The cold evening air stung the tip of her nose and each pointed ear. Daana hardly noticed. Not with the radiating warmth that spread from her chest to each fingertip and toe, filling her with a happiness she had never known before. Her mother was alive. What’s more, Daana was being taken to her. She blinked away the swelling tears that threatened to fall, all while wondering if this was just another cruel dream and, any moment now, she would awaken to find herself lost and alone in the world once more.

The ruckus coming from the lithe figure who paced back and forth, kicking up the dirt on the edge of her peripheral vision was, admittedly, making the scenario a little less dreamlike. “No!” Ellisar thundered, accentuating each word with a dramatic foot stomp. “No, no, no, no!”

Ashwyn’s offer to reunite Daana with her mother had flipped the conversation on its head, reversing her and Ellisar’s given roles. The orc remained seated on the ground, her once rigid shoulders now noticeably relaxed–the cool, calm antithesis to Ellisar’s fiery rage. A faint smile played on Ashwyn’s lips as she watched her partner’s increasingly desperate antics. “This is not your most compelling argument so far, dear.”

“You want an argument?” Ellisar whirled around, loose hair whipping over her shoulder as she threw her hands out from her sides. “I’ll give you a fucking argument. Starting with, are you out of your fucking mind?”

“I think that qualifies as a question.”

“I broke you out so we could retire. The last thing we need is for you to get us roped into another bloody war!”

“Returning Daana to her mother is not getting involved,” Ashwyn replied matter-of-factly. “It is repaying a debt. One that you incurred by lying and manipulating her in the first place.”

“That’s what I do!”

“I know, and you’re so good at it. Just like I’m good at volunteering our services for lost causes. We balance each other out.”

“This is not a lost cause. It’s suicide!” Ellisar said. “We already have Geralt and half the realm tearing apart the countryside looking for us. We don’t need to take on any more trouble right now.”

The radiating warmth stirring within Daana’s rapidly beating chest started to dissolve. Her wide-eyed gaze darted back towards the trees as she considered–for what would not be the first, nor last time that evening–whether or not it was too late to extract herself from the heated conversation as quickly as her feet could carry her. Although she had never had the privilege of witnessing a parental argument, she was certain this is what it must have felt like. Ashwyn and Ellisar argued back and forth in front of her, about her, speaking as if she wasn’t even there!

Alas, her inability to act did not apply to the others, and the argument carried on around her regardless.

“Whether or not we help Daana doesn’t change the fact that we’re wanted fugitives, Ellie.” Ashwyn collected the cloth from her lap and resumed the process of stitching it into something that loosely resembled clothing. “We’re still going to have a bounty on our heads either way.”

“Yes, and do you know what makes wanted fugitives easier to catch? Stupid shit like trying to smuggle a palace brat across war stricken territories to another fucking continent! Larkspur is all the way out in the flatlands, remember?”

“I would argue that leaving the territories in which we are wanted fugitives might actually be a good thing, no?”

Ellisar was back to pacing, stopping every few steps to punt any stone she happened upon as far into the trees as physically possible. “The flatlands are not a simple hop, skip, and jump away. Getting there will take weeks.”

“Months, even. Depending on the route and how vigorously Geralt is patrolling the borders.” Ashwyn passed the needle through the cloth and pulled the thread taut as her eyes roved upwards, considering alternatives to their predicament. “Passage by sea would be faster. That would require finding a vessel traveling in that direction and bribing our way onboard, of course.”

Ashwyn tilted her head at Ellisar curiously. “Remind me, how much money do you have on hand again, dear?”

“None!”

The orc resumed her stitching with a hapless shrug. “By horseback it is then.”

“Fine!” Ellisar accentuated this with her most powerful kick yet, sending a fist-sized stone hurtling into the woods at lethal speed. A thunderous crack rang out the moment the projectile struck a tree trunk beyond their line of sight. “I’ll return Daana myself then. You just stay out of it. I’ll hole you up in a cave somewhere and come back for you when I’m finished.”

“For Daana’s sake, I think I will be seeing this one through.”

Daana narrowed her eyes at Ellisar. “You were planning on ditching me, weren’t you?”

“Yeah.” Ellisar’s stare was as cold as ice. “That’s what I was planning. Definitely not something more permanent involving a rock, some rope, and a fast moving river.”

“You big flirt,” Ashwyn said with a snort.

“You don’t get to make executive decisions for us on your own. We’re partners. That’s what we agreed on.”

“I’m not. I’m making a decision for myself. You are more than welcome to join or wait for my return. That decision is entirely up to you.”

“You don’t even know the way!”

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“True.” Ashwyn nodded, no longer able to disguise the mischievous smile that pulled across her tusked face. Despite the inescapable tension hanging over their heads, there was clearly a game afoot to which Daana neither understood the rules, nor wanted to. The orc carried on, as chipper as ever. “Never fear, love. I’m certain Daana and I can make do without you.”

“That could take months!”

“Years, even. What with my tendency to treat directions like suggestions and all.”

Ellisar’s rigid shoulders slumped. “We’re not even going to talk about this?”

“Oh, now you want to talk? Funny how that only happens when the situation is an inconvenience to you.” Ashwyn kept her eyes on her work, moving the needle in and out of the cloth with not a practiced hand, but a determined one. The previously light, cheery playfulness left her voice, leaving in its stead a tone that had more weight to it than an iron anvil. “Of course we’re going to talk about this more. Later, preferably. When there isn’t an impressionable elfling that might get scarred for life present.”

Ellisar’s reply came in the form of an unintelligible growl.

“So feisty, tonight.” Ashwyn waved her off with a chuckle. “I’ll have to remember that while we practice our counting later.”

Ellisar’s pinched expression held strong for several heartbeats before it gave in, transforming into something that looked merely annoyed, and no longer teetering on edge of committing a murder spree. With a disgusted shake of her head, the elf collected her bow and quiver and slung them back over her shoulder. “You make it very hard to stay angry at you when you say things like that.”

“Love you too,” Ashwyn replied sweetly.

Ellisar’s harsh stare dropped to the pair of dead rabbits before shifting to Daana. “Make yourself useful and clean these while I’m gone.” And then, in a manner that was as unnatural as it was unexpected, the corner of Ellisar’s upper lip lifted and a single, pained word emitted from between her tightly clenched teeth. “Please.”

Now Daana really wanted to run.

Wordlessly, Ellisar tugged her hood back over her head and strode back into the trees, disappearing without a sound.

“...What just happened?” Daana asked feebly.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean for you to see all that, Peaches. It was nothing really. Just your typical marital spat.”

Daana was one hundred percent certain none of what she just witnessed could be classified as typical–particularly the ‘please’ part. Deciding it was best if she didn’t understand, Daana grudgingly stood and went and collected the rabbits. She tried not to notice the way they stared up at her with wide, vacant eyes. Ellisar had already performed a quick field dressing, slicing the rabbits from chest to tail on the underside and removing their entrails. She’d graciously left the skin and heads intact for Daana to deal with on her own.

‘It builds character’ was Ellisar’s customary response when Daana objected to such indelicate work.

The voracious rumble in her stomach told her it would be worth a few moments of queasiness. Old Daana would have turned her nose up at such a task, but this was a matter of life and death now, and survival made you do things you never thought possible. With a sigh, she rolled her sleeves to the elbow and slipped a folding knife from her trousers. She selected the larger rabbit and set about slicing a pocket into the hide along the back, trying not to look the poor thing in the eyes as she did so.

“Can’t believe you’re Lark’s kid,” Ashwyn said.

Daana hooked her first two fingers on each hand into the pocket and pulled, separating the hide from the meat with a series of strained tugs. Talking helped keep her mind off the fact that the pelt was not tearing away as neatly as she would have preferred. “I’m still wrapping my head around it, too.”

“You some kind of witch then? Like your mother?”

There had been a time in her life, not too long ago, that Daana would have sold her soul to become a witch. As of late, those dreams had since turned to nightmares and Daana had done everything in her power to bury them. Such information didn’t make for polite conversation so she grunted a simple ‘no’ instead.

“You cursed then?”

Her eyebrows knit together. “What?”

“You arms, Peaches. You’ve either got a very interesting taste in body modification, or something else is going on. And I mean this in the nicest way, but you don’t seem like the type to sit through a tattoo much less whatever that is.”

“Oh.”

Shit. She forgot how well orcs could see in the dark. Suddenly self conscious of her exposed arms, Daana fought the urge to tug her sleeves back over the black veins. Not a good idea at the moment, considering her hands were slick with rabbit juices. “Maybe?” she said, separating the last stubborn strip of hide from the meat with an ungentle tug. “Hard to say, really. No one’s been able to provide any answers so far. All I know is that it acts squirrely around magic.”

The use of her powers seemed to exacerbate the spread as well. While Daana could not rid herself of the infection itself, abstaining from magic was helping slow the transmission. And, as if that wasn’t reason enough, there was also that other unfortunate side effect the dark magic had each time she activated her powers. That thing she didn’t dare talk about even though forgetting it had proved somewhat impossible so far.

On cue, her vision filled with the memory of crackling yellow and orange tongues of flame licking the dark night sky. She could suddenly feel the scorching heat against her face as the screams grew fainter in the distance.

“Daana?”

“Huh?” Daana cleared the haunting images from her mind with a violent shake of her head, only vaguely aware that Ashwyn had said something. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

The orc narrowed one eye at her suspiciously. “Is it going to be a problem, I said.”

“No, not at all.” So long as Daana forwent the use of magic, everything would be just peachy. “Not to you anyway. Might kill me though.”

“Sorry to hear that.” To Ashwyn’s credit, she managed to impart this while sounding believable. “All the more reason to go see your mother, I imagine. If anyone knows how to fix it, it’ll be her.”

“Was she nice?” Daana resisted the sudden urge to kick herself. Of all the questions she could have blurted out, why did she pick that one? It was better than, ‘did she love me?’, Daana supposed. Or ‘did she regret abandoning me?’ ‘Will I finally have the family I so desperately want?’

“Was she nice?” Ashwyn repeated, seemingly stumped by the question.

“My mother. Ellisar says she was a bitch.”

“Ah well, if it helps, Ellie calls almost everyone that.”

“I want to know what she was like.” Daana reached for the second rabbit as she talked. “You know, if we’re going to get along or if she’s just going to end up tolerating me like everyone else does.”

“Oh.” From Ashwyn’s startled expression, she was thinking something along the lines of ‘I am woefully unprepared for a conversation of this magnitude’. After a moment of pained deliberation, she offered something that helped ease some of the growing anxiety rolling around Daana’s empty gut. “You’ve got to remember, I met her in a very desperate time. We were on the run with half the realm at our backs. Nice wasn’t something any of us cared about. She was determined, though. And fierce. Goddess, your mother didn’t back down for anyone or anything.”

That was something, wasn’t it? Daana lifted her head, feeling her spirits do the same. “Yeah?”

“Put it this way, most days I was just relieved she and I were fighting on the same side.”