4) Old friends and new acquaintances
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A simple inanimate rock lay buried deep underground.

 


 

In a bar on the other side of the continent, two women were having fun with drugs and gossip.

“And she did not realize?” one of the women spoke out between two fits of laughter.

“No!” the second one had to briefly stop talking to coordinate her breathing with her laughter “It was the longest I’ve ever seen that guy try to impress without anybody stepping in to help him.”

“Must have been hilarious!” the woman who had not been present for the spectacle had to free her eyes from a little tear of happiness.

“Oh yes. It was!” with this phrase, the laughter gradually came to a halt, as did their conversation.

“Oh, how I wish I could have been there!” the taller woman ended the topic not even laughing anymore “The orn is already wearing off. I am starting to feel sober!”

“It’s been a fricking long time since they died. Normally it takes him only about 30 years to reincarnate his shitty, old ass! Where the fuck is he? I want my shit back!” after a short pause, the smaller and less muscular one changed the topic to a more serious and melancholic one.

“Could we please not talk about this for once? Let’s just have fun!?” the other woman quickly lost her smile.

“You should be way more bothered by this than me. He was your lover, wasn't he? By the way now that Bae was forced into hiding, I am effectively homeless!” the destructor refused the notion of skipping this topic.

“How many times have I told you to get some property. … Fine!” after only getting an angry expression from reprimanding the other woman, the martial accepted the proposed topic with defeat in her voice, ”What did you find out?”

“Useless maggots, the lot of them. They have no idea how shit works. They cast their skills by following a shitty manual! A manual!” the woman elaborated, while her voice became continuously louder.

“Makes sense! …” the other inserted a reaction before her foul-mouthed companion could fall into full rant mode.

“No, it’s stupid! If they don’t know how shit works, they’ll neither be able to adjust their skills to the current situation nor develop beyond what they are told …” the first responded before the other could change the topic.

“Ella! ... Of course, I know this much! But it does make sense for Siep to have taught them none of his secrets. Only telling them the things they need to know to be helpful to him.” after screaming the other woman’s name to silence her, Mrs Martial tried to save her argument while simultaneously gradually lowering the volume of her voice to calm Mrs Destructor down.

“Paranoid shit!” the small woman got so loud that the whole bar went silent for a second, yet strangely enough she seemed calmer than before.

“Do you think he would simply take off with our belongings?” the tall woman finally asked in a low, threatening voice with the slightest of smiles returning to her face.

“No! I bet he just found himself some kind of ‘temporary entertainment’ and forgot about our goals and ambition!” during her short and rather meek reply, Ella was visibly struggling with her phrasing while erratically air-quoting to emphasize ‘temporary entertainment’. With a hint of fear gleaming in her eyes she added: “But I doubt he forgot about you!”

“When he finally emerges from his hiding spot, we should give him a good spanking” the other woman joked. But the emphasis she put on ‘hiding spot’ and ‘we’ coupled with the resentful and vindictive intonation gave away her real intentions. Not a second passed before she held her hand in front of her mouth and forced out a hearty laugh.

“Oh yes!” the first woman uttered a burst of ecstatic laughter without any decorum. After not even a second, this laughter, however, turned maniacal and fearful tears crept their way into her eyes.

Neither of the two women realized how quickly the bar emptied, not even the bartender remained.

“By the way, how is Bae holding up?” after a rather long pause the strong and tall woman asked.

“She is still pissed at you for having allowed Gellos to take part in that battle! And the government trying to kill her is also not good for her mood!” after taking a sip from her drink, Ella responded in a happy-go-lucky way as if the earlier exchange did not happen and the bar was not empty.

“Do you think she will come for my head?” after taking a sip from her own drink the martial started giggling at the thought that a national fugitive could be up for her head.

“Naaaah, I think she is gonna try and kill that bitch what’s her face!” the bartender who just peeked into the room due to hearing giggling quickly fled the scene at the words of the laughing woman.

“The queen?” disbelief could be heard from the words of the martial.

“Yeah!” the destructor replied matter-of-factly.

“Ah cause the queen wants to kill Bae! Mol-something?!” after a pause the strong woman replied.

“Moraldina!” a voice unheard up till this point invaded their crazy conversation.

The voice came from a head that had already been removed from its body. The body was now lifelessly lying on the floor. Strangely enough, no blood could be seen.

“You should not sneak up on girls, you know?” Ella reprimanded the speaking head with disgust and contempt without looking at either of the corpse's two parts.

“I was not sneaking up on anybody, I was simply trying to recruit some professionals for a difficult mission!” the dismembered voice continued to speak.

“I lost my drinking-mood!” the small woman declared while standing up, emptying her glass down her throat, and beginning to leave the bar. Hugging her friend goodbye, she smacked her lips close to the strong woman’s ear. Intending nothing other than to annoy.

“If you fail to find a place to stay at, come to the station. We always have a place for old comrades.” Mellde offered without reacting to the mischief.

“I will think about it!” the small woman said while leaving, disgruntled at the non-reaction.

During this exchange, the corpse remained dead quiet.

“I gather you are not the most loyal of servants to the queen!?” the woman asked the voice without looking at its head.

“I do not belong to this nation's structure of hierarchy at all!” the talking head tried to prevent any argument-chain the woman could possibly spin from this initial remark.

“I do not work with people who lie to me and I do not believe you!” the woman, who had just been abandoned, sipped at her drink.

“Why does it matter who I am when our goals align so perfectly?” the voice asked knowing that it would not get through with such weak sentiments. Had its body not been destroyed it would be grinning.

“As long as I am unable to find out who I am talking to, I am also unable to find out if our goals really align as perfectly as you claim!” the woman patiently answered, she was starting to get amused at how perfectly the corpse was playing its role as a shady conspirator.

“Enstarin the Traitor, at your service. Am I talking to Mellde, the Civilised Terror?” the talking head introduced its operator.

“Not many who called me that to my face, have lived to tell the tale!” with a contemptuous harrumph, she spat the words out as if they were acid.

“I am already decapitated, is there really a need for threats?” the voice still sounded as if nothing could possibly go wrong.

“I was merely reminiscing!” the woman intonated in an indifferent voice, yet her annoyance was apparent.

“Even scarier!” contrary to the words it spoke the voice sounded genuinely happy.

“What do you want from me? Surely you must know that Detester does not take commissions anymore!” the martial spoke in pure annoyance.

“Oh right, I want to employ Mellde the Civilised Terror, Siep the Flayer of Souls, Ella the Thunder of Insanity, Insar the Deadly Saint and Bae the Silent Company to kill the queen!” the voice made it sound as if it was talking to a friend about a joyous event.

“Just out of curiosity, why would someone of your standing want to kill the queen? There is nothing to gain and a lot to lose!” the woman inquired having concluded that the other person must be an influential statesperson.

“I’d rather have the queen-mother back on the throne instead of that crazy, self-important goddess!” the happiness and indifference prevalent in the talking head dissipated and made way for hateful bale and anger.

“Fair enough! By the way, how is it that I never heard of the queen, sorry the queen-mother, conceiving or raising a child?” the martial was unable to hide her curiosity, and fell into an interrogating mood.

“I will give you this info in addition to a handsome reward, and all info you could possibly desire. And all you have to do for this is simply agree to my offer!” realizing that the other party was genuinely interested the Traitor integrated this newfound leverage into its negotiation strategy.

“I’d need at least two healers, and that is if I can convince my two friends of your idea! Getting my hands on a master in the arts of mind manipulation would be a plus!” the martial told the other party her primary conditions, not even trying to play her interest down.

“You will be given all the resources at our disposal. And you clearly mean four friends!?” promising full cooperation, the Traitor inquired about the incongruence in numbers.

“No, we have not heard of Siep for … well, almost half a century now! And Insar has been dead for the same amount of time. All expeditionary commissions for Detester are redirected to Mantis. You must have surely heard of the Mantis and that I am not part of that group!? Do you have two combat-healers?” after informing the other party of the situation, Mellde asked again, insistent on getting a clear answer.

“A shame, really! And no, I do not have access to combat-healers only court-healers! And the Mantis may be powerful, but they are not an adequate substitute for the Detesters! Although they have a more impressive name …” answering the question the talking head fell into thought.

“I can already see how you have come to be known as The Traitor! How many unsuccessful plots did you lead against the queen?” the woman was getting annoyed of the corpse’s apparent ineptitude.

“All it took to be branded as a traitor was openly speaking out against the new queen! But I can provide funds for a non-exploratory mission. The goal of such a mission would be to search for the best combat healers and mindfuckers in the nation!” The Traitor suggested.

“Those would already be loyal to either the queen, the queen-mother or one of their sycophants!” the annoyed woman shot down such simple notions, knowing that her reply could not be further from the truth.

“I will think about the matter of additional personnel, and while I do I  would suggest you go inform and most preferably convince Mantis then. By the way, I am a master of sycophantic behaviour!” the corpse tried to brag.

“Yet you cannot get me what I need!?” the woman concluded as she left the talking corpse alone. Exiting the establishment, she placed a small fortune on the bar’s counter. Partying for four days straight had amassed quite the impressive tab.

“Excuse me, but before you leave could I trouble you with disposing of this body?” the statesperson requested.

“For what reason?” the martial turning to look at the humanoid corpse.

“I just like it tidy! And it would be in everyone’s interest if the queen did not know about what transpired here today!” the corpse could only offer such flimsy excuse.

The living one took the two strangely bloodless pieces of a corpse and went out the door, while a plan formed in her head.

 


 

Outside she found Ella sitting on the walkway with a couple dozen policing personnel lying all around. Most of which were spasming from non-lethal dosages of electricity.

“Hey, I did not kill them!” the small woman happily exclaimed, giddy with excitement.

“Well done!” the martial woman replied visibly surprised and shocked at how well the destructor had herself under control, this one day.

“Are you going to keep me company while I go meet the governor?” Ella was almost fidgety with happiness.

“Sure!” Mellde replied still shocked out of her mind.

“By the way, why did you bring that?” on the way to the governor’s mansion the destructor, still very happy,  pointed at the two pieces of the corpse. A pinch of confusion audible in her voice.

“Oh right! It needs to be burned?” the martial replied without realising it.

“Sure, can do! Just set it down!” Ella happily proposed, seeming as if nothing could possibly worsen her mood.

“Uh, what?” the martial was visibly and audibly overwhelmed with the situation.

“The corpse! If you do not want to fucking burn alongside the corpse, you should set it down!” annoyance was slowly mixing into the destructor's blissful mood.

“Oh, sorry!” with realisation dawning on her face, Mellde dropped the two pieces of the Traitor’s toy and put some distance between the corpse and herself.

“Ah, before you go up in flames. How do I get in contact with you?” the tall woman asked the corpse but got no reply.

After a few seconds of silence, the destructor became bored and impatient and thus burned the corpse to ashes.

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