CHAPTER 203: BENEATH THE MASK

The silence stretched between them after Eren finished concealing the guards’ bodies, heavy with unspoken words and the weight of what had just transpired. Rose stood by the window, her silver hair catching the moonlight that filtered through the crystalline glass. Her posture remained rigid, controlled, but Eren noticed something different in the way she held herself - a subtle tremor in her hands that she tried to hide.

"You’re troubled by what I did," Rose said without turning around, her voice carrying that same cold edge from before. "I can sense your disapproval radiating from you like heat from a forge."

Eren moved closer, studying her profile in the pale light. "I’m trying to understand you, Rose. One moment you’re helping me, guiding me through this nightmare, and the next..." He gestured toward where the bodies had disappeared. "You kill two people without hesitation."

"They weren’t people," Rose replied sharply, finally turning to face him. "They were tools of our enemies. Extensions of Kiada’s will."

"They had names. They had lives, families probably—"

"Don’t." The word cracked like a whip through the chamber. Rose’s violet eyes blazed with sudden intensity, and for the first time since he’d known her, Eren saw something raw and unguarded flicker across her features. "Don’t speak to me of families and lives lost. You know nothing of what I’ve sacrificed."

The vehemence in her voice caught Eren off guard. He took another step toward her, close enough now to see the subtle lines of pain etched around her eyes, the way her jaw clenched as if holding back words that threatened to spill forth.

"Then tell me," he said quietly. "Help me understand what drives someone to become so..." He searched for the right word. "Cold."

Rose laughed, but there was no humor in the sound. "Cold? You think this is cold?" She pressed a hand to her chest, right over her heart. "This is survival, Veilwalker. This is what remains after everything else has been burned away."

"What happened to you?"

For a moment, Rose’s mask slipped entirely. Her shoulders sagged slightly, and she looked away from him toward the far wall where tapestries depicted scenes of ancient battles. "I had a family once. A husband who could make lightning dance between his fingers like poetry. Two children who laughed when I showed them how to coax flowers from barren soil."

Eren felt his breath catch. He hadn’t expected such personal revelation from someone who seemed made of ice and steel.

"The alliance armies came in the spring," Rose continued, her voice barely above a whisper now. "They said we were too dangerous to live. That our abilities made us a threat to the natural order." She closed her eyes, and Eren saw a single tear trace down her cheek before she quickly wiped it away. "They burned everything. Everyone."

"Rose, I—"

"I survived because I was away, gathering rare herbs in the mountain caves." Her voice grew stronger, harder again. "When I returned, there was nothing left but ash and the smell of burning flesh. My husband’s body was nailed to what remained of our home’s doorframe. My children..." She stopped, unable or unwilling to continue.

Eren felt something twist in his chest. Without thinking, he reached out and touched her arm gently. "I’m sorry. I had no idea."

Rose looked down at his hand on her arm, and something shifted in her expression. The cold mask cracked further, revealing something vulnerable and achingly human beneath.

"That was three hundred years ago," she said, but her voice lacked its earlier steel. "I’ve spent every day since then preparing for revenge. Training, planning, becoming the weapon I needed to be."

"Three hundred years?" Eren’s eyes widened. "But you look—"

"Elven blood runs through Nethys veins," Rose explained. "We live longer than most races, which means we remember longer too. Every injustice, every loss, every reason to fight."

They stood in silence for a moment, Rose’s revelation hanging between them like a bridge neither was sure they should cross. Eren found himself studying her face in the moonlight, seeing past the ethereal beauty to the pain that had shaped her into the deadly woman before him.

"You’re staring," Rose said softly, but without her usual edge.

"I’m trying to reconcile the woman who helped me escape the labs with the one who just..." He gestured vaguely. "You’re not what I expected."

"What did you expect?"

Eren considered the question carefully. "Someone simpler, I suppose. A straightforward ally or enemy. But you’re..." He struggled to find words. "You’re complicated."

Rose’s lips curved into the ghost of a smile - the first genuine expression he’d seen from her all evening. "Complicated. That’s one way to put it."

"Why did you really help me that first night?" Eren asked. "Was it just because you needed me for your plan?"

Rose was quiet for a long moment, and when she spoke, her voice carried a vulnerability that made Eren’s chest tighten. "At first, yes. You were a valuable asset, someone whose abilities could serve our cause." She paused, seeming to wrestle with her next words. "But then I saw how you protected your family. How you endured everything they did to you without breaking, without losing your humanity."

She turned fully toward him now, and Eren was startled by the intensity in her gaze.

"You reminded me of who I used to be," she continued. "Before the burning, before the centuries of planning revenge. You reminded me that there are still things worth protecting beyond just settling old scores."

The admission hung in the air between them, charged with an energy that made Eren’s pulse quicken. He realized they were standing very close now, close enough that he could see the flecks of silver in her violet eyes, close enough to catch the subtle scent of moonflowers that seemed to cling to her skin.

"Rose," he said quietly, not sure what he intended to say next.

But she was looking at him with an expression he’d never seen before - vulnerable, yearning, almost desperate. Her carefully constructed walls were crumbling, and the woman beneath was someone entirely different from the cold executioner who had killed the guards.

"I’ve been alone for so long," she whispered, her voice breaking slightly. "So focused on vengeance that I forgot what it felt like to care about someone living instead of just mourning the dead."

Eren felt his own defenses wavering. Despite everything - the violence, the manipulation, the dangerous plans - he found himself drawn to the pain in her eyes, to the centuries of loneliness she carried like a physical weight.

"You don’t have to be alone anymore," he heard himself saying.

Rose’s eyes widened slightly at his words, and suddenly the careful distance she maintained between herself and others seemed to collapse entirely. She reached up, her hand hovering just beside his face as if she were afraid to actually make contact.

"You should fear me," she said, but her voice held no conviction. "I’m dangerous, Eren. I’ve done terrible things."

"So have I," he replied, thinking of the violence he’d been forced to commit, the lines he’d crossed to protect his family. "We’re both trying to survive in an impossible situation."

Her hand finally made contact with his cheek, her fingers cool against his skin. The touch sent electricity racing through him, and he saw his own reaction mirrored in her widening eyes.

"This is madness," Rose breathed, but she didn’t pull away. "Tomorrow we may all die. Tonight should be about strategy, about preparation..."

"Tonight we’re alive," Eren said, covering her hand with his own. "Maybe that’s enough."

Something cracked open in Rose’s expression then, three centuries of careful control shattering like glass. Before either of them could think better of it, she rose up on her toes and pressed her lips to his.

The kiss was desperate, hungry, filled with all the loneliness and fear and hope that neither of them had dared to voice. Eren’s arms came up around her waist, pulling her closer as she melted against him, her fingers tangling in his hair.

When they finally broke apart, both were breathing hard. Rose stared up at him with wonder and terror warring in her expression, as if she couldn’t quite believe what had just happened.

"I don’t know how to do this," she whispered. "How to care about someone when everything I touch turns to ash."

Eren brushed a strand of silver hair back from her face, marveling at how different she looked now - younger somehow, despite her centuries of life. The cold mask was completely gone, replaced by a woman who was beautiful and terrifying and utterly human in her vulnerability.

"Then we’ll figure it out together," he said simply.

Rose closed her eyes and leaned into his touch, and for a moment they stood suspended in the moonlight, two damaged souls finding unexpected solace in each other’s arms while the fortress slept around them, unaware that tomorrow would bring either liberation or destruction.