Chapter 26: Chapter Twenty-Five: Who’s Your Daddy?

The knives slowly chewed away at the wood with each slash.

Leo and Lily watched as Zir practiced in a space between tents, attacking leftover wooden posts from the quick construction of the earth-and-stake palisade. He went through obvious stances, practicing quick, darting slashes and the occasional jab, moving rapidly in and out as he struck the wood over and over.

“Isn’t he going to dull his knife like that?” Leo asked.

“He probably has access to a whetstone, or a sharpening strop,” Lily replied. “And with what he’s been through, I suspect he wants to be as deadly as possible. Which requires practice. Unlike the more refined Averian nobles, the local deep elf nobles prided themselves in their combat ability over everything else.”

“What’s he been through?”

“Having his family captured and imprisoned, probably being helpless a lot. A lot of terrible things are involved in being a prisoner of the orcs.”

“Hmm…” Leo thought about what being captured as a slave probably meant for Zir and his family. Nothing good at all, and I really do need to improve the mores of this world.

“Why the knife? Why not a sword?” Leo asked. “Does he not have access to one? We could easily buy some of the wooden training swords from the Coterie here.”

“Well, you could get him some wooden training knives, but that’s not the reason. Deep elves mostly live belowground, in smaller spaces and narrow tunnels. Most of them fight with knives. Even their magic preference, Eclipse magic, which has powers to make people stronger in close combat, as well as able to move rapidly around small spaces, inclines them toward that form of combat. It’s one of the many reasons they don’t do as well on the surface.”

Lily frowned. “Well, except as assassins.”

“Deep elves engage in a lot of assassination?” Leo asked. “I mean, enough to be known for it?”

Lily lifted an eyebrow. “Yes. Again, their natural proclivity for Eclipse magic lends itself very well to assassination. And since their underground realms are frequently poor, many deep elves specialize in these arts.”

“Huh. And Zir is training in the close-fighting style? Would having a partner help?”

“Probably,” Lily said. “I’m hardly a master of the blade myself—I’m our scholar and healer, not our frontline fighter. But I can’t imagine it would hurt. Why? Feeling like training with him?”

“As you say, it couldn’t hurt.” Leo rubbed at his narrow chin. “And I feel bad for the kid. I almost had children with Lisa—the girl I married about ten years before I came here—before we… parted. But she miscarried. That child would have been just a few years younger than Zir, and him without a father and all…”

“You want to have a brief taste of being a father without the ‘pooping all over you’ phase, huh?” Lily smiled at Leo, her eyes sparkling with humor.

Leo laughed. “Why is everyone I hang with completely ignoring my royal dignity and insulting me all the time?”

“Maybe if you let us use your royal title…”

“I choose the insults.”

“I figured. Now go say hi to your borrowed kid. We leave tomorrow, bright and early, since the orcs are still disorganized and haven’t come after us, according to Meryl’s scouts.” Lily turned and walked off, heading out of the tent.

Hesitantly, Leo approached Zir, who was still knife-fighting wood. “What’re you doing?”

“I’m training in Pakodre, the way of the silent knife,” Zir said. “Like my father told me to do every day.”

“Your father?” I thought he was dead. “Where’s he?”

“He died when the orcs took us. He was tough. Level Four. Also a master of the blade, a title given to him by Cakrellia ‘One-Cut’ herself. But he was outnumbered. He was outnumbered so much! And when I tried to help, Mom just grabbed me and ran, even though I yelled at her to stop and let me help him! She shouldn’t have done that.”

Zir’s eyes shone with tears, but the droplets didn’t fall. He wiped them angrily away and went through another round of the dart-and-slash with the knife and log.

“So, want to train together?” Leo asked.

“I don’t want to learn your dumb sword-and-shield style,” Zir said, breathing hard. “It’s stupid belowground. I’m going to become the world’s greatest assassin, and I don’t need swords for that.”

So many creepy vibes, Leo thought. “Why an assassin?”

“So that I can make money and then kill all the people who are holding our ancestral lands.”

Sounds like he’s parroting his dad, even though I’ve never met the guy.

“Well, how about you teach me your style, then?” Leo asked. He motioned to the knife. “I have some small blades skill, and it wouldn’t hurt to learn more.”

“I need to train. I only need one more foul orc’s blood on my knife and I’ll make Level Two. I need to make sure I have the talent to claim that soul. The first one fell to surprise, and the second in the chaos of battle. I need to be able to kill them without tricks.”

“They say that you learn a lot by teaching someone.”

“Hmm… Dad did say that,” Zir said, launching another round of strikes against the poor, defenseless log. “Maybe.”

            “I could sweeten the deal and get you a second knife and some practice knives,” Leo said.

Zir stopped what he was doing. “A good knife? Not some piece of crap knife?”

“You have my word.”

“Word of an uppy elf ain’t worth the spit it takes to curse them for lying,” Zir growled. “But if you bring me a knife, or even a practice one, I’ll still show you my moves.”

Leo pulled his own almost-never-used knife from its belt sheath and tossed it at Zir’s feet. He’d meant for it to land point down, for the cool factor, but it just landed flat on the ground with a puff of dust.

Zir snatched it up, balancing it in his hand.

Then he held up his weirdly curved and serrated knife. “It’s better than this stupid orc knife I have. Think you can get me a second good knife?”

“How about we train together first? You did say you’d consider that a down payment.”

“I guess I did say that, kinda. Well, if I’m going to be showing you how to blade fight, let me show you how to hold your knife first. Most people want to stab, or go for a killing blow in one hit, but knife fights are won by opening as many bleeds on your enemy as you can.”

As Zir held the knife out and adjusted Leo’s grip, Leo quipped, “Trust me. I’ve seen enough bleeds to know how effective they are.”

“Then you know the first thing Dad taught me about knife fighting. We can move on to his second lesson.”

***

“Why do I have to?” Zir asked, his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the tent pole of Leo’s abode. “It won’t be useful at all.”

Lily and Leo were sitting on cheap wooden chairs to the side of the tent, which was about ten feet by ten feet, with a low, six foot ceiling. It was made of thick furs, and didn’t feel like a normal tent to Leo. But it kept what little cold they were getting off.

Lily sighed, setting the book down on the cheap, wooden folding table in the center of the tent. “An education is important to everyone, Zir. Your father got a formal education, in the matters of magic, history, theology, and poetry. He did so just down the road in Calasti, before it fell.”

Zir frowned. “Fat lot of good that did. He still got killed ’cuz he didn’t fight good enough. And your stupid city burned.”

“Well enough. He didn’t fight well enough.”

“What?” Zir furrowed his brow, either in irritation or confusion.

“The point is, you need an education in more things than just the knife!” Lily said, exasperated.

“You still haven’t given me one good reason.”

“How about this?” Leo said as he walked around the tent. “Can you apply poison to your knives?”

“Why are you changing what we’re talking about?” Zir asked, eyeing Leo suspiciously.

“Humor me.”

“Of course I can apply poison to a knife!” Zir held his head high, his pointed ears easy to notice when he was so proud. “I learned that a while ago.”

“Okay, so do so, right now, and I’ll let you go with the ship team. You can’t fight yet, but I’ll let you watch from a galley.”

“Give me the poison, then,” Zir said, uncrossing his arm and holding one out, palm up.

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“You have to get it. I’m not giving it to you.”

“Who can I get it from? And can I have coin to get it?” Zir eyes were wide, clearly excited.

“You can get it from the forest. I know, for a fact, that there’s a deadly poisonous plant here.” Leo took a seat on his cot.

Zir furrowed his brow. “Which plant then?! Stop playing dumb games!”

Leo couldn’t help a smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth, and he knew that Lily was trying not to smile as well. She knew where this was going.

“Well, don’t you know? I mean, you know everything you need to be an assassin, including the skills, right?” Leo asked.

“I mean, I know most of the skills… Why are you doing this?” Zir was frowning and staring at Leo hard.

“Lily knows. She’s mastered the art of flora and knows which plants are poisonous, which are magically poisonous, and which can heal. You were literally within a hundred feet of a deadly plant earlier today. Perhaps you’ll let Lily teach you about it…”

Zir stared at him. “I know you’re tricking me somehow, and I’m not going to study all your stupid stuff… but I’ll listen to the magical plants lesson.”

Lily sighed. “I can also teach you how to identify future magical plants, and their likely properties, if you want.”

“Okay, maybe that lesson as well…”

***

            At night, Leo saw the stars reflected in the water of the Blue River as he started out at the eight galleys that would be pivotal to carrying out his plan tomorrow.

He was facing out from the pier, technically looking at the boats but mostly lost in his own thoughts, still in his combat gear.

            Lily, who was staring out with him, said something, but Leo barely registered it.

            He was thinking over the details of Meryl’s plan, and some of the alternatives she had laid out. Forty and forty is how we’ll do it. I can’t afford to pry the remaining hundred and sixty orcs out of the fort, and I can’t have them kill the slaves, either.

            “Leo!” Lily said, reaching over and shaking his shoulder.

            “What?”

            “Did you hear anything I said?”

            Leo sheepishly rubbed the back of his head in the dark. “Ah, no, Lily, I’m sorry. My mind was elsewhere.”

            “Elsewhen, most likely,” she replied. “Thinking about tomorrow?”

            Leo nodded. “It’s weighing on my mind, no doubt. I know the safe route is to pay more soldiers, but I don’t want to let the orcs get more established, or give them further chances to abuse the slaves… and if we pull this off, it’ll be a decent victory for our cause, and we’ll not use too much of our coin accomplishing it.”

            “Well, I hope it’ll be fine, but it’s tomorrow’s problem, and there isn’t much of a chance to change things now.”

            Leo nodded again.

            “What I asked, however, is if you really like the kid?”

            “Zir?” Leo asked. “Yeah. I feel for him—he watched his dad die fighting the orcs, and he failed to keep his mother and sister safe… But despite that, he’s pushing forward, trying to get better. I can respect someone like that. When life gives you nut kicks, hobble across the finish line anyway.”

            Lily rolled her eyes. “Is that a saying on your world? Because it sounds iffy.”

            “It’s multiple sayings mashed together terribly, actually. But the kid has moxie. I respect moxie. And he’s kinda creepy-cute in his Children of the Corn way.”

            “You’ve completely lost me with your cultural references, Leo,” Lily said. “Normally, I can pierce together what you said from context clues, but why would being a plant child be creepy? Dryads and forest sprites and their ilk are almost always cute. And usually useful. Especially the dryads, who were allied to us for a long time.”

            “No, you were right the first time—it was an obscure cultural reference with no context clues. That was my bad. Sorry. I’m very tired. It’s been a ridiculously long day, with not one, not two, but three small battles against the orcs and goblins, wolf bonding, a snarky little kid kicking me my privates…”

            “That’s what moxie gets you—nut kicks.”

            Leo chuckled.

            “You know he’s the son of the previous archduke, and that your body’s great-aunt is the one who let the goblins destroy his family’s city, right? I mean, you’ve picked up on that?”

            Leo chuckled. “That was a mouthful: ‘this body’s great-aunt.’ I wonder how many times removed that is.”

            Then he sighed. “And yeah, I understand. It’s an uphill battle. On the other hand, my best buddy is a dragon, and we’re allied—maybe Zir’ll forgive the high elves and have a great life with us. I kind of want to provide that to him. He’s the human face of this endeavor we’re undertaking.”

            “Human face?”

            “Mortal face, I mean.” Leo turned to face Lily. “Why are you prejudiced against the deep elves, anyway?”

            “Species are different, in stats and magical proclivities, and it matters. This isn’t like just different color skin or hair—there are differences reflected in stat sheets.”

            “What about the deep elves makes them inferior?”

            “They burn in sunlight and have vision penalties. I’m surprised they aren’t mostly dying as slaves. But if that was all it was, I wouldn’t worry about it. But they have a natural proclivity for Eclipse magic—sometimes called Darkness or Shadow magic as well, although those aren’t the proper terms.”

            “And that’s bad because…?”

            “Eclipse magic is the magic of stealth and treachery, of hiding. It’s also a magic of selfishness, with few powers that help the whole. Those who develop the magic tend to become thieves or tricksters, assassins, things of that nature.”

            “Do they have to?” Leo asked, turning his gaze back across the starlit water, his mind starting to drift again.

            “No, but the powers lend themselves to it, and a disproportionate number of people who have Eclipse as their magic also have those personality traits.”

            “Hmm… is there a best race?” Leo asked, wondering what the answer would be. He paced a bit. He really didn’t want to think about tomorrow.

            “No idea, and that can’t really be answered because higher magic races are far stronger but also tend to be magic locked to further realms from us.”

            “What about on this world?”

            Lily hesitated a long time. “Again, it’s nearly impossible to answer that because best at what and defined how? But the answer that would always be at the top or close to the top is probably humans. Sadly.”

            Leo stopped pacing. That’s interesting. “Why?”

            Lily walked in front of him and took a turn staring out over the water. “Don’t get me wrong. Most humans are weak and pathetic. They have a slight bonus to farming and no stat bonuses or penalties and extremely short lifespans. Your average human is just sad, really.”

            “Still not getting it.”

“They have a unique racial bonus, ‘race of champions.’ It gives them an unlimited number of perks, potentially. And it doubles the chance of starting with solid perks, and of every perk thereafter. Most humans are weaker, one-on-one, than individuals from other species. At least the major species. But they have two advantages—adaptability and a large pool of unusually powerful members. It lets them thrive, utterly, in the oddest of places and ways. And human champions tend to be wildly stronger than normal champions—woe to the individual who challenges them even close to on the same level.”

“Interesting.” Leo said, even though he was losing interest again, his thoughts turning back to tomorrow’s battle.

“It galls me, but I think that’s why you were brought over to lead us.”

“Wait, what?” Leo asked, his attention returning to Lily. And his eyes.

Lily smiled at him, her eyes twinkling. “You have such a high natural magic level, so many advanced perks, so many magics—you’re that rare human who gets unusual advantages. But now it’s combined with the high elf advantages as well, and you’re one of us. It’s why you have the potential to be so great, taking us to another level.”

“Assuming the plan works tomorrow, and I don’t get us all killed.”

“Yes, assuming that.”

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