A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

The bonds that existed between Erik and his wives are versatile and powerful. They are, essentially, budget versions of his bond with Elora, and allow for many of the same things, including the sharing of memories.

Thus, Emily was perfectly capable of doing so, but surprisingly, she groaned with a hint of frustration, "Do I have to?"

Erik instantly realized the problem when he felt Emily's emotions through their bond, causing him to smirk and calm down a lot. "You overreacted didn't, you?"

Immediately, Emily frowned, shook her head, and exclaimed an emphatic, "No!"

But then her expression softened, and she poked her fingers together, much like Emma often does, "At least… I don't think so. But you might disagree."

"Oh?" Erik chuckled, continuing to smirk. "Well, if that's so then I'll have the perfect excuse to punish you. And if I don't actually disagree, I might reward you instead, so I think we'd both be winners in either situation, right?"

Dimitri, the woman next to him, and most of the guards in the courtyard all had twitching eyebrows at that strange logic. Yet, to their surprise, Emma and Astrid chuckled, Seraphina palmed her face while groaning, and Emily grinned excitedly.

"I suppose that's true, Master." she purred with some lust shining in her eyes.

Before Erik needed to prompt her again, he suddenly felt a flood of memories pouring into him through his bond with Emily. Since he didn't resist, he immediately noticed a scene playing out in front of his eyes, as soon through the eyes of Emily.

It started after he left, at which point Astrid and Emily continued taunting Seraphina for a while longer, until they were suddenly interrupted by a voice coming from the castle gate.

"Hello, hello! My name is Dimitri, are you lovely ladies looking for me?" the voice began in a casual, upbeat tone. "My dear sister, Katya, she send you, yes?"

At the same time, some of the guards began to exclaim with surprised tones: "My Lady?! What are you doing there?!" "Lady Eloise, quickly come over here so we can protect you!" "Lady Beaumont, be careful!"

Erik's allies quickly turned in the direction of the gate and noticed a rough looking man with brown hair and a beard, dressed in loose, casual clothes coming up to them with a wide smile and open arms.

Next to him, was an elegant and pretty, yet weak-looking woman in an expensive-looking dress. In contrast to the man's casual cheer, she looked sad and pained as she looked around the courtyard at the dead and wounded around.

Among Erik's allies, his wives frowned cautiously, but Seraphina was more enthusiastic, and the first to respond. "Yes!" she exclaimed immediately, and with a hint of glee. 'Hehehe, that bastard Erik will come out with empty hands now,' she chuckled devilishly to herself.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"We were sent by Lady Katya," she quickly continued. "I'm her only direct subordinate, however, these others are just mercenaries." She clearly wanted to draw a line between her and them, although she continued to mumble, "Not that they're not good people…" when she noticed Emily raising an eyebrow at her.

Dimitri laughed loudly, and deeply when he had his suspicions confirmed. "Good, good! I knew dear Katya would find a way to get out from under that snake!"

In the meantime, he and the woman continued advancing on Emma and Emily, who were closest to the gate, but the two sisters were still cautious of him.

"It's good that we've found you," Emma began with a voice that was both soft and determined. "But that's close enough. You can stay there and wait for our Master to return."

But Dimitri didn't stop. He continued walking, and smiled jovially, "Oh, don't be like that! We're all allies here! Come, come! Let Dimitri thank you properly!"

There didn't appear to be any malice in his eyes. He simply gave off the feeling of a charming, jovial, flirt. But neither of the sisters cared about that. They both conjured magic circles as they glared at him.

"Don't just dismiss my sister's words, you slimy ball sack!" Emily cursed at him, her eyes flaring with anger. "Katya wanted you alive, but I don't mind taking some fingers if you don't stop where you are!"

The sister's caution was perfectly understandable, because they didn't know this man, and letting a Runebound get close to you was dangerous as an Arcanist.

But Dimitri was oblivious to this. His smile remained and he waved his hands as if dismissing their concerns, "Oh, so scary and serious! It's fine! Dimitri is no threat to you! He just wants to hug and show affection!"

He opened his arms wide, and continued walking, but the sisters weren't amused. "Alright, that's it! If you won't listen, you'll learn the hard way!" Emily snarled, as ten dark orbs appeared around her poised to attack.

Although Dimitri felt Emily's power, he clearly had no idea how dangerous those orbs actually were, as he continued without any concern.

Meanwhile, the woman snapped herself out of looking at the surroundings, and quickly shook her hands with a panicked expression, "Wait, wait! He really means no harm, he's just friendly and not good with personal space!"

But it was too late. Not that it would have necessarily helped any.

Emily didn't care about her words, and was about to attack, when her arms were grabbed by another's. "Wait, Em!" Seraphina exclaimed, after having left her post in panic. "Don't harm him! That's Lady Katya's brother!"

At the same time, Emma's attention was drawn to Seraphina's interruption as well, and before they knew it, Dimitri was already upon them.

"Come, come, let me hug you beautiful ladees who've come to rescue me!" he laughed joyfully as he aimed his wide arms for Emily and Seraphina at the same time. Clearly, he was either completely oblivious, or confident in his strength and simply didn't care.

But as soon as he came within arm's reach, and his hands brushed past Emily's shoulders, the raven-haired woman snapped. Disgust and fury rose up inside her as her worst instincts welled up.

"I said hands-off you intolerable creep!" she screeched, as madness filled her gaze. Unexpectedly, she awakened something within her, and the crimson lines crisscrossing her black eyes flared up.

Suddenly, a burst of crimson power pulsated out of Emily's body. It was powerful and raw. So strong, in fact, that it sent the second-ranked Runebound bodies of Seraphina and Dimitri, stumbling backwards uncontrollably as they groaned painfully, their eyes wide in shock.

And that was when the chaos unleashed.

The woman with Dimitri was also slightly caught up in the edges blast. She wasn't hit with much power, certainly not enough that it should have caused much damage to a second-ranked Arcanist, but it was enough to cause the guards to go crazy.

They unleashed their magic circles and became aggressive, hurling threats. They voices tinged with concern for their 'Lady Eloise'. They were clearly about to attack, which caused Seraphina to curse and turn around to focus on them again, together with Astrid.

Astrid, to her credit, had continued to focus on the guards the whole time, trusting her sister-wives to handle themselves, because she knew someone needed to continue keeping an eye on them.

Meanwhile, Emma had reacted to Dimitri's insistence and intrusion with uncharacteristic anger. After he stumbled back from Emily's surprising outburst, Emma immediately used his confusion to restrain him using her entanglement spell, which ended up taking the woman along with it.

She didn't say a word, but quickly warned Erik at that point, while continuing to stare at Dimitri with anger.

At the same time, Emily was a little surprised. She had no idea where that burst came from and was looking at her hands in confusion.

But when she looked up and saw Dimitri restrained by Emma's spell, she grinned maliciously.