Healthy Boundaries

Chapter 25

“Elim-” I started.

“I apologize!” He said, panicked as he scrambled to kneel. I felt like more of an idiot. I scared him, I knew that, but here I was still fucking looming. I could control myself up to a certain point, but like hair standing on end, this wasn’t a completely conscious thing.

I probably needed to relax, but I was way too embarrassed for that to happen any time soon. The poor bastard seemed to think he’d offended me, which only made calming down harder.

“O-okay, lets uhm… I’m going back out now. You sit or whatever's comfortable,” I said, then made good on my word after a beat. Still hovering higher than before, I had to awkwardly pull myself down to get under the top of the door. I gave up on trying to pretend to be nonchalant and just went back into the hallway completely.

At least he couldn’t see me looking like a japanese horror film monster in the middle of a spaz attack. Stallin and the lady hound looked at me pityingly, which helped nothing.

“Madam?” Elim called, and I peeked around the corner immediately, only to flinch back. I didn’t want to surprise him a second time. A moment later, the contract I’d sent him registered as accepted.

“I apologize for my behavior. I was lost in thought and you startled me,” Elim said graciously. I looked around the edge of the doorway once more.

“Apology accepted,” I said despite feeling a little reluctant. My pride was still bruised. Literal monster or not, having someone react like that after we seemed to be getting along hurt. His apology did help me calm down a little though, and bit by bit, I started hovering at a more normal height again.

“I should have respected your personal spa-” I felt a heavy hit from behind. The pattering sound preceding it suddenly made sense as one of the hounds headbutted me in the ass. Pushed back into the room, I floundered for a moment. Great, first I’d started looming, now I’d done a jump scare, just fucking perfect.

It took a moment for the sound of Elim’s laughter to register.

“I’m sorry! It's just-” he couldn’t contain himself. Looking back toward the door I found Stalin and the lady hound peeking in with their jaws open in wide grins. Seeing me look they immediately retreated. Any sense of penance or fear was dispelled by the sound of yapping laughter.

Negative two to the dungeon master’s dignity confirmed.

Despite feeling pissed and having god-like power in my domain, I elected not to do anything. The lady hound had gotten me by surprise the first time. This time it was my own fault for not paying attention. When I turned back, Elim was more composed and he quickly bowed to me.

“I’ve been rude to you twice. I apologize mistress. It was unbecoming,” he said, looking positively knightly. I felt like he would have been a troublesome kid to raise, since it seemed hard to get mad at him.

Fuck. I wanted to be mad at someone, but everyone just had to be fucking adorable. It legitimately wasn’t fair.

“You mentioned before that you wished to employ me?” Elim asked. Right, the main point, the thing I should be getting back to.

“Yeah. Helping your village is one thing but… I have a personal reason to want to get rid of the disease and tear out its roots,” I said honestly.

“You do? Can disease harm you?” Elim asked, sounding like he didn’t quite believe it.

“I doubt it,” I replied. It wasn’t likely that Z14 was susceptible to anything so mundane as a plague.

“The why isn’t something I want to talk about right now. I’ll send you a job offer and you can consider the terms of it on your trip back home,” I continued.

“On my trip… You're releasing me, now?” Elim asked with wide eyes.

“Yeah? I wasn’t planning on holding you prisoner in the first place,” I said, tilting my head. Exactly what kind of impression had I made on this kid?

“Ah, pardon me. I didn’t mean to imply anything… I guess I just expected… more? Like bargaining or… You don’t really seem much like them, but there are some stories about dungeon masters,” Elim said, tripping over his words as he rushed to explain then explain his explanation.

“Honestly I thought you might demand I be your slave-”

“NO!” I shouted.

Elim didn’t run this time, though he did take a step back and turn pale. I’d risen up a little, but not enough to hit the ceiling this time. I had to wonder what my face was doing for him to drain of color like that.

“Look, I’m not like this because I chose to be. So I’m not inclined to force people into a similar position,” I said finally. The idea of slaves set my figurative teeth on edge because I was basically one. Compliance or death were my options.

“You didn’t choose to be a dungeon master?” Elim asked gently.

Shit, the easy answer was yes, but it was also kind of a lie. Now looking at his big blue eyes, I felt something wriggle uncomfortably at the idea of lying to him.

“I didn’t, but I’ve chosen to accept it and live this way. So it’s not like I’m better than others like me… I just want to do what I have to without being an asshole about it,” I said finally. It felt like a lame explanation, but that didn’t make it less accurate. There were other very valid reasons to hate slavery, but my personal situation was what gave my feelings teeth.

It was the difference between recognizing something existed and was bad and having had your head kicked in by it. This was personal, rather than simply intellectual for me.

“And you can do something about bloody mana fever?” Elim asked.

“I can try,” I said, not quite willing to say yes or no. He was giving me bambi eyes and it made me feel like an asshole for getting his hopes up.

Compared to Elim, I seemed to have a pretty high understanding of medical concepts. Unfortunately, that was a relative statement and didn’t make me anything like a doctor. My knowledge was a shallow kind that didn’t include general medicine let alone something like virology.

At least not beyond the scope of what could be casually absorbed reading random articles or watching less than accurate tv shows. If I didn’t have literal magic at my disposal, I wouldn’t even be thinking about trying this.

“The job, I’ll take it,” Elim said. I was jolted out of my thoughts and looked at him in disbelief.

“I haven’t even sent you terms yet,” I said, not quite believing what I’d heard.

“Well, please do,” He replied cheerfully and held out a hand. I realized a beat late, he wanted to shake hands. I reached out and he took mine in a grasp I barely felt. I was cautious about not using any strength, since I didn’t know what I was capable of. After shaking several times, he let go and looked at his hand with a livelier smile than before.

“Alright,” I said, as I put my hands behind my back. My orbs flickered as I looked at his smile. I couldn’t explain why, but I felt like I was getting myself into trouble somehow.

“You feel like smoke and peach skins,” He said, grinning for the first time. He had a dimple on the right side.

Yeeeeaaah, this was going to be trouble.