Legends of Vecira

Risi and Noone quickly surpassed all others in the sky, the winds kept smooth for their flight.

They landed at their preferred stable, and Risi handed the reins of xer Irfin to the attendant, Feran.

“I will return,” he warned Noone, “Behave.”

“See you in the evening, Risi,” Feran said.

“I will try to be quick.”

“But then I won’t get to charge you extra.”

Xe rolled xer eyes, checked xer headscarf, and jumped on top of the stable, then to another building.

When xe reached the market, xe jumped onto the nearest stall, leaving no disturbance as xe slid down to see the stall owner.

“Risi! Your master still makes you come here, does he?”

“At my own request, Maera,” Risi tested each of the feed options in xer palm, “Please send five bags of that batch to the ranch.”

“Sure you won’t let them break like last time?”

“I’ll leave that responsibility to whoever transports it.”

Xe jumped on the stall again, minimally disturbing the tarps as xe moved throughout the market for xer quarry, xer bag getting a little heavier at each stop.

Xe ended at the fruit seller, glad to have made it this time.

“I didn’t expect you this early in the day, Risi.”

“You may still see me later, Azel.”

Xe wasn’t one to trust xer luck thus far.

As xe checked the best fruit, a small hand snatched the one xe was holding. Azel quickly caught the arm it was attached to.

The child thief looked terrified.

“I’m sorry, noble guardian of the fruit. I was—”

“I’ll take it,” Risi said, grabbing the fruit out of the child’s hands.

“You’re in trouble with the guards after last time, aren’t you?” Azel asked.

Risi gave a quick nod.

He let go of the child’s arm.

“I’ll let you do what you want with it before paying, with how good a customer you’ve been to me all these years.”

Risi handed the child the fruit back as quick as he could manage.

Xe picked a few more fruit, and paid, adding some extra to the finally measured weight.

“You.” One of the guards called as xe stuffed the fruit into xer bag.

If xe jumped onto a stall, the guards might break it down, and xe needed as much good will as xe could manage. If xe ran through the crowd, who knew who they would bowl over?

“I’m so sorry for the disturbance,” xe told the surrounding crowd.

One guard ran ahead of the rest. Xe banged xer forehead against aer nose to make aer back off.

“I swear it wasn’t me,” Azel yelled. Risi never suspected xer.

The next one guarded aer face, so Risi moved to the side as ae ran toward xer, tripping aer so ae fell with a loud groan.

The crowd around them made impressed noises. One of them told its companion that Risi always provided a show.

As if the comment prompted them to end quickly, three guards rushed in at once, two of them grabbing xer arms and forcing xer to the ground.

“I didn’t do anything!” xe insisted.

“You attacked a guard without provocation,” the leader of this squad said.

“Ae was running right for me.”

“Xe didn’t pull a weapon out.”

Risi should have been more patient. They inevitably pulled a weapon out when they couldn’t grab xer.

The one xe’d tripped stood up, taking xer bag and throwing it into the crowd.

“Continue with your day, people. We’re just handling a dangerous stranger.”

They finally made xer stand up, both still holding xer arms.

“Do you need help?” the thief from before asked, running in front of xer.

“Ae’s dangerous, child, get out of the way.”

The child looked at Risi.

“Can you have my bag ready for me when I get out?” xe asked.

The child gave xer a salute.

The guards tightened their grip.

“You have only as much power over me as any other visitor to Vecira,” Risi insisted.

“Your demon-addled master doesn’t hold enough power for that to be true.”

Xe struggled more against their grip, but they’d gotten too used to xer. Xe couldn’t get out.

Veli watched the crowd exiting the arena. There must have been a challenge against Ulven again.

Xe took a deep breath and entered the opposite way of the throng. As expected, two healers leaned above the falling challenger in the middle of the arena.

The fatter one with longer hair cleaned the wounds as the thinner one, who was already losing its hair, mixed a salve to keep the wound from being infected.

Veli stepped in quietly, helping to hold the challenger up without making eye-contact with anyone.

“You don’t need to help me,” the challenger said weakly.

“Nonsense,” the thin one said, “We need to help someone.”

“And you need our help most,” Veli finished.

The healer stared at Veli for a minute, scowled, then turned back to the challenger.

“And you need our help the most,” it said after a moment.

The challenger made sounds of confusion, but stopped objecting to the care. Veli helped lift the stretcher to carry it to the clinic, saying nothing along the way.

“Who are you?” the challenger asked.

“I am Niale,” the fatter one said, “And this is my partner, Purevi.”

“And you must be their child,” the challenger said, looking up at Veli.

“We have no children,” Purevi said.

“They were cursed by the demons when they invaded,” Veli revealed.

The challenger stared at xer with wide eyes.

“I come to help them when they can, but these kind souls can’t even remember their helper’s name.”

Purevi and Niale didn’t respond.

They reached the clinic, and Veli left once the challenger was on the bed.

“Veli!” Elhomm, one of the children Veli took care of, ran up holding someone’s bag. Veli quickly snatched it from her arms.

“What were you thinking, grabbing a bag like that?”

“He asked me to,” Elhomm defended, jumping for the bag. Veli lifted it higher.

“Who asked you to?”

Elhomm’s eyes flitted about.

“I don’t know his name.”

Veli groaned.

“Did it pay you?”

She sheepishly revealed a fruit from her pocket.

“He paid for this.”

“We always pay our debts,” Veli accepted, returning the bag, “What do you need me for?”

“I don’t want to go to the jail alone?”

Veli felt xer own eyes bulge.

“It’s in jail?”

“I assume that’s what happened since the guard took him.”

The last thing they needed was to be noticed by the guard. Veli no longer needed a guardian, but the rest… King Pavila didn’t have the resources to keep any drifters cared for thanks to Ulven’s insistence on no outside resources, but Veli didn’t count as a guardian on account of not having a home xerself.

“Okay, we can go, but we can’t be seen by the guard.”

“Did you stop by the clinic because of the challenger?” Elhomm asked as they walked.

“Yes,” Veli answered.

“Are you going to become a healer?”

“No.”

“Then why help them?”

“I need to help someone, and they needed it the most.”

Risi rubbed xer arms. The guards’ grip on xer still left marks over an hour later.

The other people in cells were singing, or trying to talk their way out of their cells. Risi was the only one without a cell-mate. Seeing how the guards treated xer, it probably had more to do with their own fear than any concern for xer safety.

Xe appreciated it nonetheless. There was light coming in through the window and xe was not alone here, so xe’d certainly suffered worse conditions.

The door to the cell opened, and the guard stared at her.

“What is it?”

“You’re being let out.”

Faster than usual. Ae must want a distraction from something.

She followed the guard into a waiting room where sat General Ulven with an annoyed expression.

“General,” Xe acknowledged, making no movement of reverence.

“I thought we’d already discussed this,” ae said, “You are not welcome here.”

“You would have to banish me from Vecira outright for that to be true, and that would hurt your reputation.”

“Tell your guardian to send someone less troublesome next time.”

Risi scoffed.

“We’re all troublesome, father.”

Ulven stood up, grabbing xer face. If xe pushed aer hand away ae’d get xer arrested for assault.

“You brandish our connection like a weapon, Risi Ulven, but our bond is nothing but circumstance. You are not my blood, and the moment I can remove such a stain from my name, I will.”

Risi glared at aer until ae tossed xer to the ground.

“I’m sure you feel comfortable here, but if they had even a glance at what you hide, those vendors wouldn’t be anywhere near as sympathetic.”

Aer pulled Risi’s headscarf off before leaving the room.

Xe took deep breaths, muttering under xer breath as all the pieces moved back into their place.

When Risi stood up, no one could tell xer clothes had been disturbed.

“At least one inheritance is helpful,” xe muttered.

Xe waited a few more minutes for Ulven to leave so xe could go home.

Upon asking around, Veli and Elhomm were able to learn some things.

The person who helped Elhomm was named Risi. It lived on an Irfin ranch and would come to Vecira to do errands. The guard caught it every time, and would release it before the end of the day. No one could explain why they targeted it, just that it wouldn’t get apprehended until at least three guards joined in the attempt.

They also seemed to dance around something special about Risi, but no further elaboration.

Elhomm seemed to grow more enamored with every passing detail, suddenly considering the protection of Risi’s bag to be the most important quest of her life. Veli would admit to some growing fondness of its reputation. The guards were never kind to their band, so knowing they got roughed up some by a visitor was nice to know.

“How did it beat the guards anyways?” Veli asked Elhomm as they sat just close enough to see the jail’s exit without being seen by the guards.

“The first one he hit with his head. The second one he tripped, and then three of them ganged up on him.”

It quickly disposed of them then. It must have some training to beat Veciran guards.

“Where did it learn that?”

“How should I know?” Elhomm started to pout.

“I didn’t think you would, but we should ask it. It would be nice to know how to hold off guards like that.”

“Yeah, but he was taller than you,” Elhomm said, “His arms were longer too, and he was skinnier.”

“Why does that matter?”

“His fighting style might require longer arms.”

Veli laughed.

“It doesn’t have to teach us. It saved you, you brought back its bag. We’re even.”

Elhomm watched the jail’s entrance.

“But if it’s willing to show us something…”

“That’s him!”

Elhomm started running, leaving Veli scrambling to keep up.

“Thank you so much!”

Risi was as Elhomm described, tall and skinny. Its hair was entirely covered by a plain headscarf, but it seemed otherwise fairly open, offering a wide smile as it took its bag back from Elhomm.

“You have no idea how valuable this is.”

Elhomm nudged Veli in the side.

“Is this your guardian?” Risi asked.

“We don’t have guardians,” Veli answered.

“By choice?”

Veli shrugged.

“For some of us.”

“Veli’s the oldest. He makes sure the rest of us don’t get into too much trouble. He was mad when he saw I had your bag.”

“You don’t need to tell a stranger this much,” Veli said. All the more dangerous if it was on the outs with the guards. The last thing they needed was attention.

“Thank you for my bag,” Risi said, “I should return home.”

“Is that where the person who taught you lives?” Elhomm asked.

Risi paused.

“Yes, my master is my employer. I live on his ranch.”

“Would it let you teach others?” Veli asked, “We run awry of the guards frequently.”

She looked them over.

“Or you could battle the general,” Elhomm muttered.

Veli and Risi both turned to make sure the guards to the prison hadn’t reacted.

“If you have any more questions,” Risi offered, “You can ask them on the way to my Irfin.”

The nephilim did its best to hide in a corner. It had nothing better to do, and the guard that came to give it food would attack if he could see it.

“Apparently it’s made a habit of hiding,” a voice that wasn’t the guard said.

“It?” an even newer voice asked, insulted.

“Are prisoners not strangers to their captors?”

“Only if the captors are foolish.”

The bars of the cell rattled.

“Come out!” the first voice ordered.

The nephilim yelped.

“You’re imprisoning a child?” the second voice asked, “You have no—”

“It was found crying in the first consort’s garden, making it officially the general’s child. I can do as I please, and even when you take over, it will still be in my care, not that it will last long.”

The nephilim was no fool. The first voice was going to kill it.

The bars rattled again.

“You would kill a child to keep your position?” second asked.

“I would let a child live to keep my position,” the first voice corrected, “It should have been killed when we first found it, but the king insisted on leaving it alive. What does Pavila know about the demon that I don’t?”

The door to the cell finally opened. The nephilim shut its eyes and tried to remain as quiet as possible.

“There it is.”

The owner of the first voice grabbed it and threw it against what was probably the owner of the second voice. The second voice had been sympathetic. He wouldn’t kill it.

Though maybe if it died it wouldn’t feel so miserable.

It looked up at him.

He was crying.

“If you sign away your rights,” First said, “The child lives.”

“The child lives, in my care.” Second lifted the nephilim up against his torso, “And I will not have her tested for Vecira to learn you locked up the Slayer’s child.”

“The demon’s child,” the first voice insisted, “Why are you so sure its child is yours. I understand some curiosity, but—”

The second punched the first before he could finish the sentence. Then he leaned down.

“And you’re going to give me all of my Irfin, and a place to take care of them. For all that, I will make sure its never known you are official guardian to the demon’s child, or that you kept the slayer’s child locked away.”

He put a rough hand on the nephilim’s cheek, but there was something comfortable about it.

“We will have to take care of each other,” he said, “Do you have a name?”

The nephilim shook its head.

“Do you want to choose one?”

It could do that?

It nodded.

“Then let me know when you choose one. My name is Vara. I will be your caretaker from now on.”

“You depend greatly on your reputation, Vara,” the other one said, “You were held by demons and you raise one without asking questions. How do you think Vecira will react to the child?”

Vara tensed.

“I have given you more assurances than you deserve.”

“Then let it be a threat: If you work against me, I will reveal the truth of that child. I will be checking on both of you as is expected of a legal guardian.”

The nephilim clung tighter to Vara as the other one left the room.

He draped some piece of cloth over its head.

“This should cover your hair enough for us to make it to a friend’s. Then we can clean you up and make a plan.”

“Okay,” the nephilim said.

Vara kissed its temple.

“I will do everything in my power to keep you safe,” he assured.