7.23 – Arrival
Now that was a statent to send a chill down a girl's spine.
Elida liked 'hurting things' more than most people?
And she didn't miss the word Vanetta had chosen to summarize what she'd seen of Elida. The 'connecting thread' to Elida's challenges: the way she reacted.
Angry.
At soone, sothing, maybe the world.
Natalie had caught a glimpse of that cold-boiling fury herself, once.
***
"Oh, please. Dearest Elizabeth. Nobody smiles that much and ans it. Nobody's that …" Elida's lip pulled back, and she waved her hands in an exaggerated way that, oddly, made Natalie understand what she was getting at. Liz was an energetic, sociable person, to a sotis amusing degree. "Much less a Beaumon," Elida said. "No, she's as much a scher as any of us. You'd be a moron to think otherwise. Seriously. She's a Beaumon." Elida laughed. "Not that you understand what that ans. I'm almost jealous of your ignorance."
Agitation appeared on Elida's face, coming surprisingly fast—almost out of nowhere. Her words grew hot, too.
"And even if it wasn't an act," she sneered. "It's because she's just been handed everything. Do you know what I've had to do, to get where I am? To get approval from my family? That bubbly bitch is just waltzing through life. No wonder she can smile so much."
***
The outburst had been uncharacteristic, appearing in a flash. It had only been a single instance, so Natalie hadn't let it influence her entire opinion of Elida—at least when it ca to who her sponsor might be.
But with Vanetta's insight?
Anger. The guiding force behind that toxic, sweet mask was anger?
Was her sponsor Rage, then?
Even now, she couldn't be certain. It could just be a facet of the woman's personality. But it had jumped to the forefront of the possibilities, as far as Natalie was concerned.
"I see," she finally said. "Should I … be worried, about that?"
She'd thought coming down into the dungeon with Elida would be a nuisance, but nothing truly dangerous, because of the political situation between Parda-Halt and Beaumons. She was doubting herself now.
Vanetta glanced at her, then blinked. "Oh, no," she said. "I don't an she's … well, she might be a little bit of a psychopath," she admitted. "But she's not, I don't know, a deranged murderer. I've seen those sorts, too. She's just …"
A pause, then a dry laugh.
"Passionate," she said. "In a way most people can't understand, maybe." She shrugged. "I respect it, honestly. The only kind of person I can't respect, is soone who wants sothing badly, but does nothing about it. And if there's anything in the world Elida is doing—she's getting what she wants." She humd. "She's angry about sothing, and it drives her. It's why I agreed to be her teammate, even if I don't like her very much. I'd rather respect soone than like them."
Natalie couldn't say she agreed with that sentint at all.
The conversation dried up there. Half because it had run its course, and half because it was ti to get a move on.
She was sowhat distracted in the following fights, and a slip-up that resulted in a shoulder-blow that forced her to take one of their three healing potions brought her head back into the ga: she discarded from her mind what she'd learned of Elida and focused on the dungeon with as much clarity as she should've from the start.
As they neared the City of Eros, Natalie's own curiosity and apprehension grew. Just what was in store for them? She hadn't given Vanetta any guesses half because she genuinely wasn't sure, and half because she didn't want to suggest sothing overly lewd only to discover what was awaiting them was chaste in comparison. Sohow she doubted that though. Lust's influence over the floor seed stronger than most, seeing how the entire thing was thed around the City of Eros, with all monsters dropping Tokens ant to be spent there. It wouldn't make sense for such a prominent, and thematically nad place, to be chaste.
What did that an for the delve with Elida? And Vanetta, for that matter? She could see Elida taking any opportunity to advance; she had propositioned Natalie, either tauntingly or genuinely, simply to smooth over their relationship. So she doubted the woman would have many problems with casual sex for the sake of progress, should it co to that.
Vanetta though? She definitely seed more reserved. Natalie might have noticed a few stolen glances, but she was also walking around in slutty armor, and she expected even straight girls would send so curious looks her way. So Natalie was unsure where Vanetta stood both on orientation and promiscuity. She expected Vanetta wouldn't love the City, whatever was waiting there.
It took several hours before they were brushing up on the outskirts, and the first whole, undecayed buildings ca into sight. The City, for whatever reason, had not suffered any deleterious effects from the cataclysm that had struck the rest of Elysium; it seed as if it had been dropped into the ruins after the fact, with its similar architecture yet pristine condition.
More surprising than the city was the young woman they bumped into.
Natalie kept her weapon at the ready, wary of a trap, but when she called out and the woman turned and raised her own weapon, she was pretty sure they'd simply found another delver.
"Oh," the girl said. "Oh, uh, hi there. Are you two newcors? No, that's silly, look at your armor, of course you aren't."
Natalie lowered her weapon—though certainly kept it in hand—as she approached the woman. She digested the opening words.
"Newcors?" she asked. "To what? This City? We're new, yes. What about my armor?"
Though Natalie already had an inkling of an idea of what she'd ant.
"You are new?" the unknown girl asked. She was tall-ish for a girl, an inch or two shorter than Natalie, with wide shoulders and heavy tal armor: probably a tank. Long black hair was tied in a ponytail, and she had dark green eyes. "Huh, I just assud …" she gestured at Natalie's armor and coughed. "Well, never mind. You'll find out soon enough. Why is it just two of you?"
"The dungeon split us up," Natalie said. "Where's the rest of your team?"
"In the City," she said. "It's safe, as long as you stay within its borders. I was poking around to see what I could find. Apparently so of the others have found stashes of Tokens and whatnot. Thought I'd try my hand, while everyone else was resting." She shrugged.
"Others," Vanetta said. "How many?"
There was sothing about the way the girl was phrasing it that made Natalie suspicious.
"You might not believe ," she replied. "But there's hundreds of us." Jokingly, she said, "A whole city's worth, you could call it."
At Natalie and Vanetta's astounded expressions, she coughed.
"And that's just the half of it," the girl mumbled. "You're in for a ride, let tell you. I guess I can show you around, if you want. It's a lot to take in, your first ti here, and soone else did the sa for . Ti to return the favor, I guess."
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