The Reign of the Huntress

17. Civil Matters

A stirring from his side woke him slightly but instead of fully embracing the morning, he turned to embrace the woman next to him. His arm lazily flopped over her waist as he pulled her closer and nuzzled his nose into her hair. A smile crept onto his face until giggling met his ears. The elven man peered open his eyes to see very messy brown hair under his chin. Then a pair of faces popped up beyond the top of her head and he warily made out the faces of two children.

"Morning poppa," Lilium chimed and her near white eyes blinked mischievously to glance between him and the brown haired beauty that lay beside him. Upon seeing this glint in her eyes, he pulled his head back and took in the face of none other than Nova. Instantly his eyes widened and he rolled away from her with a yelp as he fell out of the bed. At the sound of his cry, the huntress shot up and out of habit grabbed at her hidden blade that always stayed strapped at her side.

"Whu..." she mumbled groggily as her hand extended the blade out to the open air before her. It dropped from her grasp once she noticed that their was no threat and her hands recoiled to grasp her pounding head. "Ugh, how much did I drink last night?" Nova mumbled and then heard a small bout of laughter coming from her left. Her emerald eyes turned and took in the sight of her two children sprinting out of the room as Armageddon chased them away. Before he fully left the room though, his skull face turned and his tongue lolled out as if to tell her that he was very amused. Right as he exited, a groan came from Iridian who still occupied a place on the floor by the bedside. "Iridian...? What are you doing in my room?!" She yelled and threw a pillow at his head as he sat up to peer at her over the edge of the bed.

"Ow...Nova! Quit it!" He growled back as another pillow met his face. Iridian grabbed a discarded pillow and tossed it back at her, smacking her in the cheek. "You asked me to sleep with you so you didn't..." he trailed off awkwardly.

"What?!" The huntress exclaimed as a question and in surprise before cowering under the sheets in embarrassment.

"So you didn't have nightmares," he looked up at the curled up bundle that was the huntress with a pitiful frown. "It's alright. Nothing happened between us."

"Thank the gods," came her muffled reply. A pang of hurt washed over his face but upon remembering how much anger he held in his heart for her, it dissipated quickly to be replaced by a deep frown.

"It won't look any better to your people though. You are married to Kros yet you shared a bed with your servant," his voice drilled into her head reminding her of a pouting child. Nova would have retaliated but her head hurt too much and she hadn't the energy.

"You are just jealous," came her equally childish response. Movement came from the floor before the mattress dipped down and he shoved her off the bed.

"No, you just have no regard for your family! It's all about your stupid duties!" He spat back. A groan came from the mound of blankets that cocooned the huntress. Her mind was waking up but her body still felt heavy so Nova resigned to arguing with him from the floor.

"Well you abandoned your duties to travel and marry. Just because you have no sense of respect for the place in which you were born doesn't mean no one does," she shot back. Iridian' face reddened in irritation, his hands grabbing at his long hair and pulling down to release some of his anger.

"You stupid mot-" he stopped himself before he reached an all time low by calling her names. A sigh escaped his mouth and he continued. "It couldn't have only been that you wanted to make Tyrial better. What was your actual motivation?"

Nova paused. Her mind reeled through all of the reasons she had ever had for staying in Tyrial and came to her best conclusion. "I did it for my family, Iridian."