Daniel watched as the servant fell over into the mud. He was afraid she would squander the gift he had given her, for who is prepared to almost be smashed upon by a massive rock hurled from a water-logged golem?
But the girl continued the roll, and scramble up and on her feet, clothes now dripping with wet mud.
"Oh crude," she said, seeing the golem.
The former Heirling of the Red Sword watched as the girl ran like a chicken in crazy large looping circles, screaming. How did she know the proper way to confuse a golem with a barrier between them? She was slowly pulling out of range of the golem attack range, but then running back inside so it would have to re-calibrate its aim, only to squirrel away further. It kept the golem confused and trying to decide whether to start coming around the lagoon or if it should continue to hurl objects.
The red-haired servant's actions also bought Daniel time to come away from the water. He was soon near her circle of madness, and he wondered if he would have to save her again. She was slowing down, wailing loudly, limping. Right when he was about to assume she was hurt, she switched legs she was dragging behind herself and wailed about the increase in the cost of living robbing her desire to live.
Daniel had assumed he had the resolve to do whatever he needed to live and win this game.
But he wondered, at that moment, if he could have wept loudly like that. Did she have no shame?
Was she a spy or just some vastly talented servant?
She threw a mudball, lamely, toward the golem across the water. It handed limply with a 'splat' sound just a few yards from her. "Your mom called, she said she wanted a refund when they brought you in!" she said and wailed loudly.
Perhaps she wasn't pretending, and she was getting ready to die...
But before Daniel began the complex inner turmoil of the ethics of saving himself or trying to keep the probable innocent alive and the sunk cost of saving her life, she sprang up to her feet and started running straight toward him. "Move move move. It's mad now!" she said, sounding quite mad herself.
The Servant Branch and the red-haired servant ran together, not close enough that she could stab him, if she was an attacker, but not so far that he could not reach her.
She had a stick in her hair and mud along her front. She was not impressive to look at, and she was completely right.
The golem shrieked in fury and threw a huge boulder further than it had ever before. The force of it was so strong that the arm in which it threw the boulder detached itself and shattered, leaving the golem with only one arm. Off balance, it ambled toward them, going around the lagoon in an intercept approach.
Daniel did not need to encourage the girl to continue running. She had decent fitness. She did not draw on the Law of Fae even once to aid her in her steps. She didn't appear trained. Just someone who knew when to put her head down and work.
"Are they after me or you?" She asked, huffing.
"Why would they be after you?" Daniel asked, shocked by the question.
"Because the first time I don't ask is the day when I'm the MC." She huffed again. "Why are they after you?"
Daniel frowned. He was not used to someone not knowing who he was. They might not know his name. They might not even be aware of the direction events and situations of the conflict. But almost everyone inside the Citadel he had worked with today had been people who knew him.
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"There is a Game on. I am a key pawn inside this Game."
"It sounds like you used a capital letter there. Everyone keeps mentioning it."
They stopped as they neared the edge of the lagoon. Leaving this region may shorten the distance the golem had to travel to reach them. It was longer to walk in a straight line than leave the region, walk around the road, then wait for your enemy to leave.
"Why are we stopping?" asked the girl. She leaned against the trunk of a sturdy moss-covered tree, observing everything. She had smart, intelligent eyes, though her face was robbed of any beauty by her plain nose and ordinary demeanor. If not for her flaming red hair, almost glowing in the darkness of night, she almost looked human.
"We need to establish a baseline between us," Daniel said, listening as the golem roared. "We need to stay near enough that the golem doesn't respawn nearer, in different earth." He needed to stay ahead, but not too far ahead. He had to time this right. He looked for the timekeeping clock tower and spied the time. 9:30. If he played it correctly, he could slip in before the true event started....
The muck on his trousers fell off with a 'plop' sound.
The red-haired servant laughed. She laughed like a much smaller fairy than she was.
Daniel sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose and thinking furiously. It was strange to be so close to danger, and yet remain completely still.
"You are marked for death by the golem," Daniel said, testing her.
"Dang it," she said, kicking at the murky and damp ground. "Not again." she sighed. She was very poor at keeping her face neutral. Whatever she felt, she showed.
However, she must not be too troubled by his proclamation, as she started brushing off the drying mud from her skirt. "Any chance the golem will leave me alone now?"
Daniel felt the Game. "No. You are marked for death by that creature." It was one of the ways he knew she was not a spy against him, at least for now. "It truly dislikes you. We must defeat it. Even if it becomes unsummoned, unless defeated, it may continue to hunt you down again at a later point in time. You aggravated it. How did you know the proper way to confuse the golem?"
"Not my first time dealing with a giant who tracks by emotions. I realized that it was going to cause trouble for me getting away, and you were much closer, so I decided I ought to help you after you helped me."
She had noticed? Perhaps someone untrained, but very very talented then. Or it was a trap.
She continued, either blind to his inner musing, or pretending to be blind to his inner musings to lure him into a state of false safety. "I made it blind by going through many different emotions, then insulted its creator, then forced it to exceed its distance capacity. Insulting mommy is a very good tactic."
Daniel wondered how such a creature had survived so long to make it to be a servant here, at the Citadel of the Seelie Fae. "Are you from the rural places?"
"I've been there."
"It shows." Was this the Game helping him? Introducing him to someone interesting, who could either help or harm him? He knew he could not win the Game alone, and surviving this massively unfair attack was his top priority.
Was this a form of re-balance?
Who was this servant that the Game decided to aid Daniel by arranging their meeting? She looked very very ordinary. "You are one of the new servants of the O'Tells."
The Law of Fae danced brightly. She finished brushing off the drying mud with practiced hands. "Yes. I just arrived I've been here a few weeks. Just got into town, by way of the rooms in the back, if you know what I mean."
He looked at her blankly. "I don't know that region," he said. "The Seelie have many courts, I don't know them all." Some of the little courts were so small that they only had one Lord and one Servant, and that was all.
She stood up, fixing her hair with practiced movements. She had blue eyes that seemed to be uncannily observant. "Let me see if I understand this. You are part of a Game with a Capital G. You aren't really a servant, but you play one on tv, and for some reason, there is a golem after you trying to kill you, but also get you to waste your time by saving random strangers."
If she was truly not lying, and the Law of Fae said she was honest, she had understood quickly the situation. Perhaps she could see the Game clearly. "In part."
"What's your plan to take down the giant rock baby?" She asked, eyes aglow with anticipation.
Curious. She was not trying to run away.
Daniel countered, enjoying the banter, "Why would I have a plan?"
"Because someone so smug wouldn't be running on water for no good reason. You came here on purpose."
"I do."
"Can I help? Because I don't think being hunted down by the mud giant will be good for my long-term goals."