Eramis always looks Scorn in their eyes.

"She does it to assert dominance," she once heard one of her subordinates say. Rather than correct them, she let the rumor take root, and grow wild and fierce.

There is no one left that she trusts enough to share the truth: Eramis always looks Scorn in their eyes because she's desperate to see some faint flicker of the Eliksni they were before.

The first time the Witness presents her with Phyris—with whom Eramis fought alongside in life—she wills her expression into something that resembles Human steel.

"A gift," claims the Witness, but Eramis cannot find her voice—not even to feign gratitude. She reaches up, grazes claws against the side of the Eliksni's face, and searches for any sign of her friend.

Yet all she sees in Phyris's eyes is her own reflection, glassy and alien.

Eramis wants to scream; part of her is grateful when Phyris sinks teeth into the flesh of her forearm, giving her an excuse.

One that doesn't make her appear weak.