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King's Rest

He’s out of his mind, Mora thought.

She may not have particularly old, but she’d never met anyone like this Vares Reed.

“Not a very big town, is it?” he said, seeming unimpressed by the surroundings.

Admittedly, they were very bleak.

King’s Rest was the one town in Windust, if one could even call the scattering of buildings that made it up a town. It was called that because the king himself (one of them, Mora couldn’t remember which), had fled to Windust after a great battle, and, apparently, was so replenished by his night of rest that he rode all the way back to battle the next day (it was still ongoing?) and smashed his enemy to bits.

It sounded like a lie, and it probably was, but the locals believed it.

The town itself was really just made up of a few buildings…

The biggest of them all was the tavern, though it didn’t look much like one from the inside. Back in the day it was the administrative seat of provincial command—that is, the govenor’s vastly oversized work office.

But given that it was by far the biggest and most impressive building in town, and given the preferences of the Windustian locals, the bandits quickly transformed it into an all-purpose tavern that offered everything from eating, drinking, gambling, whoring, and sleeping for the night.

And that was just what was out in the open.

Apart from that, there was the store, the temple…

… and that was about it.

There were other buildings along the main street, but most of them were rotting away and hadn’t been used in decades. For Mora, who had only seen the town in its present state, it was almost unthinkable to consider that it may have once been the happy hub to a verdant, prosperous Windust.

“Tell me, child,” said Vares, his eyes darting from building to building. “Who is the influential man in this place?”

Mora glanced at him and realized how insane they must’ve looked coming in. Just a skinny red-skinned oni kid accompanying a bum that wore a tattered sack as a skirt, with a monkey perched on his shoulder.

“Depends,” she said. “They’re all bandits. Nik’s the one who runs the tavern. Most people here go to him if they need anything. But I’m pretty sure there’s guys he’s afraid of too.”

His chilling red eyes suddenly swiveled down to her. He smiled in such a pleased way that it gave her second thoughts about what she said. “That’s a very observant remark for one so young. But you’re right—fear forms effective hierarchies.”

“I don’t know if I said anything like that…” Mora muttered under her breath.

As soon as they passed the store, she could see several people staring at them. Though the image of Vares must’ve alerted them, none of them dared say a word.

“How long have you lived here?”

“All my life.”

He shot her another look. “Why?”

Mora shot him one back, annoyed now. “What do you mean why? I don’t even remember anything other than being here. And I’m eleven.”

As they made their way up the bald hill that led to the tavern, a drunk tottered down unsteadily, his eyes so glazed and out of focus that he never even noticed them.

Vares watched him pass them.“It seems an unrepentantly foul place to be.”

The words reminded him of what Petyr would say. Mora pursed her lips, even more annoyed. As much as she hated Windust and wanted to leave it, it still was her home. These guys needed to be beat up.

“I left home when I was five.”

Mora glared at him and narrowed her eyes. “Yeah right.”

She realized she was pushing her luck by talking back to him, and that he might command that damned monkey to eat her face off at any moment. But he’s so full of it!

Vares made a face and grinned. “I never said it was willingly, little one. I came from a place much like this. A small island. One day pirates came. My mother and I were both taken. The poor woman was sold early on in our journey. As for myself, my life became one of servitude.”

Her tongue burned to ask, Is that how you became a pirate?

Parents aside, Mora found the story relatable—if it was even true.

She had never met her parents. If they were still alive somewhere, then, well, she hoped they were well.

The story of how she ended up in Windust, at least as far as it had come down to her, was that Nik was in the capital doing some busines when he entered a curio shop.

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His intention had been to buy a gift for his girlfriend, who he was madly in love with at the time, which he did.

But then he noticed that among the exotic trinkets and animals on sale, there was also an oni child. Since his girlfriend often said she couldn’t wait for the two of them to have babies, he bought Mora as a joke gift for her.

Naturally, the girlfriend thought it was unfunny and handed Mora back.

Nik kept her as a pet.

Who her parents may have been and where they could be now were questions Mora learned were better left unasked.

As much as her life sucked here in Windust, everything she’d heard about how oni were treated in other places made her think she still lucked out in the grand scheme of things.

It could’ve been a lot worse…

Much, much worse.

They reached the entrance to the tavern, where two of the bandits Mora knew were smoking and drinking on the porch.

The bandit on the left, a short guy just a head taller than Mora, called Jori, slicked back his thinning hair and licked his parched upper lip. “Who the hell are you supposed to be?”

“I’m Captain Vares Reed. This little oni is my companion, Mora.”

Companion?! Mora wanted to slap him. Since when were they companions?

Jori laughed bitterly. “Man, I know who she is. I’m asking who the fuck you are.”

The other bandit noted, “Look at that. His eyes are red.”

Jori either didn’t hear or ignored him.

The smile on Vares’s face remained the same. “But I told you. I’m Captain Vares Reed.”

“Oh yeah? Well, then, Captain”—Jori cleared his throat and spat—”where’s your fucking ship? There are no ports here as far as I know. And you can’t be a captain without a ship, now can you?”

“News must reach this place very slowly. There’s been a new development made in the last ten thousand years or so, but it’s quite possible to anchor a ship in absence of a port.”

Jori flashed an unamused smile to his bandit friend. “You hear that? He thinks he’s real funny. I wonder, if I cut your balls off and feed them to you, would you think that’s funny too, huh?”

“A man your size may have trouble with my balls. They’re a little heavy.”

Mora laughed.

She knew she shouldn’t have and immediately regretted it. As did the guy at Jori’s side.

Jori, who was already picked on by the others for his size, swaggered over to Vares with his eyes bulging, looking up at him with fury despite barely reaching Vares’s chest. “I’ll fucking kill you,” he drawled.

He pulled out the knife at his waist and raised the tip against Vares’s neck. His hand shook with rage. “Get on your knees and tell me you’re fucking sorry. Do it!” he yelled, his spittle flying, hitting the top of Vares’s scarred chest.

Mora was suddenly on edge. Her eyes instantly went to Lady Elizabeth, who appeared calm in the moment, watching the bandit without any hint of violence, but who would surely pounce and rip his face off the moment Vares commanded.

As for Vares himself, the way he smirked, looking down at Jori, made her hairs stand on end. Not only was he enjoying this, but she could see no fear in those red eyes of his.

These guys like Jori were stupid, incredibly stupid, but she still would’ve felt guilty if he got his face torn up or the like. It was bad enough what happened to Lunis.

“Jori, don’t,” she said, pushing him away. “This is my friend.”

As she expected, it worked.

Jori kicked her in the chest and flung her to the ground, then came over to pin her down with his foot. “You little red rat. You touch me again, and I’ll take this belt off and whip you until sorry is the only word you’ll know to say for the rest of your life.”

A smooth and commanding voice suddenly cut the air. “What seems to be the problem?”

Nik!

Jori turned around slowly. “N-Nothing, Nik… Just some trouble with this newcomer…”

Mora took the opportunity and jumped up to her feet.

Nik came down from the porch slowly, quietly. Mora always thought the soundless, elegant way he moved put him somewhere inbetween a big cat and a ghost.

He was tall and lean, dark-skinned, with perfectly curly black locks that made all the whores jealous and eyes that were almost completely black. He was always immaculately dressed, and today was no different: his short-sleeved white shirt was threaded with gold, and the green vest he wore over it also had golden buttons, each one shaped like a different animal.

Any one of those buttons would’ve been worth killing to someone around here, and the wardrobe he kept up in his private bedroom was a small fortune in and of itself. That no one dared to touch anything said a lot about the power he commanded and the fear he inspired.

Mora could only think of one person who’d ever tried to steal from him, a whore from years past who liked her drink a little too much. When Nik found out, he shaved her head, broke each one of her fingers, and sent her away.

Mora sometimes wondered if she lived. The shriek still rang in her head sometimes.

As soon as Nik got near him, Jori lowered his head down and shrank away into nothingness.

Nik stared at him just long enough to make his point. His gaze then flickered over Mora questioningly, who shrugged in return.

Finally, he locked eyes with Vares himself.

“I’m Captain Vares Reed.”

Nick sucked lightly on his cheeks and inspected the scarred red-eyed body before him. “I see.”

“The cute little oni brought me here. I’m looking for a place to relax until my crew comes to get me.” He waited for a moment, then smiled. “And there’s something else I need I’m hoping you have.”

Nik smiled back. “Maybe.” He reached up and pet the monkey, and act which almost gave Mora a heart attack. Lady Elizabeth, however, chirped happily and nuzzled her head against his palm.

“Though I will say,” Nik went on, “while I’m not insistent on a dress code, wearing a sack may be below standard—even the low standards of an establishment such as this.”

“I could fashion something new out of the midget, if you prefer.”

It took Nik a moment to realize he was speaking of Jori, at which point he began to laugh. It was a charming and delightful laugh, one that always made Mora momentarily think he was handsome despite her not caring for him all that much otherwise.

Jori gulped, still seething. “Nik.”

“Go to Vizi and tell her to go fetch this man some clothes.”

“W-What?”

Nik snapped his fingers and pointed to the doorway at his back. “Go. Now.”

Crushed and humiliated, Jori shuffled off, his bandit friend quickly joining in to commiserate. “I seriously thought you were gonna kill him for a second there…” the friend began to say, his voice petering out as they made their way inside.

Unfortunately for Mora, Nik’s eyes finally returned back to her. “I’m glad to see you’re alive. Forgotten home?”

Unsure of how to defend her absence, she scrambled and said, “Petyr threw me into the river!”

“And it must’ve dragged you along in its current for days until you bravely walked back, is that it?”

Mora lowered her eyes, tracing circles abashedly with big red toe in the dust. When it came to Nik, she was ashamed more than she was afraid. “Well…”

“The child is keenly intelligent,” said Vares out of the blue.

Nik chuckled darkly. “Shrewd, more like. But yes, she is.”

In spite of everything, Mora found herself smiling. Both these men were, as far as she could tell, among the strongest people around, and they approved of her.

More surprising still, Nik seemed to like Vares. Or at least recognized something familiar in him.

Maybe this is going to turn out okay, actually.