Chapter 147

We Should Never Have Met

Arryn charged at her with her short sword.

“I admired you once. You and your Magic,” Illumca dodged the sword with a step to the right.

“But not anymore,” She said as she danced with her daggers. Parrying, cutting, and thrusting, as lithe and unpredictable as a butterfly’s flight.

Arryn pushed the attack in frustration, doing a quick thrust after a feint to the left. But Illumca had seen this and caught her wrist while retaliating with a thrust of her own. Arryn swiftly dodged the attack by tilting her head to her left. But Illumca, who had been trained by Connie in manners of close combat, smoothly transitioned her earlier thrust into a downward push and forced her opponent to kneel. At the same time, she dislocated her wrist, causing Arryn to drop her weapon in pain.

Illumca kicked her on the chest and sent her sprawling on the ground.

“Hah…hah…” Illumca quickly mounted her and brought her dagger close to Arryn’s neck.

Their eyes locked into each other.

Illumca saw the resignation in her eyes and felt angry. Angry at how easily she gave up. She wanted her to fight back. Wanted her to feel how she felt when she was thrown into despair.

“You have no right to surrender! You have no right to be so weak!!”

Her hands that were holding the dagger trembled. She did not know why. Is this not what I want?

“Stop.”

As she was doubting herself, she heard Connie’s voice. She thought that she was hallucinating, but the girl really was there, standing before her with hands behind her back.

“How…did you find me?”

“It’s hard not to when everything around you is on fire.”

“Why…did you stop me? She tried to kill you!”

“If you would push that dagger into her throat with joy in your heart, I’d have let you do so, but…” Connie knelt before her and brushed away the hair that obscured the wet cheeks and the tearful eye on her First Disciple. “…this is not a face that says that you are happy.”

“Then what should I do?”

“That is not for me to say,” Connie replied. “What do you want to do?”

Illumca wiped the snot that was starting to leak from her nose with the back of her hand. After a few moments of pause, she looked at Arryn who was still staring at her with a bloodied nose.

She then sheathed her daggers.

“Arryn. It’s time we talk.”

With that, she dug her fist into her solar plexus. The sudden punch expelled the air from her lung and sent her into the darkness.

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“Haah!!”

The bite of a splash of ice-cold water woke Arryn. She opened her eyes and shuddered as the water seeped into her clothes.

“Hello…cousin,” Illumca said as she threw the used bucket to a corner and dragged a wooden chair close and sat upon it, her arms resting upon her knees. She then leaned down and brought her face inches before the captive Assassin.

“I should ask if you are happy to see me, but I suppose I am someone you least wanted to see right now,” she began. There was a smile on her face, but Arryn could see the mocking cynicism in that smile. “The feeling is mutual.”

Arryn was still looking at her with an expression of disbelief. The Dark Elf before her was tall, outstandingly breathtaking, and possessed of Mana so pure, she could feel it prickling against her skin. How could she be Illumca? The Illumca who was so kind and gentle?

“Oh yes, I can see questions in your eyes. The wretched little girl, rotting in her own flesh, abandoned to suffer unto death stands before you. Transformed,” she smiled with a condescending shrug. “But this is the truth, my once-sister of Menakis’s blood.”

“Look at my face. This face belongs to Illumca Fir Liban. The Half-Blood. For I have been reborn. In body…and in purpose.”

She then grabbed hold of Arryn’s face. “As for you, you haven’t changed at all. My dear…cousin. You may have grown older, but that is all.”

The door to the jail opened, and Nick came in while dragging a wooden table and an extra chair. “I got you what you need.”

He then picked Arryn up by her collar and sat her on the chair. To her surprise, he then cut the rope binding her wrists.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” he said as Arryn rubbed her hands trying to get the blood flowing in them. Nick placed a paper and a pen on the table while saying. “The boy said you’re gonna need this.”

Illumca sat opposite of her and placed her arms on the table, her eyes never moving away from the Dark Elf before her.

“I’m gonna be right outside the door if you need me.”

The gruff Paladin exited the jail. The door closed with an audible creak, leaving the two old friends facing one another. Illumca noticed how her cousin’s eyes were eyeing the paper on the table in doubt. She said nothing and simply pushed the pen and paper to her.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Did she know? Did she see our shame?

There were so many questions flying around Arryn’s head now. She glanced at the stoic Illumca and started to write. She did not know what she was expecting, but she could see the impatience in Illumca’s eye.

Where are my men?

“…we have not met for so long and the first thing you ask me is this? I am touched by your love,” Illumca said with a voice dripping with sarcasm. “Other than a few adjustments to the total number of their limbs, they are still mostly alive.”

Hearing this, Arryn quickly wrote. They are your fellow Clan Members!!

“HAH!!! The same people who abandoned me because I am a Half-Blood?!” Illumca slammed her palm on the table. “The only reason they are alive right now, is because Martell still needs some info from them.”

Stupefied by the callous way her cousin acted when talking about hurting fellow Clan members, Arryn was about to write some more. But then suddenly, Illumca’s grabbed onto the hand that was wrapped around the pen. She looked into Arryn’s eyes and growled, even as Arryn tried to break free.

“Don’t mistake me for your friend, Arryn. The old Illumca that once sat under the night sky with you while telling stories of Heroes and Kings is long gone,” The Silver-Haired Dark Elf said as her hand started to grow hotter.

“Too well do I feel the anger bubbling inside me. I’m afraid that I might not be able to control myself for much longer,” Illumca slightly cocked her neck to the right, her voice seething. “We are enemies now. You are here to answer my questions. And not the other way around; Is that understood?”

The heat was starting to get unbearable, and Arryn made a grunt of pain while nodding.

“Good,” Illumca slowly let go of her hand. The skin of Arryn’s where it was in contact with Illumca’s hand was red as if it had been scalded lightly by hot water. “Good.”

Arryn let go of the breath that she had been holding. She would have never guessed that she could feel such pressure and fear from another Dark Elf. She looked again at the Silver-Haired Illumca and saw that there was no kindness in her eyes or the tenderness of an old friend.

After a few moments of silence, Illumca asked. “Now, my question…all of you had your tongue cut, why is that?”

It was to keep us subservient to our…Lord and Master, the Demon Bet-Zebek the Bone Eater.

“You…worked with Demons? And I thought you could not fall any lower!”

You don’t understand. That is the only way that the Clan could survive! That Bet-Zebek is a creature with no remorse. We had to do this to protect those who are unable to fight! The children, the elders! If we do not follow their orders, they would feed on them!

“…And then rather than an honorable death, you all chose to become tools for the Demons? And yet at the same time, they so easily abandoned a child just for not being of pure blood?” Illumca laughed. She laughed at the irony, at the ridiculousness, at the audacity of these people who shared her Race. But there was no joy in her laughter, only shame. Shame and pity.

“Oh, how would Menakis see the Clan now after you have turned your faces away and spat upon her face,” Illumca said. “Are you not ashamed? No, I don’t think so, a better question would be…how? My father would not do this. Even if his daughter was exiled, he was a man of faith. He would not abandon Menakis even if it meant death!”

Arryn’s face fell. She then slowly wrote something on the paper. Illumca took the piece of paper and read it. She had half suspected it, but still suspecting and knowing it was a different thing altogether.

She slowly crumpled the paper in her palm and took a deep, and painful breath before slowly letting it out. “Who…did it?” she asked, her voice slightly trembling. Arryn could not see her face, but her hunched shoulder showed that she was not unaffected by the truth.

It was Bet-Zebek and his subordinates. When they took over the Clan with the help of the traitors Merida and Istia, your father and some of our strongest Clan Members - including my father - tried to fight back. Unfortunately, their resistance was futile.

As punishment for resisting, the surviving Liban Clan members were forced to serve them. And to humiliate us even more, they took away our abilities to use Skills and Magic by severing our tongues.

“…” Illumca tightened her fist. “Then…what about my mother?”

That, I do not know. We were separated into two groups before we were taken away by Bet-Zebek. Your mother was in the other group.

“…”

I’m sorry.

“…what?”

I know that it’s too late to say it, but I’ve made a mistake that I cannot take back. I’ve hurt you. And I was too afraid to help you. For that, I am sorry.

When she read the paper, Illumca snapped. “…You…do you think a simple sorry will make up for everything that I’ve endured?! The betrayal? My father’s death?!”

Illumca slapped her face.

Arryn felt the pain on her cheek and slowly turned her face back. She did not fight back.

I don’t care what you are going to do to me. But at least let go of my men.

“You are not the one in charge here. Connie is,” Illumca said. “If she wanted them dead, then their lives are forfeit. I will do nothing to defend them.”

Crestfallen, Arryn gripped her fist tight. As for Illumca, after slapping her she felt a bit calmer and returned to her seat.

“Next question. I – “

BOOM!

All of a sudden, the whole jail shook.

Moments later, the door burst open, and Nick peeked in with full gear. “Sorry for disturbing the reunion talk, Illumca. But we’ve got emergency on our hands.”

“What is it?!”

“It’s Demons. Demons and a boatload of fucking Gelded Flayers.”

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Illumca ran outside and saw the hellish picture of townspeople running and screaming while being chased by monsters that looked like children’s doodles in nightmares.

“Gelded Flayers! Fucking Gelded Flayers!” the oldest Town’s Guards’ member shouted angrily.

“How in Sud-Ghazid did those things appear in Greyvault?!” Captain Davis shouted.

“I don’t know! All I know is that when we were staking out one of the Greyrat’s hideout, about ten of them came pouring out of it!” Martell said as she plucked the string of Wild Geese and pushing an attacking Gelded Flayer back using the resulting shockwave.

The moment the horrendous thing fell, Nick led some of the men to kill it.

“I’m going to take some men to guard the Daydreamers outside the town!” Captain Davis said to Martell when he confirmed the monster's death.

“Alright, good luck. Take some of the Pills Mistress gave you.”

“Martell! What’s happening?” Illumca approached the Beastfolk boy in alarm.

“You can see for yourself. Demons and Gelded Flayers have invaded the town. There don’t seem to be more than a few Demons, luckily. As for the disgusting stick monsters, we have enough to overrun a big village. Right now Mistress and Akula had headed to the East and West Part of the town respectively -, ” Martell paused when he saw their supposed captive standing there with them. “Why is she here?”

Arryn’s eyes were wide in shock. On the ground, there was a demon’s corpse with several swords stuck into his body. And there was also some Gelded Flayer’s lifeless body. Some of them were flattened to the ground and some were split into pieces.

“Do you know something about this?” Martell asked when he saw her expression.

It took her a few moments before she finally regained her wits and started writing.

I don’t. I may do a Demon’s work, but I’ve never used those abominations!

But then, a horrifying idea came into her mind, and she wrote in a hurry.

But if it’s Merida. She is not beyond doing such a thing.

When she read that name, Illumca’s face immediately changed.

“That whorish swine is here?! Tell me where that bitch is!!”

Martell was so surprised by the fiery Illumca that he was suddenly lost for words.

“I don’t know what you got against this person named Merida. But you say that she might have something to do with this?” he asked her.

Yes. I can lead you to her.

“Then go and take care of it, Illumca. I am going to stay here and lead the Town’s Guards.”

Arryn was still adamant as she wrote. What about my men?

“Is this the time to bargain?" Martell frowned. "They will be here. Safe. And if you help us, they might stay that way.”

Understood. I will take Illumca to our hideout.

Unwilling, but with the promise of sweet revenge before her, Illumca followed Arryn as she ran up to a rooftop.

“Just you wait, Merida. Just you wait!”