The frenetic energy of the tavern danced around Elio as he watched Aliseth stride away – people dancing, talking, laughing, the grunt of chairs and screech of utensils against plates, the firelight painting everything in shifting shadows, all filled the air until the tavern was nearly bursting with life. In the center of it all, Elio was still as stone. The music swallowed the sound of the door closing as Aliseth stepped outside. Elio’s eyes narrowed.
What the fuck was that?Aliseth had
smiled at him, cold and detached – and then he’d asked if he could
identify Zeph’s body, with urgency he hadn’t had for the entire rest of the conversation.
Elio’s back was stiff, muscles taut. He hadn’t moved from his position of leaning against the bar. His fists tightened, elbows still propped up on the bar’s surface. His mind worked its way back through the conversation, even as he held back the urge to just say screw it and head to the temple to make sure
Zeph wasn’t a pasty-ass corpse. There were so few people he tolerated long-term in Dawnhaven.
Earlier today, he would’ve counted Aliseth amongst their number.
He would’ve hauled off on anyone else who’d looked at him like that, after
talking to him like that. He’d started brawls over less. Aliseth had looked worse for wear, clearly involved in some sort of fight. What, had it scrambled his brain? Was the trauma of
whatever had happened breaking him? And if it was… why did the body of the guard even
need to be identified if Aliseth had been there? Unless the feral had attacked at different times, going after guards one by one. And if that was the case,
why the fuck was Aliseth lounging around instead of working?There was movement next to Elio. He didn’t care.
At least… he didn’t until he caught a flash of violet in his periphery.
His firelight eyes flicked over. A blight-born was sitting next to him, trying to make herself as small and unobtrusive as possible – wasted effort, really. There was no way she
couldn’t draw attention and take up space, with her eyes and skin and
wings. Elio spent another moment looking at her out of the corner of his eye. Then he turned his head towards her to properly examine her, his eyes still flinty, muscles still rigid.
Aliseth knew her. He’d been
livid at the sight of her. This wasn’t unusual. Maybe the
intensity of his anger was noteworthy, but he’d never been a friend to blight-born. But he’d clearly taken issue with her in a way he simply hadn’t with the barkeep, and
that gave Elio pause.
“That guard who left,” he said to her. He didn’t bother with introductions, his usual woven tapestry of words and movement and proximity to edge his way under someone else’s skin. He was no longer interested in games.
“Kain. You know him.”Nesna paused her idle stirrings of the soup and froze for a moment, clearly thinking of her response carefully before speaking. She set her spoon down against the side of the bowl and took a small sip of wine before she responded to the man. After covering her mouth to swallow quickly, she softly offered,
“We’ve become acquainted.” After another brief pause, she turned her head slightly to get a better look at the man. Her lilac-purple eyes all widened at the sight of him, and the side of her mouth curled into an awkward, nervous smile,
“Why do you ask?”Elio catalogued the way she moved, back straight, gloved hand daintily lifting to her mouth, voice light and proper – she moved like someone who’d been
trained to move this way, with prim etiquette classes and discerning parents.
A new theory: maybe more money meant the more fucked up you looked if you managed to walk out of the blight alive.
He watched her smile waver as she took him in. Useful.
“He hates you.” His words were a blunt tool. Then he forced his muscles to relax slightly, his fists to unclench. His eyes weren’t quite so hard, though they were still intently focused on her.
“Don’t take it personally, he’s a prick,” he said, smoothing out the rough edges of his voice.
“I’m impressed, is all.”Nesna nodded skeptically at first, and then seemed to relax. Letting out a sigh, she held a gloved hand up to her chest. It was good to hear that she wasn’t the only one to have gotten such an unpleasant taste from Aliseth’s temperament. But what else did this man mean?
“It’s easy to hate a creature like myself,” she affirmed matter-of-factly,
“I wouldn’t have imagined taking it personally. I gather he’s just temperamental. One doesn’t find a profession in bearing weapons without having a bit of a certain…disposition…about oneself, I imagine. But I’m afraid I don’t quite understand. Impressed? Whatever could be impressive? I suppose he’s handled taking a beating well enough. Is that to what you are referring?”Elio’s eyes sharpened as he latched onto her words.
“Did you see it? That beating he took.” He paused, before finally turning in his seat to face her.
“I’ve seen him hate blight-born before. Often. With zeal.” It wasn’t an uncommon sentiment. Elio hadn’t been one for blighters either, until curiosity had gotten the better of him those first few days in Dawnhaven. Turned out sex was great for desensitization.
Elio made a show of looking around the tavern, waving a hand lazily to gesture to the crowd.
“A dozen of them here, in this room, and he didn’t spare a glance or a glare at any – except you. Whatever acquaintance you made, must’ve left an impact.” Elio leaned towards her slightly.
“So what was it?”Why was Aliseth acting like this?
Nesna at first leaned away from Elio as he leaned towards her. Her eyes settled into their more melancholy resting expression as her lips pulled into a small frown.
“I’m afraid our disagreement is still rather fresh in his mind,” she lamented, lifting a hand to her face and tracing it down her cheek slowly,
“I didn’t see the beating he took myself; I’ve only just arrived. But you see…he saw fit to interrupt a perfectly adequate hailing I was already in the midst of receiving from one Guard Hale, and then dragged the three of us up before the head of the guards. I don’t imagine he—Guard Kain, that is—is in his right mind at this point. Though ultimately our disagreement is only distinct to him, I imagine, because he ventured to overstep.”Nesna looked back to her soup and gave it an idle stir, before looking to Elio again, and adding,
“I will not abide by being manhandled. You know, underneath all of this rot, I’m still a woman. And I haven’t any respect for a man who sees fit to shove a woman. It simply isn’t decent.
“Evidently, he felt otherwise, though.”Nesna wrinkled her nose in disgust as she spoke about the behaviour, then let go of the spoon in her bowl without eating anything. Instead, she took her cup in hand and sipped.
Sitting in his chair listening to Nesna speak, Elio had again turned to stone. His expression remained unchanged, even as his eyes darkened and anger began to simmer beneath his skin.
“I’m sorry you had such a rude reception in Dawnhaven – shame, too. Zephyros Hale is as warm a welcome you could hope to receive. But Kain – he seems out of sorts today. Surviving an attack, the death of a guard… he was rattled by the time he got to you and Hale, I’m sure.”Nesna offered a smile as her expression warmed again. She nodded as Elio offered consolation, and her eyes brightened as conversation returned to Zephyros for a moment. She seemed to clench her jaw as Elio commented on Aliseth’s state, clearly refraining from commentary.
‘And I’ve died before, but I didn’t make it anyone else’s problem when I did,’ she thought to herself. It was just typical enough. So much whinging and bellyaching from people who knew very well what they’d signed up for. If one couldn’t handle seeing one’s compatriot die, why go for such a job in the first place? The world could always use more tailors, bakers, and so forth. Nesna’s expression as Elio spoke of Aliseth seemed as unsympathetic as her thoughts actually were, though her expression softened quickly as she offered her own response.
“Yes, Zephyros, I would call him a gentleman,” she nodded.
“I’ve heard about all of this fuss. I gather it was quite the incident, wasn’t it? I’m just worried about the princess. I do hope that creature that got up to the attack hasn’t done any lasting damage. Is there any news as to where Her Majesty is?”Elio’s thoughts of the fresh murder
he was planning halted in their tracks.
The anger had turned to rage in his blood when the woman across from him didn’t contradict his timeline – that the attack and murder of a guard had happened
before Aliseth had seen her and Zeph together, which meant he knew
damn fucking well that Zeph’s body wasn’t cooling on a slab somewhere.
Why tell him that, then? Aliseth’s soft, cold smile flashed in his mind again. Aliseth was a lot of things – cocky, took his job too seriously, had a mean streak when he wanted — but this was different. Elio often did his best to get under his skin (successfully (and in his pants (successfully))), but Aliseth wouldn’t just…
lie about Zeph being dead. To what end? To fuck with him? And he’d… what,
shoved this blight-born?
…Well, that he could see.
It was only the mention of the princess that cut through his thoughts. Elio focused on Nesna again, his dark eyebrows drawing together.
The princess was the target of the attack and a feral was on the loose. And she was
missing? How, in the name of
Jericho’s white ass, had they not already sounded a settlement-wide alert?
Well done Astaros, real tight ship you run.“They’re keeping word about it quiet,” Elio replied, his smile easy even as his fingers started to tap against his thigh.
“Lots to deal with, and they can’t have a panic spreading through town. Find the perpetrator, secure the princess, keep everyone else calm and safe…” …Hook up with an old flame, let a feral into town, get a guard killed…
“I wouldn’t worry, though. If there’s one thing the prince excels at, it’s multitasking.”Another question popped into Elio’s mind: how did this woman know so much about —
She’d said Aliseth had dragged the three of them before the head guard… the captain? Had Aliseth made the incident report in front of her?
“Just such a shame about the princess’ guard,” Elio said, resting against the bar as he watched her pale eyes.
“I don’t know if they could afford to lose that one.”Nesna tilted her head and nodded sympathetically as Elio noted the gravity of the situation—and how imprudent it would be to make a fuss. Her eyebrows bent into a grave, saddened expression and her eyes closed in long blinks as she nodded along. The man seemed so at ease, much more so than anyone else around who had an inkling as to what had taken place. It was strange. In a way, it was comforting, but it was also confusing. He didn’t very much seem like the sort to be some public leader, professing calm in times of strife. But perhaps looks could be deceiving. If looks made one, after all, Nesna imagined she’d have no business bothering with a spoon at all. Or a bowl, for that matter.
“Good help is hard to come by,” Nesna agreed. Her tone was flat as she recited the adage, clearly aware of the cliché but not having bothered to consider another way of saying it. As she continued, her tone returned to the gentler, more restrained pattern she had been taking. The rest of her expression remained unwavering—somewhere between tired, grave, and passively worried. The dull glow of her eyes remained constant as she looked in his direction, endeavouring to make eye contact even despite the lack of pupils to affirm such a thing. Nesna rarely blinked, and when she did, her eyelids seemed to move with an unexpected weight. It wasn’t quite a staring contest, but the static nature of her eyes themselves made it sometimes seem as if she was, in fact, staring, regardless of her intent.
“I gather that even most of the guards who are here already aren’t entirely too keen on staying longer than they must. Finding out about…Abel—I’m inclined to say Abel was the name Guard Kain had said—the death of a guard, a royal guard, in any case, is probably going to dissuade even those who were willing, in principle, to come out to this distant place. I would loath to find myself in the position of recruiting guards to come and work here. I can’t imagine it’s an easy job on the best of days…”Nesna drifted off, and again, her attention turned briefly to her soup. Steam was still rising from it. With a sigh, Nesna sipped her wine again.
Abel.Elio’s mind worked. He didn’t know the man personally – just by reputation, and whatever Aliseth and Zeph had said about him. If Aliseth was involved in the attack, then it made sense that Abel had been there too. That the feral had managed to
kill him, though…
Yeah, that would’ve fucked Aliseth up. The old man had practically been his mentor. Slowly, a picture was assembling itself in Elio’s mind. Aliseth and Abel had been with the princess, a feral attacked, killed Abel, knocked Aliseth around, hurt the princess… but she was missing, apparently. Kidnapped?
Aliseth had said the suspect had psychic magic. If it’d been used on him, maybe that, coupled with the loss of Abel, could explain why he was being such a
dickwad. His thoughts lingered on the guard, and their strange conversation – that smile, before he’d implied Zeph was dead. Something cold sat in the pit of his stomach.
Elio was still missing pieces.
His eyes were still on her though his attention strayed.
“Dangerous world out there,” he agreed, his voice softer than it’d been. He refocused on her, looking her over again. She was new in town. Blight-born. Could probably do some damage – but if she was a suspect, she would’ve been locked up in that half-finished jail by now, especially with the venom Aliseth had shot at her. He was a witness. He would’ve just named her the culprit and been done with it, if it were true. No, that she was still out and about with all this chaos apparently brewing in Dawnhaven, meant she was cleared. Either that, or the guards really were
piss poor at their jobs.
“All the more reason to be thankful for the guards we have left,” he said, flashing her a smile. Elio shifted in his seat, pushing himself up to stand.
“I’d try to keep my head down if I were you, pet.” Unfortunately for
Aliseth Kain, Elio would be doing no such thing. He flexed his hands.
“But I should be getting to work by now.” Tilting his neck this way and that, he felt the stretch and pop of his joints as he rolled his shoulders back. Energy thrummed under his skin, like ozone building before a storm. He cast a look back over to her.
“Thanks for the conversation. It was just what I needed.”Nesna gave Elio a confused look at being called a “pet,” but said nothing of it as the man hurried to rise.
“Happy to help…”Elio strode out the tavern door, steps sure as he traveled over the stone he’d laid with his own hands.
