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Devin. Karmo. Ana.
Those were the names of Tahlia’s companions.
Zerif had finished formally introducing the four of them to each other, and then, stating he had “business to attend to”, whisked himself away with a flourish, disappearing below deck. Tahlia and her new companions were left awkwardly standing together in the dead center of the main deck, all waiting to see who would say the first word, while the occasional crew member hurried around them.
Thankfully, none of them had to wait for long before Devin, the Euran noble’s son, spoke up. “As you already know, I am Devin Trunswick, son of Eric Trunswick of the Trunswick earldom. It’ll be a pleasure working together.”
The boy held himself high, but not with the same sturdiness that she herself carried. No, his poise was a sharp and fragile thing. Something not quite his own. It still didn’t prevent him from strutting himself around like he was something to be admired.
The other two clearly didn’t seem all that impressed by his title, and neither was she. At this point in her life, she didn’t concern herself with the nobility of foreigners. Nor did Stetriol have detailed knowledge about them, but that was neither here nor there. What mattered to her the most now was her new spirit animal, the key to her new life.
Faced with silence, Devin’s practiced smile turned into a frown and his body bristled, not unlike a cat.
“What are those looks for?” he asked, offense written clear over his face. He twitched and stepped back into a flimsy picture of elegance.
“Have none of you spoken to nobility before?” His voice had softened, but still held the same edge of arrogance that seemed to be engrained into his being. “I suppose that makes sense, so I won’t hold your disrespect against you.”
“There’s no need for that,” Tahlia cut in, waving her hand dismissively. “I don’t care for your Euran titles. You could be the King of Eura and I still couldn’t care less.”
To her right, Ana chuckled, poorly hiding a grin under her hand. Karmo looked to the side and said nothing, but from Tahlia’s view, she could see the small smile he was hiding. Devin Trunswick flushed, looking just as angry as he thought he had every right to be. He took a quick step towards Tahlia, his attempt at intimidation was just as empty as his title here.
“Zerif has us working together as a team. It’d be best if you don’t antagonize me, peasant.” Devin’s teeth were bared like a wild dingo, fiercely protective over its territory. Tahlia had never feared them, confident she could easily make a pelt out of their fur if she’d ever had the opportunity.
So, Tahlia took a slower step towards Devin, slinking towards him with a blank expression until their noses almost touched.
“The customs of your country mean nothing to me,” she scoffed. "I will treat you however I want, whether it's as a companion or expendable waste solely depends on my mood.” While she spoke, she brought her hand up behind Devin’s back and gripped firmly onto his neck. She watched Devin’s eyes widen a touch in surprise, the anger melting away. She felt his pulse under her fingertips quicken and his breath catch in his throat.
“It’d be best if you don’t antagonize me,” she mocked, her grin sharp and gleeful. She flexed her fingertips, digging her nails into the soft, squishy skin of his throat. “Or this could have easily been a dagger. After all, there are plenty of other rich bullies that can take your place in an instant.”
She released him, roughly shoulder-checking him as she stalked past him. Behind her, he heard the clunking of Devin’s boots as he stomped towards the stern of the ship, cursing all the while. Arrogance had to be deserved. Tahlia would never respect anyone who didn’t have enough power to earn it. She’d pull herself up to the top one day, earning the respect and fear of everyone under her. One day… but until that day came, she’d bow before the Reptile King.
Reaching the bow end of the ship, she opened the wooden door in front of her, revealing the steep steps leading towards the lower decks. They headed for Eura now, once the crew of Conquerors finished their preparations. Besides that and introducing Tahlia to her future as the “Hero of Stetriol”, Zerif hadn’t mentioned the details of their mission, simply stating he’d brief her and her new companions once they’d set sail off the coast of Stetriol. It’d be a long voyage, so Tahlia wasn’t worried about being underprepared for anything Zerif would put in front of them, though she couldn’t say the same for the others.
She’d gotten herself involved in something important, that’s for sure. The more important, the better, really.
She needed some time to think.
Finding someone to give her directions to her quarters on the ship was easy. There were quite a few members among the crew that looked vaguely more important than the rest. Apparently, it was well-known to the ship’s crew about Zerif’s habit of collecting children of bonding age, as the lieutenant she’d spoken to addressed her respectfully with his head bowed and answered with clear and concise directions, though his offer to escort her was declined.
She made her way towards her quarters with almost no issues.
Almost.
“Are you going to keep following me?” Tahlia called out, pausing in her tracks. She waited, listening for the calm footsteps to slow to a stop just behind her.
“Took you long enough,” said a soft, airy voice. The melody behind it sounded familiar, but the voice wasn’t one she’d heard until now.
Tahlia turned around. Ah, now the familiarity made sense. She’d heard that voice laugh above deck. The new “Hero of Amaya” smiled at her, hands clasped behind her innocently. Her long, black hair framed her face nicely, shifting hypnotically as she tilted her head to the side curiously as she watched Tahlia’s eyes trail over her features.
Tahlia laughed, short and fake. “Maybe I was hoping you’d come to your senses.”
“That’s not necessary,” Ana said blankly, but her smile stayed fixed and natural. “But you do scare me.”
‘Scare’? That made Tahlia laugh again, genuine and high-pitched and loud. The sound echoed through the empty hallway, not a single member of the crew to be seen or heard. That made their conversation private, and all the more enjoyable.
“You have this look about you,” Ana continued, uncaring for Tahlia’s reaction. She just stared unblinkingly with what she recognized as latent greed. “It’s hungry and terrifying. I adore it.”
Tahlia's laughter slowly halted. “You’re not doing so well at hiding your look either,” she said coolly, a grin splitting across her face. “What do you want from me, Ana?”
Tahlia stepped closer, now just inches away from Ana in a mimicry of her incident with Devin just minutes ago. Ana’s dark eyes peered into hers docilely, but her bottom lip quivered with an emotion that Tahlia couldn’t put together. It made her want to test her boundaries, see what would make Ana raise that dagger she had strapped around her thigh, or perhaps the one she had hidden in her boot, the bulge of which wasn’t completely concealed through the sun-faded leather.
Ana didn’t answer. Tahlia slammed her into a wall.
To Ana’s credit, she didn’t overreact. She’d merely gasped softly at the impact, her hand twitching towards her unconcealed dagger before falling limp at her side. Her eyes widened, but other than that, her expression remained unchanged. Still, Tahlia took great pleasure in the subtle increase in her breathing, feeling the rise and fall of her chest increase under the pressure of her palms. Her hands held their ironclad grip on Ana’s shoulders, tightly bunching up the fabric of her tunic. She had Ana pinned and she wasn’t going anywhere until she got her answer.
Perhaps that would give her enough time to discern that look Ana kept giving her. She was oh so curious.
Ana sucked in a small breath. “I—”
“—prefer not to rely entirely on yourself.” Tahlia couldn’t feel most of her own skin. It was a strange feeling, to not feel her injuries. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt, because it hurt like a bitch, but she only felt the pain on the skin surrounding her burns. Or at least, where she thought her burns would be. Bandages coated Tahlia’s body, shielding her from the sight of her own skin, including her face.
“That’s what you said, isn’t it?” Tahlia continues, not waiting for a reply. From where she laid on her bed, she stared at the ceiling with disinterest. “You liked me because you thought I would become something great. Someone powerful. So you clung to me, like a leech, so that you would be next to me when I did.”
Her words needed effort to escape. She had hurt her throat in the battle, not from the fight or flames, but from her screams. Who could blame her? Being burned alive hurt, everyone who was there could attest to that. Her throat wasn’t injured anymore, it had the proper couple weeks to heal. But it still took effort to speak when it shouldn’t.
Maybe it was psychological? It was more likely she was just tired. Her eyes flicked towards her company.
Ana sat at her bedside, her body free of bandages and burns. She didn’t sit facing her, though that wasn’t entirely her fault. The chair was bolted down to the floor facing the same direction her bed did. Still, there were no armrests. If she really wanted to face Tahlia, she could’ve. Her back hunched slightly over herself, causing her long curtain of black hair to fall around her, shielding her from Tahlia’s gaze.
“That is what I said,” Ana mumbled, her voice barely audible, even when it was just the two of them. Yet again, Tahlia was glad for being placed in the private infirmary of the ship once the medics declared her condition stable, though it was really more of a bedroom. The room wasn’t large, but she had her own moderately comfortable bed, dresser, and mirror, all bolted down of course. Other than that, there was an uninteresting cabinet filled with medical supplies and the bedside chair, though it seemed that the only person that bothered to stay with Tahlia long enough to use the chair was Ana.
Ana tucked her hair behind one ear, finally showing her face to Tahlia for the first time that day. Quite a long time considering a nurse had silently dropped off lunch what must’ve been hours ago, and Ana had been with her since she opened her eyes in the early hours of the morning. She was almost always here with her. Occasionally, Ana would stand, mutter a light ‘I’ll be back’, and leave the room.
Those were the rare times Shane would visit, walking through the door just moments after Ana’s departure.
He’s visited her twice. In three weeks.
“Not liked,” Ana said. She looked at her. Right into her eyes, instead of roaming over the mess of bandages that made Tahlia feel vulnerable, even with her clothes layered over them. Shane never looked into her eyes. No, his face tightened up with what looked like guilt as he eyed the bandages and the spots where bodily fluids that Tahlia never cared to identify seeped through the material.
She shook off the annoyance that formed in the pit of her stomach at the thought of Shane. Why should she think of Shane when Ana was right here? She’d always choose Ana over anyone else.
Ana’s eyes were emptier than when they’d first met. They used to be filled with a passion, a want for something more. Ana fed on that craving by following Tahlia, though she’d be lying if she said she never fed off of Ana, fed off her faith. Faith in her. It was exhilarating.
But now there wasn’t the same kind of want in her eyes. It was still there, just changed. A purer version of the look that Ana gave her when they first met, when Tahlia slammed her into a wall, just to see how much of herself Ana would let Tahlia mess with. Now, she looked at her with a more pristine version of that look, but her eyes were still distinctly empty, almost haunting.
“It was never just liked,” Ana continued. “It was more than that and you know it.”
“Do I know?” Tahlia asked, as dull as she felt.
“Yeah, you do.” Ana smiled, small and tender. “You figured it out.”
She did figure it out. Right when Ana had gifted her a pretty, new dagger before their mission to Eura. When she had slid her pointer finger along the wickedly sharp edge, leaving a trail of fresh blood along the metal. She had stained the weapon with her presence, and readily gifted it to Tahlia.
She never used that dagger, nor did she clean it. It sat wrapped up in Tahlia’s actual room in the ship, stored away with Ana’s blood long since dried on the blade. The dagger waited, protected and safe, for Tahlia to return and admire it and the deep red that stained it.
Tahlia hummed her response, but said no more, looking towards the ceiling once again. She thought about how many more weeks it would take for them to reach Stetriol, where they would toss her off the ship without a care in the world. Tiddalik was dead, squished under the boot of Essix’s summoner. With no legendary spirit animal and bed-ridden from a body covered in burns, she was useless to Zerif and dead-weight. She didn’t care about the Conquerors that much, not even the Reptile King. She did miss Tiddalik though. This whole ordeal would’ve been easier if she had him by her side.
Suddenly, Ana stood and began making her way towards the door.
“Ana.”
She stopped in her tracks, but didn’t turn around. With her back facing her, Tahlia couldn’t help wishing to see her face once more. She wanted to have Ana look at her again, with that same adoring expression she’d always give her.
But she couldn’t ask that.
“Where do you go when you’re not with me?”
Ana didn’t flinch, didn’t move. But she did speak.
“Nowhere.”
Tahlia expected that. Ana left just a second later.
She counted the footsteps she heard outside the door, right up until the door was pushed open.
Shane walked up to her bedside, but he didn’t take a seat. Tahlia doubted she would let him anyways. That seat belonged to Ana.
“Are you still in pain?” he asked. He still avoided her gaze, but he stood tall and confident. He looked all the bit put together as he pretended to be.
“When am I not?” Tahlia scoffed. It was true. Everything hurt, but it did hurt less than it did a couple weeks ago.
Shane frowned, concern etched into his sculpted brows. “You wouldn’t be if you didn’t keep refusing the painkillers.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to cloud my mind for temporary bliss. The ointments are healing me just fine.”
Shane sighed, his exhaustion creeping through his mask. Tahlia didn’t ask or comfort him. Why should she? His handsome face was marked with a small pink burn scar on his cheek, laughable compared to her own burns. It made Tahlia furious. Furious enough for Shane to notice.
“This isn’t my fault, you know,” he asserted, his frown deepening across his features. “Besides, it could’ve been worse.”
“Shut up,” Tahlia grit.
“You should be thankful.” Shane must’ve noticed that Tahlia was close to jumping at him from her bed, because he quickly continued. “Not to me, obviously."
He sighed again. His frown retreated, revealing something akin to pain.
“If Ana hadn’t shielded you from most of the flames, you’d be just as dead as her.”
Tahlia stared at him blankly. “So what? I should just be glad that she used herself as a human shield to save me? That’s stupid.”
Shane shook his head. “I’m not saying you should be glad. But at the very least, acknowledge that she cared enough about you to do that for you. It’ll urge you to keep going.”
Tahlia laughed, loud and mocking. “Oh please! She didn’t care about me.”
Shane finally looked at her and she made sure to lock eyes with him.
“She loved me.”
Something in his eyes changed, but she didn’t care enough to figure out what it was. She watched as he quickly turned and left, almost running out the door and slamming it shut behind him.
She waited alone in an empty room. She slowly raised her hand above her head, examining the bandage that wrapped around her burnt wrist. She let it fall limp over her face, covering her eyes. She’s growing sick of staring at the ceiling.
“And I loved her,” she whispered, no longer to Shane, but to herself.
Ana never came back.