Aira wasn't pleased to hear from Ken that I had experinted with at explosives before, but she looked too...defeated to berate .
She was silent the whole ti we picked out our als and sat at our tables. I grabbed stew, because stew was the fucking best. Surprisingly, Aira did the sa. She normally ordered Rondu steak with a side of greens, because unlike most hunters she valued a varied diet. She was just staring at her stew, thinking about sothing I could easily guess.
I left her to it as I munched on the at bits of my al, it was her fault that she cared. Maybe this incident would make her reconsider. One could only hope.
She didn't speak, so neither did I, eventually she grabbed her spoon and started eating. She made a face at the taste, which was funny, but it returned to the new flavour of somber she decided to wear.
"Hey, why don't we go to the balnae today?" I said with a smile.
She looked up at and let out a sigh. "I appreciate your concern. If only you cared about yourself as much as you do for others."
"I care plenty for myself," I huffed. "Why do you think I'm still trying to get stronger?"
"I honestly don't know if its conviction or escapism that drives you now, I'm not sure it even matters."
"Co on! It's training, think of it like that and it seems much less macabre," I said.
Aira let out a snort. "Macabre is certainly a word for it. Did you learn that so you could describe the bullshit you put yourself through to others?"
"Nah, dictionary." I shrugged. "My ma' was adamant that I learned so written language before the goblins ca round and made a ss of things."
"Your mother...I don't think you ever told her na."
"Didn't you look in the census?"
"Only where the elves were, not their nas. Felt disrespectful."
I chuckled. "I wouldn't have cared. Her na was Asna, and she could read the World like it was her lover. I imagine that made my father quite jealous. She told stories, lots of stories. About the world (and the World), about the half dozen children she'd raised alongside their antics, and even a bit about her own childhood.
"She was kind, but stern. The limits of what she would tolerate were clear, and I dared not to cross them...most of the ti. Though her composer broke a bit when she found out I could do magic, it was weird but not...bad."
"Do you think she would approve of what you're doing to yourself now?"
"She's dead. The dead don't get to have opinions," my words were a little too sharp, but that was uncalled for.
"You don't believe that, or else you wouldn't be doing all this," Aira sighed.
"Like I said, training."
"Sure."
I shrugged, she wouldn't understand, and that was fine. I didn't need approval or understanding, I just needed strength, and the path I walked was giving that, so I was satisfied.
Was I?
A person was more than what they could kill, but what about witches? We were slaves to the pursuit of power, for whatever reason that drove us. Whether we could justify it to ourselves was irrelevant. Every tragedy, every transgression, all in the na of power.
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Alvir didn't have friends, he even alluded that his relationship with the coven was one of practicality rather than companionship.
Did I need friends? Did I need loved ones? Did I need a shoulder to lean on?
Or was that all weakness?
I wasn't sure, and didn't particularly like the thought, so I buried it down in the back of my mind where it could rot and continued with my stew. We didn't talk, we just ate, and when we were done we stood and separated.
Her heading off to tend to whatever business she had, while I walked east towards Alvir's store.
The sight of him made scowl, but I followed when he ushered to the workshop. Learned more about magic, so suffering his presence wasn't all bad, even if so of the things I learned didn't feel applicable at the mont.
My day continued, sparring with Xae, chopping veggies with Argyle and...living.
It was nice. It was comfortable. It was an insipid lie that said life was kind.
So I reminded myself with training, I reminded myself with pain.
Then, one day, sothing was different.
I didn't know how I could tell, it was like the World, except not. Twisted in so fashion that I didn't recognize. Constantly there, constantly gnawing at .
"What's got you in a twist?" Trakas raised a brow as he handed a mug of ale.
I humd. "Nothing, sothing just feels...wrong."
"Might be your body telling you to give it a break, you know, sanity and all that? I hear it's rather healthy to practice."
I shook my head and he shrugged, not bothering to continue the conversation and instead going to serve another hunter. I was thankful for it, he had grown a kind of respect for , but he was still a jackass. A tolerable jackass.
I drunk my ale in blissful peace, until soone decided to sit next to .
"So you're the elf girl huh? Honestly I expected sothing more." A voice that was too smooth to be natural said, but I didn't register that.
Why didn't I register that?
Didn't matter.
"I may have learned to write, but that doesn't an I'm suddenly giving out autographs. Piss off."
The woman barked a laugh, sohow both loud and quiet at the sa ti. "Don't worry, little button. I'm not here for such a petty thing as that, I just heard from a very chatty rat that you wanted sothing of an introduction."
It took a second for the words to properly register, when they did I spat out my ale and paled.
The woman found that infinitely hilarious, singing a tune that had no business escaping a human's throat. I looked to my right, and beheld a witch.
She smiled sothing wild as I looked at her, so many scars criss-crossing over each other exposed by a sleeveless toga. It was grotesque, and I couldn't imagine what kind of abuse her body had taken to have such things.
Her eyes were gold, beaming like two small suns to mark a severely disfigured face.
She was missing the right half of her nose, with patches of flesh being gone to show the white skull beneath. She was missing a few teeth, and her lips were ripped off to leave scar tissue as a substitute. There was a large scar that started from the right of her forehead, making a jagged journey down past her nose, crossing the chin, and disappearing under her toga from her neck where I assud more horrific scars lied in wait.
It was only then that I noticed her mana.
Quiet, authoritative, with a jesters smile as they dragged a knife through soone's heart.
"No need to complent my beauty, I know I'm positively stunning." She whipped black hair back like she was so sort of model, shifting her smile to sothing that I assud was supposed to be charming. "Though it might be a little much for your immature gaze, but I like to get rid of the illusions when eting a new witch."
I hissed and looked around frantically to see if anyone heard. To my surprise...no one did, not even that shithead Everett with his oddly good hearing.
The laughter brought my attention back to the witch.
"Oh, that's precious. Did you think I'd scream out our witchiness while surrounded by so many dashing killers without a failsafe?"
I glared at her, but didn't dare say anything.
This woman was strong, much stronger than Alvir. I didn't understand how I knew, but I did.
Like when a bunny was under a tiger's gaze, there wasn't anything silly like proof required.
"Oh, don't be a bore. Co, converse! I went through all this bother just to see our next prospect, it'd be disappointing if you were so filled with fear you couldn't manage to speak."
"I'm not afraid," I lied. "Just trying to figure out the rules of respect is all, considering the circumstances."
"Hmm, not a bad reason, if it were true. No matter, I can teach you plenty about how to sell a convincing lie later, but for now...well, we have a coven to introduce you to. Alvir has been hogging you all to himself, the possessive rat that he is, it's well past ti that you got to et the rest of us!"
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