Erik smirked wryly, scratching his head. "I’m sorry to keep throwing you on a roller coaster like this, but—even if that could make her sentient while preserving whatever is there now—we don’t have another sigil core right now, nor a way to make one."
Lifting his arm to showcase the core, while thumbing at Eira, Erik continued. "Eira and her core are essentially ancient relics from long ago. We technically know how they are made, but don’t have the skill nor power for it yet."
"Ancient relic?!" Eira cried out with wide eyes, clearly insulted. Pouting, she glared angrily at him.
Erik didn’t lose his wryness when he turned towards Eira in exasperation at the fact female age sensitivity extended to ancient, essentially age-less sigil constructs. "I... Well, what would you call it?" he asked with a sigh.
Scoffing, Eira puffed out her chest proudly. "I’d say you found a treasure!"
Blinking, Erik stared at her for a moment. Then, smirking cheekily, he turned to Zahra again. "You heard the lady. She’s an ancient treasure, not a relic."
"Hey!" Eira cried out, crossing her arms and pouting her lips. "Stop saying I’m ancient!"
Emma smiled, while Astrid and Elora laughed, but the Maghreb trio reacted little to Erik and Eira’s conversation. Zahra focused far more on the point they made, and her companions were worried about her.
"I— I see," Zahra muttered dejectedly. Casting her eyes down, she hesitated for a moment. "When— When you can get more of them, would you... help give Kara sentience?"
Silence fell, and amusement died down on everyone’s face, except for that of Elora. While Zohran and Nasir looked expectantly at Erik, and the man himself, Emma, and Astrid looked at Zahra with sombre frown, Elora suddenly started to giggle from Erik’s shoulder.
"Hehehe, that’s good!" she chirped, laughing harder with every moment. Soon, she was rolling around on Erik’s shoulder, clutching her stomach. "Hahaha! By the spirits! Do you know how rare these things are?! And you—haha—you ask us to— to do what?! Breath life into a puppet you’ve bonded with?! Hahaha!"
She pointed at Kara with ridicule, still laughing cruelly. "I mean, look at it! It doesn’t even have any reaction while we’re talking about it! How could you ever even for a moment think it was sentient?! Man, that’s good! Hahaha!"
Her high-pitched laughter rolled through the hall like a clear, pretty, yet ultimately cruel bell. Emma and Astrid sighed and rolled their eyes; the Maghreb trio all swivelled their gazes towards Elora to look at the fairy with rising hatred, and Erik’s sombre frown deepened.
"You—!" Zahra began, seething with fury, but was immediately interrupted by Erik.
"Enough!" he growled, glancing at Elora sternly. "I won’t have you mocking an ally like this. What happened to her could happen to anyone."
"Loneliness will do a lot to a person’s mind," he added, using his connection to all three of his wives. "Likely the only reason she’s even accepting Kara’s situation so easily right now is her own intelligence, resilience, and the past two years she spent growing closer to Zohran and Nasir."
All three of his wives acknowledged and agreed with him, yet, for some reason, Elora still scoffed out loud and started glaring silently at Zahra.
Meanwhile, Erik turned to look at Zahra. She remained furious, but also stunned into silence by Erik taking her side, rather than Elora’s. She looked at him cautiously.
Sighing, Erik rested his hands in his pockets and shrugged calmly. He looked at her with sympathy. "I’m sorry. She shouldn’t have reacted like that. Unfortunately, however, the essence of her words remains true. Sigil cores are rare, and for a reason. Even by the time we can make them ourselves, it won’t be easy or cheap. Not to mention that we have many other, frankly more important plans for these cores."
The tone of his voice calmed Zahra down, but also made her sorrow grow. "I— I understand..." she whispered, a little deflated. She glanced at Kara, but quickly looked away again.
"Is there... nothing I can say to make you change your mind?" she muttered, eyes downcast, having entered the bargaining stage of grief. "I— I think I realised Kara’s situation a long time ago, but I’ve been unwilling to accept it. Still, I— I owe her a lot. Those— Those first few years were hard..."
The emotional damage and roller-coaster had loosened some of her deeper thoughts, causing them to spill out despite the audience of essential strangers.
Sighing, Erik stayed silent for a moment and looked at her, seemingly deep in thought. In actuality, however, he was talking to Elora.
"Do you think I went too far?" she asked him in a tone that was somehow both playful and serious.
Now sighing and rolling his eyes in this realm of thought, Erik could only nod. "Probably, yeah. I know the good-cop/bad-cop routine has done well for us in the past, but remember you’re trying to push her towards me, not make her develop an eternal grudge towards you."
Surprisingly, Elora sighed in acknowledgement. "I know, I know... I got carried away. I do hope she’ll get over it."
Erik smiled a little at the tinge of genuine regret he heard in her voice. Although Elora truly was pretty callous, there was a limit to it, and he knew she’d stepped over that limit just now.
"Are you sure you want to keep doing this?" he then asked carefully. "This tactic’s been useful, but you’re really calling a lot of anger and hatred on yourself."
The regret left Elora’s voice as soon as it’d appeared, and she giggled carelessly. "Hehehe, it’s fine, my love. I’ll just not interact with her for a while, and she’ll get over it eventually. Especially since I’ll be the one making the sigil cores..."
"Besides," she continued with a smirk, "what I said needed to be said, and even though I was unnecessarily cruel about it, I did mean most of it."
Smiling a little at Elora just... being Elora, Erik finally answered the anxiously waiting Zahra.
"Make yourself indispensable," he told her gently.
"Huh?" she blinked, looking at him with some confusion.
Smiling a little, not just in the realm of thought this time, Erik explained in a soothing tone. "Sigil cores will be rare, even by the time we can make them, and the uses for them will be many, but... usefulness isn’t the only important factor. I’m not above rewarding the people I care about, or who’ve served me particularly well, even with a sigil core..."