The Unworthy and The Damned

by Billy Wong

  "Perhaps. What of it?"

  "Humble, aren't we? I find it interesting, that's all. A pampered rich girl like me may seem to have a perfect life, but we're overly sheltered from many things. I'm curious to learn more about the wide world we live in, and that includes its people."

  She usually didn't much like pampered rich youngsters, since she worked hard despite her family being well off, but that this one desired to broaden her view softened her outlook some. However, not being a real church knight, she attempted to dissuade the girl who was probably in fact a couple years older than herself. "There's not much to say about me. I strove hard to be what I wanted, and God saw fit to reward me with my desire."

  "Oh, I'm sure there are juicier details than that. Why don't we talk for a little while?" The girl smiled. "I know an inn nearby. If your companion here wants to get clean, we could take him there and pretty him up."

  "Are you sure?" her maid-looking friend asked. "The other stores..."

  "Who ever said I wanted to get clean, or that I'm dirty?" Edge said. "A change of clothes out of these ripped ones should be good enough-"

  "No way," Celia and the rich girl said at once, and she felt a strange camaraderie to hear their matching words. She continued, "You may not mind being dirty, but most civilized people will mind you. Besides, you'll be far less recognizable as yourself being clean."

  They left the big clothing store and followed their new guide towards the inn. "My name's Elly," she said while they walked past fancy buildings, many a home and business alike sporting ornately sculpted facades, "and my friend is Lynn. What are yours?"

  Though her real name wasn't that uncommon, Celia erred on the side of caution. Elly didn't seem likely to be an assassin, but she could still provide information to those who sought them. "Leia."

  "I'm Jed." Edge caught on quick, thankfully.

  "What is your relationship? I don't expect that you're peers, given how disparate your appearances are."

  Celia swallowed. If she kept prying like this, it might be hard to keep their story straight for long. Maybe they should've refused her help, considering they could just find an inn on their own, but the girls approaching them suddenly had caught them off guard. Dressing up like a church knight wasn't a crime in itself, but Elly making a scene which drew attention to them wouldn't help matters. She tried to stall. "Being peers or not isn't based on appearance. Even though we might look different, he could still be an equal to me in anything ranging from fighting prowess to intellect."

  "Indeed," Lynn said, "but I think by peers Elly meant having the same position."

  "Well, it's true E-Jed and I have different roles." Celia winced inwardly at Elly's raised brow, but luckily she didn't say anything. Yet. "I'm hunting a certain practitioner of dark magic in these parts, but though I have passable outdoor skills, I am unfamiliar with the terrain. So Jed was hired to help me."

  Elly gazed doubtfully at Edge. "You're familiar with this area? Then you should also know how one is expected to present themselves in the city."

  Edge punched Celia hard in the kidney as to scold her for making another poorly thought out story. It hurt quite bad, and she was lucky not to stumble for that would surely be noticed. "I'm a loner. I don't tend to give two shits about what people think, especially not flaky artists." But you'll enter a fashionable shop to buy clothes? Celia thought. He wasn't great at coming up with answers either. Understandable she supposed, since they had to do it on the fly. Still, she resolved to hit him back once Elly's attention lapsed.

  "You two are curious folks. It looks like my time won't be wasted with such unique characters."

  "She is a church knight," Lynn whispered, not quietly enough to prevent Celia from hearing. "Maybe you shouldn't make her uncomfortable treating her and her associate like a sideshow."

  Elly replied aloud, "Sorry, I might not have worded that well. I don't mean you're odd, just not familiar to the world I live in."

  Celia smiled. "I take no offense. I come from a fairly well to do family too, so I know many girls of our background are rather sheltered."

  "What family?"

  She hoped her face didn't betray the momentary alarm she felt. "I doubt you've heard of it. We're only big in our small town, to the world at large we might as well be farmers."

  Elly gave a short nod. Maybe she was more mature than she came off at first glance, and understood why some might not want to flaunt their bloodline wherever they went. The reason she imagined was probably quite different from the actual one, though. "How did you become a knight? Were your parents not so overprotective of you, or did you rebel?"

  I, um, I'm not a knight. Of course, she didn't say that. "My father and mother both wanted me to be able to protect myself, so they invested early in training for me." The truth, so far. She needed to think up the next part though, and quick...

  "She turned out to be a combat prodigy," Edge put in, "surprisingly most talented in the use of a two-handed sword."

  "A prodigy?" Lynn asked. "Does that mean you're great even compared to men, or only among girls?"

  "I can beat many men." The conversation went nicely slow, but it couldn't be slow enough considering how unsure she was about the way she should explain her choice of career. More detail meant a greater chance of screwing up, yet less detail might only encourage Elly to dig deeper.

  Fortunately, they reached the inn before she would've been forced to throw something out there before she was ready. "Here we are," Lynn said before the double doors on which a pair of dancing ladies was painstakingly carved in the wood. They entered into a large dining room with a small band playing a melancholy song in the corner. Though crowded, the place was relatively quiet; folks here must tend to care more about etiquette. Celia recognized the lyrics as being from a saga about a hero who fell in love with an enemy princess, slew her on the battlefield and killed himself after securing victory for his tribe. She didn't much like the story, because the dispute over which they fought seemed easy enough to settle were reasonable minds involved.

  They walked up to the bar, Elly in the lead. "We'd like to rent a room." While she was distracted, Celia took the chance to elbow Edge in the solar plexus. He groaned and started to reach for her, but stopped when Lynn began to look back.

  "One room for all four of you?" asked the lean woman with gray-streaked hair filling drinks.

  Elly placed a hand on the counter. "We're not planning to stay the whole day, just clean up and talk for a bit. With that in mind, would it be possible to get a discount?"

  The woman opened her mouth to speak, then she hesitated. "If you're only going to use it for a few hours, that would be fine, yes." It was that rich girl charm, Celia thought, or maybe the innkeeper recognized her rings and feared getting on her family's bad side. Elly took the key she handed over and led them upstairs to the door whose number matched it. As they entered the room, which did seem a tad small for four with its two beds close to each other, she asked, "Either of you have a knife? Before we send him off to the shared washroom, I think Jeddy Bear here could use a trim."

  Celia blinked. "Jeddy Bear? He's not that big."

  "No, but he's thick and strong looking like a bear... and that overgrown hair adds to the image. Such a hairstyle, however, doesn't suit a civilized man."

  "Wait, you want to trim my hair? I thought you were just going to pare down my stubble. Yours is longer than mine, there's no problem with it!"

  She brushed her own curls back, though not out of any apparent need. "I'll do something about your face fur too. But regarding our respective hair length, must I state the obvious?"

  "Well, clearly you're a girl and I'm not. But there are plenty of men with hair my length or longer."

  "Proper gentlemen's hair would be less uneven and messy than that, though. I think the tips at least need to be adjusted, if nothing else."

  Edge still looked apprehensive. "Fine, you can take some off the tips. Try to leave as much intact as you can though, alright?"
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  "So Jeddy Bear actually has some pride in his appearance," Celia said, making him grunt. "I never would've guessed." She realized it was a good thing he hadn't claimed to have known her for long. In that case, keeping up pretenses would be even more difficult. This impromptu haircut might help them too, if it bought more time to come up with answers to potential questions.

  They sat on the mattresses and Elly went to work on Edge's locks with the knife he lent her, commenting that it was nicely well maintained and sharp. There was one thing Celia found a little odd. While she didn't know Edge to be an assassin and Celia went under the guise of a church knight, they were both heavily armed, yet this sheltered rich girl showed no apprehension whatsoever towards them. Was her curiosity that great, to override fear born of common sense? Then again, maybe she just found church knights trustworthy, and their associates by extension.

  "You could take off your cloak now that we're alone," Lynn said, looking out the window. "Wearing that thing all the time must be awfully hot."

  Tell me about it. But she didn't know what church knights normally wore under their outer garments, and worried her clothes might give her away for a fraud. Grudgingly, she replied, "That is unnecessary. We are trained from early on to bear the holy vestments, and do not even feel such mild earthly inconveniences as this heat." Edge snickered, and she fought back the urge to kick him.

  Elly seemed quite adept with a blade, sawing through hair with quickness and precision. "How did you become a church knight, Leia? It didn't sound like you were raised into it, so what happened to set you on that unplanned path?"

  And Celia had been hoping she would need to concentrate enough on Edge's haircut not to go back to questioning her that quickly. She scrambled to think. "As a youngster I heard stories of a haunted house at the outskirts of town, the evil spirits of which cursed any who dared enter or even approach it. My parents told me it wasn't true, that they were just tall tales made to frighten children, but more and more people began to suffer strange accidents and fearful ailments, as if the house's influence grew wider and wider to engulf the entire village. Eventually people became so scared, the local lord had no choice but to grant permission for it to be burned down. But even then, the curse didn't seem to stop, and everybody continued to live in perpetual fear."

  "You didn't bother telling it to me before," Edge said with a wink, "but that's an intense story."

  "Let me guess," Elly mused, "a holy warrior came to free the town from its plight, and you were inspired to follow in their footsteps?"

  "That's about what happened, yes."

  "And where is your hometown? If this was a famous incident, I might have heard of it."

  Celia gulped. "I'm not originally from this country. My village is just a small one south of the border, I doubt you'd know of it."

  Elly's reply made her exhale in relief. "You're right, I'm not overly learned about the details of nations outside this one. Studying isn't something I enjoy, though certain people insist I should do more of it."

  "You don't like to read? Surprising from someone so curious."

  "I'm not curious about everything, just some things that catch my eye. Besides, I prefer talking to reading."

  As hair fell from his head to the floor and his lap, Edge put in, "I'm the same way. When you talk you can exchange ideas back and forth, whereas just looking at words on a page gets real boring."

  "It's an acquired taste," Lynn said. "Generally more educated people like to read, while the less educated shun it."

  "Hey now," Elly muttered, "let's not forget who's the rich one here..."

  Celia chuckled. "The wealthy aren't always more knowledgeable. I say that as somebody whose family is fairly well off."

  Elly looked coldly at her. "Why would you side with her? Am I not the one who offered to help clean your friend up?"

  "Yes, and I'm grateful for that. Still, I tend to favor fellow readers."

  "This isn't the first time I've made a better impression on strangers than you," Lynn teased while Elly fumed. "Maybe you should concern yourself more with your attitude as opposed to your looks."

  "That's out of line! You might be my best friend, but you're still my maid!"

  Celia and Edge exchanged bemused looks before Lynn said, "Don't worry, she gets like this sometimes. She isn't the most mature person for someone over twenty."

  "There's no need to talk about my age too... age is just a number... Anyway Leia, do you specialize in anything as a church knight? You said you were investigating dark magic didn't you, is that your main job?"

  "Well, uh..." If she claimed to be specialized, Elly might press her for details and that would make things tricky. "The church tells us to say we're experts at whatever we do, which is understandable as a way of reassuring people. But as open and candid as you seem to be, I feel I can be more honest with you. While I've had extensive training, this will only be my second time dealing with the dark arts, and before I was merely assisting a more senior colleague. I hope what I've learned will suffice."

  Elly bit her lip. "Tsk, you're that inexperienced and they sent you out here with only a tracker or whatever Jed is for help, not even a fellow knight? Seems rather irresponsible."

  She put on her proudest voice. "It's no issue. I've been trained by the best."

  "I'm sure your reckless oversighters"—that mistake wasn't unintentional, Celia figured—"would be pleased with your enthusiasm."

  Celia felt guilt over possibly harming the church's image in Elly's eyes, but it was really hard to plan out perfect responses when you couldn't predict the other party's questions and had to improvise. Her father might be disappointed in her questionable deftness with words, however, considering he would no doubt have controlled the conversation much better. "It's really not my superiors' fault. There was a shortage of manpower at my location, and..."

  "Where are you stationed?" Elly asked. Drat.

  "Southeast of here," she said, mentally begging for the other girl not to press the matter.

  "I know of a chapter of holy knights based in the Gergald region. Would you happen to be among them?"

  Oh shit. She didn't know anything about those knights and would probably get facts way wrong if she tried to bluff, but if she claimed not to be one of them, there might be no other group which fit her story. She looked pleadingly to Edge for help. Now having his stubble trimmed, he suddenly flinched. "Ow! I think you nicked my chin."

  Elly stared. "I did? I was sure I didn't misjudge the edge." She ran her thumb over the area she had just shaved. "You're not bleeding, and I can't find a cut. Are you that sensitive, for a tough outdoorsman?"

  "I, well..."

  "I'm a lady and I don't react like that shaving certain parts. You are weak."

  "Such a polite girl." Lynn sighed resignedly, eyes drifting to the ceiling.

  He glowered. "If you say I'm weak, why don't you arm wrestle me to prove it!"

  Celia recoiled. "What?! You can't be serious."

  "She called me weak. I want to see if this little girl can back those words up." She realized he was probably doing it to distract from Elly's line of questioning, but this still sounded absurd.

  Elly gazed downward. "I wear dresses and high heels, spend hours fixing my hair, paint my nails and have a maid carry my things. Do I really look suited to contests of brute strength against burly men with rippling arms?" She smiled slightly. "But I'll give it a shot. Even if I lose, it shouldn't be too embarrassing given the circumstances."

  "Elly!" Lynn said.

  "What?"

  "Nothing. Never mind."

  They positioned themselves on opposite sides of a bed, knelt and clasped their hands over the center of it. Edge glared into his adversary's eyes with exaggerated determination. "I won't go easy because you're rich."

  "I won't go easy because you're... getting a makeover from me."

  Celia could barely hold in her laughter as she prepared to signal the match's start. She had no idea how this was going
to go. On one hand Edge seemed legitimately interested in... showing his physical dominance over girls... but against somebody like Elly? At least a tall, strong and rugged woman like herself seemed like she could match some men. But if he went all out and hurt a soft little lady, that would be so... She supposed she could always apologize on his behalf. She waved her arm down.

  Elly's knuckles hit the mattress. "I win!" Edge cried. Lynn covered her face in what looked like a gesture of exasperation.

  "That was an unpredictable outcome," Celia said sarcastically.

  "He cheated!" Elly rubbed her elbow. "I hadn't even fully tensed my arm, waiting for you to give the signal, and before I knew it he had me down. I demand a rematch."

  "I didn't see him move before I gave the signal, honestly. Even if you had been prepared, what do you expect to happen? The difference between you is evident, if you got a chance to resist with your all you might have just been hurt worse."

  Lynn removed her hands from her face and shook her head. "Jed didn't cheat. Just because you're rich and powerful doesn't mean you can be the best at everything."

  Elly pouted. "I never said I was the best at everything."

  "Did you go all out?" Celia asked Edge in a whisper.

  "She resembled the girl who beat me before, a little. I didn't want to chance losing to a pampered rich girl, so..."

  "The one who beat you probably had harder muscles under her chub."

  To her surprise, Elly giggled. "It's okay. No need to apologize if you're thinking of doing so."

  "I wasn't going to anyway," Edge replied.

  She gave an accepting nod. "Back to shaving and our conversation? What chapter of knights do you come from, Leia?"

  Celia looked out the window over the bright city, wishing she hadn't accepted help from the pair. Dammit, this was going to be a long day.

  #

  They continued to speak for several hours, the three women alone for a time while Edge left to wash up. Celia felt distressingly on edge as she was forced to invent an order of holy warriors and fill in the details as she went, but to her relief neither Elly nor Lynn called her out on them not existing. Maybe they just assumed hers was a small group they hadn't heard of. After Edge finished cleaning and they chatted a while longer, they headed downstairs ready to part ways. "Thank you for helping Jed out and paying for the room," Celia said, though she felt parched and drained from the nonstop talking. Geez, some people had so much energy.