The Contract of Elyas

Surprisingly, she never saw the Duke the rest of the day, only her mother that kept checking on Isaac until falling asleep. As midnight crawled around the corner, the two boys were changed and acting as though one weren't completely bruised up and the other didn't just suffer from exhaustion.

She was happy to be reunited with the deer skull and playing with the tiger cub trying to understand it that time flew by without her reasoning. "Yer really taking the skull?" Nyx asked raising a brow as Isaac picked her up, haphazardly throwing the deer skull onto the tiger and handing it to Nyx.

He gave no answer as he held her, going to the balcony and jumping onto the ledge, but instead of going down the wind beneath his feet allowed him to step up on air, Nyx not so gracefully following his lead as the wind appeared under his feet. "She likes it, so for now just carry it." He finally answered as they were high up above the castle's roof, much to her confusion.

He never explained anything, and sometimes she wished he would. He continued walking and taking them while high up in the sky, she wasn't sure for how long but the stars at this distance were quite pretty. After going somewhere slightly isolated in the capital, they dropped quickly as Nyx almost cheered from how fun it was, like a skull cracker ride at an amusement park, only to stop right before their feet touched the ground.

When their feet touched the ground, they heard a warm welcome. "Good evening, young masters of Argyris, and young lady of Argyris. I'm happy you've decided to talk to me about my offer." Looking ahead, she saw the silhouette of not only one woman, but three more people, this may of been the reason he said the Elyas family, not just the duchess.

As they neared, it was the duchess, her two sons with her earlier, and a man she hadn't seen before who was just smiling excitedly beside her, she presumed to be her husband, the man she heard shouting before that she was his wife.

Her eyes were a nice shade of dark blue, like the depths of the ocean now that she got a good look at her. Her husband looked quite plain in contrast to her stern appearance, brown hair and grey eyes, while their sons were a mix of the two. Compared to her brothers, they were pretty tall and were definitely not kids but teenagers to young adults.

"I'm simply curious, I haven't accepted anything, Duchess Elyas." Isaac responded, taking a seat inside the gazebo, staring her head on. "However what you did write nearly made me accept without thinking."

It was as though he changed his personality too, the Duke went from a man hopelessly in love to someone else. "I thought you wanted to be the Duke of Argyris? What other reason would there be for today's performance."

"It's true, I'm not going to make an effort to hide that fact. But I don't recall my oath asking other people for help." He replied, was this really what she had thought it was?

It couldn't be, the Elyas family also wanted the Duke dead? Actually, she didn't put that past them, she'd probably want to kill him too. "Don't you have help at the moment?" The Duchess questioned, looking at Nyx.

In response, Nyx scoffed. "Help? Is that how ya describe me?" He nearly sounded offended that he was called mere help by the Duchess. Nodding at what Nyx said, Isaac laid down his proposal he'd been thinking of since earlier.

"I see what you want and what I want do intertwine, I'll cooperate under a few conditions," he didn't even pause to allow them to agree. "One, the one to kill the Damon Argyris will be me and only me. We may be cooperating but at the end of his life, the one to draw their sword to his neck will be me."

Nodding, the Duchess allowed him to continue. "Two, the Elyas family must not interfere with personal matters regarding the Argyris family after I become the Duke." The Duchess hummed, interrupting him for a moment.

"Elaborate personal matters. Matters amongst family members, or matters regarding what you do in general," She asked, the boy smiling as she understood to ask questions quite well. "If I choose to kill off a certain girl that is a thorn in both ours sides in my family, you wouldn't interfere, would you?"

"I also expect you not to interfere if I chose to do anything that doesn't involve your family." He finished, she was satisfied with that. "Three, there will be no marriage in general between the two families, regardless of which sibling." Folding her hands, she seemed to accept this.

"You're really careful over details, aren't you? I would love to have that little girl all of you are making a fuss over in my family, surely she would be important, but I'm fine with those conditions, I doubt my sons want to marry a girl so young anyways." She could see the two boys shaking their heads in agreement.

"I'll accept your conditions, should we swear it out?" She asked, Isaac nodding as Nyx was his witness, handing her to him and her family were her witnesses to this contract between one another.

The Duchess of Elyas swore that she would help Isaac to attain the position of Duke, backing him up if anyone else were to try and fight him for the position, in return both families would form an alliance after he receives the position. If the Elyas family needed help, the Argyris family would help. On top of that, he would ensure that Penelope would not be able to marry her youngest son.

She blinked in surprise by the fact a contract in the air appeared out of nowhere, and to the clause that Penelope had to be kept away from the younger boy, she really made her rounds annoying not just her own family, but everyone. It was a shame she couldn't try and steal him away from her like she originally planned, but she would rub it in Penelope's face once she was older someway and somehow she couldn't get what she'd wanted.

The final clause stated that the Elyas family would be paid an absurd amount of money she couldn't really read from how dark the might was but it had a lot of zeroes, he casually signed off without question. Money really wasn't a problem to the Argyris family after all, then.

Both parties had gained quite a bit by joining forces, two ducal families like these were formidable, but they got what they were mainly after. Both sides wanted the Duke dead, one satisfied just with the fact his head would be rolling, the other wanting to do the rolling.