Chapter 24 #2
She paused for a moment before continuing.
“I couldn’t find work anywhere. My parents were runners, we moved around a lot, and we got by, but we were mostly poor.
After their death, we needed money for the rent, but I couldn’t get a decent job doing decent work in one of the great Houses, such as a lady’s maid or nanny, and our parents never taught us the routes on the surface to be runners.
They were going to when we got older, but.
.. When we had no food left to eat and got kicked out of the slum we were living in, I took the only job I could find, at a brothel. ”
Briza looked over at her to check her reaction to this, but Aelrie did not budge. It was not her place to judge the unfortunate.
“You don’t have anything to say about that? Being a prostitute down here isn’t immoral or illegal, but it makes you the lowest of class. You, as a Light Elf, have higher morals than we Dark Elves. Surely you must think differently of me now.”
“I do not think any less of you. And I would be inclined to disagree with you on the higher morals, Light Elves aren’t perfect. ”
“That’s good to hear. But I wouldn’t have held it against you if you did. It wasn’t my smartest decision.” Briza smiled, displaying that girlish charm of hers again. Smiling was her way to ease the pain. Aelrie noticed this right away.
Briza took another look over at Kasmyr and continued her story unfalteringly.
“Kasmyr took it badly, though. I think he blamed himself too much. He thought it was his weakness that drove me to prostitution. What he didn’t understand was it wasn’t his weakness that led us to that brothel; it was mine.
But he got into trouble, ran with the wrong crowd, and started committing petty crimes, stealing, fighting, and harassing girls on the street.
When he lost his virginity to a prostitute, a female I worked with, that was all I could take.
I saw us spiraling into this hole of degradation with no end, only cruel, pitiful death.
This wasn’t what our parents wanted from us. ”
A smile then crossed her face. “And one day, as fortune has it, I had a client who was a mercenary. He was kind, listened to me and my story, and gave me his contact at the guild. Said that if my brother and I could barely swing a sword or shoot a crossbow, they could work with that. He exaggerated too much about that, as we had no weapon training whatsoever. You saw us fight the spider.”
Aelrie laughed, and that lightened the mood.
“But it all worked out. Thankfully, he was the one who initiated us into the guild. Lied about our fighting credentials and trained us secretly when the others slept.”
“He sounds very kind. ”
“You met him,” Briza said. “He’s the mercenary with dark skin and a scar on the side of his face. He gave you your tents.”
“Oh!” Aelrie was surprised. Briza was a young female, and the mercenary was an older male. “I didn’t know you were a couple.”
Briza laughed as if it were a joke. “No. No!” She waved the thought away. “We only had one night together, but we’re merely friends, good friends, and guildmates. Besides,” she sighed, and it changed her mood. “There’s only one love for me. Unfortunately, I can never return to her.”
“Why not?”
“Because …” Briza sighed again, and it resounded with the sound of unrestrained longing. “She is the daughter of a great House. She is beautiful, kind, and perfect in every way. I could never darken her doorstep again, not as a lowly ex-prostitute mercenary.”
She wanted to protest, tell Briza that it didn’t matter, but even as a Light Elf, she knew it did matter.
Dark Elves had a hierarchy just the same as Light Elves; nobles and commoners never mixed.
It was forbidden to marry outside of one’s class.
The only thing available between the noble class and commoner class was love affairs and prostitution, which had many risks if caught.
In Light Elf society, affairs could lead to public shaming and a loss of position.
In Dark Elf society, there were similarities, but it looked as though the noble class thought themselves above everyone else and therefore could do anything they pleased, while the lower classes could only suffer from it .
Perhaps because of this supposed “magic” that only the nobility could learn. She would have to ask Shikra about it later, if she cared to learn more about Dark Elf society.
“But I think she still thinks of you,” Aelrie said this to cheer her up, but also because she believed the truth of it.
One cannot help who one thinks of. Shikra came to her mind so often as of late, even though she tried to force him out.
This alliance was only supposed to be temporary, but with how much he was on her mind, she doubted she’d ever be able to forget him after this.
“I hope so. I don’t know why I can tell you all this. You remind me so much of her, I think.”
“You miss her terribly.”
“Yes. I do.” Briza’s face softened. She was reliving a memory.
"Her manor was a supply stop for my parents. I went with them one day, and that is when I met her. And I went with them every time they visited her manor after that without complaint. Normally,” she said and chuckled.
“I hated going on their deliveries with them and acted as any cheeky teenager would, but if it was to her house, then that changed things. She would take me to her ‘secret grotto’ and we would kiss under the star crystals.”
“Ooh,” Aelrie cooed.
“Oh, what am I saying?” Briza brought her hand to her head. “I am sorry to dump my entire life on you. I didn’t mean to speak of her either. I haven’t been able to talk about her with anyone, and I just … have a hard time forgetting her.”
“Do you have to forget her?” Aelrie asked. Maybe she shouldn’t have, though. It wasn’t her place to suggest such things. But if the memories of her time spent with this girl she loved brought her such joy, what was so wrong with living in that feeling?
Briza gave her a strange look. Aelrie thought she spoke out of turn. But then Briza nodded thoughtfully. “No. I guess you’re right. I don’t have to forget her.”
There was silence between them. Briza then looked at her differently, her red eyes focused on her with concern. “I wanted to tell you this earlier, and in honesty, it is why I invited you here to our camp. Now that he is gone, I need to tell you. I can help you escape.”
“What do you mean?”
“You are his slave. There is no hope for you down here. We can help you escape and take you back to the surface. You’ve done so much for us. I want to help you as you’ve helped us.”
“I …” she hesitated. Should she tell her the truth, that she wasn’t really a slave and that Shikra was already helping her, guiding her to an exit? Even if he didn’t know of her ulterior motive in that …
“I need to tell you something.”
Briza leaned in so Aelrie could tell her in secret. “I am not his slave. He is actually helping me escape.”
“Oh,” Briza sighed and leaned back. Something pieced together for her. “I thought he was acting very protective of you.”
“I am acting as his slave to make it easier for us to navigate your world. ”
“Yes. Smart. I would’ve done the same thing, too. But there’s something about him…” Briza kind of trailed off.
“I know.”
“He seems dangerous.”
“He’s an assassin.”
“I could tell that by his look, hence the dangerous comment.”
“But he’s saved me many times. His skills in battle are unmatched.”
“That’s an understatement.” Briza kind of laughed at the thought. “He killed that spider on his own. It would have taken both nobles of House Nightwind to do that, had they deigned to lift a finger themselves.”
Aelrie remembered how Shikra’s flame magic advanced into halogi , the blaze, during the fight.
“As long as you feel safe with him.”
“I do.” She hated admitting this only days after Shikra killed her high priestess and held her hostage.
But his actions spoke for themselves. He proved himself worthy of her trust. She let him into her bed.
And, surprisingly, she did not feel bad about that.
Instead, she felt liberated by the sexual encounter as if she found something, a hidden part of herself she didn’t know she was searching for.
“But his magic,” Briza started to say.
“He is from a great House, then,” Aelrie answered. It must be House Shadowblade, as he’d told Draven Darkmoon earlier.
Briza was about to say something, but shook her head. She then looked at Aelrie intently. “Try not to get too involved with him. His class they are of a different sort. It’s best not to get too close.”
Briza leaned back as she said, “Darranyae, my love, taught me this. She’s the daughter of a great House, but she saw too much of the corruption and greed that power like that can bring.
She wanted to escape. I wanted to help her.
I had this dream. We would run away together, and both become runners. Kasmyr could come with us.”
“It sounds like a good dream.”
“Do you have dreams like that?”
Her dream. Could revenge be a dream? If this really was her dream, it was a depressing one.
“Wait.” She replayed everything Briza said before in her mind. “Did you say ‘Darranyae?’ From House Darkmoon, correct?”
Briza’s eyes widened. “You know her?”
“No.” Aelrie shook her head. “But I heard she’s missing.”
“Missing?” Briza’s voice rose.
“I don’t know the details, but her family is searching for her.”
Briza looked down, concentrating. Shikra and the others returned from a successful hunt, and one of the mercenaries called out to Briza, but she didn’t hear. He called again. “Hey, Briza. Get the fire going while we prepare the meat.”
“Oh.” She perked back up again, promptly standing up. “Sorry, I’ll get to it right away.”