Chapter 4

"Wow, I don't know what the fuck is going on…"

In hindsight, he should've asked Antoine for advice, he really should've, but after his last slip up he felt asking for help made him seem "helpless"...not an adjective he wanted to be associated with. An invitation arrived at the hostel he was staying at, "To Kaspar; you are cordially invited to have lunch with the Baroness; Celestia at the Grand Symphonia Hotel. Please arrive by noon in casual/formal attire." It seemed pretty straight forward, no? He had to buy a pair of sneakers (since all he owned were sandals and flip flops) but otherwise he was good, right?

Wrong. The hotel was god damned massive, bigger than any building had any business being. Eighty floors, fifteen food and beverage outlets, a business centre, conference halls, an enormous banquet hall, multiple gyms and swimming pools. Shops, there were shops inside this hotel, not a gift store (at least not just) but actual retail stores. The map provided at the front desk was dizzying. The Grand Symphonia Hotel was almost a city unto itself. The lobby was also unsurprisingly ridiculously excessive; marble flooring, high ceilings, and chandeliers lighting up the whole damn place, it gave the floor a very sexy shine. How much would a night at a place like this cost? He felt possessively for his wallet which contained the two hundred dollars he made three nights ago, it was all the money he had in the world. And yet, Celestia somehow owned a hotel!? This hotel!? What!? He had never felt so poor in his life. That wasn't an envious or self-pitying thought, the sheer difference in wealth was stunning in the literal sense.

It was in this dazed and overwhelmed state that he glanced around, hoping to see some hidden clue as to what he was supposed to do next. There were people everywhere, patrons checking in and out, or just lounging around for something or other. Ordinary people. How did Celestia stay hidden this entire time? If her Mask ever fell off accidentally and there'd be so many witnesses, and depending on what she really looked like, that could be disastrous. He had an idea, a potentially dumb idea, but in the absence of any other idea, it was also the smartest idea by default;

He walked up to the front desk in the reception hall, and asked the girl whom he got the map from earlier about his meeting with the Baroness of the local Changeling Freehold.

"Hey, I'm sorry to bother you. I was hoping to find my own way, but I'm lost. I'm supposed to be meeting someone here, I received an invitation…" He handed her his invitation. General common sense rule of thumb is that changelings never reveal their true appearance to regular people, the commotion is a hassle to deal with. That's some basic, intuitive rule any changeling will figure out sooner or later. The less exposure to actual magic the better for all changelings. So yes, asking a regular person for help finding the Baroness was probably not ideal, but the invitation itself was innocuous enough. Either she could help him, or she couldn't.

"Of course." The girl, Jenny (going by her name tag), smiled pleasantly enough as she received the invitation. Then that smile faded as she read it, and her eyes widened a little. "Ah, please wait here while I call my manager."

His stomach fell and he chuckled to alleviate his sudden fear. "No thank you. That sounds like a terrible idea, I think I'll just go now."

"Sir? Please wait-"

"Nope! I'm going! Pretend this never happened please." He said as he walked briskly towards the entrance/exit of the hotel. That was a terrible idea, why did he do that? If the Baroness found out that he was giving random muggles magical invitations, he'd get screwed. And she knew too, the receptionist girl; Jenny, somehow she knew the invitation was magic, which was why she called her manager. Well shit. This did not go as expected.

It was while he was thinking, realizing; putting into words to his instinctive bad feelings, that he didn't notice the woman standing ahead of him, blocking his path.

Despite the suit she wore, she looked… feral. Maybe it was her windswept hair or her golden amber eyes. Oh, yep, it was definitely her eyes. Normal people's eyes don't literally shine like that. She had dropped her mask partially just to intimidate him. She was a Changeling.

"Boy, I understand you're scared. But sit down, and wait. You're not in trouble."

He believed her. Not because she seemed sincere and genuine, but because she seemed confident and condescending. Cocky. She could easily physically stop him, but she was giving him this one chance to stop on his own volition, because she was "nice" like that. He wasn't in any real trouble, and if he sat down and did as he was told there won't be any real trouble. But something about her attitude annoyed the fuck out of him.

"You know, I'm not defenceless. If we throw down, it's not going to be as easy as you think."

Why are you taunting her!? Why are you escalating this!? He told that part of him to shut up. You don't stand up to bullies by whimpering and being docile. Stand your ground, claim your space.

There was a moment of surprise and then her lazy smile widened into an eager grin. "Oh? It's rare to see an Elf with some teeth. Promise you won't flinch when I show you mine? Promise you won't flee if I come at you now?"

He didn't know what she was. Not an Elf for sure, no Elves talk like that. An Ogre? A Beast? Beast sounds right, she did have that feral look to her. He tried to subtlety shift his stance so his body was lined up against hers, he had one "move", but he could only do it once, and he had to hit her first before she got to him. He was pretty sure that comment about teeth wasn't an empty taunt. He was pretty sure she liked to bite things.

"It's going to be real funny listening to you talk shit once I've kicked you in the teeth."

Another moment of silence, as she sized him up and marvelled. Was he being brave, or being stupid? They were both thinking the same question. Then she spoke, "Brave Boy. A Lifetime ago and you'd have made the best kind of prey…" She took a deep breath and exhaled, "but that's not who I am anymore. And I'm not about to break a newbie just because he's standing up for himself. Stay, do as you're told, but cross this point and I'll put you down." She said that last bit with dead pan seriousness.

Oh, she'll definitely kick my ass. She wasn't just a bully, she had experience, nay, probably a current lifestyle in fighting, in beating and getting beat. Whereas Kaspar had just learnt how to do a basic front kick last week from a free self-defence class the hostel offered (and he hadn't even practised it once since). It occurred to him just now that he probably just avoided an extremely painful experience. But she didn't know that, probably suspects it, but she didn't know that for sure. He was going to bluff her.

"I'm going to stay here and wait, because that's what I want to do." He declared, firmly, defiantly. Not at all overcompensating or dramatically. "Young Lady, you are LUCKY that I decided to not take you seriously this time, but you better not mess with me next time! Or else! You'll be sorry!"

They stood there in silence again. This time not at all sizing each other up. The atmosphere was actually kind of awkward. She clenched her jaw and pursed her lips, trying not to laugh, but her lips curved into a smile all the same. She shook her head.

"Too much?" He asked, feeling foolish.

She nodded, "yeah, way too much."

"But you definitely believe that I was going to fight you, right?"

"I suppose. You definitely know that you were going to get wrecked though, right?"

"Yeah… I realized towards the end, but by then I'd committed, so I was going to go down swinging if you called me on it."

"Woooow…" she laughed out loud, walking closer towards him now. Now that the tension was eased, it was easier to talk in closer quarters. "Please don't do that! You know there're real monsters out there right? If you think you're going to lose a fight, run from that fight. Being embarrassed is better than being dead."

"Wait, you were going to murder me!?" Kaspar exclaimed. Holy shit, talk about dodging a bullet.

"What? No!" she said, "but that's still a terrible habit to have. You should definitely fix that."

"Ah, I mean… if I was going to survive…? Like, how bad was my decision in hindsight? If there was a 100% guarantee I was going to live… you know?"

It took her a moment to process what he just said. "Boy… I'm going to kick your ass, just to teach you a lesson. It would be for your own good." Clearly amused by his flawless logic.

Kaspar threw his hand behind his head, his posture beyond casual, almost a taunt. "Nah~ I'm good." He stuck his tongue out at her, "I don't feel like fighting anymore."

"Oh, you are infuriating." She grinned. "What's your name?"

"Kaspar, yours?"

"Kira, Kira Hunt. I work and live at the scrap yard, I teach Krav Maga, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and Muay Thai, and I do the occasional bounty hunting work." Her eyes were wide, expectant. Her smile was posed, ready to laugh.

He sighed. "I'm a street busker, I play pubs on the weekend..."

She howled in laughter, "Wow, it wasn't even going to be close! I was absolutely going to destroy you, and super easily too!" something about his face must've caught her attention, "no, don't be like that… Listen, you were brave. Not very smart, but brave. You're also funny! Those two points alone are enough to make you a hit with the ladies."

"What about a hit with you?"

She gasped playfully, "Brave. Can't beat me so you'll hit on me instead?"

"Can't help it," he leaned in closer ever so slightly, not enough that he was intruding on her personal space, but enough that it was oddly intimate. Kira, for her part, noticed this, and allowed it. He continued "I arrived in town not too long ago, I don't have a lot of friends of our kind. First time I meet one of us of the opposite gender and she's like this? Has me on my toes, has me by the throat. Tell me how I can't want someone like you in my life? If not lover than at the very least a friend."

"Friends, I can do. But Lovers? Oh… you're pretty enough, but if only you were a little older, a little wiser, a littler stronger. I see your baby smooth cheeks and I just want to pinch them. Right now if I were to share my bed with you, it'd just feel like cradling a child to sleep, anything fun would feel inappropriate." She pinched his cheeks as though to prove a point.

He rolled his eyes, "Friends then, for now. And Lovers maybe, down the line."

"Boy, you are relentless." She chuckled, then "Maybe. But first you'd have to get Celestia to accept you, and then depending on how you play your cards, we might be on opposite teams."

"Opposite teams?"

She smiled sadly, "you'll see. Kid like you, brave but dumb, the Elves' want to snatch you up good, mould you into one of their own, play you like a fiddle. If you can free yourself from their snares, join us in the suburbs…"

"…We're not talking about sex anymore, are we?"

She shook her head. "You've come to our freehold at a bad time to be honest. The games they play could tear us all apart, and all the while there're creatures prowling the outskirts, looking for a way in…"

It was the first time in a while that he felt awkward, and concerned. "Are you going to be alright?"

"Silly boy… between the two of us, you're the one in more danger. Worry about yourself."

"I never worry about myself." He grinned, it was partially true, but it was said to alleviate worry, hers and his. "I have survived literally everything this world and the other world has thrown at me, heck, just recently, I stood my ground against a big bad bounty hunting wolf." She shook her head and rolled her eyes at the comment, "I'm pretty sure I've proven I'm practically immortal at this point."

She smiled. "Not fearless, but brave… not very bright, but clever, oh, I can just tell already you're going to cause all kinds of trouble for the freehold."

They were mere inches apart. She really was quite beautiful. Her Mask was just that, a mask, an illusion of a human form she used to traverse among the human populace, but her eyes were real, and… deep; a strength that came from surviving countless pains, wisdom from innumerable experiences. No wonder she saw teased him for being a child, relatively speaking, he was.

Somewhere there was a ding. An elevator door opened and an imposing looking man stepped forth, the same man that had found him three nights ago; Celestia's Knight.

"Kaspar? It's good to see you again. The front desk called me to escort you to the Baroness, I'm glad you waited for me."

"I waited because I wanted to." He grinned as Kira stifled a chuckle, then he moved follow the knight. Before he entered the elevator but before the door closed, he asked Kira, "Guess I'll see you around?"

"Maybe." She grinned, and stuck her tongue out at him.