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@this-is-not-an-alien

Oh, I love Meira already! She and Liorah would have been best friends by now XD

Chantara

The girl looked up. She didn’t look at me suspiciously, or even warily. I resisted the urge to smile. This would be easy.

“I don’t know neither, it just sorta blinking happened like a snapper ate in a clamgoblin, right? And it’s all now a bombusticated jamboree here, them folks there just appeared too,” The girl gestured to the others, then to herself. “Me too! We betta get moving I reckon, guess we, uh, just wander and see what knows what.”

I blinked rapidly. I had understood only about four words in that sentence.

The girl hopped off the table and grabbed a spear. I stiffened, then relaxed as she swiped several glasses off the table accidentally and almost hit herself in the face with it. She was barely a threat, she was handling the spear as though it was a club. She shook back her long black hair and lightly shoved my shoulder.

I recoiled, taken by surprise, then rolled my eyes at myself. I was almost as bad as Aydin. He flinched whenever someone touched him, though I’d never quite figured out why.

“Up and at, miss, we’ll be just fine with a little work!” The girl’s accent was odd and unfamiliar, but I could understand it.

She grabbed my hand and dragged me along through a group of people. I let her lead me, keeping up my shy and dependant act.

“Yo! Anyfolk know where we is?!” The girl yelled, crashing into a man.

He replied,
“You’re in the Great Hall, madam, a dance is about to start in…” he checked his watch “fifteen minutes precisely. Do you two have partners for the first dan–?”
“Thanks!” The girl shouted, before dragging me onward. She knocked into someone else and I winced. Couldn’t she be more inconspicuous? It was grating across my nerves to crash around like this. Did she want to get everyone’s attention?
“My my, dearies, you look in a hurr–”
“You know where we can blinking outta here?” The girl said,
“Oh no, not until the dance is over, dearie, and I must say you two are quite a sight, just darling,” the woman cooed, “I remember when I was your age, I had just your figure, and the men, whew, you must have so many.”

I barely suppressed a triumphant smile. A pretty face was as much a weapon as anything else. There was a reason more than half of the Siya were girls. Nobody had ever suspected a teenage girl of being an assassin and it was easy to blend in. Besides, men were apt to tell their secrets to a giggling, blushing girl, especially if she was pretty. I’d used that often enough.
The girl next to me looked flustered and even slightly disgusted.
“Men, I mean–” The women said, flustered.“I was saying how lovely you two darlings are.”

I looked down, shyly, inwardly smirking.

“Riight…” The girl said, yanking me back to the table. It was filled with all sorts of food, most of it unfamiliar. I looked at it suspiciously, but the girl cut off a piece with the point of her spear and stuffed it in her mouth.

I smiled. I had to admire her utter disregard of safety and social rules.

“She’s a loon,” The girl remarked with her mouth full. “Oi…any ideas?”

“I don’t know,” I said, sounding as lost as I could manage. “I’m Chantara. What’s your name?”

The girl mumbled something around a mouthful of cake, then replied,

“Meira,”

“I think I’m going to see if that nice lady can help me find some clothes. These somehow got blood on them,” I said, sounding confused. Though, I knew perfectly well why they were bloody. I could see the bloody streaks my fingers had left and the place where I’d wiped my knife.

Meira nodded, then focused on the cake.

I wandered aimlessly toward the woman, my mind frantically assessing the situation and picking out the best course of action. I had to try to get as many people as possible on my side. The woman had seemed kindly, blinded by her excessively optimistic opinion of the world at large. She would be easy to manipulate.

“I’m sorry,” I asked, touching her on the shoulder. “Could you help me find some clothing?”

“Why, of course, dearie,” she said, sympathetically. “Come on, see if you can find something that’ll fit,” she said, leading me into a small room. It was a closet, and it was stuffed with clothing of all descriptions. Luscious ball gowns hung next to working clothes, and rich silks and velvets spilled over each other.

“Could I–” I tried to make myself blush, but it wasn’t much success. “Could I just change alone?”

The woman smiled and left me to myself. I securely shut the door, blocking it with a heavy chair. I wasn’t in the least concerned about my privacy, but if anyone happened to see all the knives I was carrying, my cover would be blown and it would turn into an all-out fight, which I probably wouldn’t win.

I rummaged through the clothing. Most of it was unfamiliar.

I hesitated, my fingers closing around the soft, fluid green silk of a stunning ball gown. The long, slim skirt was set off by a narrow bodice and wide sleeves. How I would love to wear a gown like that one day. I pictured myself in it, trying to imagine my hair pinned up, my eyes accentuated with dark kohl. I closed my eyes, frowning. I almost saw it, and it slowly became clearer. It was perfect.

As my vision became clearer, I noticed more details. Scars trailed over my cheek, my chest, my hands. My eyes looked cold, and the green dress was streaked with fingermarks of blood.

My eyes snapped open and I shoved the dress away from me. It wasn’t me. Not anymore. Maybe if things had been different… But now I was nothing but shattered glass, steel, and blood.

I spun away from the dress and rummaged around until I found similar clothing to what I was wearing. Wide pants that gathered just below the knee, an undershirt, and a sleeveless tunic that came down to my knees but split open in front. I would keep my boots. The clothing was dark. Not black or gray, but muted shades. Burgundy, navy, and evergreen. They would blend in well.

I pulled off my tunic and unbuckled the web of straps that held my scabbards in place. Two at my waist, two on my back, two on my thighs, and one in each boot.

I slipped into the other clothes. They fitted well and hid all the knives properly. They were closer to the fashion the people hereabouts seemed to wear, so that was a bonus.

I finally slipped outside. The lady was waiting near the door for me.

“Why didn’t you pick a pretty dress? Don’t you want to dance?” She asked, surprised.

“I don’t know how,” I said, truthfully. I had no desire to dance, but this was a better excuse. The Siya had no time for frivolous things like that.

The most fun I’d had the last few years was when my entire cluster had planned an elaborate heist to steal the commander’s writing reeds. There was no logical reason behind it, except that we were bored and it was risky enough to tempt us. The commander had a quick temper and no sense of humor, so we would certainly have been punished for it.

Layla and Lachlin had distracted him, I had stolen them, then Aydin had hidden them. The others had kept watch that nobody saw us. We’d hidden them for about a week, until he had time to make more, then repeated the process to replace them.

I smiled at the memory of how puzzled and furious he had been. It was entirely worth it. Nobody had figured out who had done it, though the other Siyas had guessed that it was us, mostly because Lachlin and Aydin were the only ones who would ever think of such an idiotic idea. Still, they had no proof.

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I’m sure someone can teach you, it isn’t hard,” the lady said, already peering around for someone.

“No, thank you, that’s alright,” I said, hastily. “To be honest, the others kind of scare me,” I lied. I wasn’t in the least frightened of any of them. I could take most in a one-on-one fight.

The lady smiled and I hurried off, back to the black-haired girl.

“There are some nice dresses in the other room,” I offered. I wanted to stay on her good side, so she would maybe consider not killing me if it came to it. Perhaps she had more compunction about that kind of thing than I did. I’d try to do that with as many people as possible. They would be that much more surprised when my cover was inevitably blown.

I sidled up to the girl who had been talking to the voice when I’d woken up. She was picking at the back of her neck, in an obvious sign of distress.

“Do you know where the voice came from?” I asked, cautiously. “It scares me. It doesn’t sound like a person.”

________

@hannahrenner