The Empress and the Captain

Two

'Well. I suppose that is how you disillusion a whole continent in thirty seconds.' Fare bit out a laugh, ripping away the velvet bow that choked her and throwing it onto the floor, viciously kicking off her shoes and beginning to struggle with the knots, ties and threads of her heavy gown. She had been so proud, stepping into it that very morning, feeling as if she wore the history of her country and her people, her past embroidered into her present, but now it just felt constricting, taut and awful and far, far too much.

'They had it coming.'

Fare paused, angling her head and catching the eye of her Captain; Erilia looked enraged, her cheeks flushed and the hand that clasped her helmet trembling. The Empress nodded in agreement, noticing the trail of clothing she had angrily left in her wake and letting her hands flutter to her sides.

'Perhaps. I expect my Governors will tell me otherwise, but thank you, Captain.' She placed her palms together over her stomach, a calming breath filling her lungs and turning into fury by the time it left her body. 'I should have held my tongue.'

'No.' Again Fare stilled and this time Erilia seemed to hesitate, considering her words and the fact she ordinarily would have held them, but then she abandoned her helmet and began carefully gathering the Empress' fallen garb. 'Pardon me, Highness, but no. And if your Governors tell you otherwise then they're worse than despicable. They're cloud-eyed fools.'

'Erilia, I can clean up after myself.'

The Captain shrugged, but a smile darted across her lips as she laid everything carefully on a chaise, every layer folded and neat. 'It's nice to be taken care of. Not- not that you're not! Or that I... Your undergarments are- no...' Erilia coughed and shook her head, sending her hair into a frenzy of movement. 'I don't mean to suggest-'

'Captain?' Fare smiled, brow aching but expression warm. 'It's alright. And thank you.' She turned away, eyes going wide as one of the ribbons she had been struggling with earlier gave way and her dress shifted, the whole thing nearly falling around her feet before she caught it in a scrabbling movement, holding it around her in panic.

'Would...'

She turned, eyes wide. 'Yes?'

'Would you like to go out? Into the city?' Erilia went crimson as soon as she said it, stumbling backwards and knocking into a chair, the hilt of her sword ramming into her stomach as she twisted, the clang of metal on chainmail ricocheting through the room, swallowed only by the wince of the Empress as she watched her Captain's eyes fill with tears.

'Are... are you alright!' Fare made to step forward, but another tie came loose and she became preoccupied with holding her dress together, the only layer between her and bare, bare skin. 'Do you need medical attention?'

'I'm fine,' Erilia wheezed, a hand to her stomach, expression very much one of let me suffer. 'Sorry, Ma'am-'

'I swear if you start with the Ma'am business I'm going to kill someone and that really won't help my approval rating!'

Erilia closed her mouth, nodded swiftly, and backed towards the door, face downcast and, in a word, stricken.

'Captain, where are you going?'

'I thought I should let you be. My apologies for... Pardon.' Her voice was anguished and Fare sighed, wishing she could put a hand to her hip without her dress falling off. She resolved for a second sigh.

'So the offer is reneged?'

'The... offer?'

'You invited me out only seconds ago. Odd of you to have forgotten.'

'I shouldn't-'

'You very much should,' Fare corrected severely. 'And I would be delighted. Just... could you fix my dress? Otherwise I will very momentarily find myself indecent and you've seen more than enough of my inopportune moments already.'

She watched with interest as Erilia's face went from flushed to scarlet, but as she couldn't throw out her arms in exasperation or really even move at all, so she merely waited as the Captain of her guard approached cautiously and, after some minutes of hesitancy and stammered words, began tying the loose strings and ribbons. Waist, bust, the small of her back, Erilia carefully retied every bow and secured each knot, her fingers just once skimming a bare patch of skin at Fare's wrist, the skin there touched, for a mere second, by the warm, usually steady hands of her Captain.

'I... ahh, I think that's all, Ma- Empress.'

'No.' Fare shook her head obstinately.

'I-I'm sure it is...'

'I can't go out with you if you call me Empress. I thought I could, and absolutely it is better than Ma'am, but really I cannot do it. Or I could. But I won't.' She roughly knotted a bow at her clavicle and looked slowly up into the eyes of Erilia, the Captain's face... unreadable. 'You've got to call me Fare or I cannot do it.'

Erilia let out such a snort of mirth, her hand quickly covering her mouth but the sound still echoing throughout the room, ringing off the ornate walls and sinking into the depths of Fare's warm heart, and the Empress bit down on her lip, shaking her head in forced sombreness. 'I mean it, Captain. It's too much. You make me sound like a... a blessed saint. Or an unblessed one. A monstrosity, either way.'

'I'm afraid I couldn't be so forthright... but if I may add, saintliness suits you very well.'

'You may not,' Fare huffed.

'Apologies.' Erilia grinned and Fare felt herself swimming in that smile, the warmth growing in her chest and guiding her motions, her movements, as if a breeze were sweeping under her arms and propelling her forward into a destiny she wanted desperately but could not give herself the courage to step into.

Her feet jerked forward, bare of her shoes and silent against the marble floor, her hand, gloveless and cold with fear and recklessness, came to rest on the Captain's forearm. For a moment she just looked at it, almost detached and clinical in the way she had seen healers face an injury, the way her scribes rolled off their accounts, the way she herself faced a day of meetings she would really rather hide from... but then Erilia shifted and her arm moved away, dropping from Fare's touch, and the Empress darted backwards as quickly, as certainly as she had approached.

'I...' Fare winced, lifting her gaze and staring up into the dark eyes of her Captain, who towered over her and looked faintly perplexed and slightly, perhaps, just slightly pleased.

'Fare.' With a gentle, sweet, glorious smile, Erilia extended her own hand. 'It would be my honour to escort you.'

Fare beamed.