A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Erik and Runa glanced at each other. The former cocked an eyebrow, the latter smirked. A whole conversation passed through a mere look. Despite their long separation and Erik's changes, they were still mother and son.

Meanwhile, Tarek snarled at the ceiling. "Hey, spirit! Send me wherever you send my daughter!"

"Ignore him for a while," Erik immediately ordered Eira silently, using their bond.

Naturally, Eira listened to Erik rather than Tarek. After realising he was being ignored, the old man started cursing and kicking the bookcase next to him.

Erik and Runa ignored him as well, with the latter smirking a little.

"Go on then," Runa encouraged him, knowing exactly what he wanted.

"Are you sure? You could go talk to her instead." Erik suggested, cocking an eyebrow.

Runa shook her head, "I could, but now's the perfect time for you to break her."

Erik blinked, a little surprise by her language. "Uh…"

"Hehe, don't look at me like that," his amused mother chuckled, smirking slyly. "I have the bets of intentions!"

She turned a little more serious. "The truth is, Leilei can't let herself be truly happy. I noticed it when we first started hanging out. She's put a wall around herself. The expectations of her parents and her conflicting desires have forced her to become a person she's not—to choose the lesser of two evils."

Still leaning against a table, lightly gripping the edge with her hands, she shrugged as the smirk returned. "I tried talking to her about it in the past few months, but it hasn't worked. I've realised that wall may not come down through subtle methods, so yeah. Go and brute force that wall down."

She narrowed her eyes a little. "Just remember she is my friend."

Now a little more understanding, Erik grinned. "You got it, Mom. I already have a plan."

Without another word, he hopped off the table and asked Eira to teleport him to wherever she brought Leila. Naturally, unlike with Tarek, Erik immediately disappeared.

***

Less than a second later, Erik found himself in the palace halls, back on the surface. A little surprised, he cocked an eyebrow. "Eira?" he asked, curiously.

The slightly transparent Minotaur girl appeared next to him and shrugged. "She just asked me to get her out of there. With a vague request like that, I just got her out of the entire facility to be safe." She smiled at him. "She seemed happy with my choice, and even thanked me. She's nice!"

Erik did file that information away, but first he cocked an eyebrow. "You heard her thank you? I know you can teleport throughout the city, but can you also hear everything?"

With a bright, innocent smile, Eira nodded. "Yeah! And see, too! Within the city, anyway."

Erik blinked, a little shocked. "Can you even process so much data!?"

She deflated a little and pouted. "Oh, well… No, not while keeping my mind intact, no. It's not a passive thing. I can just focus the sigils on specific spots to listen and hear there. I'm not constantly listening and seeing everything, everywhere in the city."

Realising she thought he was disappointed, Erik chuckled and petted her hair. "That's an amazing ability, Eira. I'll remember you have that. How many things can you keep an eye on simultaneously?"

A little happier, Eira smiled again, nuzzling into his hand. "Probably about a handful, Master. My core still allows me more powerful processing than most others."

"Good girl," Erik grinned. "I have some people for you to keep an eye on, then…"

***

A few minutes later, Erik was stalking through the halls of the now-mostly-empty palace, until he ended up in front of door. Eira had told him where Leila went to, and he could sense her inside with his omnisense. He suspected this was her room, though he hadn't been inside yet.

Without knocking or waiting, he simply barged inside, a cocky smile across his lips.

Inside the room, Leila's slender body was gripping the edge of a small table with a mirror on it. Bent over slightly, she was trembling and breathing deeply, trying to calm down. Erik could see tears of both anger and sadness dripping down her cheeks.

As soon as he entered, Leila snatched the mirror from the table and tossed it behind her. "Piss off, old man!"

There wasn't any real force behind it. Despite everything, she didn't want to kill her first-ranked father, so Erik easily caught the mirror and put it down on another table next to him.

"Tarek won't be leaving the facility for a while," he smiled. "Sadly, Eira will be mysteriously unable to hear him. The sigils in that place are incredibly old, so problems are to be expected…"

Surprised after hearing his voice, Leila immediately whipped around. "You—!" she cried out, before suddenly turning a little anxious. "W— What are you doing here?! And what do you mean?! I don't need you to keep him from me! I can handle my father!"

Erik chuckled and stepped closer. "I'm sure you can. You did admirably back there, anyway. But even if you can do something, that doesn't mean you have to. You're certainly not enjoying it."

"S— So what?!" she growled aggressively, without coming closer, her eyes still anxious. She was pressing her butt against the table she was leaning on previous, and still gripping the edges. "A— And you still haven't told me what you're doing here! If it's nothing important, then can you leave?!"

Smiling, Erik took a step closer. "I could if you want me to… But since I saw you were upset, I figured maybe this was a good time to come back on the offer you made me back when my wedding to Naeku was being planned. Sex always cheers me up, for sure."

Before she could respond, he snapped his fingers and made his clothes disappear. "I believe this situation is quite similar to back then. You were wearing some kind of lingerie, but you'll have to make do with my naked body."

Leila's eyes widened at his sudden nakedness. This was the first time she'd seen him like this, and she couldn't stop herself from drinking in his sculpted body, until her eyes dipped down to the thing swaying between his legs and she flinched a little.

"Y— You—! I—!" She was about to complain about his sudden nakedness, but stopped herself. Since Erik had already reminded her of the time their roles were somewhat reversed, she realised he'd simply counter by calling out her hypocrisy.

Erik, smirking smugly at her reaction, stepped closer. Now a mere few feet away, he cocked an eyebrow. "More fun than arguing with your father, right? Might take your mind off things…"