When Maria is finished healing her, Edelgard, calm and collected, turns to face Niles. Her polite smile fades, and she nods solemnly. "You know, Niles, you were correct. That shaft was most certainly worth investigating. I even found something that you might be interested in."
Her hand reaches under her cloak, to where she has stashed his hand. She reveals it slowly, gently, as if she were carrying gold itself. Once the fingers are completely revealed, her demeanor changes.
Without holding back any of her strength, Edelgard stomps down on his toes. When he leans forward in pain, she grabs a fistful of his hair and knees him square in the face. Hand still tangled in his hair, she brings him down to her height, whispering a threat only for his ears as lavender eyes, cold and narrow, stare into his soul.
"I will show mercy this time. Don't do it again."
She releases him, expression unreadable. She tosses his hand towards him. And as she returns to the lift, she says, "I will have questions for you at another time, Niles." When they were not locked underground together.
Uh oh. That’s a very alive—which, less of an uh oh and more like a thank the gods—and very pissed—yeah, definitely an uh oh—princess approaching them. She might not look like she’s angry, but he can feel it as surely as a sailor feels an incoming storm.
And, surely enough, there it is: a stomp on his toes—at least she can do that much with her feet, since landing on them was clearly too much to ask for—and then a rough grip in his hair. And before he can say anything (likely inappropriate), there’s a knee slamming right into his face. He barely hears her threat over the sharp pain; Niles doubles over, and it’s a domino effect of poor reactions.
His hands—hand—comes up to clutch at his face. First of all: ow, his nose. Ow, his mouth. Ow, his entire face.
But then there’s contact between the stub and his aching face, so: again, ow, except far worse. Maria might not deserve to hear so many expletives sworn and spat in such a short span of time, but that’s exactly what she gets now, tight, anguished gasps punctuating each swear that leaves him as he grips his wrist again.
“I,” he manages, quite the pitiful sight when he's hunched over the way he is, “should’ve known you’d be into a little rough play, princess…”
...yeah. He probably deserved way more than a knee to the face.
