Ingrid groaned as she sat up. Taking a quick glance around, she felt her heart drop. Where the hell was she? Everything was dark, she could barely see. She put a hand down to try and get to her feet and noticed that she was in some sort of puddle. It was hard to say if pool was a better name for it, given the way it expanded for a few dozen feet or so, but it didn’t feel like it had any depth. As she cautiously brought herself to her feet, it was like she was skirting along the top of the water. Was it even water? It was definitely a liquid of some sort.

Now standing, she struggled to remember what had just happened. She remembered the battle, running into the middle of it, and creating the tree. Then there was a pain in her arm, and then…

It was no use. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember anything past telling off those guards for threatening Alice. What was the deal with that anyway? She rubbed her head, trying to fend off the migraine that she had. First thing was first, she needed to find out the answer to her previous question, where exactly was this place?

Her eyes having somewhat adjusted to the dark, she vaguely made out a few shapes in the distance. Distance in this case meant maybe a hundred feet away or so. She looked around again. Other than those indistinct shapes, there was absolutely nothing. Gulping nervously, she began to walk towards them. At the very least, something was better than nothing.

Her first steps were slow, not trusting the pitch black maybe-water. It was kind of uncanny, the way the ripples were perfectly uniform circles that reverberated out with each step. Even weirder was how they seemed to be a pure white as opposed to the darkness of everything around her. It became apparent that walking was fine, and she continued to make her way towards the shapes.

As she got closer, she felt unsettled again. It was some sort of shoreline, again a pure white color as opposed to the consistent darkness of everything else. She was slightly taken aback as she looked up and saw how clear everything had become. Before her was a series of trees and bushes. Actually, that wasn’t quite right. They were outlines of trees and bushes. Stark white outlines with jet black inner shapes. It made the trees look almost two dimensional from whatever angle she looked at them from.

She didn’t know if it was because she was a druid, and was more in touch with nature than most other people, but it just felt wrong. It looked wrong. Nothing seemed real wherever this was. Ingrid took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to open up her mind to the environment around her. Almost immediately she opened them in a cold sweat, gasping for air. She leaned against the nearest ‘tree’ for support and desperately tried not to fall over.

This was wrong, everything was wrong. Even in the bustling city when she opened her mind like that, it was still teeming with life. Insects, rats, weeds among the roads, fish and underwater plants in the river, mold growing in the sewer systems beneath. Her breathing started to pick up. It wasn’t as up front, but it was there, and she could feel it. Her head started to feel light, everything feeling woozy. Here, this place, this wrong, dark place. There was nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

The trees.

The grass.

The bushes.

Things she could see directly before her, and should be able to feel, were absolutely silent. There weren’t any animals or insects either, and no fish from the water. This place was completely devoid of any life.

Except for her.

Just her.

Her hand shot to her mouth as she felt the urge to throw up. Even after her first battle, where she could have died, this place was so many orders of magnitude more terrifying that she lacked the words to describe it. Was she dead? Was that what this was? No, it couldn’t be. There was no afterlife like this, otherwise the gods wouldn’t have any followers. She hadn’t been deep in her studies of the other dimensions of the world, but there wasn’t a single one that matched this description even slightly.

She took a single step forward and immediately felt her legs turn to jelly. The panic seemed to take precedence over the pain, however, as she could only curl up into a ball. She covered her ears from nothing in particular, like it would somehow keep out the deafening sound of her own heartbeat and breathing.

She had to calm down. As that thought crossed her mind, she couldn’t help but let out a quiet whimper of despair. Her usual method of calming down involved describing things to herself, but what was there to describe here? The void of black nothingness filled with white lines in the shapes of a false nature around her? Yeah, describing the exact thing sending her into a panic attack was a great idea.

Tears fell from her eyes as she curled tighter in on herself. She hated this, everything about it. What was there to think about? Literally anything would have been better than this. It had to be something either present, or something notable enough to occupy her mind. What even was there?

The kiss. They stayed shut, but her eyes weren’t squeezed as tightly as the thought crossed her mind. She wasn’t sure what made her remember it either. She hadn’t at first, the last thing she remembered was Alice cutting off her sleeve and then, nothing. For some reason, that feeling of Alice’s soft lips on her forehead popped back into existence in her brain.

It wasn’t the time to question it, just focus on it. Everything about it. Alice’s gentle voice, that feeling of her heart skipping a beat when it happened. Even as she was about to pass out, it had given her a brief moment of clarity to realize what had happened. What was the reason for it feeling so different though? Even in the moment she had thought about kisses they had shared before. When those happened, Alice sounded seductive, confident. Like she had Ingrid wrapped around her finger. It was nothing like the tender concern that was in her voice just before she ran off.

A small warmth grew in Ingrid’s cheeks as she thought about it. The warmth spread to her heart, and it felt like it wasn’t beating as fast. She continued to run through it in her mind, and gradually, minute by minute, she felt herself begin to calm down. Calm may have been a strong word for it, but it was enough that she could open her eyes without feeling like she was going to hyperventilate.

There was a part of her that wanted to ask Alice about it when she found her, but there were far more pressing questions to ask the dark elven woman. Besides, she was probably just overthinking things like she always did.

In fact, there were far more pressing questions in front of her at the current moment. She managed to stagger to her feet, using one of the ‘trees’ next to her for support. It was at that moment that she realized she didn’t have her staff. She cursed to herself. She could do magic without it, but it helped her channel it far easier. Getting out of this place without it was going to be difficult.

Ingrid clicked her tongue in annoyance. She still wasn’t any closer to figuring out where exactly this place was. Walking further into the not-woods didn’t help, because everything looked the exact same. There were no stars or landmarks to navigate where she was going.

There was a footstep behind her.

She whirled around, looking for where it had come from. Even in her terror, there was no mistaking it. It was definitely a footstep.

There was another, this time to her left.

Quickly turning to face the direction she heard it in, she began to feel sweat drip down her forehead. She gulped, then tried to open her mind again, suppressing a shiver as she once again felt that oppressive nothingness. Still, that meant there was nothing. She was the only one here.

Another footstep, crunching into the fake grass.

Ingrid tried her best not to panic as she struggled to think of what else was here, but nothing in her lessons was ever described as something like this. Sure there were illusionists and creatures that could hide, but a Druid would still be able to detect that there was something alive while in proximity.

Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw something move. Looking over, there were a few blades of the grass that had been trampled. Her heart sank. That was the opposite direction to the one she had come in. It was certain now. Someone, or something, else was here.

She wished she had her staff. If she had her staff then she could fight. She could protect herself. There was no life here, almost none of her magic would work. She was completely helpless. Hand to hand combat was never something she could take to. Fighting with her staff was hard enough. Her eyes were glued to the tree that the trampled grass led to, dreading something coming out from behind it, but at the same time unable to look away.

There was a beat of silence.

Then the figure leaned out from behind the tree.

Ingrid almost had a heart attack. They were feminine, with sunken eyes with stark white irises the same purity as the outlines around everything in this place. The sclera were a black void that almost looked barely there, but prominent all the same against her deathly pale skin and silver hair. She was tall, extremely tall. If Ingrid were to guess, about eight feet, maybe more. Despite her size, she was so thin it was uncanny, like there was barely any muscle between her bones and her skin. On her face were streaks of black ooze that continually fell from her eyes like tears, but also seemed to make up her clothes.

Ingrid couldn’t move. She stared at the figure as they stared back at her, the tiny pupils boring a hole into her being. The figure raised an arm out from behind the tree and rested a bony hand on its trunk. Her fingernails looked more like claws.

Panic rose into Ingrid’s throat as the creature tilted her head further. They gave a smile that opened far too wide for any humanoid creature, then dropped onto all fours. Ingrid’s knowledge of animals kicked in to scream at her to run. Or that was just the sound of her screaming out loud, it was hard to tell. She frantically gathered what little magic she could from the only life she could detect, herself, and forced her legs to run faster. She looked back and her heart sank. The creature was jumping from tree trunk to tree trunk with precision and speed straight out of a nightmare. Nothing that big should have been able to move that fast.

They were getting closer and closer. Ingrid begged her legs to go faster, but they just wouldn’t do it. Her heart was pounding into her throat. Even though she knew she shouldn’t, she glanced over her shoulder, only to see the monstrous woman diving directly at her. All Ingrid could do was let out a scream of sheer terror and bring her hands up to cover her face as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Ingrid shot straight up, screaming as she came to. As she began to realize where she was and stop, she heard a familiar, high pitched yelp as a small esper girl fell over. Gasping for air, she looked around frantically, wondering if that woman was about to pop out at her, and from where. It was a small, wooden room that was presumably in an inn. There was a dresser at the far wall, and she saw her things in the corner of the room in a bundle.

“Fuck, Princess, I knew you could scream but not like that…” said a groggy voice from the side of the bed Ingrid found herself in. She looked over and saw Alice, rubbing the sleep from her eyes with a hand. Ingrid noticed that the other hand appeared to be holding hers. She quickly fought off a blush.

Groaning, she slumped back down, holding her head. Whatever had happened, it had left her with a splitting headache. Not to mention her entire body felt like it was screaming. She had gone through hellish days of conditioning and not gotten this feeling. Then again, she had never summoned an enormous tree out of the ground before.

Malori hesitantly got up from her new place on the ground, looking anxiously at Ingrid. “H-H-How are you f-feeling?” she stammered nervously, holding her staff.

Ingrid opened her mouth to answer, then stopped. Right, her arm, the poison. She looked down at it, expecting to see a horrible scar, or some hideous signs of the effects, but saw… Nothing.

“How did…” she couldn’t even finish the sentence as she reached over to touch it with her other hand, as if it would be some sort of illusion that would vanish the moment something came into contact with it.

A wide grin spread across Alice’s face. “You know Princess, you said she was good, but I didn’t have any clue she was that good,” she mused, giving a proud look to Malori, who immediately blushed and shied away.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Malori, you did this?” she asked in complete awe. The esper gave a small nod, avoiding eye contact.

“I-I-I managed to n-neutralize the poison,” she said softly, “S-Sorry for being so s-slow.”

Ingrid furrowed her brow, then pulled her hand away from where Alice was holding it. Leaning forward, she pulled Malori into a hug, earning a small ‘eep’ of surprise. “I’m sorry for leaving you behind. I started acting before really thinking back there.”

“Is that not how you usually operate?” Alice quipped, earning a glare.

Ingrid rolled her eyes. “You did more than get rid of the poison, look!” she said with pride, showing her arm and the lack of an enormous gash along it. “You did that! Don’t apologize, I should be thanking you!”

Malori looked down at it, like she hadn’t considered that before, but didn’t say anything. At the very least, she returned the hug. Ingrid didn’t push things. This was enough for now.

“You know she healed more than just you,” Alice added, standing up. “By my count, I think there's a little over twenty or so people who aren’t dying thanks to you. You should be proud of that. You two are the heroes of the day!”

Ingrid tilted her head. “What about you? You were just as much a part of that as we were.”

It was hard to notice, but Ingrid could have sworn she saw Alice’s smile falter slightly. She brushed it off quickly. “I was just another person in on the fight. You two were the miracle workers there,” she said coolly.

That’s right. Alice was a part of the fight. Ingrid felt her stomach turn again as the events played out in her mind. Eight people. She had watched Alice kill eight people without hesitating, and here she was, cracking jokes with a confident smile on, same as ever. Evidently, she wasn’t good at hiding the apprehension on her face, as Alice's smile quickly fell. It changed from a look of concern, to apprehension, to understanding, and then to resignation.

“You have questions, don’t you. Both of you,” she sighed, walking over to and sitting in an armchair near the window. As she did, Ingrid noticed that it was dark out. She must have been out for a long time. She looked at Alice, then to Malori, then back to Alice with a quizzical look.

“There were more stragglers when I went to get her. She was trying to find us when three of them jumped her. I dealt with it,” she explained, like she had been reading Ingrid’s mind. She was always just an open book to Alice, wasn’t she? Malori gave Ingrid a signature tiny nod of acknowledgement, the kind she gave when she didn’t know what to say.

“I… Yeah. Sorry, it’s a little jarring, I guess,” she muttered, not making eye contact. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to ask first. You’ve been raising plenty of questions this entire time, and I didn’t want to ask them because I didn’t want to mess up the dynamic, but after today,” she stopped. Her shoulders sagged. “Eleven people, Alice. I watched eight of them. I know I killed someone too, but I hesitated so much. This was new for me, and I feel sick thinking about it. You seem barely affected, like it’s just another day…”

She trailed off, letting the statement hang in the air. Alice seemed to be deep in thought, choosing her words carefully. Eventually, she gave a pained expression that almost seemed like defeat. “I figured you would find out eventually, but this whole trip kinda sped that up, didn’t it?” she said with an amused huff. Ingrid couldn’t help but wince at her smile. Alice seemed to notice.

“I guess I’ll ask you a question then, Princess: ever heard of the Blacktips?” Alice asked, leaning sideways in the chair and propping her feet up on the opposite armrest.

Ingrid tried to think of the name, but shook her head. Alice nodded.

“Didn’t think so. No offense, but you’re kinda sheltered from all the shady shit. The Blacktips are…” she bit her lip, like she was thinking about saying something before relenting. “I’ll be blunt. They’re a group of assassins. Blades for hire. Contract killers.”

Ingrid’s blood ran cold. A similar expression of fear could be seen in Malori. Neither spoke. They could at least do Alice the courtesy of hearing her out.

“Yeah, I was a whore, but that was kind of a side-gig. I got to hook up with pretty girls, and I got to get information from them. Win-win in my book,” she chuckled, the bravado fading from her voice. She turned to look at Ingrid. “Went well for a couple years. Got some juicy gossip and new connections, until some sad elf came in crying her eyes out. She took one look at me and paid for a night. I uh, I kinda started to get attached.”

Once again Ingrid found herself fighting off a blush as she remembered that day. It was a particularly bad shouting match with her sister. Shouting match may have actually been a bad word for it. It was Cecilia yelling and cursing at Ingrid. She had run outside and kept running until she couldn’t run anymore, the memory of her legs screaming at her to stop somehow still fresh after all the years. All she wanted was to not feel so terribly lonely, and fortunately, there were places where one could pay for companionship.

When she had entered and made eye contact with Alice, the decision was already made. She didn’t even know her name yet. A part of it was spite. The thought of how furious her sister would be at the idea of the head of the family losing her virginity to a dark elf was the only thought on her mind going into that room. Then there was a second visit. Then a third. Then it started becoming a regular occurrence. Before long, she knew Alice’s name, and Alice became her confidant. Her thoughts were interrupted when Alice spoke again.

“The thing with the Blacktips is that, if you’re trusted enough, you get a veto. It’s a great privilege. They normally don’t ask questions about who they’re paid to kill, but their members are a priority. So those trusted members get to pick people and assign them a veto,” she explained, no longer looking at Ingrid. She stared at the ceiling, kicking her legs. “I had two saved up, since I didn’t really have anyone I cared about. Someone having a veto assigned means that they’re safe. The Blacktips refuse to accept any contracts that target that person, no matter how juicy the pay is. Can’t exactly be an organization if you kill your employees' loved ones. If a member ends up violating a veto,” she stopped. “Well, bad things happen.”

Alice looked over at Ingrid and Malori, who were both enthralled in the story. There was some apprehension, but Ingrid had been processing a lot of this as Alice talked. Alice was still her friend. She cared about her enough to expose this side of her life when it would be far better to keep it hidden. That showed trust, right?

“I ended up assigning both my vetoes after a couple months with you. On you and Mattias,” she mumbled, clearly embarrassed at it. She sat back up in the chair, leaning forward. “So, that’s my bullshit. Any questions?”

Silence pervaded the room. Even if Ingrid was going to trust Alice, it was still a lot to take in. Of course she had questions, but not the slightest clue where to start with them. She could tell that Alice was getting just as nervous from the silence from her uncomfortable squirming in the chair. She was never good with silences in general, let alone one directly caused by her.

“How did you know about the poison?” she managed to eke out. It was far from the top of her list, but it felt the easiest to ask at least. It was a decent starting point.

Alice bit her lip. “I’ve, uh, had to study up on poisons a few times. The one you got hit with was called Twilight, and it’s real nasty stuff,” she explained awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. “There’s no mundane cure for it. You either need a skilled magical healer, or magical ingredients. It’s really hard to make, and basically stopped being seen consistently anywhere after the war with the dark fey. It popping up here is… Concerning, to say the least.”

Ingrid felt a chill down her spine as she turned to Malori. She really would have died if it weren’t for her. Part of her wanted to thank her yet again, but she figured it could wait. Alice was right, it was concerning. A poison that required magical cures would be exceedingly dangerous if it became widespread. She wasn’t sure how skilled of a healer it took to neutralize it, and Malori was clearly some sort of prodigy, so she couldn’t exactly use her as a benchmark. Either way, places like the lower city and towns like this without a high population of magic users would suffer immensely.

Had anyone else been affected by the poison? Did Malori save them too? Did they have that weird nightma-

Ingrid’s train of thought stopped. What had happened again? She remembered having a nightmare, she remembered it being so incredibly vivid that it felt real. Even so, she couldn’t remember a thing about it. Just the awful sense of dread and terror that it had invoked.

“Everything okay Princess?” Alice asked, her look immediately changing to one of concern.

Ingrid blinked, then realized that she had been grimacing like she had a headache. She shook it off. “Ah, sorry, it’s nothing,” she deflected. Continually putting things off like this would be a bad habit to get into, but for now at the very least, it was necessary. She couldn’t just jump into processing whatever issue popped up before she had even finished dealing with what was in front of her.

She clicked her tongue, then looked over at Alice. It was hard to say it without her nervousness shining through. “You said when you hooked up with women around the city, you got information from them, right? Info and connections were the main goal there?”

Alice nodded. “Yeah, it was.”

Anxiety swelled in her chest. She took a deep breath. “Is that… Is that what I was?”

Alice’s eyes went wide. “No! Of course not!” she said hurriedly. She got up from the chair and walked to Ingrid’s bedside, taking Ingrid’s hand in both of hers. “I’m not gonna lie and say I had some sorta good motive, but you were a… Weird exception. I never wanted connections or anything from you, I just kinda liked being around you,” she averted her eyes.

It occurred to Ingrid that this was the first time she had ever seen Alice blush. It was odd, with her dark gray skin tone. Her cheeks actually seemed to get lighter, but it was undeniable what it was. Just as quickly as it had come, it faded.

“If you need extra proof that our friendship is real, I’m here aren’t I?” she chuckled awkwardly. “I’m running away from both my jobs for your sake. I can’t say it’s a good idea, but you needed help. What kinda friend would I be if I didn’t give it?”

Now it was Ingrid’s turn to blush. It was true. It would have made infinitely more sense to stay back in the city. She couldn’t claim to be knowledgeable about these things, but she highly doubted that even if Alice was lying, she was an important enough contact to abandon her other work to make sure they were okay.

She took another deep breath, a small smile creeping across her face. Alice was still her friend. It was still the same Alice, just with another layer exposed. She was training to be a part of the military, and would likely work with spies and assassins like Alice. To judge her for this would be incredibly hypocritical of her.

Her and Alice locked eyes as they both smiled. Ingrid became aware of how warm her hand felt in Alice’s. It was comforting. She wouldn’t be opposed to staying like this a little longer--

“U-Um, should I b-be here for this?” Malori spoke up awkwardly. The two women looked at her, then back at each other before separating their hands and blushing.

“I-It’s no biggie!”

“Yes! It's nothing that another friend shouldn’t be a part of!” Ingrid responded quickly. “Um, I don’t have any more questions, it’s all fairly straightforward to me at this point, is there anything you wanted to ask, Malori?”

It was the first time Ingrid had seen Malori with an unamused, almost accusatory expression. “N-No, I believe I’m fine with the information we’ve been given,” she sighed. She walked over to another of the three beds in the room and began getting it ready to sleep in. “I-It’s been a long day, and healing magic, especially on th-that many people is tiring.”

As if her body wanted to emphasize the point for her, she let out a large yawn. “I-I think I’m going to t-try to go to sleep early.”

“Yes, that makes sense. You should rest before the trip tomorrow,” Ingrid said, relieved that she didn’t want to press further. She turned back to Alice. “Do you think we should call things early too? Everything feels sore and I think I’ll fall over if I get out of bed. If we get up early we can look for a carriage in the morning too.”

“I guess. I wouldn’t recommend having me with you when you’re out lookin for one though,” she huffed, “We could barely convince the innkeeper to let us stay a night. Pretty sure if it weren’t for you and Malori being the heroes of the damn town we’d be out sleepin in the woods.”

Ingrid tilted her head. “Why is that? Not that I’m expecting it, but I’ve read about people having feasts or parties when travelers save their town. Much less requiring that so that they get the bare minimum service,” she said, befuddled by the idea.

Alice gave a wry smile. “Welcome to the world, Princess. You’re traveling with a dark elf, and these folks aren’t too happy about the idea of giving a hero’s welcome to one of the kind who attacked their town in the first place,” she laughed. It wasn’t her usual laugh, there was a bitterness to it. Ingrid didn’t like it. “Maybe I shoulda stayed behind. You guys wouldn’t have to deal with the baggage I’m bringin along then.”

She flopped down onto the bed between Malori and Ingrid, letting out a long sigh as she let all the stress release from her body after the exciting events of the day.

“That’s inane! Plenty of them saw you fighting back!” Ingrid said indignantly.

Alice gave that bitter laugh again. “You keep saying that like if you say it enough times, they’ll care. People like them rarely ever do,” she mused, getting back off the bed and starting to actually get ready to sleep. She took off her scarf and folded it neatly on the nightstand. “They see me and they make their judgment. Their judgment is that they don’t like me. Not a whole lot I can do to change that, so why should I let it bother me?”

Ingrid frowned and leaned her head back onto her pillow. “You were so connected in the city though. Why is this town so different?”

“Well, in the city, it’s not that it was accepting of my kind,” she sighed, “It was more that they accepted me despite my blood, ya know?” she finished getting sufficiently undressed to sleep and got into the bed. She leaned on her side to keep facing Ingrid before she continued talking. “I had to earn it. It was years before people started working with me, let alone trusting me.”

There was a silence that remained between them. The pessimism that practically radiated from Alice made it hard for Ingrid to find the right words. She kept learning more and more about Alice’s life and how difficult it was. What had she thought it was like before? Had the thought even crossed her mind? Despite her honesty before, it was doubtful that she would be willing to answer these kinds of questions without some sort of deflection or joke to change the subject. Ingrid may not have known the deeper workings of Alice’s life, but she still knew Alice.

As the silence hung there, she saw Alice close her eyes, taking in a deep breath through her nose before exhaling. She didn’t open her eyes when she spoke again. “Don’t worry about it, Princess,” she muttered groggily. “I just want to live my life and leave my blood behind. I’m happy in the city. I have a place. I don’t feel like going through the trouble of changing that.”

Ingrid felt a pang of guilt in her heart. “Okay, Alice. I understand,” she said solemnly. She made a note to herself to be on the lookout for places that allowed dark elves. They could focus on staying there for the rest of the journey when they were in towns or cities. The less they had to deal with people who thought like this, the better.

Neither said a goodnight as they fell asleep, facing each other. Their only company was the gentle sound of Malori’s breathing, her having easily fallen asleep even despite their conversation. There was so much that Ingrid wanted to say and without the smallest idea of any way to properly say it. After resigning herself to the discomfort of leaving things unsaid, her thoughts drifted to what she had seen when she was unconscious. She still couldn’t remember any details, but she continued struggling to try and recall them. She fell asleep cursing her inability to do so.