When Zesshi left Climb that night she returned to her private residence and went to her bed room, she undressed herself and stretched out, she looked at her bed…somewhat hatefully, not because she disliked it, but because, knowing what she now did, it felt like a tool of manipulation, or a bribe, it was one of her secret pleasures to lay her head on a cold pillow and let the bed warm up around her bare skin, but everything around her that spoke of her significance of position, now looked like just another means of controlling her. She lit a candle that she didn't really need, then lit another for good measure and set them both on the nightstand before her mirror.

She sat and looked at her reflection, thinking of her conversation with Raymond and her recent discussion with Climb, she thought of what Climb had said before, about Aorli…almost certainly her own half-sister, licking porridge of the stone floor, she thought about what Berenice had said, what Dominic had said. Last of all she thought about her own behavior. In her many years of life, she had always tried to conceal her ears, they were a sign of pain and hatred and the gift of a man she utterly reviled and longed to kill. Nobody around her had ever looked at them without contempt when they'd seen them. She wanted to forget that part of herself, her heritage, but then…so did everyone else. They wanted to forget that she was part elf, they wanted her to forget it to, and more, they wanted her to hate it if she remembered it at all…and everything put into context, so much of that had to have been deliberate in her upbringing, if not from her mother, then from her teachers and superiors who guided her as they saw fit, turning her into a weapon they could use. Perhaps not Raymond…but he was part of the system too.

As these thoughts spun around in her mind, she made a calculated choice. She pulled her hair up and held it close on each side of her head, then pulled the free portion back behind and bound it into a short ponytail at the center. It was the first time she'd seen her ears so openly displayed in…several human lifetimes. Not since she'd been able to hide them. It seemed strange, but it was a start.

…Kami Miyako…Climb's 'Quarters'…

Zesshi entered Climb's room as she usually did, albeit giving him a surprise when he saw the difference in her hair style.

"You look…different." He said cautiously.

"Good. That was the point." She said. "Now get moving, less talking, more running, dogs need their exercise." She said, and swung the door open hard enough to bend the hinges. She walked downstairs and came out just as Aorli was walking in.

"Good, you're here, go grab a pitcher of water and a cup and park yourself about forty feet past me in the direction the princess's dog here is running."

"Yes mistress!" Aorli said in a voice of sharp, crisp obedience, mindful of their location, and she dashed off to obey the command.

A few minutes later…Climb was running as fast as he could around the courtyard while Zesshi taunted him. Every time he passed where she stood, she'd swing a wooden practice sword at him, forcing him to dive, dodge, jump, roll, or otherwise evade…lest her vastly superior strength interrupt his momentum.

Aorli, for her part, stood beyond Zesshi by about forty feet with a pitcher of water and a cup, just where she'd been told…and 'if' Climb managed to avoid getting struck, she'd pour water for him, hold it out, let him drink it and continue. More than once she winced as a blow struck the stubborn blonde young man, but he continuously regained his momentum and ran another lap.

An hour later, Zesshi called a halt and then tossed him his sword, he hunched over, vomited, and huffed and puffed as Aorli scurried over with water to offer to him.

"Not yet." Zesshi said. "He has to fight first." She said, pointing her sword at Climb.

Climb held up his left hand to plead for a moment as he heaved for breath, and braced his upper body with his right hand on his right thigh. "I'll…need…just…a minute." He said.

A second later Zesshi's foot connected with his face and snapped him upright, staggered him back, and landed him on his ass. He shook his head in surprise and wiped the blood from his nose before looking at her in surprise.

Zesshi pointed her sword at Aorli. "She's going to die, are you going to ask her would be killer to give you a minute because you're tired?" She asked with venomous sarcasm.

"Fine, take your minute, I'll be busy." Zesshi said, and turned to face Aorli, whose face was suddenly contorted with fear. Zesshi took a step forward, a merciless aura came off her body as she swept the sword in front of her. "Don't…even…move, slave." Zesshi said to Aorli, whose feet became rooted to the ground, but could not stop the motion of her shaking.

Climb began to scramble up to his feet and dash for the sword she'd thrown to him.

"The ones out to kill everyone you want to protect won't WAIT for your convenience." She said and took another step. Her sword flashed out in front of her again.

"They will not care if you are tired. They will not care that you just finished running eight miles." She said and stepped forward again.

"You are the only thing between this girl and pain, she's an elf slave in Kami Miyako, nobody here gives a shit if I beat her to death right here, I'd only get reprimanded for not calling for clean up." She said and took another step forward. As she spoke, she scanned the courtyard, there were guards, nobles, priests…by the six there were priests aplenty here in the governmental heart of the city. Her voice was cold as ice as Climb managed to stumble over to the sword and snatch it from the dust.

"The gods chose human life didn't they?" She snapped out without looking behind her, she wasn't even fifteen feet now, Aorli was whimpering but didn't run, "They won't care if Aorli gets a broken jaw, broken legs, broken arms, nobody here will care, what are you going to do about it…nothing…because you 'need a minute', right?" She said.

"Please…no…mistress…" Aorli begged, Climb was already running before her sentence was over.

Zesshi stood in front of Aorli, who lowered her head subserviently, when Climb managed to slide on the ground past Zesshi, just as the Slane Theocracy's trump card raised up her practice sword, she looked around at all the watching faces, some of them looked smug, pleased, or…to her disgust…like they were barely hiding something more twisted. There were very few who looked to be sympathetic to the girl and nobody said anything or tried to interrupt. Zesshi brought the practice sword down just as Climb braced his blade over his head in front of Aorli. The 'crack' of wood to wood echoed throughout the courtyard off every wall, and Zesshi drew back the practice sword and gave a small smile of satisfaction as she saw the gritted teeth of a determined and angry Climb.

Zesshi stepped back and nodded in approval. "Well done Climb, you protected your charge…and here you thought you…what was it you said…needed a minute?"

"And you Aorli, nicely done." Zesshi said and approached, then patted her on her golden hair.

"Wait…what?" Climb asked in confusion.

Zesshi smirked, "You want to tell him Aorli?" She asked.

Aorli blushed a little but stammered out, "Ah, when she turned her back to you…she winked at me, it wasn't hard to figure out what she wanted, so I played along."

Climb fell on his back and Aorli hurriedly brought him water. "Why is it that no matter where I go, the women I meet seemed set on tormenting me in some way?"

"You'd have figured it out for yourself you know, if you had only paused to think." Zesshi scolded as Aorli helped him rise up and move to lean against a wall to drink. "You've known me for a little while now, and should have known I'm not going to beat up on a helpless slave girl to punish you for your weakness. But you are emotional, given to react without thinking, it makes you gullible, easy to trick." Zesshi put the tip of the wooden sword under his chin and tilted his head up, "That is a weakness too. It wouldn't matter if you had the power of Gazef Stronoff, or myself, or that undead being that has the cardinals shitting their robes…if you are so easily tricked forever, that is just as big a failure as physical weakness, people can die of stupidity just as easily as they can of an arrow in the eye. You'd do well to remember that."

"Go get yourself washed up and have a bite to eat" She said as she pulled her practice sword away, "You're going to help me with something today and you need to be reasonably clean to do it, I'll see you a little later." She said and walked away, scanning the courtyard in disgust. There had been a second test done out there, and her city had failed it.

It wasn't for Zesshi to buy the things she needed, she was well paid for her work, though she rarely ever spent anything. Today however, she would be buying quite a bit…just not personally, first she visited her home and opened a chest filled with coins. She took out several sacks of various sizes meant to hold them and filled them one by one.

When she was done, she threw them into a backpack and went back to Climb's quarters. He was already dressed and finishing up a meal along with Aorli. Zesshi dropped the pack unceremoniously on the table.

She opened it up and took out a handful of coins. She handed them to Aorli and said, "Go to market, speak to no one but those who you must, buy one cheap magic black dye ball, and return here immediately."

"Yes mistress." She said, and took up the coins and scurried out the door without further asking.

Climb looked at her curiously.

"How do you feel about having black hair?" She asked.

"Ahhh…I don't know?" He said hesitatingly.

"Well you'll find out." She said. "I'm going to send you out onto the market, and you're going to go buy these things." She said and took out a sheet of paper and began to write things down.

She then slid the paper over to Climb who looked at it with skepticism.

"I'll be a good prisoner…but I'm not going to hurt my country or my princess." He said, "I won't help with military operations."

"Good." She said, "You have my word that this in no way will negatively impact your country or your loved ones in any way."

He gave a grave nod. "I will accept your word then."

"Good." She said simply.

"You will have those things delivered to the address I wrote there at the bottom, you are to pay for them all up front, and you are to answer no questions about who ordered them or what for, you're going to be a good dog and play fetch for me, having those supplies delivered tonight. And I swear Climb, if you inform anybody of this…losing the trust I've granted you will not be the worst thing to happen." A dark fury swirled from her as he felt her killing intent, it was…powerful…but nothing near what Sebas was able to manage. However, he wanted to reassure her, regardless of whether she sought to intimidate him or not.

So, he nodded. "I won't break faith with you." He said. "You don't need to threaten me, if you could have had anyone else do this, I am sure you would have, since you're using me, it must be personal, private, and important, so I'll stay silent." He said firmly.

A few minutes later Aorli returned and laid the dye on the table.

"Use it, Climb." Zesshi said.

A moment later his blonde hair was black as night, his blonde hair stood out so much that he now looked like a completely different person.

"Go, get to it, I have questions for Aorli." She said, and Climb took up the pack and walked out.

Aorli knelt in front of Zesshi and waited patiently as she heard the tone of master over slave in the voice of the half elf.

"Get up Aorli." Zesshi said quietly.

Aorli stood up.

"Sit." She commanded.

Aorli began to get back down on the floor, only to be stopped by a sudden touch of Zesshi's hand and a suddenly, very briefly, distressed look before the careful neutral expression restored itself. "In the chair." Zesshi said, sternly but gently correcting her.

"What does the mistress wish to know?" Aorli said demurely and uncertainly.

Zesshi sighed, "You can relax for the moment, no more of that 'mistress' crap." She said, "Climb is not here to give a lesson to." She added, and Aorli visibly relaxed.

"First…you remember what I said about you perhaps being my half-sister, don't you?" Zesshi asked.

"I do…Zesshi…but I assumed…at first, you were simply teasing me or…tormenting me with the passing thought that I might have family, alive and are still free and will remain so…" She said softly.

"Why would you think that?" Zesshi asked.

"Because you hate elves, you said you rejected everything about us because of your father…my father too, I think." She said softly.

"Do you still think that?" Zesshi asked.

"No mistre- Zesshi, having come to know you better, you might seem it on the outside, but you're not one for petty cruelty on the weak. But…until this morning, I didn't think it mattered to you even if it were true." She said.

"How so?" Zesshi asked.

"You winked at me before tricking Climb into thinking he had to protect me. If I meant nothing to you…if you…if you…hated me for my birth, if you were like the rest who just wanted me to suffer, serve, and eventually die, then you wouldn't have alerted me of the trick, or it might not have even been a trick, maybe you would have actually hit me. If you thought I was your sister and just," she looked away from Zesshi's heterochromatic eyes as they pierced her own, "didn't want me to be, you could have had me sent away and replaced and forgotten me, or you could have just disposed of me, you're obviously important here, and I'm not even counted as a person here."

Aorli jerked her head back to face Zesshi and said, "None of that happened…and now…you've shown these," she reached out, and reverentially touched Zesshi's half elven ears that were now completely, exposed and on display, Zesshi started to flinch away, but then put herself back into the position she was in, allowing the touch that had been briefly pulled back when she moved away from Aorli's hand. Her half-sister's hands touched the hateful appendages gently, yet Zesshi was reminded of the time she'd taken a knife to them because of the pain she thought she was at fault for in her mother's eyes. This however, was different, not in all her life had she simply 'permitted' anyone to do this, the touch was kind, familial, and Aorli did not linger long there, instead she pulled her hands away and finished by saying… "so, I know that no matter how much you hate 'our father' you … don't … hate … your sister!" She said joyously and pushed herself off the chair and heaved herself forward to hug Zesshi as tight as her weak and powerless arms could.

Zesshi was, as far as she knew, the most powerful fighter in the world, she could have avoided the embrace in a hundred different ways, but she chose not to do this, she allowed the girl to leap on her, she hadn't held anyone but the wounded or the dying in a very long time, but this she let happen, and gradually folded her arms around the young elf girl.

Zesshi was not one to cry, and she did not do so now. That, however, did not stop Aorli's eyes from emptying themselves dry.

When she was quiet again, Zesshi gently got the girl to be seated once again and said, "I never knew I even had family other than my mother…if I'd known I had…siblings, brothers and sisters, and that I was helping all the cruelty over them…"

Aorli shook her head, "No. Don't." She said, "It seems in your own odd way, you were kept more isolated than Climb, always out far away, fighting and never seeing anything else, raised in isolation to be their weapon, they molded you into what they wanted and played on your thirst for revenge. But that isn't who you have to be, you have a choice…you're not a…" she paused and touched the collar at her neck, and the place on her thigh where the brand was hidden by the cheap sack that served as her clothing, "a slave, like me. You can leave all this, you don't have to do what they say, you can be as free as you want to be." She said with urgency and envy in her voice.

Zesshi shook her head. "No. I can't. Not knowing what I know now, not having seen what I was blind to before, and for better or worse this is my mother's country and I do have…I think…friends here." She said.

"And maybe this place is worth…more than what it appears. Maybe it can fix itself if given the right motivation. I know Cardinal Raymond, he's a good friend, if I really push the issue, maybe he can make changes." She said hopefully.

Aorli looked doubtful.

"Look, you stay here, I'm going to go out and pick up some…nice food, for us." Zesshi said, giving a wan smile to Aorli's doubtful expression.

She sat patiently at least, and Zesshi walked out of the tower. A few minutes later felt a gnawing hunger, and decided to get…just a little nibble on her way to a restaurant to order more to take with her. She approached a vendor and took out a coin and pointed to meat on a stick. "Two of those." She said.

He looked at her ears and shook his head. "Not for you there aren't. I don't serve your kind here." He said bluntly.

"My … kind?" Zesshi asked.

"Elf brats. Get away from my shop." He said in a nasty tone of voice. Zesshi remembered Aorli's doubtful expression, and she throttled the impulse to punish the vendor, and patiently went from one to the next, trying to buy something to eat. Had she been a famous figure, even with her ears it might have been possible, but without an evident uniform on and being a more 'secretive' member who spent her life largely hidden away, as far as anyone else knew, she was just some random half elf who was very much unwelcome anywhere she went within Kami Miyako.

She kept her temper down and in check however, until the eleventh restaurant had turned her away at the door. "Damnit I have good coin to spend and I support this country like anyone else does, when you say 'my kind' you're talking about a fellow citizen!" She snarled out angrily.

The owner, a largish, brawny looking man who might have been considered intimidating to his neighbors, approached her and said, "I said I don't serve your kind here, no elf brats, go somewhere else." He said with hate in his voice.

"I've been to ten other places so far…" She began, her temper beginning to slip out.

"Then make it twelve or go home elf bitch, but you won't get served here." He said, and put his hand on her shoulder.

It was large, it was meaty, it was muscled. Zesshi looked at it, and looked up at him. "You're going to want to remove that if you want to ever jerk off with it again you insect." Zesshi snarled.

He laughed.

His hand was also…nothing.

She grabbed. She squeezed. He screamed.

The bones in his fingers were crushed almost to powder in her grip.

He tried to pull back, to take her advice to remove his hand from her, but the chance to do so lightly was gone from him, she stared at him with fury in her heterochromatic eyes and she started to bend his hand, snapping it at the wrist.

She spat in his face, "Keep your food, I'm sure its as disgusting as you are anyway." She walked away, leaving him collapsed on his knees at the front door, screaming for help.

Nobody barred her way as she left, but after an hour or so of wandering and failed shopping, a handful of city guards approached her.

They spread out to bar her path. "You're in my way. Is there a reason?" She asked.

The guard, a rough looking fellow with a scar that split cross ways on his nose, nodded. "There is, we've had reports of an elf brat harassing restaurants, and that she attacked and injured a restaurant owner, you fit her description. So I'm afraid you have to come with us."

She eyed the men in front of her. "Must", she said in a voice of ice, "Is not a word you get to use with me. I have harassed no one, I attacked no one, now you will get out of my way, or you will be thankful I've decided to let you live to regret it."

She did not unleash her killing intent, she waited to see what he would do, she moved back a few paces to allow them to walk around her easily if they chose. But the guard who had spoken yelled, "Fucking elf brat's got a weapon, get her!"

It wasn't even a fight, she crushed breastplates, broke arms, hands, and legs, and left them tangled together in an ugly and undignified heap. The doubtful expression of Aroli made perfect sense now, she could shop all day and never buy a single thing successfully.

She rolled her eyes, she surmised her past successes had been due to either shopping abroad, being with theocracy members, or hiding her ears so it was not obvious she was of elven ancestry.

Now, open and exposed, there was no hiding it and no security from her uniform.

She looked at the broken pile of guards and approached one who was still conscious. She yanked his head up to look her in the face, "You stupid, stupid man. You have no idea what you've done today, be grateful you get to live through it, but know this, I serve the cardinals directly, and when they return, well if you and your idiot friends are still in armor in this city by then, I can promise you you'll be on the front lines against the undead before the first monster steps over the border. Tell that to your idiot friends when they wake up and be glad, I don't have a reason to kill you…yet." She said and spat into his terrified face before dropping her grip on his hair and disappearing down an alleyway.

Thoroughly annoyed, Zesshi returned to the tower where Climb was kept and found him having already returned.

"All done." He said and handed Zesshi the receipt for his purchases as well as all remaining coins. "I had to tip generously, but they promised an evening delivery to the warehouse you specified. Also, Aorli mentioned you'd gone out for food and hadn't come back, so I went back out and picked up some too…I used some of the coin you gave me for that though, I hope you don't mind." He added somewhat sheepishly as he laid out an array of various containers with freshly cooked meat, vegetables, and soup.

Zesshi fumed. "You're a foreigner, a goddamn prisoner here, I'm a Black Scripture war veteran who lives as humanity's trump card….I couldn't even get a goddamn sausage with the coin my own country pays me."

"You're surprised?" Aorli asked.

"You're half elf, half human, so not many of either will accept you." She said softly.

Zesshi sat mute and miserable at the table, thanking Climb briefly for what he'd done, but in no mood to converse.

That evening she went to the address where her supplies were to be delivered and opened the warehouse for the cart full of materials. Shrouded by fading light and a hood over her head, the workers barely paid attention to her, when it was done, she tipped them a few extra coins and waited until they were gone. After they were out of hearing range…a considerable distance for her, she opened one of the crates and took out a number of sets of clothing and threw them into a her pack, she then rushed to the temple, through the secret door, and all the way to where the elves were staying. There were candles lit in the darkness and the barrel they'd been relieving themselves into had to be emptied, she handed out several sets of clothing and had them follow her.

Back through the sewers they went, all the way to the warehouse, She hastily had them unload as much as they could, and lead them back to where the others were staying. It was trivially easy with her superior senses to know if there was anyone near to be wary of, and after considerable trips the impromptu laborers had unloaded food, low-grade beer, additional clothing, and other necessary supplies.

There were questions, expressions of gratitude, and more thrown her way, but she had little time for those things, she gave guidance on where in the multiple rooms of the unused treasury they could safely dump the barrel, as there was one small sewer grate off of what might have been an office at some point in the mysterious past, but otherwise took no further time among her…'guests'.

She had other things to do.

The next day the city was abuzz with the story of the killer stalking the streets of Kami Miyako, and rumors of a secret elf insurrection. Zesshi grinned to herself, the last one she'd killed had been a fat noble using elf domestic labor for more than just cooking and cleaning. Those elves were now hidden in the massive underground complex as well.

A new routine emerged for her after that. In the morning she would spend time with Climb and get used to having a little sister, the fury would build as she looked at the dingy sack that Aorli was forced to wear, she would train Climb violently, and he'd show…tiny improvements, here and there. Aorli would attend, but Zesshi seldom sent her out for anything except hair dye for Climb for another supply run. In the evening, after leaving them both, she would go out and…hunt. Establishments that had elf slaves kicked up their security of course. But what was that to her?

She snickered as she walked out of another blood-soaked house with two female elves…and a half elf baby boy. She'd been especially brutal with that man in particular; she'd left him hanging upside down by his feet and bleeding from orifices that used to be the source of his greatest pleasures. It had not…been…quick.

She could easily kill two or three a night in the massive city, and find time to scout another location, and every day the stories of the serial killer…or…the elf resistance, depending on who you spoke with…grew and grew. Guards were out in force both outside the city and within it, for all the good it did, Kami Miyako was simply too large, and the city had too many elves and…to her undying rage, half-elves, serving in various menial roles, to guard it all.

She would go out and about sometimes in the day and try to involve herself in her city in small ways, buying goods or eating out or even sitting and watching people pass by, but all she got in return was scorn and occasional harassment from a guard who said someone reported an elf criminal sizing up victims and telling her to go back where she came from.

By the time the cardinals returned from the Draconic Kingdom, she was a woman without a country, at least in her own mind.

Their return was the cause for a meeting to be scheduled for the following day, and for once in all her time in the Theocracy, she was glad that a meeting was taking place, and to prepare for it, she actually took the time to read the reports that were sent to her home.

She picked up the one labeled the 'Draconic Accords'. She read through the list, or started to, she saw the prohibitions against the very behavior that had created her, that had all but shattered her mother's life, that had abused Aorli…some of it she was only able to make sense of because she was the guardian of the treasury, and could readily conclude that at least one of the items down there was a world item.

She held the document as one would a beloved child. If she did not hunt that night, tomorrow she could appeal to the fulfillment of the document in her hands and see Aorli free and her country restored to what she'd seen it as before, or at least the beginnings of it.

She smiled at the slowly setting sun she could see through the window.

"Tomorrow is going to be a wonderful day." Zesshi said to herself as she got to her feet and went to go have a meal with Climb.