Talking to Ingrid was going to be difficult no matter how Alice approached it. She laid on the bed staring at the ceiling, struggling to figure out how to even broach the topic. As much as she wanted to march straight up to her and chew her out for getting her caught, it wasn’t fair to do so for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost being that she had no clue that something so little in her eyes would cause such a dire consequence. She should have known that openly staring at something meant to be discreet would cause that if they were unlucky, which they were, but she didn’t.
Why couldn’t she just think about those things though? It kept happening. Like that half-orc boy in Baile Stioballan. She never thought about the bigger picture. There were some inklings of it when it came to Mattias, but if he wasn’t directly involved, the girl never thought beyond what was right in front of her. It was driving Alice insane.
She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. That was her lover she was thinking about. Despite those issues, Ingrid meant the world to her. She forced those bitter thoughts out of her mind like she had so many times before. Eventually, Ingrid would learn. She just had to give it time. What she needed at the moment was a way to relax. It was beginning to get dark, which meant she could probably start cooking something. Kallen had already tested out the fact that they got room service, but there wasn’t much of a point in having a kitchen if she wasn’t going to use it. It would probably clear her head.
Ingrid and Malori were taking a bath, so she could probably surprise Ingrid with a nice meal as she was coming out. If anyone else had been taking one, she probably would have felt a little jealous. She made a note to try and take one herself with Ingrid at some point while they were staying here.
Walking into the kitchen, she saw Kallen gleefully eating a rack of herb crusted lamb coated in some sort of gravy. The sort of thing Alice only ever got to eat when Ingrid brought some to the brothel. She walked past Kallen, eyes forward in hopes that the idiot wouldn’t attempt to speak to her.
“Oh, hey Alice! What’s up?”
Whatever god was behind her joke of a life was going to get stabbed.
“Cooking,” she deadpanned, not looking back at the woman. She opened the icebox only to find that it was mainly filled with drinks, fruits, and sweets. She let out a long sigh. They hadn’t had a chance to refill on provisions, and they had already been incredibly low. Maybe there was some stuff in the dimensional bag she could make? Her eye twitched. There would be if they hadn’t given away a bunch of it to two random half-elves before adding a fifth person to their group.
“You probably don’t really need to do that. There’s a little magic bell you can ring and a nice lady will come to the door and ask what you need!” she explained cheerfully through a mouth full of lamb, “I asked for food options, and earlier there was this really good stew wi–”
“I get it,” she growled, brushing past Kallen to head back to her room. Maybe she could teach herself wood carving on something expensive in the room. At least that would have some form of silence.
“Hm? Where are you going?” she asked quizzically.
“Anywhere but here.”
“Are you alrigh–”
“Would you shut up and eat your fuckin’ lamb!” Alice snapped, whirling around to glare at Kallen. It was infuriating seeing her only response be confusion. No sense of irritation or anger or even taking offense to what was said. Just a confused, stupid woman with no concept how someone else felt. All she could do was swing a glaive and kill things.
“Um, alright. Do you want a bite?”
Alice glared at her. Without a word, she turned back and stomped to her room, slamming the door shut. So much for clearing her mind. She was about ready to kill something, and it was probably going to be Kallen. She let out a groan as she plopped face first down onto the bed. Maybe a cell would have actually been a nice change of pace from living with the human the more she thought about it.
The thought made her cringe. Even if she would’ve been alright with it, there’s no way Ingrid would have. She likely wouldn’t have been able to mess around with things enough to get in the same cell as her either. Whatever panic attack the poor girl would’ve had, Alice wouldn’t have been able to help. Just the thought of Ingrid having to go through something like that alone hurt. She sighed. If it was for Ingrid, she could handle being in the same living space as the stupid human. All she had to do was avoid her until whoever it was from Acyrgos came to pick them up.
It had been probably around fifty years since she’d set foot in the city, and even then she’d been there for what, a week at most? She wondered if any of the blurred memories she had of it were even accurate. It would probably be better if they weren’t. She was supposed to pretend she had no idea where she was after all. Even mentioning Undertow in front of Ingrid made her heart jump in her throat, and she wasn’t even actually from there.
She rolled onto her side, flicking the knife out of her sleeve and into her hand. She stared at the hilt, running her thumb over the folds in the cloth wrapping up to the barely noticeable lumps where the focusing stones were inlaid. Lies upon lies that kept stacking up and weighing her down like bricks. She tightened her grip on the dagger. If there were any gods that cared enough about her to keep watching over her, she hoped they’d at least give her this.
After a few minutes of staring into nothing, she heard a knock on her door. She flicked her wrist, returning the dagger to its hiding place in her sleeve. Shoving herself to her feet, she opened the door.
“What?” she grumbled. Immediately, she felt bad about her flippant tone as she saw Ingrid standing there, dressed in a fresh set of fine clothes. She sighed and gestured for her to come in. “Sorry, little on edge right now.”
Ingrid wrapped her arms around her as she turned, burying her face in her back. “I know. That was a lot,” she sighed.
Alice held one of her hands against Ingrid’s as she closed the door. Neither moved towards the bed or a chair. Just standing there together was fine for a moment. “You doing okay?”
“I’ve been better, but I’ve been worse,” she murmured, “I’m just grateful for everything Natalia did. She’s abrasive, but I think she has a good heart.”
Alice bit her lip. She wondered if Ingrid would think the same if she knew what Natalia planned to do in the long run. It was probably best to let that little secret lie for the moment. “I hate this place.”
“I could tell. You seemed disgusted when they showed us the room.”
“I may end up stealing things. We need Amalthean cash after all.”
Ingrid was quiet for a bit. “Isn’t that what got us into this new mess?”
You got us into this mess, no, no, that wasn’t a fair thought. She mentally kicked herself for even thinking something like that. It was better to just change the subject and bury those thoughts. Again. “They mentioned they’re taking us to see the King. Not a fan of that. If we’re lucky we can bail on the ride over.”
She felt Ingrid wince behind her.
“I think it would be in our best interest to comply, if I’m being honest,” Ingrid managed to force out, “They know all of our faces, and it was a little bit foolish to expect Natalia’s disguise to work for as long as it did.”
“It only failed because she tore the cloak off.”
“Yes, but you have to admit she looked suspicious anyways,” Ingrid argued, “I’m also scared. I’m meeting the King of a foreign nation when I haven’t even met my own and we’ve only been here for a week. We have rotten luck with cities.”
“Fair enough,” Alice grumbled. She led Ingrid to the bed and lay down on it. Ingrid was quick to nestle up beside her and lay her head on Alice’s chest. She had always mentioned that listening to her heartbeat was calming. “Next time we’re on the road, we’re not going into a city without knowing exactly what the hell we’re doing. Sound good?”
Ingrid smiled. “It sounds good to me.”
The two of them let the following silence fill the room as they lay there together. It was yet another first that they’d had as actual lovers. It was also probably a little bit stupid for Alice to keep thinking of things as lovers firsts. Maybe she was listening to Malori too much. She closed her eyes, only just then realizing how exhausted she was. A large yawn escaped her mouth, earning a small chuckle from Ingrid.
“Long day?”
“Funny.”
“You know, if we’re going to be here, we might as well use the accommodations,” she offered.
“What do you mean?” Alice asked, still not opening her eyes.
“Kallen mentioned the food, and it looked good. We could order a nice, romantic dinner. Then spend the night together. It could be a good thing to get our mind off of everything else.”
Alice thought about it. She had a point. If they were locked here until some envoy came to pick them up, worrying over it the entire time wouldn’t really change much. They were all tired from traveling, not to mention hungry.
“Alright, I’ll give it a shot. But only because it’s you that asked,” she grumbled playfully.
She could hear Ingrid’s smile in her voice. “I’ll take that as a compliment. So, do you have any preferences?”
Alice took a moment to think about it.
“Anything other than lamb.”
Alice wished that a good night with Ingrid helped more than it did. It had freed her mind up momentarily, allowing her to get lost in her own enjoyment of dinner and spending time with the woman, but the thoughts of what their situation truly was were never fully able to leave her alone. Kallen’s presence didn’t help either. She’d spend a wonderful time bathing with Ingrid, only to have her mood ruined by Kallen doing something stupid like trying to exercise in the common room and breaking something. Then she’d be reminded that they still had no idea when the King’s envoys were getting there. She’d heard of torture methods similar to this. Prisoners would be sentenced to death, but not told their day of execution. They’d then be kept alive for as long as possible with the thought in the back of their mind that any day could be their last. This wasn’t as extreme, but given potential options for the King to choose what to do with her, there was a chance it wasn’t as far off as she thought. Unlike those prisoners, she got to live the next week in luxury.
Part of her felt bad for Natalia. The illian hadn’t left her room aside from once a day to eat, then would immediately go back in without saying a word. At least Malori had her books and she had Ingrid, but she didn’t know of anything her feathered companion had to actually fight off the boredom. Granted, maybe she was just that depressing of a person. After their fireside chat, it wasn’t the most far-fetched thought.
Even Ingrid’s initial enthusiasm started to dwindle as time went on. She began to worry more and more about the lack of progress finding Mattias. Alice had to tell her several times to make sure she kept her voice low about certain things. For now, they were just travelers around Amalthea. If anyone found out that they were Cordelians, shit would certainly hit the fan, so to speak.
By the seventh day, right around when she was starting to wonder if this really was some anxiety inducing torture method, most of the group was starting to lose their patience. Malori was fine, she just kept reading and rereading books. Alice had even snuck one out of the bag to read at night. At least it passed the time, even if it meant she had to begrudgingly admit that Shortie had good taste in authors. That stung far more than when she and Ingrid were bet on. Just when she and Ingrid were getting ready to head to bed, there was a knock on the door.
Alice rolled her eyes. “I swear to literally any god if Kallen got more food this late, I’m gonna stab her,” she grumbled, plopping down on the bed.
Ingrid patted her arm. “Let’s not resort to violence, we all know how much she eats. Would her being hungry really be that surprising?”
“Let me have this.”
A small giggle escaped Ingrid, but it sounded like there was a bit of discomfort in it. “Right, of course. Don’t you think you’re a little too hard on her though? She’s just trying to help.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“She could help by–ugh, I’m not gonna say that,” she huffed, “I still don’t like her. At all.”
“I know, I know. She’s here though, and she is helpful. Remember how much she did against Beri–” Ingrid’s ears flicked as she turned to the door, her brow furrowed.
Alice sat up, trying to hear whatever had distracted Ingrid. She (unfortunately) recognized the voice of Kallen outside, but she was talking to someone. It definitely wasn’t Natalia, and Malori was reading in her room last Alice checked. Hopping out of bed, she left the room, Ingrid close behind. A soft, feminine voice became clearer as they walked out, its words sounding like an odd mix of excited and tired at the same time.
“...Pleasure to meet you, Kallen. Are the others asleep? Or can I go get them?”
“I don’t think so, usually they’re up a little lat–Oh! Ingrid, Alice, we were just talking about you!” Kallen waved.
Standing next to her was a young, exceedingly pale woman in black leggings and a short sleeved, light blue tunic, the back of which extended down to her calves like a robe. She had a round, kind face, with lips spread into a polite smile. Alice’s eyes went wide as she looked at the girl, and for once it wasn’t just because she was pretty. She was far more taken aback by the deep purple eyes and braided, stark white hair. An esper.
“Hello there!” The woman waved cheerfully, either not noticing or not caring that she was face to face with a dark elf, “My name is Colette Beaumont. You must be the dark elf that I heard about. Oh! And your lover!”
Okay there it was. Being talked about like she was a curiosity for some reason didn’t sit any better with her than people wanting to kill her. Although people wanting her dead was fairly common in her line of work, so maybe that watered the sensation down a little bit.
“Uh, yeah,” was all she managed to get out. Colette was flanked by two guards on either side, but they certainly weren’t normal guards. There didn’t seem to be a true uniform to them. One was an ursan, a species that looked like a cross between a human and a bear. They had fur as white as Colette’s hair, and wore spiked, pitch black plate armor that reminded her far too much of Berith’s gauntlets. On their back was a simple metal pole, but the focusing stones and icy haze that continuously radiated off of it made it apparent that it was some sort of magic weapon.
A gnomish woman sat on the ursan’s shoulder, leaning against their head like it was a table. They didn’t seem to mind. She wore garb not far off from Colette’s, only with a gray tunic instead, with a leather breastplate pulled over it. Her red hair was tied back into a high ponytail, and she fiddled with a pendant around her neck with a design of a snowflake that Alice recognized as the symbol for cryokinesis.
The other two were both humans, one being a bald man with a dark beard and a pair of handaxes attached to his belt. Chainmail sleeves poked out of his brown gambeson, and Alice swore she could see the small bulge on his wrist of a hidden dagger. The other was wearing a cloak that seemed to shift in color constantly, making it hard to look directly at. Illusion magic. He wore a confident smile, and behind the long black hair, Alice could make out the top of a green longbow with Amalthean runes inscribed in it.
Colette stepped forward, giving a surprisingly low bow to Ingrid and Alice. As she did, Alice noticed a grimoire on the back of her belt. These were almost certainly the King’s envoys. If they weren’t, then they had to have pissed off some sort of crime syndicate for a group to afford gear that high quality.
“As I said to Kallen, it’s a pleasure to meet you both as well,” she said, straightening her posture, “I’m aware that it’s late, so I’m sorry for bothering you. I was just surprised to hear about your arrival, so we tried to get here quickly. I hope you weren’t waiting too long?”
Swallowing the desire to inform her of the torture comparison, she shrugged. “Coulda been worse.”
“I see, I’m glad then. Kallen here already mentioned your names, but I believe it’s more polite of me to ask to hear them from their owners, no?”
“My name is Ingrid. This is my lover, Alice,” Ingrid said politely, finally having settled her anxiety for the moment. Alice fumed at Kallen for a moment. These were the kinds of people she wanted to not know their real names, but the idiot had to say them immediately.
“Pleasure I guess,” Alice sighed, giving a rather pathetic wave, “Lemme go get Shortie and Feathers.”
She knocked on Malori’s door first. It wouldn’t hurt to give Natalia a minute or two more of rest before having to deal with all of this. “Oi, Shortie, we have guests!”
There was a yelp from inside, along with the sound of something being knocked over. Alice rolled her eyes. Could she seriously not hear everyone outside? She could hear Malori scrambling to the door before sheepishly opening it.
“W-What do you mean?”
Alice jerked a thumb towards Colette and her entourage. Malori’s eyes went wide as she looked at Colette, who seemed just as surprised upon seeing her. Even a few of the entourage seemed taken aback. The silence was far louder than any of the conversation had been.
“O-Oh…” was the only sound that Malori managed to eke out as she stared at what was probably the only other esper she’d ever met before. Alice couldn’t be bothered to remember whether or not she’d said that.
“Well, this is certainly a surprise,” Colette murmured. She stepped forward, looking Malori over, and seeming to spend extra time on her hair and eyes, like if she looked closely enough they’d vanish or change. “My name is Colette, what’s yours?”
“M-Malori…” she said weakly, staring at the ground.
Colette nodded. “It’s lovely meeting you, Malori. I apologize for my initial surprise, it’s just very rare to see another esper,” she smiled.
“Y-You as well,” Malori squeaked out. Colette wasn’t particularly tall, maybe a little above Ingrid. She still managed to be about a full head taller than Malori. Alice had to fight back a comment about not all espers being that short, but that likely would have been in rather poor taste.
Deciding that Malori had suffered enough, she headed over to Natalia’s door and threw it open without knocking. “Feathers, our chaperones are here.”
Natalia was sitting hunched over on the bed, elbows resting on her knees. She groggily looked over at Alice, her eyes glowing dimly. Sighing, her wings twitched as she stood up. “You didn’t want to knock?”
“I did not.”
The woman glared at her with radiant eyes, but relented. “Let’s just get this the hell over with,” she grumbled as she brushed past Alice. Strangely enough, Colette and her guards had seemed much more surprised at Malori than they did at Natalia. She scanned over each and every one of them before she spoke. “Well? You wanted to meet an angel?”
Colette blinked, finally pulling her gaze away from Malori to look at Natalia. “Oh my, you really do look like one,” she observed. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet an illian in the flesh. I apologize if you meant to use that to intimidate me, but I do know the difference between an angel and an illian.”
Natalia let out a sigh of relief, her wings drooping. “Would you believe me if I said that made things significantly more comfortable for me?”
“Oh? What do you mean by that?” she tilted her head quizzically.
“Too many eyes on me already. It’s irritating,” she grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose, “So, are you the envoys that the King sent?”
“Was it that obvious?”
“Your little posse has some of the most expensive gear I’ve ever seen and I’m fairly certain it’s all magical. That’s an Honor Guard if I’ve ever seen one,” she crossed her arms.
Colette smiled at her, clasping her hands politely. “Yes, this is my personal guard. The brothers there are Erytus and Castor, my ursan friend is Eurydice, and this little gnome is Medea.”
Natalia raised an eyebrow. “They’re your guard?”
“Well yes! I am the King’s Archmage after all,” she said, pride brimming from her eyes as she spoke the title. “Well, only of the past couple of years. I worked very hard to get here though.”
Alice’s eyes went wide as she pursed her lips. She was told envoys, so she expected guards. What idiot of a King would send their Archmage on an errand to go fetch some wayward celestial? Surely there were more important things to do for her.
Ingrid seemed to be having the same idea, though much more eloquently. “Um, pardon me for asking this, Archmage Colette–”
“Oh, just Colette is fine for guests,” she said kindly.
“Well, um, Colette, isn’t this kind of assignment slightly beneath someone of your status? Surely the King wouldn’t send you away on something so trivial?”
“You’re right, she didn’t want to send me,” she smiled, “The moment I heard about you, I figured that it was probably an illian, not an actual angel. But to meet such a magically significant being as an illian, I was so excited at the prospect that I begged her to let me be the one to fetch you! There are so many questions I’d like to ask and things I’d like to confirm. For example, despite the clear size of your friend’s wings, they aren’t actually big enough for someone her size to fly like a bird. They operate by sending out bursts of latent magic with each flap to propel them around!”
She seemed almost as excited as Malori got when explaining random magical bullshit to Kallen. A sense of dread crept into Alice as she wondered if all espers were like this.
Natalia furrowed her brow, seeming legitimately confused for a moment. “Um, yes, that is… Correct…” she sounded almost embarrassed, “I must admit, I didn’t know that was how it worked. It’s always been something instinctual for me.”
“That makes sense. I’m sure the first ari didn’t know how the exact mechanics of their flight worked. They simply flapped their wings and took to the skies!”
“Right…” Alice sighed. She looked over at Ingrid, who seemed to have a reaction of mixed confusion and curiosity. “Alright, so are we leaving immediately? Or can we get some rest first. It’s late.”
“Oh! I’m so sorry for keeping you awake,” the fact that she seemed legitimately apologetic honestly made things more annoying. “We can leave in the morning. I don’t want you to be tired for your meeting with the King!”
“If I may ask, how long will the journey there be?” Ingrid asked quietly.
“There is no journey!” she said cheerfully. She looked around as everyone other than her entourage gave her a confused look. “Oh, right. We’re teleporting! I can’t give many detailed explanations as you aren’t an actual angel and thus there’s a chance that you’re a spy, but it’s something I’m very excited about. It was of my opinion and the Prince’s that you should be teleported there to save time with necessary precautions to make sure you can’t replicate it.”
Alice narrowed her eyes. Colette was weird, to be sure, but she highly doubted that any Archmage of any country wasn’t. Despite her age, every word felt deliberate, even in her infodumping. Giving bare minimum information after making it clear that she knew what they were sounded like something out of her own book. She tightened her grip on Ingrid’s waist. Things would be bad if she figured out that their lie had layers.
“Alright, not touchin’ that with a ten foot pole. Come on, Princess, I’m goin’ to bed,” she grumbled.
“I do have one question, Miss Illia–”
“Just call me Natalia,” she snapped.
“Oh, I see, my apologies.”
One of Alice’s ears flicked. That sounded like someone about to remember a grudge. Far too much like Keaton for her liking.
“Well, regardless, Miss Natalia, why did you go to such lengths to protect your companion? From the report, you pushed your facade quite far. You might have been caught and lost her what little protection she had,” Colette asked, her voice becoming far less eccentric and much more curious.
Alice tried to walk faster, not wanting to hear whatever answer the edgelord was about to spit out, but the answer came far quicker than expected.
“I guess I remembered a lesson from my father,” she grunted, “Plus, your captain pissed me off. He’s an incompetent prick.”
What fucking father? You mentioned two moms and your siblings, another parent isn’t something you just leave out, she thought, furrowing her brow.
“He’s not a captain of my choice. If I could choose someone to be a guard captain I’d send someone like Eurytus to every city in the country,” the man with the handaxes gave a satisfied grunt, a small grin on his face while the other man rolled his eyes. Colette turned to the door, lingering in the entryway for a moment as the rest of her guards began to follow her. “I’ll be back at dawn, the teleportation can be done in this common room. And… Malori, was it?”
“Y-Y-Yes?” she squeaked as though she had been hoping the group had forgotten about her.
A warm smile spread across Colette’s face. “Hopefully we can speak more tomorrow. It really is a pleasure meeting you.”
“O-Of course! Um, it would be an honor to speak to an A-Archmage, especially one who achieved it so young…” she murmured.
Colette giggled. “I’d be happy to! I’ll be seeing you. Sleep well.”
Alice furrowed her brow. Colette turned before she could see it, and it didn’t seem like anyone else noticed Malori wince at the comment. Now wasn’t the time to try and work out whatever the hell that meant, she just wanted to go to sleep.
“Alice?” she heard Ingrid murmur as she shoved past the door to their room.
She sighed. “What is it?”
Despite how annoyed she was at the current situation, everything on the surface melted away at the sound of that stupid beautiful wonderful elf’s voice. She couldn’t just force that annoyance onto her.
“You seemed… Irritated.”
“I mean, I am, but that’s nothing new,” she coaxed Ingrid over to the bed, letting the elf get onto her lap and touch her forehead to hers. She took a deep breath. “I like to keep a low profile, and now we’re meetin with the damn King. I just wanna find Mattias and go back to my usual life, you know?” she paused, “Well, I guess I’m not going back to what it was. But…”
“But it’s something good?” she offered. “I didn’t know who you truly were before. And…”
“And I had to leave a lotta things unsaid,” she sighed fondly, taking one of Ingrid’s hands in hers. She planted a small kiss on Ingrid’s forehead. “This… This is something way better than I ever thought I was gonna get. I wanna properly enjoy it.”
Ingrid giggled and leaned forward, both her and Alice plopping softly onto the bed. “I want to enjoy this too. I know Mattias would as well. I know he’s only met you a couple of times in the street, and that he’d feign disgust a lot, but he really does like you.”
“I’m glad. Wouldn’t exactly be good if my lover’s little brother wanted to put a knife between my ribs now would it.”
There was a silence that filled the room as Ingrid rested her head in the crook of Alice’s neck. They both lay there, unmoving. Alice took comfort in the gentle pulse that came from Ingrid’s thumb.
“I miss him.”
“I know, Princess.”
“What if he’s scared? What if he’s hurt?”
“I know. I know it sucks to think about. Think about it like this though. We’re getting teleported to the capital, which is way further north. All we have to do is get through that meeting, and then we’re saving a shitload of time.”
Ingrid shifted, snuggling closer to Alice. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Of course I am. Now, let’s get some sleep,” she said softly, “Hey, I love you.”
“I love you too.”