Nothing My Soul Can't Outrun

I find myself in a market. The closest one was nearly half the town away. It's quite lively, with the scent of meat cooking slowly, the sounds of desperate musicians, the call of local artists.

Benjamin led me out of the house and to the market. He instructed me to wait on a bench while he picked up some food.

We don't have things like this in Valharan. Not outdoors, with the sun beating down and the tents - the call of friendly sellers who mean no harm. Just... people. Living their lives.

Peace. There's something strange about that feeling. I've never had it. Ren found me so young, I was learning to create war and despair before I could read.

A young girl passes me, stumbling over the cobblestones, giggling as her mother chases her, yelling something about catching her.

I try to summon the smile - the joy I should feel watching her. I look deep inside myself, caving in on my soul, as if it was a deep cavern. I look down every passageway - for that joy, that level of serenity and peace within my own life.

Nothing.

"Hey, don't look so serious." Benjamin appears in front of me, holding two plates of something. He takes a seat next to me, trying to read my face. He finds nothing.

I take whatever food he grabbed and start eating. It's some sort of meat they have here in the South - it's new to me, but I'm not interested in learning about it.

We're silent for a minute, just eating until Benjamin speaks.

"How many people have you killed?"

I conjure a smile and turn to him. I don't want him to worry. "Nothing my soul can't outrun."

"It's not funny." Benjamin stands, taking a deep breath. Though he's tall, he looks like a kid. "Doesn't it... leave a stain on your heart after a while?"

I lock my jaw. What I did to protect my self-interest, that was up to me. "Why do you care?"

Something like hurt flashes through those eyes. Then he turns angry. "I thought we were friends."

"We are." It's out of my mouth before I realize it. Friends - yes, that's what this has turned in to.

Benjamin seems to soften. He sits back down, rubbing his hands along his knees. "Let's talk about something else."

I nod. "Benjamin, I would never kill you." He looks up at me, those brown eyes shining a little. "I do what I have to, I do what I've always done. But I wouldn't end your life like I ended Stonewell's."

The boy seems to contemplate it a little, bouncing his knee up and down. After a minute, he smiles a little, and stands, sticking his hand out for me to follow him. I take it, and he shows me around the market.

He shows me the fountains where water sprites disappear into - the city connected by underground tunnels only large enough for a small sprite.

We watch as the strange women melt into nothing but morning dew, giggling as they gossip and spread legend.

Some humans worship the Goddesses in free spaces in the market - murmuring incantations and singing songs. As if the connection to the Laer population makes the humans here feel closer to deities that abandoned them a millennium ago.

"Why do they do that?" I whisper to Benjamin, gesturing to a group of women who had their heads shaved and painted a dark blue.

"It's a festival that the religious folk here have. Something about the Sea Goddess rescuing poor sailors and bringing them home to their wives." I try not to laugh as Benjamin shrugs, making an exasperated face.

"No, I mean why do they bother worshipping at all?"

He shrugs. "The stories are widely believed by all Laer because they have magic." Benjamin smiles at an older gentlemen trying to pass us. "And human and Laer are widely... entangled here."

"Entangled?"

"Laer-human offspring. It's probably why so many people here believe in the Goddesses."

I nod, not needing him to finish his thought. The influence of magic is stronger here than it is in the North.

"How common is that? That humans..." I shoot Benjamin a look, and he knows what I mean.

He grins. "Fairly common. Apparently the males are... different than humans." He pokes me in the arm, and bares his teeth a little. "More feral."

"Disgusting." I shove him off of me, trying to stifle my laughter.

Benjamin smiles, a retort forming on his tongue, when a shot of dark wind blows through him - punching a hole into his chest - taking the breath from his lungs. And ending his short life.