Chapter Text
Benevolent Graciousness Treeguardian did her best to hide the way her hands shook as she entered the human city. She knew the chances of her being recognized were slim to none, especially since she could now stop glamouring her hair to an ‘Acceptable Ruling Colour’, but the feeling of being hunted was a long way from leaving her.
She’d never felt more akin to the prey she’d taken down in her life.
She couldn’t run, couldn’t hide, couldn’t fight… Or, at least, couldn’t fight on her own. She needed help. The Princess was never the one to defeat the Evil. She needed a Hero. Luckily for her, rumours had told her where she could find one.
Her green hair tumbled around her as she shook those thoughts out of her head and she smiled. Then she took a deep breath and opened the door to the tavern.
Whatever the Fates will send me, at least I shall meet them as myself and not as the court’s perfect darling.
…And hopefully I won’t end this quest married.
*
The hero was nice. His dark mage… was not. Oh, he wasn’t mean or anything, but he so clearly thought no one around them was worthy of joining the group that he didn’t even involve himself in the discussion. She grit her teeth and remained calm and placid even though his dismissal was pissing her off because she needed to join them. This was bigger than her, bigger than anything she’d ever done before. She needed to do this for her people and a little rudeness was not going to stop her!
The hero was nice. But his gaze was assessing, judgemental, and she had no idea if she was passing or not. He did invite her to join them for dinner. The dark mage just rolled his eyes.
She was struggling in a way she never did in social situations. She knew this was a test, she knew it, but the hero was staying bland and noncommittal, perfectly content to give her as much rope as she needed to hang herself.
The dark mage was tying the knot. She could feel it winding around her.
It was a relief when some local bully-boy came rocking up to them, seeming to think the way to get into her pants was to tear down her companions.
Gods save me from human mating practices. She thought viciously, grabbing the offender by the arm before he could obnoxiously knock the mage’s hat off as a way of introduction. They’re all so fucking stupid .
“Greetings sir .” She gritted out, pouring all of her accumulated stress onto this asshole who didn’t deserve it but was damn sure getting it anyway. “I see you’ve apparently managed to entirely miss the giant fucking hat there, as well as the person wearing it . Given that you apparently don’t use your eyes, why don’t you give them to me ? This dinner is quite bland and could use some seasoning.”
The man blanched and stumbled away as quickly as he could, much to the amusement of his cohort in the corner. She took a breath to center herself, then turned back to her dinner companions. The hero’s gaze had turned from assessing to calculating as he looked between her and the mage, and the mage was giving her his undivided attention for the first time since she’d approached them. Given how disgusted he looked, she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.
“You don’t actually eat eyeballs , do you?” He asked, censure heavy in his voice. She rolled her eyes.
“Of course not. Have you ever touched an eyeball? They’re slimy . I’m not letting that anywhere near my food.” She retorted, too repulsed herself to reply with any decorum.
The mage burst into laughter. It was a nice laugh, actually, with no pretence or coyness about it. The hero’s eyes softened at that, and she could see approval lurking within them when he looked back over at her.
“Very fair.” The mage replied finally. “I don’t like slimy food either. I just feed it to Emmri, he’ll eat anything.”
“Gods save us from the iron stomachs and poor choices of soldiers.” She intoned solemnly, like it was a prayer, and the mage laughed again. The hero pouted and elbowed his companion, but there was a smile lurking around his mouth despite it. He turned back to her then, and her throat seized up when she realized that this was it …
“We’re heading out to clear a rat infestation in the sewers tomorrow.” He offered. “Would you like to join us?”
She couldn’t hide the face she made, much to the amusement of both of them. “It’s always the fucking sewers.” She muttered before raising her voice to a conversational level. “Sounds fun. Where are we meeting?”
Both of them were amused now, but it was different. She felt like a part of the joke, not the butt of it. She couldn’t help smiling along while the hero gave her the information she needed and bid her farewell.
*
The sewers were a shitshow from the word go, and not just literally. The hero and the mage were already bickering when she arrived, and ignored her for a few moments while they continued. When the hero outlined the plan the mage continually rolled his eyes and moaned about how stupid the hero was, how stupid his plans were, and how they were all going to die. The hero ignored him entirely. When they entered the sewers both her and the hero moved to flank the mage, but when they needed to go single file an argument kicked up.
“What are you doing?” The hero, Emmerich, asked as she waved the mage ahead of her. “I thought you said you were good at fighting. Why are you hiding behind Corvi?”
She paused and looked at him, not certain if this was a joke or a test or something. “... Because things sneak up behind us out of the dark sometimes? And I’d rather not find out about them from the knife in the mage’s back? I’ve got better senses than a human and my preferred weapon is a bow . I can fight beside you from right here and I can protect our magic user.”
Emmerich narrowed his eyes at her, but the mage (Crowvid? Something crow. She’d figure it out later) just huffed at him. She was pretty sure it had more to do with the hero than it did with her.
“It’s called a flanking maneuver , Farm Boy.” He snipped. “If you read more, you’d know more.”
It was honestly such a rude thing to say to a Hero, but as she watched Emmerich’s unhappy sulk subside into good humour, she suddenly got it.
Oh .
That’s how close they are.
She’d never had a friend like that but her father had. She’d seen this before. It was the sort of devotion that led an unjustly exiled member of court to sneak back in just to rescue his friend’s daughter, even though she hadn’t been in any physical dager.
Even though it killed him.
Emmerich would forgive her anything so long as she was on the mage’s side. He’d probably forgive her backstabbing him if she did as long as it kept the mage safe. And if that was the case, he would definitely forgive her lying about her background, so long as she stayed on their side .
That was good information to have.
She settled in behind the mage, one arrow nocked on her string. Her audition was over, but her trial period wasn’t. She still needed to give this her all.
Even if it felt like she could breathe again for the first time since death came to the castle.
*
“Well, that sucked.” She commented to no one as she inspected the bleeding cut on her arm.
“I’m so sorry, Elfsdame, are you okay? I should have taken your warning more seriously.” Emmerich was hovering, and the mage (she was going to have to learn his name. Hopefully without tipping them off that she’d forgotten it) was busy rooting through the treasure while paying them no attention whatsoever. It took her a moment to realize he was talking to her, and she waved him off.
“It’s obvious you’re used to travelling with just the two of you.” She replied distractedly, still trying to find the end of the slice in all the blood. “Hunting parties in my homeland are usually four to nine people with various duties. It’ll take some time to adjust to having more people around. Besides, the important part is that the mage didn’t get stabbed. I didn’t even get stabbed! Just cut a little bit.”
Emmerich was still crowding her in penance, and it was starting to annoy her. “Could I…”
“What you need to do is calm down and stop stealing everyone’s air.” The mage broke in, peeved. He approached the two of them with a wand he’d apparently found in the pile of treasure brandished, but she elected to let him. She’d just prevented him from being stabbed, so she probably wasn’t about to get killed.
Probably.
He proceeded to knock Emmerich out of the way with an elbow, which the hero conceded to. “It’s not making you any smarter and it’s making us dumber so just go stand over there and look noble or something. Pretend you’re useful.”
She chuckled at that, unable to help it, but Emmerich did as well so she figured it wouldn’t get her in too much trouble.
It turned out to be a healing wand. She took that as her sign that she was in.