Lapis's care after each expedition became a routine as well.
The lock clicking and the stool clinking had become familiar sounds by now. The clacking of falling armor, one piece at a time, was just as familiar, while the splashing of water in the basin and the rustling of the towel were never absent, naturally.
She never skipped a single step, nor did she let anyone else do it, not even the man himself.
Somewhere along the way, she had actually become competitive about it.
It started when she overheard Rune bragging to another wife about the herbal bath she drew for her husband after every expedition, and how he said it was the only thing that got the ache out of his back.
Lapis was offended on a personal level.
The next time the warriors came home, she had prepared an herbal bath of her own, along with a pot of fragrant broth and a set of freshly washed clothes warmed by the fire.
Rune noticed. The time after that, Rune's husband came out wearing a new padded undershirt she had sewn, with his initials stitched on it in silver thread.
Lapis responded by learning how to massage.
Soon, more women joined in.
"Lapis, it's hard to compete with you," said one of the wives, a sharp-eyed sister named Hela, in the communal kitchen a few days later. "You're using your skill!. That's cheating."
"It's called being an attentive wife," Lapis said primly.
"No, with the effect of that skill, it could only be called cheating, and you know it."
"Then go get a skill."
The kitchen erupted. Within a minute, three wives were hissing at Lapis across the table, and Lapis was hissing right back, and Monica was trying to calm everyone down while holding a ladle like a weapon.
Out in the corridor, Ashen and two of his older brothers stood listening in silence.
They looked at each other.
"…Your woman is terrifying," one of them said.
"Your woman started it," Ashen pointed out.
The three men grinned sheepishly at each other and quietly backed away before anyone noticed them.
◉◉◉
The changes in Lapis began around her sixteenth year.
At first, they were small. She noticed that her mana had grown after one of Ashen's expeditions, though she had done nothing different.
Then her grip grew stronger, followed by her reflexes. Each time Ashen returned, she felt herself grow a little more, as though she had eaten a great meal without lifting a spoon.
'Feast Upon the King…' She knew exactly what it was.
Her king was accomplishing things up there, and those accomplishments were feeding her.
The men respected him; she could tell from the way they spoke to him now, the way the older brothers clapped his shoulder or asked his opinion. That respect fed her as well.
But she had no idea what he was actually doing to earn it.
"Brother."
She was sitting on the bed after a long training session one evening, her hair still damp, while he sat at the table oiling a breastplate.
"Hm?"
"What do you guys actually run into up there?"
Ashen's hands stilled.
"Every time you come back, I get stronger, like a lot stronger. Last time it was so much that I could feel my circuits stretching for a week." She tilted her head. "That's not from hunting Narkals. You're doing something big up there. So what is it?"
Ashen set down the cloth and looked at her for a long moment.
'Hmm… how to deal with this?' Ashen wondered. 'Should I just tell her?'
'Nah. Even if she's my sister, gotta listen to the words of the man actually running the show here. No need to get out of line.'
Then he stood up, walked over, and ran his fingers gently through her hair.
"Leave it to your husband, and don't ask," he said quietly. "Do you see any of the other wives asking?"
Lapis opened and closed her mouth like a fish at the audacity of this brother of hers. Then she puffed out her cheeks.
"Oh, so now you're my husband. You only pull out the husband card when it suits you, don't you?"
"Obviously."
Pat—Pat
"Unbelievable." She glared up at him, then sighed and leaned into his hand. "Fine. I won't ask anymore. You're very lucky to have such an understanding and supportive 'wife', you know?"
Then she stuck her tongue out at him. Ashen laughed and ruffled her hair until she squawked.
Despite her pouting, Lapis kept her word and never asked again.
But she didn't stop feeling herself grow, either. And every time she did, her blade felt a little sharper in her hands.
◉◉◉
The year they turned seventeen, Lapis reached her Fifth Step.
Ashen was there when it happened, just as she had been for his. He watched her eyes snap open and dart across the System window only she could see until a slow, delighted grin spread across her face.
"So?" he asked warily. He knew that grin.
"Kingbound," she announced.
"...That sounds ominous."
"It's romantic." Lapis sheekly countered.
"Now I'm even more scared, damn it…"
She ignored him and turned the window toward him so he could read.
==============================
The King's Tether
Bind yourself to your King with a tether no eye can see.
You always know where he is, and how far he has gone from you.
The tether sustains you. The closer you stand to your King, the faster your mana recovers. As distance grows, recovery slows, and beyond a certain distance, it ceases altogether.
When your King stands at the threshold of death, you may spend the love you have stored to travel the tether and appear at his side. The farther you travel, the more love the journey devours.
A consort who strays from her King starves.
==============================
Drink From His Cup
With your King's consent, you may draw upon his mana as if it were your own.
Consent, once given, remains until your King withdraws it.
Mana drawn this way carries a trace of his intent, and flows through your blade more readily than your own.
What you drink is truly taken; your King must recover it as he would any spent mana.
A consort who drinks too deeply may leave her King dry at the moment he needs it most.
==============================
"So you've officially become a parasite."
"A consort," Lapis corrected, practically twitching at the word parasite and stressing her preferred title as if repeating it enough times would make it true.
"My dear sister… A consort who feeds on my accomplishments, eats my love once a week, drinks my mana, and now has to stay within a certain distance of me or she starves." Ashen looked up from the system window. "Lapis, that is the textbook definition of a parasite."
Lapis had nothing to say to that. She looked at him displeasingly, searching for a comeback, and when nothing stuck, she let out an exaggerated breath and raised her hands as if she didn't care.
"A very beautiful one," she remarked, unbothered. "Now give me your consent."
He sighed. "Drink, you glutton. Just don't make me faint."
"No promises~"
The first skill turned out to be the more troublesome of the two.
Whenever Ashen went on an expedition, Lapis felt every step he took away from her. The tether stretched and thinned the farther he went, and her mana recovery slowed to a crawl.
By the third week of a long expedition, she would be sluggish and irritable, picking at her food and snapping at anyone who spoke to her.
Logically speaking, even if her mana recovery had halted, she should have felt at most exhausted. But perhaps, under the influence of her Concept, she also felt incredibly hungry… no matter how much actual food she stuffed into her belly.
Who would have thought that linking would make her internal mana recovery now dependent on him?
No matter how much she tried to breathe in mana when he was far away, all of it seeped out as though it had entered without changing anything.
But when he hugged her tightly, she wouldn't even need to breathe; the mana itself seemed to rush into her as if begging her to refine it.
Either way, the other women noticed her unusual behavior.
"She's pining," Rune said knowingly to Anastasia one evening, watching Lapis glare at a bowl of soup.
"She is not," Lapis snapped.
"Oh, she absolutely is~"
"I'm starving. It's a skill. My skill is starving me goddammit! It's different!!"
The women exchanged looks, and nobody believed her. Well, they did, but even before she got the Skill, her mood was always off whenever Ashen was out there, so it was only natural to poke at her a little.
Anyhow, the tether had a second, more troublesome side; at least, that was true from Ashen's perspective.
Once, on an expedition deep in the north, a beast with a concealment trait caught Ashen from behind and nearly tore his spine out before the man beside him crushed its skull. Ashen lay flat on his back in the dirt, gasping, and for a single moment, he felt something tug sharply in his chest.
…Like a rope pulled taut from a great distance, as though someone on the other end were preparing to jump.
'Don't you dare…' He thought furiously.
He didn't know if she could hear him, but he pushed the thought down that rope with everything he had.
'I'm fine. Stay home.'
The tug hesitated for a couple of seconds, then eased off, slowly and reluctantly.
When he came home weeks later, she didn't say anything about it. She simply wiped him down, more carefully than ever, and then held onto him in bed so tightly that he could barely breathe until morning.