Starchild Crusaders

by J. J. Pavlov

  "What's going on, Bo?" Gudmund sticks his head in from the door leading out into the store and sees his crawling partner. "Whoa, what happened to yer face?"

  Then Daica rounds the corner, still wearing her smile with gently narrowed eyes.

  "Did ye do that to him?" Pulling a knife from his pocket, the other man points it at the dark elf with a panicked expression. He watches as Bo tries to speak, but the creeping blackness must have spread to his throat already.

  Deciding that it's better to get his friend out of the way first, Gudmund helps him up and pulls him out into the store. But just when he turns around, thinking that Daica is still far enough away that he can do so safely, he feels a pair of hands embracing his cheeks.

  The pain that shoots through his head causes him to scream out, and he falls to his knees while dropping his weapon just like his partner has earlier. Now it's up to the latter to help him, as the two crippled men shakily make their way past the reception counter and pull themselves up on the shelves leading toward the door.

  After just two more steps, the blackness spreads to their veins and reach their hearts, being pumped throughout their bodies alongside their life-giving blood within moments. Bo is the first to die, pulling down the contents of the potions shelf with him as he falls to the floor and convulses one last time.

  Gudmund's eye stalks have been affected even before his blood became contaminated, so he's blind to anything around him and stumbles about. When he hears his partner fall and crash, he turns his head every which way and whimpers his name with a voiceless breath as his throat feels like it dried up completely. Then his ears finally give out, and only darkness and silence envelop him. The burning pain spreads through his every fiber before his final sense of touch leaves him.

  He, too, falls while taking half a shelf worth of goods onto the floor with him. As if in a dramatic gesture, the two robbers are facing each other with their empty eyes, united in death as they have been in life.

  Daica looks down at the two corpses. Sighing, she glances over their unmoving bodies and then the shattered bottles and other items scattered across the floor around them. It's not the norm for them to cause so much mayhem; even though they didn't look it, they were healthier than many who came before. More commonly, they would have died within a few steps after being touched by her.

  The dark elf walks around the counter and picks up a broom to clean up the mess that she can for now. Moving the bodies will be a much bigger effort, so she puts it off for now.

  "This was quite expensive, too." Picking up a large broken flask that used to be filled with wyrm blood, meant to be sold only in small quantities, she sighs again.

  Suddenly, the door opens, and a man enters. He's just as filthy as the two robbers on the floor, but misses several teeth and has misaligned eyes that may be the result of an infection in the past or too hard a knock to his head. Judging by his dragging speech, both may be the case.

  "Wha's goin' on in here?" When he sees the two bodies on the floor, his lips quiver. The one mobile eye looks up at the dark elf leaning over them with the broken bottle in her hand.

  "O-oh. T-this is a m-misunderstanding." She tries to hide the sharp glass that couldn't look more like a murder weapon behind her back and stutters. However, the circumstances don't seem to be in her favor, as her hands are stained with the spilled contents now.

  "Y-you killed m-my friends." The man accuses her with a stutter. "Y-you killed Bo a-and Gudmund!"

  Daica's expression immediately relaxes when she hears that he must have been the lookout posted outside while the other two came in to rob her. He looks dull-witted and will most likely charge at her with one of the yet to be processed tree branches that are meant to be turned into wands or staves, sticking out from a barrel next to him.

  However, he storms out screaming murder instead, and the dark elf blinks in surprise. This is the first time somebody ran out on her and accused her of a crime instead of trying to avenge their partners. Unsure how to deal with it, she just stares at the door closing itself from the force of his exit.

  Then it opens again, and the shape of Gram fills the frame with the runaway man in his arm, as he futilely struggles to break free. He lowers his head to enter, followed by Rolan, Sigurd and then, to Daica's surprise, Kamii. She doesn't register the three others that come in after anymore, as she jumps up in happiness at seeing her older sister.

  "What happened here?" The leader is the first to ask as he takes in the scene before him. Two dead on the floor with agonized expressions and blackened skin, the shopkeeper holding a broken bottle with blood on it, and a man who definitely doesn't look like an upstanding citizen running out of her store screaming.

  But he puts two and two together quickly before she can answer. Judging by the latter's appearance, he surmises that he's not a very bright fellow, so all the signs point to a botched robbery in which the tables were turned on the assailants. It doesn't answer his question though, as he would never expect any sort of fighting capabilities from Daica.

  "J-just the usual." The dark elf, ignorant of the fact that she was just belittled, replies shyly.

  "Usual?" Sigurd walks forward and glances at the state of the two corpses, then at the big dark elf's hands. She isn't wearing any gloves unlike she usually does, and his instincts tell him that it's related to what happened to the men. He always felt that it was dangerous to touch her skin directly.

  "T-they come from t-time to time, th-thinking I'm an easy t-target." Her tone suggests resignation rather than fear. The Lady Nightwane they know from Hovsgaerden always seemed like a hapless woman with an unexpectedly cute stutter and a storekeeper who somehow tolerated an ungodly stench in her store.

  While her stutter remains, the contents of her words give them a reason to believe that she's not as helpless as they always thought she was.

  "What happened to them?" Gram asks with his brows furrowed as he points at the blackened skin of the bodies.

  "T-there's no two ways a-about this." Daica sighs, then pulls out a cloth from between two shelves and wipes her hands before producing her usual gloves from the front pocket of her apron. "I-I'm cursed."

  Kamii rounds the three men and walks forward undeterred by that announcement and the agonizing expressions on the corpses. As if to stand by her sister when she makes that announcement, she takes off her cloak to reveal her crab arm. Her eyes are saying that she won't stand for any discrimination against the cursed.

  "It seems today is full of surprising revelations." Rolan stares at the hooded lamp crystal on the table. Both sides exchanged stories in Daica's living room upstairs, leaving the big dark elf in shock and the humans in a stupor.

  They learned that the big dark elf killed her own mother after childbirth because of her curse - at the time still only a weak poison that enfeebled her after a long time of exposure from the baby in her womb. Daica curse only grew stronger with the summers that passed, and eventually, her touch became deadly even after just a fleeting contact.

  "Just as you said." Gram mutters to Sigurd, but the latter elbows the former in the stomach. The bard did warn the group members not to touch her, though he didn't have any specific reason for his hunch at the time. But it only proves that he does seem to have a sixth sense for such secrets.

  The big dark elf didn't hear Gram's whisper, as she continues to process the story Kamii told her; Chloe has been exposed as a demon and was attacked by the professors in the academy. While it's fortunate that she survived, she was sent through a transportation circle to who knows where.

  "W-what do we do n-now?" Finally, Daica asks in an unsure tone. Judging by her older sister's expression, she understands not to question the revelation that Chloe is an envoy of Bryaledi. She never heard it from the person herself, so it's either something revealed only recently or a lie.

  After all, she learned that she was a shape-shifting demon shortly after they first met, but there was never any explanation as to what she was doing so far from
the Dominion. Even her exuberant lifestyle makes it sound plausible that she's an envoy of the elusive Perverter of Order - or the God of Revelry as he's called by her people.

  "Wait for her to come back." Kamii states with a stoic expression. "I'll live here until then."

  Daica stares at her older sister with round eyes, not sure how to feel about this sudden declaration. Then she instantly embraces the little dark elf and smiles with tears in her eyes.

  "I get to live with you again." If anything, she seems to have at least found the silver lining in the banishment of Chloe.

  "But I'm going to join you in the Lost Tombs." Still in her little sister's embrace, Kamii turns her head to Rolan and the others. Her eyes are saying that she has made her decision, and nothing will change her mind now.

  "We can't put you into such danger." The leader knows that she's taking after Chloe and won't be easy to sway, but he tries anyway. "Chloe wouldn't want you to get hurt while she's away."

  "Don't use Mahkotoh as an excuse. This is my decision." But the little dark elf dismisses his argument with an unexpectedly brusque rebuttal.

  Everybody but Daica stares at Kamii, stunned by her confident and level tone. A mere child wouldn't be able to talk like this, but they do know that she's older than her appearance suggests. It's only that her behavior so far has led them to believe her mental growth was stunted by her traumatic life as a slave.

  "Have you ever wielded a weapon in your life?" Rolan tries a different approach - the same he used against Chloe when she first expressed her wish to join the group and work on requests with them.

  "I have this." Instead of answering, she lifts her cursed arm over the table. When seeing it from this close, it does make the impression that it could be used as a weapon. But anybody who has fought using their own bodies can testify that against wild beasts and undead, it's better to have a sword and preferably a shield. Not even earth mages use their bare fists despite training them by punching rocks.

  "Have you ever killed?" Moving on while making a half check on the weapons department, the leader continues with the exact same questions he would ask any newcomer who may give him the impression that they're inexperienced.

  "Yes." Without a moment's hesitation, Kamii responds in the positive. As if to back up her statement, she takes out the Graeber skull Chloe kept on the shelf in their room from inside her satchel and places it on the table. "I killed several of them."

  "What is that?" Gram tilts his head and stares at the skull with the oversized incisors, but Sigurd scratches his chin at its sight.

  "That is the skull of a Graeber." He explains, and the other two men who were there at the time realize what they're looking at. Even though they came face-to-face with the humanoid hairless rats, they didn't associate the blank skull with those dark-dwellings beasts with rosy skin and tiny eyes. "It would seem that Miss Kamii did her part when we were surrounded in Rathgolim."

  "I see that you have made up your mind." Rolan sighs, knowing that at this rate, he won't be able to find an argument to keep the little dark elf out of this line of work. He thinks back to the first time he and Luna went on a request together outside the city's limits. That was several summers ago when neither had ever faced danger before as people living in a quiet village not far from Hovsgaerden. They eventually met the more experienced Gram and Sigurd, and ultimately came this far.

  "Everybody has to start somewhere. And from what I hear, this young lady isn't new to this." Hreidunn joins the conversation and stands on Kamii's side. Despite her initial apprehension when seeing her cursed arm the day Chloe came to visit them in the guild hall, she has taken a liking to her.

  "B-but what about living with me?" Daica fears that delving in the Lost Tombs may result in her older sister deciding to live in the guild hall next to its entrance after all. Why would she forego such a convenience just to be with her gloomy younger sister?

  "I'm still going to live here." Kamii explains with a cynical look on her face. "But I don't want to be a freeloader."

  Once again, everybody but Daica is surprised by her mature outlook on life. Some see Chloe's attitude in her, and they think back to the times when the mysterious girl with the blonde hair would steer the direction of the group's fate.

  Then Rolan stops thinking about it, as he can't help but wonder whether or not it was all just a setup for her to naturally become a student at the academy to fulfill her task. He doesn't know what he would do if he learned that was the case.

  "When is the next time you're going?" Turning to the leader, the little dark elf asks with a determined look. "I want to come along."

  Exchanging glances with the others, he thinks about it for a moment. They had initially planned to delve into the depths again today, and their preparations were mostly done. But more than half the day has passed, and while day and night make no difference in the eternal darkness of the Lost Tombs, they wouldn't make much progress before having to find a place to sleep.

  "Let's wait a couple of days until you're settled in here." Rolan doesn't look at Kamii directly while saying this. In reality, he's much more in need of some time to think things over than anybody else right now. Runa's sudden departure did leave him in shock, even if he should feel proud that she's walking on the fast track to becoming a person whom history will remember.

  "Alright." Understanding the leader's sentiment, the little dark elf nods. If not for the situation surrounding Chloe and her, he would have had more time to spend with his beloved before she had to depart.

  "We will leave you to it then." Hreidunn stands up from the windowsill where she sat because Daica lacked the appropriate number of chairs and signals for the group to leave the sisters alone now. Everyone had a rough day, and the two of them surely have things to discuss among themselves. It's rare for her to take charge, but she can tell that the conversation is dying down, and drawing it out will only make things awkward.

  "What really happened?" Daica asks in a calm tone after the humans have left the store and gone far enough that even Sigurd can't overhear them. When she talks to her sister, her stutter disappears completely. Even with Chloe, whom she truly loves and trusts, she can't suppress the nervousness welling up inside her due to not having known her for that long.

  "I don't know." Kamii mutters and turns around to Senka, who's lying on her sister's bed. It's the signal for the doll girl to start moving, now that those who shouldn't know she's alive have left.

  "The part about Makoto being an envoy of Bryaledi is made up." She gets straight to the point and drops this bomb. "It was to legitimize her actions in the basement. Part of it was in self-defense, but it was excessive, as you may have been able to tell."

  "Y-yes, she did s-seem to have o-overreacted." With Senka up, Daica can't help but stutter again.

  "Her true identity is something I don't have the right to tell you. It's up to her to reveal that." The doll girl continues while frowning at how to approach this difficult topic.

  "I don't care even if she were the daughter of the demon queen." Kamii states with a somber expression. "I love her."

  "That's an oddly specific example." Senka raises an eyebrow.

  "So she is the daughter of the demon queen." Taking that comment as a confirmation, the little dark elf nods with a grim expression. "I've heard that the demon queen can change into anything, but that her true appearance is a black mass just like Mahkotoh's was in that battle."

  Senka only looks at her without saying a word in response. Her face doesn't betray her emotions, but she does have a newfound respect for Kamii, considering she pieced together the evidence on her own even though there's very little information about the demon queen.

  "C-Chloe is a demon p-princess?" But Daica is less calm about this revelation. Both sisters have suffered due to their curses, which were indirectly caused by the existence of Demon Queen Pelomyx. The younger sister's curse is the reason for their lives as outcasts even within the dark elf society, which ultimately resulted in t
heir separation as the older was kidnapped and sold into slavery.

  Growing quiet, she begins to mull over how to feel about this. On the one hand, she loves Chloe, but on the other hand, the latter's mother is the indirect cause of the death of her own.

  "Will you condemn Mahkotoh for something her mother is doing unconsciously, just as we are breathing?" Her older sister looks into her younger's eyes and inquires with a steady gaze. "I mourn the loss of our mother, but I love Mahkotoh. She has been doing everything to make life better for us."

  "M-maybe she's feeling g-guilty?" With Kamii defending Chloe, Daica suddenly feels the urge to defy her. "S-she has been l-lying to us after all."

  "Is that what you really think?" Senka suddenly asks in a tone that leaves no room for interpreting it as anything but reprimanding.

  "I don't know what to think!" With a rare outburst of anger, Daica shakes her head and jumps up from her chair. Her body is quivering as she suppresses tears from welling up while looking at her older sister's face for a moment before she turns around and storms out of the room.

  Kamii and the doll girl exchange a meaningful glance. It's unsurprising that she would be confused and scared by the suddenness of the situation, what with Chloe disappearing to some place in the world that could take her many moons if not summers to return from. Her emotions were already stirred but finding out that the person she loves is the daughter of the existence that caused many of the hardships in her life have made them boil over.

  "I'll talk to her when she calms down." The little dark elf mutters while looking down at her cursed arm and clicking the pincer audibly. It's incredibly inconvenient and has been the reason for many bad memories in her life as well, but Chloe has often expressed her admiration for it from the bottom of her heart. To have found a person who not only accepts her but even loves her for what she and everybody else have always perceived as an irreparable flaw is something she would have never even dreamed of before.