Chapter 75

“How was she?”

Amaya doesn’t turn when Beth enters the main room of the cabin. She focuses on the steaming bowl of oatmeal in front of her. She mindlessly cuts more fresh fruit into it to sweeten it and does not even blink as the table shudders when Liliana hops up from it eagerly. It was made of thick, sturdy dark wood and had swirling carvings that reminded Amaya of crashing waves.

“Did Livia seem sick? Is she resting now? Maybe I should go in and help her with Darek,” Liliana goes on to ramble as Beth approaches them.

“Miss Livia is just fine Miss Liliana,” Beth reassures her.

“Are you sure?” Liliana asks worriedly.

Amaya stuffs another mouthful of fruity oatmeal in her mouth, humming in appreciation at the flavoring. She hates it when food tastes bland.

“Yes, of course,” Beth says as she reaches out and guides Liliana back to her seat. She pushes the bowl of oatmeal towards the younger woman pointedly.

Liliana grabs up her wooden spoon obediently, but her eyes follow Beth's trek back to the humble kitchen.

“Livia will be fine,” Beth reassures again as she lowers the heat on the most pre-historic stove Amaya has ever seen in her life, “Now, while your sister rests, you must finish your breakfast. Didn’t you say you wish to explore around this new area we are in?”

Liliana brightens at this and nods energetically, “Yes!”

Amaya's lips pull in an amused smile against her will. She sets her spoon down in her empty bowl and stands up with it in her hands.

“Oh, finish already?” Beth turns to her with her usual motherly smile.

“Mhmm,” Amaya steps to the left to avoid Beth receiving hands, “Don’t worry. I can clean this myself. You should take your own advice and sit down and eat something, Beth.”

“Yes, well, I will do that right after I clean things up—”

“Nope!” Amaya gently pushes her away from the stove after setting down her bowl, “None of that.” Before Beth can protest anymore, she begins to spoon some oatmeal and guides Beth to sit down before placing the bowl in front of the older woman.

“There you are,” Amaya says with a flash of a smirk before turning away. She begins to casually clean things up in the kitchen while Beth gapes at her.

Liliana laughs brightly, “Amaya is right. You should eat up!”

Amaya nods sagely, “Listen to the girl, she speaks the truth,” she says with her back still turned.

“R-right, of course,” Beth says hesitantly.

Once done cleaning Amaya turns to lean against the counter with crossed arms. She scans the room, finally noticing for the first time the size of the place and the furniture. She blinks hard. Damn. She must have been really tired to miss that coming in yesterday. She is also quick to note that Sen had once again slipped away without anyone noticing. Sneaky bastard.

She huffs.

“I want seconds!” Liliana declares happily as she hops up and moves to the leftovers to serve herself.

“Miss Liliana I can get that for you,” Beth looks up eagerly, moving to do as she just said.

Liliana spins around with a mocking look of sternness, “Nope!” She copies Amaya’s tone perfectly, “No can do! We aren’t back at home anymore, Miss Beth. We are all on equal footing here.” Then she turns around and stuffs her bowl full of oatmeal with a happy little dance.

Amaya smiles approvingly. Livia and she both have been trying to drive this home ever since they all hit the road, putting the Kingdom of Wisteria behind them, but Beth seems rather set in her ways. Amaya didn’t understand it at all. It was one thing to be fully immersed in a role for a job, it was another thing entirely to keep on with it once the job was finished. She enjoyed her own freedom greatly. As bemusing as it had been to play the devoted maid to a disgraced lady, it was even easier to shake such things off her shoulders with a careless shrug.

“Right, yes,” Beth says awkwardly and sits back down with a ramrod straight back. She delicately dips her wooden spoon into her bowl and takes a small demure bite, chewing slowly.

Amaya rolls her eyes at the performance of etiquette. Then scowls at herself. She knew better than that. Beth wasn’t even putting any thought into her movements. It was simply second nature at this point.

She remembers being like that. Being trained to be like that. She shakes her head, her scowl sinking even further into her face as old aches bubble up. Amaya rubs absently at the faint scars on her hands. With time, they would fade away completely, but for now, they were a reminder of a time when she was nothing but a pretty tool to be bargained off to the highest bidder.

To think she had once been happy and proud to be nothing more.

How things have changed in such a short amount of time.

Thinking of changes, Amaya's mind takes her back to earlier this morning. She recalls Livia's eyes. How blank and black they had been even as they had begun to glow faintly in the dark. How the promise of threat had risen so suddenly and with little warning.

She shudders and wraps her arms around herself.

Her employer has always been a little off. Amaya had picked up on it the moment they had met. But none of it had mattered to her in the face of finally getting all she had desired. She wasn’t normally the type to fall for such things. She knew better. Amaya had been forced to learn all those lessons the hard way after all. She knew if the reward sounded too good, then it was utter bullshit.

But there was something about Livia that just had rung true. And before Amaya knew it, she just got swept up in it all. And, to Livia’s credit, everything had been going exactly as she had explained it would. Scarily so.

To be honest, Amaya had never really believed everything Livia had told her. It had all sounded utterly insane. The reincarnation, the multiple lives, this world being a “game” world. She had just accepted it all on the surface while not ever really giving it too much thought.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

But now...

Amaya's gaze warily drifts toward the closed door of the bedroom.

There were too many unanswered questions. And more kept being added onto the steadily growing pile as the days wore on.

Amaya normally would curb her curiosity. Everyone had their secrets. Even her. She understood. She did. But when those secrets start to become a threat to her?

That is when things start to clash.

Amaya has survived this long by herself because she has always put herself first.

Family. Friendships. Love.

All of it was bullshit at the end of the day. It was another lesson she would never forget. Never again would she be vulnerable and so fucking stupid. She wasted so much of her life chasing something that had never been there in the first place.

Amaya pushes off the counter and walks towards the door, suddenly feeling restless. She ignores the call of her name and steps outside.

She stands there for a few seconds, breathing in, holding it, and breathing out. Her heart was pounding, her fingers twitching.

Amaya wants to punch something.

Instead, she forces her hands into the pocket of her pants, picks a random direction, and starts walking. It isn't long before she is surrounded by tall trees blotting out the clear sky.

The air was cool and the leaves fell brown and dead to the ground around her.

Amaya just needs some time to get her head on straight. She hates to admit it, but Livia had genuinely scared her this morning. She had felt like a threat that had needed to be put down, and Amaya’s body had responded on instinct. It was only at the last second that she had gone for a slap instead of grabbing the dagger she always kept under her pillow.

She sighs deeply as she comes to a stop.

What the hell should she do?

On the one hand, it wasn’t like Amaya hadn’t known what she was getting into. Livia had been very upfront when it came to the contract between them, going so far as to keep it blunt and straight to the point. It was a nice give-and-take with more than a few added bonuses that worked perfectly in her favor.

Looking back, Amaya was sure Livia had already known exactly who she was and knew exactly what she wanted well before they ever officially met. That woman was very meticulous like that.

But, on the other hand, things are starting to become more complicated than Amaya had predicted they would be. For one, she hadn’t expected to get along with Livia so well. She also hadn’t thought that everything she had been told was actually true. And in the face of all that, Livia wasn’t just some disgraced noble lady who wanted revenge. No. She was some one-hundred-and-something thing that had knowledge and power Amaya had never known even existed in this world.

And she had come face to face with that thing only a few hours before. It didn’t seem to think too highly of her if the way it had looked at her as if she was nothing more than an insignificant speck was anything to go by.

It had shaken her resolve. Amaya felt so dumb for being scared in the first place. She knew Livia. She knew all her favorite foods, her favorite color, and what made her crack a smile. There was nothing to fear from her! She was just a girl who was the same age as her, who shared a similar experience as her!

Hell, Amaya would even call her a friend even with her own personal hang-ups and complicated feelings about that word.

But what she knew and what she felt were completely different things. And right now, her fear was winning. Amaya needed assurance. She needed to know that all the risks would be worth it. And for that, she needs her many questions answered!

Amaya begins to pace muttering to herself, “Given all the clues I know so far, it’s obvious she had lived well beyond the years of any mortal. So, that automatically rules out humans and any low-level beings. There are several humanoid creatures that have long lifespans such as elves, dwarfs, beast-men, demons, mermaids, nymphs, and so on. All of them have the potential to wield magic beyond the human scope.”

The back of her knees hits a fallen log, absently, Amaya lets her weight fall onto it.

“But most have long retreated into their own hidden worlds after all those wars. The dwarfs still linger for the sole sake of trade, while the elves have long since been stripped of any real power for over a hundred years now and are often seen in slave markets as often as beast-men,” Amaya brows furrow in thought, “As far as I am aware, with the exceptions of Demon Kingdoms on the edge of the world and the free Beast-men Islands, this is an era of humans. It has been so for over a thousand years.”

Humans have long since conquered every corner of this planet. Or more accurately, they loved to think they have. Amaya snorts. She had traveled enough to know this statement wasn’t true. She encounters more monsters and other creatures than human settlements. And often, when she does come upon a settlement, it's one that has long been abandoned after having been trampled underfoot.

Amaya shakes the images of broken toys and dried crusted blood from her head. She was getting distracted.

“So, what exactly could Livia be?” Amaya asks herself out loud. Of all the questions she had, this one was the most pressing one as of this morning. She recalls the size of the furniture. At most, it was only slightly larger than average. So that ruled out any of the giants. Amaya briefly entertains the idea of Livia being a titan and snickers at the image that brings up.

Of course, it was impossible. Titans were of a godly nature and the shortest of them could tower over a mountain. They were mythical and only came to life in old tales of times so far back even the humans of the current era weren’t sure where to place them on the timeline. In her culture, titans were worshiped as both the bringer of the end and the start of new beginnings. And others, they were simply ghastly monsters that needed to be defeated.

Amaya massages the bridge of her nose. She couldn’t focus at all today, it would seem.

If she had to make an educated guess now, Amaya would say that Livia was, “An elf.”

At first, it made no sense. After all, the elves of today were nothing but pretty immortals who sought out peace above all else and because of that, they were often the target of pillaging and slavery. But then, she thought about it.

There were many tales of elves back in their glory days. Back then they were warmongering warriors who cared nothing about the idea of peace. From the stories Amaya was told while she was a child, and much later, when she had been on her own, elves had once ruled as humans do now. With raw power and natural abilities that had once been commonplace amongst their race, they had held on to their power for thousands of years.

It was their relics, language, and abilities that humans eventually learned to copy. Without the elves' help, humans would have never been able to gain the magical power they have today.

And of course, as humans tend to do, they had gotten greedy. They wanted more. And when it had been denied to them. They simply took it. It was in this era that the magic system was born. The Golden Era of Humanity, many historians and scholars name it. Humanity had rapidly developed during this era. They learned how to take the power of the elves and make it their own. The elves grew weaker as humans thrived.

Even in their current weakened state, elves were magically gifted. They were often used as bodyguards, warriors for hire, and warm bodies to feed into human armies. They were also much sturdier than humans like other magical beings and tended to run on the tall side.

If it weren’t for their current notions of peace, they could have still been rulers of this land.

Amaya sometimes wondered why they weren’t. By all accounts, they still should be. Humanity has come a long way in a short amount of time, but when it comes to raw power, many other creatures in this world could easily stomp them into submission.

How was it that humans were the most dominant?

And why did elves just let themselves be treated like dolls to be abused, used, and thrown away?

None of her teachers could ever give her an answer when she had asked such questions. Instead, they punished her. Scolded her for being too outspoken.

“Obedient wives do not talk as such!” She had been told, “You are simply to speak when your husband bids you to and nothing else!”

Something splinters and pain laces up her hand causing Amaya to look down. The log she was sitting on now has a small crater in it.

Amaya slowly lifts her bleeding fist and inspects it passively.

Great.

Just what she needed on top of everything else. Amaya could already hear Beth's frantic worry and Liliana’s many questions. She sighs as her shoulders slump in defeat.

“Damn it.”