[Ugh, she doesn't like that tone. Have a light hair yank.]

I'm not sure who you think you're complaining to. I wasn't trying to get her to settle things over rock-paper-scissors myself.

[How though, she's behind you... Stupid vampire reflexes. Huff.]

You wouldn't know how to be insincere even if you had a step-by-step tutorial guide.

It's not a matter of holiness, geez. A sincere person can be one of the rudest you'll ever meet, so you can keep your bad boy motorbike image.

[Oh man, maybe that's what this bump is. Oh no, it's just a regular bump, not an eye. Hm. Rin examines it carefully.]

[A little gentler prodding, then. The bleeding's not bad here, so she's going to clean it up now, then dress it.]

Even if she didn't pull out a crossbow, you wouldn't have gotten that far.

Yes. That woman isn't the kind who would sit still for something like that.

[Said so plainly.]

I'm going to ask you some questions now, okay? I don't think this is a serious injury, but we should be diligent all the same.

[No bandaids here (that would be a mess with so much hair), and the cut that opened up isn't so bad it'll need stitches. Rin will just put some gauze there and wrap a bandage about, hiding the white cloth beneath Elda's hair. She's just wrapping it, willing her fingers to cooperate with her a little longer when she hears Elda's question.]

Hm? [...oh that's right, Elda knows about it. Rin's surprised expression shifts back to understanding.] Right. ...Somewhat, yeah. Even with medicine to manage it, there are days when it catches me off guard.

I'm normally better about keeping it in check.

[There's something weird about the way she says that/how she talked before, like this isn't just a flare up, but something she should have control of.

But Rin shifts her arm awkwardly (it seems to bother her more than her throat or her head, strange as that is), and finishes what she was doing.]

Anyways, the good news is you'll probably have a goose egg for a couple of days. You can take the bandages off before the weekend is up; they're just there to give the cut a little time to heal.

[Rin blinks, not surprise, but like she's not sure what Elda is getting at here.]

Anything...? What, to help my arm?

[She can't think of anything else Elda would be asking about.]

[Well, Rin is never one to look a gift horse in the mouth. The ridiculous request she made of Tarrlok at the end of the trial is proof enough of that, so even while her first instinct is to say it's nothing, she does stop to think.

And maybe it is become her arm hurts that she thinks of it. The Magic Crest, her most precious possession... This one thing she inherited, in place of a sibling, only to sever its potential in her memories.

Frowning, she touches her arm and moves to put the supplies away.]

...do you remember the conversation we had the other day?

When you say it like that, I feel inconsiderate.

[Dammit, woman, your nails are sharp. Rin swats her hand away and frowns.]

My sister. [...] I'll ask you just this once: was it only a whim that made you declare you'd save her, or did you really mean that?