, throwing her off. "I thank you for your mercy, my lady."
Part 4
Beginning Of The End
It had been a year since that day. Lycans face had healed quite nicely. Apparently, his regenerative ability came from being a dragon shifter, and that's why he was so confident in taking the hit, the jerk. It was almost impossible for him to sustain an injury bad enough to leave a lasting mark.
They had gotten close in the past year. It definitely helped that they were around each other four days out of each week every week (half way through the fourth month lycan had declared that she needed to train with him three times a week instead of twice a week because she wasn't improving fast enough). He had told her a little about what it was like growing up poor, the stealing, the hustles, the scams, and everything else he did to survive. He would get this sad glint in his eyes, but anytime she tried to pry any deeper he'd get angry, and completely shut down. She was fine with that, however. She wanted to believe that he'd open up to her when he felt safe enough to do so, so she never pushed too hard.
She had told him about how her sister wasn't really her sister, not fully anyways, and how her sisters mother was one of the consorts who lived in the palace, and she even told him how she wished her sister never existed. Not because she hated her sister (which she did), but because every time she looked at her, she'd remember the time she seem her mom crying because father was out with one of the consorts. That was something Eleanora had never told anybody, not even Syphon.
Of course, however, in Lycan fashion, instead of consoling her like a normal person, he had made her run until her legs felt numb, and then snuck an ice cream sundae into her room later that night when she was in the bath with a note that said "strength of body does not compare to the strength of will. If your will is unshakable, nothing else matters because your body might break, but you can never be broken."
She kept the card.
She was rereading the note when she heard a knock on the door, and a second later, she heard it open. "Hey, sweetheart."
She quickly hid the note behind her pillow. Her father disliked how close she and Lycan had gotten, so she made sure to hide just how close they had gotten from him as much as she could.
"Hey, Daddy." She said, watching as he entered.
He was watching her right back, as if she were only a few seconds away from spontaneously combusting into flames. "I have some news to tell you."
"Is it bad news?"
He scratched his head. "No, not really. It's just.." he trailed off.
She waited for him to continue.
"It's just that.. I know how you feel about the consorts, but I had to tell you..." She didn't want to hear this. Please don't say it. Why would he think she would want to hear this!? Why was he still...
"... Lisa is pregnant."
Just like that. Time stopped.