Shaula frowns deeply, but ends up sighing.
“He’s… taken some damage. He went right to sleep when he finished off the last terrorist. But, with enough time, he’ll bounce back. H-He was actually too tired to come out tonight after all he did. Don’t you guys worry though, he did his job and stopped the terrorist group from harming anyone!” Shaula smiles.
Sigvor laughs slightly. Sigvor can see the pain behind her words. Something truly terrible must have happened. Especially for the normally stoic and dignified Shaula to wear this strained cheerfulness like a mask. He takes a deep breath and moves past it for now.
“...By the way, was it you who I heard shouting about a fire?”
“Oh yeah! You were shouting at the top of your lungs about a fire in the building next door…” Dzan smiles wide while digging into a meal delivered to his table a few seconds ago. Shaula simply snorts, admitting to it openly.
“Yeah, of course it was me… That stupid terrorist bastard managed to create a fire I couldn't put out right before he died. Luckily, thanks to the building’s mages or whoever, the fire was extinguished and–”
All of a sudden, Sigvor’s heart rate skyrockets. The sound of it brings Shaula out of her own thoughts. She looks at the beastkin’s face for a moment and sees her eyes glancing at the cloth sack with Ajax’s head in it, before returning to look at Shaula again.
Her expression is calm and collected, quite a masterful poker face, though her physiological responses tell a different story. Dzan hasn’t noticed anything yet but, to Shaula, Sigvor might as well have screamed in terror. Shaula can’t just let this be. She doesn’t know how but Sigvor has figured something out about the bag in Shaula’s possession.
Shaula’s eyes narrow. Sigvor did seem like an interesting person, didn’t he? While talking with her in that apartment building after she had killed those terrorists, Sigvor had revealed pieces of herself. There were a series of clues that made Shaula estimate that the demihuman person was not either purely innocent or oblivious.
If anyone among our little group of friends could figure out that there was a human head in a cloth bag, then wouldn’t it be…
“Oh! You know, I think I need to go to the bathroom, you mind joining me, Sigvor?”
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“Hm? What for?” Sigvor asks, with a smile on her face. Shaula can just barely hear goosebumps forming all at once across the surface of her back.
“What? Is it so strange for two girls to go and gossip in the bathroom together? That’s how it always used to be, back where I’m from?” Shaula asks, her eyes scrutinizing the brilliant performer in front of her.
Sigvor gulps softly, her face still cool as an iceberg.
“I’m not… a girl, I’m… I don’t know, but I’m not a girl.” Sigvor says, nervous, conflicted and terrified. She doesn’t know why, but Shaula is… carrying something that looks familiar to her. She’s seen enough sacks filled with human heads to have an idea of what Shaula has with her.
She carried it into the bar and sat beside it as if it wasn't a decapitated head… That makes Sigvor terrified. There are people who seek vengeance against their enemies. There are those who kill in order to achieve that vengeance. But, few and far between are those who would carry around the heads of their enemies.
It’s people like that which made her abandon her family’s syndicate. She didn’t want to become a person like that. Just how badly has he misjudged Shaula? What else would the human girl be if not a… a psychopath…
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, why didn’t I notice the bag until now? Did she fucking read my mind? I shouldn’t have aroused any attention from her, but she instantly knew that something was wrong with me. Is… Is this how I die? No, no, I need to get Dzan out of here. She knows I know what’s in her bag, she’s not going to let us leave here–
“I-I’m sorry, that was my mistake, you’re not a girl, you’re non-binary, right?” Shaula winces at how she forgot about Sigvor’s gender identity. Sigvor pauses her spiraling thoughts at what she recognizes as genuine… guilt.
Non-binary… Is that what others might call it? I’ve met only a few others like me, but they didn’t use that term for my gender… Her face… Is that the face of someone who’s about to kill me? No, she could still be fucking insane, I can’t lower my guard around her.
Shaula continues speaking to Sigvor with a softer voice. “Well, regardless, I need to talk to you about something, just the two of us. Don’t look at me like that, I’m not going to bite your head off…”
I’m dead. I’m fucking dead. If I’ve learned any lesson yesterday, both she and Ajax are the same kind of dangerous person. People you can’t defeat in battle even with a hundred years of training… I-I can’t let myself be alone with her!
Shaula gets up from the table, hangs her bag off her shoulder and picks Sigvor up by the hand as the beastkin tries to come up with a solution to her current predicament. Sigvor tries to pull away but Shaula’s grip is vice-like.
“I’ll explain myself thoroughly. Don’t make a scene here.” Shaula whispers for only Sigvor to hear.
Dzan doesn’t really notice what’s going on between Shaula and Sigvor at this moment, obliviously eating his meal. It was well-earned after all he did the day prior. He’s just not able to see through the mask his best friend is wearing right now. However, it wasn’t as if she tried to alert him to save her from Shaula. It would only get him killed.