12 Miles Below

While I'd been running around assembling my weapons of doom, I'd also been busy with conspiracy ratshit, as any good Winterscar should be doing. Except, unlike traditional values, I was working with a Shadowsong. Or rather - the Shadowsong. Which would absolutely be making all my ancestors roll in their cold graves, if not outright making them come back to haunt me one of these days.

He and I had been trying everything we could think of to bait the Chosen into revealing their hand. And I mean everything we could possibly think of. Resources, manpower, intelligence, even important people were left seemingly unattended. None of it was so much as sniffed at. Like our bait was subpar quality and wasn't even worth looking at the menu for.

Instead, the Chosen seemed to hunker down and keep to themselves, with exception to their priest.

When their knights were in port, they remained within their housing, only drawing out their swords to train among each other. And when they left, they did so as one unified whole, including their captain. Leaving Lejis the sole relic armor user among the Chosen while their firepower was away proving their worth by breaking up raider staging grounds with witnesses to corroborate the results.

Hence we had to change our tactics and consider the ways that they could engage in sneakery in the first place. We might not know what they’re after, but we could potentially narrow down how they’ll come after it.

Whatever plan they had, they couldn’t pull it off without manpower. And there were only so many Chosen to supply that manpower. The regular vagrants were exactly that - vagrants. Keeping keen eyes on the whole lot wasn’t too difficult since there were under a hundred of them, so between the Houses, we easily assigned more than one spymaster to each individual.

Even the kids, just to be sure.

As far as their reports came by, the majority of the Chosen loitered between their temporary homes and the markets, where they bought produce and food. They didn’t even frequent bars, instead they’d buy liquor wholesale and bring it back down where they’d drink among each other in smaller groups, at least the ones that liked drinking.

The ultimate verdict was that these people were either all master deceivers of the highest quality, right down to the very children that hung around - or they were exactly who they portrayed to be. Lord Atius had pegged them correctly on first impression, the repeated research just proved what we already guessed.

That left only two sections of the Chosen that could have the ability to carry out any sabotage: The knights, whom we only had reports from a distance as they left to battle the raiders, and Lejis himself, since he remained behind each time. Which meant every time the knights were away, the thought that I might be able to take a break was growing like a worm in my mind.

It was during an away mission for the Chosen knights that I decided I’d had enough and needed a break from wearing Journey day in and day out with only Cathida for company. I needed to feel human contact again, to sleep soundly in my own bed, and possibly with some company too. Better company than present company at least. Although at this point, I think anyone would be better than the cranky old crone who’s only source of fun was to torment me.

That, of course, was not a very good argument point to Shadowsong, despite how strongly I protested not being a eunuch. But the fact that the Chosen knights were miles away from the clan home was a better point in favor. Neither of us knew what the Chosen were plotting, but we both knew it had to be something they'll carry out with their knights.

So, I got my shore leave.

And boy did it suck.

Back before any of this mess, before I fell down that abyss those months ago, I enjoyed going out to the dance halls. There were a few scattered around the clan, in which each House took turns to decorate and impress their guests. One of the few social activities that mixed up different castes, like the Bath, which made it a great place to spend time with my unsavory friends of different rank. Every week there was always a dance happening somewhere, each trying to outdo the others in either theme, looks or something completely novel to stand out.

But I digress, I’m currently sitting at an empty table, in the few hours of actual freedom I’ve been able to scrounge up, and everyone in this busy hall was studiously ignoring me. A little nostalgic, but back then I usually knew what I did to deserve the treatment. This time around I hadn’t the faintest idea what I could have done.

This lasted for a good five minutes, up until an old friend of mine strode into the hall, fixed her eyes on me, and then made a direct path straight to the table.

Enter Elandris Silverstride. A head shorter than I was, with a pretty face, sharp nose and sharper temper. The platinum hair had a volume to it that sometimes seemed to outright shimmer, until I learned she really did put small strands of reflective gold in there for effect.

Now, calling her a clout chaser would be an insult to clout chasers. At least those people had some tact and pretended to be something else. Elandris didn’t mince her intentions, one of many reasons why we were good friends after all these years. She made it clear what she was after, how she would get it, and honestly I can't fault a person for being that honest. Everyone else tried to hide who they really were, but not Ellie.

All in all a charming person.

“About time you showed your ugly mug around again.” She said, grabbing a chair and sitting down into it with little decorum. Like I said, charming.

“And hello to you too, Ellie. To what occasion do I owe the pleasure?" I said, raising a glass of wine to her in mock salute. "You sound a little miffed.”

She cracked a tight grin, the kind of grin that she sported when she had come up with some creative insults and had been waiting for a chance to throw them my direction.

Growing up, I had occupied a very odd position in social hierarchy. A scion of House Winterscar’s current prime put me on the map for only other high class Retainers. But being clearly ostracized by the other members of my own House, that put me right back off the map.

People in my status group didn’t want to approach me and people under my status couldn’t approach me. Left me having to go hunting to make my own friends instead of joining polite society.

But there were exceptions. People that reached out a hand anyhow. Mostly social outcasts of their own, each with their own quirks. Some were outcasts because they simply didn’t know how to socialize, and so bumbled from group to group trying their hand everywhere to make friends. By sheer perseverance, they’d eventually run into me. And by lack of social skills, they wouldn’t know or care about my situation.

Treasures all of them, really.

Then there were the not so innocent hunters. These had been ostracized from their respective group not for lack of social edicate but because they’d taken too many shortcuts and gotten burned for it. Elandris was one such predator stalking the lands. She’d started off near the bottom and had a hunger for power that saw her rise up, stepping on anything in the way. Up until she took on the wrong person and got a lesson in humility.

She hit the ground on her back and jumped right back up on her feet, starting from scratch all over again, likely motivated this time by sheer spite.

I’d like to think that over time, her motives towards being friends with me had changed from pure greed to pure greed and a bit of fondness.

“Pause for a second before we get into the dramatic bits,” I said, partway into our habitual bickering and insult trading. “Do you know why everyone’s avoiding me?”

She raised an eyebrow, as if I was asking a stupid question. The kind of look that would usually spur me to ask even more ridiculous questions to bully her with, usually until one of her eyes started to twitch.

“You've been sitting here alone at the table since the dance's started and you haven't put two and three together yet? Nobody knows how to approach you anymore, everything’s been thrown out the airlock. They don’t know where you stand or how they should be treating you. If I had to guess, they’re all waiting for some kind of group consensus to form up from the aether.”

“To which, you sitting down here must have rattled the pipe.”

“Extremely fun for me, I’ll have you know. Stepping right over their egos and squishing it under my toe. I’ve already caught three death stares in the last few minutes, though they were polite enough to look away.”

“Come on, you’re just pulling the scrap. It can’t be that bad.”

“Fine. I’ll help you out this one time.” She began to list out points one at a time, counting them off on her fingers. “You are now a relic knight. Second in line to inherit the mantle of House Winterscar. Part of House Winterscar itself I should add - the old-new house that’s sucking up all kinds of high level talent under your banner, out of nowhere. The shadowsong prime himself is suddenly friends with you and walks you around everywhere you go.” She shot a glance to a dark corner of the room, where a relic knight was seated, arms crossed. He seemed almost asleep even, back to the wall, motionless.

I’d had to compromise to get this time off. A full personal guard of my best soldiers to escort me to the hall, and the Prime standing by inside the room. This was the best deal I could talk it down to. It was a little lame to have a chaperone, but I can’t complain about everything all the time. At least my personal guards were assigned to wait outside the dance hall rather than crowd in.

“And as if everything couldn’t possibly get worse, the clan lord himself gives you a writ of request letting you ask for anything you want? I’ve had suitors by proxy now, hoping to get to you through me. How insane is that?”

I tutted. “You like the attention, don’t lie.”

"Of course I do, that's not the point."

Talking about the atmosphere, I saw a group of people line up together like soldiers about to set off for war, and begin to march to my little table. Three girls, flanked by two men with easy going smiles. Those weren’t smiles though. That was war paint. I could tell they were anything but easygoing just from the way they walked, more like the rearguard to a dangerous expedition. It looks like there has been an unworded agreement that's been breached between all the separate factions that surrounded the field of battle here.

Ellie grabbed my sleeve, shutting up mid-rant, and proceeded to retreat straight onto the dance floor, much to the visible anger of the incoming party.

“You know you’ll have to address the big question people are asking.” She said, taking my hand and gently allowing me to spin her around to the slow music. I followed the footwork, reaching out for her waist while she wrapped an arm around my shoulder, bringing us far closer than the actual dance called for.

“Whatever could you possibly mean?” I asked, words filled with mock innocence.

She rolled her eyes instead as we spun slowly away from the edge. “The writ, you dolt. The one the freaking clan lord wrote for you. I’ll nibble your ear if you don’t give me a straight answer.”

“That’s just threatening me with a good time. Do you need a tip on how to threaten people?”

She drew closer, out of my sight now, except for some of her platinum hair, her breath warm on my ear. “I never said I’d bite gently. There’s your threat.”

“You’re no fun.” I grumbled. “You could have gone a dozen ways with the tip comment.”

“Gods.” She dramatically dropped her head right down on my shoulder. “Is sex the only thing you men think about?”

“You got a better suggestion?”

“I do. You tell me about the writ, and I won’t maul your ear off.” She whispered, letting my hands guide her across the dance floor.

“Clan lord and I talked over a few beers at the bar down the street a few days ago during happy hour. We shot the scrap, laughed a bit, and he wrote me a nice letter on the napkin. All innocent fun. He’s a good bloke, I should introduce you.”

I felt her nip at my ear and bite down. Not hard enough to draw blood, but definitely hard enough to feel the pinch. “You do know we’re in public right?" I said. "And there’s a few people who are staring at us. My ego wants to think it’s me they’re looking at, but there’s some real hate in their eyes, and I don’t remember causing problems recently. I’d remember. This seems more like a you thing.”

“They can choke on a cornstalk and gargle what comes out.” She said, admirably proving my exact point and letting my ear go for now. “If it wasn’t me, one of them would have won their little catfight for dominance and come to collect you. So they’re hypocrites, and sore losers.”

“Collected?” I asked, in mock offence.

“Of course. You’re a rare trading card. Now, hold still, I need to write my name on you.”

“Balcony?” I asked, spinning her again before she could do anything to my neck. She allowed it with a pout, inching our way through to a very particular side of the room we both knew well. The dance hall was one of the few buildings that had a second floor to it, one in which was dark and not well lit. We’d been up there many times before. She didn’t need to say a word, instead practically pushed me off the floor and onto the staircase. There, we made our way up.

I’d worn my best for this occasion, since I didn’t know when I’d get a second time. A sharp black military suit that would never go out of fashion. The only modern addition was a small half cape, folded over itself. All at Cathida’s dogged insistence.

My self-appointed date sighed, slumping into a chair, then leaned forward to lay her head on the balcony railing, watching the events under her. “You look good in that, by the way.” She said, rolling her head to the side to get a glance at me.

“You just want to see me out of it.” I said, preening. “I know, I have that effect on people these days, no need to be coy.”

She snorted. “This your way of telling me you bulked up finally? Come to think of it, I haven’t seen you at the baths for a while now. Have you been working out in secret to impress me? So romantic, I can’t wait to make fun of you.”

I sat down next to her, watching the dancers from up high. Far off under us, I saw the familiar relic knight, helmet looking up now, keeping me in sights. He seemed comfortable with all this, like it wasn’t his first time hovering protectively over someone. Given the socialite that Ankah was, I wasn’t greatly surprised. Now I was the misbehaving daughter he had to keep an eye on, least a scoundrel like Ellie runs off with me into the night.

“I still can’t get over how a Winterscar has a Shadowsong as a guardian. Let alone the gods freaking prime himself. What exactly did you do to get him this docile? The man’s hatred of your House is legendary.”

“I know you’re just trying to fish for information, but I’ll be serious just this once.” I said, then sat back deeper into my chair. “The Chosen have us worried they’ll pull something. Can’t be too cautious. Part of the whole reason I haven’t been able to spend any time with the usual suspects, you included, is because there’s been one thing after another ever since I came back. This is the first time in days that I’ve been out of my armor. I eat, sleep and shit in that thing. It’s horrible. Even getting a night off to feel human contact again was like pulling a pipe weasel by the tail.”

"The clan lord will handle it." She shrugged. "This is what he's always done. The regular people aren't worried, we're just watching to see what happens next. You know, I went and talked to them. The Chosen I mean.” She said, then paused and rolled her eyes at me. “Knock that dumb look off your face. It’s me, when have you known me not to go poking my head everywhere there might be something to my benefit? That’s how I found you in the first place.”

“Fair point. What are your thoughts? Word on the street?”

She shrugged. “I think that priest is the only one who’s actually religious religious.” She said, giving emphasis on the first mention of religious. Like it was the more pure and true version of that word, compared with the dirty peasant version that trailed behind. “I haven’t met any of their knights, they were gone to do work out in the freeze by the time I came down. The rest of the people made a small community, little shanty town in the lower sections. They might feel safe being that close to the underground, but even I was feeling my hair stand on edge. Too deep. You can tell when the walls stop being made by humans and you're stepping foot too close to danger. Makes my skin crawl.”

She turned her head, letting her cheek rest on the back of her hands, lazily looking up at me from her comfortable spot. “So, I told you some of my intel, give me something good in return. Like the writ business.”

I shook my head, tutting. “I’ll need a bit more to trade something like this.”

“I can leak what preparations my House has been doing for the raiders. Also what some of the other houses have been up to.”

I shook my head again. “Remember, I’m friends with Lord Atius these days. I can just ask him, and he’d tell me.”

She blew a strand of platinum hair away from her face, then puffed up one side of her cheeks. I had to fight myself not to pinch her. “Tossing in Lord Atius into this is like making a deck filled with only I-win cards." She complained. "Where’s the passion? Where’s the art of gossip? Isn’t it supposed to be filled with wholesome trades of deeply personal information?

“Preferably someone else’s.” I said, finishing the inside joke between us.

That got a grin out of her. “See? You do remember. So spill already. I can’t compete with you having the clan lord whispering all the answers. Devalues everything I got. Bloody unfair is what that is.”

“All right. Fine. You’ve talked me into a wall. I surrender.” I sighed. “Tell me what your tiny puny House is up to and I’ll give you a couple bits of non-secret information you can hoard and gloat about to your friends.”

“You first.”

I paused for a moment, almost incredulous. “I'm already offering charity here, and you're still trying to get more? Getting a bit big for your suit aren’t you?” I said, poking her side, getting her to yelp and nearly jump out of her chair. She hissed at me in return. For someone so… her, she was adorably ticklish.

“I’m certainly not full of it. I’m only trying to collect every bit I can squeeze out of you.”

“Gods.” I puffed out, “Is sex all you women think about?”

“Ugh, you’re disgusting.” She turned away, doing a remarkable job of sounding serious. Then she rolled over with the grace and laziness of a cat. Leaning far back on her chair and plopping her feet on my legs. “Take these off for me, please.” Her dress shoes waggled just under my hands. “Also, I wouldn’t say no to a footrub. I’ve been standing and running around for most of the day. Heels you know? It's been dreadful.”

I did as asked, taking off her dress shoes and letting them drop on the ground. Then I tickled her feet, because I wasn’t going to miss a chance that had quite literally fallen on my lap.

She shook free, drew back, and gave me a few hard kicks on the side. Only when I lifted my hands up in mock surrender did she settle back into her comfortable position. Once she trusted I wasn’t going to be messing around with her more, my thumbs absentmindedly rubbed around while she and I chattered about old times. She seemed particularly nostalgic today.

Time passed by comfortably. It was good to catch up. To just relax and stop thinking about all the strange events that had happened in the past month and be me again. Before any of this scrapshit had fell ontop of my head.

Elandris gave a genuine sigh, and this time I knew whatever she was going to say next was going to be serious. “Part of me thinks this might be the last time I get to banter like this with you. Before, nobody cared about you and me in general. I liked what we had, you know?”

“You have a funny way of showing that.”

She slapped my shoulder lightly. “Oh come off it. You enjoyed it. I did too. You were like a constant in my life I could always crawl back to when I needed to lick my wounds. Now it’s going to be complicated. Maybe even impossible.”

“I don’t feel too different myself.” I lied. “What makes you think we have to stop being friends all of a sudden?”

“Others.” She waved a hand to the dance floor downstairs. “It’s different. You’re on the map again, especially high up on that map. Only a matter of time until I get outright threatened by someone with a knife to leave you alone because I'm too far under your status. Or that you get married off in some political shitfuckery, and the new wife doesn’t appreciate me being anywhere in the picture, even as old friends. We’ve got too much history for anyone to be comfortable. Can’t blame them either.” Elandris sighed. “You know even the chicken wrangler is getting worried? He actually reached out to me to see if I could get a word to you. Me! I thought he hated me like the sun hates the snow.”

“Him? He just didn’t quite get that our dynamic changed from the early days. He still thinks you're only trying to take advantage of me.”

“Who said I wasn't? Seems to me, regrettably, I got everything I'd initially hoped for. You did end up being high ranking, and now I have to deal with all this.” She said. “You know, I already learned long ago to be careful with what I wished for, I didn't need another reminder of that lesson, but here we are. The point is you’re dealing with threats and clan issues so far above my paygrade you might as well be a Deathless to the rest of us. It’s like you’re leaving all the old parts of your life behind, me included. And I’m going to complain and rant about it the entire time, of course.”

“You know I can’t really do anything about that right?”

She sighed. “I know! I know. That doesn’t make it feel any better.” She pouted again, looking away.

“I’m just getting dragged along with the avalanche Ellie, and now that I’m swimming in the snow, I have to build my own shelter or freeze. Nothing motivates a man more than having absolutely no choice but to be better. And maybe when it does get better I can reconnect again.”

We stayed silent after that, listening to the music downstairs and just enjoying each other’s company for the first time in what feels like years. No barbs between us, no jokes or roasts, just simple quiet. It’s funny how months might pass between seeing one another, and the moment we do, we go right back into it like nothing had happened.

Of course, that’s when the bullet shots started sounding down below, followed by screaming. Both of us shot right back up on our feet and ducked behind the railing right after. Bullets were not something one hears at a dance, except if it's part of the music for some reason. These were very real sounds of bullets, and they were far too close for comfort.

Downstairs, a group of relic knights were fanning out from the bits I could see, followed by a dozen thugs of some kind, each of them with rifles. They were returning fire on anyone that had the gall to shoot at them, but otherwise shouting for order and getting people to line up.

“Twelve knights!” Elandris shouted in my ear over the noise. “Three gods, I don’t recognize any sigils on them! What the frick is going on? What House could possibly have twelve freaking knights?! Is this some kind of coup? Why send twelve knights here of all places?!”

Gone was idle thoughts of having fun, but instead of any panic, my mind somehow snapped into full alert.

I was looking around for where Shadowsong might be, only to find him gone from his post. Wherever the man went, he'd clearly decided taking on twelve knights was going to take a more subtle approach. I was more happy that I couldn't spot him compared to the alternative.

The enemy knights and their minions were clearing through the dance hall. Their armor were red, with skull signs and bones. Not machine bones, animal ones. Some sporting actual skulls. Human ones. I realized who they were and felt a chill run down my spine.

Years ago, I'd seen knights like them, shooting and killing the last of the Winterscars, shortly before Father cut into my view and took both Kidra and I away from the fight, everything vanishing away in the dim blizzard.

Gods. We'd been so focused on what the Chosen had on hand, we hadn't considered they could have allies. Our enemy hadn't been idle, they had plans of their own.

They flashed lights at people's faces, clearly searching for someone with practiced ease and motion. Given who these knights were, it was obvious why they'd been picked for this mission. If you're trying to capture people, who better to send?

“I know who they are." I said, voice cold. "I've seen their kind before."

Slavers.

Next chapter - Catch and bag a Winterscar

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