Welcome To My Dark Side

Chapter 4 Drunk

In the meantime Lyria had been seated close enough to witness everything but far enough away not to be suspicious. This time she had been careful not to give herself away. To celebrate her little 'victory' she walked over to the bar to order a drink. Then she ordered another and another until she was so drunk that she started singing. "What shall we do with a drunken sailor? What shall we do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning?" She sang slurring her words. Lady Azura noticed that Lyria was intoxicated. She left her table and went to see why her normally responsible apprentice had ended up like this. "Lyria, what did Lord Patrick say to you?" She worried that this was why Lyria had resorted to drinking. Instead of answering the question Lyria started giggling. "As you seem to be so knowledgeable then surely you would know the answer to your own question." she smirked. Azura was not impressed but she knew she was not going to have a logical discussion with Lyria's current state. "We will properly talk about this later when you are sober enough. Why don't you go to your room until then?" Azura suggested however Lyria didn't at all like the idea of doing that.

"No way! I am having way too much fun. Besides, what are you going to do about it, ground me like I'm a 9 year old?" Lyria teased. "Yes. If you are acting like a small child then you will get treated like one." Replied Azura but Lyria only laughed more at her response. "How are you going to do that? Are you going to fight me, you coward?" Azura was so shocked that Lyria had dared call her a coward, that any logic she had had evaporated out of her head. "Lyria go to your room this instant!" Azura yelled at the top of her voice, scaring most of the people in the tavern because it was almost unheard of for Azura to be angry enough to start shouting. Despite raising her voice, she saw that it had no effect on the out of control teenager. Finally Azura was able to take control of the situation and grabbed Lyria by the arm, dragging her out of the tavern and took Lyria to her room. Azura was going to have a serious conversation with her later.

Azura knew that it was not going to be easy to discuss with Lyria about why she was acting so out of character but Azura knew that she would not be able to help Lyria if she did not talk it through with her. Lyria knew that Azura had taken her to the lab so that she could have a word with her. Without knowing the topic of the conversation, Lyria had already decided that this was going to be extremely dull. "Lyria I want to feel like you can tell me what has been bothering you to cause you to act as you have done over the past few days. I only want to try and help you." Azura explained kindly, only to find her apprentice place her feet up on the table and show no signs of listening to her. "Lyria please take your feet off the table. I just want to know what's going on with you so I can help you." She sighed. Lyria ignored her mentor's request and simply rolled her eyes. "When have you ever wanted to help me? You have never had the time for anyone but yourself." Lyria pointed out calmly. Azura was stunned by what she had said and was beginning to wonder if it was true.

"I am sorry if I haven't been there for you but I am now." Azura said, trying to reassure Lyria who was still only half listening to her. "I doubt that." Lyria muttered. Still attempting to reason with her, Azura tried a new approach. "I do believe you are very capable of being a captain. I have talked to Lord Patrick and he says that he is willing to give you back your rank in a relatively short space of time. He can only do this if you are open to changing your current behavior." Said Azura as she had spoken to Lord Patrick after she had caught Lyria drunk in the tavern and in the hope that by saying this Lyria would be more interested in having a proper conversation. "You are talking like I'm the only one with a problem. At least I don't lie the way Lord Patrick does." Snapped Lyria now taking her feet off the table. Azura couldn't believe what she was hearing, although she attempted to remain calm under the growing tension between them. Unfortunately for her, Lyria had no intention of lowering the tension. "You think you are such a great person but everyone knows that you just force me to do all the hard work for you!" She yelled at Azura as she stood up and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Struggling to process what had happened, Azura could not help but feel that what Lyria had said was partly true. She felt a tear run down her face. Maybe she had slightly neglected her responsibilities as a mentor because she had been focusing so much on the war. Perhaps she was to blame for Lyria's bad behavior and now she had only made things worse. On the other hand she tried to tell herself that she was just dealing with a difficult teenager and that Lyria hadn't really meant anything she had said. 'She just needs some time as things have been rather hard on her lately. Soon she'll go back to being the Lyria I know.' Azura told herself, confident that this was the case. Little did she know that the Lyria she knew was not coming back any time soon and that she was currently trapped in another reality, known as the Fractureverse, dealing with her own problems.