( Penned from lampridaes )
Light steps, practised with the ease of a dancer yet the confidence of a predator on are not warning enough. As to be expected if her. Should the Acting Grandmaster of the Ordo Favonius not hear the door pressed shut, then she will not hear the icy waves of a woman that takes in her figure and allows her face to darken like the night. It is only upon speech does the Rolling Rime allows herself to alert Jean.
"You make for an unsightly image, Gunnhildr." Blue leather bound fingers echoes the routine, Eula's fingers dancing upon wood and parchment alike as she continues scathing review. "Have you not the home to go to? You desk despite the quality of its make hardly befits the head laid upon it."
It is s mess through and through. " A king does not await its subjects to retire, I shan't begin to humour the thought." A mixture of forms and request anew that make her sneer grow in their mundanity. At the sheer audacity that the sheep request it's shephard.
"So why are you so determined to await my return, time and time again Grandmaster?"
EVEN WHEN SUNLIGHT FADES THE DAY IS NOT YET DONE. There will always be one more task to demand her attention. One more map that must be scrutinised, one more letter that needs to be responded to, and one more report that must be poured over and committed to memory. There was paperwork for days; bureaucracy and economics, all underpinned by policy and protocol and that was without factoring in the day to day eventualities of security, commerce and foreign intelligence.
Perhaps Grand Master Varka had been able to shoulder all of these tasks alone, but Jean had long since taken to delegating what she could. To put her trust and faith in the knights to do the work that she herself could not. Was it really so wrong to worry about them, when out in the field? To want to make sure every person was safely accounted for; well fed, equipped and rested after day after day out in the wilds of Teyvat? All of this she wished to say to Eula. To reinforce the sentiment behind the heart that beat in her chest each and every day for the people she considered her kin. But pride had tempered her tongue; or perhaps it was exhaustion.
❝The Ordo is my home as well you know.❞ Bleary eyed she raises her head from it’s dormant recline, blond tendrils sticking to her temples as she sought the face of her most devoted critic. Granted, the Gunnhildr manor would always be important to her, but Jean’s home was formed of people not bricks and mortar. It was her family; her friends; her bonds of blood and duty and honour - and maybe, just a flicker of something else too. Something far more sacred and seldom uttered, that would linger now and forever, in the spaces between shared words and quick witted barbs.
❝But a king would await the return of a queen though, no?❞ Neither subject nor subordinate, but equals in every way that mattered. Was it so wrong to think that she worried about her? That she would sleep far more soundly knowing that the ice maiden herself had seen fit to stare death and danger in the face and once again return to the sanctuary afforded to those that bore the sigils of Favonius?
It’s because I care. Jean almost says it. Almost puts thought to word and lets sentimentality topple forth from the chest in which it had been entombed. But that would only complicate things. Would only muddy this quagmire of uncertainty and tenuous alliance that had sat so readily between them for years. Instead she levels her gaze, placid blue searching for the mirror in her companion’s gaze.
❝What can I say? I’m a glutton for punishment that does so enjoy these critiques of my work ethic.❞ Dry humour flows freely instead, an acknowledgment given to the truth that lies between salted words. Eula should know however, what drives her to suffer as she does. What keeps that world weary head cemented to her desk until each and every person she loves cares for is safely accounted for.
❝You know why. ❞ It’s quieter this time, a half whisper in that empty room, even as tension grows so thick they could cut it with a knife. ❝Would you not do the same?❞