Aurelian had spent a moment considering his next move while the elven woman coiled herself, and when she eventually lunged for him, he did not strike her or look to counter. Instead, he sidestepped her telegraphed assault, and watched her tumble bodily to the dirt-covered marble floor beneath them. His eyebrows ascended when she impacted with an audible grunt, and he watched her groggily push herself up to all fours following the drop.

“I’m going to hope you can understand me when I say this, but attacking your rescuer is pretty messed up.”

Bahamut, back off for a bit. I need to see if these people are hostile, and you being identified quickly loses us the element of surprise if they’re strong.

They were made into prey. Bahamut replied derisively. Why be concerned?

Discretion is the better part of valour, sometimes. Just back off, okay?

The dragon’s responding acquiesce was annoyed, but acquiesce he did.

Just after Aurelian finished the hurried mental communication, the elf swivelled toward him. At the same time, a second person dragged their weight out of the other sac he’d opened, and dropped onto the ground with far less animation than the elf.

Aurelian took the opportunity to actually focus on the elf, and he very nearly whistled at what he saw.

She was slightly tanned in the way someone that was born fair, but spent a lot of time under the sun was tanned. Her hair was long, black, and looked brilliantly healthy; and her eyes were the piercing kind of blue that sent men walking into poles. Her features, if he had to register them to something familiar, were like a perfect blend between Mask of Zorro Catherine Zeta Jones and Underworld Kate Beckinsale.

In short, she was really hot.

While both were on the ground, the elf staring at him with clear hostility and her companion—a human by his appearance—insensate beside her, Aurelian used Revelate.

Name: Zylara Lyse Stormbow

Race: Elf

Level: 36

Tier: Initiate

Health: 502/590

Description: Elves are one of the most frequently seen uncommon species in the Realms. Known for their long lifespans, natural dexterity and intellect, talent for magic, and prodigious rate of reproduction in spite of naturally low fertility; they are regarded throughout the Realms as one of the most mercurial, and passion-driven species in existence. No two elves are exactly alike, and the vast and often confusing subspecies that claim belonging to their number are as varied as they are enchanting.

Name: Karsys Longmire

Race: Human

Level: 40

Tier: Initiate

Health: 102 / 1120

Description: Humans are the most common and prolific species in the Realms. They are also considered among the most adaptive, the most fertile, and the most involved in terms of the staggering magnitude of their impact upon the Realms and its history. Humans are short-lived by the reckoning of most other species, possess high amounts of variance between each individual, and are often involved in every aspect of the Realms’ events by sheer merit of their prodigious population.

Revelate is now Level 12!

. . .

Revelate is now Level 15!

Four levels for two people? That was useful.

Aurelian glanced from the still-steadying-herself elf to the human, and he noted with a pang of concern that the latter was losing health slowly. There was no visible wound on him, but something was killing the man with steady effect.

He looked to the elf—Zylara—and decided to try diplomacy.

“Hey, uh, Zylara? About your friend? He’s going to die if he doesn’t get help soon. He’s losing Health.”

The elf hesitated for a moment at his words, or perhaps the use of her name, and her head cautiously turned to look at the prone body of the similarly-attired human—Karsys—with concern that brushed against Aurelian’s Soul Sense. Seconds more passed with her crouching in a ready position until, finally, she turned back to him and spoke with a tense voice.

“What is your game, Vasiri?”

Aurelian stared at her.

“I’m not a Vasiri,” he retorted after a moment of his brain attempting to figure out if he’d correctly heard her words. “Just because I have pale hair doesn’t make me a—”

“You have their too-perfect features, their eyes, their pallour, their fangs. What manner of fool do you take me for? I cannot even Analyse you!”

Aurelian felt his brain come to a screeching halt for a moment, and let Dragon’s Resolve bolster his sense of reality while attempting to properly comprehend just what he was being accused of. She was naming him a Vasiri, and alluding to physical characteristics that were commonplace for such creatures.

First of all she had called his features ‘too-perfect’ and that was awesome.

Then she had listed his eyes, skintone, and—

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

He reached up with his tongue and thumbed his canines.

“Holy shit, I have fangs?!” he missed her look of taken aback surprise the moment he said it, too wrapped up in the new revelation.

The fact he had failed to notice that he had grown actual fangs shook him more than anything else. That wasn’t the sort of change you just didn’t notice, no matter what manner of insanity was occurring around you. How had his brain filtered that out? Was it one of his skills that had done it? Aurelian almost took a deep dive into his character sheet then and there, until his awareness of the situation at hand snapped him back into focus.

It was probably more-than-a-little bit of Dragon’s Resolve, as well.

“Okay,” he said while placing the tip of his sword against the marble and resting his hands on it in what he thought was a knightly stance. At least, he hoped it was, given he was going off of books and movies and not actual experience. “I get that there’s a lot of bad stuff going on, and you’re understandably freaked out, especially after being wrapped up like an elf burrito for a pack of hungry spider-scorpion nightmare fuel.”

“Burri—?”

“However,” he continued despite her muttered question, “that is no reason to jump to conclusions. If I had wanted you dead, logically, I could have just stabbed you with this extremely sharp sword I have here,” he patted his armoured hand against his cruciform hilt. “Additionally, when was the last time you saw a Vasiri expressing concern over your dying friend?”

“A trick,” she responded accusingly. “Misdirection to make me lower my gu—..,” she trailed off and bit her lip, as if realising something.

Persuasion is now Level 3!

“I’m gonna guess you realised how stupid that sounded midway through saying it.” Aurelian ventured.

This was not how his first contact with living people outside of ghosts, dragons, and creepy pseudo-vampires had been expected to go. He’d wanted to go on adventures! Dungeon crawls! Meet hot elf wo—well that part was actually happening right then, but so not in the way he’d hoped. He’d wanted to meet some gorgeous damsel trapped in a dungeon, and heroically ride in atop Bahamut, arms akimbo and bristling with magical force.

Not extract her from a pee-and-poop-riddled food sac. Yuck.

Though on closer examination, she seemed clean enough despite everything.

That was an interesting fact he filed away for later review.

“I realised that perhaps it was an… illogical view of things given our circumstances, certainly,” she replied stiffly. “I am still not convinced so easily of your words, stranger, but I find myself at a disadvantage.”

“Understandable given the situation.” Aurelian said in what he hoped was a magnanimous voice. “I’m willing to offer you a healing potion for your friend in exchange for some answers.”

Persuasion is now Level 4!

Zylara’s blue eyes searched over him, and then looked back to her companion. “...very well,” she sounded wary, but Aurelian couldn’t blame her for that. Not entirely, anyway. “I do not believe I am in any position to refuse.”

Aurelian nodded and, while keeping an eye on her, swung his supply pack off his back and rummaged inside to withdraw one of his remaining healing potions. A momentary feeling of loss rolled through him while looking at the hard-won flask, and then he stepped forward to cautiously offer it to her.

Zylara took it with a tense murmur of thanks, and promptly scooted over to her insensate companion. A few murmured words followed that he couldn’t quite discern, and then she uncorked the flask, sniffed it, and promptly lifted Karsys’ head up to pour the potion down his throat. She spoke again while doing so, glancing over her shoulder to meet his gaze with one discerning blue eye. “You analysed us, didn’t you?”

“I did,” he confirmed with a shrug.

“I suppose that, if you indeed are not Vasiri, I can be persuaded to forgive such a breach of privacy in light of our initial… misunderstanding,” her head tilted. “You may consider yourself absolved, stranger.”

Aurelian snorted at her tone and superior manner. That was more like what he’d expected from an elf, and he couldn’t help but find it amusing. “That’s a funny way of saying sorry for attacking me.”

A flicker of confusion and alarm brushed against his Soul Sense, and Zylara turned back to Karsys when the man started to cough and spasm. Aurelian frowned at the odd feeling, but filed it away for later examination while taking a few careful, wide-around steps to find a better vantage on what was happening.

“He has been infected,” she said before he could ask anything. “I can feel your confusion, stranger, and that alone tells me you are perhaps more honest than I cared to believe. Karsys is dying. He has been infected by the Vasiri’s foul taint. It is only a matter of time now,” she lowered the spasming man to the marble floor and looked down at him grimly.

“So what do we do?” Aurelian asked with a rising heartbeat.

That could have been him, not too long ago.

“We cut off his head and burn him. It’s the only way to truly ensure he won’t rise.”

“Rise as…?”

“A Ghoul,” she said with a bitter tone. “A Vasiri’s servant. Is there something else you can think would result from such corruption?”

Aurelian smiled wanly. “I don’t know what a Ghoul is in this context. My first encounter with a Vasiri was Marius, and that—”

“Marius of Telastra?!” The Elf asked with a sudden spin on her heel, and a look of true fear on her features. “Where is he? Is he here? We must flee!”

“What? No. He’s dead. I burned his corpse just before I met you.”

“He is… dead?” she repeated in disbelief. “What? How?”

“I killed him, obviously. Stabbed him right between the peepers,” he pointed to his own eyes with his right forefinger and middle finger, and then shrugged.

“You… killed Marius?” she asked with suddenly narrowed eyes.

“Yeah?”

“You. Killed Marius. You.”

Aurelian deadpanned at her tone. “You should really work on the whole ‘gratitude’ thing, Zylara. It would serve you really well.”

“I am sorry, stranger, but that’s impossible. Marius is an Ancient. He has stalked the Desolation for centuries. Longer. He is one of the most deadly creatures in the—”

“Was.” Aurelian interjected with a flare of annoyance. “Was one of the most deadly creatures. Because he died after I stabbed him.”

“And you did this? Alone?”

Before he could respond, Bahamut’s thoughts entered his mind.

We should kill her. Bahamut sent irritably.

No, Bahamut, we’re not killing her.

She is annoying. The hatchling insisted.

I know. Aurelian agreed.

I tire of this.

Just lick your claws and let me handle it. Aurelian sent back impatiently.

That sounds revolting. Bahamut objected.

Just let me handle it!

…fine. The dragon sent in what Aurelian might have called a sulky tone.

The scepticism in Zylara’s voice, meanwhile, was blatant, and Aurelian almost found himself regretting freeing her from the sac. Her dismissive tone was reminiscent of every snooty socialite he’d ever met rolled into a single curvaceous elven package. No amount of beauty could make up for the haughty manner of her speech.

Well… maybe it could make up for it a little, he admitted to himself.

He wasn’t about to tell her that, though.