Entoma's mask kept her face concealed, but with an unusual face like hers, she doubted even when she bared it, Bertra could have read it well.
"Your mask?" Bertra asked with warmth and gestured toward the table with one hand, "You're my best friend, you don't have to hide your face from me. I told you that." She tilted the smile up a little, and to her surprise, Entoma instead of removing it, approached her.
"If you like." Entoma said, and suddenly the feel of the room was different.
The initiative was given from Entoma to Bertra, and the former human supremacist turned elven bookshop owner held her breath for a moment.
"Y-Yes, if you're comfortable, that is." Bertra said, and when Entoma didn't move, the elven woman reached up with long and delicate fingers to remove the mask and set it aside, she set it down, and then raised a golden eye brow when it started to skitter away. Its little legs tapping across the table until Entoma put a hand down on it.
"Excuse me, he sometimes does that." She said, though she couldn't blush with her dark purple chitinous shell, Bertra immediately got the feeling that she'd witnessed some kind of arachnid faux pas.
"Don't worry about it." Bertra said, bemused while she poured fresh tea for them both.
"Four or five sugars this time?" Bertra asked when she stuck the little silver spoon into a small glass jar.
"You know my tastes." Entoma answered with a chuckle.
"Six then." Bertra laughed and scooped them into the tea before adding milk and stirring Entoma's cup for her.
The sound of silver scraping on porcelain was the only one for a few seconds as Bertra stirred, then it stopped as the tea was placed in front of the maid, who took it up and briefly sipped before giving it an approving bow of her head.
"As always, you know how I like it." Entoma praised her, and Bertra took a sip of her own.
"How long has it been since we've known each other? Years at least. I should know a fair amount about you at this point." Bertra replied, "But you didn't just come for a visit, not this time, did you?"
Entoma set down her tea and stood up. "No… No I didn't. Everything that's gone on lately, I spoke with Keeno, turns out she's someone I knew, and our last meeting before that was on less than glowing terms."
"Oh… I'm sorry." Bertra replied while Entoma circled around the table to stand in front of the seated elf.
"Don't apologize, you were trying to help me, that's what friends do… that's what people… who care about each other do…" Entoma said and reached out to touch the golden hair of the elven woman.
"Entoma, what are you…?" Bertra whispered.
"Isn't this what people do…? How they… connect?" Entoma asked the seated elf.
Bertra began to breath hard, her aqua eyes opened wide, "Entoma… that's… that's not right, that's how… when there's love… or…"
"And, you're my friend, my best friend out here other than my sisters, isn't that… I just want-" Entoma said, then stopped when Bertra's hands came up and took those of her dear friend in hers.
"You've misunderstood." Bertra replied to her with a soft little voice, "Yes… yes it is true that friendship is a kind of love. It's powerful enough that laying down their lives for one another is said to be the greatest form of love that friends can do. If I had to… if you needed me to…" Bertra grasped Entoma's firm chiten mimicked hands and ran her fingers over them, holding and stroking them, unsure if it could be felt as her own would feel that touch… "I would give up my life to help you, to save you… the first of my non-human friends. You made my very life out here possible… I love you in ways I can never truly say."
"But?" Entoma asked, seeing the shimmering in Bertra's eyes when the woman brought Entoma's hands close and kissed the surface of them.
"But there are many kinds of love in life, and I don't see you as a mate. I see you as more than a companion, more than a comrade, better than any friend I've ever had in the worthless life I led before I got a second chance I didn't deserve…" Bertra said and rose on unsteady feet so that she looked down at Entoma's true face.
"In your way, a way that is only yours, you are beautiful to me, but not 'that' way." Bertra said, "I hope you can accept that, I don't choose, nobody chooses, I don't think, what they're attracted to."
"I- But… then what do I do… is there something wrong with me… is it- why did I think-?" Entoma began and halted different sentences, not knowing what to say or how to feel or what to ask.
"You're new at this, and that's okay." Bertra replied with a soothing touch to the side of the insectoid face. "You're going to make mistakes, maybe a little confused… your whole life as far as I know has been lived either under Jaldabaoth or in service to His Majesty or… just visiting me sometimes. When you go out into the wider world, meet new people, they'll sometimes make you feel or think things you never dreamed of or imagined. It's easy to get carried away." Bertra replied, and stepped closer to the confused little predator.
"But you can always come back to me to talk it out, that's what kind of friend I am to you… no judgement, no anger… I'm just 'there' for you to vent, for you to talk… I honestly don't know if you can cry, but if you feel sad… I'm here. I can do this." Bertra replied, and wrapped her arms around the multi armed monster. "I don't have as many arms as you, but one hundred percent of them are yours whenever you want them… just… snack before coming over. That's not quite the way I'd like to be eaten."
Bertra lowered her lips and kissed the top of Entoma's smooth shell of a head, just above her many eyes.
"I… don't know what to say…" Entoma replied, "I thought we- but maybe I was wrong… this is… very embarrassing."
"You don't have to know what to say, you don't have to say anything, and don't worry, I'm sure I embarrassed myself to you many times over the years, and you've never laid into me over it. I'll return the favor, just 'be' here when you want, and what I can do for you… as much as I can be for you, I will be for you. Is that okay? Is that enough?" Bertra asked, her heart pounded against the inside of her chest. 'I know she's confused but still, I hope this doesn't push her away… I don't want to lose my dearest friend over… over the impossible.'
Silence hung between the two, uncertain, long, and uncomfortable, but slowly the arms of the maid, such as they were, returned the embrace, allowing Bertra to relax at last, confident again that things were okay between the two.
"Thank you… really… thank you… that was… I was scared. Fighting enemies is easy, that… that wasn't. Though I don't know why." Entoma finally uttered.
"That's easy, in a fight you're not trying to make yourself vulnerable, but that… trying to be like that… 'vulnerable' is all you can be. It's a brave thing, and it doesn't always work out-" Bertra said with delicate whispers.
"Like now." Entoma interjected somewhat sardonically.
"Like now." Bertra agreed, then added, "but when it works, it's worth it. Part of you is human, it's only natural that part of you would want that, it's a very human trait… though…" She reached up and touched her long elven ears, "it's part of mine too, so maybe I need another way to say it. But regardless, the truth is that you're just finding out another part of yourself… explore it a little, have some fun with it… it really is wonderful. Just understand it isn't going to work with everyone, and if it doesn't, that's okay. You can just try again with someone else… and I'm guessing you got to thinking about this because there is someone… isn't there?" Bertra said and the pair parted to reclaim their seats.
"Yes… maybe… no… I don't know, his name is Inta, he's a teacher at the Magic Academy, a vampire and…" Entoma's voice, delicate before, became more and more enthusiastic as she filled the span of time after her brief embarrassment with enthusiastic descriptions of what she'd done, and what she planned to do.
Bertra propped her head up on her hand and rested her arm on the table at the elbow and listened patiently. Happy to do it with a smile, because that's what friends were for.