The sun shone through the windows of my sister's room. Sunrays caressed my face, waking me gently from my slumber. Lea was still sleeping, cuddled against me. She used my chest as her pillow. Her content face made me feel bad about moving, but it was time to start the day. Hopefully, I would be able to get out of bed without waking her.

Gingerly I moved her head and upper body away and onto the pillow. She frowned a bit at the sudden loss of warmth but turned her body to find a better position.

I covered her with the blanket and smiled down at her unmoving form. Sleep well, little sis. With that I made my way silently towards my own chambers.

Not two steps out of Lea’s room I got interrupted by a well-known voice.

“Have you slept well, Aron?”

I spotted my bodyguard sitting on a bench in a little alcove next to me.

“Morning Sephiroth. Yes, it was alright. Sleeping in for a change was very enjoyable. Hope you have enjoyed your night off as well. Let’s go back to my chambers. I want to finish the book from yesterday.”

“Aw Master, always reading. Why not do something healthy for your body? I know some great exercises that will get your blood running. You will feel great afterwards! Your book can still be read later. It doesn’t run away.” She asked me in a whiny tone.

“Reading books is important to learn. It doesn’t help me if I have power but no knowledge to use it properly. Reading and learning is an essential part of my education. Come Sephiroth, stop whining. It won’t take long, I had almost finished yesterday. We can do our daily training later.”

Nodding sadly, she stepped in behind me and followed me back to my quarters.

The first thing I registered when we arrived was the disappearance of the book. With one eye raised, I turned back to Sephiroth. “Where is the book?”

Surprise on her face, Sephiroth answered, “Good question, yesterday it was still here. Maybe Sandra has put it back into the library? She came in and cleaned the room during the early morning.”

I observed her intensely. Should I believe her? Well, first find Sandra and ask her if she knew where the book was. If she was clueless, I could still interrogate my bodyguard later.

“Let’s go find Sandra.”

Luckily we didn’t need to search for long. Her distinct form was immediately visible when we left my rooms. She crouched over a vase and cleaned it with care.

Sandra heard us coming and turned towards us.

“Good Morning young Master, Sephiroth, I hope you had an enjoyable sleep.”

“Thank you Sandra, I was wondering if you had seen the history book I had left on my table yesterday? I can’t find it anymore.”

Hearing my question, she paled.

“I am so sorry young Master. During cleaning I suddenly felt dizzy and my head hurt. I knocked it from the table while trying to support myself. The book landed in the water bucket I had left standing next to it. It was an oversight, you have to believe me.”

She feared that I wouldn’t believe her, but I knew that she spoke the truth.

I looked at her with some worry. “But you feel better now?”

“Yes young master, everything is fine again. I am so sorry”

I sighted, “It is okay. Luckily, the book was not that valuable. If you have another fit of dizziness, or headache go find a doctor. You should pay attention to your health. By the way, how did you know that I wasn’t in my quarters?”

“Sephiroth told me so. She thought it would be an excellent Idea to use the time of your absence to clean your rooms. She is very thoughtful.”

“Yes, she is.” I regarded Sephiroth with a seemingly friendly smile. “Thanks for your efforts.” Sephiroth looked demurely back at me and bowed a little. “I am always happy to help.”

Right… This was getting out of control. Sudden dizziness and headache my ass… Sephiroth had involved other people in her schemes. It was time for a discussion. Initially, I had wanted to find out more about her race before having this talk, but certain boundaries had to be set. I couldn’t allow her to endanger other people. Having known her for some time now, my gift told me I could trust her, mostly. So it was time to push forward.

“Let’s go back to my rooms, have a pleasant day Sandra.”

Bowing, she replied, “Thank you very much young Master, have a nice day.”

Closing the door behind me, I observed Sephiroth who had walked in in front of me. She realized I hadn’t followed and turned back towards me. Regarding me with a questioning glaze.

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“We need to talk. This little game of ours has been going on long enough. Now you have used an innocent person, endangering her in the process. No, don’t deny it. I know you well enough to identify your involvement in what had happened to Sandra. I don’t want to have a lengthy discussion with you in which you try to deny everything so I will come clean first.

I know that you are not human. I have known since the beginning. That was the initial reason for why I had taken you as my guardian. I won’t allow an unknown factor next to my little sister. It is also evident looking at your behavior that you have somehow taken notice of my knowledge and have been trying to thwart them in one way or another.

I do not discriminate against other races. I don’t care what you are. The only thing that matters to me is that I can trust you and that you don’t plan to harm my family. I had planned to find out more about you to face you in the appropriate manner without driving you away. But I will not allow this situation to spiral any further out of control as it already has.”

Sephiroth listened to my speech with an uncharacteristic seriousness and a bit of fear on her face. A moment of quietness followed. She took the time to ponder the information before answering.

“Do you know how many men have said that before? The last time I had told a person I deemed trustworthy what I truly was, they had tried to murder me in my sleep. Why should I believe you?”

I could hear the fear and anguish in her voice. I sighed and looked straight into her clear eyes.

“I give you my word. As long as we can trust you and you don’t have any plans of harming my family I will protect you and your secret as your liege and friend! May the gods strike me death should I ever break this promise!”

Sephiroth looked deeply into my eyes before nodding. We both knew that such oaths were not binding as long as I didn’t swear them in a special place, but what counted was my intent.

“I believe you. Aron I will never hurt your family. I promise! You can trust me.”

I could feel the truthfulness in her words. Good. seems like she had decided to stand on my side after all.

Having gotten the important part of the conversation out of the way, I regarded her with interest.

“Can you tell me now what race you truly are?”

Sephiroth turned bashfully away before glancing at me. In an uncharacteristic quiet voice she asked, “Is it okay not to tell you? I will tell you but please give me some time.”

I wanted to force her to answer, but seeing her so shy I stopped myself. Some things needed time.

Hanging my head a little I responded “Okay, if you must do so.” I had really been curious.

Before I could react, she beamed and jumped at me giving me a full-blown hug.

What the hell?!

Snuggling closer, she looked up at me happily. “Thank you my dear master, you are the best!”

I had to use all my willpower to not let myself be smothered by her warm embrace. She was much too well versed in circumventing my defenses. Pushing her away, I took a step back.

“Stop right there. Only because I trust you doesn’t mean that I don’t know about your scheming self. I won’t let me be wrapped around your little finger so easily. It is time to install some rules. Until now I had been very lax in our servant master relationship but there need to be certain boundaries. From now on not too much touching and keep a certain decorum during the absence of people. I know that I said I don’t really care about it but don’t overdo it.

Sephiroth immediately nodded with an innocent face. I had the urge to facepalm.

“Each time you don’t follow the rules I will switch you for one day with Richard, do you understand?”

“But Master, such drastic measures don’t have to be taken! Can’t you simply trust me?”

I looked at her with a facial expression that very clearly told her what I thought about that idea.

“In addition, I will still try to find out about your race. But I will restrict my time searching to the part of the day that you are present, I promise. So don’t bewitch the servants or other people anymore, agreed?”

“Okay, I won’t do that from now on. In that case I declare the official start of a prank war!”

I gaped at her a little. How had she turned this serious topic to a prank war?

“Wait, what?”

“My dear Master it is only natural to give me certain options. Now that you have officially declared that you would continue finding out about my race, I need to have a justified reason to derail your efforts. That is only fair, right?”

I wanted to stay solemn but couldn’t. Sephiroth’s mock serious expression and righteousness ruined all my efforts at keeping stern. Trying to hide my emerging grin, I answered her. “Okay, you troublemaker, but don’t overdo it…”

“Never my master!” She grinned at me before proceeding.

“Now we can practice, right?”

I nodded in agreement. After all the heavy talk, I needed to vent.

The rest of the day went surprisingly well. Sephiroth held herself back, behaving like a real bodyguard should, mostly. being Sephiroth, she couldn’t stop herself from certain barbs and seduction attempts. Nonetheless, they were comparable tame and innocent. I had achieved my target for now.

With a content sigh I slipped into my bed at the end of the day. Tomorrow morning would be relaxing. Mors was scheduled to be my sparring partner. Happily I closed my eyes, enjoying the comfortable feeling of the smooth mattress.

____________

POV Sephiroth

Finished cleaning herself, Sephiroth dressed for the night. It was a very eventful day. Reminiscing, she made herself comfortable. A lot had changed. Aron had slipped her noose and had regained his freedom. One might think that was a problem, but in fact it helped her. He had truthfully talked to her and had confirmed most of her assumptions.

He had shown himself as a very understanding and loyal man worthy of her trust. He had given her certain boundaries but limited his own actions as well.

These new rules would lead to a healthier relationship. Sephiroth respected him for that. Naturally she had circumvented some of his rules by evoking a prank war. It would allow her access to him in a more informal way that would forge an even tighter bond.

Sephiroth had quickly found out that Aron followed iron clad principles. It was a lost cause trying to derail him frontally, but he was susceptible to soft approaches as long as she didn’t overstep his boundaries.

It was only a small part of the reason she mock seriously evoked a prank war. Sephiroth had witnessed how much pressure Aron was under. Having seen a glimpse of his memories and being aware of the nightmare that had manifested in his soul, it had to be tremendous. Sephiroth sincerely worried about him. Aron had only been truly carefree once during their time together. That was when she had manipulated him into a game of tag after his nightmare. He needed to be reminded about the enjoyable things in life. Otherwise he would crumble under the weighty challenges he had yet to face.

It was time to step up her game in teaching him. He would need all the help he could get.