Shaula holds Sigvor’s hand tightly, just enough to let him know that he cannot break free of her grasp. If she had really wanted to hurt Sigvor, her wrist would have disintegrated into powder. She leads the demihuman outside. They walk a few paces away from the bar under the red moonlight, heading towards an secluded and empty alleyway.
A million thoughts race through her mind as Sigvor walks toward her doom. Shaula doesn’t view Sigvor as a threat in any way. The beastkin believes that this must be because she’s even stronger than Ajax is.
Ajax… If only he were here. He must be the one between the two of them who curtails these kinds of impulses, right? If he were here, she would never do something like this… right? Where is he!?
Sigvor wonders if she should just accept her impending fate. Even if Angelidis was here, she would fall before Shaula’s strength. What hope does she have? Sigvor may be a strong fighter, but he isn’t a miracle worker. If she’s going to die anyway, why not… bargain? Not for herself, but for her friends… If Shaula is even halfway rational, it should be possible to reason with her.
If she’s not, then all hope is lost anyways. She wonders if she is overreacting but her gut rarely tells her the wrong thing. Right now, she feels a deep warning. She needs to escape before all other concerns are considered.
How could she have so badly misjudged Shaula? Tears start to well up in her eyes as she tries in vain to seek her exit. She doesn’t want to die. She really doesn’t want to die…
“Shaula… are you going… t-to kill me? If… If you do kill me, will you leave Dzan and Malia alone? Angelidis and her friends too? Is it too much to ask that of you? I-I mean, I’m coming with you quietly. I’m not going to threaten you with anything. Can you just… You’re going to leave them alone, right?”
Shaula pauses her steps and shakes her head. She gives an exasperated sigh.
“You’re really jumping to a lot of conclusions here, Sigvor. I told you back there, didn’t I? I’m not going to bite your fucking head off… Ok, I can see that you believe that there’s something in my bag that I shouldn’t be carrying around… Do I have that right?”
Shaula faces Sigvor who doesn’t look her in the eyes. Yet, Shaula can see her tears. This makes her feel really terrible. She rubs the back of her neck with guilt as she realizes she has handled this confrontation the completely wrong way. By bringing Sigvor outside in such a way, by drawing her towards a dark alleyway in the middle of the night… what else might one think?
She wants to reach out a hand to stop Sigvor from crying.
“Sigvor… Sigvor, please, don’t cry. I promise I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not going to hurt you, ok?”
Sigvor raises her teary eyes towards Shaula slightly. It makes Shaula feel even worse to see her face looking towards her like this. If only Ajax were here, maybe she wouldn’t have botched this interaction so badly. At one point she had always told herself that she could be a socially cunning person, capable of getting people to do things or act in ways that were beneficial to her…
Clearly, that had to be my own conceit right? I’m starting to feel more and more like a maladroit person and I don’t like it. Maybe I never noticed it because Ajax was always around to fix my social faux-pas… my social screw ups more like it.
“Sigvor, calm down. Please calm down. Look, you know me, right? I’m not good with a lot of social interaction and shit, ok? I didn’t bring you out of the bar to kill you away from Dzan, alright? I’m not leading you to your death… I promise you that, ok?”
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After a few seconds of deliberation, Sigvor wipes her eyes with her palm and nods. Shaula can feel his hand still trembling.
“Let’s… Let’s say I believe you then, Shaula. Then, why do you… No, why did you take me away from Dzan? What is it you want to… to tell me?”
Shaula sighs. “You were really just too sharp, Sigvor… Best that only you know, and not Dzan, who knows how he would take things… Alright, first off: what do you think this is?” Shaula asks softly, pointing to her cloth sack and feeling truly sorry for Sigvor’s misunderstanding. She really didn’t want to see her friend cry.
“A h-human head.” Sigvor says, after some internal deliberation about whether she should confirm it. She figures she cannot be purposely ignorant about it right now, it already looks as if Shaula has made up her mind.
“Sigvor… you’re right. You know, that’s something else though, how did you even figure that out? Like, I picked a sackcloth thick enough that a normal person wouldn’t jump to that conclusion. Dzan didn’t notice anything wrong with it. All it took for you was one glance. Just how did… No, I’m not going to pry into your business.”
Shaula feels like she owes Sigvor at least that much for making her feel like she was on the verge of death.
“Look, I’m really not going to harm you, nor am I going to harm our friends. I don’t know if you can trust me, but can’t you trust Ajax? He would have noticed if I was a psychotic mass murderer, wouldn’t he? Do you think someone like him would hang around someone like that?”
Shaula cringes slightly. Maybe she shouldn’t have put it like that, considering she’s going to show Sigvor his head in the bag. Won’t it just look to Sigvor that she killed the very same Ajax who put all that trust in her?
I really am a fucking idiot in social situations, aren’t I? I’m not a businesswoman-like smooth operator, I’m not elegant, classy or refined… I’m just a big doofus… At least around the people I consider my friends…
Oblivious to Shaula’s internal monologue, Sigvor looks at her in contemplation for a moment. He does trust Ajax. Ajax would have noticed if Shaula was that kind of person, wouldn't he? If that is the case then the head in the bag must be… one of Shaula’s enemies. Someone worthy of this kind of desecration and humiliation even after their deaths.
“Did… Did the person you killed deserve it? Even if they did, why are you carrying around their head? Are you going to dump it at the steps of their family home or something? Are… Are you actually… a member of a syndicate? Who are you sending a message for?”
Sigvor’s gaze sharpens at her last sentence. Her fear towards Shaula is replaced by a quiet hostility and wariness. Shaula sighs even harder than earlier, not wishing to complicate things any further.
“I’ll just show you what I have in the bag, alright? You’ve forced my hand and now I have to explain things to you, for Ajax’s sake. I wouldn’t mind just running off to another city because I feel I already ruined this friendship, but… Ajax really really likes you all. He wouldn’t want you to think I’m not safe to be around or some kind of crazy psychotic killer, or otherwise, a dangerous criminal.”
Sigvor watches in suspense as Shaula lets go of her wrist and lifts up her bag so Sigvor can get a closer look inside. It is the middle of the night and no one is around so no one can see or hear them either. Sigvor wonders if she should just run for it now that Shaula let go of her, but…
“Don’t sprint away, alright? You know I’d just catch you.” Shaula sighs, reading her intentions. “Ajax… I’m sure you could tell from the way I spoke in the bar, but things are… less than ideal for him right now. I’m going to show you what I have, but I need you to at least hear me out so you have the whole truth about the situation. Can you do that for Ajax and me?”
Sigvor gulps her anxiety away. She pauses for a few seconds as Shaula holds the bag in her arms. She sighs briefly and nods in affirmation.
Shaula opens the bag but pauses before Sigvor can see a clear face.
“So, um, Sigvor, before I show you what’s in the bag, I need to ask you… Do you have a knife on you?”
“Um, yeah… why?”
“Well, rather than show you what’s in this bag without any explanation, maybe it would be useful for you to understand a bit more about how Ajax and I are as… living beings, I guess?”
“Um…”
“See, if I just showed you the bag without any prompting at all, you would seriously lose your shit, I’m not even joking, it wouldn’t make sense to you. So… I guess what’s most important right now to get you to trust me is to explain to you about… our healing factor.”