you feel the ashes from the fire

Tyrea has been trained to accept, and primarily to produce, no less than excellence, if not perfection. There has been no room in the gaze of any who saw her (for most did not, and it became their undoing; that was Tyrea's only purpose, after all) for acceptance, for understanding.

And so Tyrea has become a woman who extends that same severity to everyone else she meets. She is known for efficiency, for ruthlessness, for truth only if you have won her (and she is hard to win as she should be).

She is not known, so much, for justice. For doing the right thing.

Perun, the Ardent Lancer, takes also severity. But she searches for reasons, for context; for justification, if it might be needed and if she has the patience, but she very rarely does.

Of course, everyone expects them to get along. Everyone places Tyrea in the box of "disagreeable lesbian who'll kick you in whatever you've got unless she determines there's something about you worth tolerating", and it's not exactly a happy box to be in, but it is well-populated.

Tyrea did not expect Perun to meet that determination. She had thought her protection, unrighteous rage, extended only to her chosen family.

But Perun's passion, perhaps, has within it the power to protect Tyrea. And no one has ever done that.