Sins of the father

[iizak]

An unimposing man strolled passed the guards that stood watch in front of the gates to Tamasha, grinning as he passed them, which made the small scar on his cheek stretch slightly and even give a small salute to one of them. His sword appeared to be safely bound, as did the dual daggers in their holsters strapped to his chest.

Of course, IIzak always took precautions to make sure that the weapons would be ready at a moments notice. "You'll never know when trouble will find you, so always be expecting some, that way you'll always be prepared" his mentor Cain used to say. Cain's gruff voice sounded in IIzak's head and a sad smile crossed his face as memories of his surrogate father swarmed across his thoughts.

Lost in his memories, IIzak didn't notice the stranger who had just stepped into his path. Bumping into the man, he stumbled slightly backwards and looked up at a giant hulk of a man, standing at nearly 6'7", the man's face looked squashed, and his nose had the look of being recently broken. He held a broadsword in his right hand and his face was contorted into a look of contempt and disgust as he gazed down at IIzak, who stood at only 5'11" and looked downright puny next to the giant of a man.

IIzak's face darkened as he realized he recognized the man. "Get lost Olg, before I make you regret ever showing me your face again." IIzak growled, meeting Olg's face with a stare that would have cowed a dragon.

"Not 'till yah pay us what Cain owed us, squirt!" Olg said, as his backup surrounded IIzak, covering his retreat from all angles. Altogether, there's five, IIzak counted, pretending not to notice that he was surrounded, but subtly shifting his body into a better position to face the inevitable assault. "make them believe you aren't as smart as they are, enemies always make a mistake when they believe they have the upper hand." It was another one of Cain's teachings, and he was absolutely correct.

Each of the men had openings so wide that a child could have defeated them and IIzak knew that his skills far surpassed those of a child. "Fine..." IIzak mumbled, reaching for his coin purse tied at his belt and retrieving a single gold coin, which he flipped into the air towards Olg.

As Olg looked up at the oncoming coin, IIzak sprang into action, delivering a swift front kick to Olg's solar plexus, taking him out of the equation for a minute or two. Spinning, he dealt with the dagger, that had come stabbing in, sweeping his arm across in a chopping block that was placed perfectly to numb the knife-wielder's hand and force him to drop the knife. A palm-heel strike to the chin dazed him and dropped the assailant to the ground.

IIzak's execution of his defense was lightning quick. So quick in fact that as he ran towards the now open path away from the thugs, he still had time to catch the gold coin he had tossed towards Olg, before tearing down the street. One of the thugs reached down to help Olg, who was still struggling for breath, as the other two tore after IIzak, chasing him through the streets of Tamasha. IIzak lived for times like these, and even if the circumstances weren't ideal, the challenge of escaping or fighting off the remaining men made IIzak's blood boil. Oh yes... if there was one thing he missed about his old life, it was the fun that came along with a good battle.

[Summerchika]

Once again finding herself in the blasted human town, hiding from the harmful rays of the blazing sun, Elphame cursed the tedious humans. She had wanted to escape the politics of the royal family for a day, but had found her shady recluse at Lonea Lake taken over by a lover couple. Why they needed all those blasted candles for a romantic mood, she would never know--the sun had been high in the sky, after all. The part of Lonea Lake that was always shady, and therefore served as the pathway to her secret sanctuary within the depths of Lonea Lake, was taken over by that wasteful couple. And Elphame was vexed.

She usually didn't hate humans with such a passion; in fact, she hardly even knew that they existed, so far removed from importance in her world as they were. But Elphame had been dogged by the Council so much already that day, that she could handle them no longer, and when she had sought peace in the only place she knew to find such complete harmony, the humans had stood in her way--well, had laid in her way, to be more precise.

Frustrated, Elphame resorted to the only other sanctuary she knew of--Tuane's town, as she called it. Coming to the town at this time of day was incredibly dangerous for a being of Shadow. The sun having just peaked over its highest point in the sky, Elphame had been hard pressed to find a safe path into the town. Nevertheless, she had prevailed; the steep price of peace she was ever so willing to pay, no matter the danger.

Relaxing in the cool shadow of a market stall, she was dismayed to find that only the slightest measure of peace could be obtained in the midst of the bustling, noisy, and fairly odorous humans of the town. Instead of cursing humans for this discovery, she cursed Tuane, for giving her the idea to search out peace in such a place.

The humans bustled around her without a thought. After all, what need had they to look to the shadows when they had their worshiped sun to guide them? Humans relied on light to see their surroundings. Without that light, they were little better than blind. And Elphame relied on their blindness. As long as they were blind, Elphame was safe from their light.

Soon, a disturbance in the shadows reached her senses. Tensing, Elphame sent black tendrils of her awareness throughout the connected shadows of the town to locate the source of potential trouble. It was men, she realized. Ugly, smelly men in the shadows not too far from her location. Whatever the matter was, it concerned Elphame not, so she withdrew.

However not a few seconds later, a commotion in that very direction distracted her. Those same smelly men--some of them at least--were pounding down the street. The thudding of their boots reverberated in her mind, aggravating her attuned senses.

"Oh, make it stop!" she groaned. Combined with the crowd's uproar at the public disturbance, those thudding boots made her head ache and her skin crawl in disgust. Stop! Her mind's connection to the shadows strong, the shadows did what they could to fulfill their liege’s wishes.

As the first, rather skinny man shot past, the shadows reared. The first man was too fast, but the other, bulky brutes were less than fast. As they skimmed her shadows, tendrils of her living shadows snaked around their ankles and tugged, bringing them slamming into the ground. This, for some perverse reason, gave her immense satisfaction. Before she could stop herself, a smile stole onto her face. Her cheek twinged as the dark injury was impacted by the smile, a souvenir from her brush with light the last time she visited this confounded town.

Her smile quickly faded, however, as she examined the men from afar. The men were still motionless on the ground, and Elphame lurched forward, unsure if she had killed them. Surely a simple fall, though enhanced by her shadows, wouldn't kill a human? But she was unsure of the human physiology. They did seem rather frail...

She traveled the shadows to get a closer look at the smelly men, hoping that she had not killed them. The royal family would have a fit over this if they found out. But no, the men were fine. When she saw the rise and fall of their chests, Elphame almost relaxed. There was no doubt that they would rise again soon.

Looking around, she searched for any evidence that the humans saw her or had noticed her actions. She was in the penumbra shadows now, after all. Less complete shadows, the penumbra were safe for her people, but they could not hide her form completely. Her cautious eyes alighted on the man she had not tripped. Had he noticed anything? Had he even stopped to look?

[iizak]

IIzak knew his movements had caused a stir; in fact, he had counted on it, using the now surging crowd to mask his escape. still, to IIzak's amazement, the brutes managed to keep up the chase, pushing innocents to the ground in their pursuit of him. "Protect people who can't protect themselves, that's our job and don't let anyone tell you different" IIzak heard Cain's voice say. "He's right, lets take this somewhere more secluded" IIzak thought to himself.

IIzak was sprinting as fast as his legs would carry him as he ran from his pursuers. "Ahh the thrill" he thought to himself as he tore down an alleyway, moving fast enough not to notice that it seemed particularly dark in this area. his mind whirred through the possibilities available to him. He could keep running and perhaps be caught or he could turn and trounce the thugs that pursued him and were causing pain.

He decided upon the latter and spun around abruptly, hoping to catch his opponents off guard with the quick change in momentum. Instead, IIzak's mouth fell open as he saw the darkness before him solidify, grabbing his pursuers by the ankles and tripping them up so that their head slammed into the dirty floor of the alley.

IIzak simultaneously thanked no one for their intervention in the fight, and cursed them for ruining his fun. "Still..." IIzak thought to himself "At least they're down". he began to walk over to where the men were laying when suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, materialized a woman. Or at least he thought it was a woman. She seemed to him to be a part of the darkness itself and he couldn't help but stare.

His hand unconsciously moved to the wooden dagger that hung from his pack, unsheathing it and tossing into the air with an easy flick of his wrist. The dagger flipped twice around in the air before returning to its owner's hand. The mesmerizing dance continued as IIzak stared at the shadowy outline of the woman.

As she turned to face him, he felt a his heart skip a beat in fear. Clearly this being had intervened to knock out the two men, however he had never seen someone like her before. Still, there was no need to be fearful, and he quickly shook away the feeling. "Perhaps she's a goddess, sent to help a lost man find his way" He thought to himself.

Adopting a calm look, he bent in a low bow towards the woman and said loudly, "Hello there, milady. I must thank you for your assistance in the deliverance of justice to those men who surely deserve it. If I may be completely frank, I've never seen a mortal being like yourself. Are you perhaps a goddess?" he asked aloud, never one to mince words or as some men said "beat around the bush"

[Summerchika]

"Oh? Milady and goddess?" Elphame asked with her iconic raised eyebrow coupled with a wry smile. At the man's assumptions, the shadowy tendrils beneath her skin undulated in amusement. A goddess? Had a human ever thought her anything but a monster? Had one ever lived long enough to think differently after setting eyes on one of her kind?

Darkened blue eyes met hazel ones as Elphame straightened from her crouch over the--yes, still odorous--bodies. "This is a nice change." she continued, buying time for her warriors mind to quickly weigh her options.

Wincing inwardly, she realized her folly. Hadn't she prided herself on patience in battle and in court? If she had just been a tad more patient with the now unconscious brutes, human eyes would not have laid eyes on her, and she would not be faced with such a grim decision. But when it came to humans, it seemed her patience wore thin too quickly.

Stepping over the human lumps and toward the young man who held a wooden dagger, Elphame mentally reviewed the laws of her race. By law, she was to dispose of the witness, no matter that it was her fault that he had seen her. He would simply be another traveler dead in a dark alleyway not to be discovered for days. But her gut instinct rebelled at this option. Whether it was because he had mistaken her for a goddess or for another reason entirely, she did not dislike this human, which was more than she could say for anyone else of his race. But the laws were clear...

"Not a goddess, no. Thank your gods you've never seen a being like myself." she added distractedly as she racked her mind for an excuse to break the outdated laws.

Though not completely rational, an excuse came willingly and easily: Tuane. Had Tuane killed all the human girls that had seen much more of him than was allowed, the humans would think an epidemic had swept the town.

Triumphant in her discovery, Elphame steered the focus away from her origin with a counter question. "And who are you to be chased by such quaint and fragrant company?" she asked, leaning halfway into deeper shadows in case more odorous men came a running. "Should we be expecting more?"

Briefly, she wondered if he even knew how close he had been to a shadowy death. Suffocation by shadow was not a pleasant thing, and she would know. But as her eyes took in the young man's spry physique, the scar that spanned his right cheek, and the graceful way in which he flipped the wooden dagger without a thought, Elphame doubted he would have gone down without a fight. This thought was oddly pleasing.

[iizak]

The look she gave IIzak after he'd asked his question seemed quite odd on the shadowy-woman's face. It seemed as though she was stifling a laugh while plotting his death. A shiver ran up his spine as she contemplated him and he did his best to appear non-threatening. Finally she seemed to make up her mind about whatever had caused her internal strife.

Her answer was given nice enough, however IIzak noticed the carefully concealed threat buried deeply within the woman's words. IIzak's face scrunched in puzzlement at her statement. "Are you sure you're no goddess?" he asked her curiously hoping that she was so that he could tell all of his friends that he'd met a goddess. That was until he remembered that he had no friends, not since he'd left the Band.

He was no longer nervous, yet the dance of the dagger continued, flipping this way and that for a few moments longer until finally he flipped the dagger once more and deftly caught it blade down before slipping it back into its sheath. "Well milady, my name is IIzak, and my... quaint and fragrant company, as you so aptly put it, will no longer be bothering us." he said with a laugh at her perfect description of the men as the stench of stale tobacco and sweat reached his nose.

"If you truly are not a goddess; and I'm not fully convinced of that mind you; might I ask what I should call you?" he asked her, looking at her pale complexion that swirled with a shadow all its own, and her fierce blue eyes that felt as though they pierced his very soul. They were the type of eyes only held by someone who had seen their fair share of battle.

"Not a woman to be trifled with" IIzak thought to himself, shuddering as Cain's voice echoed another of his lessons through his head "Now IIzak, always remember not to judge a book by its cover. Just because someone doesn't appear to be physically strong, it doesn't mean they won't have some hidden strength buried away where you can't see it." The woman was definitely interesting enough and while IIzak felt a bit intimidated by the woman's aura, he did owe her. After all, she had helped him escape from Olg's men.

"I'd be more than happy to answer your questions, however, I've been on my feet for far to long and could use some rest. Perhaps you'd fancy accompanying me for a drink?" he said, holding out his arm. "My treat" he said with what he hoped was a disarming smile as he waited to see if the woman would take him up on the offer.

[Summerchika]

Temporarily stunned by the turn of events, Elphame blinked a few times before a slow smile spread across her lips. She lowered her head slightly with a sigh of unbelieving laughter, and then looked back up at IIzak and his outstretched arm. She had been offered a similar invitation many times before, usually by her grandfather, or by enemies who looked to poison or pull information from her, but never by a human in the middle of the day.

"Call me Elphame." she said, giving her name mostly because she couldn't stand being called milady again. Though she had made fun of it not a few seconds ago, that word was used much too often by surly castle maids and envious, unambitious soldiers for it to be a pleasant one for her to hear.

Despite knowing she did not need to feel bad, seeing his outstretched arm and smiling face, she could not help but feel it; a kind stranger was hard to come by in her world. No matter that he was human, she was glad she hadn't killed him.

"Thank you, for the invite," she tried a smile to show her sincerity, "but.... Hm, well, IIzak it is a bit of a shame. Even if were a goddess I wouldn't be able to go into a place like that."

She looked toward the blazing light that guided the busy people on the streets beyond the alleyway. She knew they lit their interiors almost as brightly as the outside was lit naturally. Humans were constantly afraid of being in the dark. Alone. And why shouldn't they be? She was just as scared--no, much more than they--at the thought of being trapped in a well lit place. With everything exposed and no way out.

Looking only a moment longer to see if she could spot any--what was it he had called it?--need for her "assistance in the deliverance of justice," she tried to find a reason to relieve more of her pent up frustration on deserving humans. But, seeing none, she turned her eyes away from the blinding light. Maybe she would find Tuane later and take it out on him, instead.

"Tell me, what is a flame to the darkness?" she asked the would-be riddle aloud, massaging her eyes to rid them of the scorching sun spots. Though she did not expect an answer, she was curious to hear what sort of answers a human would come up with.

[iizak]

At his last milady, Elphame had appeared to wince in annoyance. "Call me Elphame." she said with great pride. Her name rolled around in his head for a bit before he replied. "What a nice name" he complimented, meaning every word.

She called out that she wouldn't be able to go with him into any of the inns along the brightly lit road and he let his arm drop down. He felt a bit put out by her refusal but then he looked took himself out of the equation and focused on Elphame.

Examining her more closely, he noticed that she kept every part of herself within the shadows. She seemed to even avoid looking at light when she could. Whenever she looked at light, she had to close her eyes and rub them, as though she were developing a headache.

"Are you alright?" he asked her with puzzlement and concern in his eyes. Normally people would bask in light as much as possible but this girl appeared to be actively avoiding it. "Are you trying not to be seen?" he asked her.

At her riddle, he paused and thought for a long while. Once again his wooden dagger came out, spinning and flipping in an elegant dance. "I always think better when I have this on me" IIzak said, thinking about what she had said. His mind whirred in a different direction, looking at every possibility.

After several minutes of intense deliberation within himself, he decided on an answer. "What is a flame to the darkness?..." he asked, repeating her question back to her; "It is many things: A parent, an enemy, and most of all, a friend, for each helps in the creation of the other. Without the dark, there would be no need for the fire, and when the fire blazes, the darkness comes alive as dancing shadows and provides protection from prying eyes. That, dear Elphame, is what a flame is to the darkness." Satisfied with his answer, her returned her smile with a wide one of his own

[Summerchika]

At IIzak's compliment, Elphame's tension eased a notch, and she gratefully inclined her head, but said nothing. When his arm dropped, she could not help but read the emotion on his face, which made her feel guilty. Logically, she knew she had no cause to feel guilt; there was nothing she could do about not being able to be in light. It was a law of her nature.

But his concerned questions did nothing to lighten the guilt. Again, she inclined her head, this time in answer to his questions. She was fine, as long as the light stayed were it was, and technically it was true that she was trying not to be seen. It was a bit more than that, but that would, hopefully, become clearer with the riddle.

She waited patiently while IIzak considered her riddle. When he pulled out that wooden dagger she had noticed before, her interest peaked and her smile grew. As IIzak thought, she watched the dagger, making conjectures of its origin to keep her mind entertained. At the sound of his voice, she looked up to read his face as he answered.

His answer was surprising and somewhat pleasing. The complexity with which this particular human thought was profound. He looked fairly young, to her eyes at least.

A parent, an enemy, and a friend... No shadow would think of it that way. It may be worth the illegality to... gain perspective. Though she had asked the riddle for a different purpose in mind, it served well another purpose, too. It had made her realize another reason, besides Tuane and momentary peace, to stick around.

"Interesting... and impressive." Her smile grew to a grin, and the shadows beneath her skin pulsed with pleasure. "But if the darkness and the shadows were alive before the flame, are they still parent and child? Friends? No, the flame would then become a death sentence for the shadows."

Her hand went up to the dark wound on her cheek that moved with healing shadows. The healing shadows had been administered a week ago, but the wound had barely showed signs of healing. She knew it would take months to heal even the smallest encounter with light. Her fingers came away from the wound darkened by the bloody shadows, which she wiped along the twisting scathé on the inside of her forearm. Shadow ate bloodied shadow, and her fingers were once again clear.

Wondering if the riddle was too subtle a thing, she decided to make clearer the purpose behind the riddle.

"That is the reason, dear IIzak," she returned the endearment, "that I cannot go into a place like that." Not without death or worse. She gestured to the busy street without looking at it this time. As a reaction to Elphame's fearful thoughts of worse, of making that kind of painful transformation again, the penumbra shadows in which she stood darkened almost imperceptibly as if trying to protect their occupier.

[iizak]

After his compliment, IIzak saw some of the tensions leave Elphame's face. It was mixed in with a slight bit guilt that IIzak only saw because he had been studying Elphame quite closely, still intrigued by her shadow powers. "Her demeanor is pretty proper, I wonder if she's a noblewoman of some sort" IIzak thought to himself, even more intrigued now with this woman.

His answer to her riddle seemed to amuse her and he was caught slightly off guard by her counter argument. After all, one doesn't often consider shadow to be alive. He pondered that for a while before coming to the conclusion that she was absolutely correct. He laughed out loud and conceded the point willingly; "You know you're absolutely right, the darkness is quite alive... I suppose that's why us humans fear it so much... it's full of things we don't know and can't see. Still, darkness can be a friend to those who are willing to befriend it." he said, smile plastered on his face.

As she explained to him the reasoning for her riddle, understanding dawned on IIzak's face. Looking a bit more at Elphame and examining the facts he already knew about her, he managed to infer that she not only wouldn't, but physically couldn't walk into the light. He deduced all of that based on her reaction when she observed light, as well as how the strength of her aura deepened as she spoke ill of it.

"Well, if it's possible, I'd like to learn a bit more about you, and an alleyway is really no place for a noblewoman..." He said, voicing his guess at her heritage, "...So maybe I could get a room for us and just keep all the lights off? or Perhaps you know of another place where we could go to talk? Oh and as for not being able to walk around the city, I think I might have a solution if you wait for me here for a moment?"

After he had finished speaking, he held up a hand as if to say "Wait here" and then walked out into the marketplace that was bustling this time of day. Slipping past several stalls, he finally found one the had the perfect object he had been looking for. He haggled with the merchant over the price before finally buying the item and bringing it back to the alleyway.

"Its an umbrella," IIzak said to Elphame, holding up the object and showing her how the object worked, "If you hold it above your head, it will block out the sun so you don't have to worry about that and we can walk to wherever we need to. And if you can't hold it and walk, well it fits two and I can hold it and you can turn invisible like you were before myself and those thugs arrived and disturbed you."

[Summerchika]

IIzak’s smiles were contagious, and Elphame could not help the smile that arose at his reply. A human friend to the Scathé, she mused to herself. Friends were not overly abundant in Elphame’s life--a hazard of her birthright. It may have mattered once when she was still growing, but needing a friend was a discarded idea that no longer troubled Elphame in the slightest. However, a human friend to both a leader and an outcast among the Scathé such as herself was quite the interesting notion.

But when IIzak guessed her heritage entirely too correctly, Elphame froze with surprise. Even her ever moving shadows stopped their dance in response to his insightful comment. It chilled her to think she was so readable, though the term ‘noblewoman’ to the humans probably did not mean the same thing to the Scathé. She watched IIzak’s retreating back, hoping he hadn’t noticed her shock. Her eyes narrowed, and she chewed her lip in nervous thought. She contemplated retreating back into the deeper shadows, but that would be running and Elphame didn’t run. Hide, yes, but never run. Besides, despite herself, she enjoyed IIzak’s intelligent company.

Elphame had just begun to process the rest of what IIzak had said when he returned to her, holding an, “umbrella.” A small smile returned to her countenance as he explained how the umbrella worked, and she tilted her head to the side pensively.

A laugh escaped her as IIzak offered to hold the umbrella so she would turn ‘invisible,’ which made sense from a human’s perspective. “Brilliant,” she confessed, not at all sarcastically, which she had to admit, was all too commonly her choice of tone. She reached a hand out to assess the umbrella by touch. It would indeed provide enough penumbra shadow to house her own shadows. It would be impossible to turn invisible in such light shadow, but she would survive.

“Thank you,” she said, again inclining her head slightly. “I won’t be able to turn invisible, as you say, but perhaps . . .” she trailed off, as she gathered the shadows together in concentration.

Wiping the silly smile from her face, she drew an obsidian blade from within the folds of her scathé dress, and without preamble or much thought at all, she drew the blade across her palm. Blood of the darkest, dullest red spilled from the cut, and she quickly guided her hand to the shadows who reared in response.

“Scathé hnae yykir anuin,” she whispered the old, ceremonial words used to create the traditional Scathé clothing from obedient shadows. The clothing, crafted with her mental strength, blood, and shadow, was only a bit more substantial than shadow against light. It would burn if it came into contact with any light, but it would offer brief protection and cover. If she were to walk among the humans for a time, it would be best to not show them her face and the shadows that lurked beneath her skin. IIzak had not seem particularly affected when he had first laid eyes upon her, but she had a feeling he was one of few humans to be unafraid.

Donning the newly crafted hood so that only a panel of her eyes would show, Elphame looked up at IIzak, then hesitated. Had she scared him? Something so blatantly inhuman must have been odd to say the least. Had she made a mistake? Revealed too much? She cursed her carelessness.

Awkwardly, she sheathed the blade she realized she still held, then stared at the thugs, laying forgotten on the ground. “Hmm . . . should we do something about them before we leave?” she gestured toward unconscious thugs with her bleeding hand that had already begun the healing process. She raised an eyebrow in question, hoping she had not shocked him as much as he had shocked her with his "noblewoman" comment earlier.