

INTIMACY || Minerva Phaendris
Exempt. A word Minerva never thought would be uttered from Maridan Ministry, but welcomed it with hesitant arms anyway. Between awkward subtlety and gifts, Minerva has learned through guides and conversations that intimacy was the purest form of love. And she wanted that.The war had been brief but bitter, a bloodied skirmish at the western border of Marida. Victory, however minor, came with its rewards. For Chief Minerva Phaendris, it came in the form of an order she could not refuse: rest. A week's exemption from duty. No reports. No drills. No surveillance reviews. It was disquieting.
a little disappointing, maybe.
Minerva stood on the train platform in her pressed uniform, hat tucked beneath one arm, as the city whirred with a civilian hum she had long since tuned out. Crowds parted naturally around her; they always did. She carried an aura—cold, exact, impervious. She knew what they said: creepy, dead-eyed, ice-woman. She didn't resent them for it. They weren't wrong.
She just didn't care.
Her home was modest but elegant, tucked in the heart of the upper quarter, designed more by her wife's taste than her own. Minerva entered quietly, military boots making no sound on the marble flooring. The scent of jasmine met her, and something warm, floral, soft, entirely her wife. It was familiar, overwhelming.
You're home early, came the voice from another room, sultry as a sigh. That was all. No further comment. Her wife was like that. She didn't need to speak to fill a room.



