A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

As Emily and Ankhur faced off, the other people in the room started getting involved and heated voice rose.

A conflict was brewing between Erik's family, and Naeku's, even while Erik was absorbed in his own thoughts, and Naeku only watched miserably. Usually she was more assertive and confident, but her loyalties were torn right now.

For a moment, Erik was too caught up in Elora's predicament to notice what was happening behind him, but then he glanced at Naeku's tear-stained cheeks and snapped out of it.

"Enough!" he roared, a wave of power trailing his voice that immediately shut everyone else up. He turned around and looked sombrely at Emily. "Ankhur has been a faithful ally, despite Enkai's antagonism, and more importantly, he is your sister's father. He is family, so do not threaten his wives."

Corrupted red flickered in Emily's eyes as he glanced between Erik and Nadia. Her lips nearly curled up in a snarl. "B— But—"

"I said enough, Emily," he growled in a domineering tone that instantly awakened Emily's submissive conditioning towards him. The corrupted red was wiped away, followed by all her magic, and she bowed her head with a small tremble.

"S— Sorry, Master…" she whispered, and Erik nodded.

Erik then turned to Ankhur. "My apologies for Emily. She can be a little zealous," he continued sternly. "But she's not wrong about her demand. I am your emperor, as well as your wife's, and according to the contract we made together, not lending aid when I require it is treason. We both need to make concessions to deescalate, Ankhur, and I need to be healed."

Ankhur's breathing calmed down. His anger receding as he looked at Erik and glanced at his miserable daughter. Slowly, he straightened his combat stance, then glanced at his wife and nodded gently. "He's right, Nadia."

Nadia still looked unwilling, but before she could respond, Ankhur turned back to Erik. "But… if we both have to make concessions, then you have to allow her to at least stabilise Enkai after she's done healing you. He antagonised you, and you fairy retaliated—we can agree on that—but in his current state, there's still a chance he'll die, and neither of us wants that."

Still filled with impatience and anger, Erik was about to snap back that he didn't actually care, but then remembered Naeku, and calmed down. He breathed in deeply and nodded. "Fine… But tell your wife to hurry. There's no telling what Eira's interference will do, nor what I'll still have to do to free Elora. I need to be in fighting shape again soon."

He shortly considered pulling Emma out of her confinement, but decided against it. It might have negative consequences to her progression, and with Nadia here, there wasn't any immediate need.

Ankhur nodded in agreement, and turned to his wife. The latter was obviously annoyed at being left out of this discussion, but she also understood how to not make things worse, and thus stepped forward to begin healing Erik.

Water-affinity magic circles appeared, and blue-coloured aetherium started gathering on Erik's body as it slowly healed. Nadia stood behind him and glared daggers at his back, but she did dutifully heal him. As this happened, Erik continued staring stoically at the obviously suffering image of the unnamed sigil construct.

A tense silence settled on the platform as both families eyed each other warily, as if a temporary ceasefire was in effect.

Meanwhile, Naeku had stood off the side this whole time, crying softly, and lost in thought… but it wasn't longer before she came to some kind of decision. She remembered when Erik told her about predators and prey, causing her to realise she was acting as prey right now…

With renewed determination, she wiped away the tears from her eyes and stepped closer to Erik. With a shuddering sigh, she wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest.

A little surprised and very preoccupied with Elora, Erik still smiled lightly, and wrapped his arm around her with a sigh. Then, she extended one of her hands towards Ankhur, urging him to grab it with her eyes. Ankhur smirked wryly, but took her hand in his one-remaining fleshy limb.

The entire thing happened silently, but it was like Naeku created an ending to this event. The young werepanther glanced once at Enkai's bleeding body, but then looked away again. Memories of bouncing on his knee, or getting pulled out of the mud by Enkai flashed through her mind, but… if she was forced to make a choice between two of these three men, she could only pick Erik and Ankhur.

As for picking between the two of them? That might simply break her.

They stayed like this for a while, and the tensions simmered down. Even Nadia looked less resentful and now focused on healing Erik as fast as possible so she could go help her family member.

It took fifteen minutes for something to change. During this time, Erik felt something pulling on the suppressed bond between himself and Elora, filling him with impatience.

But, finally, the distorted, unknown sigil construct fully disappeared. Before Erik could respond, she was instantly replaced by Eira herself. "I was able to take her place, Master!" she smiled brightly, puffing out her chest in pride. "I'm in control now!"

A gasp went up, and Erik immediately perked up. "You're amazing! Free Elora, quickly!"

First brightening even more from his praise, Eira quickly flinched when it came to Elora. "I— I'm sorry… I can't. Not yet." She was poking her fingers nervously and obviously appeared miserable. "I know she's still alive and it will be a few hours before these sigils can break the bond and kill her, but it's an automated process. I don't have the control to free her right now!"

Erik wanted to snap, but forced himself to calm down. At least he had some hope now. "How long do you need?" he asked, impatiently.

"It— It's not about time, Master," she muttered, still poking her fingers together. "This place… it's similar to the structure in your dimension. Back then, I didn't have much control over anything until you came along and awakened the facility as a whole… it's the same here. This place needs a master before they can order Elora's release through me."

Erik began rubbing his temples in exasperation. Elora's absence was giving him a constant tension headache. "Alright… how do we do that?"

In response, Eira's eyes went a little hazy as she quickly checked the data available to her. After a few moments, she refocused. "It seems the original builders wanted their direct descendants to inherit the city, Master." She frowned. "But… there's some tests they need to go through, first."

Erik immediately groaned, but didn't dwell on it long. He looked at Naeku and her family. "Elora mentioned something about the room awakened when a specific few of us entered the room… I hope that means there's some of these descendants among us?"

This time, Eira smiled. "Yes!"