"I have something of yours, if that's what you're looking for," Tailtiu said, watching Claud shuffle through his borrowed desk. The window was cracked open, but it was almost as warm a day as it might be in Friege. Bright sun hit his shoulders.
"Have you taken to stealing scriptures?" He pushed the drawer shut. "And I will be the one to worry if you think a staff can be stored in a desk."
Tailtiu rested her hand on her hip, towel wrapped around her hand. She offered to help spruce up his stuffy clerical shack, but cleaning was one of things. Polishing her own mirror was one thing. Anything else was uncharted territory, like the mountains that rose out her window. "You know?"
He nodded, sharply bent at the waist, head disappearing from view. Speaking to your feet wasn't a good look, but his voice carried well. "Waltzing off with a Holy Weapon is a grave offence." Offence. Claud wouldn't try her even if he could.
"And waltzing off without it?"
She always pushed; one day, she would go too far, and Claud would give her a sharp enough look to send her away. Father did it, her brother did it. Azel, accidentally, did it once and apologized so profusely it bordered on pathetic. She couldn't get mad with her family, she wouldn't get mad at Azel, and whatever Claud was…
It would hurt.
But it wasn't that day. Claud looked at her, lashes short and dark. The angle made his eyes deeper. "Bringing Valkyria before King Azmur when it cannot… return His Highness is not a type of cruelty I have in me."
Oh. That would look bad. "Do you, uh, want it back?"
"Not at this moment. I do not see you getting into trouble with it."