A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

Furiously, Naeku whipped around and glared at him. "What marriage test?!" she growled indignantly.

Chuckling a little sheepishly, Erik scratched his short beard and shrugged. "I guess I did forget to tell you then…"

He sighed and became a little more serious under Naeku's angry glare. "It's… the deal I made with Elora in her capacity as my first wife." He shrugged calmly, "Basically, I can marry whoever I like, but they have to pass a heartfire trial first in order to prove their love is genuine."

Naeku parted her lips to speak, indignancy sparking from her eyes, but Erik interrupted her by throwing up his hands. "I know, I know! It feels unfair, but this isn't about either of us, you know?"

Naeku narrowed her eyes but appeared amenable to hearing more, so Erik shifted his weight, coughed, and continued. "W— What I mean is, Elora is my first wife, you know? Yes, she does also want me to get more wives, but don't you think she should get a say in who her sisters will become?"

Naeku continued glaring at him for a few moments longer while Erik weathered her indignity with a wry smirk. 'Probably should have talked about this before, huh…?' he muttered to himself.

Finally, however, Naeku snorted and looked away, arms crossed in front of her chest. "Hmpf… You made a good point, but you still should have told me earlier."

"No doubt!" Erik immediately nodded with a relieved sigh. "Sorry about that. I suppose it just kind of got lost in all the other stuff…"

"Fine," Naeku grumbled, clearly not yet ready to let this go completely. "What's this heartfire trial thing, then?"

Erik quickly explained the process, and at the end, Naeku raised an eyebrow. "I see… that's an interesting technique if nothing else, but… what happens if I fail it?"

Turning a little sombre, Erik shook his head. "Then… we couldn't get married immediately. You can attempt the trial as many times as you like, but ignoring any of my wives' veto powers on marriage would destroy our family, and I won't risk that for anything."

Naeku's werepanther nose wrinkled as a sad expression travelled across her face. "Well… I guess I shouldn't be surprised your feelings for me aren't as strong as they are for them."

Erik sighed and shook his head. "Please don't quantify things in that way, alright? I love all my wives equally, or even if you believe that's impossible, I at least treat them equally. My feelings for you are the same, but… until we're actually married, the situation isn't."

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Naeku sighed and turned around to watch the combat of what she previously had no doubt would soon be her sister-wives. "No, I get it…" she whispered, her back now turned towards Erik. "But to find out our marriage is actually not as certain as I thought is a bitter pill to swallow…"

Wryly, Erik stepped closer, wanting to comfort her, but Naeku shook her head and stepped forward. "Just give me a moment, alright? Don't worry, I haven't changed my mind on anything, but… I need a moment."

Gently, Erik nodded and remained silent, turning his gaze back to the battle as well. Around them, the villagers were now so uncomfortable that some of them wondered if there were still any beasts left to be eaten by…

***

The battle took another thirty minutes, but eventually, it finished with two victories for the home team.

The Baqum's body had become half-dissolved by darkness and finally stopped writhing. The Dhashur's body was absolutely covered in burn marks and cuts, with one of its legs simply gone. After it died, the sand bandages it'd applied throughout the battle had all disappeared, revealing the creature's true, terrifying state.

After they were done, Emily simply left the aquatic monster where she'd slain it, but a widely grinning Astrid actually dragged it with her on their return.

"I think we could eat this!" the vampire explained when they both reached the church again. "I'm sure a third-rank beast's flesh should be nutritious, right?"

Erik chuckled and looked over his wives' states. They were obviously exhausted, but overflowing with pride, and their bodies were mostly unharmed. "Hehe, yeah, I think I can make something from that." He waved his hand and stored the corpse in his dimension, causing many villagers to gasp in awe.

"Anyway, good job, girls," he smiled proudly, while spreading his arms and walking up to them. "You looked amazing out there!"

"Hehe, thank you, Master," Emily grinned widely. A shiver of delight travelled through her spine at his compliments. At the same time, both she and Astrid allowed themselves to be comfortably enveloped in his arms.

They stayed like that for a moment, until Erik noticed the obvious look in Emily's eyes and the somewhat more subdued one in Astrid's. "Alright, alright. Go take a rest for now," he smirked suggestively at them. "Don't worry, I'll be sure to reward you both later…"

The two girls looked satisfied with that, and so they quickly entered his dimension to take a well-deserved rest.

He turned around and immediately noticed Naeku looking at him with far more determination and conviction than she had before. She narrowed her eyes and growled in an almost threatening tone. "I've never failed a test or trial before… And I won't start now!"

"I have full faith in you," Erik immediately responded with a wide grin. Hopefully, she really just needed a little time to get over it.

Naeku nodded, smugly accepting his faith as fact, before turning to the awkward villagers. "Alright! What happened to your village was a tragedy, and the threat has been temporarily dealt with, but there's no saying when they'll come again. I—"

"We'd like to accept the protection of the cities, princess!" one of the guards blurted out, interrupting her but clearly anxious to get it out.

Naeku pursed her lips but didn't mind. "Good," she nodded with a hint of relief before raising an eyebrow and looking around. "So… where's Nara?"

Silence fell and everyone looked around, but… no one could find her. "Probably afraid of retaliation," one guard scoffed, fury blazing in his eyes. "And so she should be!"

Sighing, Naeku her head, before frowning sternly at him. "Naru definitely made a mistake by not taking everyone to the city, but don't be so foolish as to judge her alone… Any of you could have decided to leave on your own accord. We've given you all plenty of opportunities for that..."