Zesshi Zetsumei, extra seat of the Black Scripture, guardian of the treasury…and very unhappy figure, had in her short time knowing Climb…and even shorter time knowing Aorli, experienced some rude awakenings. She returned to her quarters and stored her scythe and took up a sword she could comfortably conceal, and then she threw on a cloak with a hood that would hide her ears. It was cooler now in this time of year, so not an unusual look to be sure.
Thus attired, she walked through the streets of Kami Miyako. It was evening now, but it was a bustling city with many public businesses open well into the night. From across the street she saw a restaurant where a family of humans was sitting outside, the father of two children smiled and cut up meat on his children's plates while their mother poured milk, their own plates were ladled with food. She stopped where she stood and just…watched.
They were nicely dressed.
Zesshi's little sister was wearing nothing but a potato sack, and an old one stained with mold.
Their children were eating meat.
Zesshi's little sister thought she had to lick spilled porridge off a floor on all fours like a dog to get better than starvation rations.
The husband and wife would make love to one another, happily and contented, safe and warm.
Zesshi's little sister, if she was lucky, slept on cold stone and had probably never been with a man by choice.
Their children were safe from violence.
Zesshi's little sister could be beaten just to punish someone else.
That turned her thoughts to Climb. She'd never seen anyone defend an elf before. He was naïve, he was weak…brave…but weak, but he was stubborn about his morals…and his morals had him stand up for Zesshi's little sister, even if he hadn't known that was who she was. Raymond was arguably one of Zesshi's only friends, and if he even knew she had siblings…which she was sure he did…he certainly gave no indication that he cared about what happened to them.
She wondered how many other little sisters, little brothers, or other siblings she had rotting away in brothels, mines, work camps. There was a kind of…family there, all children of the same vile father…her country knew this…her country…knew…this…and didn't care.
She walked on, the family she'd seen wasn't guilty, they were just living there and having dinner. Zesshi's fury, however, did not dissipate. How many hours had she spent wondering which of her thoughts were influenced by who her father was? How many hours had she spent hating the parts of her that she could see, that she knew could only be his? She'd spat on the whole elven race and every bit of her heritage out of hatred for him, a hatred that … now in retrospect, she realized that the Slane Theocracy had carefully cultivated within her.
If she hated the elves, she could kill the elves, nothing that happened to them would matter to her! The sudden thought of such carefully thought out, cultivated hatred being put into her over year after year after year as she was forged into a weapon of humanity…she staggered back against the wall of a building as the thought formed in her mind.
They'd have set her up to kill her own siblings…and made her grateful for the chance. Was the carefully thought out desire for revenge for her mother's sake phony too? And what would they have done to her…with her…if she'd just been a powerless brat and her mother hadn't wanted her because of who made her? She pushed herself off the wall and kept walking, the darkness would be everywhere soon.
As she walked on, she came nearer to her destination, and the answer was obvious, she heard a feminine voice crying out. Her hand tensed around the handle of her sword, it was still a fair distance away, but it wasn't hard to know where her sense of hearing came from.
When she got outside, she looked around, this was not a wealthy part of Kami Miyako, it was the slums, nobody much cared what happened here. The dark covered the city like a blanket. She walked around the building, there was an alley there on one side, as well as a door to the rear of the building, private entrance for the management was her best guess, she followed the alley back to a sewer grate. She smirked, the underground of the city was a second home to her, aside from guarding the treasury, the nature of the secrecy surrounding her was such that she even frequently moved underground to avoid any possible interactions.
Now in retrospect…perhaps they just didn't want her thinking the thoughts she now had. Hearing that girl, seeing what they'd done to Aorli, she knew what they'd have had done with her…were it not for her mother, and the luck she'd had to have been born with power.
Her fist clenched around the sword again. She wondered if any of her siblings were in that building…but first she had to confirm the route. She knew the juncture points, she knew how to get where she wanted to go and avoid anyone she didn't want to be seen by. Idly she thought of how easily she could just…kill. She shook her head, that was different, this was personal, this was very…very personal.
When she'd confirmed her junction point in the system she returned the way she'd gone and carefully put the cover back into place, then she went to the front entrance and walked in. The place stank of sweat and alcohol and unwashed bodies on the main floor, up above that, she smelled sex, she tensed up again, but played along. She approached the counter and, deepening her voice and hiding her face, she asked for a room with a woman. She lay ten coppers out in front of her. The fat oafish pig of a man on the other side took the coins, reached under the desk, and pulled out two keys and handed them to her.
"Yer big one here's for the door to get in, yer small one there is fer the chains if yah want to move it around some, toy's will cost you twenty coppers, damaging it will cost you five silver, killing her one gold, and if she escapes you it's an automatic one gold fine whether we catch her or not, and it's two gold if we don't so…don't let her get away. This buys you an hour, you want more, it's five coppers more for every half hour." He said.
Zesshi took out thirty coppers and said, "For time."
He grunted and pointed to the stairs, "Up the stairs, down the hall, last door on the right."
Zesshi nodded and walked up the steps slowly and deliberately, she counted every one of them. She went down the hall to the right, counted the steps in that direction, then turned around, and went all the way to the left, to the room she had acquired.
She entered the room and found what she'd expected, secured to a dirty, stinking mattress in a tiny filthy room, was an elf woman who could only be described as … a living doll. She stared at nothing, she said nothing, the only indication of life was that she breathed.
Zesshi locked the door behind her and made a 'shhhh' noise and then threw back her hood, revealing what she was.
The 'doll' which had displayed no sense of so much as awareness, now wore a face of surprise and confusion.
"I assume you want to get out of here?" She asked.
The 'doll' woman nodded desperately as mad hope sprang into her eyes.
"Speak softly, how many others are in these rooms?" Zesshi asked.
"Twelve, including me." The 'living doll' said. "Am I really getting out of this living hell?" She asked.
Zesshi smirked. "Shortly." She said. "We're going to wait here for a bit, I need to do something first. I can unlock you now though, as long as you don't run."
The girl nodded, and Zesshi undid her chains, and the girl sat up.
Zesshi then began to press her ear to the floor, she listened for the motion of customers, the conversations she could catch, the sound of weapons. Nothing indicated that anybody here was a threat. She smirked again; nobody ever was…but…why take chances?
She then exited her room, walked across to the next room, turned the knob hard enough to break it, then entered and killed the man inside with a quick sword thrust to the neck. The woman he'd been on top of was about to shriek, but before she could, Zesshi covered her mouth. When she realized she was safe, Zesshi unchained her, and took the frightened girl back to the room Zesshi herself had rented. She repeated this process for room after room, killing the occupant, and moving the girl quickly down to the improvised 'safe' room. She had done this with several rooms before someone came up to a room she'd already 'emptied'. This was even easier, she moved behind them as they walked into the room, killed them quietly, then closed the room again, it guaranteed more 'quiet time' and after only a few minutes, she had emptied each one and had all the females crammed into one small room.
Zesshi closed the door behind her, the women wore nothing, if they could be said to wear anything, it was fear and confusion and hope on their faces. It infuriated Zesshi further, but she forced herself to remain calm.
"You have questions. I have no time to answer them. I do have time to give you instructions. You are to wait here. In a minute or two, you will hear shouts being cut off and screams dying before they're complete. When you don't hear anything, exit this room and come downstairs as quickly as you can, if you remain, you will burn to ashes with the rest of this place. I have a way to get you out, but I will not argue with anyone, if you resist, if you argue, if you fight, I will knock you out and someone else quieter will carry you. Am I understood?" She asked.
There were a series of uncomfortable nods made in unison.
"Good." Zesshi said and exited the room, she came down the stairs and took out her sword, she waited just long enough for someone to look surprised at the dual hair colored half elf woman…with a sword, coming down the stairs, and then she gave a cruel smile and moved with purpose. She targeted necks and lungs, she saw no reason to spare any lives as she dashed around the room, she was a blur, a whirlwind of death, it was not a fight so much as it was a massacre, blood flew from her sword, cast off from every slash and dripping from every slash, the battle maniac might not have been enjoying the fight…but she was enjoying the slaughter. Within a matter of a minute or two, nobody was left alive except for the piggish oaf behind the counter.
She approached him with slow, lithe footsteps as he backed himself away on the floor, back to the wall, Zesshi hopped the counter and landed silent as death, back on the floor, she traced her sword over the wooden floor, droplets of blood fell from it, and she smiled at the terror stricken face of the pig, his jowls flapped around as he tried and failed to form words.
Zesshi did not care to hear them, her sword flashed as she stood near, and he was gelded. He didn't realize it had happened for a moment, then the pain hit and his fat bloated fingers reached beyond his gut to try to clutch at his stolen manhood as if he could…what…stick it back together? She was idly curious as to just what his plan was, but she had other things to do. The sword flashed again and his throat was open before he could scream. Behind her, twelve naked elf women were looking in horror and fascination at the scene before them. There lay blood and body parts aplenty, cast off drops ran down walls and off of tables, yet blood and bodies aside, the mess was minimal, as if she'd simply strolled from table to table to end people.
She then yanked a set of keys off the oaf's corpse, tossed them to one girl and said, "Find the one for his office, go out the door to the back, and wait for me there, I am going to 'finish up' here." She said and took alcohol from the bar and began to douse everything. As she did this the women shuffled past as quickly as they could, some limp and bruised, but moving, nonetheless. When she was done, Zesshi took a candle and lit a few places around the brothel and went casually out the back way. As she'd instructed, they waited for her, and she led them down an alley, she lifted the sewer cap and said, "Get in. Be quick about it."
They were in no mood to argue, and within a handful of minutes, she was leading them well away, while the fire she'd lit began to draw shouts of alarm. That late, nobody was out much except for at places like that one, and in this part of town, nobody cared about much, that was certain. It was with practiced ease that Zesshi got the sewer cover open and dropped into the darkness below, urging the women behind her to follow her down. They might have had no idea where they were going, but anywhere was better than 'back'. The sewer system was large and complex, she was probably the only one who actually knew it well enough to navigate it without a map. It was also dark, with the only light coming from the moon or the sun that shone through the top of various grates, so you were constantly moving towards the light, no matter which way you went, and if you weren't doing that, then you were in darkness.
Rats were not the problem one might have expected, but they weren't unheard of, and the women behind her had to keep their lips bitten down on to keep from crying out as one scurried over their feet in the shadows, they were a confused and tangled mass of limbs and fear, blindly following the unusual rescuer.
There was no way for them to tell how long they'd been there, but Zesshi knew exactly how long it had been and where they now were, which is exactly where she wanted them to be. She climbed a short ladder and then listened, nobody, it was safe. She opened the top cover of the hole and crept out, one by one the slaves followed, and Zesshi replaced the cover and led them to her next checkpoint. There were no sewers that connected to this, she opened the large door and led the women inside, she rushed them deep within the building, all the way back to a smooth wall, and there she fiddled with a sconce, pulling down to reveal a hidden door, wondering for the thousandth time privately if this ancient place was the basis for all the terrible clichés of hidden doors in all the books she'd ever read that featured that trick. At least it served her purpose now…and so she led them through it, and when the last was had crossed its threshold, she shut the door behind her.
Then and only then did she take out her flint and send a spark to a candle she had taken from her pocket, and in this way, she led them down a long dark hallway. It seemed to be a mile long at least, and a continuous downward slope, leaving the women wondering how far underground they actually were.
She then came to another door, and opened it up, "Welcome to your 'temporary' home." She said and stepped aside.
The women entered. There were other elves inside, mostly women, but not a few men.
"You will be completely safe here, nobody comes here except for me, and nobody can hear you. It's rather…lacking in amenities." Zesshi said, "However it beats the breakers and the brothels I should think, eventually I'll be getting you out of here entirely."
"How soon is…eventually?" One of the women asked her hesitantly.
"As soon as I have some place better for you." Zesshi said, "However more than that, there are more of you to get out of here, and there are some…well…lets call them…final straws I guess I'm grasping at. I will return to provide you with food and water, there is a barrel to relieve yourself in…again…not much, but you'll have to make do, I am leaving you some candles to see by, but don't use them frivolously, people will get a little suspicious if I'm seen making a great many unusual purchases." Zesshi said firmly.
"I have to leave now, but I'll be returning periodically, just…be patient." She said with a sigh, "I honestly don't know how long you'll be down here, it'll be unpleasant, but would you prefer waiting back where I got you from for me to show up, like the ones still in more places like that?" She asked.
There was a great deal of head shaking.
"Good." Zesshi said and started to walk away.
"Excuse me…" One of the women from this evening's rescue said, the one Zesshi mentally called 'doll girl' for lack of a name.
"Yes?" Zesshi asked.
"I'd just like to know…what is your name?" Her voice quivered with awe as she asked it.
"Zesshi, Zesshi Zetsumei." She answered, and walked out, closing the door behind her and leaving them clad in darkness and candlelight, listening to a commonly shared chorus of relieved crying, as wet tears washed streaks of filth from dirtied flesh.
The night was not over for the extra seat of the Black Scripture, despite the fire raging on the far end of the city.
Zesshi went to the tower where she knew Climb to be, she had questions for him, things that…ate at her a bit. She didn't bother to knock, she simply opened the door and walked in, Climb was asleep when she did so, which was to be expected. She sparked a light and made tea, closed the door as it brewed.
She then went to the window and looked outside, her hands folded behind her back just at the base and she smiled at the now familiar orange glow. It gave her joy. Behind her she detected the scent of tea ready to drink, and she came over and poured two cups. It was only then that she went beside his bed…took a deep breath and shouted, "Oh no princess Renner is in danger!"
Climb leaped out of bed as fast as he could, only to be pushed right back down to it in midair by a well placed palm to the solar plexus that knocked the wind right out of him. "To late, she's dead again, as a bodyguard, you must always be ready to act at any time." Zesshi told him firmly, wagging her finger at him and looking for all the world like a firm disciplinarian.
Climb looked down. "My failure shames me." He said.
Zesshi shrugged, "You have to sleep sometime, and your waking instinct was good, I'm just better." She said fatalistically.
"You are." He admitted.
"Tea?" She offered.
"Well I'm awake now…" He said with a less than tired yawn.
"Right you are." She retorted smugly and sat down and began to drink.
Zesshi knew all about combat. She could kick Climb's ass ten thousand times without breaking either a sweat or a nail, she knew that. But this wasn't the same.
"So…are you sleeping with Aorli?" She asked bluntly.
Climb sputtered and choked on the tea he was drinking, slapping himself for a full minute on his chest as Zesshi quietly sipped her own.
"No." He said firmly when he could speak again.
"Why not?" Zesshi asked leaning forward and resting her chin in one hand. "Even though you're a prisoner, you're still a human, and you're considered a very important prisoner, I'm sure if you asked for her to warm your bed, they'd send her to you…so…why haven't you?" She asked archly.
Climb was blushing, but a look at Zesshi's face said he wasn't going to get away with not answering.
"You think she wouldn't be willing? You're nice to her. She'd trade away her body to keep from losing that. Hell you could make it a condition of her getting to eat scraps from your hand. So…why don't you act?" She asked curiously.
Climb looked at her expressionlessly. "Why are you asking these questions?" He asked her.
Zesshi thought about his question and said, "I was thinking that if I could understand why you don't do these things, maybe I'd understand more about those who do. Like that jailer she used to have, he had a wife at home, she was…I assume, willing. Yet he decided to use Aorli too and didn't care how she felt about that. So…why don't you act that way? Aren't you a human, aren't you better than elves, part of the race chosen by the gods?"
Zesshi's face and voice were neutral and curious, but underlying that was a tension, something was bothering her, and it ran deeper than how he treated Aorli. He took a sip of tea and dunked a biscuit into it when he set it down, then he took a bite of that as he gathered his thoughts, while Zesshi just sat there staring at him.
"Do you think I look down on you?" He asked.
That was a question she did not expect. "No." She answered.
"Do you think I look at your ears and feel hatred?" He asked.
She reflexively touched the place where her ears protruded slightly, self-conscious of what they meant for her country, her mother, and herself. After a moment she shook her head. "No." She said, "I'd know if you hated me, you're about as good at hiding your feelings as an ogre is at hiding on the plains."
"Should I?" He asked her further.
"It's what I expected, I'll admit, after all, you're a prisoner and I'm guarding you." She replied matter-of-factly.
Climb gave a casual shrug. "I'm here for my princess, when the time comes, I'll be leaving here, I'm perfectly safe in the meantime, you're just doing what you thought was right, you haven't been cruel to me, teasing aside, you've even helped make me a little bit stronger, a gift for which I am eternally grateful." He said, and stood to bow to her, before allowing himself to reclaim his seat.
"So no, I don't hate you, or your ears, and I'd never take advantage of a girl like Aorli, I wouldn't want to be treated that way, so why would I treat anyone else that way either?" He asked Zesshi curiously.
"Can I ask you something?" He said.
"Proceed." She replied.
"Would you?" He asked.
"Would I what?" She probed.
"If you just…wanted something, would you just take it, steal it?" He asked curiously.
"No, I'm no thief." She answered.
"OK, so when you hurt someone else, abuse someone else, just because they're weaker or more vulnerable, you're stealing something from them, a sense of security, significance, and worth. You sort of said it yourself when you were telling me to be careful about how I treated Aorli, she might get her 'soul' back, wasn't it?" He said, and took a slow breath with his eyes closed for a moment as he gathered his thoughts, "Her…spirit, was stolen from her by all that she was forced to endure, but unlike coins and objects, the spirit can be stolen from endlessly through constant abuse and degradation, it's stealing who a person is and who they could be, or should be, or would be. I lived a life that was far different from hers, but I know the feeling of her emptiness, and by treating her well I can give a little of herself back to her, and it costs me nothing to do it, so why wouldn't I? I am who I want to be…even if I'm not strong enough for my liking. What do I make worse…or better, by treating her as I would want to be treated in turn?" He asked. "I could never face my princess again, if I did any less."
He shook his head with absolute confidence in the gesture, and in his words, "So no, I won't take advantage of someone vulnerable, I don't hate your ears, or think you should be mistreated because of how you were born, it's not like you chose your father, and I don't think you're the type of person I could hate…. Maybe find annoying sometimes…maybe…frustrating…absolutely, but I can't picture hating you as you are. Battle maniac or not."
Zesshi looked at him with something akin to fury for just a moment…but it was obviously not directed at him, because when that moment passed, she stood and walked to the window and she felt her anger directed outwards.
"How long have you been here now?" She asked without looking back at him.
"I don't know…I guess I could tally up my crushing defeats and figure it at about one per day…what has it been a few weeks or so?" He said uncertainly.
"Maybe." She asked.
Whatever she was thinking, she shook it off and turned around and headed for the door. "Whatever happens, I can promise you will get home to your princess again. Just…don't do anything stupid." She added, and closed the door behind her, leaving only the sound of the flickering candle in the room with Climb. He reached out and crushed his fingers over the flame, and snuffed it out at the wick, then put himself back to bed, deciding to think no more of the bizarre conversation that evening.
AN: Thanks for reading everybody, this has been a fun story to write and I'm really having fun with this one, some of it requires some research into some ugly topics, but honestly...I think the interplay between these characters works very well, there is a contrast between Climb & Zesshi in their power, experience, and also a similarity in their naive sort of innocence that is slowly being eroded. Plus, not to slam other authors...but Zesshi is an undiscovered gem of a character, I can think of only one other author who really put time into developing her properly, so I've enjoyed putting this one together.
If you want early access to all upcoming chapters, to offer story suggestions, and enjoy a positive and creative community of overlord fans, join us in the 'Overlord Fanfiction' server invite code is: /fjc8Bqe