Edited by: Solyom, tommyjl7, Deimos

The group of elves was dining in the inn section, doing everything to ignore the loud noises coming from the upper floor, or to be more precise – from Giselle and Zariel’s room. A warrior with a curved saber eventually looked at the priestess.

- “Lanele, I don’t understand what do you see in those primitives. They are acting like animals all the t…”

- “ZARIEL OUT!” could be heard from above, yet after that, a loud sound of something heavy falling on the ground “… please, be gentle.”

Everyone made an awkward grimace after hearing that. Except Lanele, she blushed. A lot. Actually, her whole face became as red as a ripe tomato.

- “Actually, I think we could learn from them. We, as the nation, are far too reserved. We are a creation of nature and wisdom, yet…”

- “If you are trying to tell, that we should act like these…” another sound from above. “… animals. Then please, tell me you are joking.”

- “I find them interesting. Aira works in mysterious ways when combining mates, just look at them! They are same, yet so very different! Giselle is so full of herself when it comes to EVERYTHING! Yet when it comes to their relationship she acts like a jealous lover! So forceful, so uncertain! And Zariel? He doubts in everything, checks every possibility before taking an action. But, oh, the way he looks at her. It’s the only moment when in his eyes I see no doubt. Aren’t they beautiful together?”

- “I hope that they are fascinating you only as specimens for observations…”

- “This is why I thought that I will spend some more times with them. You are free to do whatever you please, I will join their team for few quests.”

- “… And you will not grow attached in anyw… wait, what?!”

- “Mavik, I will be away for just a couple of months! Maybe years! You will see I will be back in a flash!”

- “We can’t leave you alone! It’s our duty to keep you safe!”

- “You will have the whole eternity for that. Sitting for hours in the chambers of the temple, looking at me while I’m praying, doing paperwork, and praying.”

- “You counted praying twice?” Aika, her personal aide asked.

- “Because I am going to pray so much.” She smiled back with reserve.

- “There is no way we will allow that!” man called Mavik protested.

- “Ok, have fun Lanele.” Aika answered, resuming eating her breakfast.

- “Thanks Aika! Love you!”

- “Aika! You cannot be serious! It’s not the matter of our approval! We have a vow to fulfill! A duty to uphold!”

- “But keep it in mind that at the same time, we will be always somewhere close. You know, it is quite common for two parties to meet in the same place, bah, sometimes even doing the same quest.”

- “Are you challenging me, Aika?” the silver-haired elf’s eyes shined.

- “That will also help to ease Mavik nerves. Maybe if he would consider them worthy…”

- “A human and a half-blood? Worthy? I never thought I would live long enough to hear such words from my very sister. And I intend to live long. Very long.”

- “Someone doubts our skills?” from behind a corner, a white-haired man stepped out. They jumped up a little in surprise, they never heard him coming, and that already was quite a feat.

- “Hello Zari! Where is Giselle!? We were just talking about you!”

- “She will come down soon. And as my little naïve princess is away, I can speak openly. Guyz, I don’t like you. You already proved to be bunch of assholes and whatever your reasons are, because I doubt you are up to anything good, so don’t try to become friends with us. Turn around and go your way.”

- “Watch your tongue while talking to the…”

- “Mavik! All of this could be avoided if you didn’t act behind my backs… or acted bit more polite.”

- “Why would I want to honor some lesser beings?!”

- “If that’s your chain of thoughts, then maybe you should act with the dignity you are so proud of. For now, your actions and words can’t be considered very noble.”

- “But!... Very well. I understand.” He turned around to him and bowed his head slightly. “… I beg your apology…” one could really think that he meant it. Who knows, maybe he did.

- “Fuck off, mate.” Yet Zariel left no space for guesses about his attitude regarding their relations.

- “Why, you little!”

- “Now, now. Let’s all calm down! We can’t say that his anger isn’t justified, can we Mavik?”

- “Yet he…”

- “Can. We. Mavik?” Lanele smiled. Yet her smile held no happiness, only a threat.

- “I guess…”

- “Zari! You little bastard! Where are you!” the dragoness’ yell could be heard from the direction of the stairs.

- “Shit.” the magician whispered. He started to look nervously after some place to hide, yet in the whole inn section there were only some chairs and tables, not enough to hide him from his lover’s gaze. He decided to jump behind the priestess and used her as a living shield.

- “Here you are!” she yelled after finally she arrived to the lower floor. “…No more running! I got the tools, we are going on the field. I don’t want to hear any objections!”

- “Giselle! How are you?” the elf tried to ignore the weird behavior of her . “… You know what, just a minute ago we could heard some noise from above, mind telling us what was this fuss about?”

- “Yeah, you see…” Giselle relaxed and tried to explain the situation. But Zariel couldn’t allow it, could he?

- “She forced herself on me…” he whispered, still hiding from the dragoness.

- “W-what?!” Lanele was surprised, to say the least.

- “WHAT?!” Giselle was surprised even more.

Now even the tips of elf’s ears became red.

- “S-she made me strip. Get rid of my clothes… I was wondering why she demanded that mostly because it happened out of the blue…”

- “Lanele, don’t listen to him!”

But it was too late. This elf was very… to the description of intimate acts. She almost blowing steam from her nostrils.

- “I tried to get away… but she was faster… stronger… so dominating. She pinned me to the floor with her body… her hands, her fingers were dancing on my body! I cried! I begged her to stop! But! BUT!”

Zariel was almost crying, and at the same time, the pure priestess started bleeding from her nose.

- “Zari. I am fucking done. Lanele, step aside.”

- “Please! Don’t! I won’t take this anymore! Please!”

- “Giselle. Is that… Is that true?” elf’s ears started twitching.

- “No! We just…”

Yet the young druid never stopped talking. His lips were whispering most forbidden stories, poor Lanele was about to overheat so Giselle had to act. She eventually knocked Zariel down and explained the situation.

… a few moment later.

- “… I think I underestimated a little the intelligence of this primitive… He said the same story, pretty much didn’t lie at all, yet he completely changed our perception about the matter that…” one of the Lana’s guards was speaking his mind. Giselle looked at him while raising his brow.

- “The hell is he talking about?” she asked, looking at silver-haired girl.

- “He was impressed by Zariel’s ability to manipulate the truth.”

- “Yeah. He is one sly bastard.” She exhaled the air while correcting her grip on the body of the unconscious man she carried under her armpit.

- “Anyway, where are you taking him?” the elf girl asked, tilting her head to the side.

- “I saw a little glade, just outside of the town. Zariel said he wants to train, I am going to turn his life into hell right there. Do you wish to tag along? I need to pay him back for humiliation with humiliation.”

- “I think it may not be the best i…” Lanele didn’t want to put any pressure on their newly formed relation.

- “We would love to see the famous Giselle and the infamous Zariel during a training session!” But Mavik loved the idea of putting that pressure on.

- “Great! Come on!” And she left the guild, opening the door. With a kick, of course.

- “Um. Giselle?”

- “Yes?”

- “Which one of you is the decision maker in your party?”

- “That’s actually hard question, you know? When it comes to strategy, planning routes or formation, Zari is the one that makes most of the thinking. I am responsible for tactics – decisions in the heat of the moment. When it concerns anything else, like the kind of supplies we need to take on the quest, we usually talk to each other until we reach a conclusion.”

- “I mean, if I would want to join your group for some time…”

- “Well, I doubt Zari would like idea of so many people joining us…”

- “No, no all of us. Just me alone.”

- “Won’t your friends be sad without you? You guys seem to be close to each other.”

- “We are close, we will be sad without her… But if that’s what miss Lanele wants, we can only respect her decision and wait. For us, weeks and months pass like hours for you. The only thing I am concerned about is her safety.” An elf with a spear answered quietly.

- “In that case, sure, welcome aboard.”

- “That was fast!” the priestess didn’t hide her surprise.

- “I like you, so there was no need for a consultation with Zari.”

- “Do you think he will like it?”

- “Nope. And that’s the point! In the end I am registered as party leader, gods damn it!”

They finished the rest of the way to the glade, chatting about everything and nothing, mostly to keep themselves busy than to actually get to know each other.

- “So where you come from, women are in charge, right?” Giselle asked.

- “That’s a huge generalization! It’s just… our top offices in both administration, office and cult are taken by women!”

- “If you are making an assumption that we have the same, just reversed culture as some of the human nomadic tribes that treat women as possession, then you are offending us.” One of the few males in the elf party answered. “… our position simply isn’t that formal as we honor our tradition. There is no male general in our army, but we have a position called War Heralds. Gevon Almar is one of them, despite that formally he is under the Conclave of Generals, he is the main decision maker when it comes to army-related events. Officially, he serves only with advice – he shows his point of view to the gathering and his idea needs to be approved…”

- “But his ideas were never rejected?” Giselle turned around to look at his current conversation partner.

- “Sometimes, less urgent decisions are being delayed for further adjustments. Then again, we think these are made only to maintain the illusion of the Conclave being in charge.”

- “But still, the girls are in power?”

- “If you put it so bluntly… then yes.”

- “Then I already like that place!”

- “Oh, no, you don’t.” it was Lanele who joined the conversation. “… you see, our kingdom benefits only from ambitious females, the ones that wish to benefit their families. If you want something else, yet you were born into a noble family, trust me, it is one huge nightmare.”

- “Speaking for yourself?” Giselle thought that now Lanele would start to energetically deny, but to her surprise...

- “Yes. I wanted to study archeology, to study the civilizations that are long gone. But I was forced to attend classes of diplomacy; ethics; history – but not the one I liked, my researches were narrowed to the history of only the currently existing countries; language; religion…” she was counting more and more subjects. “… and how about you Giselle, is there something you would like to change your life? Do you have a reason to look for your place in the nation of elves?”

- “Oh, no, you misunderstood me. I didn’t like your homeland because of your culture itself, I was more interested in finding more female warriors. Unfortunately, in the guild about 9 of 10 adventures are male. And even those that are left aren’t pure warriors. Always some silly hexblade or an other garbage class…” one of the elf girls that walked together with the group coughed loudly. “… she is a hexblade, right?”

- “Yeah.” the offended girl answered.

- “I am sorry.”

- “No need to be. I know that you say those words because of the frustration of not meeting a worthy opponent.”

- “Kind of… Up until now only, papa Jericho defeated me in a fair duel…”

- “And how would you name the outcome of our last sparring?”

Apparently, the unconscious man wasn’t very unconscious.

- “How long were you awake?” Giselle stopped.

- “Hm? I was sleeping?”

- “Wait… why weren’t you reacting till now?”

- “Maybe I just like when you are carrying me? Makes me feel like a princess.”

The dragoness released her grip, she wanted him to fall right into the dirt of the road, yet the druid twisted his body like a cat and landed with grace.

- “So why weren’t you reacting when I was letting Lena join our group?”

- “I made a simulation in my head, every path of a conversation I would choose would lead me to you doing as you please anyway. So why bother?”

Oh, no actual simulation took place, these were not necessary. He simply knew how stubborn Giselle is. Like everyone else knew it.

- “Anyway, thanks for the ride.” He patted Giselle’s shoulder. A single vein started pulsating on her forehead.

- “I will fucking kill him, but not just yet. I will fucking kill him, but not just yet. I will f…” she started singing her mantra in order to calm herself down.

Eventually, they reached the glade. Giselle dropped a bag, filled with weapons on the ground, a few wooden tools, only strengthened with metal here and there in order to increase their durability… and to add some extra pain during trading blows. These tended to teach students that evading attacks is just as important as dealing them.

- “Ok. What do you have prepared for me this time? Some more wood chopping? Pushups with you sitting on my back? Hell, I could actually enjoy the last one!”

- “Sparring.”

- “Just that? Come on!”

- “You can’t use magic. Nor shi…” she almost gave out information about his a skill to transform. “… I mean, using other of your abilities.”

The elves gave each other a knowing look. Their curiosity has been piqued.

- “Ok. Now, that’s unfair!” an ugly grimace appeared on Zariel’s face.

- “Stop whining! You wanted to get stronger! To get stronger, one has to abuse his current limits!”

- “So you are telling me that you are not doing that just to bully me?”

- “… not only because of that.”

- “I knew it.”

- “Miss Giselle, if I may.” the elf with the spear finally spoke again. “… if I may, I would love to be his first opponent.”

- “But I…” she tried to protest.

- “If I may suggest something, I am sure that you already are aware of each others fighting styles. If you really wish to contribute to your mate’s progression, allow him to test other enemies. May I ask you how many spearmen have you fought with?”

- “Only Jericho. It wasn’t much of a fight either.”

- “But…!” Giselle once again tried intervening. She wanted to savor her little victory.

- “Sweetie, wait in line. Not every day I can duel with an elf lancer.” The druid blow her a kiss.

- “My name is Devris Almar, part time protector of the Head Priestess’ daughter. It is my pleasure to face you.”

He bowed politely.

- “Same family name as your War Herald? Why am I thinking it’s not a coincidence?”

- “Because it is not.” Mavik called from the side. “… you are fighting against his son. Devris, go easy on this primitive. We already know that he has no chance against you.”

- “I can’t agree on that.” Lancer said, balancing his weapon in hands. “… When I decide to fight with someone I consider them to be my peers, and I can’t disgrace someone I consider to be worthy of a fake fight.” He looked at the dulled weapon that Giselle prepared. “… those fake spears are already a handicap.”