Chapter 42: In Broad Daylight

Seeing the young woman walking towards him with an irate face, the boy looked away with an innocent air. Not fooled by his acting, she roughly grabbed him by the neck and lifted him off the ground with one hand.

"Where is it Ikaris?! I won't say it a third time. Where did you hide my stele?" She asked trembling with rage.

Giving up on playing the fool, the boy's face darkened and he calmly retorted, staring her straight in the eyes,

"The Stele is with me, but you'll have to kill me to get it back. Your incompetence makes you unworthy of this Stele."

"You dare!" She screamed in indignation.

The grip around his neck tightened drastically and the teen began to choke, but his expression remained firm and adamant. It was a gamble.

A bet on Malia's moral compass. If she chose to kill or seriously injure him to regain control of the Stele, Ikaris would not hold it against her, but he would refuse to travel with her in the future. If she decided to leave it to him, he would return the favor so that he would not remain in her debt. Either way, he wasn't losing much.

"Why did you steal it? Do you even know what it is and what purpose it serves?" The young woman whispered in an anxious voice.

"I know what it is." He answered flatly.

"Then why?! You think you can do better than me?!" She fumed as she squeezed a little harder.

Ikaris already couldn't breathe, but his stamina wasn't what it used to be. Even if she crushed his windpipe, his brain could withstand several minutes of prolonged hypoxia before succumbing.

However, the inability to breathe normally prevented him from replying. It was only when she met his purplish face and jaded eyes that she realized the problem and loosened her grip enough for him to breathe. The other reason was Ellie's uneasy glances at their conversation next to the bison and Toby.

Not nervous in the least, the teenager inhaled deeply then said with utter detachment,

"I don't think I can do better than you. I'm sure I can. Technology, strategy, agriculture, location, management, magic, science and talent. I'm sure I'll be able to do better than you in the long run in every field. My best argument is that since the establishment of Karragin the only thatched cottage in the village is the one spawned by the Elsisn Stele. If that's not a major sign of incompetence, then nothing is."

Perceiving the scorn on his face, Malia blushed up to behing her ears for the first time since their meeting and stuttered back,

"I- Okay, I don't know anything about managing and building a village... But I needed a village! What was I supposed to do?!"

"Rely on others, think things through, try to find solutions. That's how early humans made their first tools, started their first fire, built their first roof. Instead, you chose to use the Stele only as an inexhaustible source of sacrifice.

"This is not entirely your fault. The aborigines in this jungle are just too retarded. But I'm sure there were people among these Otherworlders who could have helped you in this endeavor. They are just not alive anymore or have fled the village."

Ikaris laughed as her eyes widened in astonishment while her mouth clamped shut as if she had just swallowed a fly.

"What? Did you think I wouldn't realize that some of the disappearances weren't just related to the Crawlers or malnutrition?" He continued mockingly. "After the first night's baptism, it would have been a miracle if none of them were planning to run away. The Stele guarantees their initial loyalty, but here I am. That loyalty thingy doesn't work on me. Not on Ellie, not on Toby. At least not the way it should. Any capable Otherworlder with a stronger-than-normal Soul Spark has probably harbored ambitions to run away from here, and I'm sure in all the time you've lived here, it's happened many times.

"Did I say something wrong?" Ikaris concluded coldly.

Malia stood transfixed for a long moment with her mouth agape. Detecting guilt and shame in her twitching, the boy mellowed his tone and consoled her,

"It wasn't all your fault. The main responsibility lies with Grallu. As kind as she was to you, the old woman was not a good person. In order to keep a position of authority in the village, it was important not to let it grow too much. In the end, she was a native aborigine like the others. She didn't have the knowledge, nor the hindsight to develop a nation.

"I haven't seen what the larger Ballabyne tribe we are supposed to go to looks like, but I'm damn sure that such a high population density is only possible with the support of Hadrakin or some other shadowy kingdom. Through coercion, a large tribe can survive for a while by forcing neighboring tribes to pay tribute to them, but beyond a few tens of thousands of inhabitants, supply and logistical concerns would quickly become apparent in such a resource-scarce environment.

"In short. What I mean is: Leave the Stele to me. You don't really need it and I will use it much better than you. If I fail, you can always take it back. What do you say?"

Malia bit her lip, experiencing the most intense internal dilemma, but finally managed to say,

"Let's say I agree to let you have it... If an enemy is willing to go to war to capture or kill me would you defend me?"

Ikaris did not answer immediately. It was not an easy question.

"Aye, that poor girl, something terrible must have happened to her to force her to flee to this godforsaken shithole." Magnus commiserated with the casual attitude of a bystander happily watching the world burn with his popcorn bag in hand.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious." Ikaris sneered.

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" Excuse me?" Malia stared at him funny, wondering if he was messing with her.

"Sorry, I was talking to myself." The teen apologized awkwardly. "My answer to your question is another question. If a nation stronger than mine declared war on me, would you stay to protect my kingdom?"

The young woman froze. Ikaris snickered inwardly at her hesitation but stated smoothly,

"As long as you are unable to answer this question positively, don't expect me to sacrifice an entire kingdom to protect your pretty eyes. If it's just me, I'm not afraid to fight for you, but I won't sacrifice other lives for someone who refuses to do the same for them."

Malia's eyes squinted dangerously, but eventually she let go and capitulated,

"Hmmph, fine I'll fight. I'm tired of running anyway."

A big victorious smile stretched Ikaris' face.

"All right, let's sign a contract."

With Magnus as backup, it was easy to sign a legally binding contract enforced by the Confederation. He had found ink and rolls of blank parchment in Malia's basement.

But against all odds, as she watched the boy write the contract with expert calligraphy, the young woman blushed again, fidgeting nervously.

"...ead."

"What did you say? I didn't quite hear you." Ikaris raised a confused eyebrow as he thought he heard her mumble something.

Not daring to look him in the eye, Malia clenched her fists to bottle up her shame and confessed beet red,

"I can't write."

It was Ikaris's turn to be stunned.

"But all those scrolls in the thatched cottage?"

"Trinkets I got here and there. Some things I care about..." She explained with embarrassment.

However, the boy was still not convinced.

"Still, Grallu can read. Her Language Spell also taught us your alphabet and synthax. Why not teach you to read after all this time together?"

Malia frowned, not liking it when the old shaman was criticized, but she too had to admit that it made no sense.

"Grallu said that knowing how to read and write was useless in the Barren Bush. That it would be too dangerous for me. I never saw her reading in front of me.

"Yet the day I replaced you at the ritual, Grallu showed me several scrolls teaching magic." Ikaris revealed with genuine misgivings. "Where I agree with her, though, is that these scrolls are indeed dangerous. Because they spout nonsense."

The news shocked the young woman more than he anticipated. From her shuddering, he understood that she was felt betrayed. If the shaman was still alive, a heated fight would probably have broken out.

'Still... That explains her poor management of the village.' Ikaris thought inwardly. 'I overestimated her education. The event that sent her on the run must have happened in her early childhood.'

"Strife between rival clans and kingdoms, racism against hybrids, a mob uprising in a misruled empire, assassinations, an arranged marriage... Anything is possible." Magnus rambled on with gusto.

As Ikaris pondered Grallu's ambivalent conduct and the Vampire-Kitsune's mysterious origins, he suddenly felt a Crawling presence on his mental radar. With a tinge of urgency, he shouted,

"There's no time, the Crawlings are here! I'll teach you to read and write later."

Malia, Ellie and the bison gasped, but realizing he wasn't kidding they picked up their bag full of supplies and set off with Ikaris and the bison carrying Toby's stretcher. One with his hands, the other with his teeth.

A few minutes later, a pack of Crawlers burst into the ruined village with a Glenring at their head. The Barren Bush had just experienced its first Crawling invasion in broad daylight.

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