Chapter 111 – A Hug.

Noxx covered her mouth with one hand.

Elyra was still laughing on the other side of the desk. She had pushed the documents aside quite a while ago, and every time she seemed ready to go back to them, she ended up telling her something else about Matt.

"…and then," Elyra went on, resting her cheek in her palm, "at the exact moment all the knights stood up to receive him, he stepped on the hem of his own dress."

"In front of all of them?"

"In front of all of them." The queen smiled. "He fell flat on his face on the hall carpet, right in the middle of the celebration ritual. The knights didn't know whether to keep singing or not. And he just lay there, face down, without moving, for a good five seconds."

"Why didn't he get up?"

"He wanted to ruin the party."

Noxx burst out laughing and had to cover her face with both hands.

Ever since she had known Matt, the gap between the two of them had always been enormous.

Matt knew things, far more than she did. When they trained, Noxx spent half the time on the floor, and the other half trying to understand what she had done wrong to end up on the floor.

It was true that since the dungeon boss, the one she had run away from and that nearly killed him, Matt had been a little more subdued, but even so, the distance between their skill levels was still the same.

Knowing that that same Matt had fallen on his face in front of all the knights at an official ceremony…

Noxx laughed again.

It was a relief. A silly relief, but a relief.

Elyra watched her laugh with a calm expression. She didn't say anything until Noxx calmed down on her own.

"Although you have your moments too," she said then.

Noxx wiped one eye with her finger.

"Me?"

"At the social debut." The queen tilted her head. "When that girl challenged Matt in front of everyone and you put yourself in the middle to defend him. You looked very cute."

Noxx stopped laughing all at once. She felt the heat climb into her face and turned her eyes to the bookshelf on the left, which suddenly seemed very interesting.

"It wasn't like that..."

"Oh, no?"

"No..." Noxx crossed her arms. "I was just… there, next to him… And I moved! That was all."

Elyra laughed.

"The more I see, the more I understand," the queen said, "why you girls choose to live alongside him instead of absorbing him."

Noxx didn't answer. Elyra pushed her chair back, moving a little away from the desk, and raised a hand. She made a gesture with two fingers. A short, simple one.

Come here.

Noxx looked at the hand.

Then she looked at the queen.

“Mistress…” Sun's voice appeared in her head, low and careful. “You don't have to do it.”

“But it's just a gesture!” Moon cut in. “Well… it could also be a trap. Is it a trap? Sun, is it a trap?”

“I don't know.”

“Then it is a trap!”

Noxx didn't answer them, because the problem was that it didn't seem like one.

Noxx had been sitting across from this woman for a good while and at no point had she felt any danger.

Elyra had asked her things, told her stories, laughed with her. She hadn't threatened her. She hadn't pressured her. She hadn't asked for anything strange.

Noxx was starting to not quite understand why Matt hated her so much.

She knew what had happened. She knew about the kidnapping, the conversion, the months locked away.

She knew it better than anyone, because she herself had been born from all of that.

But the woman sitting there, telling her silly stories with a smile, didn't look much like the woman Matt had known.

Noxx rested her hands on the arms of the chair.

She thought about getting up.

She really thought about it.

But she didn't.

"No," Noxx said.

Elyra lowered her hand slightly.

"Did Matt order you to say that?"

Noxx shook her head.

"No."

"Then?"

Noxx looked down at her knees. She took a second to sort out what she wanted to say, because she didn't want it to sound bad, and she didn't want it to sound like something it wasn't either.

"I understand that we're family," she said slowly. "In a way… I understand that." She looked up. "But that… I'd only do with Matt."

The office went silent.

Elyra looked at her with her eyes a little wider than usual. It was the first time in the whole conversation that the queen seemed truly surprised by something.

And then she burst out laughing.

A real laugh. Loud, long, her head thrown back against the back of her chair.

Noxx stayed very still, not knowing where to put her hands.

“Mistress,” Moon whispered. “I think she said something really weird.”

“Be quiet, Moon.”

“But it's just that…”

“Be quiet.”

The queen took a while to calm down. When she did, she wiped away a tear with the tip of her finger and looked at Noxx again.

The smile was still there.

But the voice wasn't.

"That's an order," Elyra said. "Come here right now. I want to give you a hug."

Noxx felt the air in the room change slightly, so she swallowed and gripped the arms of the chair.

"No."

Elyra held her gaze for an instant.

Then she raised her right hand.

VMMM!

The scythe appeared out of nowhere, long, black, its curved blade gleaming under the light of the lamps. The queen held it in one hand, without effort, and rested it against the floor the way someone rests a walking stick.

Noxx jumped to her feet and the chair fell over backward.

“Mistress!” Sun and Moon shouted at the same time.

Elyra stood up too. She came around the desk calmly, unhurried, dragging the tip of the scythe a little across the carpet, and stopped a few steps from Noxx.

"On guard."

"What…?"

"I'll make you an offer." The queen spun the scythe once between her fingers. "If you manage to land one hit on me, you don't have to give me that hug. You walk out that door and I never ask you again."

Noxx said nothing.

"But if I land one on you first…"

Elyra tilted her head.

"Then you're going to have to give it to me."

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