Chapter 272

Layali felt her entire body go stiff, her lips parted, 'Nobody good ever sneaks in through a window?! Who is this?! Is this a slave catcher?! Did Master Cerebrate send a slave catcher after me?! No! I won't go back! I won't!' The scream remained locked in her head and she flung herself off of the bed, while she didn't have a knife, she had a spoon.

She began weeping out of her good eye and jabbed the handle side of the spoon toward her empty eye socket. 'If I can just hit the brain it'll be over quick! No more pain! No more Cerebrate! I guess I'll never know if Brain kills him or not… I'll just have to hope.' All those thoughts ran through Layali's mind in the time it took to draw the end of the spoon toward her eye socket, while her good eye squeezed shut against the pain to come and also closed off her view of the white and black haired intruder.

Which is why it was a shock when she felt a hand on her wrist, it closed around her with relative gentleness, but it was as immovable as any mountain.

Layali had no more will to scream, instead she only tugged and pulled, "No! I won't go back! I don't want to live if I have to go back! Please! Please don't take me back!" She whimpered, pleaded, and pulled herself wildly about before she thought to stab herself in reverse.

She slowed as if she were running out of breath, the woman, for that much she was sure her captor was at least, still hadn't said anything, and so the little half elf girl relaxed.

She looked up at the woman, met the heterochromatic eyes with her one good one and said, "I'm not going back." She then slammed her head forward, 'If I caught her off her guard…'

Layali didn't get to finish the thought, faster than should have been possible in her experience, the woman's other hand came up and caught Layali at the hair, keeping her from the coup de grace.

That finished the last of her will, Layali felt the hopelessness of her efforts, her knees went weak, her final strength fled, "For god's sake don't do this… human scum… seen you all pity dogs… at least put me down too!" She whimpered out and trailed off with one final plea, "Please… slave catcher… don't take me back to my master…"

Zesshi smelled the thick salve on the girl's flesh as much as she smelled the fear on the little wounded creature, the half elven extra seat of the Black Scripture knew the smell of fear like bees knew the smell of flowers.

She also knew the smell of blood, and the signs of injury, and this one… 'She has a lot of them… and… a slave catcher? What even is that? Why would a slave ever run away from… no, look at her… stupid. She didn't do this to herself.' Zesshi concluded that quickly enough and crouched down.

"Be quiet." The older half elf said to the younger, "I'm like you!" Zesshi whispered, and that, if it didn't stop the girl's cries, at least kept back any chance she would scream and ended the struggles.

'Like me?' Layali's doubts rose, but she dropped the spoon which clattered to the floor a second later.

Zesshi brought the girl's hand over to the white hair and brushed it aside, revealing Zesshi's own half elven ear.

Layali gasped, her breath heavy as it wafted over Zesshi's face and smelling of stew. "Who-Who are you?"

"I'm looking for someone, someone who was in this room. I suppose he did this to you?" Zesshi asked. 'Strange, I didn't get the feeling he was that sort but, who knows, maybe you never can really tell?' She wondered privately.

Before Layali could answer, the little click of the door being opened reached both half elves and caused their ears to prick up. 'Gouging out a child's eye is… meh, I've put down real monsters for less.' Zesshi whirled on the door and before Layali could say or even properly think, Brain was entering the room.

"I'm back, I've got a-" Brain had no time to react, the fist that came for him was loaded with killing intent.

And yet for all that, he sensed one thing for sure, if she meant to kill him, it would have been faster, it was meant to cause him pain. But that relative ease had nothing on him. He dropped beneath it, dropped a satchel in hand down to the floor and drew his sword all in one motion.

There was no time to use martial arts, not for either of them, and while Brain was armed he could see the invader was not, and yet it didn't seem to matter. His sword flashed out leagues faster than he felt it ever had. "Layali, make a run for it!" He hissed out the words as fast as he moved his sword.

'I'm not going to win.' He realized. Her hands casually deflected his sword as if they were unbreakable adamantite. 'Your sword is worthless again… you were so proud… so damn proud… you wanted to try in the tournament, what a joke…' He recognized the half elf woman, and between mocking his futile efforts he wondered, 'Why is she after me? Or Layali… slave catcher… I've heard they use half elves for that… never seen one… must have been looking for this one. Cerebrate could certainly afford it.'

Brain cursed his ill luck and watched the woman deflect his best efforts without even bothering to strike him down, and worse, she kept herself between Brain and Layali. Like she was taunting him.

The small half elf was frozen, unmoving, paralyzed, the way she was when she first met him. 'Poor thing… poor thing…' The blinking of the one good eye and hollow brutality he found in her ruined frame could have moved a stone to pity, how much more so a living man? And in that moment Brain's feet went faster, rather than carrying him away in flight, his sword carried in arcs that the woman in front of him still deflected, and yet it felt as if he were climbing to the peak he'd longed for since the age of twelve.

'One quick look at the top before she kills me…' He vowed and began to mutter martial arts under his breath.

'Not bad. He's an adventurer through and through, that much was so at least, but he's still trying to get at the girl more than he is trying to kill me?' It was a curiosity to Zesshi, and she chose not to activate any martial arts of her own. 'He's on par with a Windflower scripture, or maybe a Sunlight Scripture… no… no he's on par with Clementine at least.' Zesshi pondered and allowed him to drive her back, his foot nudged the satchel he'd dropped before, and out of it rolled a little blue potion, the noise of the thick glass caught Layali's ears, and looked down to see that it bumped against her foot.

"Stop!" She cried all of a sudden, snapping out of her fear and silence induced confusion, blade and open hand stopped cold. Layali crouched down and picked up the potion. 'I've seen these… the humans, they used this on their own kind… he really brought me one?' She felt a tear escape her eye and clutched it to her chest.

"It wasn't Mr. Brain who did this to me… please… if you're like me, don-don't hurt him…" Layali said and put a hand on the hip of the half elf. Zesshi cast a doubtful eye down on her. "It was Master Cerebrate…" Layali whispered and retold the story while nervous fingers fumbled at the little brown cork on the potion.

When Layali got up to the part where Brain had helped her days before, Zesshi's hands lowered slowly to her sides, and Brain sheathed his sword.

"So you're not a slave catcher?" Brain asked.

"No, of course not." Zesshi frowned, "Why would you even think that?"

"I've met Cerebrate, for one, and for another, it's pretty common to use half elves for it. Nobody cares if they die, they get better at it over a long period of time, and you can hold their parents or children hostage to ensure their good behavior. Plus, elf or human, there's always somebody at the bottom who would sell out their own blood for the price of a honey cake, or a little power over the rest. It's kind of common to use the half breed sons of slave mothers to chase after their own kind. The Theocracy is a… practical sort of place."

Zesshi's frown deepened.

"What are you even doing here?" Brain demanded as he crossed the space between them both and took the potion from Layali's nervous fingers and popped the cork before handing it back. He crouched down, "Drink it all." He said to her, and she gave a little quiet nod before bringing the vial to her lips.

"Where's your… escort?" Brain asked, and Zesshi crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Somewhere behind me, or ahead of me, I don't know. Raymond will find me sooner or later, I'm not worried about it, I'm here to talk to you, something you said, and given what else you've just said… I'm not a complete idiot, but I'll ask anyway. Why did you assume my father was a human?"

"You chased me for days on end over the gods know how many miles just to ask me that?" Brain asked, aghast and sat with a heavy thud into the nearest chair.

"Answer me!" Zesshi hissed her demand, and Brain cocked his head when he looked at her as if the half elf were some alien creature from a far off land.

"Ask her." Brain said and pointed to Layali whose body was straightening as the magic began to take effect.

Zesshi looked down at the girl, and this time Layali didn't hesitate to speak.

"Because it's what happens in this nightmare country." Layali spat back, and Zesshi, having seen the brutal wounds on the girl, found no way to question it. She felt as if the ground fell out from beneath her feet, and all she knew began to fall with it.

"Queen Bessarez, Queen Baraja, I'm so glad you've made it to my estate." Renner said with a demure curtsey.

"Queen Vaiself, it was good of you to host us." Calca said with a curtsey of her own.

Neia inclined her head and gave a little half bow, "As am I, thank you. I've heard quite a bit about you and your rule from the few travelers who have ventured over into my domain."

There was the slightest hint of critique in Neia's words, nor were they wrong as few merchants proved willing to cross the coastal border even for the sake of profit, fearing some harm would come to them.

Renner accepted the criticism with the most courteous of little smiles, "I'm sure you will hear a great deal more as my merchants become more bold and we look to expand our commercial enterprises, for example I'm considering a national trading company intended expressly to serve the crown's needs. Something that will ease our dependence on private merchants and hopefully lower the price of goods. A source of such supplies right over the border would be a welcome one."

The effect on the Frost Queen was immediate, Neia's general lack of subtlety compared to the more experienced monarchs made it impossible for the dragonid to completely disguise her response, the whites of her eyes expanded, and her fang filled smile grew just a little with them. Mostly however, the concept Renner laid out caught the Demalbion Queen's ears.

'That would be a good idea, I've been reliant on the scant trade and expensive services of the Understone Empire, but those dark dwarves just don't need much… and the dark elves don't produce much but raw materials. The Slane Theocracy shut their border and very few are still willing to go to the Southern Holy Kingdom… a national company could go a long way toward supplementing my budget.' She felt her head ache a little and resolved immediately, 'I'll delegate it to Astraka.'

The headache began to fade and the Frost Queen relaxed, "You have a lovely estate." She offered the praise with rather more warmth than before, and Queen Vaiself claimed a seat, which in turn allowed her guests to reclaim their seats as well.

"Thank you, it belonged to my late elder brother, Prince Barbro. He was a mean, nasty boy and he became a corrupt, nasty man, but at least he had good taste." Renner said and held up an empty cup that sat on the table as if it had been just waiting for her arrival. Seemingly out of nowhere a servant approached bearing a bottle and poured it for her.

"Still, he was your brother, and that is not an easy loss. I'm sorry. I have no siblings, but if losing friends is hard, losing family is worse." Neia suggested, and both Calca and Renner had to suppress the urge to raise their eyebrows.

Neia had enough wit about her to recognize their silence for what it was, "I was a soldier who got lucky. I'm not born to the purple so… excuse me if I don't have the most queenly demeanor about some things." She bowed her head and when a cup was poured and slid toward her, she took it and waited until Calca's was similarly prepared.

"Perhaps a little… frankness, is what we all need?" Calca suggested.

Renner cleared her throat a little and pressed the matter at hand, "About tomorrow, now that we're all gathered, according to the schedule we'll be leaving after breakfast and going toward Carne to meet with the Wolf Queen, Wolf King, Queen Draudillon, and the Allfather. From there we travel in a long procession to Arwintar to observe the proceedings and watch the tournament unfold."

"So nothing has changed... That's good, it means everything is going well, between all of our escorts, this will be the safest traveling experience in history." Calca said, and then cocked her head when the Queen of Frost laughed.

Neia waved her taloned hand back and forth as the laughter rang beyond her ability to suppress it. "Forgive me, forgive me." Neia said, "It's just that in my old life we'd have said you were going to trigger a flag with a statement like that. It's nothing, I'm sure we'll be fine, but I do wonder what they'll say about all this when it's over. After all, when in all history have so many monarchs traveled together for anything other than war?"

That jerked both of her counterparts back to their youthful lessons in history, and vainly they sought for an example, until they gave up.

"You make a fair point, perhaps this really is the beginning of something remarkable for the peace of the eleven realms." Queen Renner acknowledged and began to reevaluate her initial appraisal of the dragonoid Queen. 'She has the subtlety of a mace, the manners of a common soldier, and the look of a predator… but at least she sees farther than the nose on her face. I can work with this.' She told herself and raised her cup in a toast.

"To lasting peace." Renner proclaimed.

"And prosperity with it." Neia added a section of her own.

"For us and the next generation." The new mother could not help herself, and added something of her own.

They drank deeply of the rich dark wine after that, several times, before it was time to rest for the next day's journey.