“Fucking hell,” Tolith said as he massaged his neck, “My throat, Rendy, by Thesis!”

“It isn’t the worst thing I’ve done to someone’s neck,” Orenda snapped.

“You’re a mean drunk,” he accused.

“I’ll kill you!” She shrieked.

“You know what,” he snapped back, “That’s fair, I suppose. Would you like to know why I’m not dead?”

“I know why you aren’t dead!” Orenda hissed, “You live because I am too drunk to cast and you have the elderly restraining me!”

“Back home,” Adam spoke as if Orenda was not in a rage, “When we had disagreements, where two people felt so passionately, we would have the disagreement settled by a neutral third party who had no stake in the conflict, called an arbitrator. We could do that, if you like. Each side would tell their story, and we could come to an agreement.”

“I don’t mean to be disrespectful,” Orenda said, “As I don’t know you in the slightest, and you have been so kind to me, but were I able, rest assured I would set you ablaze for that suggestion.”

“Eh,” Adam shrugged as if he was not at all alarmed by the threat.

“Rendy, I’m sorry!” Tolith said.

“You’ve been gone for months!” Orenda snapped, “Where the hell have you been?”

“I’ve been out at sea, just as I said,” he replied, “I’ll tell you everything, if you calm down and listen.”

“I don’t owe you a calm conversation!” Orenda snapped at him, “I owe you an interrogation!”

“Fine!” He threw up both hands in a gesture of submission, “But Rendy, listen, I swear- we’re on the same side! We walk the same path! I follow the path of order! I follow the White Rabbit!”

“Since when!?” Orenda demanded.

“Since I watched my father burn to ash before my very eyes!” He answered, “The way we’re doing things is wrong, Rendy. Dad was… he was doing his best, but he was wrong. He should have never been in town. He should have never been following that lead. Just… listen, alright?”

“When I returned to my mother’s estate, I fell into a terrible depression. I was already hurt by what had happened, and any time I tried to talk to mother about it she told me that I was throwing a fit, that I needed to grow up and act like the viscount I now had to be. There were never any other elves there, besides the stuffy nobility that said the same thing. So I… took to drinking. You know how miserable I was. I sent you letters.”

Orenda was calming, little by little, and had stopped fighting Stephendore’s grip quite so much.

“The bar was frequented by my mother’s harem, and the more I drank with them, the more I… got to know them. As people. They’re people, Rendy. But you… you know that. They aren’t pets. They were my only friends on that terrible estate. And…” He took a deep breath, “Ali was not as smart as he thought he was.”

“Right,” Orenda agreed, “I can’t argue with that.”

“Let her go, Steve, she’s fine,” Tolith sat back down on the bed and made a disgusted face, “Right. That’s soaking wet. Lovely.”

“Tolith!” Orenda hissed as Stephendore released her.

“I followed him, one day. He seemed to be the smartest person there, and late one night I followed him to a secret alcove away from the guards, and I watched him… cast a spell. He was a human, Rendy, but he pulled a ring from his pocket with a fire stone set into it, and he cast from it. I know there were wards up, but I expect mother didn’t think there would be anything but earth magic going on in the house- the fire mages were all dead, and he was a human. A human!”

“Humans can be great mages,” Stephendore said as he walked to the small table in the room and began to pack himself another pipe.

“Yes, but… no one had ever told me that,” Tolith explained, “But Ali cast a scrying spell, and though I could not see what he saw in that flame, I could hear his end of the conversation. He said your name. And… it was the way he said it. It wasn’t, ‘Ms Nochdifache’ or even ‘Orenda’. It was ‘Rendy’. You were friends. He was happier, when he spoke to you, than I had ever seen him.”

“We are friends,” Orenda said, “He isn’t dead or anything. We’re friends right now. It isn’t that we ‘were’ friends.”

“I confronted him,” Tolith said, “but I… confronted is not the right word. I tried to explain to him that I was on his side, on your side. Any friend of Orenda Nochdifache is a friend of mine. And… it took a long time for him to believe me. I called upon him, brought him up to my room, and we talked until long after the sun had risen. I talked, mostly. I told him everything, about my father and his mission, his beliefs, his death. I told him about my mother and how she only saw me as an heir, how she didn’t care when dad died and wouldn’t let me care either. I told him about the school, about you- about what a real person you were. You… you’re different from the other girls, Rendy. You’re a real person.”

“Have you gone mad?” Orenda asked him, “All girls are real people. What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You know what I mean,” He said.

“I absolutely don’t, Lord Glenlen,” she spat, because it was true, and she had a sneaking suspicion that if she figured out what he meant, it would fuel her rage.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I just mean… that you’re one of the good ones,” Tolith explained, and Orenda smacked him so hard and so quickly that he hadn’t expected it and went careening from the bed onto the floor.

“Ow!” he complained and pushed himself up, “Ok, for real, what the hell? Why are you strong? You never exercise! I’ve never seen you do a goddamn thing!”

“I’m not!” Orenda snapped, “I’ve got no physical strength! You’re just unthinkably weak!”

“Not for nothing,” Stephendore laughed, “But that’s true. He’s so skinny and small he’s scared me a couple of times. He’d have never made it in the military academy. The smallest guy we had there could have kicked his ass up one side of the field and down the other.”

“Hey!” Tolith shoved himself to his feet, “Where’s your bread buttered?”

“Smallest guy we had there was real cute, though,” Stephendore said as if lost in a memory, “Had the prettiest blue eyes.”

“Put a shirt on!” Orenda demanded of Tolith.

“I was getting ready for bed!” He argued, “which, by the way, we only have the one room and the one bed, and you ruined it for everyone!”

“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard him talk back,” Adamareyn laughed, “You’ve got him real fired up. Oh! Shit can I say that here? Is that racist? I’ve not really been to the fire continent, I don’t know what I can say. Is ‘fired up’ insensitive somehow?”

“No,” Orenda massaged her temples, “No, it’s… it’s fine. You all seem like lovely people. Your captain is just a jackass.”

“Rendy,” Tolith implored.

“After you harassed Ali,” Orenda turned her attention back to him, “How did that turn into faking your own death?”

“Oh,” He said and bounced on the wet bed, “Let’s light a fire in the fireplace. That may dry it out.”

“Tolith!”

“Ok, ok!” He said, but he did get up to crouch by the fireplace and began to lay kindling, “So… I think he… liked me? Or felt sorry for me? Or something? Because he told me that the Knights of Order had been planning to kill me, after they killed mother. He thought I would be upset by the murder plan, by the by, and seemed shocked when I told him that had I been in his position I would have set her ablaze ages ago. No one would believe that a human had done it. Do you know what he said?”

“No,” Orenda huffed, “Why on Xren would I know that?”

“He said that he was afraid they would blame you, somehow. He knew the trouble that you were already in, and he was afraid the rest of the family would find a way to blame you.”

“I could see that,” Orenda agreed, reluctantly, “The nobility has been after my blood since they connected me with the pirate.”

“He told me that if I wanted to live, I should leave,” Tolith explained, “And I told him I didn’t want to leave, I wanted to help. So he told me how to help. My father was wrong, Rendy, about the humans. They don’t deserve to be treated like… pets or… farm equipment or…” he sighed and when he spoke again, it was quiet and slow, “The things that elves do… to people like Ali… let’s call it what it is. They aren’t pets. That isn’t something you do to a pet. The very concept of a pleasure slave, when you… when you really look at it… is horrendous. It needs to end. And… in the wild humans live much longer than we think they do. Their lifespan is pretty long so… I’m not even sure that people like Ali are… adults. When they get there. I don’t know how that works. I’m not a zoologist.”

“It took you a good while,” Orenda huffed, “But I suppose you did get there, eventually.”

“Dad didn’t deserve to die, Rendy,” Tolith clicked his flint and steel but did not seem to be able to get it to catch, “He thought he was doing the right thing.”

Stephendore stepped forward, took the flint and steel from him, and lit the fire. As it sprang to life, Orenda instantly felt the sluggish magic pick up a little.

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” Orenda said.

“I hope not,” Tolith said, “I’ve prayed for his soul.”

“So you faked your own death to avoid your real death?” Orenda asked.

“Yes, and I robbed my mother blind before I left,” Tolith snarked, “I took as much gold as I could carry, jewels that have been in our vaults since before the colonization- oh, I actually have something for you, but it’s on the ship. Don’t let me forget. I think it belongs to you. I took it all and bought a ship, hired a crew, and set out onto the open sea.”

“Looking for adventure?” Orenda asked.

“No, looking for Urillian ships,” Tolith corrected, “Cargo ships in particular. They transport people like cargo, Rendy, mostly from the capital to the colonies. The plan was to intersect ships and take the humans north- there’s a human settlement up there. It’s been there since before the empire existed, or so I’m told. No one goes up there- there’s nothing there but ice and death. It’s on the edge of the world.”

“You’ve been… correcting your family’s mistakes,” Orenda said, thinking it over. “Better late than never, I suppose.”

“Not really, no,” Tolith said, “I haven’t found anything. Rendy, do you honestly think I had time to sail to the northern peak of the world and back again?”

“He’s also not telling you the whole story,” Adamareyn said. “We aren’t just looking for slave ships. We’re looking for Captain Nochdiface. We fly a Urillian flag because Captain Moneybags thinks he’ll see it and attack.”

“He killed my father in front of me!” Tolith said, “By burning him alive! They told me he died of smoke inhalation as if I would believe it! I was there! I saw what happened to him! I deserve revenge.”

“Your father was a monster, Toli,” Orenda said, “Captain Nochdiface walks the path of order. He follows the White Rabbit.”

“My dad was doing what he thought was right!” Tolith argued, “He thought he was helping! He was a good guy who was taught bad things!”

“Felaern was in the contingent of soldiers who wiped out my people,” Orenda said, and paused to let that sink in for a moment, “Your mother, by all accounts, ordered the attack. Your family is evil. You don’t have to like it, and you don’t have to be like them, but I will not stand here and listen to you defend someone who tried to kill a man for freeing slaves! Did you listen to what Nodifache said? He said he was there because your mother would not free a dear friend of his! And your father attacked him! You have no leg to stand on!”

“It’s my dad, Rendy!” Tolith shouted back, “You don’t understand! He loved me! He took care of me! He raised me!”

“Hopefully one day you can rise above that,” Orenda said. “Grieve for your father, Toli. Mourn the father, not the monster. Captain Nochdifache was not wrong.”

“I deserve to confront him,” Tolith argued, “I deserve to at least be looked in the eye when he tells me why he killed my dad. I want to see what’s under that mask.”

“Tolith,” Orenda asked, “When do you plan to set sail again? I’m looking for Nochdifache myself.”

“I… actually came back tonight because...” he sounded as if she had hit him again. “I thought I might find you. I was looking for you. You… can’t be here, when Ali and the rest of the Knights of Order attack. But… Rendy… the bathhouse almost killed you. The ocean is an endless expanse of water.”

“Toli,” Orenda sighed, “I think… I think Captain Nochdifache… I think his name is Gareth. And I think he may be my father.”