A long beat of silence followed the crass assessment then, Fenna snorted.

The Bow-Splitter slapped a hand over her mouth with her shoulders shaking, but it was too late.

The tension holding the room together shattered like brittle glass as the hot spring erupted into a chorus of chaotic laughter.

"I knew it," Brida laughed, leaning back against the smooth stone wall and crossing her muscular arms over her chest.

The heavy infantry captain’s eyes glinted with an undeniable hunger that had nothing to do with war.

"You don’t swing a slab of pure mythril with that kind of velocity without having some serious mass anchoring your stance. A man built like that... he could break a girl in half."

’I really want my Lord to break me in half...’ Brida thought, she had a muscular body but she looked like a woman too, didn’t she? She had always wanted to be with a stronger man and now she had seen it...

"Or build her an empire." Tamsin countered smoothly.

The Wilderness Huntress traced a lazy, rippling circle in the water with her index finger.

"Think about the reality of our situation," Tamsin said, looking around at the beauty painting the bodies of her comrades. "Not too long ago... we were in the realm wondering if we would be called by a Lord, I personally wanted to be called on by a powerful Lord and I got my wish... We fight under a Sovereign who actually bleeds in the mud with us instead of watching from a balcony. If he’s looking for... company... to warm that bed in the Keep, I’m not going to sit quietly in the corner and let someone else take the spot."

The conversation devolved rapidly from reverent awe into a lewd strategy meeting.

These were women who stared death in the face daily!

They discussed broad shoulders, calloused hands, and even more details too. The heavy brass-banded doors at the far end of the bathhouse pushed open with a low groan.

A cloud of cool dry air rushed into the heated chamber, cutting through the dense steam.

It carried the rich scent of roasted boar meat, charred rosemary, and spiced marrow-broth.

Kaelia stepped inside, wiping a streak of sweat and flour from her brow with the back of her wrist.

The Chef looked exhausted.

Her apron was stained with grease and soot from manning the massive hearths of the Culinary Haven, but her brown eyes widened to the size of saucers as she took in the glowing marble sanctuary.

"The Soldier wasn’t exaggerating..." Kaelia breathed with her voice echoing in the vast space.

She dropped her heavy apron onto a dry stone bench near the entrance.

Moving with efficiency, she stripped off her soot-stained kitchen linens and her woolen tunic.

The moment her bare toes touched the heated stone floor, a long sigh escaped her lips.

"Haah~"

She practically ran toward the edge of the pool and waded down the submerged steps.

The scalding water washed away the grease and the tension of cooking a feast for forty starving soldiers...

"You missed the scouting report, Chef." Brida called out from across the spring, splashing a handful of water toward the newcomer.

Kaelia blinked, wiping water from her eyelashes.

"Scouting report? Did the Watchtower spot a horde moving on the perimeter?"

"No," Tamsin purred, swimming closer through the deep water.

She slung a wet arm around Kaelia’s bare shoulders, leaning in close with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Rowena just scaled the partition wall to check on the Lord’s side of the bathhouse. Turns out, our Sovereign is carrying a mythic weapon beneath his towel."

Kaelia’s brain stalled.

She looked at Rowena, who was actively trying to drown herself in the bubbles near the far wall to hide her embarrassment then, the implication of Tamsin’s words hit her.

"A... ah..."

Kaelia’s face flushed a brilliant radiant shade of pink that extended all the way down her neck to her collarbones.

She let out a soft mortified squeak.

Without a word of defense, the Chef sank straight down into the water until the bubbling surface reached her nose.

Her wide panicked eyes darted between the laughing veteran soldiers as her mind raced with images she had no business visualizing.

The laughter eventually faded, giving way to the exhaustion of the multi-front war.

The adrenaline that had kept them moving through the sucking mud, the corrosive acid, and the crushing quicksand was finally washing out of their systems.

Brida pushed herself off the marble wall.

The heavy infantry captain waded through the chest-deep water as she moved toward the shallow steps near the center of the spring, where Eluned lounged.

The Goddess of Nature sat with her eyes closed, resting her head against the smooth stone edge.

Her silver-green hair fanned out over the surface of the water like a halo of spun silk.

Beside the heavily muscled, calloused frame of the veteran soldier, Eluned looked terribly fragile like an artifact of pristine porcelain placed next to a block of beaten iron but Brida knew better.

Brida stopped a few feet away. She didn’t cross her arms over her chest and she didn’t raise her chin in defiance.

"Your Grace," Brida spoke, her raspy voice cutting through the ambient bubbling of the spring.

Eluned didn’t open her eyes, but the water around her stilled, rippling outward in perfect circles. "Captain."

"I was out of line in the barracks..." Brida said.

She kept her tone even, stripped of any mockery or defensive bluster. "The Lord built this place for us to rest, and I treated it like a fighting pit to stroke my own ego. I provoked you. It was reckless, and it disrespected the hierarchy of the territory we are trying to build. I offer my apologies."

The surrounding girls went dead quiet.

Gunnhild watched her captain with a mixture of shock and deep respect as Brida bowed to no one, save the Sovereign himself.

Eluned finally opened her eyes. The glowing emerald irises locked onto Brida.

The Goddess didn’t sneer, nor did she reach for her magic to exact further punishment.

She observed the mortal woman with a calm grace that felt heavy in the steam-filled room.

"You are a creature of conflict, Brida," Eluned replied. "You test boundaries because the world you know only respects blunt force and broken bones. I understand."

’Why doesn’t she talk like this with the Lord?’ Brida thought, she was scared.

Eluned sat up with the water rolling off her flawless collarbone.

Her gaze shifted, sweeping over Tamsin, Gunnhild, Fenna, Kaelia, and the listening rookies.

She even caught the wide green eyes of Aeliana, who sat quietly near the far wall.

"I accept your apology," Eluned continued with her voice changing from graceful understanding to uncompromising authority. "But let us be clear about the boundaries you were testing today... I hear your whispers in the steam... I hear your ambitions regarding the Lord..."

The girls stiffened with the relaxed atmosphere vanishing in an instant.

Eluned raised her chin.

"Lord Silas is the anchor of this territory," Eluned stated, her voice echoing off the marble. "He bleeds in the mud for you... He builds fortresses for you... It is natural that you look at him, see his strength, and desire him as a mate but hear this, and commit it to memory: If any of you intend to pursue him... I am first."

The words hung in the steam like iron chains.

"The world bound me to him as his Hero," Eluned declared, her eyes flashing with possessive fire. "But I choose to stay by his side as his shield. You are his army and you are his Vanguard but I sit at his right hand. If you seek his bed, you will fall in line behind me... Do we understand each other?"

Brida stared at the Goddess for a long tense moment.

A slow, respectful nod followed. "Crystal clear, Your Grace."

Tamsin lowered her head in silent agreement.

Gunnhild grunted an acknowledgment, leaning back against the wall.

Even Aeliana, watching from the shadows of the steam, pressed her lips together and accepted the decree.

The hierarchy of the Blessed Land was set.

Aeliana leaned against the cool marble on the far side of the pool with her mind racing at a million miles an hour.

’He called me amazing...’ Aeliana thought, her long elegant fingers tracing the edge of the stone.

She had owed him her life then as she owed him her soul now.

Above the low chatter of the girls and the bubbling of the geysers, Aeliana’s pointed ears twitched.

Her hearing caught a distinct sound cutting through the thick stone walls.

Clack! Thud!

It was the heavy iron latch of the men’s bathhouse door. Silas was leaving the steam room!

Aeliana didn’t think.

She surged upward as water cascaded off her pale skin in sheets as she scrambled clumsily out of the deep spring with her bare feet slipping on the wet tiles.

"Aeliana?" Fenna asked, blinking through the steam in confusion. "Where are you going?"

The elf didn’t answer. She ignored the stares of the Vanguard.

She snatched a simple, white linen towel from the nearest polished rack, hastily wrapped it around her torso, and tucked the corner tightly over her breast.

Her bare feet slapped against the wet tiles as she sprinted for the heavy double doors, leaving the hot spring and the rest of the women behind.

She hit the oak doors, throwing her weight against the brass rings, and pushed herself out into the corridor.

The air in the hallway hit Aeliana like a wall.

After the sweltering heat of the geothermal spring, the ambient climate-controlled air of the Garrison corridor felt like a biting winter wind on its own.

She shivered, goosebumps erupting across her arms.

Her wet silver hair clung heavily to her bare shoulders as she looked down the long shadowed stretch of dark-stone masonry.

Silas was walking away.

He was barefoot with his heavy footfalls silent against the polished floor.

A single white towel hung low around his waist, clinging to the damp skin of his hips.

In his right hand, he carried his soiled, dark-purple combat robes and his heavy iron-plated boots.

It seemed her Lord refused to wear the blood-stained and mud-caked gear after washing the grime of the basin from his skin.

"Please wait, my Lord!" Aeliana called out.

Her voice, usually so composed and careful, cracked with a desperation that echoed down the hall.

Silas stopped.

He turned around with the ambient light catching the damp dark strands of hair falling across his forehead.

He looked at her however Aeliana didn’t walk toward him.

She closed the distance in a frantic rush and dropped straight down onto the hard cold stone floor.

Her right knee struck the tiles with a sharp thud.

The sudden drop broke the hasty knot she had tied in the linen towel.

The fabric slipped from her chest, sliding smoothly over the slick wet curves of her hips and pooled in a useless white halo on the floor around her knees.

She was completely exposed with he cold air bit at her bare skin but Aeliana did not flinch.

She did not reach down to cover her chest.

Aeliana kept her hands pressed flat against her thighs with her chin raised, exposing her throat as she looked up into his eyes.

"I need to apologize," Aeliana said.

Silas didn’t look away nor did he drop his gaze to her bare chest.

He simply held her eyes, waiting in silence.

’What does she want?’

"On the first day, in the cavern... I failed you," Aeliana confessed with the words spilling from her lips like blood from a reopened wound. "I was saved to become an asset, and I broke... I hyperventilated in the dark... I disrespected your authority... I questioned your commands... I acted like a spoiled noble instead of a soldier of this place."

She took a shaky breath with tears pooling in the corners of her green eyes, blurring his outline.

"But you didn’t cast me aside..." She whispered. "You anchored me and you showed me what a true Sovereign looks like. You stepped off a frozen pillar today and killed a monster of the mud to save five mortal rookies you barely know. You are an amazing Lord. I am yours. Mind, magic, and flesh. Command me, and I will burn the world to ash for you..."

Lord Kal was her past, it was her mistake and Lord Silas was simply her future.

A sharp crystal-clear ping resonated in the silence of the corridor.

The sound echoed directly in Silas’s mind, followed by a glowing blue notification that materialized in the center of his vision.

[System Alert: Hero Status Updated]

[Target: Aeliana (Royal Elven Arcanist)]

[Loyalty: 100% - Absolute Submission]