"Stop making eyes at her, Nero." Matilda demanded.
"Always a pleasure, Matilda." Zory stated in a way that was oozing with sarcasm and venom she hoped would be enough to make her point. Now was not the time or place.
"You two know each other?" Nesterio asked warily.
"Not technically." Zory grimaced with a guarded sort of gloss settling back into her eyes.
"We most certainly know of each other." Matilda went on with a hostile level of excessive blinking. "Leif wore your other earring until the day he died, you know."
Making that distinction that they only knew of each other too had Blaize in a dizzied little tizzy of her own on whether or not she should do something yet. She was tempted to try to cut in yet again, but whatever wrecking ball was about to hit this carefully crafted house of glass surrounding Trixxie was starting to look like rocket science to prevent.
"Leif?" Nesterio asked softly. "You knew my cousin too?"
"Not technically." Zory glowered in reply.
"So you're the new Lady Ryomari then?" Matilda spat.
"That's Lady Ryomari?" Several whispers sounded off regarding why her clothing now made far more sense.
"That is what they keep telling me, yes." Zory nodded.
"Mari?" Trixxie hiccuped in fear as her mother's somewhat demented cousin took but a single step forward.
Trixxie's tears had always been more than enough to stop anyone dead in their tracks even when only just a few of her favorite generals were around. With almost all of them now in perfect attendance for the first time in months, all of the most hostile and distrusting gazes in the room now landed squarely on Matilda. She knew her status as a duchess was still far from enough to outshine their beloved crowned princess.
"Tillie-?" Nesterio started and stopped.
He had reached for her and she had swatted him without a moment's hesitation. In another world that was ruled by very, very different customs, Zory could have laid into Matilda for her behavior then and there. If she knew Nesterio still didn't have even the faintest idea what level of toll their distinctly toxic relationship was taking on anyone and everyone in their vicinity as of late, she would have ended this tantrum here and now. There was little Zory could say or do to publicly declaw Matilda that couldn't end up hurting him more than necessary.
"Nero, don't!" Matilda all but screeched at him before a far more appropriate volume came about like her resolve truly could go wherever the wind suddenly blew her at a moment's notice. "Please allow me to properly introduce all of you to Aria… She is the girl who left Leif at the altar without a second thought for how it would absolutely destroy the rest of his life and pretty much never came back."
"Mari?" Trixxie called again between broken up sobs.
"It's alright, Little T." Zory nodded again.
In a strangely fluid series of motions, Zory had somehow slid her arm through Trixxie's grasp to pry her leg free. As she crouched down to that little girl's level in a naturally flowing way of anticipating her every move, the signs of a profound connection between them were hard to refute.
"You still owe me a dance, yes?" She proposed eagerly as a notoriously menacing violet glow started to emanate from her main protégé's eyes. "What better way to change the subject than finally showing everyone what you're really made of?"
Matilda's amber eyes took on a bright orange glow in fear as a certifiably frigid drop in temperature signaled Trixxie was primed to blow a far larger gasket herself first. The howl of the winds that began to tear at her sleek man of onyx hair caused several others in the room to cringe in terror as well. Watching Zory handle the inbound nuclear meltdown while remaining completely unafraid even then was raising more questions than it was answering for everyone.
"I told you I wouldn't even if I wanted to." Zory reminded her with a less than convincing smile as her hands grasped Trixxie's and made a few gentle squeezes. "But that doesn't mean this isn't still the best Declaration Day ever… There's no such thing as perfect if you can't accept whatever bad comes with all of the good, so I need you to stop trying to change this moment… Almost everything else you asked me about is going to still happen tonight if you just let it."
"She's been meddling with time." Nesterio realized in utter dismay over having failed to notice.
Zory nodded without bothering to make any eye contact before tilting her head at Trixxie with a more knowing smile. "Not enough to ruin her own plans to make sure your people got the chance to see the show of a lifetime."
"What show?" He asked but went unanswered.
"You really got them to come-?!" Trixxie then gasped as her power ceased to spiral out of control as though it had never even begun to in the first place.
"I told you I would if I could." Zory smirked with lopsided dimples forming on her cheeks. "The most important thing I want you to remember about tonight is everyone I got to come help came because they wanted to help the second I told them the real reason you wanted them to come."
"Got who to come?!" The honorary aunt that was the head of all things security challenged in zero to sixty kind of fury.