Well I was supposed to post on Christmas, but took too long finding an earlier scene to reference here, so happy belated birthday, Henrietta!
David groaned as he leaned forward, one eye narrowed from the aching in his body as he was caught in Louise's arm, the girl pushing him so he could grab onto the back of a chair as he took a step forward, Derf wielded in his other hand. "Don't rush yourself, you just woke up." the void mage said, frowning in concern as he shook his head.
"This is nothing compared to Fist, I'm fine." he replied, planting his feet on the ground to lift himself back up, yawning from his exhaustion as he raised Derf, his hand shaking as he kept the blade turned away from his summoner. "Karin didn't even use it that time, I was knocked out by something any knight could probably handle just fine. If I can't get up again after that, then I'm just betraying Eleonore's expectations." He grit his teeth, staring forward as he focused on staying balanced. "She made her plan on the assumption that I would be the vanguard, but Karin got past me without a fight. I get it, she isn't capable of using weak elemental magic, but I didn't even know what was happening until Eleonore was already down."
"You've taken some of Mother's strong attacks without any armor!" the pinkette stated, glaring at him as she grabbed his sword hand, squeezing his wrist to stop him from moving his arm and turning her head to look sideways at him. "I don't care what you think of me, I'm your master and I'm going to show my authority over you, even if you've never done anything but fight against me. Drop Derf, sit down, and relax."
He froze in place, captivated by the sharp expression in the short girl's eyes, and he felt his runes flash, the familiar bond attempting to push him to obey her. As always, the power was weak, something he could easily ignore, but he still stopped moving, lowering his sword hand while he kept Derf in his grip as Louise let out a breath, slowly blinking as she visibly relaxed and stood up straight, before reaching a hand to her mouth to clear her throat.
"Now, then. If you're done destroying the furniture with those wild swings…" Keeping her hand on his wrist, she pulled, turning to push him into the seat he had been leaning on and crossing her arms, tilting her body sideways to avoid Derf's tip as it arced wide to the opposite side, the boy confused by the change in perspective but slow enough that even she could easily dodge. "You've been pushing yourself way too much recently, dog." It had been a long time, but the insult came as naturally to her as it had back then, and he stayed quiet, listening to her as she spoke. "You had just recovered from Guiteau's tournament, and then ended up wrapped up in that traitorous Wardes' scheming, and before you got a chance to rest and get used to the fact that you have a horrible scar now, you went on another mission. Then, right after that, you immediately come here and within a week fight Mother twice."
She curled her fingers to a ball, squeezing them together to let out the stress building up inside her. "You're a 'selfish hero', aren't you? You fight for what you want, but all I've been hearing is you complaining that you're not strong enough to fight someone who by all rights should have killed you with her first attack, given how little she was holding back then. You act like everyone is holding back specially for you, and that isn't being selfish, that's narcissistic."
He jolted, surprised by the statement, and pushed his hand to the headrest of the seat to pull himself to a sitting position, before his eyes went wide as he found Louise's wand pointed at him, forcing him to lie back down and watch her as she frowned. "Louise, what are you talking about?" he asked, and she shook her head.
"The world doesn't revolve around you, as much as you might think it does." she responded, her voice low and serious. "That ghost girl Casper, that ex-Viscount Wardes, that Sheffield woman you've talked about, Mother...None of them are interested in you as David. They only care about you as Gandalfr. To them, you aren't a person, you're just the runes you wield. It isn't what you're capable of that they want to see, it's what Gandalfr can do now that it's active again. Honestly, I can't even say that the princess is looking at you as you are now." She sighed, though her determination to say her piece was clear from the steadiness with which she held her wand, with none of the usual hesitation that she had on casting magic. "I don't know what you really think of this world, whether you treat it as truth or are just living in it like it's a game, but this is reality. There are 6 millennia of history, and you just happened to end up a part of it."
He stared at the girl, mouth open but no sound coming out as he struggled to respond, but she wasn't finished talking yet. "Everyone you meet here has their own motivations. They're people, not fantasy characters who exist to bend to your whims. Thinking that the people who fight you are 'holding back', that it's your fault for not being strong enough, that's all a load of crap. You have the durability to withstand spells and strikes that would kill a normal person, and Mother's mentioned before that she noticed your body adapts after you're hurt. I don't know if you have some latent abilities or if it's just something Gandalfr can do, but acting like you're weak and someone who needs to be coddled is just your ego telling you that it has to be something you're doing wrong. Has it ever occurred to you that you are actually stronger than a normal person, and that the reason you keep getting injured in every fight is because your strength is forcing everyone you face to take you seriously?"
She went quiet, giving him time to process her ranting, before he groaned, moving his head back to lie on the armrest, facing the ceiling with an unblinking stare. "Beatrice called me a 'Demon', and I know Berserker has to be scary to see. I know I'm stronger than I should be, thanks to me getting the luck of Gandalfr, but I just can't see myself as actually being a decent fighter. I've been relying too heavily on the runes to keep me alive, and even when I let them have full control, I still end up nearly dying."
"You're the first person since I was able to walk to force Mother into using her wind magic!" Louise shouted now, interrupting him with the overbearing yelling she was famous for in the canon. "And there's rumors going on alongside those that King Henri is dead. They're saying that Lady Agnes, the other 'strongest mage' of the continent, will answer to you just as easily as the princess, and from what I've seen and what little I remember of Londinium. You're still under the shadow of Gandalfr, but there are plenty of people like me who didn't even know it was an important thing in the first place. People like me and Lady Agnes can see you for what you are, not for something granted to you by chance." She glared at him, keeping her wand held pointedly forward. "You think you're being protected by strong people and keep on trying to be unique, but when you aren't actively thinking about it, you're a lot better of a person. You've done things like ridding Lady Agnes of her past burdens. You gave Siesta the benefit of the doubt and investigated for her innocence. And, a long time ago...I was watching you when we were finishing up on the Fouquet mission. She wasn't dead, was she? You spared her for some reason, even though you were still new to this world and didn't know what sort of person she was."
He blinked, before laughing, running his arm across his forehead to wipe off his sweat from the effort of moving. He really was exhausted, he hadn't realized it, but he had been pushing his body to its absolute limits. "So, you knew about all that...I underestimated you, I thought you wouldn't notice."
"I may be a poor elemental mage, but I'm still a competent noble and skilled with book learning. I can tell when my own familiar is doing something suspicious." She exhaled, her shoulders relaxing. "I've been thinking a lot since you came here, and I believe I've finally pieced things together. That 'New Divide' that you claim you're following, some random spy in the academy fighting on the side of the crown, it's a lie, isn't it? You made it clear to me back in the Ball of Frigg that you would never consider anyone your master, so there's no way you'd be a government lapdog. That New Divide...that's really just you, isn't it?" Without giving him a chance to react, she moved a leg forward, straightening her knees as she spoke clearly, without a hint of her usual self-consciousness. "I thought I slapped some sense into you when we were fighting Fouquet, but I can see now that I failed at it then. Some master I am."
"You...You knew all of that?" he asked, and this time, she didn't stop him from sitting up, holding his free hand to his forehead as he leaned Derf on the cushion next to him. "New Divide, and me and Henrietta...I don't even know what I want anymore. I created it just to find myself a way to go home, but somewhere along the line-"
"-You realized that you're not in a world of fiction." And there it was. All the accusatory tone she could muster, all the frustration of months of being shoved to the side for his constant side stepping to other events, finally laid out. "You finally noticed that your actions have consequences, that you're not just watching someone else's story. You can't keep acting like an observer, you idiot dog. This world is real, and you were put into a position that, whether you want it or not, is an important one. Figure out what you want, and if you can't do that, then stop acting like you have the right to decide what others want for you."