“Remind me again why we’re waiting…” Eliphas murmured, hunched and concealed in thick green bushes with branches barbed by thorns, the night black color of his armor blending in poorly with the minor shadows, just as well as Daedra’s apparel did for her.

She replied back quietly, her voice calm and carefree, though not without a small touch of humor.

“I just want to see who’s going inside, alright? Why are you so eager to become a slave?”

The prince of Emoria frowned and glared over to the girl, who had similarly concealed herself within the same bit of vegetation the human lord had chosen. Though he kept his movements to a minimum, he couldn’t help but make noise every time he shifted, and he was becoming oddly self-conscious of her, by comparison, silent nature.

“I’m asking because subterfuge is not one of my preferred activities,” he trailed off a moment before muttering, looking away and off to the distance to the building the horned woman eyed intently.

“I’m just not very good at it is all. It’s… rather difficult to hide me…” the warrior said with a small nip of embarrassment.

Daedra glanced at him and smiled, her eyes glowing despite the midday sun, rather suddenly playful with his apparent shortcoming, as well as any possible chance he felt vulnerable.

“I could put you in my pocket if you want…” Then her tone and eyes narrowed, and in contrast, her smile grew wider before adding,

“…Or…I could find a different place to hide you…” the girl said with a tiny wink and a now full smirk of pointed teeth.

Eliphas closed his eyes and felt his left brow twitch, feeling an odd combination of curious emotions, though mostly unease as he tried to keep quiet, cutting back his voice as he blurted out, with a sharp retort,

“I’m merely suggesting,” he snapped with emphasis, “we take a different position, someone is likely to see us if I’m this close, are we not trying to remain concealed?”

Directly in front of the hiding pair, their squabbling going, for the most part, unnoticed, was a clearing of the forest about a hundred yards wide in every direction, the earth grassy and the soil a light brown in patches. Where the trees opened up to the sky, there was a small building or inn of sorts made of grey bricks and pale mortar, its construct looking to Eliphas like some type of ancient, ruined fortress, though much smaller in practical terms. Its form, he concluded, resembled a church or place of worship designed by a mason who meant it to last through the winter and rain of the local climate, though guessing by the noise and music coming from inside, as well as the complete lack of guards manning its pair of heavy wooden doors, this had long ceased to be a concern.

There was nobody outside, except for of course Daedra and the Emorian, though the two had waited for some time and had yet to move into the clearing, the woman insisting they take note of who came and went, though no developments of that type had come to pass. Eliphas had not asked whom Daedra had been waiting for, and he wasn’t even sure if she knew herself.

“Just a bit longer, settle down, I just want to see who might be here.”

She turned to face him placing her hand on his shoulder and gripping one of the trio of spikes on his pauldron, risking a small amount of physical interaction,

“You worry too much,” she said softly with a hushed voice, her eyes shutting and her lips curling confidently, “I’m very experienced in stealth, its been one of my skills since childho-“

“Oh hey there Daedra!” a voice called from behind the two, both Eliphas and Daedra shouting in surprise and jumping as they turned in unison. The horned girl hurled herself onto her captive’s armored frame and clung to it like a child, shock and surprise clearly written on both of their faces as Eliphas stood and wheeled them around to face the newcomer.

There was a girl there, slightly younger in appearance than the duo before her, holding a wooden bucket nearly filled to the rim with clean, glistening water.

“W…What are you doing in the bushes?...” she said with a puzzled set of soft, blue eyes. She was similarly blue-haired, and garbed in a simple, off-white dress of kinds, casual in its functionality, but still graceful in its appearance. As the girl blinked a few times in silence, she looked at Eliphas, and he as well gazed at her. She was, by any measure, very pretty, and the prince was glad to finally see someone who wasn’t some kind of savage for the first time in days.

As Eliphas and the girl with the bucket looked away from each other, their small moment passing quickly, the lord of Emoria glanced down and realized that he was holding Daedra in his left arm, her figure clutching his armored body tight. He glared down at her and made a disdainful growling sound, the left half of his mouth’s teeth flashing as the horned girl chuckled up to him nervously in response.

He shoved her off and away angrily, Daedra landing to the ground with a thud as he began dusting himself off, trying to look more dignified.

“Who…Who’s your friend, Daedra?” The smaller girl said anxiously, her ocean blue eyes betraying her sudden, mild discomfort.

“Huh? Oh,” the inhuman responded dismissively as she too got to her uncovered feet, “This is Eliphas, he’s uh…”

She hesitated for a second it seemed, but the girl appeared not to notice as both women looked to the large, black shape of the prince.

“He’s working with me!…” Daedra said, covering her tracks, “We’ve come looking for Graggas, have you seen him lately?”

Eliphas’ captor gestured towards the lone building behind the trees, revealing apparently, whom they had been watching for this whole time.

“Actually, you’re in luck, he’s just come in a while ago! I’m headed back now, I just had to go for some more water. Come inside and I’ll make you both something to drink!” The girl said with a smile and a shallow bow to Eliphas before she finished hurriedly with,

“I’m Maribel, my family owns the Moss Grove Tavern.”

Her words were laced with nervous hesitation, and while they were directed to Eliphas, the girl, he found, could not bring her eyes back up from the ground to meet his own for whatever reason.

“I apologize for not introducing myself,” she muttered, as if the prince were going to be furious, “I was… I’m just in a hurry, is all…”

The noble son of the king smiled and nodded his head with respect, the anxious, small woman seeing this kind gesture and looking now more at ease as he spoke,

“Your apology is unnecessary. Please, carry on with your task,” he said taking a half step backward and allowing her room to walk.

With that, Maribel smiled at them both and passed between them, weaving through the bushes and heading back to the stone-built tavern as she hurried to return to her work. Daedra and Eliphas watched her go as his captor spoke, sighing as she did so.

“Maribel,” she stated again as the blue-eyed maiden had, “She’s sweet, and naïve, so don’t go messing with her, got it? She’s fragile, so if you touch her, I’ll eat you with soup.”

Eliphas shot Daedra a harsh look of offended surprise, again returning to the pair’s favorite hobby of making insults at one another.

“Why is it that you assume I will pillage and rape every place and female we happen across, hm? Do I appear to you as some kind of monster?”

Daedra scoffed and rolled her eyes, walking the same direction Maribel had gone, saying over to the noble without turning to regard him, the man beginning to follow her into the open.

“She likes you is why, and she doesn’t take to most people because she’s so shy. So leave her alone.” The horned girl, who was suddenly soft, and strangely defensive of another.

“My mind doesn’t think like yours, Daedra. No one's does I’d wager.”

Daedra took this comment and declined to continue further. He wasn’t wrong, Eliphas, but she wondered how much he would disagree if he had come to learn more of who, and not what she was. The pair had spent the last few days together, and she had learned what she felt were important details of who the black lord was before his capture, but he had yet to glimpse any specific details about her own life or story. He did know that she had unnatural abilities, which no one else not of her kind knew, but he didn’t know who she was. Neither of them, she thought quietly, actually did. She wanted to, and she could feel that in her bones, but Daedra understood that their time together was nearly at an end, and she was trying extremely hard not to get attached to him.

However, as the pair neared the large, wood and iron rivet door to the Moss Grove, she found herself feeling every moment that came and went, taking the two closer towards that end, more and more difficult to endure. Almost as if, in truth, she did not want to give him up. Not just yet, anyway.

Then her stomach growled painfully, and she remembered the last time she’d eaten properly was nearly half a week ago, besides of course the bowman she’d swallowed when she had attacked Eliphas’ cute little warriors, and he, unfortunately, had given her a stomach ache.

# # # #

Inside it was packed, and loud, completely the opposite of how the crisp, outdoor clearing had felt moments before the pair had entered. Daedra led the way just a hand span away from the Emorian, as the two came inside, they got a few curious looks from the other patrons, but nothing much more than cursory glances. There was joyous music being played by a couple of the taverns inhabitants, stringed instruments and a flute chorusing lively as dozens of men, women, and more than a couple of species Eliphas wasn’t familiar with laughed, hooted, and shouted gleefully around tables and a long bar.

Most of the crowded tavern had tankards or mugs of heavy wood in hand or nearby, a few pairs of strongly built, half-lizard, half-men, arm-wrestled near to a window with bulging, green-scaled musculature and staring with hostile intent in their eyes. There were groups here and there, and as Eliphas and Daedra shuffled around and between people in the crowded establishment, he caught a small, genuine smile on her face, something in her eyes that spoke of familiarity or comfort, and it had the human wondering if this was something akin to her home away from home. There was a round table near the middle of the single enormous room, the ceiling high and the walls arched above and lit with huge iron chandeliers. A portly, ugly man sat at the table laughing with another equally filthy and rugged human, and as the pair approached, the thickly set guest raised an eyebrow and spoke with an overly gleeful smile.

“Dae, my dear, is that you?” His voice was sickly sounding, as if his throat and nasal cavity were full of phlegm, and as it came out of his mouth, Daedra resisted the urge to make an irritated face. She detested Graggas, he was vile and irritating, but he was the only means to an end she could find within half a dozen leagues.

Arms raised up and to his sides, the round man wore a smile right up until the precise moment he caught a look at Eliphas, the sight of which, immediately appeared to set him uneasy.

“Graggas, long time no see,” she replied back curtly, trying her best to seem pleasant. Graggas might have sensed this feigned attempted at being polite, but his eyes were now fixed, on the black iron figure at her side.

A few extra seconds than necessary passed, but the unsightly man spoke again, tearing his gaze away from Eliphas who had met it, and gesturing to his companion to leave them.

“Yes, it had been a couple of months. I was worried you’d left town and gone to find someone else to sell scraps to!”

Graggas’ accent was of a culture the Emorian was not familiar with, guttural, and sounding as ugly as the man whose mouth it toppled out of with each syllable.

Daedra grabbed a nearby chair and sat down with a sigh, not clear if out of relief or reluctance at the situation. She placed her crossed arms close to and covering her chest, leaning over the table edge, tilting her head and looking over towards the presented human with a neutral face.

“I’ve been busy, that’s all. And today I’ve come to discuss a little business, if you’re willing.”

This drew another glance from the foreign man, up and over at Eliphas, who had eschewed the use of a chair and remained standing behind Daedra, as if he were some kind of bodyguard.

“Business?” The man began with a low, suspicious tone, the earlier glee now evaporating, “You’ve come to sell, that?”

The man, as if surprised, gestured with a dirty, hairy hand and a raised eyebrow towards the metal-clad Eliphas, as if he were a dirty trinket and not a living human being.

Daedra glanced up and over towards her human captive for an instant, as if to inspect him for damage or fault, unsure of Graggas’ sudden reluctance. Eliphas momentarily met her eyes and stayed silent.

“Yea, I came to see if you’d want him before I offered him to someone else,” she continued, “I thought you dealt in the slave trade a bit, Graggas?”

“I do,” he replied with a thick, mucus-laced, tone, “but he’s not slave material. He’s not the kind of sort I’m interested in. He’s not like the others you’ve brought to me before.”

Daedra blinked in disbelief, surely, someone as strong, intelligent, and well equipped as Eliphas would fetch a huge price? She was suddenly confused and taken aback, why would Graggas say something like that? Who wouldn’t be interested in this former General, this Lord of Emoria?

She was partly stunned at the reaction he was attracting from her potential customer, it was as if the two were debating over a completely different person.

“That,” Graggas said with a quick glance and a frown towards Eliphas, “would slit your throat as soon as it would fill your drinking cup. There’s no telling what he’d do if he had no chains. I’m not interested in it. Take this black brick to someone else, Dae.”

Everything was abruptly going sour, the food and drink Daedra had been envisioning the last few days was evaporating before her eyes. She thought to finally enjoy herself for once, really this time, maybe if the Emorian had fetched a huge helping, she’d finally find a more suitable place to…

This just wasn’t acceptable. She had to try again, use every trick or position she had to sell this new prey of hers. She had to salvage something, her groaning stomach pushed her forwards with new desperation at the prospect of leaving empty-handed.

“Why isn’t he slave material? Look at him! He could do manual labor for days,” she continued with new vigor.

Graggas waved her away dismissively before she could even finish, “I don’t know how you managed it Dae, even right now, but that thing won’t listen to anyone, it’s a wonder you got him here in the first place. Just look at him!”

Daedra blinked at the statement, but did just as the trader suggested. She looked up and over towards Eliphas who glanced down at her with a cold stare, shrugging his oversized, spike shoulders as she did so. There was something in his eyes, not bitterness or even spite at this strange development, only an icy assurance that told her he agreed with the statement.

She knew little of him, but there didn’t seem like there was anything incredibly out of the ordinary about Eliphas…and yet, Daedra knew, somehow, someway, there was. Ever since they’d met, since they’d fought, she knew he was different. There was something in him that was more than what he said, did, or spoke. Something…dangerous, inside him.

Daedra turned back again and continued, strangely feeling a little unsettled now.

“Well, he can fight, that’s gotta be worth something, doesn’t it? To someone, right?”

Graggas heard the horned girl’s words but didn’t look away from Eliphas as he stood silent and largely motionless, impassive and having not said a word, but having heard the entire exchange. The slaver and the warrior locked eyes, and the trader became clearly uncomfortable after a moment’s stare down.

“Yeah, bet he can…” the chubby, stout man said lowly, as if anxious and only to his own ears, “can’t yah, boy?” he concluded loud enough for Eliphas to assume he was asked the question directly.

The Emorian simply looked down at the man as his silent, steel glare sent his attention away.

“No one will buy him, not me, not anyone else Dae. You hear?”

Daedra almost fell out of her chair. She risked a lot capturing this human, this lord of sorts, and here she was being denied even a shred of payment for her less than legal adventure. His rank, his age, his strength, all of this made Eliphas practically worth his weight in coppers, maybe even silvers, and here Graggas was saying she’d get not a single coin for all her trouble.

“What’s wrong with him, Graggas? He’s probably worth everyone else in here combined, and you won’t take him? Why?”

Graggas looked just now as if he were caught in a lie, and right then, Daedra knew there was something more.

At last, the disheveled man responds, nervously looking up to Eliphas as he mutters,

“I won’t speak while it’s standing there…” not trying in the slightest to hide his discontent and hesitation before the black-armored man.

Daedra sighs and leans back in her chair, reflexively miming with her hands on the table a gesture of reluctance as they tap the wood. She turns around to Eliphas as the tavern continues its gleeful atmosphere around the trio, everyone else it would seem oblivious to their discussion.

“Just go wait outside. I’ll come for you when it’s done,” she says, trying to hide her disappointment at the prospect of selling him still, an eventuality she seems to anticipate regardless of how the conversation goes.

At first, it looks like Eliphas will resist, but he sees for a moment, a small look of real sadness that the horned girl is trying to keep private. It affects him for some reason to see her that way, so he gives in without a word spoken, just a nod as he turns and heads away from the table, uncertain if he’ll ever see those glowing eyes again.

“Wait out by the front door, if I don’t see you, you know what happens,” Daedra calls out to him, though he doesn’t even turn to respond or even acknowledge her.

The girl watches him go, weaving gracefully for something his size in between the other patrons and leaving out through the light of the front door they came in.

Whatever she’s feeling now in this instant, in the next Daedra’s emotions are scattered, as Graggas continues to speak once more.

“I’d be doing you a great favor, you know, taking that one off ya hands. Probably even saving your life.”

“Yeah,” she begins, turning back around to the table, “I had hoped not to starve to death.”

“That’s not what I mean, Lyraxian.” He says, in a rare and cordial use of her race’s formal name.

“He’s a bad omen, that one. He’s one of those in black, the cursed and the lost.”

Daedra’s eyes shift and they narrow at the quizzical nature of Graggas’ words and his sudden, almost conspiratorial tone.

“Cursed and lost? What are you talking about?”

Graggas looks past the horned girl to the door, as if to confirm the man who’d just left somehow can’t hear or bear witness to what he’s about to say.

“I slave trade, girl. I’ve seen and heard things beyond your years. I have never seen their like, but I’ve ‘eard of them. They’re from the west… The far west… beyond the Vallor peaks. Farther than anyone’s been in ages, Dae. They wore black, had the names of the dead carved into their armored skins, and they did terrible things for a thousand years to this realm.”

Daedra was silent, whatever Graggas was on about, he seemed to believe it, and he seemed genuinely afraid.

“Emorians, you mean? He said he was from Emoria.” She ventured.

Graggas waved her words away and continued, at a quicker pace, his growing anxiety making him speak faster.

“I don’t remember what they were called, alright? I just know what they were and that they’re dangerous. They bring death to those who ever run into them and destroy the lives of common folk like us for no reason whatsoever. And look at him Dae, he’s out here alone, out here in the middle of the land they used to have mastery over. Why? Because his own people can’t even stand him, that’s why! The other half of the world spit him out, because those devils never take to anyone or anything!”

The inhuman girl was finding it hard to make sense of anything the slave trader was saying, he was going so fast, saying things that couldn’t be true. She’d never even heard of these people, and before finding Eliphas and capturing him, she’d never even known his lands had existed. There was probably many hundreds of peoples or places she’d never see in her life, why were these Emorians suddenly so important? The world was too big, and oftentimes full of stories and nonsense.

“You’re not making any sense human, what are you trying to say, that he’s some type of monster?”

Graggas raised his voice sharply and glared across the table, his point being lost, but regarded the people around the tavern and tried to measure his temper so that no one would notice.

“No Daedra, I’m trying to tell you they’re ALL monsters. They aren’t men, maybe not even human. They had a taste of what it was like to rule this world, and someday they’ll want it back!”

The girl was quiet suddenly, overwhelmed by everything Graggas was saying and getting more lost in the words every second they flew by. It was crazy, all of it, and this was the first time she’d ever heard anything like this. Why now? Why not before? She wanted to believe it was the ramblings of a dirty old man, and that he was speaking in myths or common campfire stories. But then, deep down, Daedra knew there was a time when men told stories about monsters like herself, and those didn’t turn out to be myths either.

“You need to cut him loose and hope that’s the end of it. It would be even better to kill him, that’s the only way to be sure, but I personally wouldn’t take my chances if I were you.”

“Kill him?” Daedra cut in at once, “Why would I do something like that?!”

“Because, you stupid girl,” the man came back frustrated, “his kind is wrong. There’s something very, very wrong with them… He’s hated and feared! And for good bloody reason!”

Daedra had had enough, and there it was written on her face for Graggas to see. Her stare was blank until she shook her head frowning, looking off and away from the table, from the conversation itself, entertained no longer. She stood and looked down at the messy human, regretting ever having met him, only thankful for his brief and convoluted history lesson and the few other times he’d paid her for her previous work.

“So am I,” she said with heavy finality and with as much emotion in her glare that she could pour into the look she gave him.

# # # #

Eliphas was standing outside in the easy breeze, adjacent to the door to the tavern, the sun, warm on his face and coming through brightly into the open clearing. There were more people out here, he found to his surprise, a caravan of sorts, and from the looks of it all, they were bringing supplies or goods to sell to the patrons and the owners of the tavern.

About two dozen commoners were milling about, tending to wagons or other cargo-filled carts, some driven by livestock, others small enough to be pushed by a single person. The traders seemed to be from some type of nearby town or similar village, nothing they transported looked particularly exotic or outlandish, mostly fruit, vegetables, and the occasional barrel or two carrying liquids.

The Emorian gazed around as the people, maybe just under two dozen, talked and exchanged interest with one another’s goods and other pleasantries. Some of the men and women spoke languages he was not familiar with, but a man, a very elderly man who tended a stuck wheel to his horse-drawn cart, cursed frustratedly as he toiled with the seal in one he knew.

Eliphas began to trudge over towards the cart, his armor’s racket casting away all hopes of subtlety as he saw the elderly man stand up with a concerned look on his face, hearing him approach.

“You there, you can understand my words, correct?”

The man hesitated and blinked nervously, but nodded his head quickly. The elder was wearing a small round grey hat, and his body was similarly covered in simple clothing to match his beard and other weathered features of near the same color. In his hand, he held a small metal container, round and filled with a black paste, oil or some type of grease it seemed for the damaged cart.

“Y-yes young master, something the matter?”

“No, I noticed you struggling with the wheel, and was wondering if I could offer you aid in return for a conversation.”

The older human still looked nervous, but seemed relieved that’s all the large, black-iron warrior wanted.

“Oh…Oh aye, then. What did you-“

Eliphas knelt by the wheel an examined it for a moment, seeing at once what was causing it to stick and cease its smooth rolling. In one motion, the prince slid clear his knife from the scabbard on his boot, causing the trader to flinch at the sound, and worked the tip of the blade into the space between the axle and hub.

“How far is the village or town you came from?” Eliphas said without looking up, his full intent dedicated to the mending of the cart.

“Village? Oh right, yes, well its Gilla, and it’s about a day’s journey from here if the weather holds nicely. Nothing much to look at, but we’ve plenty of food and crop to go around these days, season’s been good to us I’m happy to say!” the man said with a laugh towards the end.

The armored Eliphas balled his right fist and struck the flat pommel of the knife a trio of times, a hard, metal on metal sound resounding out as a piece of shaped rock came flinging out after the last hammer, freeing the wheel to spin correctly at last.

“Which way, and is that grease,” the Emorian said, gesturing to the man’s small tin, and reaching out.

 The old trader handed the tin over and the younger man found it was what he had assumed, putting a knob of the black paste onto his index finger and working it into the contact point.

“It’s towards the way we came,” the man said gesturing off behind Eliphas, “the road these days can be a bit, well, dangerous, but not if you travel in a group as we’ve been doin.”

The prince stood and tugged on the metal rim of the wheel a few times to test its hold and work the grease around the interior of the hub, finding the repair had been complete without much difficulty. He felt in his palm however, the grease of the cart’s owner, and came to a small realization and future use for the paste.

“Could I buy the rest from you by chance?” Eliphas said as he retrieved a coin from the bag at his hip, the one Daedra still didn’t know he had.

He produced a copper piece and the old man’s eyes lit up at the sight of it. Apparently, this was a very one-sided exchange, but the man seemed kind and honest, so the prince didn’t care much for a good price or deal. Besides, recent events might see him lose all of it soon regardless.

# # # #

Daedra came out from the door to the tavern, a hundred questions on her mind, feeling frustrated, broke, and still unable to shake the nagging hunger in her empty stomach despite all of that.

She suddenly noticed Eliphas was gone, as she cast her eyes around a new group of merchants who looked like they’d just arrived, and for a moment she swore in her mind and was about to bring up her hand to snap her fingers. She was hoping he hadn’t gotten far enough that she wouldn’t find him, and half hoped a bird or a snake wouldn’t beat her too him if she had too, but just before she could, she found his normally large stature hunched over and working at some cart for an old man.

He was…He was fixing the wheel, it looked like. The inhuman girl blinked a few times in surprise without intending too, and for a strange instant, she felt something for him. Maybe it was her hunger finally getting to her head, or maybe she was just exhausted after the conversation with Graggas, but she couldn’t help but sigh and smile with her eyes closed, dipping her head and shaking it slowly from side to side in disbelief. He was naïve, and while he looked sweet, and she had glimpsed small peaks at what he was really like on the inside, Daedra had seen what he could do with an axe. She had seen him kill and inflict pain, and while it gave her a flush of intriguing pleasure at the sight, she had once been on the receiving end of his wroth.

Eliphas stood and tested the wheel as he moved in front of the old man, taking a small tin and placing it under his armored skirt as they spoke.

“Hey, Eliphas!” Daedra found herself calling, “Come on, time to go.”

The Emorian turned and regarded her, nodding his head and exchanging a farewell to the nice old man, turning to head away and back towards the tavern, his armored form trudging towards her call.

“Young master!” the trader called from behind.

Eliphas turned and smoothly caught a large red apple as it flew over to him from the man, one he had fished out quickly from his stock of things to sell from the cart. He spoke over to him loud enough for Daedra to hear and when she did, a lot of things happened she hadn’t anticipated ever feeling.

“For the wife, good sir.” The trader said with a smile and a wave to Daedra.

Eliphas hesitated, but nodded and waved, turning for the last time as he neared the outside of The Moss Grove.

Daedra couldn’t help herself, and began to immediately play with the situation.

“Hussssband! For me?!” She said with a huge smile, wide bright eyes, and moving to place a hand on his bulky cuirass.

Eliphas replied lowly and glanced around to the other merchants with a fake smile.

“He probably thinks because we’re wearing the same color we’re together.”

Daedra replies again, loudly, keeping the same, unashamed tone she had used a moment before.

“Of course we’re together, you didn’t think I was gonna let any one of those people inside take you from me, did you? You’re all mine you silly thing!”

“The old man, is he still looking this way?” The Emorian says with a low mutter and a twitching eyebrow.

Daedra blinks a moment in confusion and glances around Eliphas, seeing that the merchant is indeed still looking over.

“Uh, yeah, why?” she says at a normal volume and pitch, slightly confused.

“Because I don’t want him to see me hit you.”