POV: Sayaka
It was the closest she’d come to making a moral decision in over a century and it was as dull as the last one. Kai Drake’s Chthonic elf friend looked as bored as she did. The Earth human didn’t understand and likely thought they were both trying to look cool. No, they truly didn’t care about the outcome.
The Chthonic elf probably thought she’d kill him the second nobody was looking, and he was right. So why bother making any emotional effort to be upset?
Her daggers were coming back, that was good.
Meanwhile, Baggage and Runa were attending to the new air sled, a large indigo one. Baggage was dressed like a Chthonic elf noble woman, a heavy dark blue dress and boots. The white top was thin and the thick dark purple jacket left her midriff exposed.
Sayaka thought Baggage would have a problem with that. Instead, she was much more antsy because the she had broken a couple of her beads fighting with the slave master. Runa made a big deal out of it and Baggage pulled at Runa’s sleeve to get in the air sled.
“Two blues and a gold! They should be replaced with two blues of the same size and shade. Also a diamond bead! I read she earned it.”
“I don’t care, Runa. It doesn’t matter to me. And the crushed gold wasn’t the one I had earned diamond in anyway.”
A Chthonic elf woman, disgusted, drew a small knife and sliced a couple beads off her own clothes and threw them at Baggage’s feet. An insult the Facilitator ignored.
“Thank you,” Baggage mumbled. “Runa, can we please leave?”
Drake was focused on getting his new pal some help. The Chthonic deliberately made things hard by not telling them anything, even if it would help him.
“Sayaka, there has to be something your people do to take in enemy elves. You get spy intelligence from them right?”
“No.” Said both elves together.
“We kill them, no matter what,” said Sayaka.
“We’d rather die,” agreed the evil elf gladiator.
She could feel her daggers getting closer, that was good.
“C’mon! Racism never helped anybody.” said Kai.
“Bullshit.” Replied Sayaka.
“Yeah,” agreed the other elf. “It lets us know who to hate.”
Kai sighed, “Will you at least tell us your name or what you did?”
“I forgot my name,” the elf lied. “And my crime was raping an orphanage. Not the people, the building. I have architectiphilia.”
Sayaka didn’t move a muscle. It was funny though. Funnier because it exasperated Kai.
“Fine,” Kai growled. “Your name is Leon.”
“That’s not an elf name,” protested Leon.
“That’s probably why you forgot it,” said Kai smoothly. “Now, Sayaka, help Leon. He helped us.”
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Her daggers arrived. She jumped up, caught them, spun her body causing her ponytail to spin around with her like an orbital ring, then when she had turned in a full circle she threw the daggers at Leon’s heart.
Missed. The bastard moved fast. She called the daggers back to her. He tried to cast a spell and gave up when she threw the daggers a second time. The other Chthonic elves were laughing at the fight, so she threw her knives into one of them. Looked like a real good hit. Her target should have learned a thing or two from Leon.
Drake swore and pulled out his sword. He didn’t get it. They weren’t in trouble for attacking in cold blood. The Chthonics nearby simply laughed at their dying comrade.
“An assassination is one thing,” a Chthonic woman giggled, “to be slain by a Dying Elf when he had seen her weapons is incomprehensible.”
The comments became more heartless as they tried to think of the worst thing for the man to hear as he shed the mortal coil.
“We aren’t like you,” Leon said to Kai. “It’s this way everywhere. Orcs and ogres used to be human. A few people say goblins were from a forgotten mythical race, but I don’t believe it.”
“Me either,” agreed Sayaka. And threw a dagger in his shoulder.
“Bitch!” Leon screamed, dropping to one knee.
“Sayaka!” Drake yelled in protest. The Chthonic elves watching laughed harder.
“Stay out of it, Kai.” She said.
“Yeah, fuck off, guy.” Said Leon.
Kai threw up his arms in disgust and went to the elven air sled they had commandeered.
Sayaka approached Leon. He was keeping a hand pressed on his wound. He clenched his teeth, though he did not stop her. She stood over him. Sayaka really hated Chthonic Elves and that included this one. He looked weak. He was funny though. She knew a place where elves had a sense of humor.
“You'd better have a good memory, traitor.” Whispered Sayaka. She gave him directions.
“Any Dying Elf will kill me,” Leon said.
“I hope so.” Sayaka carved a design into his forearm. It was an elf home with a tree. She drew four short lines under it, another two very short lines next to the top one followed by a dot. The second short line also had a single line and a dot. Then she carved into his arms a big vertical line next to the home.
Leon stared at the sigil. “Shit, Sayaka. I’m… not amused.”
That was fair. If their positions were reversed, she wouldn’t tell him she was sorry either. She could do better than ‘not amused’ though. He really was part demon. Maybe her directions would take him to a place where they could use that attitude.
She said, “They’ll know I sent you. No one else who uses a symbol like this are dumb enough to vouch for you.”
He stood up slowly. The other Chthonic Elves booed when they saw he was still alive.
“Any advice?” He asked.
There was no real rule against it. He’d have a hard enough time fitting in. A little guidance couldn’t hurt.
She said, “If you try to outlast the torture, they’ll keep doing it. They want you to give up. Then they keep going until they get bored. Tell them I explained that to you or they’ll find out when you break and tell them everything. It’ll really piss them off if you try to keep secrets.”
He nodded his head and stumbled into a jog. Heading off without saying goodbye or thanks. He had a lot of furlongs to go before finding the Forgotten Order. He’d be injured all the way, if he healed himself it would remove her sigil. Traveling there on foot and wounded would be an impressive feat.
She might end up seeing him again someday. Maybe they’d try to kill each other for fun the next time they met.
She watched him run into the distance. He was right about one thing. Her race were not Elves or True Elves. She was a Dying Elf. Her people should face reality.
She headed to the new air sled. She could hear the arguing humans who thought she was their friend.
“Start over. How many liters are in a meter?”
“Stop it, Drake-dono! No one is that foolish.”
“Don’t give him too much credit, Baggage-chan. He gets volume and distance confused all the time.”
Sayaka sighed. Were they her friends? She didn’t want any. Friends died.
“No, I don’t Runa! Shaku and shaku are the same word.”
“You have to listen to the melody, Drake-san. Distance is shaku, from high pitch to low pitch. Volume is shaku, more flat and going from low to high.”
“Runa, I agree with Drake, those aren’t real distinctions.”
Sayaka held her breath as the argument continued. No one called Baggage out on failing to use honorifics with names. Baggage had likely just forgotten, but it was still progress for the girl.
Maybe she’d ignore it if Baggage failed to use Sayaka’s honorifics. The woman had been through a lot and was still, quite remarkably, holding an expanding source of qi inside her body. Impressive.
Sayaka got on the driver’s bench on the outside of the air sled’s coach and accelerated slowly, so the others wouldn’t realize they had left.
Friends? No.
Acquaintances. She could allow herself those.
