@princessmacedon sent: [ LYTHOS ] “Miss Ninian! I’m so glad to see you’re looking better!” Maria breathes her relief through a crescent smile, pulling a rose free from her bouquet, then huffs a little laugh. It’s just like she thought.
“Your eyes match the flower really well, don’t you think? Hee hee… do you want it? I think it’d be happier with you! —but!” A finger pops up, as if to point up toward the sparkle in her eyes. “Would you be willing to trade it for a dance, Miss Ninian? I think it’d be lots of fun!”
Although Ninian herself would never think it, the truth is she looks not only better but also radiant. The glow of her happiness is soft, yes, could hardly be otherwise for her modest nature. Still, for such a light to be in her face at all is a rarity. Maria saw her hale and hearty, before the disease came, but this... This almost feels new even to the dancer herself.
Perhaps it should not come as a surprise, then, how swiftly her light dims. It is no fault of sweet Maria’s, needless to say; in fact, upon first seeing the cleric she smiles gently and hurries to meet her.
“ Lady Maria, ” she greets in soft tones, “ I, too, am glad to see you... ”
Enjoying yourself after our trials, she meant to say, but (as so often is the case) she balks. To call the epidemic as such, to center their own struggles, does not seem right when so many were more affected; and neither does she want to risk implying that Maria’s passion, her life’s work, is something to be recovered from after the fact. It is not wrong to care, to put one’s all into ...
Even though she was just reflecting on Maria’s care for others, indeed even though the other remains as joyful as she’d been in the moment prior, nonetheless some primal instinct asserts itself in Ninian when the cleric peers at her eyes.
And, irony of ironies, it’s the instinct of prey: the dragon girl freezes up, breath hitching in her throat while every other time someone’s looked at her this intently comes to mind. That is, every other time she has been found out and driven away from whatever village she was in...
Because Maria is looking closely at pupils slit like a snake’s, a sign of beastly heritage which is no doubt noticeable beneath the chandelier’s bright light. Dread pools at her feet like melting ice, and she cannot find either words or the will to flee ——
Your eyes match the flower very well. Wait, what? Rather stupidly, the first response that comes to mind is oh, I got them from my father. Thank the Spirits, Maria has not finished just yet.
“ Ah... I... Thank you, ” she murmurs after, slowly reaching for the rose. “ I would love to dance with you, Lady Maria... Trade or no, ” she chuckles, then presents the little cleric with a purple orchid in turn.
“ This dance is one of my favorites, ” she adds, slipping her arm into Maria’s to pull her partner along as she drifts out to the floor. “ I am a priestess too, you see. ”