The first bite hit her stomach, and the long-missed sensation of being full made her feel like she was coming back to life.

“My Lady, try this.”

Aurora speared a perfectly fried egg with her fork and slid it gently onto Pandora’s plate.

Pandora’s brow instinctively furrowed. She leaned back slightly.

“I don’t like fried eggs.”

Especially the half-cooked runny kind. Something about the texture always made her think of things she’d rather not think about.

“Ah, is that so? Alright, then.”

Aurora said it without a moment’s hesitation, took the egg right back off the plate, and put it in her own mouth in one smooth, uninterrupted motion.

Pandora raised an eyebrow and watched her.

If it had been Elsa...

Elsa would have frowned—slightly, but unmistakably—and said in that perfectly calm, perfectly immovable voice: “My Lady, eggs are good for your health. You shouldn’t be picky.”

And then she would have quietly found a way to bury the egg in something else and watched Pandora eat it anyway.

But...

Pandora’s gaze drifted to the tender, glistening steak on her plate, and she let out a quiet internal sigh.

Elsa was still sleeping in the System space.

Even with the accelerated healing of an Alchemical construct, a body that badly damaged and thoroughly overtaxed still needed time to recover.

Think of it as a vacation.

Besides, staying here for a few days with Aurora around shouldn’t require any fighting... probably shouldn’t require any fighting.

Another small plate arrived the next moment—steak, seared to a perfect crust, releasing a trail of fragrant steam.

Pandora stopped overthinking and let herself sink back into the food.

..................

The meal was winding down.

Pandora speared the last remaining crouton—thoroughly soaked in rich, dark gravy—and was just about to lift it to her mouth.

Across the table, Aurora went still.

The Palmfiend that had been resting quietly on her shoulder suddenly stirred, emitting a faint, tremulous sound.

Aurora’s expression shifted. She reached up, brought it down to her palm, and read what it had to say.

The calm on her face gave way to something complicated.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Surprise. Confusion. A thread of worry woven through both.

Pandora’s fork paused in mid-air.

She caught the shift instantly, set her fork down, dabbed the corner of her mouth with her napkin, and looked across the table with unhurried interest.

“What is it? Something happened?”

Aurora looked up at her, hesitated for a beat, and then said quietly:

“It... concerns you, My Lady.”

“Oh? Something that concerns me?”

Pandora leaned forward slightly, fingers tapping a slow rhythm on the tablecloth.

“Mm... A few days ago, Senior Brother Julian received some information from inside Eden. About you. He passed it on to me, and I asked him to keep an eye on how it developed, so...” 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Aurora extended the Palmfiend across the table as she spoke.

Pandora took it. Her eyes moved over the text on the small creature’s surface.

The sender was listed as “Julian.”

She read the short message through quickly.

Then the corner of her mouth curved.

“The Disciplinary Court is investigating me?”

She repeated the key words from the message, her voice carrying no trace of alarm. She sounded more like someone who’d just heard mildly interesting gossip.

“They suspect I stole a valuable item from a Master Demon Hunter during my time at the Academy? On the basis of a highly credible anonymous tip?”

“...Interesting.”

Pandora gave a small shake of her head and passed the Palmfiend back.

“An anonymous informant...”

She narrowed her eyes. A name surfaced in her mind immediately.

She hadn’t made many enemies. The number of people with both the means to lodge a report with Eden’s Disciplinary Court and the pull to get a claim this thin actually opened as a formal investigation—that was a very short list.

But the real question was—

When had she ever done something as inefficient as stealing?

She had always simply taken things. Openly. Directly.

Even those Blood-Weep Worms. She had taken them off enemies she had killed herself.

Those were her spoils of war by any reasonable definition.

“Absurd,” Pandora remarked. Flat and disinterested.

Aurora took the Palmfiend back, studied My Lady’s utterly unbothered expression, and couldn’t help herself.

“My Lady, please don’t worry. Senior Brother Julian has ways of handling the Disciplinary Court.”

Pandora made a noncommittal sound.

She didn’t doubt that, exactly.

If Julian had the talent, the strength, and the title of Eden’s Vice Director, then dealing with an unfounded accusation was probably well within his reach.

But Julian’s connection to her ran entirely through Aurora.

Why would he help her?

Simply because she was Aurora’s “My Lady”?

In the Dead City, where interests governed everything and resources were finite, help given without sufficient exchange value usually came with invisible strings attached. Debts that didn’t announce themselves.

If Julian was going to help, it was almost certain he would be doing so in Aurora’s name—which meant Aurora would be the one carrying the resulting obligation.

She could, if she wanted, simply accept the benefit and let Aurora absorb the debt on her behalf. Aurora’s loyalty made that perfectly easy to do.

But Pandora was not in the habit of owing people things.

And she was even less comfortable with Aurora owing others on her account.

Her gaze drifted back to the plate.

She speared the last crouton, placed it in her mouth, and chewed slowly.

The gravy dissolved across her tongue in a deep, satisfying wave.

“By the way.”

Pandora spoke up without warning, her tone shifting to something easy and casual.

“Do you have anything on today? Missions to run, or things to handle back at Eden?”

Aurora blinked, sat up straighter on instinct, and answered:

“Nothing, My Lady. Is there... something you need help with?”

Pandora nodded. She set down her knife and fork, laced her fingers together, and rested her chin lightly against them, eyes resting steadily on Aurora.

“There is.”

“Yesterday, you mentioned that your mentor arranged for someone to redesign your potion regimen. That it significantly improved the efficiency of your growth.”

Aurora gave a careful nod, a flicker of genuine gratitude in her expression.

Pandora continued, her gaze sharpening slightly.

“But I've noticed you still show adverse symptoms occasionally. The infection’s aftereffects, possibly. Or it could be the potions themselves causing side effects.”

Aurora went still.

Her expression turned serious at once.

She wasn’t quite following My Lady’s train of thought—it had that characteristic quality of jumping between things—but she caught up quickly.

They were talking about something real now. Something important.

Her growth. And the key to her future advancement.