“Why did they take all this stuff…” Elisayra puffs out her cheeks and turns away from the collection for unique items acquired from the Devils captain’s quarters.
“Why do you think hun?” Laihal purses her lips and wiggles around one of the more monstrous looking instruments.
“I don’t know! Whenever I think I know something it turns out to be wrong!” Elisayra protests, crossing her arms in front of her.
“Awe… poor darling. I’m sure your intuition about this one is right.” The half fiend continues to tease, stalking over behind Elisayra and placing something against her stomach.
“You don’t get it… every time I think I have it figured out it’s wrong. Every time! I try to guess what someone wants and it’s wrong. I try to guess what someone is thinking and it’s wrong. I don’t want to be wrong any more.” Elisayra looks down at Laihal’s hand resting against her stomach just below the belly button.
A sudden buzzing vibration ripples through her body as Laihal snickers from behind.
“Ah!” Elisayra jumps slightly, pulling away from the much stronger fiend to see the woman holding on to one of the vibrating devices from the captain's quarters.
“It’s for you! You seemed to enjoy it, Alex and I hoarded all of the others, it’s only fair you get a little something though I'm sure if you asked me and Alex would be willing to share.”
“I don’t need something like that!” Elisayra shakes her head and re-crosses her arms, trying to make herself look larger, though even on her tiptoes she only came to Laihal’s chest.
“I never said you needed it, but surely you can think of some creative ways to use it?”
“I… I don’t know!” Elisayra’s face flushes red from her cheeks to her ears.
“Laihal, do not be rude.” the soothing voice of Nephinae cuts through the thumping of Elisayra’s heart.
“I was offering our little friend a gift.” Laihal recoils her hand, keeping the vibration contained. “Hardly could be considered rude.”
“Elisayra’s expression begs to differ.”
“I’d like to hear her beg.” Laihal winks.
“Save me!” Elisayra rashes behind Nephinae, using her long legs as protection from the intoxicating wiles of the tribal succubus.
Nephinae rests a hand on Elisayra’s head to reassure her as she speaks to Laihal. “Engee wanted to speak with you on the deck.”
“Really? My… to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I am uncertain, you will have to find out for yourself I am afraid.”
Despite Nephinae’s tone of professionalism, Elisayra can’t help but feel it sounded a little edgy as well. She had almost never see Nephinae break her role, so to hear a hint of frustration in her tone was certainly strange.
Then again, Elisayra didn’t know if that’s what she heard at all. She was wrong about most things as it turned out…
“Are you alright?” Nephinae asks, looking down to meet Elisayra’s gaze.
“Mhm, I'm fine, she was just teasing me like always.”
“She teases everyone. Not very good manners for a slave.” Nephinae notes with slightly narrowed eyes.
“I forget she is a slave sometimes, no one really treats her like one.”
“Perhaps it would do her well to receive appropriate treatment.”
“Why?”
Nephinae watches as Laihal saunters from the room entirely before continuing to speak.
“Because I do not particularly trust devils, nor do I trust succubi. They are manipulative fiends who prey on lust. They are dangerous company, more so when they are unrestricted.”
Elisayra didn’t like the sound of that. She might not know much but she knew when Nephinae was being serious, and she absolutely seemed serious just now.
“Should we tell Casper or Alex? To warn them?”
“I have warned Alex, but she doesn’t listen, and Casper is too infatuated with her body to pay much mind.”
Elisayra and Nephinae sigh at the same time, though Elisayra takes it a step further by placing her hands on her small chest.
“Do you think…”
“I think we shouldn’t worry ourselves with what men think.” Nephinae quickly cuts in, though the red in her cheeks implies maybe she did care.
“Oh…”
“I must be off, Casper will likely need me soon.” Nephinae smiles and walks from the crew quarters, leaving Elisayra to her own devices.
For a moment, her eyes trail over to the box of toys, but she shakes the thoughts away and instead works through the other decks to occupy her time.
One of the bad parts about being on a ship was that she once again felt herself become invisible. She was so used to being seen, that when she began to fade into the background it all seemed to hurt a little more.
She couldn’t blame anyone for it really, but that didn’t stop it from making her heart ache.
Working her way to the kitchens she tried to help, but none of the staff noticed her at all. She managed to get one person's attention, only for them to instantly forget about her and move on to other things.
She wasn’t strong enough to lift crates but she still tried to help Micha and Thodhan as they lugged things around, only to almost be stepped on a few times.
She asked Celeste to tell her a story, but the woman got caught up in a different conversation before she could start. Pounce tried to eat her, she thought, and had to get Peter to convince the slime she wasn’t food. It was the first real interaction she had with someone all week, but it ended with Peter asking her name despite the fact that they had talked the week before.
Elisayra meanders the halls and rooms and decks like a shadow, always there but never seen. She climbs the masts to look out over the brilliant blue, just to swing back down and have people wonder how the ropes got there.
She wanted to hang out with Annabelle or Casper, but they were both so busy training with Rathiel, Janus and Dorain. She wanted to talk to Alex but she always seemed to be caught up in another conversation with someone and Elisayra didn’t want to interrupt.
She could have tried to talk Nephinae, and she did at times but the conversations always felt rehearsed she thought. Like Nephinae had more to say but was too scared to say it. She had tried to get her to be more honest but the full elf shut her out every time.
Laihal was… well she was Laihal and honestly she kind of made Elisayra uncomfortable, and Engee was terrifying. She would rather try and talk to a shark or a kraken before talking to Engee.
The worst part of being on this boat in particular, was being ignored by the people she respected the most. Even when Annabelle had free time it was always Elisayra seeking the woman out. When they did talk it was really nice, and Annabelle and her got along super well, but Elisayra had to initiate it. Casper talked to her, but he always felt distracted by something else… someone else.
Watching him now as he swings his sword around with the others, Elisayra can’t help but feel a little envious of the attention Annabelle was getting. She was sitting right there only 30 feet away, yet his eyes always looked at her.
The sounds of their swords striking together, their feet on the deck, their cloths and breath, it looked intense, and she didn’t expect him to look up at her during the middle of a fight, but as the sparring dies down and the wind picks up, they talk among themselves, and she isn’t even spared a passing glance.
Elisayra knew it made sense. So many incredible people, so many beautiful people, why would anyone want to go out of their way to be with her when anyone else was a better option. But still, it hurt.
Maybe she had tricked herself into thinking they cared? Maybe she had convinced herself they were all friends instead of companions of convenience… but she knew her mind was often wrong… unfortunately this was a hard one to try and work through to convince herself it was a lie, because it didn’t feel like it was.
“How are you quieter than me?” A voice shocks Elisayra from her self pity.
Whipping around, she finds herself locking eyes with the cold eyes of the dark elf girl, which scared her quite a good deal. If the sudden sneaking up on her wasn’t terrifying enough, it was those horrible, evil eyes of hers that really threatened to send Elisayra into fight or flight.
“I… I don’t know.” Elisayra admits, finding herself shivering slightly in the presence of this little girl.
“Who trained you?”
“I… I trained myself, I suppose.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Impossible.”
“But it’s true!” Elisayra spins around fully, just in case she needs to fend off an attack from the dark elf.
“I was trained by expert assassins, people who have dedicated their lives to the craft, you are quieter than all of them. How?”
“I just, I was born this way! I don’t know!” Elisayra ends up shouting the words, the fear in her bones screaming at her to run away.
“Will you train me?”
“It’s not-! What?”
“Will you train me to be like you?”
Elisayra pauses, the next shout stopping before it can come out.
“Why would you want to be like me?” Elisayra deflates, the question coming out far more pitiful than she would have liked.
“Because you are skilled. You have abilities I want. Please, train me.” The dark elf bows deeply, the most sincere gesture she has ever received from a stranger.
“Ahhh! Don’t do that please.” Elisayra waves her hands in front of herself and moves to forcibly bring the dark elf back up to her full height, which embarrassingly was only a few inches shorter than Elisayra's way.
She freezes again as the dark elves' eyes meet her own. It was a strange, uncanny sensation. She didn’t think this dark elf was going to kill her, but something in her body said she was dangerous.
“I am sorry.” Zesstra closes her eyes, and the sensation fades.
“Sorry?”
“I am sorry for scaring you. Mother always told me my eyes were scary.”
Elisayra takes in a breath, and assesses the situation to the best of her abilities.
She was almost always wrong, about nearly everything, and always has been most of her life. Her body was telling her that this girl was to be feared, that she was dangerous. If that's what her mind told her, then that meant the truth was certainly somewhere close to the opposite.
“No, it’s alright. I misunderstand things a lot you see. I am sorry for assuming you were trying to hurt me. I got scared yes, but now that I know you don’t mean to hurt me I am quite alright.” Elisayra offers, moving closer to the girl.
“It is still best to keep my eyes closed. Just in case you change your mind when I open them.”
“No no! You can open them, it's fine!”
Zesstra slowly opens her eyes, and as soon as she does the sensation of fear washes over Elisayra’s body, a sensation she swallows down and ignores with a smile.
“See? All okay!”
“... you… are not fearful of me?”
“Nope!” Elisayra lies. She was in fact still a little scared, but she knew it was wrong, and that was enough.
“So, you will train me then?”
“You know, I've never considered taking on an apprentice.” Elisayra brings her hand to her mouth as her smile widens. “But I think you have a good amount of skill too! I didn’t hear you come up behind me at all and I’m usually very aware of that stuff.”
“I was trained by assassins.”
“Mhm mhm, how long were you trained for?”
“Many years, as soon as I could walk they said.”
“Oh… oh wow. Okay, that's longer than me.”
“But you are better than I.”
“Hmmmm” Elisayra rubs at her chin for a moment, and her smile grows. “I will do everything I can to teach you my ways.”
“Thank you Master.” Zesstra replies with another deep bow.
“Okay lesson one! Please don’t call me that, and you do not have to bow. It’s alright. I am a lowly half elf, you are a full elf, really I should bow to you…”
“No. You are the teacher, I am the student. Respect is owed.”
“Okay.. well, can you respect me without calling me Master or bowing please?” Elisayra gives a nervous laugh.
“Of course.” Zesstra confirms, and remains silent.
“Alright. Good, good. Lesson two then…” Elisayra thinks about what she could possibly do to teach this girl, before settling on falling on what she knew. “Let's see what you can do. First, we will steal food!”
The two walk together back through the belly of the ship until they come upon the kitchen, where the two chefs prep the meals to be served tonight.
Elisayra takes to hiding near the entrance to the pantry, and drops down onto her haunches to speak to Zesstra who diligently listens.
“When I was in Ostlen, I had to steal food to survive, it was one of the first things I learned how to do. I want to watch you steal some food, and bring it back to me so I can see just how you do it.”
Without breaking eye contact, Zesstra grabs a piece of cured meat from the pantry they occupy, and hands it to Elisayra.
“... okay not what I had in mind but that's my fault for not being clear.” Elisayra goes to place the meat back, but thinks better of it, and instead breaks it in two and hands Zesstra one half and eats the other herself. “Try and steal some food from the main kitchen, and bring it back here to the pantry.”
Zesstra nods, and slinks into the main kitchen space.
Elisayra had to admit that this was a hard first task. Is Ostlen she had the benefit of hiding among the crowds, the constant movement of the marketplaces and the cover of heavy shadows. Zesstra would be forced to steal food in a confined, well lit space occupied exclusively by people-
“Like this?” Zesstra asks, handing Elisayra a piece of fruit.
“By the fates… yes, yes that’s what I meant.” Elisayra blinks a few times to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. Taking the citrus she rolls it around in her hand a couple of times just to double check that it wasn’t some illusion.
“Should I steal something bigger?”
“No no! That's alright…” Elisayra thinks. “Your technique is really good… what do you have issues with that you need my training for? I didn’t notice a single thing wrong with what you did.”
“I cannot sneak up on some of the people here. Such as Peter, Rathiel, and Casper. They all sense me. But they do not sense you.”
“Ohhh people… assassin, of course.” Elisayra places the fruit down. “Okay, let's see who we can find then.”
Zesstra nods, and the two girls exit the pantry to look around for one of the men to train on.
Elisayra locates Rathiel near his parties sleeping quarters, speaking to Peter the revenant about something she can’t quite make out.
She presses her back against the wall to peer deeper inside, and notices that the two are conversing around a map near the far side of the quarters.
“Okay, first I’d like you to try and sneak up on them. Do you have any weapons on you?”
“I do.”
“Can I have them please?”
“Why?”
“Well, if you fail, those two are the most likely to get a little defensive, I think. So it might be better to make yourself less threatening by handing me your weapons.”
“That makes sense” Zesstra nods her understanding and begins to hand Elisayra her weapons, which, Elisayra soon came to realize, was quite the number.
Eight daggers in total were produced from her small body, six more than Elisayra was able to see, making her wonder where exactly this girl stored those blades given her well fitted clothing.
After securing the weapons, Elisayra motions for the dark elf to make her attempt.
She watches from the doorway as Zesstra manages to get halfway into the room before Rathiel turns around, his body crackling with energy for only an instant until Peter too looks.
“Is everything alright?” Peter asks, scanning the girl.
“Yes.”
“Did you need one of us?” Rathiel asks.
“No.”
The two men look to one another, and then back to Zesstra with confusion.
“Why are you here?” Peter asks.
“Testing.”
“Testing?”
“Testing.”
The two men look to one another again, though by the time they return to look at Zesstra, she is gone, having sprinted back to Elisayra outside the room.
“See?”
Elisayra nods her head. “Hmmm, I do. Maybe you can watch me and see if I do anything differently?”
Zesstra nods, and moves to the space Elisayra occupied to observe, while Elisayra herself walks into the room.
It was a difficult thing to try and show she realized, as her stealth came so naturally to her it wasn’t as though she was trying to be particularly sneaky. Instead she just existed as she normally would, but without speaking.
Elisayra strides across the room, up to Rathiel and Peter without them noticing, though just as she is about to turn back around, something in the tone of Peter's voice makes her stay to listen.
“It would be treason…”
“Treason? Whom exactly are we betraying?”
Peter stays quiet, allowing Rathiel to continue.
“Peter, if protecting the people is treason then please by all means call me treacherous.”
“I am not saying that, I am saying that your methods are…”
“Necessary, they are Necessary peter. This kingdom was not built in a day and it will not fall in one either, not in the way we need it to. Tell me, when you fell a tree do you chop indiscriminately?”
“No, you decide which way it should fall…” Peter admits.
“And that is what we are doing. What good is a kingdom of ash and ruble? Do I have the power to plunge head first into the Kings Castle and put his head on a spike? Yes. but that doesn’t mean it is the right way to do things.”
What in the hells were they talking about? Destroying the kingdom? Ruin? What had she just walked in on?
Elisayra quickly makes her way back out, worried suddenly that they would turn around and see her.
Upon returning, Zesstra killer eyes are wide in awe. Her expression is steel but for her faint nod.
“That was incredible,” She whispers.
“It. it was?”
“They didn’t see you at all, not even Rathiel. You stood there too. How did you do that?”
Elisayra attempts to shake the sense of unease she got from the conversation the two men were having, a sense that only worsened as Rathiel's shadow darkens the hallway.
“Is everything alright out here?”
Elisayra spins around to make eye contact with him. He smiles softly, an aura of pure calm emanating from his body along with the faintest hint of golden light.
“Yes, sorry. We're just trying to find Thodhan.” Elisayra lies.
“Ah, I see. I believe he is on the upper deck crafting some more necklaces for the others.”
“Okay, thank you!” Elisayra grabs Zesstra by the hand and pulls her towards the upper decks, but then stops once Rathiel is no longer watching, and doubles back to her crew quarters instead.
“Is everything alright?” Zesstra asks, her eyes chilling Elisayra to the bone. “Yes yes! Everything is okay, it was nothing.” She lies poorly.
“I see.” Zesstra presses no further.
Elisayra drops down onto the bed and sighs. “I think I know what’s causing your issue though.”
“Really?”
Elisayra nods. “You are trying too hard to not be seen, but in doing so they can feel your intent. They can sense that you are there because people like Peter and Rathiel are so good at sensing danger…”
“But you aren’t dangerous, so they don’t sense you.” Zesstra infers.
“Mhm… I am just a piece of scenery. A tool. Not… all the time. But most of the time. You need to not be seen as dangerous, you need to have different intent.”
Elisayra stands and puts her back to the room, facing the window. “Try it.”
She stays motionless for a time, until something inside of her picks up on the sense of danger Zesstra radiates, causing her to turn around and see the small girl half the distance to her.
Elisayra shakes her head. “Not quite. Try it again though!” She offers with a smile, and turns back around.
The exercise goes on for a long, long while, long enough to watch the sunset on the horizon and the smell of food wafting through the ship.
Soon the noise of the others walking to get their bellies stuffed fills the halls, and the rumbling in Elisayra’s own stomach indicates they should probably stop soon.
Turning around, she is shocked to see Zesstra standing three quarters of the distance to her, and she hadn’t sensed her yet.
“Oh wow! You are getting it!”
“Am I really?”
“Yes! You did really well that time.”
“It is because I was thinking about how hungry I was.” Zesstra admits, stopping and letting her body relax.
“If that works for you, maybe it is worth trying again?” Elisayra offers, joining Zesstra at her side. “Want to go eat?”
“I do, but may I ask you a question first?”
“Mhm!”
“Why are you helping me?”
“Because you asked, silly.”
Zesstra shakes her head. “You are a bad liar…”
Elisayra pauses then. Her own expression dropped slightly as memories of her time in Ostlen raced back to her.
“It is alright if you do not want to tell-”
“Because… it’s what I would have wanted someone to do for me.” Elisayra admits with a sad smile. “It’s hard by yourself, not being seen. I think, I maybe wouldn’t hate myself so much if I had someone to be with me while I learned.”
Zesstra searches Elisayra’s eyes for a time, continuing to send chills of impending violence through her, but she ignores them, which is made a lot easier by the dark elf’s shockingly sweet smile.
“Lets get some food.” Elisayra tussles the dark elves' hair as they head out to join the others.
The mess hall is as lively as ever, the smell of meats and veggies and drink fill the air, as does the cheer that rises up when Elisayra and Zesstra enter.
Nearly every set of eyes is on them as they fill the doorway, leaving Elisayra shocked.
“There you are! Been wondering where you were all day little lady.” Annabelle teases and pats the seat next to her. “I have got to tell you about our little sparring session this afternoon.”
Elisayra smiles and joins Annabelle, while Zesstra is ushered over to her own side of the table with cheers.
She wouldn’t tell them that she was there and saw the whole thing, she didn’t want to hurt their feelings or make them feel bad.
She was used to not being noticed, and that was fine, because at the end of the day she was included, and all of the people she cared about and respected seemed happy to see her at their table, and that was enough for her.
She was wrong about most things, but of this... she was absolutely certain