Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Silas stood in the open doorway with his weight settled lazily on his back leg and let out a long heavy sigh of pure exhausted amusement.

”Really, Ther’Abella?” he drawled, rolling his eyes. ”We’re doing this again? I leave for a day or two and you completely forget I can come and go here whenever I want...?”

”You have no authority here, brute!” she snapped.

Her blue eyes flashed as she stepped forward with the starlight blade humming hungrily in her hand. ”You slink in through the shadows like a common thief! Submit to inspection, or I’ll pin you to the floorboards by your—”

SWISH!

Silas vanished from her sight as Ther’Abella’s eyes bulged in stunned disbelief.

”What— Not ag—”

Before the word could leave her lips, Silas was standing right inside her guard with his chest an inch from her shoulder.

His left hand shot out with terrifying casual precision, caught her right wrist and pressed his thumb hard into the nerve on the inside of it.

TWITCH!

Her fingers went numb at once as her grip failed, and the starlight sword crumbled into harmless sparkling dust.

’Again?!’ Ther’Abella’s mind howled. ’Again! The same trick! I trained for days straight for this exact moment, and he walked straight through my guard again like I’m a child holding a stick!’

She snapped her knee up toward his ribs on pure instinct.

Thud!

Silas caught it on his hip without even looking down, and the impact did nothing at all except make her teeth clack together.

GASP!

Before she could find her balance or throw an elbow with her other arm, Silas stepped deeper into her stance.

His right arm dropped and wrapped around her slender waist like an iron band, and with one effortless heave of his shoulders he lifted the Viridian Guard elf clean off her boots.

HOIST!

”Hey! Let go of me!” Ther’Abella shrieked as the whole world flipped upside down!

Silas slung her over his right shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Her long legs dangled down his back and her silver hair spilled down over his chest toward his belt.

Her face flushed a violent furious red as she hammered both fists uselessly against his back.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

”Put me down, you insolent barbarian!” she fumed, kicking her armored boots at the empty air and squirming wildly against his shoulder. ”I am of the Viridian Guard! You can’t carry me around like luggage! Let me go this instant...”

”You’re a very loud sack of potatoes today, Ther’Abella,” Silas chuckled, resting his forearm across the backs of her thighs to keep her pinned while his left hand slid casually into his jacket pocket. ”Keep wiggling and I’m dropping you in the fountain out front.”

’He would,’ Ther’Abella thought in horror, freezing for half a second. ’He absolutely would... That smug usurper would throw a Viridian Guard into a decorative fountain and laugh about it.’

Then her pride caught up with her and she started kicking twice as hard.

”You wouldn’t dare—”

”Ahhh fuck!”

A sharp high voice cut in from the arched doorway that led into the Keep’s dining hall, and a sudden thick billow of gray smoke rolled out across the floorboards along with it.

”I swear, the heat on these northern griddles is completely wrong!”

Stepping out of the smoke with a heavy polished silver tray held precariously in both hands was a tall, strikingly curvy woman with a mane of fiery ember-red hair that tumbled in thick voluminous curls past her shoulder blades.

She wore a tight low-cut charcoal bodice, dark leather trousers and knee-high riding boots.

Under her left amethyst eye sat a tiny beauty mark that gave her dramatic gorgeous face an air of permanent dangerous allure.

...Elowynn Embershade.

She was waving her free hand in front of her nose and coughing lightly into her collar as she glared down at the charred blackened lump sitting in the middle of her platter.

”The recipe said four minutes over a steady flame,” she complained to the ceiling in a voice she clearly practiced in front of mirrors. ”But the moment the butter touched the iron, the whole thing burst into flames! It’s the fault of the cookware, not the artist, and if anyone says otherwise I’ll challenge them to a cutlass duel in the courtyard—”

She lifted her striking amethyst eyes toward the front door as her gaze landed on Silas.

She saw his dark hair, his broad shoulders, his easy confident stance and the faint captivating ring of gold glimmering in his dark blue eyes.

’A-again... Why does this hottie always show up at my most embarrassing moments? B-but...’

Behind her the smoke kept pouring out of the dining hall in lazy gray curls.

Somewhere inside... a pan was still hissing on the stove as it had been forgotten while Elowynn went completely still.

The smoky air in her lungs seemed to turn to lead.

CLATTER!

Her fingers went limp.

The silver tray slipped out of her grip and crashed onto the hardwood floor with a deafening clang that echoed through the whole hall, the charred lump of mystery meat bounced twice, left a greasy skid mark across the cream-colored rug and rolled to a stop against the baseboard.

Elowynn didn’t look down at the food.

A huge blinding wave of crimson surged up out of the neckline of her bodice, rushed over her throat and swallowed her whole face until her cheeks burned like live coals.

’He’s here...’ her brain screamed, spinning into frantic panicked loops as her hands fluttered uselessly at her hips. ’He’s actually here! Right now! In the front hall! Look at his shoulders... look at that jaw! And I’m covered in grease! My hair smells like burnt fat! My eyeliner’s probably smeared from the smoke... I was supposed to greet him lounging on the divan with a mysterious smile and a glass of spiced plum wine, and instead I just dropped a lump of coal on the carpet like a clumsy tavern maid!’

She tried desperately to pull herself together.

She snapped her posture straight, threw her shoulders back and thrust her chest forward in what she clearly hoped was a smoldering, devastatingly seductive pose.

”L-Lord Silas!” Her voice betrayed her immediately and cracked on the very first syllable, jumping a bit above the sultry purr she’d been aiming for. ”Y-You’ve... you’ve come back to our humble home! I was just... the thing is, cooking is a very complicated art, and I was... I was making a feast for your arrival, but the... the humidity wasn’t cooperating!”

She took an unsteady half step forward and held out one trembling hand toward him with her amethyst eyes wide and pleading.

”Please don’t judge my cooking by that little accident!” she babbled, the words tumbling out in a rush that shattered her femme fatale act completely. ”I’m really good at lots of other things! Truly! I can slice a melon into sixty pieces in three seconds! I can sharpen a blade with diamond dust! I’m a delight in private company, Lord Silas, I swear it on my honor as an Embershade!”

Silas stood in the middle of the hall, still balancing the fuming elf on his shoulder, and stared at the red-haired swordswoman with pure delight.

’This is the same woman who Morwenna knew from her days as a Pirate,’ he thought. ’...and she’s falling apart over a burnt steak. Is she really a pirate?’

”Are you okay, Elowynn?” he asked gently, his lips twitching as he fought down a laugh. ”You look like you’re about to faint... Don’t worry about the food, nobody’s judging your cooking.”

Elowynn’s knees visibly wobbled at the sound of his warm voice, and her hand flew to her heaving chest.

”H-He spoke to me...” she breathed. ”He forgave the meat... what an impossibly generous man...”

She swayed on her feet and had to grab the edge of the doorway to keep from sliding down it, her amethyst eyes gone completely soft and dreamy.

Silas glanced around the hall while Ther’Abella kept ranting into his back.

It was just as pretty inside as out... Pale wooden floors polished to a soft shine, woven rugs in cream and rose, little vases of wildflowers on every windowsill, and a long tapestry of a sunrise over a valley hanging over the stairs.

Even the smoke drifting through it all couldn’t make it look anything but cozy.

”Where’s Aki, anyway?” Silas asked, nodding toward the hall with his chin. ”Is she upstairs?”

Over his shoulder Ther’Abella let out another furious muffled shriek and hammered her fist against his shoulder blade.

”Don’t ignore me to flirt with the fire dancer, you barbarian... Put me down or I’ll cut your spine in half with a starlight dagger!”

Before Elowynn could pull a single coherent sentence out of her stuttering blush, a pair of light hurried footsteps came pattering down the grand curved staircase at the back of the hall.

”Elowynn? Did something fall? I heard a crash all the way from the third floor—”

The voice cut off on the bottom landing.

For a moment the hall went quiet, even Ther’Abella stopped kicking.

Elowynn turned her head toward the stairs, and the smoke drifting through the room seemed to slow down.

Standing on the lowest marble step was Aki.

She had one hand on the carved banister and the other holding up the hem of her skirt, frozen mid-step with one slipper still hovering over the floor.

The lamps on the landing behind her threw a soft glow around her shoulders, and for a second she looked exactly like something painted on one of her own stained-glass windows.

She was every bit as stunning and sweet as Silas knew she was.

She wore an airy soft lavender dress with wide bell sleeves that fluttered around her slender wrists.

Her long flowing blue hair poured down her back like a river all the way to the backs of her knees and framed a delicate heart-shaped face with big expressive azure eyes, and right now those eyes were wide with breathless delight.

Aki gasped and her small hands flew up to cover her mouth as she saw him standing in the middle of the hall.

”Silas!”

Her whole face lit up with an enormous radiant smile that seemed to chase the last of the smoke right out of the room.

’Ah... Stop being so cute.’

Aki didn’t hesitate.

She didn’t ask why her guard was slung over his shoulder like a sack of grain, or why Elowynn was practically hyperventilating against the dining room arch.

Aki gathered up the hem of her lavender dress in both hands, ran down the last steps and hurried across the hall in light eager strides.

’He’s back!’ Her heart fluttered like a trapped butterfly as a sweet warm rush of relief spread through her chest. ’He actually made it back from Central City! I spent the last few nights worrying that something had happened to him... but he’s here... He doesn’t look hurt at all, and his eyes are just as warm as when he left.’

”Welcome back from Central City!” Aki beamed, stopping two feet in front of him with her cheeks flushed a soft pretty pink as she looked up into his dark blue eyes. ”I was so worried about you! Did everything go okay? Did anything go wrong?”

Silas’s smile softened.

”Nothing we couldn’t handle,” he said.

With a relaxed unhurried motion he loosened his arm and let Ther’Abella slide off his shoulder.

FLUMP!

The elf landed on her hands and knees on the floorboards with an undignified clatter.

Her silver hair spilled across her face as she scrambled backward, glaring daggers at his boots and furiously smoothing down her tunic.

’Usurper,’ she seethed silently, the constellation marks on her cheeks flaring bright with humiliation. ’Smirking, arrogant, insufferable usurper. One day. One day I’ll land a single kick on that smug face, and the whole of Vineworld will hear about it...’

Silas didn’t even glance at her, every bit of his attention was on the blue-haired girl in front of him.

He looked Aki in the eyes, and his lopsided grin widened with quiet confident pride.

”I brought all the materials you wanted, Aki,” he said softly. ”Every single thing on that scroll you gave me before I left.”

Aki’s azure eyes sparkled with overwhelming joy.

She knew exactly what was on that scroll.

Every line of it was another wall she could raise, another forge she could light, another step toward the kind of territory her people could feel safe in... and he had gotten every single one.

”Ah.”

She clasped her hands together against her chest and stepped half an inch closer, completely caught up in him.

Silas tilted his head slightly.

The warm candlelight of the hall caught in his dark blue eyes as he leaned down just a little, and his voice dropped into a teasing affectionate murmur.

”Did you miss me?”