Chapter 234

Skana woke up to find her shirt and boots missing, and an elf spooning against her back. "Did we…" Skana touched her forehead, it was a mild pain, her memories… blurs of each other, like beings made out of fuzz with no features, flashes, a second here, a half a minute there, but it was inconsistent. One thing that stood out, 'Right, she cleaned me up… that's why my shirt is missing, and my boots are off…' She closed her eyes.

'She really is a good one… it's hard to believe she actually hates humans.' Skana reflected and stroked the hand that was draped over her side. 'She probably put me like this so I wouldn't choke if I threw up again… helluva way to go, choking on my own vomit while passed out drunk.' She rolled her bright green eyes at her own foolishness, and then smiled a little while stroking the hand that held her fast.

"What a damn fool I am…" Skana whispered under her breath.

She was answered immediately. "How do you not sound like you have a massive hangover?" Illyana asked, "And were you thinking of doing something dirty with my hand?"

Skana almost jumped out of her skin. "How did you-" She began, but Illyana sat up and wiggled her long elven ears.

For good measure, the elf pointed at them, and her little smile got a little bit bigger, it made the woman radiant beyond measure, her eyes had lost the gray and listless look they once held and they were bright as the afternoon sky, "Did you forget?" Illyana asked.

"Right… elf senses." Skana chuckled and then pressed her forefinger against her own forehead, "And human liquor tolerance. It's a little fuzzy, last night I mean, and I have a tiny little throb, but it's nothing for me. You elves may be able to 'become' hard drinkers over centuries, but you've not got our natural talent!" She said and sprang to her feet, she reached down to grab her shirt, then put both it and her boots on while Illyana laced up her own.

"Do you think the doppelgangers are okay?" Illyana asked when she straightened up.

"They're summons so… most likely they've faked their deaths… or are those real deaths… do the same ones get summoned every time…?" Skana wondered and scratched her head with a quizzical look, "I don't know much about magic…"

"Right… they probably just disappeared and didn't get caught at all, but that should mean we've got some time on our hands until our Lady comes back…" Illyana reflected out loud and flashed a winning smile at her companion.

"So…" She went to the purse that was left dangling on the edge of a chair and fished around within the black bag, "Why don't we treat ourselves?" She pulled out a handful of coins, then froze. The smile vanished.

"Illyana…?" Skana asked.

"Did you hear that…?" Illyana asked with a dreadful whisper, "That's a lot of armor out there…?"

The elf woman's naturally light skinned face paled further.

Skana shook her head, but went to the window saying, "It's probably nothing, the ruler of the Kingdom of Nazarick is here… it could be about that…?"

She opened the shutters and looked out the window, and immediately she knew that wasn't it.

Outside, groups of steel clad soldiers with long pikes were blocking roads and corners in both directions, a wagon full of them, plus men on horseback were drawing to a sudden stop just out of view, even her human senses could pick up the noise of their shouting.

"There's a chance it's not for us but… this place was supposed to get found… just not yet… not yet… we should have had days!" Skana squeaked out, Illyana was already trembling, her lip quivering.

"No… no… I can't go back… I can't… I can't ever let it happen again…" Illyana was frozen, her breath was quickening into a frenzy, her happiness melted away, she dropped the clinking golden coins from her fingers.

They clinked together on the wooden floor. Skana looked at her companion, and rushed to face her. "Listen to me!" She snapped, and brought her hand up. When Illyana didn't respond, Skana did the only thing she could think of, she brought the hand down across Illyana's face in a slap, snapping the elf's face to one side.

Illyana's eyes cleared up, she touched a hand to the place where the palm print was already reddening her pale skin. "Listen to me!" Skana hissed again, "You're going to get out of this! Just keep an eye out the window! Keep an eye out, and take the chance when it comes! You'll be fine! Call for our Mistress, nobody knows her, nobody will have seen her… just call for her as soon as you're safe!" The shouting was audible downstairs as patrons, guests, and workers alike grew alarmed beyond measure.

Skana rushed to the wall, snatched up her sword, and then rushed back to Illyana, she dragged the elf to the side of the window, "Just watch!" Skana gave it as an order, Illyana's hand still touched the place where she'd been slapped, and then one instant later, Skana pressed her lips to those of the elf.

The scent of fall apples and fresh spring, the feel of warm summer breezes, she took it all from the first intimate contact with her companion, tasting her lips and holding her arm around the woman for one tight, fierce embrace.

She then charged for the front door, flinging it open as loud as she could, then charging toward the steps with a bellowing fury.

"Fuck you! Fuck the lot of you! Blasphemers!" Skana roared the accusation that would surely be remembered the moment she saw the knights coming up the stairs, one swift kick, they tumbled down, caught off guard by the sudden aggression, they were frozen in the moment her foot connected with the face of the man in front.

Down they tumbled like dominos of steel, their arms and legs a tangle, their weapons clattering and clanging, Skana ran over them as if they were the stairs, jumping the last few steps and landing with a dancer's grace on the bottom floor.

A knight charged her before the rest of his companions realized they were even under attack, and activated [Lesser Agility Boost], [Greater Grace]. They were not the most potent martial arts, but they did enhance what Skana was already good at. Her sword danced like a bee in the air and quickly both the knight's eyes were gone before his lumbering strike could even recover after she adroitly avoided his first failure.

His companions came to their senses, and Skana had the balls to laugh at them, she kicked a table over, grabbed a chair of wood with her free hand and flung it into the face of another, sending another trio down into a pile atop the screaming blind man who clutched at the place his eyes used to be.

"So long, losers!" Skana shouted and ran not for the door, but for an open window, she dove head first through it and rolled out into the street, coming up on her feet, she cursed out loud when she saw the rest of them. 'That'll buy her time…' Skana thought and began to run, they chased after her, men in heavy armor were not the fastest, but the horses, 'Those won't be but a few seconds behind me.' She looked over her shoulder, heavy armor or not, they were strong, her legs pumped until the guards ahead, intended to cut off both sides of the street, made their advance. "Alright you bastards… You want me?! Come and get me!" Skana shouted and picked up a stray bit of horse manure, she flung it into the face of the man nearest to her, then darted off toward an alley.

They lined up four abreast, and advanced down the dead end. Skana looked at the wall ahead, then on either side of her, not even any crates. 'I could go up top but…'

"Fuuuuck." She cursed, 'If I do that…'

She whirled to face them, teeth bared in a snarl, "The gods curse your stinking country…" She hissed, spat into the muck of the dank alley, and charged the advancing four. Her sword darted out, deflecting the jabs of their long pikes, at least as best she could, four more fell in behind the first, and raised their pikes up to shoulder height, then four more behind those, raising their pikes up to head height… a wall of steel points were inching toward her, little sharp jabs she could turn aside individually, became multiples.

Her shirt ripped open and blood began to run down her breast, 'Please have gone… please… please…' Skana prayed to nothing, as there was nothing left that she believed in, her eyes welled up and she blinked her tears of anger away, she yelped as her arm took a gash from a thrust and switched to her other hand to use the sword again.

The knights murmured, and Skana's predatory smile returned, ambidextrous folk were both dangerous and rare, she caught a knight in the eye again, but no sooner did he go down than the one behind took his place and she was forced farther and farther back.

She glanced behind her, the rear wall was closing in, the blood loss from a dozen wounds was taking its toll. She stepped several paces back, then held out her sword as if she were going to hand it over, the knights hesitated, doubt etched on their faces as her vigor and defiance seemed to simply vanish. Skana snarled with fury and shouted, "Okay, fine! I heard this line as a girl and I always wanted to say it!"

"Surrender!" One of the knights called in that brief space of time.

"Your mother should surrender you shiny polished shit!" Skana yelled and ran to the wall, using all her acrobatic skill, she planted one foot on the wall, pushed off, caught the nearest wall with her other foot, and flipped head over heels toward the lot of them with her sword held in both hands, back arched, legs back, and howling, "You'll never take me alive!"

The pikes of those raised aloft are what caught her… alive… until she sank on them. The metal pierced her armorless body like a knife through butter, the weight of her own flesh ensured she was completely impaled, it tore through her chest and came out her back, and then brought her down to lie on the filth of the alley, the knight dropped his pike, his fingers shaking, the groaning of his comrade at his back was fading as a unit magic caster healed him.

"Sh-She's dead?" He asked, his commander smacked him on the back of his helmeted head with the palm of his hand.

"Your pike is through her heart." He said and gave the limp body of the auburn haired woman a nudge with the toe of his boot. "What do you think, idiot?"

"So… who do you think she was?" The soldier asked as he crouched down to draw the pike from her body with a sickin squelch and the sound of tearing meat. The commander nudged her corpse over from its side onto its back and looked down at the hollow, vacant eyes.

"I don't know, who can say? We'll probably never figure that out, but she sure sounded a lot like Theocracy to me. They're fanatics over there… probably from one of their intelligence scriptures. Maybe Agante or something…" The commander muttered.

"Secure the area." The commander shouted, trying to disguise the nervousness in his own voice while he pushed his way between his clustered comrades and sped without quite running, out of the dark alley and back into the street.

------------------

As soon as Skana ran out the door, Illyana rushed to grab a cloak that would hide her appearance, she then rushed to the window and watched, there was no further noise coming her way, the clatter and chaos, 'She can't be…' Illyana thought and shook her head until the corner of her eye caught sight of Skana in the street.

'No… no she can't! She can't be!' Illyana whimpered but kept quiet, the loud distraction of her companion drew everyone's attention, but for just a moment, Illyana thought, 'She's going to leave me behind!' The human hurled manure at the nearest guard, and that frantic fear that pounded through the elf woman's chest was turned to a heart rending silent wail when she saw that, rather than 'away' Skana turned down an alley they both knew had a dead end.

The guards followed, save for a few who took positions to keep the traffic at bay, but they faced the wrong direction. The rest were after Skana. 'Stay safe!' She begged the gods, and with nobody looking in her direction, Illyana climbed out the window and with one deft jump, caught the overhanging roof, she hauled herself up as silently as she could, and began to run, leaping from rooftop to rooftop.

She stopped and flicked her ears up, secure in the certainty that nobody was around, and listened.

'Come on… you can jump up here too, you might need a little help from the walls but… I know you can do this…' Illyana went to her knees and bowed her head, she clasped her hands together. "Please… please gods… any of you… hear my prayer… sav-"

The prayer died in her throat, Skana's shout and curse of final defiance died in a half scream that became tomb silent.

"No… she's not dead… she's not… she should have made it…" Illyana whispered her defiance of the world's truth, then scrambled to her feet, turned, and ran as she listened to the distant guards talk about Skana as a corpse. 'She stayed down there to keep me safe up here… why… no… it's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair!' She wailed in her mind and touched her lips where one last frantic touch had come and gone, and she did not stop until she was across the city and able to hide in another alley. She found a place in the dark, an old barrel behind a shop, she snuck inside, pulled the lid of the barrel over top of her head, and wept quietly in the darkness until the sun finally began to set.