Chapter Text
No Knight in the great expedition to Nod-Krai, even if not a veteran of the Grand Master's campaigns, would say the Knight of Boreas was a strict leader. Not neglectful or careless – he would not have accomplished what he had were that the case – but not exactly enforcing every rule to be followed. So long as you were not drunk on duty, and did your best to keep your fellow Knights safe, Grand Master Varka, and his direct subordinates per consequence, didn't hound you over pressed uniforms or precise tent-pitching.
But Erminie could swear there was one person Varka would allow to do anything at all. And it was different, because relaxed authority didn't mean completely spoiling the Knights. And what else could she possibly call it when Lohen stomped into camp, bloodstained and clearly upset, expression so stormy everyone went out of their way to avoid him – everyone except the Grand Master. The giant officer instead stood right in the middle of the Vice-Captain's path, arms crossed and imposing.
Erminie thought that it made sense the only one who wouldn't fear Lohen would be the one who could readily defeat him.
"Lohen." Varka's voice was nearly clipped, in a way it rarely ever got. Irritation was not a common emotion on the Grand Master, which really peaked her interest.
"Grand Master." Lohen's, likewise, was dripping with his own negative affect; though Erminie couldn't tell, with her back turned as it was, if it was irritation, frustration, or something else.
Logistics, after all, didn't actually deal with the Vice-Captain very often; she didn't have a good grasp on his demeanor. But she did know his forms were always spectacularly well-written, so she had to extend her respect.
"How was the patrol?" Oddly, Varka's tone changed just a little, like he'd summoned from his deep reserves of tolerance again.
"Awful, obviously. Can't you tell?" Lohen never sounded younger than when he was most liable to kill you for saying so. Erminie remembered the time Anselm told him to stop being childish while Lohen was in a bad mood. Poor guy spent the following week being tormented with the spiciest food Erminie ever smelled. Didn't matter where he got it from, either; one look away and he was done for.
"You're covered in blood." Said the Grand Master, voice lighter. Varka always had such a good humored air to himself. It was refreshing, when so many of their leaders were so serious.
"Yeah, and?"
"You usually like when that happens." Now Varka sounded downright amused, and Erminje let curiosity get the better of her. Like the cat who died – but satisfaction brought it back, right? She tried and angled herself to look at them from the corner of her eyes.
"The Lightkeepers were trying my patience and the Fatui that got in my way when I was coming back did not put up enough of a fight." Lohen crossed his arms and tilted his head to look up at the Grand Master. Erminie was fairly certain they were instructed not to engage in hostilities with the Fatui. It had been a very serious, very strict instruction. "I don't really have any reason to like any of it."
"Let me guess: the Lightkeepers were slowing you down?" With a hand on his hip, and the other to his chin, Varka pondered far too seriously to not be theatrical. Erminie held back a chuckle; it would be inappropriate.
"That's normal. I'm used to that. No, no no no no no. They were pestering me." The Vice-Captain spoke with true offense to his voice, and Erminie could see how Varka pressed his lips into a line to stop himself from laughing.
"Woah. I wonder what that feels like. It's not like anyone ever does it to me." Sarcasm was yet another thing they didn't commonly see out of the Grand Master. My, but he was daring that day.
"Alright, first of all: what I do is keep you on your toes. So you don't get yourself killed because you saw a bottle of free wine." Lohen said, completely ignoring Varka's offended hey! to continue: "Second of all: they were asking me about you. So, really, you're to blame for all that."
"Asking about me? Well, then. What did you say?" The Knight of Boreas' vainglorious streak came through in his smirk as he asked. Erminie supposed of all people, Sir Varka was definitely one of those who had earned the right to a little arrogance. A little hubris, even.
"That you're a drunk who would push every shred of paperwork onto someone else if you could." Lohen's tone was very matter-of-fact, as if he weren't insulting the most important Knight of Favonius alive.
"Ouch. No respect for your superiors even at all, huh?" And the Grand Master, predictably, did not care. "And that blood… all Fatui, I presume?"
"Maybe some's mine, I don't know."
Varka sighed, eyes going soft as he cupped the back of the Vice-Captain's head with his hands. They were large enough that his thumbs nearly touched the young Knight's temples. He turned Lohen's face this way and that, and was, surprisingly, allowed to do so without struggle.
Was it some sort of elaborate power play? Submission to a superior officer only when it was nice? Erminie suspected it wasn't quite so complicated. Very charged, though.
"They weren't the Captain's people, I assume?" The question was quiet, gentle, even, as the Grand Master tilted Lohen's head up to look him in the eye.
"No."
"Hm… I'll see if they weren't the Marionette's, then. But this far north, it's unlikely, from what he told me. If they were the Doctor's, it'll be easy to smooth things over. I'll get in contact with the Captain again, if he hasn't gone to Natlan, yet." And just like that, Lohen's diplomatic incident was covered. Efficient, one had to admit.
"Why do you even know he's going to Natlan?" The Vice-Captain asked, and Erminie couldn't pinpoint exactly what his tone was, but it certainly wasn't happy.
"We talked a lot after that sparring match, you know?" Varka's, on the other hand, had grown somehow even softer.
Erminie remembered that fight. It was one of the most impressive she'd ever seen, and by far the only time the Grand Master looked like he'd used all he had to give in a fight. Both the North Wind and the Captain had taken it farther from the Knights to actually fight, even as the Cardinal and Madam Frederica shouted at Varka to stop. However, whatever fear those two had fell to nothing when the fighters acknowledged each other after the match. Erminie could still clearly picture the brightness of the Grand Master's eyes when the Captain called him an equal.
She also remembered the utterly awe-struck expression on Vice-Captain Lohen's face. It had been terribly obvious, then.
"Hey! It's not like he's going to poach me for the Fatui. Though it does make me think what my title would be as a Harbinger…" Varka replied to something Lohen had said that Erminie had missed while reminiscing, hands still holding onto the Vice-Captain.
"And you're presuming you'd be a Harbinger because…?" The short man tilted his head, incidentally pushing his face further into the Grand Master's left hand.
"You don't think I'd make the cut?" With an intimacy Erminie wasn't sure exactly how she would categorize, the Knight of Boreas swiped at the blood on Lohen's cheekbone with his thumb.
"Ugh. Fishing for compliments, now?" An odd little tone, an almost-tremble, had crept into the Vice-Captain's voice. It made him quieter.
"And what if I am?" The Grand Master asked, clearly teasing, so soft Erminie felt a little embarrassed for some reason, quickly looking away before her cheeks grew hot about it.
"Well… Then I think you'd at least make a better Harbinger than the Doctor." Lohen answered, already walking away, trailing after the Grand Master like it was natural.
The camp had gradually returned to normal activity while they talked, many having long stopped paying attention to the conversation. But Erminie caught Leifhelm's eyes as he looked back and forth between herself and their two superiors' retreating backs. He seemed quite disturbed. Walking up to her, he asked:
"Did you also…?" He pointed over his shoulder at where the Vice-Captain and Grand Master had been, opening and closing his mouth like he was redacting a speech draft in real time.
"Yeah. Yeah, I was looking." Erminie nodded as she spoke, smiling a little, trying to be reassuring. Really, the Grand Master said he'd deal with the Fatui incident, so it couldn't be that which caused Leifhelm's shock. Maybe the hint at fraternization? But the Knights of Favonius had no rule against it.
"Yeah…"
Leifhelm looked at where the officers had been earlier, then back at her. She followed the same route with her own gaze. He was so wide eyed and haunted. She frowned a little before he asked:
"What the fuck was that?"
"What, Sir Leifhelm? The Grand Master spoiling Vice-Captain Lohen a little? Isn't that expected out of courtship?" Erminie asked, genuine as could be.
And it must have been the wrong thing to say, because Leifhelm looked at her like she'd grown a second head. She resisted the urge to ask what was so surprising about her statement. Surely everyone could read the writing on the wall?
The Vice-Captain and the Grand Master were, as they said, into each other. It was fairly obvious.