Silence fell. The trio looked sheepishly at each other, wry smirks across their faces.
"Oh?" Emma murmured. With her hands behind her, she leaned forward slightly, cocking a curious eyebrow. "You requested Master’s help, knowing his price. He didn’t coerce or force you; he was simply the only one willing and able to save your lives and territory. Will you try to cheat him out of his due after that?"
The trio looked at her again, and Zahra shook her head with a sigh. "No, we won’t. Even if we forget the fact that he saved us, those hunters would simply send another confessor... And we clearly can’t deal with that yet."
Next to her, Nasir frowned sombrely. "We don’t doubt there’s more of them. Do you have any idea how many there are?"
Emma righted herself, smiling softly, and a little more genuinely. "We don’t have precise numbers. Only that it’s more than five, perhaps even ten, and that most of them are now caught up in a war with the European council."
Zohran scoffed when he heard this. "How could that be? We fought those pompous councillors plenty of times when we tried to expand into Europe. They weren’t that impressive!"
Covering her lips, Emma giggled at his ignorance. "Hehe, I doubt you’ve ever fought the Council’s heavy hitters, Mister. According to Master, he’s still not sure if he can actually beat the strongest of them."
When a small blush appeared on Zohran’s cheeks in response to being called mister by this girl, who was somehow both cute and intimidating, Nasir and Zahra looked at him with disbelief.
Still, they quickly overcame that surprise with even more of it when Emma’s words sank in. "Wait, but how the frick did all these people get so strong?!" Zahra exclaimed with wide eyes. "Why do Europe and those fricking hunters have such powerful third rankers?! Where’s ours?!"
Emma grinned proudly and smugly. "What do you mean? Don’t you have an emperor of that calibre now?"
All three of their mouths started twitching wryly.
"You know what she meant... please don’t play with us," Nasir muttered softly, trying not to offend this person, despite his frustration.
Emma pouted with a little indignation. "I was being serious..." she grumbled. "But fine... Honestly, we don’t know of any such people here in Africa. Maybe they exist, maybe they don’t," she shrugged. Clearly, if they did exist, they’d been keeping themselves quiet.
"Either way, you don’t need to worry about it," Emma smiled confidently. "You are Master’s subordinates now, and he will be your guardian."
Now, it was their eyebrows that twitched. Emma’s message was clear: even if third-rankers of confessor-level power crawled out of the African jungle, Erik would remain their emperor... even if that meant turning against these theoretical people.
"Can he... help us get that strong?" Zohran then asked, his eyes gleaming with desire. Where before he felt indignant at Erik’s insistence to subjugate them, this experience had started shifting his viewpoint a little.
In the end, Zohran didn’t care as much about his territory as he did about his strength... and he wasn’t above asking for help.
Unfortunately, Emma had no answers for him. She shrugged indifferently. "I know that part of our strength is determined by our affinity ranking, and that’s not easy to change. For anything else, you’ll just have to ask Master, or elder sister, his first wife."
Curiosity flared among the trio. Who could be that man’s first wife, and how impressive would she have to be?
Silence fell as the trio of Maghreb let these recent revelations and changes settle in their minds. Emma stood by patiently, as if waiting for something.
"Anyway..." Nasir muttered sheepishly, still down on the floor and taking care of the deep wounds in his legs. "Any chance you have a little more healing in you for the three of us?"
Emma’s smile widened, as if this was what she’d been waiting for. "Hehe, well, I suppose I am a benevolent empress to my subjects," she giggled playfully.
Waving her hand, she cast her newest spell again, but instead of an enormous wave, it was a small and concentrated one.
The trios’ wounds filled with golden light as their healing accelerated significantly. It still wasn’t as exaggerated as she could perform on first- and second-rankers, but the flesh still stitched itself back together at visible speeds.
The trio breathed sighs of relief as pain retreated and exhaustion became a thing of the past. They marvelled at Emma’s power, while Emma herself looked satisfied and proud. Even being who she was, she enjoyed impressing people.
When done, she turned around and stepped back onto her golden disk. "I’ll join my sister now!" she chirped with a light wave. "You three should go make sure the battle ends quickly, alright?"
With that, she disappeared over to the nearby portal, where Astrid was still guarding over Elora.
Zahra, her exhaustion gone, watched her go with a strange look in her eyes, and kept looking that way for long enough to be suspicious.
"What are you staring at?" Nasir asked sceptically as he and Zohran prepared to do just as Emma suggested.
Blushing a little, Zahra finally forced her gaze away from the elegant maid to look at her companions. "I just... think she’s fascinating. So powerful, yet so wholly devoted to one person..."
Zohran smirked derisively, yet without much conviction. "I’ll admit her aura is... imposing, in a way, but in the end, she’s still just a servant, no matter what delusions she makes herself. I’d almost admire that man for getting himself a wife like that."
Zahra shook her head and thoughtfully started making her way over to the embattled walls. "I disagree..." she muttered softly.
At the same time, Nasir snorted and shook his head. He’d stood up after his wounds healed, and slung his spear over his shoulder. "Don’t bullshit, Zohran. You already admire him for his strength!"
With that, he quickly caught up to Zahra. Behind him, a laughing Zohran could only agree with Nasir.
Meanwhile, over inside the barrier keeping the battle between Erik and Gabriel contained...
Boom