After all of this, Eirlathion took care of us like a pair of traumatized children. He lifted both of us into his arms, wincing once again at the exertion, and then brought us back to our room. It seemed Nymph had already begun chasing people out. Considering the way she left, I do not imagine she was all that gentle in her tone. She even created a different set of stairs for us to go up so we didn’t have to meet the mess of children coming down.

When we got up, some of the children who had been at the back of the line had still not left yet. They were looking curiously over at the state we were in. All this blood covering us, Tia especially, we must have been quite the sight.

[You heard me! Get out! I don’t want ANY of you here anymore! The dark elves are all dead! You don’t need to be here! Leave!] Nymph screamed at them. She didn’t look at us as we came up at all, she just kept glairing at the kids who were now scurrying downstairs in fright.

As soon as they were gone, she closed up the paths downstairs and then her projection vanished. A moment later, Levin and Rolwen lowered down from the celling on their vine elevators. Of course, they were pretty freaked out when they saw Tia.

“Whah!” Levin said and nearly fell off his vine as it was still descending. Rolwen didn’t say anything. His eyes just locked on her and he had a scary look on his face. He breathed a relieved looking sigh though after he looked up and met eyes with Eirlathion for a moment though.

“Who… is that Tia? What… what?” Levin stammered.

[Your masters are both fine, do not worry.] Eirlathion said in a calm voice as he looked up at the boys. I cringed a little bit to finally hear him put the nature of the expected relationship between us and the boys into words. This was the first time I’d ever heard someone say something like that, but now was seriously not the time to bring it up so I decided to swallow those thoughts.

[Actually,] He continued, [I don’t think this is even her blood. Or if it is, then she probably healed herself.] He said, looking at Tia with somewhat tender eyes. He set us both down on the floor. After that, he ripped off a section of his own tattered robe and began roughly wiping Tia’s neck and chin. A lot of the blood had dried by now, but it came back with her a little cleaner than she was before. After that, he gave my hands a rough rub-down and then made some comment about needing to get some water in order to do any better than this before going off.

He glared at the celling for a moment, probably an emotion that was directed at Nymph for sending Catla out with the rest of the children. I was forced to wonder if he felt this was a job ‘better suited for a human’ or something like that. The thought made me cringe. I didn’t want to have thoughts like this. Not about Eirlathion, and definitely not now.

I tried to push those thoughts out of my mind and just look at Eirlathion for who he was now. I hadn’t really taken note of it much before, but he looked like a complete mess. I had noticed before that his robe was trashed and everything above the waist had been shredded. At the time, I only saw it as convenient that his chest area was exposed for the sake of treating his chest wound. However, now that things have calmed down I am able to really take stock of the state he’s in.

He had smears of soot, coprophil, and dirt all over various parts of his muscular upper body. However, that didn’t even compare to the obvious scorch marks on his robe. I didn’t really get a good look at many of his injuries beyond the potentially deadly chest wound before Tia healed him, but I imagine he must have been covered in small abrasions. I feel I ought to have noticed any burns that would have caused that much destruction to his robe, but either he ripped it off very quickly after it had caught fire or perhaps he had access to some other form of magical healing. If there is already magic in this world, it would certainly not surprise me for there to be more forms of healing magic.

It took me a while to notice, but one of his arms were completely clean. It made me wonder how that happened.

While Eirlathion was still off fetching water to wet the rag, Levin and Rolwen had touched down on the floor and came running over to me and Tia. “What happened down there?” Levin asked.

Tia just smirked. “Well, I jumped down to save Ether and Asa came to help.” She said, simple as that.

“Yes, and she ate three of the guys attacking the village while she was at it.” I added. “That’s where all the blood came from.”

“Haha, thought it was something like that.” Rolwen said while keeping a nervous distance from Tia. “I have to say, you definitely look creepy covered in blood like that. You’re not going to go on any more blood rampages like that, are you?”

“Wait, what?” Tia looks nervous and shocked at Rolwen’s words. “I… that… blood rampage? I… I was just protecting Ether! It was to stop the people who were attacking him!”

“Uhh… but, wasn’t the reason why you were jumping your way down the tree in the first place because you smelled blood though?” Rolwen said.

“That, uhh…” Tia seemed at a loss for how to respond to that.

“And also, you killed them by ripping their throats out with your teeth too!” There was no way Rolwen could know how she killed them, but he was probably making a pretty good educated guess. It also happened to be accurate. Tia’s response was rather unexpected though.

“But, isn’t that how you’re supposed to kill things? I know humans use spears and other weapons to replace fangs and claws, but my teeth work just fine so why wouldn’t I do it like that?” She said in a very matter of fact way.

“Uhh… that… well…” Now it was Rolwen’s turn to be at a loss. “Well, it gets you messy like this!” He said, pointing at Tia’s current state.

“Well people who kill with a sword get messy too. And besides, I can actually taste the blood this way too and drink a little while I’m at it.” Tia rattled off in a manner that was way too casual for the subject matter. It would be one thing if she was talking hypothetically, but she was talking as someone who just actually put it into practice and was still covered in the blood to prove it.

Rolwen’s eyes narrowed at her when he heard this and his face seemed to go white. “You…” He growled, but he didn’t finish his sentence. After that, he turned and walked away from us. This is when it clicked in my mind. He was in the marines. He has probably killed people before. Tia was a goddess, she has likely seen more death than he has. She was actually a leech in her past life as well. So, death likely doesn’t bother her as much.

This means her attitude toward death makes perfect sense, but it also makes sense that Rolwen probably couldn’t take it. It seems we are at an impasse. Great. Just when things have gone wrong out there, things are going wrong in here as well.

“Umm…” Levin looks between everyone uneasily. I let out a sigh. Something about seeing him in distress managed to help me settle my own uneasiness.

“It will be fine.” I said, probably more to reassure myself than him. “They’re just having a difference in perspective on a fairly sensitive issue. Rolwen seems to be handling it in a rather mature manner, so I think we will be able to work something out between the four of us here.”

“Uhh… what? Yeah…” Levin responds. “I guess… killing is wrong, but these guys were attacking the village and killing people so Tia had to kill them. So, it’s stupid to get mad at Tia about that. I guess the way she did it might upset him a bit, but… she told us she was a leech before, right? So, doesn’t it make sense?”

“No, that’s not why he’s upset.” I said with a sigh. “Levin, I think the only reason you can talk about this so easily is because, out of the four of us, you are the only person who has never killed anybody.”

“Ah!?” He responded and was suddenly looking at me with a shocked expression. “Wait, you've killed someone!?” He said.

Indeed I have, and just recently too. They were my first. “Yeah, how does that make you feel?” I asked him.

“Uhh…” He fidgets a little bit at this.

“Yeah, that’s a hard question to answer, isn’t it?” I said. “That’s kinda like how Rolwen is feeling right now, only it’s a little more complicated for him because he is also thinking about the lives he has taken. He’s upset at how easy it was for Tia to talk about it. It’s upsetting him that she’s not as upset as he probably was when he had to kill someone.”

“Well that's kinda stupid!” Levin said.

“Don’t say that to Rolwen!” I said, my gaze suddenly turning harsh. “I think you should probably give him his space for today.”

I kind of wish I could have some space to think right now as well, but the problems that just keep piling up aren’t going to allow for that.

About that time, Eirlathion had gotten back with his ripped-off piece of cloth. Again, he worked on cleaning Tia first before he helped me wash the dried blood from my own hands. Tia looked a little less like a creature out of a horror movie now, but the front of her dress was still stained in blood that was going to be far more difficult to get out. I knew how to get out bloodstains from fabric, but it would require stripping her of her only article of clothing. I would help her with that later and ask the boys to turn their backs while I was working on it.

Oh yeah, that’s right. I’m also a girl now. I’d yet to give any serious thought as to what that means for me either. I’d just been ignoring the issue up until now and never paid it any thought from the moment I started wearing this dress to cover myself up.

So many problems. I can’t let them weigh me down though. With Tia most certainly not acting her combined chronological age, I’m mentally the oldest person in our little group. With Rolwen getting moody, Tia being oblivious, and Levin getting worried, I guess that leaves me as the person to act the role of the responsible adult.