She had killed a man. Sure, it was in defense of a fellow man, but it was still a shock for Ixalia. Not so much the act itself as was the ease with which it happened. Just a trigger pull, a tiny movement of a finger to cut someone’s future short.

Ixa didn’t feel much for having done so. It felt like anything else she ever did. It just… happened. There was nothing more to it and nothing less.

Books and movies she enjoyed were filled with scenes where people puked or experienced a crisis after their first kill. She was under the impression that that was the expected reaction, she anticipated a wave of feeling to crash into her.

Instead, she felt angry at the man who hid under a table only to jump out to kill Neibrt, but was empty when it came to the fact that a man was dead as a consequence of her actions.

The shock came because of this non-reaction, she felt like it had to have happened and that it didn’t, scared her. What did it say about her, that she could kill a man and feel nothing?

She tried to find solace in prayer. She wasn’t overly religious, but still to some extent was. Who wasn’t when gods were right there? But to her, it was simply part of life, not a way of life. Her prayer was one she learned as a kid, taught to her by her mom.

It was supposedly some old thing and she didn’t know the meaning behind the words, but it felt right at the moment. Sidy would have been able to translate it for her if she'd asked.

Her next introspection, following the orison, was cut short when the woman to her right, the one she was trying to talk to before everything happened just now, spoke.

This time it wasn’t the language she used before, it was the same one as in the prayer, the speech of clergy. Ixalia never learned it, but she heard it enough times to recognize it upon hearing it.

She might have not understood it, but she knew someone who did. The young woman turned to her friend and woke her up, rushing to explain the situation and the fact that she needed her help translating.

Sidy barely opened her eyes when she had to close them again, pressing them into her skull with the fingers of her good hand.

“Ixa, stop. I just woke up, you’re giving me a headache. What happened?”

“I have no idea how you slept through the gunshot but there’s this thing I need your help with. You know the clerical tongue, right?” Ixa was still spewing words at an inordinate pace.

“Gunshot, what? What happened?”

She seemed to have fixated on the wrong part because her friend steered her back on track. "Doesn't matter right now. Clergyspeak, yay or nay?”

“It’s not ‘clergyspeak’, and yes. I do. My mother made sure of that.”

“Gods bless her devoted, reverent soul.” She was on a roll with all the praise for the gods today. But it was an unusual day indeed, to say the least. “That one speaks it too, can you get from her what’s going on? And maybe stop those outside from killing us all?” She pointed to the woman in red and then to the doors that had a big hole in them.

Sidy looked at Helena, as she named herself, and spoke a sentence that Ixa didn’t understand.

Before a reply came a loud crash announced the entrance of their oppressors. Zev, Peter, Lubosh and P-J took up positions right in front of everyone else, who was clustered in a corner to make their position a little bit more defensive.

There were no thoughts of running away. First, they'd have to leave everyone else behind, more than half their number, now that Neibrt was about to become another causality. Second, they didn’t know where they’d run to, just like they didn’t know where they were.

They had to make a stand. It would all come to an end, one way or another. Ixa hastily picked the pistol she dropped back up and aimed, hand still shaking slightly. She didn't shoot though, not yet. She'd gotten lucky before to hit on the first try.

Seven men in armor entered and formed inside, showing furniture aside. More than a dozen, more lightly kitted out people moved inside and behind them. They scanned the room and upon sighting the group, stepped towards them. There was no rushing at unarmed people this time. They were against weapons and acted like it.

*Stop! Don’t fight. Just… just wait a moment.* The woman in red shouted something at them that made them pause. Ixalia wasn't sure what she told them, but anything that postponed the coming fight had to be for the better, right?

*Helena? You’re alive?!* A voice sounded from outside the room and soon a man was helped inside. It was one of the two who were thrown away from Liman. He looked around, his eyes staying for just a moment on the other man, who broke his neck. Then his eyes landed on them and narrowed. His gaze lingered on everyone and stopped pointed at Helena. *What the hell is going on here?*

*They’re not hostile. Not to each other and not to us, not really.* Helena spoke and Ixa could only look from one person to another and guess as to what was being said. Their members, who stood in front, clutching weapons, were shifting uncomfortably and she had to still them with a few choice words.

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Talking was better than fighting in Ixalia’s book, whatever was being said. Maybe, just maybe, they'd all stay there. She'd rather not have to use the gun again.

*Tell that to Pjotr and the rest who's dead.* The man said pointing at a few bodies, acid palpably dripping from his voice. *Now, stop fucking around and come over here, we have business to finish here.*

*Can’t, and you just stop playing warrior and listen!*

*Can't, or won't. There is a big difference between the two and you know it.*

*Literally can’t. Broke my hands and legs somehow.* Helena was waving her arms, their end flopping around.

That can’t be good for us, Ixa thought.

*They cripple you and you say they’re harmless?* Anger made its way to the forefront of the man’s speech now.

*Never said harmless, just not a threat. And what would you do to someone who tried to kill you and you had nothing to bind them?*

*That’s not the issue her…*

*You’d kill them! No questions asked. For gods’ sake, they saved my life! Could have left me on the floor to bleed out, but they took care of me. After I tried to kill them after we did kill them!*

*Again, that’s n…*

Both of them were yelling now and the argument was getting quite heated. Ixa was starting to get a crink from all the twisting about.

*Shove that stubborn attitude away for once in your life and listen to me. Do they look like a threat to you, those three can’t even hold a weapon right, and you’d have to get to this thing again.* She waved her flapper in the gun’s direction.

*We heard it, what was that about then?*

*René jumped up and took one of them down. You might call it self-defense, just like earlier.*

*You’re defending demons here, Helena.* The man was calming down now, or at least he lower the volume a bit. Probably a good sign.

*I know how crazy it sounds, Percy. But trust me on this. You can stand there and rush them if it goes wrong, but let me talk to them.*

*Again, demons.*

*And yet, they talk. Not modern Merenese, but that one over there does speak the old version of it.*

*Demons.* The man sounded desperate now and the rest of them didn’t look much better.

*I know!*

*Fine, we’ll stand down, if they stand down and separate humans from demons.*

*Great, just let me handle this.*

Some kind of accord was reached between the pair and Helena turned to Sidy again, speaking in the other language. There was a little back and forth and Ixa waited for a moment for everything to be said before asking.

“What did she say?”

Sidy had to ruminate for a bit. “I am rusty in the clerical tongue and neither of us clearly knows all the words and proper grammar, so it’s a bit of a process, but…” She scratched the back of her head and kneaded her neck. “That those over there will ‘lower weapons’ and ‘walk down’ if we do the same and somehow separate, but I don’t know what she meant by that last thing.”

“So if we back off, they’ll back off?”

“Something like that.”

Ixa turned to their defenders. “Heard that, guys?”

They didn’t react and it was Lubosh who spoke up. “How do we know they’re telling the truth?”

“I mean… there’s a whole room in between us. If you sit down and drop your weapons, you’ll have plenty of time to pick them back up.” Sidy chimed in.

“I don’t like it.”

Zev was the first to lower his spear. “Let’s just do it. We stand no chance against them, just look at them. And I still have to get back to Lubomira. I didn’t get to finish.” That caused the rest to waver and a moment later all of them were sitting down. Even Ixa placed the gun back into its holster but left it with a round in its chamber. No need to repeat her previous mistake.

A few more words left Helena and Ixalia looked at Sidy, still keeping an eye on the other side of the room, just in case of a dirty trick. They were relaxing their stances as well but did not put their weapons away yet.

“She asked me if I am under duress. Or something like that. And repeated that word from before. What could she mean?” Sidy said, face creased in confusion.

“Ask her, maybe? Get her to explain.”

The conversation lasted much longer this time, going back and forth, both of the women growing visibly exasperated with their lack of vocabulary and each other. Flappers were vivaciously flipping in the direction of Ixa, Peter, and Perry and Jerry.

“What’s going on?” Zev asked just as Ixa was getting worried again. More worried, that is.

Sidy cut off what she was saying and addressed the healer. “She’s asking if the four of them are holding the rest of us as slaves, or prisoners, or something like that. She’s calling them… I don’t even know… ‘pawns of forces of visage opposite the gods’ is the best I got from her.”

“Is she calling us ugly?” Ixa was befuddled by that. “That can’t be right, right?”

“Well stop interrupting and let me do this, then.”

Meanwhile, a similar conversation took place between the other side.

*What’s taking so long, is separation such a hard thing to do, or what?* asked Percy.

*Language barrier, remember? Neither of us is particularly good at old Merenese. She doesn’t understand why you want that and there’s no word for a ‘demon’ that I know. And she wants a reason.* Helena replied.

*Isn’t the reason obvious? They’re demons.*

*To them it isn’t, no. It’s almost like they don’t even think of them differently.*

*That’s just crazy.*

*Yes, it is, now shush, looks like they’re done talking.*

More talking and more back-and-forth later and no reason was forthcoming. After a harsh word or two coming from the other side of the room, Sidy threw in the towel.

"Nope, can't tell why. She just says that the big guys over there want to get the four of you away from the rest of us to feel safe. I mean, I can get the idea why, but it just goes against the grain."

“Are you calling me ugly now? Right back at you, triple-hand.” Ixa laughed.

“Low blow, snake,” her friend retorted.

It clicked in Ixa’s mind. “Oh, right… that.”

“Wait, did you forget?” Sidy asked, mind boggled.

She had to cringe a little, rubbing her nape. “Kind of?”

“Just do as they ask?”

“Fine. Guys? A little help here?” She reached out and Perry grabbed her and together with Jerry dragged Ixa a little to the side. It made no difference in how a fight would go, really, but it made the warrior happy.

“Ok, now what?”

Ixa eyed her friend warily and then pointed at the other woman. “Don’t ask me, ask her, it’s their turf.”

A moment later, it was Helena asking Perceval. *Now, what?*

*It was your idea to talk, get this sorted then.*

*Yeah, sure. But at least tell me what you’re willing to accept, give to something to work towards.*

*Humans get released, demons get put to the sword. Like we should have done already.”

*Something reasonable, something they might actually accept? *

*That’s the only reasonable thing here.* Percy proclaimed with utter conviction.

Helena had to sigh and tried to cover her eyes with a hand, which did not work out. *I already told you, they don’t make a difference between themselves, they are one people. To them it would be like you saying men go, women die.*

*Then they are crazy.*

This was going to be a long day still.