by Joe Jackson
Kari disembarked to little fanfare, thankfully, but she left her dog tags out over her breastplate and made her way up the pier toward the city proper. The officers and guards serving on the piers saluted her as she went past, a gesture she appreciated and returned. Though demonhunters were considered law enforcement agents, not all cities or counties appreciated their overriding authority, and sometimes local guards and constables resented their presence. To find immediate welcome in Lajere helped put Kari’s mind at ease; when walking into danger the way she was, she needed to find allies, not enemies. Still, Kari was hesitant to ask the guards where the local brothel was. She didn’t want to give them the wrong impression of herself or her Order. She assumed she could find the place easily enough on her own, and took to the main road into the heart of the city.
Lajere was a well-to-do city. Its outlying farms produced food that made its way all over the heartlands of southern Askies, and even as far north as DarkWind and Ceritopolonis. Kari had also learned during the trip south that the city was home to many craftsmen’s guilds and artisans of nearly every type. Its businesses had mines in the southern mountains near the terra-bengal lands – called the Jirtorex Kingdom – and its jewelers and artists were considered some of the finest on the continent. It was obvious from the look of both the city and its citizens that money flowed freely here, and that also spoke well of the Count. In other cities – like Barcon, Kari thought – the nobility would tax the people too heavily based on their earnings, and the city might suffer despite the nobles’ good intentions. That was clearly not the case here, and from what Kari could see from the ship’s deck and from the docks – which tended to be the rougher part of port cities – the city as a whole prospered, rather than only a select portion.
As she expected, it didn’t take Kari long to find The Satin Palace, just based on what Tor had told her. It was only a short distance from the docks along the city’s main east-west road, where sailors and other mariners stopping in port could find it easily. To her surprise, though, it wasn’t the gaudy or sleazy-looking establishment she was expecting. Kari wasn’t particularly fond of prostitution, but given her own history of using the services of mules – male prostitutes who were neutered in some way – she also didn’t normally pass judgment on it. What she expected, though, was that it would be something kept private: when she partook of their services in her past life, she did so quietly in the privacy of an inn. Brothels tended to be sleazy, flaunting promiscuity and immorality, and devalued the entire area around them. The Satin Palace, though, was a clean and respectable-looking establishment with no prostitutes outside enticing passers-by. To Kari’s eye, it looked like a fancy hotel.
The interior didn’t do much to change Kari’s perception. Though it was dimly lit and the air was heavy with the scents of perfume and candles, it was clean and quiet, and spoke less of being a brothel and more like it was a hotel. The foyer was a large, open room with deep, cushioned chairs spread about its carpeted floor in pairs. Potted plants and moveable screens gave privacy to each of the pairs of seats, some of which were currently occupied. The floor was covered with a thick, soft carpet, and Kari’s toes dug into it absently. She had stayed in many an inn and hotel in the younger days of her past life, but she had to admit that The Satin Palace was easily nicer than any of them. Even if she wasn’t looking for companionship, she would’ve been happy to stay in such a place for the night, if just for the creature comforts.
Only a few pairs of eyes looked up at Kari as she stood in the doorway. Most of them went back to their own business, and when Kari met the one stare that remained on her, she was pretty sure she had found Elias Sorivar. A half-corlyps was usually a dimwitted, cowardly male that shared all the negative traits of his father, but as Kari met this one's gaze, she could immediately see he was far from a typical half-corlyps. His eyes were dull red but his stare was intense and, contrary to what might have normally been the case, Kari could see he was studying her face as much as her other assets. His hair was black and short on the top, showing off the rows of small ebon horns along the ridgelines of his skull, and was long in the back in the tradition of warriors, tied into a tail. He was dressed casually in a loose-fitting, short-sleeved shirt, with trousers that only extended a little past his knees. Elias was muscular and rugged-looking, and had the scars to show that he was far from a coward: cowards didn’t generally stay in battle long enough to earn the types of scars Kari could see upon him. The warhammer hanging from his belt further told Kari that he took his job as a bouncer very seriously.
“Tell me you’re not here for a job,” he said suddenly, surprising Kari, especially when she noted the sudden return of every other stare in the foyer. She started to blush but laughed inside, attributing the somewhat rude comment to his heritage. Rather than take offense, she simply held up her dog tags so he could better see them in the room’s dim light. “Hey, that guy had it coming,” the half-corlyps said, holding his hands up innocently. “The rules are very specific about hitting and rough stuff with the girls.”
Kari couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m not here about your work,” she said, and the other patrons went back to their own business. “My name is Karian Vanador, Sword of the Heavens, and I’m here about your old job.”
That drew more curious glances from the patrons. The half-corlyps stared quietly at her for half a minute before he looked around. “Antoine!” he bellowed, and after a few moments a large, muscular, dark-skinned human entered the foyer from one of the side doors. Based on Antoine’s size and attire, Kari guessed he was another bouncer for the establishment. “I need you to take over for a little while. This officer wants to ask me some questions.”
“Hey, that guy had it coming,” Antoine said, turning his gaze to Kari. “The rules–”
“Not about that,” Elias interrupted.
The human grunted. “What did you do now?” he asked with a mischievous smile.
Elias waved off the inquiry and rose to his feet. He was several inches shorter than Kari, which wasn’t all that unusual for a half-corlyps, but despite his size, he gave off an aura of danger, and not just because he was serilian-rir. He gestured toward the exit, and Kari preceded him out to the streets. Once they had taken to the road, the half-corlyps looked back over his shoulder as they put some distance between them and the brothel. He glanced briefly at Kari. “Can’t talk in there. Despite how busy the people may seem, believe me, they hear everything,” he commented. “I know a nice tavern just up the road. We can talk there.”
Kari walked west with Elias down the main avenue, and as daylight faded into twilight, the people of the town began making their way home at the end of the work day. Lajere appeared to have a larger human population than rir, but there was a good mix of races that suggested the city was a welcoming one. Most of the townsfolk smiled at Kari as she passed them, and she assumed it was due to her dog tags, but she didn’t miss the expressions of doubt or even mistrust that were clearly thrown Elias’ way. If the half-corlyps was at all bothered by the display, he didn’t show it, but Kari found herself becoming somewhat frustrated by it. While it would have been easy enough to attribute it to where Elias worked, she sensed that it had little enough to do with that. Kari wondered what reaction Grakin would receive if he were walking beside her in this same city.
Elias’ declaration of his destination being a nice tavern was on point. The place was clean and lacked the rough or seedy elements that Kari would’ve expected of a tavern that was somewhat close to the docks. The half-corlyps stepped inside without waiting for Kari to enter first, and she considered him curiously as she caught the door and followed him. She tried not to dwell on it, and reminded herself that not everyone was a gentleman, and that had little enough to do with his being a half-corlyps. Thinking on it briefly, she thought maybe he was simply afraid of insulting her as a demonhunter by treating her differently. He gestured for Kari to go sit at a table near the corner of the room while he approached the bar to get th
em drinks. Kari chased off the curious stares of the tavern’s other patrons by fingering her dog tags but making it seem reflexive. It was hard for her to miss the cool reactions Elias received from the bar’s other patrons, given that the half-corlyps had just gotten much the same reaction from folks on the street. Once the others turned away from her, Kari made her way to the table Elias had indicated.
Kari wondered if Elias had a reputation around the city, or whether he got on everyone’s nerves simply by being a half-corlyps. She understood that her perceptions had been changed dramatically by working with and subsequently becoming mated to a half-guardian, but that the feelings of the general populace about serilian-rir hadn’t changed much, even since the end of the Apocalypse. In her past life, she could recall several encounters with half-corlypsi and that she gave them a similar reaction. It was something that was difficult for her to qualify: half-corlypsi were typically the product of force and, as she had previously mused, they were usually stupid, cowardly, and violent – particularly with women. With that in mind, it was easy to understand why the people of the city might’ve taken a dim view of Elias, but it left Kari to wonder how long he had lived in the city and whether he’d ever done anything to truly earn the reputation.
Her musings came to an end as he approached the table and handed her a tankard, and Kari sniffed the contents briefly to determine what it was. She could tell it was a dark ale just by its scent, and she let out a small purr-like sound as she indulged in its flavor. She raised the tankard in thanks to him after she took a sip, and he repeated the gesture before he sat down and sampled his own. Elias glanced around the tavern to see if they were being watched, and Kari was amazed when the few people who were trying to discretely keep an eye on them suddenly found other things to do when faced with the half-corlyps’ red-eyed scrutiny. With a snort, Elias finally turned his attention back to the demonhunter and fixed her with an appraising stare.
“I knew this day would come,” he said after taking a drink. He leaned back in his chair and stretched, and he fanned out his wings before folding them behind him again. “I’ve been waiting for over twelve years for you to find me.”
Kari beheld him curiously. “I was told to come find you by a gnoll named Tormaar,” she said. “He said he wasn’t interested in talking to me or breaking his word to Jason Bosimar, but that you might not feel the same way. Is that what you mean when you say you’ve been waiting for me?”
Elias nodded. “Yeah. Bosimar expected to be able to keep a lid on everything that went on during his reign as Avatar, but honestly, he should’ve just killed us if that’s what he wanted.”
“You are Elias Sorivar, correct? Or do I have the wrong half-corlyps?” Kari asked.
He laughed. “Most folks just call me Eli. And as you can see, yes, I’m a half-corlyps,” he said, raising his voice as he glanced irritably at the patrons seated at the bar. Within moments he was fixed with over a dozen irritated stares, but he simply continued, “Ugly, cowardly, stupid, small dicks…did I miss anything?”
Kari was shocked at the exchange, but she could clearly see the other patrons mutter things under their breath before they turned away again. None of them seemed to muster the courage to say anything directly to Eli, though, and he turned back to her, brought his hands together under his chin, and smirked. Kari chuckled lightly. False bravado was common among half-corlypsi working to shake off the label of cowardice their heritage saddled them with, but Kari could tell that it wasn’t false in Eli’s case. He had a dangerous and no-nonsense look about him that reminded her of a smaller Typhonix. Though he was several inches shorter than Kari, she had no doubt that he would’ve been all too happy at that moment to step outside with any – or maybe all – of the bar’s patrons.
Initially Kari thought it might mean he was unstable and unreliable, but she considered that he had worked directly for the Avatar of Vengeance, and was left to wonder. She looked at his current work under that light and found that it made a bit more sense to her: almost like he had the heart of a half-guardian in the body of a half-corlyps. It was easy to assume he worked in a brothel because his half-corlyps nature was constantly looking for women, but she wondered if, in fact, he was simply acting as a protector of women in virtually the only place that would tolerate his race. She watched him crack each of the knuckles on his left hand using only his thumb, and she noted that his eyes never left hers while she studied him.
“Tell me what you thought of Jason Bosimar,” Kari said. She wanted to know what Eli and his companions had been assigned to do, but decided that asking him what he thought of his employer, as it were, might give her better insight into how he felt about the work he did.
Eli folded his arms in front of him on the table and shifted in his seat while he thought about what to say. “Jason was…a hell of a man,” he said after a contemplative minute. “Always seemed calm and in control no matter how strange things around him became, and let’s just say he put up with the…colorful personalities of our group without complaint or judgment. I’ve heard a lot of the tales about Turik Jalar, and frankly I always thought a man like that would scare the hell out of me – and not just because I’m a half-corlyps. Working for Jason, though…it was like working for a friend. He was trustworthy, and I never got the impression that we were being used like mercenaries. I can honestly say I felt like a part of something, and like what I did under his command was for a purpose.”
“I only met him briefly myself,” Kari said, “and it was in the war camp up near Latalex at the start of the War. It was hard to speak to him, because it seemed like he knew virtually everyone there. Not what I would’ve expected from an Avatar of Vengeance – and I’m a demonhunter.”
Eli chuckled with a knowing nod. “I know exactly what you mean,” he said. “But that’s obviously not what you came here to talk to me about. Enough people in Gnarr or Darkwind could tell you what Jason was like, and give you enough of an impression that he was a good man. But I’d bet my left wing that none of them could tell you what work we did under his command. Your Order probably doesn’t even realize it, but all the secrecy surrounding our group…it’s because Jason was making sure we could win the Apocalypse when it came.”
Kari sat forward and gripped her tankard in both hands. “How do you mean?” she prompted him.
Eli sat back in his chair and twisted his lips to the side for a moment. “It’s all rather complicated, really, but as I’m sure you saw during the War, our forces and Seril’s were pretty evenly matched. All it would’ve taken was for even one rogue factor to play into things for the end of the War to have been much, much different. Jason spent the better part of the decade before the War making sure that there were no loose ends, and that there would be no rogue factors that came up once the War began.”
“Loose ends, like the snakes?”
The half-corlyps held his hand up. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he said. “Why don’t you tell me why you’re here first? Are you just researching Bosimar, or are you having a problem with snakes?”
“Both, actually,” Kari admitted. She made the gesture she had learned inadvertently from Master Perez, and Zalkar’s symbol glowed brightly on her chest. She ignored the looks she received from the bar patrons, but Eli chased them away with a glare before he met Kari’s gaze once again. Kari continued, “I’m currently hunting an assassin, and she seems to be some sort of syrinthian. Based on what my friends and I accomplished in my last field mission, I think this assassin was sent by Sekassus to take revenge on me, but I’m not entirely sure about that. So I’m also trying to find out what Bosimar was doing before the War, and whether the presence of the syrinthian has something to do with that instead. I understand Bosimar had your group monitoring a priestess named Ciceria; would she have anything to do with all this?”
Eli regarded Kari curiously but remained silent for a minute, and Kari watched as he apparently turned everything over in his mind. It was clear from his calm demeanor and the
way he spoke that he was unusual for one of his kind, and the fact that he didn’t immediately just start rambling further pointed to that conclusion. In his dull red eyes, Kari could see a similar reaction to the one she received from Tor: while he clearly wanted to help, he was considering how much he could or should say, and what would be most relevant to Kari’s current task. For a moment she wished she could shake the entire story out of him, but at the same time, she understood that investigating everything about Jason Bosimar’s tenure would be a massive distraction from her current assignment – one that might have nothing to do with that current task.
“Let me ask you this: do you know any priests or priestesses?” Eli asked at last.
“Yes, my mate is a healer of Kaelariel, and his mother is Kaelariel’s high priestess,” Kari answered, and she gripped her tankard in both hands again. A part of her knew it was wrong and just plain rude to think so, but she couldn’t help but wonder if her declaration that she had a mate might make Eli think twice about helping her, given his initial reaction to her.
Eli’s brows rose, but it was apparent in his expression that it wasn’t for the reason Kari feared. His surprise seemed more of the impressed variety, as if he already knew who Kyrie was and, by extension, now knew that Kari was mated to a serilian-rir. The grizzled warrior bobbed his head appreciatively, and in his eyes Kari could see an even deeper respect than he had already shown her. She suspected he wanted to say something along the lines of not bad, but if it were so, he kept any such remarks to himself. “So you understand that a priest’s power flows through them, from their deity,” Eli stated, to which Kari nodded. “So I assume you also know that demon kings aren’t deities, and most of them don’t share their power with anyone – not even those who call themselves their ‘priests.’”
