His laughter continued as he rubbed his arm and tried to sit up. Baffled by his reaction, Vera silently extended her arm. He accepted her proffered hand in a firm grip, the strength of his fingers obvious even through his glove.
She heaved him up, stumbling slightly with his weight. He steadied her with a hard clap to her shoulder, and she felt a sense of pride pulse through her body in tandem with the adrenaline of sparring. A second later, reality set in as she made eye contact with Elric. The horror on his face spoke more than words could, and she took an involuntary step away from Arrogant Ass.
Planning to make a hasty getaway before Elric could kill her where she stood, she twisted around only to come to an abrupt stop. Her jaw dropped beneath her mask, and her eyes bulged from her head as she took in the face of the man before her.
Arrogant Ass had removed his mask, and in its place was a well-formed mouth lifting into a stunning smile. It caused the corners of his eyes to crinkle and small dimples to appear. With his hair still tied back, she could see his closely shaven, squared jaw. He was beautiful. The kind of beautiful that could make anyone fall all over themselves for just a fleeting moment of his attention. The kind of beautiful that did make people do exactly that.
The kind of beautiful that was to be expected of the Crown Prince, Eithan Matheris.
Vera’s entire body froze, all her adrenaline suddenly converting to acid in her stomach. She knew without a doubt, if she tried to speak, she’d vomit all over his boots. He chuckled at her obvious shock. Yep. One hundred percent chance of a spew fest. Gods, she was an idiot.
“Varian!” Elric shouted, making his way towards them, and using the pseudonym she went by anytime she wore the mask.
“Get back to the armory.” He snapped his fingers before pointing angrily at the door. Mentally cursing her frozen feet, she forced them to start moving.
“I apologize and beg your forgiveness, your highness. Varian is young, and he is as mute as he is daft. He had no right to be out here and will be swiftly punished,” Elric said from the deep bow he’d dropped into.
His words snapped her out of her blind terror, and Vera’s legs came alive, carrying her as fast as possible towards the armory. Let the prince think her daft, just as long as he believed her to be a daft man. She heard him reply, but she couldn’t make out the words over the pounding in her ears.
She didn’t spare a single second as she arrived at the door. She flung it open and dashed in as if death were nipping at her heels. It might as well have been.
She’d struck the Crown Prince. And not just struck but pointed a weapon at his chest and humiliated him openly. Even if she’d been a man that would have been stupid, but as a woman? She ripped off her mask and rubbed a hand over her face. Holding her sweaty fingers over her lips, she tried to steady her erratic breathing, rolling stomach, and stupid freaking mind.
No wonder Elric had reacted the way he did. He’d known. Gods, of course he’d known, he’d trained the prince himself.
With her anger no longer controlling her, she realized just how badly she’d fucked up. Even if the prince didn’t demand she return, any of the guards could now guess who she was and speak up.
It wouldn’t take much for one of them to put two and two together that Elric had only ever had one ward. Her life would be forfeit, not to mention Elric’s life.
Vera didn’t move for several minutes, waiting and listening for someone to demand she return and face consequences. She nibbled on the inside of her lip, frantically trying to come up with an explanation that wouldn’t incriminate Elric. He’d done so much and put up with her for so many years, and this was how she repaid him.
She suddenly felt like crying but refused to let the tears fall. Ignoring her burning eyes, she walked towards the back. Maybe if she were lucky, she’d be able to scrub some of her idiocy off along with her sweat.
Chapter 4
VERA
She only allowed herself a quick wash before forcing her legs to carry her back into the workroom. Having an already angry Elric return and see she’d slacked off in her work would end quite poorly for her. So instead of hiding in her bed like she wanted to, she lost herself in her work.
The precise, repetitive actions of sharpening blades calmed her mind and gave her a purpose. It was the best form of meditation. She always knew what the outcome would be—could rely on it. With a little love and attention, she could take something worn down, something used and beaten, and make it better than it was before.
It took focus, care, and patience, especially with a sword, which she was currently working on. The difference between sharpening a long sword and, say, a dagger, involved sharpening sections at a time rather than sweeping the entire blade across the whetstone.
By doing it in sections, there was the risk of the blade coming out slightly uneven, so Vera had to work slowly and meticulously. It usually ended up being a few hours’ worth of effort per sword.
The trick was making sure she didn’t over-work the blade. An overly sharpened blade sounded like it’d be deadly and vicious, but in reality, it often did less damage. Swords that were too sharp and thin tended to bounce off bone and chip rather than sever a limb completely. Thankfully, she’d long since perfected her technique.
Vera didn’t often work on swords for Matherin city guards since they practiced with dull-edged blades in the training yard and rarely had to unsheathe their actual weapons while on duty. It was uncommon for an event to occur inside the capital that required more than brute strength to disband.
However, the emperor never stopped demanding more weapons be sent to the east and west territories of Aleron, which kept Vera busy.
Remembering all the history facts Elric had made her study as a child wasn’t one of Vera’s stronger skill sets. Still, she knew that generations ago, before the rise of the Matherin Empire, the different quadrants of Aleron were at a constant state of unrest.
According to Aleron history texts, it wasn’t until the first Matheris, a Northerner, raised an army and went to war with The West that they all inevitably came under one banner. The East and South territories were vastly outnumbered once Matheris took The West so, to save lives, they surrendered without a fight. And thus, the Matherin Empire was born.
Since then, there hadn’t been any real unrest or fighting, but that didn’t deter the current ruler, Emperor Sulian Matheris. His paranoia only seemed to grow each year. Considering who—or more accurately what—was north across the Dividing Sea, most Aleronians didn’t blame him; instead believing him some sort of great protector.