Aura sat at the dinner table with her hands cupping her rosy face. Her wet hair cascaded freely behind her just slightly short of reaching the carpet. She was back in her usual clothes, the loose white gown with green outlines that left her shoulders exposed and ended below her knees. The fabric draped smoothly over her curves with gathered folds that created soft waves, while still maintaining a sophisticated and fluid appearance.

Despite looking like an otherworldly fairy as she simply sat there, her rosy face carried a slight frown of irritation. She had been waiting for almost 10 mins on the table, the dinner was getting colder with every passing second, and he was nowhere to be seen. Did he go to sleep or what?

And then there was the fact that she had to dress back up at this time of day. She would have rather preferred to spend the rest of the night in her bathrobes, only changing into her outfit when it was time to leave. But unfortunately, she wasn’t alone here, and neither did she lack these basic etiquettes.

But someone definitely didn’t have these reservations.

The door to Ragnar’s room swung open as he walked out with a black bathrobe wrapped around his body like a kimono. He had his eyes fixed on the dinner table as he walked down the circular stairway and eventually found his seat opposite Aura. He had taken a glance at Aura’s enchanting figure which was looking more extraordinary than normal before turning back to the table. There was still nothing. No attraction towards the opposite gender. He didn’t let it distract him from the food though and simply dug in.

Ragnar of course didn’t recognize even a single dish on the table, and there were a lot of them. But that wasn’t about to stop him from taking a bite out of everything, and damn was it good.

A piece of grilled meat that melted as soon as it was graced by his tongue. A lobster like thing, but golden in colour, when cracked, had the tenderest looking flesh. After Ragnar took a bite, he simply couldn’t stop until it was finished.

‘This bastard.’ Although she thought that, her face had long lost the irritated frown and carried a small smile as she found it quite funny, watching him wolfing down the food. She had tasted all these dishes before so she didn’t really mind. Instead, picking up her cutlery, she started indulging herself before he finished everything.

After a few minutes, Ragnar had tasted everything, so he slowed down, focusing on one dish at a time. As he did, he also looked up after all this time. Aura was currently leaning forward, taking a sip of the soup, as she used her other hand to tuck a few strands of her loose hair behind her ear. Some strands refused though as they were stuck to her face, a few also sticking to her smooth shoulders and a select few also taking the liberty of slipping into her slightly visible valley.

Ragnar’s vision however, stayed at her eyes, as if the tantalizing scene in front of him didn’t exist. Eventually, Aura noticed him staring and gave him a questioning look.

“How did you lose the hotel?”, he asked.

Aura took a few seconds to think about his words. This was the first time he had actually inquired about her past. She didn’t need to think about what had changed now, since it was quite prevalent from his words what he was interested in.

Aura had never really shared her story with anyone. Of course, many people were aware of it, but she had never put her past into words for anyone to hear before. So, although his reason for asking was quite self-serving, she still felt the urge to let it all out. However just as a formality since she had seen him lash out at so many things, she decided to ask before starting. “It’s a long story, would you like to hear the long version or the short one?”

“The short one.” Ragnar quipped, without giving it a second thought.

Aura gave him a dull look as she stopped eating. An awkward silence hung in the air as she continued staring for a few more seconds before she suddenly stood up, her hands firmly pressed against the table. Giving him another look, this time revealing a hint of anger, she walked off, heading towards the wine cellar.

Opening the cellar, a wave of cold air brushed against her face. She took out a bottle at random and uncorked it with a swift twist. She considered taking a few gulps on the spot but she wasn’t that far gone yet. Striding back to her seat, she poured herself a glass and drank it in a single motion, and then another followed it immediately after.

walkers naturally developed some resistance to alcohol and wouldn’t even feel mild in toxification if drinking normal wine. But wine from this place was sure to be anything but normal.

Aura stopped after finishing her second glass, that took her several sips as compared to the potential she had shown with her first glass. Potential for being an alcoholic, that is. She would have liked to continue, if just for the visual effect, but her stomach just won’t take it, she had eaten too much. With an audible thump, she kept her glass back on the table and matched Ragnar’s gaze once more.

Then she spoke in a somewhat forceful tone. “But I… want to tell… the long version.”

She had had enough of following his orders for the day. Since she had made up her mind to tell her story, she would tell her fucking story.

In order to show her determination, she didn’t break eye contact with Ragnar even for a second, waiting for him to reply.

And to her absolute shock, he said. “Sure, go ahead.”

His expression didn’t even shuffle, no anger, frustration, amusement, there was nothing. As if her whole act was pointless. If she wanted to tell the longer version, then she could have just said it.

On the other hand, Ragnar’s thoughts on this matter were quite simple. He of course noticed that this was the first time that Aura had directly refuted his words. That just meant that she wasn’t fit to be his subordinate either.

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He, of course, preferred it and found it convenient when she did what he asked her to, but would he expect her to follow his every word like a command? Of course not. She was her own person, had her own thoughts, intentions, troubles, relations and what not. All Ragnar expected from her was to honour the deal they made at the Trade Union. So long as she didn’t cross his bottom lines, why would he mind.

Although, those bottom lines were subject to change as per his whims.

Aura sat in inaction for another few seconds, the same dull look resurfacing on her face as she stared him down. She reminded herself what she had concluded earlier in the day, she had to stop assuming things when it came to this guy. He was as unpredictable as a wild cat.

She took a deep breath, deciding not to ponder on his psychology or in other words, mood swings, for the time being. Instead, she streamlined her thoughts regarding what she was going to say. And then seeing that her audience was still looking at her waiting for her to speak while munching on his food, she began in a sombre tone.

“My mother, who was also the previous Matriarch of the family, died a year after I was born. So naturally, I don’t remember anything about her, just her face from all the photos around the house.” Instead of sounding sad, her tone felt somewhat resentful, only slightly though. “After her death, I was naturally supposed to be next in the line of succession, being her only heir in the family, but I would need many years before I could be capable enough of taking the mantle. So, the family needed a temporary head, and our faction for the first time since the initiation of our family, lacked anyone strong enough to take the position. Thus, the opportunity automatically fell into the hands of the Knights.” She was about to continue, but Ragnar’s voice interrupted her.

“Wait… Faction? Knights?”

Instead of being irritated at the interruption, Aura was actually quite pleased since this meant that Ragnar was paying attention and was also interested enough to raise questions. Everyone preferred an active audience.

“Our family is divided into three factions, each originating from one of the descendants of our first ancestor. Our faction, Wardens, have been leading the family ever since its dawn, but after the death of my mother, the leadership position was taken by the Knights faction. It was only supposed to be temporary but…” She sighed

“The Knights had been trying to take the throne from our faction for quite a few years, but we had managed to keep them suppressed. So now that they finally had it, of course they wouldn’t be willing to let it go.”

“Now that they had the position they had been craving for literal centuries, the next step was naturally to ensure that it stayed with them for the generations to come. But that couldn’t happen because I existed.” She said with a somewhat smug smile. The alcohol might have been getting to her head. “It was already decided by the council before the position was given to the Knights, that I will be the next Matriarch once I fulfilled the requirements. Oh, by the way… the council is a group of the leaders of all three factions in the family. They make such important decisions for the family.” She answered this time before Ragnar could raise his doubts. Seeing his opened mouth closing as he took another bite, she smiled and continued after taking another sip of the wine herself.

“They of course had to do something about me. So, they started off by engaging me to their Patriarch’s son. The one you saw at the entrance… Lucian…*Sigh*… we were actually quite close before this became a thing, as brother and sister of course. I was ten back then and didn’t know any better. Since this decision had also come from the council, my faction couldn’t really resist much and they also didn’t see any reason to resist anyway. No one wanted me to repeat the same mistake my mother did. Oh, I didn’t tell you about my father, did i?” And then, without waiting for Ragnar’s reply, she continued.

“He isn’t from our family, or from any family for that matter, just a normal walker. And people in important positions in our family are usually discouraged from marrying outside the family, but my mother was the Matriarch so of course no one could stop her. They were still pretty dissatisfied though. So, using this as the reason, they convinced the council to engage me so early. Although that doesn’t mean that they gave me no choice, if I had completely and vehemently refused it, then they wouldn’t have forced it either. But like I said, I was ten and didn’t know any better, and since I also had a good relationship with Lucian at that time, I showed weakness.”

Aura knew that these were just excuses. It was her fault for not saying ‘NO’ to everyone’s face, instead showing timidness that was conveniently interpreted as her being shy.

She aggressively picked up a piece of salad putting it in her mouth and continued while chewing. “And then four years later, the Celestrians announced this decade as the decade of the Centennial Surge.” She said in a dejected tone, as if the whole world was working to bring her down.

But these words had left Ragnar scratching his head. “Isn’t the Centennial Surge supposed to be a few decades away still? And the Celestrians are the family from Continent of Wisdom?”

Ragnar didn’t have to ask about the Centennial Surge since it was one of those things that even he knew about, just the basics though. It wasn’t anything much, the Rift just went mad once a century and sent out very strong calls that invited hordes of shifted from all over the Realm to attack the HCR, lasting a few months. It wasn’t anything humans hadn’t dealt with before.

Aura could understand his doubts, speaking with a sad smile. “Yeah, the self-proclaimed smart asses. They said that they were completely sure that Surge will come earlier than usual this time, they couldn’t tell the reason though.” Then returning to her tale, she continued. “So, in all the families, it is an unspoken tradition to choose an heir for the family before the Surge arrives. So if something unforeseen happens to the head of the family, they will have someone to lead the family into the future. These heirs usually stay back on Earth, while the head of the families usually joins the battle, their strength being indispensable. But this time, heh, I doubt any of the heirs will settle for being sitting ducks.”

She chuckled thinking over her next words and then continued. “You know, when that tradition first came into play, accredited to the timing of the Surge, each family’s younger generation was already at the peak of Mystic Rank. So, it made sense leaving the family in their hands. Such was the case for every subsequent Surge after that. But those bast-“ She sighed, still unwilling to curse her family so openly. “They used this opportunity to proclaim Lucian as the next heir to the family. Justifying it with the fact that since the Surge was upon us, I might not even have turned into a walker when it eventually came. And their reasoning wasn’t wrong or even bad, so the council couldn’t really counter it, but the person they did announce as the next heir was literally just three years older than me. They even gave the argument that he is going to be my husband anyways, so I will be in an important position after all.” She couldn’t help but chuckle loudly again. The Aegis council was literally a joke now that she actually thought about it.

“And thus, the position of the next heir was taken from me. This time, I did try to refuse, and so did my faction, but the council had decided. And since this decision was related to the existence and longevity of the family, my opinion fell on deaf ears.”

Hearing all this, Ragnar couldn’t help but ask something that had been bugging him for quite a while. “Why didn’t they just kill you? If they can go to such lengths then what stopped them from simply killing you before you could grow?”

Aura stared into his pitch-black pupils and replied with a straight face. “We Sylvancrests are quite close knitted. No matter how strong their craving for power was, they wouldn’t fall so low. They never did anything to directly harm me and simply wanted their faction to be the ruling one in the family. Such competition was always promoted by our ancestors, resulting in stronger leaders, not just physically, but more so mentally.”

Yeah, Ragnar called bullshit.