Reunions

“Wow, I can’t believe this is real!” Mari whistled at the intricate golden staircase. “This hotel is as fancy as the pamphlet said!” Sori had fallen asleep while in the bath and, after getting him back to their room, Nanny wanted a nap herself. Mari wasn’t tired and decided to go out exploring. She’d ended up at the biggest hotel in Andressa, famous for its expensive and exquisite interior. She’d been skeptical of the descriptions in the travel booklets that Nanny had shown her, but the literature hadn’t come close to doing the hotel justice.

“Oh, the floor too!” Mari looked down in delight. The floor was made of pure crystal, allowing a clear view of the various jewels embedded in it. Additionally, radiant golden energy was flowing in a stream within it across the room. It was like the ecosystem of a mine had been encased and put on display!

‘Is it pure magic energy? Or molten gold? The city was built by dwarfs, so it’s in character! Gems and precious minerals are common and things to enjoy, not hoard, to them.'

Mari was enjoying herself,  even if she was alone. She wasn’t an extreme introvert like Azreal, but she did understand the desire for moments of solitude. She was still more of a ‘going out to do things alone’ type of person than a ‘meditation and contemplation in a void’ type, though. 

“Hey, you!” A voice rang out, causing Mari to stumble. She hadn’t realized that anyone else was in the atrium. She caught her hat as it fell off her head and looked up. At the top of the staircase, an incredibly tall woman with blond hair as long as hers was casually sitting on the banister, balancing a sketchbook on her lap. ‘No way! It couldn’t be-!’

That pale hair, the golden spectacles, pointy ears...Mari’s face instantly lit up and she charged up the staircase. “Tetra!”

The elf stood and caught Mari as she launched herself at her. Mari hooked her legs around the elf’s waist and squeezed her tightly with all the strength in her body.

“Tetra! Tetra! Oh my God, it’s been years! I can’t believe it!” In all her years wandering, there was one exception to her inability to form lasting bonds. Her best and only friend was this elf; Another immortal creature and fellow curious wanderer.

Tetra snickered as she embraced Mari. “Energetic as ever, I see!” Mari laughed as she let go and touched back down upon the ground.

“You bet! But this is such a surprise! I didn’t think I’d see you here!”

Tetra smoothed her long, green dress. “Well, you know me. I'm always traveling and there’s demand for my reviews and journals. People were requesting that I review the mineral springs. I haden’t visited Andressa since it was first built and had been wanting to come back, so that was that.” She looked Mari up and down.

“But I’m more surprised to see you here!” She held her friend at arm's length and studied her. “You look good! Beautiful as always! But you’ve never been the type to wander around big cities. And your outfit...you’re openly living in your human form among people and not hiding your horn?! And how did you end up in a resort town of all places?”

“Oh, I've actually settled down a bit! I found a human family to live with and I’m just here on a trip with my grandmother and little brother! They were exhausted after soaking in the salt springs and took a nap, so I figured I’d go exploring.”

“Family?” Tetra looked at Mari in wonder before grasping both her hands in hers and grinning. “Sounds like we have a lot to catch up on!”

                    *                                                            *                                                            *

Azreal tucked his knees to his chest, wishing he could disappear. He’d met up with Scath and another one of the mercenaries and, as they traveled South, they’d fallen in with two others. Now, they were at the halfway point across the continent and were camped out, waiting for the last member to arrive. He'd already had enough of the others.

“What the fuck is taking the old man so long?” Scath complained as he sat around the fire. “Why do we even bring him with us? His body is shot, and he can’t do shit! We do all the fighting!”

“Just because his body is old doesn't mean his mind is,” The other mercenary present replied calmly as he polished his blade. “Your uncle isn’t a thoughtless berserker like you are. He’s  can strategize. Azreal's supposed to be in charge just because the king likes him for some reason, but he’s not fit to be a leader at all. It’s only natural that Cryph would take the lead.”

‘Sariel...he’s rarely talks. As far as I know, he doesn’t have any vices, either. But he makes me the most uncomfortable. He’s as cold and detached as ice. Despite how normal he acts; it’s like there’s no humanity under the mask of his. I can’t read him at all. And he’s an outsider, too.’ Azreal considered his companions as the three sat around with nothing better to do.

Back in the day, Cryph had been the second in command of the much mercenary band Azreal grew up in. They had been the largest and most feared organization on the continent, with dozens of operatives and connections on multiple continents. But it was a violent life lived on the underside of the world. Justice eventually caught up to them. Opal and the other nations enacted mass purges and arrests to take down the group once they had had become too powerful. At that point, the group had consisted of hundreds of mercenaries and associates. The majority ended up dead or in prison and the ones not considered worth going after were scattered.

‘God’s been watching over me because it’s a complete miracle that I survived the purge and found semi-legitimate work, let alone the fact that I somehow survived that hellhole.’

Azreal hadn’t wanted to keep working as a mercenary, but he had no choice. He’d been young and had nowhere else to go. The king of Opal paid well, and Azreal felt indebted to him for his kindness. His life had been spared, and he hadn’t ended up in prison. And he was more of a secret operative called in when the king was in dire need; just a mercenary in name only at this point. Azreal still didn’t like it, but it was a vast improvement. Maybe it was just his age compared to the others, but the king did seem to genuinely trust him and had made him the group leader. In practice though, no one took him seriously and Cryph commandeered all the authority and respect.

Cryph had been able to cut a deal to work as an informant in exchange for his freedom. Scath was Cryph’s great-nephew and him being included in the team was one of the old man’s demands. Azreal didn't know the other two men, but he assumed they'd also been recruited from the organization the way he and Crypt had been. Sariel hadn’t been connected to the organization, though. He hadn’t even been part of this team until two years ago. Azreal knew nothing about him and, with how emotionless and uninterested Sariel was, he’d never had any desire to ask.

“Well, I sure as fuck wouldn’t!” Scath complained to Sariel, breaking Azreal out of his contemplative state.

‘What did he move on to whining about now? Who'd be the leader if not Cryph? He’s just being angry to provoke people for no reason, again. How this man is related to Cryph I’ll never understand.’ Azreal thought bitterly. At least the other two men were out hunting. It would be annoying if they were here, too. They were nowhere near as bad as Scath, but they were no friends of his.

“You don’t listen to anyone. That wouldn’t be anything new.” Sariel focused on his task, refusing to take the bait. Scath glowered and turned his gaze on Azreal, looking for someone to harass. Azreal instinctively scrunched himself up even smaller, as if he could hide.

“Well at least it makes more sense than this worthless bastard being our leader! In charge of us, what a joke! He’s just an emotional child who can’t handle reality.”

“I’m not in the mood.” Azreal dug his nails into his legs. “Besides, you know this was all the Kings idea. I never asked to be put in charge of anything.” ‘Not like you’ve ever treated me like I was an equal, let alone your leader, for even a moment...’

“There you go, acting like you’re some saint again.” Scath growled. “Pisses me off. Especially since I know you can’t actually believe any of that shit! You preach to us all the time about morality, but you aren’t any different than us.” He turned to Sariel again. “Did you know, this idiot has some chick living with him? And she’s hot, too! I don’t know where he found her, but she has to be a prostitute, right? There’s no other way any girl would want him.”

Azreal felt physically nauseous. Scath’s mind was the most gross and corrupted of all the men he’d ever worked with. He enjoyed  being incredibly graphic and inappropriate in the stories he told. He took particular delight in being as vile as possible around Azreal because he knew how uncomfortable it made him.  ‘He just wants you to say something so he can say even grosser things. Don’t engage him.’ 

In reality, Scath was just making up the most awful stuff possible off the cuff. He knew absolutely nothing about Azreal's life and, for all he knew, Mari could have been his sister. If it was vulgar and mean, it worked. In fact, Azreal suspected that he had no firsthand experience with the stuff he talked about. Scath’s brain was an open sewer, but he was a known liar and exaggerator who enjoyed tormenting people. Even so...

‘How can you think about other human beings as playthings? How can you say such dehumanizing things about random girls? And...’ Azreal ground his teeth in anger. ‘How dare he talk about Mari like that?’ The unicorn girl’s smiling, ethereal face rose in his mind, causing him to break the silence.

“Shut up.”

“What?” Scath asked, a stunned look on his face for the first time that Azreal could remember.

“I said, shut up.” Azreal repeated. “Don’t talk about Mari like that. She’s my friend and she’s kind, so how DARE you make stuff up when you know nothing about her? Besides, so what if she did do shady stuff to make money? Being desperate to survive doesn’t make you worth any less as a person.” He narrowed his eyes. “But to be crystal clear, she isn’t a....she’s never been involved in any underground activity. She had nowhere to go and my family took her in. She means a lot to me. She’s makes me laugh and is always looking out for me and worrying about me.I don’t want to hear you talking about her ever again.”

Scath smirked. “Or what?”

Azreal narrowed his eyes and, before Scath could blink, one of Azreal’s steel blades was sticking out of the ground a hairs breadth from his boot.

“W-what the hell?” Scath panicked and scrambled backwards. “Y-you’re fucking crazy!” His eyes were the size of plates. Azreal had never seen Scath legitimately scared before.

“Just stop talking. I don’t want to force you but, if I have to, I will.” Azreal promised calmly

“Son of a-!” Scath reached for his knife but was stopped by Sariel slapping his hand.

“No, none of that. Scath, you were antagonizing him. If you taunt a dog, you shouldn’t be surprised if bites your fingers. We’re on a mission right now and don't need to attract attention."

Scath seethed and retreated to his tent to nurse his bruised ego, leaving Sariel to scold Azreal. “I know Scath was being a bully, but we are not going to have any chaos or in fighting in this group, understand?”

Azreal nodded. “Sorry. I just...didn’t like how he was talking about my friend.”

“I’ll make sure he behaves.” Sariel turned back to his blade and continued cleaning. “We just need to tolerate each other, act like adults, and get our job done. Something that Scath should have learned a long time ago. He was raised like a wild animal and Cryph indulges his behavior.” His voice took on a slight tone of genuine curiosity. “I’ve never seen you act like that, Azreal. You’re normally so timid and withdrawn.”

Azreal shrugged and looked at the ground. “I don’t have many people I care about, and the girl he’s talking about, Mari, is one of the only two people I’d ever call a friend. I guess it just makes me more upset when he’s saying stuff about the people I love. Don’t worry, I won’t cause any more trouble. I’m used to people not liking me.”

Sariel nodded, not even looking up from his sword. “Yes, I supposed so. Cryph isn’t too fond of you, even though he helped raise you. I’m am not mad at you and do agree with you. That was out of line of him. Just please restrict yourself to hurling words next time, okay?”

“Yeah, sure.” Azreal said. “Strange, I think this is the first time we’ve had an actual conversation.”

“Really? Is it that big of a deal?” Sariel asked, his tone unchanging.

“I mean, we’ve worked together for two years. Isn’t it unusual to not talk to someone that you spend that much time with?”

“Not particularly.” Sariel intoned. “We’re just bound together by mutual interest, that’s all. We have no obligation to be social with each other.”

Azreal bit his lip. ‘He’s right. If he wanted to be friendly, he would have talked to me before. True, he’s never exactly been kind to me, but he hasn’t been cruel to me like the others, either. He might have technically defended me just now but it was wishful thinking to think it meant anything beyond Sariel just not wanting to deal with a mutiny.'

“I see.” Azreal went silent, his discomfort hanging over him like fog.

‘This is oppressively miserable. I miss Mari and Sori. I want to go home.’