#//realized i do not think rion actually named the stains after re reading but u KNOW WHAT TAKE IT

[frauleindermorgen]

💛 for hand kiss 👀

kiss meme | closed

Send 💛 for hand kiss (unlocked 2021 edition)

At the end of her first day in the mines Micaiah had brought back to their temporary rooms the cleanest pair of the gloves assigned to the workers there she could find. Since “processing” everyone in their group had seemed wearier and it seemed to her that the mental strain from being separated from their clothing and belongings was only exacerbated by those strange stains everyone in their party seemed to possess.

Despite her attempts to keep up her own and others’ modesty she had noticed the dark shadows on several of their groups’ skin – there was something about them that seemed to both draw the eye and swallow the light at the same time, but until Celica brought the matter up with Rion she had not had a name for them.

Stains. It seemed almost too fitting. She can barely remember receiving hers, just the words “do not fear this mark” and the knowledge that somehow the dark blotch visible on her back only in the mirror was somehow connected to deception. While not exactly comforting, the fact hardly surprised Micaiah: she may have been trying harder now, but she has been used to lying all her life.

“Elincia,” she whispers, careful not to wake Leanne who has only just gotten to sleep. “Do you have a moment?”

Sitting side by side, Micaiah pulls the pair of clean gloves out she had been keeping from under her cot. Elincia’s mark had been on her right hand, if she remembers correctly (and of course she does, it had been uncanny) so Micaiah gently places her own hand over Elinica’s left, intertwining their fingers as they had done on the walk here.

“Oh, good,” she smiled. “I thought we would be the same size. Still, that means these are going to be a little big but they were the smallest they had. Here you go.”

Micaiah lets Elincia’s hand go to pull the pair of mining gloves onto her lap. She gestures for Elincia to take them if she’d like, pausing when her gaze catches on her brand. She thought she had been getting used to seeing it bare like this, thought she might get stronger and seem used to it the way Soren did so seamlessly but the sight still felt wrong somehow.

Looking over at Elinica, she sees understanding there. But she would have far preferred for the princess to never have to experience such a thing.

Slowly, Micaiah rises, leaving the gloves behind on her cot and kneeling before Elincia. She offers her own marked right hand and slowly takes Elincia’s in her own. She acknowledges the stain there with a squeeze.

“I understand if you want to hide it, believe me. But believe me when I say it has nothing to do with your character. You are a good person, Elincia, and I am lucky to have you as a friend.”

Having said so Micaiah presses a chaste kiss to Elincia’s right hand, just on the beginning of the stain. She smiles, looking up at her after the show of trust, meaning to lighten the mood: “see? I am none the worse for wear.”