After getting rid of the entire tribe of goblins, and once she stopped crying, Elana quickly checked on the enslaved women. Of four women one was dead, two were lying like lifeless vessels, still breathing but not reacting to any form of contact. Only the one that was taken by Lord himself appeared to be more or less sane on her mind. Dirty, bruised, with hairs in a mess. When she saw Elana entering the tent, she spat in her direction mistaking her for another goblin because of mud and the dirt that was covering her whole body, only after she took a second glance she would freeze, her lip would start trembling before she would burst into the loud cry.

She was thinking that she has finally lost her sanity. In the end, she spent days in slavery. No one came to save her. No one was supposed to. The tribe appeared long time ago, they have sent a message asking for help, but they knew that they were settlement. She already lost hope to be rescued.

And then she came. A petite girl. Much younger and smaller. Covered in blood and tears, but once their eyes met, she smiled shyly, as if saying "everything is going to be all right now".

Small rogue escorted rescued girls to the village. Field workers spotted them from afar. Few people yelled; few people shouted, and very quickly a small crowd began to form at the edge of the village. At first, they were whispering, but the closer Elana and rest of the girl would get the louder they would start cheering. Few would start running toward them, mostly family members of kidnapped women to check on their conditions.

The effects of potions that Elana was drugging herself with were quickly wearing off, she could feel the fatigue coming back to her, multiplied.

With a gentle smile, she would accept blessings and thanks of the people, still, all these kind words made her slightly uncomfortable. People would hug her and shake her hand.

She did her best to sneak away, and after a few minutes (and thanks to the tricks that Aiele showed her), she managed to do so. She moved toward the elder’s house, just so she could inform about finishing her job… and to ask if she could take a bath and rest for the day. She was exhausted, almost collapsing. Much to her surprise, she noticed that the door was open and the voices of a few people having a conversation could be heard from inside.

She actually wanted to wait in front of the house, simply because she was taught that disturbing conversation of two people was rude, but one of the voices called her in, the voice she knew really well.

- “Hey! El! Brat! Why the hell are you standing out there like an erection!? Come on in, silly girl!”

- “M-m-miss Aiele?!”

Her heart jumped to her throat in terror. She left the capital without anyone’s permission. She stole a quest from the guild. She made her teacher, that Mister Zariel personally asked to teach her, worry about her! She could already imagine cruel assassin preparing some nasty punishment for her!

Just as she was ordered – she entered the hut on trembling legs.

- “Sister El!...” right after she made the first step in, some small, cuddly red-haired ball of love and affection hug her “… Are you all right?! Are you hurt!? They didn’t do to you anything bad, didn’t they!? IS THAT A SCRATCH!? ON YOUR FLAWLESS SKIN!? AIELE! BANDAGE! OR IT WILL LEAVE A SCA…”

Older woman hit Rus with a small wooden stick in the head

- “Calm down, Russiwel. I was drinking yesterday and you are giving me a headache…. And as for you…” she looked in direction of blonde girl “… you have guts to keep me waiting! What took you so long!? You should have finished the quest in a day or two, instead, you kept on dancing with them or what?!”

- “I-I-I…”

- “Aj-Aj-Aj…” Aiele mocked her mimicking her crying tone “… tell that Ajajaj that she should grow the fuck up, you were taking the bloody quest! Even if you wanted to torture them, you should just finish your job as soon as possible!”

- “T-that’s not what happened! I…”

- “Do you see this girl, elder?...” her master faced the oldest in the village “… so nice and innocent, right? Who would have thought that she is one of the most skilled rogues in the guild? She slaughtered all these goblins completely alone, and still plays cute damsel.”

- “A-alone? But there were… dozens, if not hundreds of them! And she said that…”

- “… that rest of her team was waiting somewhere close? We are her team, she left us in capital without telling us where she was going. She needed to take some easier quest to distress herself. Nothing eases nerves as much as slaughtering weaklings, right, El?”

- “T-t-that’s not true!”

- “Terrifying…” the elder whispered “… even though I know how strong you are, even though we all witnessed your strength, you are pretending so well that I want to believe you and not the facts… so that’s the top’s rogue skills of deception! Miss Elana... No, Madame! I am so sorry for underestimating you… and I am so grateful that someone so skilled actually took care of our village even though the money we offered as compensation is so little and…”

- “I-it’s fine! It’s totally fine! No need to thank me! I-I-I was just doing my job… And, and… miss Aiele is lying, I am not that good! I am still just a student and…”

- “Just a student? I beg your pardon, Madame, but I will not believe that! I have lived too long to be fooled just like that, not after I have seen clear evidence…” Aiele, that was looking in another direction was struggling not to burst in laugh “… but if that’s the information you want to spread, I will keep pretending I have no idea how strong you are… Once again… My deepest thanks…”

The old man, that could barely stand on his own, lowered his back in bow full of gratitude

- “Thank you, for saving our village… and thank you for bringing our wives and daughter back. We owe you more than we could ever repay… If there would be anything you ever needed, please, tell us, we would do everything we could to grant your wishes….”

- “T-then, if you wouldn’t mind…”

- “But of course! What do you need? Weapon? Our blacksmith is quite skilled, so I am convinced he will make something to your liking? A suit? Our tailor is great, but we are lacking materials fitting someone on your position so…”

- “A-a-a… a bath.”

- “Excuse me?

- “Bath. I want to clean myself… Everything would be sufficient, even a wooden basin.”

Everything was itching her. Dried mud covering her skin was cracking and falling off.

- “To force you to withstand these inconveniences! Foolish me! At once, young lady! At once!”

The older man almost jumped off his hut trying to call a few villagers and order them preparing a fitting bath for their savior.

- “That’s why I like simple people. Nobles will try making you feel as if they were doing you a favor of letting you deal with their problems. Merchants will try to avoid paying by manipulating the agreement…. But villagers, they would not only pay you everything they promised but also would treat you like a hero you are. You may even return to this village in a year, two, five or ten, and they will still remember you and treat you like a queen…”

Aiele’s tone softened

- “Anyway, keep the details of your mission for later, we will discuss it tomorrow in the camp, don’t be afraid about guild either. I took care of it. I registered the three of us taking this quest together, so once we would return we would take the money, and after leaving it we would return to you every coin, just so nobody would get suspicious. El. Well done. Well done indeed.”

- “A-aren’t you mad? I-I left just like that…”

- “Girl, have you ever heard about reversed psychology? By discouraging you I made you do what I wanted. Well, I thought you would deal with some small goblins-bandit squad, not two tribe lead by the abomination, you got me there panicking a little, have to admit that…”

- “And why were you lying about me being a skilled assassin?!”

- “For the sake of these people. Now, they would believe that someone cared for them. How would you feel if your family and everyone you know was saved by a rookie that somehow managed to not die in vain? They would become skeptical, start thinking that nobody cares for them sending some weakling for help. Or, they would start thinking that monsters aren’t that dangerous if even alone rookie can kill a hundred goblins and once a new threat would appear, they could try their luck. And that would be a catastrophe. El, lies are just as powerful tool as daggers and bows, maybe even more.”

- “But, it makes me feel bad.”

- “I know, baby-girl, I know. But this time, this lie would only do good things. So please, bear with it for one day, till we would leave the village. Let those people rejoice. Feel treasured. Loved. Needed. Just for this one day.”

El only nodded. Still, it didn’t ease her mind. Quite the opposite. She reminded herself the priests that were “healing her”. They also were lying. They did that to enslave their whole family. The lie is powerful. The lie is terrible. Isn’t she, by lying, getting closer and closer to the same things that the church was doing?

She would never stop questioning this matter.

- “This should be far enough.”

I said aloud once we reached a small valley bit south-west from the merchant’s city. It was a secluded location, far from… far from everything, actually. No hunting ground, no routes, no rivers. Nobody should be here, and nobody was. Perfect location for little interrogation…

I turned around on my feet and looked in direction of tiny boy… I was pretty much sure he was a boy. I mean, he’s still far too cute, as for a boy. Innocent smile, blue eyes, blonde hair, slightly tanned skin… so many contrasting features yet still making a beautiful picture.

He was standing upright, with his hands crossed behind his head, on his way, he picked a blade of grass and started chewing it. One could say – a defenseless cheerful child. That defenseless child slit the throat of a drunk man in the alley and swallowed him whole.

- “Now. I have a few questions. Who are you? What are you? And why are you? Answer in any order you like.” I asked more as a joke, just checking the ground on which I was about the step.

- “I… don’t understand. Kim is Kim… And Kim is… Kim? And Kim is because Kim is! That’s it!”

- “Good. So we have basis on most part figured out…” I was getting little sarcastical.

He was intelligent in terms of ability to gather and process information, but he was lacking know-how regarding this world functioning and questions regarding slightly philosophical nature are completely out of his brain reach.

- “Let’s try different approach. What, is your name? What, is your quest? What, is the air speed velocity of a unladen swallow? No, wait, I already see you don’t understand what I mean.”

He is not an off-worlder either, at least not from my universe, that is.

- “Let’s start from the start. What do you want?”

- “Kim woke up when Kim was injured and hungry. And Kim knew he has to eat. To heal up. To survive. But something happened when Kim was eating. Kim was getting faster. Smarter. Stronger. Kim was becoming what Kim kept eating… and once Kim became really smart… Kim started wondering why Kim is who Kim is. And… Kim reached out with his… head?...”

- “Mind?” I suggested

- “… yes! Mind. And Kim… smelled? Heard?”

- “Sensed?”

- “Yes! Sensed big brother! Or is big brother big father? Or big…”

- “That’s not important, is it?”

- “It’s not!...” he agreed shocking his head “… what is important is that big brother and Kim are similar! Every animal has these that are similar to him. A pack. A herd. Hive or family. Or settlement! Kim didn’t have it, till now! Because Kim and brother are the same! Kim is no longer alone!”

He took a gentle, almost shy step toward me, and another one, and yet another, and once we were just inches apart, he put his head on my chest and purred.

Once our bodies touched, something spread through mine, as if electrical impulse. I was in him, and he was in me as if our nerves connected.

I felt him – he was so lost and confused, driven by nothing more but instincts and urges, most common, most basic. Hunt. Kill. Hide. Understand. Survive. Find. He was lacking any more constructed needs. When human thinks , he usually precises his need with or whatever he likes to eat. But not him. He just wants to state hunger. Once he does, he would focus on the next most urgent need.

He was like a hollow machine in a vessel made of flesh.

- “Amazing…!” he whispered “… Big brother is so… so…”

Apparently, just as I saw him, he has seen me. And because he appeared to be a less complex individual, he had to be overwhelmed but the quality and quantity of things that are “my drivers”.

I put my hand on his head and patted him slightly. I carried him away from the city because I was considering killing him. I had no idea how powerful he was, so we could cause quite a havoc.

But now…. But now…

I am no longer alone.

I was embraced by the feeling as if the suffocating burden was lifted off my chest and arms.

All this time, I was playing along with the rules of… of everyone! I was the one that was outcast. Loner. Irregular abomination. All this time I was the one pretending to be human. To hide my identity. To carefully chose who I should trust with my little secret with.

I loved Giselle, I really did, not only because she was so honest (straightforward and stupid) and “bit” (over) possessive – which actually made me feel in some twisted way treasured... but because she accepted me. That day when I started being interested in her she said “you are you, human, elf, monster, or whatever else. Your deeds are your deeds, so why should I care if you are something else?”. But now… there was another being which would accept me. Not because it could use me. Not because it was afraid of me.

But because it was just like me.

I was no longer alone! Can you imagine?!

- “You said your name is Kim?...” I asked once again, even though he kept repeating his name in every possible way and time

- “Yes. Kim is Kim? And a brother is...?”

- “Zariel. You can call me just Zari, if you want. Listen, Kim. The world is complex. Difficult and ugly. Lots of people will try to outsmart and use you. You have to be vigilant… But fear not. I will teach you as much as I know… Then, you will decide what you want to do.”

I kept on gently patting his head.

- “Papa will not tell me what to do?”

- “No. I will teach you and let you decide. Otherwise, I would be no different from people I am trying to protect you from.”

He quickly blinked with his eyes a few times. He had no idea what I was talking about.

- “Very well. Kim trusts big bro. Because bro and Kim are the same. Because Kim and bro are one.”

He was right. His essence came from me, I smelled it, sensed it, felt it. He could become a great partner in the future.

Oh, I also knew how much troubles he would cause me… yet somehow, for the first time, I was not annoyed by the perspective of troubles. Quite the opposite, I was anticipating it.

Oh, what will Giselle say? I bet she will be overjoyed! I would better start looking for medicines for my wounds...