26.

“Relax,” I called out as Agatha bolted straight to her feet, power beginning to swirl around her hands. In the dark, the hungry red mana bolt building between her fingers was like a beacon. Every eye turned toward her, and the sleeping elf at her feet. The one covered head to toe in blankets. Almost like a funeral shroud.

A keening wail of despair came from a throat, somewhere in the camp. The knife pressed harder into my throat and I had a moment of curiosity. Would my increased constitution allow me to resist this sharp piece of metal from slashing my throat? How fast could I move to get away from my ambusher?

“Silence!” Sulian hissed from her cocoon of blankets. They flipped over as she struggled out of them until her face was exposed, illuminated by the burning red mana of Agatha’s bolt.

“I am trying to sleep. They have offered succor. You will give them all the respect that entails,” Sulian whispered, hissing in a rage, her brow tugged down in a fierce scowl. Now that I had a chance to look at her, without the horrific burns and the momentary stupefaction of meeting an elf, I realized how young she looked. Stories of elves had them being immortal or at least long lived, but, Sulian had not even the faintest traces of age touching her. If she hadn’t been purple with long pointed ears and glowing eyes, I would have guessed her age to be in her early twenties. Too young to be commanding this much respect.

Yet, at her word, the ambushers released my people. Knives were hidden and they burst into a cacophony of excitement and bobbing heads. My skill struggled to keep up as dozens of voices intermingled. Most of it was apologies, begging for forgiveness, and generally just being apologetic. The knife at my throat disappeared, but the elf who had been holding me hostage did not join his fellows in apologizing.

I turned slowly and met his eyes. Unlike Sulian, his eyes did not glow in the dark. The dim light of our fires offered only the faintest amounts of illumination but from inches away I could make out his eyes were dark pits. His skin was darker than Sulian, a true purple and he lacked the tattoos that she had. Shorter than me by a head with a lean build, though I couldn’t tell if it was hunger that made his cheeks gaunt or their people’s natural build.

“I am Billy,” I spoke in his people’s language. Feeling the translation skill activate, having my tongue twist in ways that were foreign, to hear sounds unlike any that could be made by human vocal cords. Something more graceful, more primal, than any language of man. It was disconcerting.

The elf’s eyes widened as I spoke, his mouth opening slightly to reveal glowing white teeth that were unnaturally straight. Of course they were. I could already tell that dealing with them was going to be a constant reminder of just how human we were. Flaws and all.

“How do you know our language?”

“Skill stone I found. Let me translate things.” I decided being truthful was going to get us further than anything else. I spared an eye to look at the camp. Most everyone was standing around looking in shock at the elves walking around the camp bowing and scraping. Sulian had pulled her blankets back around her and was presumably back asleep. Agatha stood rigid, watching the elves. Olivia was practically glued to her side. There was no way she’d be going back to sleep tonight.

Bobby was already intercepting groups, working to distill any hostility before it had time to take root. I think most of the camp were too confused by what was going on to be much of a threat. Being transported to an alternate planet was one thing, purple elves was another.

“You have offered succor to Sulian. You have my thanks.” His voice didn’t change now that he wasn’t threatening me. The stench of rotting corpses was in his every syllable.

“Your name is?”

“Thrush.”

It’s hard to make conversation with someone who enjoys being taciturn. After just a few moments talking to Thrush I had a sinking feeling that he enjoyed being taciturn. I glanced around to see if any of the other elves would want to come and converse instead of Thrush. None of them seemed interested in leaving their current predicament of mixing apologies and begging for food at the same time. Of course, nobody knew what they were saying aside from Billy and I, but they were trying. The world was a harsh mistress and this tutorial made the world seem like Mary Poppins. Without a fort to support them, it looked like they were on the verge of starvation.

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Which led to an excellent question. Why don’t they have a fort? Which of course lead to, who injured Sulian? Seeing the handful of elves intermingling right now, I took the guess that they hadn’t been a united faction. Unless they had been wiped out by another faction, which would mean we were fucked. The elves appeared to have a natural ability to use magic, or something that allowed them to literally appear out of nowhere. It was better for my plans if their faction was splintered.

“Who injured Sulian? Was it the one who burnt the forest down?”

“Her brother. Yes.”

Very helpful. Thank you, Thrush.

I fished into my own pack and pulled out a loaf of bread and my canteen of water, offering it to him. The odds that a different species could eat food that we could also digest were abysmal. If one didn’t account for magic. Thrush ripped into the loaf like he had never seen food before, shoving piece after piece into his mouth with long fingers. I left him to it and wandered over to where Billy was.

Sequestered with a small knot of the elves, Bobby had a radiant smile as she talked to them. She was using her hands in a descriptive manner, talking a mile a minute. A pulse of happiness went through me. She was enthralled by these elves, or maybe it was just exploring the unknown. I didn’t know. I just finally had something she valued. Right now she was willing to stick with me, to support me. She had even gone out of her way to comfort me, though I think she assumed I felt bad for killing the warden rather than feeling bad for not feeling bad.

There were many ways to manipulate people. Fear was often used, the threat of punishment to behave. Something Dan had brought from the old world. Obey or pay. Effective, but I don’t think it worked well with this size of group. Eventually someone would ram a knife in my side as I was sleeping. Or they would fail to support me in the middle of a fight. Then, I would see my return on investment, as fear failed to motivate loyalty.

Miguel and Agatha were working with me because I was offering them something. Hope. So cliched, but it was working. Hope I could help them reunite with their families. If I delivered, the ties of loyalty would be there, a positive emotion to draw them to me in a time of need.

Bobby was different though. I couldn’t offer her hope. If I threatened her, well, I wouldn’t live out the day. It had been a constant burr in my side, how could I tie her to me? To ensure her loyalty? Now, finally, I had it. Her joy at dealing with these elves, with learning, with experiencing the novelty of this tutorial. The best part was I didn’t even need to do anything, just continue on and keep exploring. Giving her the support and security of a team that allowed her to learn and see, that could be enough.

“Have you figured out what’s going on with them?” I asked Bobby in English.

“Not really. They’re telling me they had a fight with the Sun? I think it’s a societal thing, the translation is working, but I’m not understanding the cultural implications. They say they have left the light of blood and have abandoned the shackles of the sun.”

“Sounds poetic enough. Do they know if they’re being followed? If we can expect their sun to arrive and start a fight?”

Bobby turned and asked my question. I could have done it myself, but seeing her in her element, with her already establishing a connection with these elves, how could I interfere? Also I didn’t want to feel the skill working through me to translate my words to their language. It had been extremely disconcerting. It took Bobby only a few minutes to get her answers, the continuous buffeting of the elf language on my mind enough to start a headache. I had no idea how they managed to function as a society if they were always leaving impressions when they spoke.

“They say they have nothing to fear in the dark. The sun won’t stray.” I hadn’t bothered to listen in as she spoke to the elves. The five elves were busy leaving different impressions on my mind. All of them, dark and decaying. Nothing as foul as Thrush. No images of rotting flesh, but nothing bright and sunny either. Cold winds whipping through deserted lands was the general vibe of all of them. How quickly the wondrous became generalized.

“You see the impressions when they talk?” I had to ask.

“I wouldn’t say see. Or…maybe see is a good word. Almost like it’s a vision that you can’t see. The image is woven into their very words.” Bobby was talking to herself more than me.

“You’re a mountain wind howling over fresh snow.”

Bobby looked up and met my eyes. Her smile widened as her brow scrunched down as she started to think. I could almost hear the gears turning in her head as she started to mutter under her breath and completely ignore me. At times, I think I’m the normal one. Even with my lack of a conscience.

I left her to her theories and discussion and worked my way through the camp. People had to be reassured, food distributed, sentries told to watch the woods like they were supposed to. Honestly, one magical superhumanly attractive race shows up and everyone's discipline flies out the window. The elves were fiends for food and I worried about our stock of rations. I had taken three days of food, what at the time had been a large amount, and now it looked like we’d be marching on quasi empty stomachs tomorrow. For such slender people, they were really packing it down.

I got a look at their gear. Most were dressed in the jumpsuits that the fort could produce. Some were wearing sleeker, more modern dress, that blended in with the dark and shadows better than the black jumpsuit. Their weapons were a motley collection of spears and knives. No commander swords, nothing forged, no crossbows. As I looked around I realized only about half were armed at all. This was feeling more and more like our mountain team. A group ran out of their base with whatever they could grab.

Perfect.

I finally ended my rounds after another hour. The elves were bunked down around our fires and fell asleep quickly. How they could trust us I had no idea, but they did. My people were still staring at them wide eyed. I could sympathize, it was like a dream inside of a nightmare. I ended up near the tree where Sulian continued to sleep, Agatha crouched down next to a slumbering Olivia. Miguel had relocated from the center of camp and was curled up in his blankets only a few feet away.

Agatha watched the two of them with a soft expression on her, in comparison, now youthful face. She was a quiet woman, the last week with Olivia had shown it wasn’t just us. She rarely spoke, more often willing to just watch or offer a few words of advice here or there. In truth, most in our group were quiet. Agatha content with silence, Bobby lost in her own thoughts, Miguel drowning in his worries, and I had never been the most loquacious to begin with. Being dropped in a strange world with strangers and fighting to survive hadn’t improved that.

“You are kind, human.” Sulian spoke from her cocoon of blankets, not bothering to free her face. I grunted at her and lowered myself to lean against the base of the tree. I looked at the nest of black hair poking out from the top of the blankets, the only piece of Sulian exposed to the night.

“We should talk.”