POV: Sayaka
She was tied up in the corner of a wealthy, plush office belonging to a Chthonic Elf, others of that kind went in and out on unknown errands.
Runa was in loose leg irons, they had believed her disguise. Many elves didn’t know what a diseased person looked like. The odd gouges from injuries and healing sold the deception.
Baggage was in loose leg irons and chained wrist cuffs, because these guys were idiots. Where was the woman going to go? How would she fight?
She hated Chthonic Elves. They were demonic traitors who surrendered to the Demon-King. In exchange, they got height, speed, and sociopathy.
The speed was amazing, they were damn fast, even against an augmented Forgotten Order assassin. Part of the price was that they got sunburn easily. Ten to fifteen minutes was enough to turn their skin a blood red, even just being outside in the daytime under a tarp for a few hours would burn them a shade of light rose.
“Hey! Pinkie!” Sayaka said. “Gimmie water, pinkie!”
She got water thrown in her face. Heh. They didn’t like being called that. Too bad. Pale white elves shouldn’t let themselves get sunburn.
Sayaka had a mask of indifference, which was easy to maintain because she didn’t care what happened to anyone. Chthonic Elves though, she hated them a lot and her mask could slip. Chthonic Elves deserved any annoyance, no matter how petty, and deserved every death, no matter how slow.
It almost a tradition for the Forgotten Order to hunt Chthonic Elves. On the rare occasion that three or more Order assassins got together and had a few bottles of wine, someone would say, “Chthonics?”
And another one would say,”Sure.”
Then everyone drinking would put important missions aside until they’d killed at least one Chthonic.
While the Forgotten Order was unreliable, they were the strongest. The magical torture was harsh, and they came out powerful. If the Order assassins were a little bit cocky, that was only because they could beat the shit out of everyone.
Proper Elves never consulted with the Forgotten Order, secrecy had nothing to do with it, they just weren’t liked. Instructions were given through other elf assassin sects. Unless, of course, the Order guys got drunk and put missions on hold while they killed Chthonics.
Of all the organizations she hated, Sayaka hated the Forgotten Order the least.
Once a bureaucrat serving the Queen attempted to disband the Forgotten Order. Bold move, not many regular elves knew about them. Sayaka hadn’t been able to get there in time to kidnap the bureaucrat and sell him to Chthonic Elf slavers. Too bad.
She was able to show up for the raid to release him. That had been a wild ride. Fifty assassins descending on an underground slave market. They weren’t used to working in groups of more than four, there had been a lot of ‘friendly fire’. Good times.
They put the bureaucrat in a crate with Chthonic Elf… trophies. The crate was left in front of the Palace at midnight; it made an impression. When he got out, the bureaucrat put himself under disciplinary measures for leaking the name of a secret organization and became the strongest agitator for war with the Chthonics. The guy learned fast.
That didn't change the present where Sayaka was bound hand and foot. She hadn’t stopped struggling. Her daggers were embedded in the wilderness where they were captured. She had tossed them to make sure they weren't stolen. If it was very quiet and she kept so still that the sound of her own heartbeat was loud, she could feel her daggers. They were stuck high in a tree, about a full day’s walk from here.
Kai had been unconscious through most of it, and he was going to burn everything down when he found out they were on ‘Day Eight’. He’d be in a killing mood. Sayaka wasn’t nervous, but she was alert. Kai would never hurt her on purpose. Accidentally or in a flash of temper? She’d have to look out for that.
- - -
POV: Runa
She had not anticipated a delay. Chthonic Elves sold slaves quickly and put the warriors in an arena fast before they died in prison. There was still plenty of time to get to the Single Tower, she hadn’t gotten around to telling Drake about that little stop.
From there they’d to the Demon-King’s citadel and they would do it in a Chthonic Elf air sled which would make their travel ignorable by the enemy.
An enemy that had built a colosseum where an only a small wooden platform used to be when she was last here. The spectator seats were wood, the inner walls of the fighting pit were made of newer stone. So was a small tower for the elite, which is where they were. The room was a stone office/bedroom/balcony, opulently decorated.
How had they built it? Most of their troops were goblins, orcs, and ogres. Ooooh. Ogres. Runa looked at the stone making up the wall. The chiseled rocks were much larger than the ones humans used. That would certainly speed up construction. Good to know if she needed anything built fast.
She and Baggage were sitting on a bench that someone had put pillows on. That would be due to the courtship dress. They were treating them nice because they thought Baggage was looking for a man. Chthonic Elves didn’t talk about the practice much, akin to humans other than herself avoiding the topic of their intimate life.
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The courtship dress was only supposed to be worn on rare occasions within certain social functions. Wearing in public on any random day would be what a silly human would do if she got sick of being on the losing side of a millennia-long war. Put on the dress, catch the eye of a Chthonic, and be taken care of for however long she could keep her beauty. It didn't bother the Chthonics at all. They’d get a ‘practice wife’ to fool around with until it was time to be responsible with a proper elf woman.
Baggage wasn’t feeling the energy though. Runa had hoped for some time to get her used to the thing. It wasn’t even that bad, the top half was particularly conservative. Baggage’s reaction was far from what Runa had expected. Baggage was- Oh wow. Just wow. Yeah, it was an emotional collapse Runa hadn’t prepared for.
Baggage was crying. No wonder Drake got exasperated with her. Maybe Runa could do a little something for the girl.
“Baggage-chan? We have an extra pillow. Put it over your legs.”
She did and then put her head on Runa’s lap. The maneuver had done nothing to protect her modesty. Runa didn't say anything about it and patted Baggage’s hair.
“Don’t worry, Baggage-chan. You’ll be safe. I promise.”
Baggage made muffled ‘thank you’ noises from Runa’s lap. That was good because it was an easy promise to make. If things went well, it would look to Baggage as if Runa had been right. Otherwise, one or both of them would be enslaved and there would be more important matters than broken promises.
- - -
POV: Baggage
It had been a few days of suppressing her qi as Drake had ordered. It was getting harder, not yet difficult. Right now it wasn’t bad. She was scared and the chakra in her very lower abdomen wasn’t in use, at all.
Runa was keeping her safe, it felt comforting. It wasn’t Runa’s fault the attack came when it did. As for the ‘dress’, the only humans who would actually wear it were women on the southern islands and everyone knew what those girls were like.
Wearing it had been a little fun at first, before they were captured. She wouldn’t want to wear it for Drake, but she might have to if he asked. There was a lot that the women of the hero’s team had to agree to. The Facilitator candidates didn’t worry much because it was overkill. Most heroes were happy to find a woman, any woman, who even thought about wifely activities.
There had only been a few exceptions. Eight hundred years ago a hero from the personal guard of the great Khan had some peculiarities, he was a big outlier. Heroes were just very competent Earth guys, not much about them was weird when it came to personal relations. Which raised a question that maybe an expert like Runa would know, the explanation would be a welcome alternative to all the other noises around her.
“Runa-sama. Why Earth?”
She heard the woman exhale and there was a soft “ooooohh-kay!” Was this really a big deal?
“Do you know about gravity, Baggage-chan?”
“Yes. There’s a lot on Tenka and not much on the Moon.”
“Good! Plenty of people don’t even know that much.”
Baggage gripped her blue bead that represented physics. Maybe she should have gone up to green to learn that Maxwell stuff.
Runa said, “There is almost no magic on Earth. Think of that as a heavy place.”
“OK, and now Tenka is the light place. I get that, but why isn’t he jumping around and bending metal bars?”
“It takes time. I don’t know why. One theory is that Tenkan molecules have to replace enough of the Earth ones. Another is that it just takes time, like water soaking into a large sponge.”
“We’ll find out soon then,” said Baggage. “We used a lot of Drake’s protein bars and vitamins to replace your missing body mass.”
Runa stopped petting her, “What?”
“You were dying, Runa!” She squeezed the woman’s legs. “I can’t lose you. I really can’t.”
Her eyes watered up. She had to have at least one real person who believed in her. Just one. That’s all-”
*smack*
Someone slapped her on the rear. That wasn’t funny. Baggage pulled herself up and tucked her legs underneath her body. A Chthonic elf with long black hair, white eyes, veins that were pitch black, wearing gold, jewels, and expensive silk clothes stood over her and smiled cruelly. He had servant Chthonics with him.
“I hear you’re the little girl who's been setting the woods on fire. Are you trying to get out of trouble by wearing that.”
“Get fu-oof,” said Sayaka, a servant Chthonic kicked her in the stomach.
“Yes”, said Runa.
“No,” said Baggage.
The wealthy elf ran his fingers through Baggage’s hair. She shivered and tried not to cry.
He was doing Runa’s special job of stroking her hair. She tried to ignore it.
“Maybe you should decide if you are or not. It should be easy for you. These mean you’re smart, right?”
He was close to touching her beads. A small whimper escaped her mouth. His hands near her beads. No! Those were hers! That was worse than… she didn’t know, but it was worse.
“Don’t touch me there,” Baggage tried to pull them away but he grabbed her arm. They were going to break them this way. She was crying for real now. She tried to do it quietly.
He laughed and outside drums started beating. “Ah, it seems we are needed. Why don’t we watch while you decide if you like me or if you’d rather be on the slave block? Your Dying Elf friend will fetch a high price.”
“We aren’t dying,” said Sayaka between clenched teeth. And I’d rather be dead than a demon’s slave any day.”
“Well, my blonde friend, it looks like you’ll be a demon’s slave no matter what.”
While the slaver elf taunted Sayaka, Runa leaned down and whispered. “I'm sorry Baggage. I didn’t think any of this would happen.”
How could she know? She had nothing to apologize for. Runa was the only good person left in the world. Baggage tried to hug her, but she was pulled by her hair and thrown against the balcony wall. Runa and Sayaka followed, both also thrown roughly, Sayaka with extra kicks.
The big Chthonic Elf grabbed her head and forced her to look into the arena. “See the little man?”
Drake was down there. Waving to her. She tried to give a small wave back but the elf twisted her arm behind her. She was doing the sort of crying where it sounds like hiccuping.
The archivists had called her his whore. He hadn’t touched her though. She wasn’t his at all. He didn’t even want to be here. Why was he waving then?
The elf held her by the back of the neck and he shouted something in rage. Always rage. But… wasn’t this the job Baggage had trained for? To support him? She had chosen him. Yes, the archivists had everything backwards.
She wasn't as sad anymore. Her authority was returning. She had felt it once before, at the castle.
The slaver boasted, “He and that criminal elf down there are going to fight goblins, orcs, and ogres. It’s a comedy fight before the real show begins. I’ve even made it fair. He gets to keep his toy sword and other precious things. Aren’t I nice?”
No, he wasn’t. He was awful. She felt drained, her tears slowing down because she had used so many. Her only hope was down there, in a pit. Drake hated everything, yet he was waving to her; it was acknowledgement.
The slaver elf’s smile was gruesome, “Give up. You should choose to be owned by me. If you’re nice-“
No. She would not be nice to this thing holding her.
Baggage interrupted his silly speech with hard facts.
“My boyfriend is going to kick your ass.”
