‘Princess A’seri.’ That is what the guard captain had said. Yet standing before me could be none else than my savior. The woman with glittering hair who had dug me free of my imprisonment and trusted me so unconditionally that they fell victim to my dark tendencies. A’seri, I thought the name to myself. I finally knew her name.
The princess stared towards me with a level of disbelief and some partial confusion. Then as she gazed at my dirtied robes, and the outline of vague undetailed features, she seemed to come to realize a recognition. “This… This is the man who delivered me and our expedition back to the city gate?” A’seri asked, her voice silky and fragile compared to her serious tones from the week before.
“Indeed. I briefly saw him run away into the Deep Wood while I was stationed atop the wall the day of your return. As well as the guardsman who was on duty at the gate that day recognized him.” The guard captain reported.
“I see. Could you both give me a moment to thank him then? I wish to ask him a few questions.”
“My lady, I beg your pardon but that is completely unreasonable. An unknown man alone with you? Even if he supposedly escorted you and your group back here, I couldn’t leave you in such a state without a guard to watch this… adventurer.” the captain said, saying the word ‘adventurer’ like it was some kind of ill curse.
“Please Elsie, I trust him. You can stand just outside. Besides, I am not entirely defenseless myself!” the princess stated, mimicking flexing her arm with a playful wink.
The guard captain, ‘Elsie’, sighed heavily. The maid in attendance chuckled and left the room, gesturing for the captain to follow. Before she left, the captain turned to me, “If I hear a single peep that sounds out of place, or there is even a hint of distress on the air. I will break this door down, and no magic you conjure will stop me.” she said, glaring daggers into me as she left.
The two attendants departed, slowly closing the doors to the reception hall. We were left by ourselves, a quiet tension hanging in the air as both of us seemed to wait for the other to make the first move. Like an awkward game of chess we waited to see what the other might do or say, but A’seri made the first attack. “Are you…” she hesitated, “Are you truly the same person that brought me to safety? My memory… It is so fuzzy.” she inched closer, closing the distance by short centimeters as she questioned me. “I suppose even if you were, it wouldn't matter, you couldn’t answer me anyway… How did you manage to enter the city though, I wonder. Elsie would almost never let someone unidentified and mute potentially infiltrate the city so easily, unless she’s going soft on me.” she continued, musing to herself.
I had worked up my courage to speak, for some reason feeling more nervous about this interaction than any other event thus far, “I think… It is because I can understand you now.” I said carefully.
A’seri was stunned. Completely and utterly stopped in her tracks, likely not having expected any kind of intelligible response. She paused and her hand reached up to cover her own mouth instinctively; almost like she worried what words might escape now that I could understand them. As I watched, unsure exactly what to do next, I witnessed as her eyes began to sparkle in the torchlight. But that wasn’t quite right, the sparkle came from small tears forming at the edge of her eyes and welling slightly. A single drip fell down her cheek before she rubbed her eyes and tried to prevent the rest from falling. Even I could tell something was wrong with her, but what emotion it was that disturbed her or why she was acting this way was beyond my understanding. I moved forward slightly, unsure what danger or pain possessed her or if I could help her at all. “Are you alright, A’seri?” I asked, genuine concern taking hold in place of the nervousness I had moments before felt.
“Ah!” she squeaked out, “You said my name? You can understand me, and I can understand you?” she asked, almost like she didn’t believe it herself.
“Yes, though why I am only barely aware as to why…”
“This, all of this. It is like a dream, a fantasy. I had always wondered, dreamt of how this might happen, but for you to actually understand me?”
I didn’t really understand what was happening. My instincts told me she was hurt somehow, somewhere, but I couldn’t identify what had actually happened. I scanned the room, almost thinking something in here could be causing the pain that made her eyes water. I came to the conclusion, “Am I bringing you… discomfort?” I asked hesitantly.
“What?!” She abruptly rose her head, her face streaked with tears and her eyes already reddening, “No! I was just surprised by all of this. That is all. I am fine, truly and really fine.” she forced a smile.
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I stood still, not sure exactly what to do. My instincts and newly acquired knowledge told me to seek out the elves; here one was and I was mucking up my chances of getting assistance. Whatever I had done, despite what she claimed, must be troubling her. My mind naturally returned to the state I had put her in when she was wounded, my insatiable desire for blood and death that drew me to her then defenseless body. Then again as I had abandoned her alone in a dark tunnel, where she was captured and so badly hurt because of my inabilities. Even during our last interaction, I had delivered her to the gates of this place like some kind of luggage. Instead of trying to stay and understand these people, to stay and help the woman who had saved me from a potential eternity in the ground, I had just run away and abandoned her. The reason for her pain seemed obvious to me, but I had no other choice but to seek out her help once more.
A’seri had closed some of the distance between us while I was lamenting my past mistakes. Her eyes welling with watery tears, but her face no longer twisted and hidden by her hands. She looked into my hood, presumably only seeing the vague outline of a face despite the reality underneath. She reached a hand towards my skull, moving as if to touch my hood, “May I?” she asked delicately.
“Of course.” I agreed, knowing she deserved to do whatever she wished after my awful actions.
She gently removed the hood, exposing me from the magic that charmed the robes. She gasped, not expecting what she saw. Stumbling back a few steps. “You… You have a face.” she stumbled on her words. I had almost completely forgotten the additional charm I had cast, the one my book begged me to use. I didn’t entirely know what it did, but I had assumed it would make me appear more normal. Her reaction confirmed my suspicions, but I still had no idea what I looked like under the charm’s effects. “I thought I might, but I have no way to tell for sure. I’ve learned a few useful tricks here and there.” I said, unsure exactly how to respond, “I felt a creature like me would struggle in any normal society, something told me I would be hated or attacked if I showed myself…”
“Oh…” she seemed dejected at the thought, reaching up towards my face but keeping her hand just above the surface of the charm.
She almost seemed disappointed in my appearance. Looking at me with pity in her eyes as she analyzed a face I didn’t own. She composed herself after a few more moments. Stepping back to the window, where a small table sat with a few chairs pushed up to it. As she walked towards the table she stumbled and fell, I rushed to try and catch her but I couldn’t move fast enough. The crash and clatter alarmed the captain and maid outside to something happening, they rushed into the room with the captain already wielding their sword at the ready.
The two worried attendants saw their princess fallen over, leaning against the table and clutching at her leg. I stood over her, as if poised to swoop down on her. The captain didn’t hesitate, she rushed forward with intent to swing her sword at my head. I could barely see the movement, she was so swift that there would have been no way for me to rebel against her even if I wanted to. Yet there was another who was equally skilled; A’seri, my savior and victim, grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me down with her without a word. Shielding my head and neck with her arms to stop the captain from landing her blow at the last moment. In the brief pause A’seri yelled, “Stop!” causing the maid and captain to halt in their tracks, “I only fell over. Don’t be so eager to slay what I have asked you to find for me.”
“My lady…” the captain said through gritted teeth.
“I am fine, Elsie. But I am tired. Please prepare a private room for my guest, and stop threatening him at every turn. I know you worry, but he saved my life more than once already.”
The guard captain, Elsie, sheathed her sword and clenched her jaw. All the while A’seri instructed her guardswoman she held me close to her, still clutching at my shoulders and head. I was pushed into the soft clothes and warmth of her body, and it felt strangely soothing. Like the bloodthirst was slipping away just from her touch, and as she held me I knew I could feel her. She radiated warmth like I hadn’t known before, in fact I only now realized how cold I had always been until now.
As A’seri pulled me so close, I felt some kind of swirling essence inside of me. A new feeling, one that hadn’t been there before. Unlike anything I had felt up until now, I felt indebted to A’seri. I felt I must protect her at all costs. Something within me spoke in ancient words and arcane scriptures, old feelings and echoing thoughts that I didn’t recognize were rambling through my mind. My focus was blurred, my body felt everything around me fully for the first time and in an instant the feelings were gone again. The swirling emotion, emptiness, sensation, and deprivation cultivated inside me until it formed in my gut like a rock at the bottom of a river that refused to move with the current.
As A’seri released me, and I made to get up, the warmth stayed with me. An overpowering feeling of pleasantness. I tried to tear myself away to stand, but it was like the air from non-existent lungs was forced out of my body and I couldn’t breathe. The new and swirling sensation was so powerful and strange to me that I didn’t know what to do. For a moment I clutched at my neck, not sure what was happening or how to explain my sudden terror. I felt I needed to breathe but I didn’t know how, I had to scream but my voice was gone. Some tearing feeling where my gut should be was fighting to explode out of me. The mixture of warmth, debt, and blood that now made my being was fighting and warring against each other, and the result was making me gasp for air. I briefly saw A’seri and Elsie look bewildered, then A’seri grow panicked and worried. Then I heard it, words spoken clearly in my own language, things I could understand and comprehend as my world slowly fell to black. The echoing voice of a distant life long since gone whispered to me, “And so the pact is complete. A’asan Nilvannan Eluvian. By thy shared blood, by thy bond born, and by thy debt unpaid; be bound to me.” The words echoed, but it felt wrong and skewed, like they were meant for someone, or something, else entirely. As I wracked my psyche to trace the words, to understand what they really meant, I felt myself fall. Then I collapsed.