Chapter 4

Sage passed a few windows on his way to the top but not many and, to his surprise, ended up in Curel's room again. Said girl obviously already had been here for a while, as she sat on one of the pillows around the TV and was reading. Quiet rock music was sounding through the room of an artist that mixed Elfish lyrics with English ones. Curel lifted her head from her lecture as Sage climbed in and her face brightened up visibly.

"You're back!" she called and jumped up to hug Sage, before he could even get firm ground under his feet. Luckily, even a fully glomping Riverelf couldn't really push him back due to the pure difference in size and weight. "You literally saved my life back at the bridge. I don't think my bones would've survived punches from this thug very long..."

"Uhm..." Sage responded, while Curel hung around his neck like an over-sized Riverelf-necklace.

"Yeah, yeah, we're back.", Kyu said as she stepped through the window frame and made Curel drop down from Sage's neck, by pulling one of her hands off him. Sage could notice a slight twitch in Kyu's ear as she heard the music in the room.
"Really, Curel? Garel Hurricane again?" she asked.

Curel gave her a hostile glare: "Hey, stop judging me for it. She makes objectively good music."

"She's a Rosh-Clan outcast in 2nd Generation and turned her back on her kin to collaborate with the Humans.", Kyu held against Curel. "She traded her clan and her identity for fame and loads of Human cash. She even appropriates our language for her monetary schemes."

"She never even knew her clan, because they had made her mother an outcast." Curel argued. "And she worked very, very hard to get where she is now..."

This argument went on between the two, while it faded out, into the background for Sage. Garel Hurricane. Somehow this name rang a bell in his mind and a pretty alarming one at that. Something... dangerous surrounded this name. He tried really hard to convey an image of the feelings he felt about this name and for a brief moment he would see the face of a white haired elf with a confident grin. Someone placed her hand on his shoulder.

"What's your opinion about this?" Kyu asked him from the side.

Sage twitched slightly, out of being startled from his ongoing thoughts.
"Uhm... ", he said, slightly confused. "I... haven't listened if I'm completely honest."

"See, Kyu?" Curel said, obviously taking this as a supportive statement to her position. "This entire debate is so stupid, that he doesn't even listen anymore."

Sage looked to Curel, surprised how skilled she was with twisting his words: "Hey, that's not what I-"

Kyu sighed and interrupted him: "Don't worry; it's not even that important."

She looked towards the window and then to the door saying: "I'm worried for the rest though. They shouldn't take much longer to reach this place and I get nervous so..."She stood up and walked towards the door."I'll see if I can spot them, alright?"

Curel nodded and Sage too didn't have anything to object, so she left the room. Curel gestured to the group of free pillows next to her saying: "Why don't you take a seat, Sage?"

Sage nodded. Maybe getting a bit of rest wasn't too bad after all of this trouble he went through in the past... 3 hours? Really?Only 3 hours?

It felt like his life was turned upside down since then, but maybe this was just due to the lack of experience he could draw from. After all, anything he could pin down as a memory in his mind had happened within the last two days. He dropped his large body onto one of the couches in the living-room-area, taking up almost the entire space on it with his body.

Curel raised her book again, as if she wanted to go back to reading, but already after just a few seconds Sage could see her eyeing him over the edge of her book.
"You really saved me back there." she started the conversation again, as Sage didn't say anything.

"I already said it was nothing." Sage said, unironically, not to boast around. It felt natural to him to save a friend during a fight. Then he was more surprised when Curel suddenly stood up and sat down on Sages belly, firmly demanding his attention.

"Saving my life is not nothing.", she said with an intense stare that looked all the more creepy due to her block iris and pupils that barely allowed to make out a difference in their colouring. "In fact it's a pretty big deal."

"A-alright." Sage backed off and raised his hands defensively.

A sneaky grin crept on Curel's face and gave him a glimpse onto her shark like teeth: "Hmm, isn't this a lucky coincidence. You save my life and the two of us end up alone in my room directly after it..."Her small hands ran up his chest, until her upper body could lean forwards and get very close to his face.
Sage looked at her confused for a moment, and then he began to understand. Or at least he believed he was. She was flirting with him, wasn't she? Or was this...

"You deserve a reward for this. I'm one of the last of my kind on this continent after all." she said and pulled down the cleavage of her top suspiciously low. Even though there not being too much to see, this did make Sage blush nervously.

"W-wait C-Curel..." he stuttered. "I-Is this what I think it is?"

Curel responded with a smug grin: "Of course it is. I owe you a big deal; also neither of us are bound to the stupid rules of this Woodelf clan. So why not make out for a bit?"
This was way too fast. And this girl was way too confident.

"I-I think I heard somewhere that Elves and Humans..." Sage tried to contradict, but Curel just laughed.

"I'm glad that you're worried about me..:" she began to respond. "But these rules are for the Woodelves. More specifically, the Clan-Woodelves. I can choose not to obey the Clan rules. And I happen to find you hot enough to break them for you."

Sage was still looking for a gentleman's way out of this, as Curel leaned forwards and pressed her lips on his. For a second, Sage could feel a somewhat salty taste coming from her mouth, and then she was already pulling her lips back and skilfully slid of Sage. He was still confused by the kiss and couldn't even get confused about her fast quitting yet, as he heard a cute, yet strained voice from the window.

"I'm back! I'm back! Help me in before I fall!"

Curel went to the window and leaned out asking: "Give me one reason why I shouldn't just drop you, Inu."

Said Inu looked up at the ladder: "Uhm... because we're very, very good friends?"

Curel rolled her eyes as response and said: "Alright... I shall let it slip this time."

She reached down and helped Inu up who seemed to be just incredibly bad at climbing. She almost fell to the floor when Curel helped her through the window, but could catch herself with her hands and knees.
Sage sat up to get a look at her, checking if she was alright, but unfortunately these thick layers of clothing didn't allow for a clear look. It was also pretty visible now, that she wasn't wearing this attire out of sheer comfort, as there where huge drops of sweat running down her forehead and her face was glowing with heat. What happened next was surprising to Sage, yet not really, given how Inu looked like she was close to a heatstroke.

"I... I need to get rid of these clothes, Curel!" Inu said with a slightly panicking voice. "I'm overheating!"

No surprise, given that she probably ran in this winter attire all the way to this place.
"You can't!" Curel responded. "You know what Kyu said. I can get you some ice packs."

"NO!" Inu shouted with surprising aggression in her otherwise peaceful voice. She dug her long, spiky nails into the cloth of her dress and simply pulled it off her body with a seemingly superhuman strength. She threw her woolly cap off her head and tore the sleeves of her top, while Curel was still trying to stop her.

"Stop Inu!" she called. "We can't show this to anyone!"

"He's a friend, isn't he?" Inu responded, half shouting. "He saved your life! Show some trust!"

Curel looked helplessly back and forth between Inu and Sage, until Inu looked up again.
She clearly wasn't an Elf, but she also wasn't a human either. Her ears where neither round nor long and pointy, but they were attached to the top of her head and had the shape of a wolf's ears with short fur covering it's in and outsides. And by the way that wasn't the only part of her body that was unnaturally furry. The back of her hands and lower arms too, were covered in short-cut fuzzy fur. She also was as muscular as Sage assumed her to be, maybe even a bit more, as her shoulders where pretty wide and powerful for a woman. The fur also existed behind her head and ran down her back until it disappeared in her clothing and finally reappeared in an extremely fluffy tail coming from below her skirt.
Inu sat down on the couch, next to Sage, panting and trying to her rid of the heat that was captured in her body.
Sage was... pretty stunned at this sight. He liked her exotically different body shape, but he was even more surprised by her animalistic traits.

"Kyu is a sadist, sending me out in these clothes." Inu sighed and gave Sage a worried look.

Curel contradicted: "Inu, you know this is to your own protection. Each person that knows what you are is an additional danger."

Inu looked up and huffed:" I don't think this amnesiac stranger can pose much of a danger to me..."

She squeaked suddenly, as Sage touched her ears and she turned around, protectively placing her hands over them.

"Those are... real." Sage said slowly, unable to take his look of Inu's head, even though her hands where entirely covering them. Somehow this seemed... familiar to him. He had seen such a creature before, but he could not pin down where.

"Y-yeah they are..." Inu said, blushing slightly. "But please only touch them if necessary, they are quite sensitive."

"O-Oh..." Sage responded carefully. "A-Alright. I'm sorry."

Inu nodded and moved a bit away from Sage so he could properly muster her.
"So... this is me..." she said. "You would've found out sooner or later anyway. What do you think? Creepy, eh?"

Sage shook his head: "No, not at all. I find it... surprising... but it fits you."

"You think so?" Inu said clearly happy about this judgement." Y-You don't think I'm a freak?"

Again, Sage moved his head from left to right, still inspecting what he could see of her body.
"No.", he said slowly and added. "... but I would actually like to know what exactly you are."

"O-of course..." Inu said and swallowed hard. "I... I'm what the legends call a 'Wolfelf' or 'Wildelf' depending on the language."

"One of the Dwarven creations?" Sage whispered having absolutely no idea how he knew what that was. "And your race is supposedly extinct. The 3rd Genocide by the Humans..."

"You know about the Dwarves?" Curel asked, sounding genuinely interested, but also wanting to avoid talks about genocide against Inu's race.

"I know they are your ancestors." Sage replied. "But I don't know how I know this."

Curel nodded with clear respect, but even more interest in him written all across her face.

"You are more educated on the history of the Elves then nine out of ten Elves I have met so far... perhaps even more.", she said and stood up again, walking towards the door in her bedroom-section of the apartment. "I am going to take a bath now. I'll leave the door open, so we can keep talking."

She opened the door and lighted the room up, revealing a pretty spacey bath with a huge tub in the ground in front of her that... weirdly enough seemed to be filled already and constantly replacing its water with new one, coming from a tab in the wall.
Sage was super confused about this behaviour of her.

Was this a new way of flirting?

Was this a threat to not try anything with Inu?

Or did she legitimately just need to get her skin wet again?

"Let's see, Mr. Smartypants..." Curel said with a grin that was so wide, Sage could hear it in her voice, even though he wasn't looking. "Do you know why I need to take a bath 3 times per day?"

Sage sighed: "Of course. Riverelves have adapted to a life close to or completely inside of water. If they do not get water on their skin regularly, it will degrade into dry scales... It's known as Erass, a genetic sickness from which all Riverelves suffer."

"Fascinating..." Curel just responded to this display of pure knowledge, before she hopped into the bathtub.

"You... really know a lot about Elves, Sage." Inu said, seeming just as impressed: "I wish I knew so much about my race."

Sage laughed uncomfortably: "I just wish I knew more about myself. As it is now, my knowledge about Elves seems pretty useless."

Inu nods: "I... can imagine how you feel."

Sage raised a questioning eyebrow. Inu blushed uncomfortably.

"I... don't know my name either." she said slowly. "My Mum placed me in front of the door of this Clan and then ran off. It's Kyu who gave me my name; because she thinks my ears look like the ears of a Shiba Inu. My full name therefore is Inu Shiba... Because Kyu logic."

Again, Sage raised his eyebrow sceptically.
"It's just the way Kyu thinks. She shapes the world rather than learning about it.", Inu explained.

"Can confirm!", Curel called from the bathtub. "It's sometimes pretty hard to be around our personal mad goddess, but definitely an interesting life to live."

Sage looked at one of his two conversation partners and then asked, so loudly that even the second one could hear it: "So... Kyu... what do you think about her?"

Inu blushed, obviously taking this as too much of a private question, while Curel obviously took much less offense in it: "According to Kyu, the world revolves around her. Heck, she might even be right about that, all things considered."

"How did she get this way?" Sage asked interestedly.

Sage could hear a sigh echo through the bath: "I got a suspicion there... but that's a story she should rather tell you herself. It would be impolite to gossip around such private stories."

Sage was left even more curious but he didn't dig deeper out of politeness. Also, as if on cue, the door opened and Titania stepped in, together with Kyu.

"I got one!" Kyu called upon entering, then immediately froze when she saw Inu with uncovered sleeves and without cap. "Inu!"and said Wildelf twitched and sat back a bit, but this couldn't stop Kyu from rushing over to her and pressing her against the backrest by the shoulders.
"I told you NOT TO SHOW HIM." she said, remarkably pronouncing the last four words.

"She was overheating!" Sage felt like it was his obligation to throw himself into this conversation as he felt like it was partially his fault that it came to this situation.

"Can confirm!" Curel called from the bath. She seemed to like this catchphrase. "It was either getting rid of one or two layers of cloth or systemic circulation problems."

Kyu was quiet for a second, and then she sighed: "Alright... I just get worried about Inu a lot."

Said girl blushed, obviously appreciating the gesture and said: "Sage already said he wouldn't tell it to anyone."

"Oh I would actually like to hear that myself." Kyu said in a bittersweet tone and stepped with one of her boots onto Sages knee. "Well?"

Sage, who had to look up to Kyu now from his sitting position was quick to nod and if it was just to get rid of the pain below his lap: "Alright, alright I won't tell."

"Promise." Kyu demanded.

"I promise!" Sage reassured which indeed, made Kyu stop hurting him.

"Alright... I guess we'll have to take your word on it" she said. "But seriously, Inu's life as we know it depends on this staying a secret. If you break it, then I'll personally rip your tongue out."She said it so casually, as if she was threatening other people with the prospect of taking their ability to speak on a daily basis. Sage had the strong suspicion though, that this was just Kyu's specific kind of humour; half-ironic death threats.

"Anyway.", Titania involved herself into the conversation again and sat down on the couch. "That means only one of us is missing at this point, eh?"

"Laniel will make it.", Kyu assured her. "She ran south, so she will have the longest way back after she escaped from the police. In the meantime, why don't we turn on one of the news networks and bathe in our glory like Curel bathes in water."

She picked up the remote control and took a seat between Inu and Sage while skipping a few channels. Titania dropped down in an armchair as well as Kyu finally found the news channel and waited for the advertising break to end.

"And were back at the Avalon-Bridge to the John Bell District.", an overly tidy dressed, white, Human female reporter announced into a camera. "Just half an hour ago, another despicable terrorist attack took place, wounding 4 people, 2 of them critical."
This was the Moment, Kyu's face brightened up and she offered Sage a high-five. Reluctantly, he clapped his palm into hers. The news lady didn't bother their enthusiasm, but continued.
"According to eye-witness testimony's, the perpetrators of this violent attack where 6 Elves, coming from the clan-milieu of the Elves, that is still running rampant in the old city and the Dublin District. Minister of internal affairs, Jon Welland has released a press statement to the attacks, condemning them as 'violent, hateful and coming from Elves, who do not appreciate the things that mankind has done for them.' He also announced that..."

The rest of the lady's statement drowned in a shower of 'boos' coming not only from Kyu, but from Titania and even Curel in the bathroom. The 'boos' soon got dissolved into mad laughter, as photos of the beat-up victims was shown and one of the guys from the bridge was interviewed, the one who survived the attack unharmed due to the pure fact he wasn't in the camp when the Elves attacked.

"That guy..." Titania pointed out amidst a short break of the laughing. "...literally has a swastika on his biker coat. I wish I had punched him too."

Kyu nodded in agreement as the biker said into the camera, in English of course: "They attacked out of nowhere! We literally just camped by the roadside for two days and these Elf terrorists instantly attack upstanding citizens like us. Where is the government in protecting us in this?"

"I doubt this douche bag is even able to know such words." Kyu stated quietly.

Titania nodded in agreement: "Yeah, that's not his statement, that's a Maranurr National Party statement, placed in his mouth..."

"This might come back at us..." Inu threw in quietly, but Kyu shook her hit.

"Doing nothing comes back at us." she replied. "Elfish history ever since the humans arrived is a series of events on which we should've acted but didn't."

"Hey!" someone called through the window.

Sage didn't know it was possible to turn off a TV as fast as Kyu did in this moment. The whole group stood up and walked to the window, where Laniel was finally climbing into the room. Even Curel stepped out of the bath now, with a towel wrapped around her almost non-existent chest to avoid getting stares.

"Welcome back." Titania said and helped her younger sister to get into the room without an accident. "What took you so long?"

Laniel winked at the group and said: "No need to worry about me. I took a route through the Neotonic district. The police don't go there."

While Sage had no idea what that meant, the jaws of every other person present dropped.

"Laniel, are you crazy?" Titania asked. "Mum will be furious."

"She doesn't need to know." Laniel answered obviously feeling the need to defend herself. "Also, what do you care? It was the safest route."

"Safest route?" Kyu asked with a hysteric laugher following up on it.

Curel stepped into the conversation with a concerned expression on her face: "Laniel, Elves disappear in that district on a daily basis and reappear as drug addicted, broken husks. That is nothing to mess around with."

"Erm..." Sage cleared his throat to demand attention for a bit. "Would anyone mind explaining what the Neotonic district is?"

Everyone looked at Sage, then back at Laniel and obviously, Curel concluded this was a great opportunity to refresh Laniel on what exactly the Neotonic district was.
"The Neotonic District..." she explained. "Is on paper an economical zone created by the government and liberated from the boundaries and laws that limit the free market everywhere else. Some call it the Las Vegas of the Pacific. But in reality, it is a fucking dangerous shithole, where drug addiction, legalised slavery and forced prostitution are rampant. Elves who go in there are abducted, hooked onto some drug and released as whores for the Human tourists to enjoy. This is LITERALLY the worst place on this earth for a young woman to be."

Laniel looked at Curel angrily: "Hey, I have used this place several times to escape the police and it always worked well."

For a moment, everyone in the room looked at Laniel with genuinely concerned looks, and then Titania said: "Yeah... Mum really doesn't need to know about that. But you also need to stay away from it, okay?"

Laniel rolled her eyes and nodded: "Yeah, 'Mum'."She walked into the room, past everyone else and looked at the TV: "Are we on air already?"

"Why would you be on air, I wonder?" an old, creaky voice from the door-frame asked.

Everyone turned around with different levels of shock and surprise mixed in their face. Especially Kyu's face also showed an additional layer of nervousity on her face.
It was Kyu's Grandmother, who entered the room, seemingly out of nowhere and obviously pretty angry. She leaned on a walking stick in her left hand which made her almost look like a stereotype as she entered the room and gave everyone present a more than just slightly pissed off look.

"Sit down." she commanded before anyone had the courage to speak up.

"Can I maybe get some clothes first?" Curel asked shyly, but a simple look of Hlaya was enough to make her comply. "No? Damn..."

Everyone walked over into the living room area and squeezing themselves onto the couch, while Kyu's Nan sat down on the armchair giving everyone as serious glare before saying: "Given the amount of celebration I heard from this room, it seems obvious I am correct to assume you are the ones who beat a bunch of Humans to bloody puddle on the Avalon Bridge today?"

"Not Humans, they were Nazis." Kyu corrected her Grandmother in an impressive feat of aggressive defence. "And I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about."

"I guess, a Riverelf, two Humans and three Elves, one of which has iconic white hair and a mourning cut band together on a daily basis to beat up Humans?", she asked.

"It could've been anyone." Kyu responded. "There are a lot of Antifascist groups out there, where Elves and Humans fight these Nazi shits together."

"Oh really?" her Grandmother said. "Then what is this?"

She reached into the Dyun's pockets and pulled out two of the face masks that they had used during the attack at the bridge this afternoon.
"I suppose you recognise these? I got them from your room and they are clearly visible on the footage which the police has." she said.

"You searched my room?" Kyu said angrily, but her Grandmother just shrugged.

"You are not married yet, so I am responsible for you." she said. "And I am not letting you go down the same path as your mother."

"My mother is a hero!" Kyu shouted aggressively. "Don't you dare question her achievements for us!"

"What achievements?" her Grandmother shouted. "Your mother, my daughter, was lured in by some bullshit promises of terrorist groups and then she died for them. She achieved nothing!"

"SHE'S NOT DEAD!" Kyu shouted furiously and jumped up. "AND IF SHE IS, THEN SHE DIED AS A MATYR!"

Hlaya didn't respond to this, she just looked up to Kyu with endless disappointment in her eyes, while everyone around Kyu seemed to fear she would start wrecking the room any second now. Instead, Kyu went on a rant: "She is out there, fighting the fight which the Clans should be spearheading, while we are sitting here, doing nothing but working into this godforsaken Human machinery that they use to enslave us! Our race is not a race of cowards that surrenders without a fight, my parents are proving this, but you seem to be hell-bent on destroying anything that she builds up! You are COWARDS! And I hate all of you!"
With these words she threw a fit and then turned to run out of the room.

Hlaya stood up shouting with all authority that she could muster in her voice: "Kyu Hsaya Ptaha, STAY!"

But Kyu ignored her, leaving the room and slamming the door in exactly the same manner you would expect it from an adolescent stuck neck-deep in her puberty, leaving behind her Grandmother and five of her friends at her mercy.
Unfortunately... or luckily, depending on the perspective, her Hlaya didn't seem mad any more, but rather extremely sad, even depressed.

"This isn't your fault, Hlaya." Curel said as she refused to speak up. "Kyu is..."

"When I told you to take care of Kyu..." Hlaya interrupted Curel, getting louder again with each word. "I didn't mean help her to conduct terrorist attacks!"Upon the last syllables, she slammed her wrinkled hand onto the couch table and looked up.

"What should we do?" Titania asked. "If we would not help her, she would try to take on these arseholes on herself. And it's not like they didn't deserve it."

"That doesn't matter!" she shouted with a voice, that was clearly on the brink of collapse. "Her actions get more radical and more dangerous each week! This isn't graffiti spraying and saving homeless Elves anymore, this is real political terrorism with real political consequences!"Everyone was just quiet, looking down on their knees.
"You have to restrain her.", Hlaya continued. "Especially you, Curel. I put you in charge of her actions so you stop her from blowing herself up, not to provide her the materials she needs to blow herself up!"

"I'm sorry..." Curel responded quietly. "I guess I screwed up."

"Yes you did!" Hlaya confirmed and sighed then. "You all get shopping duty for this week. The ENTIRE shopping duty. And I will have to think up an appropriate punishment for Kyu. And later, there will be a personal talk with each of you. Now go back to your rooms and think about what happened today."
With these words and another angry glare at the group, she stood up and walked towards the exit of the room.

Everyone waited until she was gone, then Curel stood up to get her clothes, while Laniel left out an annoyed sigh: "Shopping duty."

"The entire shopping duty." Inu added.

"Kyu is definitely going to pay for it this time", Titania said.

Everyone stood up, except for Sage who felt like this got way too personal way too quick for his taste. He was now legitimately involved in this clan's family business... and all of this because he wanted to steal some eggs?
He turned his head after the group, that was already leaving the room and stood up to follow them as Curel put a leg in his way, making him trip. When Sage caught his balance again, everyone else had already left and Curel put up a show again by dropping her towel a bit, just enough to reveal her chest.

"Think about me and consider it," she said with a lusty wink. "The offer still stands."

Sage indeed blushed quite a bit now and again he wondered where this sudden interest from her came from.
"I-I'm sorry..." he stuttered a bit insecurely. "I'm... not really in the mood right now."

Curel shrugged and pulled her towel up to cover herself again. Either she was a great actor or she really did not mind his honesty, which was a trait Sage did not associate with women.
"Alright.", she said. "I understand that. You should go to your room then, so I can dress."

Sage nodded rapidly and hastily took two steps to the door. Way too much happened to him in a way too short amount of time. Inu belonged to a supposedly extinct species that for some reason looked familiar to him.

Kyu was... well... being herself.

And apparently he had just rejected a Riverelf who would much rather have him in her bed. This was too intensive.
And it would not stop yet, because when he arrived back at his room, a familiar old lady stood in front of the door, waiting for him."Hello, stranger without memories..." Kyus grandmother said in a quiet tone. "Would you mind a little chat with an old, worried Elf?"

"N-not at all..." Sage reassured her and opened to door to his room, stepping aside so she could enter first. "C-come in."

Hlaya nodded thankfully and entered the room, heading straight for the only chair in the small chamber, an old office chair by the tiny office table next to the window. She sat down and gazed through the room, from left to right, inspecting his inventory.
"Hmm..." she finally said. "They really did only give you the bare basics, didn't they? I hope your time here is not uncomfortable."

"N-no, not at all..." Sage reassured with a slight déjà vu feeling crawling up the back of his mind. "It's just... a wild ride, honestly. Having no memories seems to make everything a bit... overwhelming."

Hlaya nodded: "I understand that and I am truly sorry for the inconvenience my granddaughter has put you through."

Sage made a gesture to indicate his casual acceptance of Kyu's behaviour "It's nothing I can't deal with. Though, I admit I have a lot of questions."

"I expected that." Hlaya said in a polite tone, which may be stemmed from her trying to go easy on her now strained voice. "That's part of the reason why I'm here. To answer your questions... but also to make a request for you."

"Alright..." Sage said. "What do you want me to do?"

Hlaya shook her head: "I'll answer your questions first. My request will only make sense with some context."

"Understood." Sage replied and sighed before speaking up again: "Tell me about Kyu... What is the deal with her mother and these radical actions?"

Hlaya sighed again and looked Sage into the eyes with the one eye of hers that was not covered by the mourning-cut: "Well, our family is... a bit complicated. Titania, Laniel and Kyu refer to each other as sisters, even though this is only half true. While Laniel and Titania share the same father and mother, Kyu has a different mother, stemming from her father's second marriage with my daughter."

So that's where the different looks come from..., Sage thought to himself, but didn't dare to interrupt Hlaya, who continued after short pause.

"I... never really liked their father, Tuhar. He was a political radical who almost threw this Clan into chaos with his political idealism. He was part of a communist movement that took a part of the Elves in this country by storm about 50 years ago, when we fought for recognition by the UN. They thought they could unite the Clans under a single banner and cause a revolution that would end the Human rule over this country... Laniel's and Titania's mother divorced him over his idea of a bloody civil war, but Nadya... My sweet little Nadya became completely absorbed by these ideas."
It obviously got progressively harder for her to talk about the subject. No wonder Kyu and her Grandmother didn't get along about this, when such a great amount of emotions was involved in this.
"She was only 15 when she started attending the communist rallies and 17 when she became Tuhar's left hand in the Clan. I don't know how old she was when they started dating but... well she was definitely too young to be with a man in his mid-50s... But I accepted it back then, because I thought it was just a phase... but it wasn't. They gathered followers and began to openly question the leadership of this clan. This went on for months, until they tried to take over this building by force. Luckily no one was killed, as they couldn't quite bring themselves to kill their own families for their ideology. The Clan's leader banished Tuhar and everyone who supported him from the Clan. Tuhar accepted his penalty, but made one request... that his pregnant wife would be allowed to stay until her child was born, as they were going to move into a combat zone... and that wife he mentioned was not the wife that the clans leader had married him to, but it was my poor, misguided daughter, standing next to him with a bulge in her belly and a loaded shotgun in her hands."

It was pretty clear that Hlaya was fighting back the tears now, and Sage realized that this was the edge. He sat up: "Alright, I get the message. You don't need to tell the whole story."

Hlaya sobbed once, twice, then swallowed and shook her head again: "No... This is necessary for you to know, if you want to fulfil my request. I'm almost done anyway."
She took a deep breath and continued: "She spent 4 more months ostracised with the clan, gave birth to Kyu in her room and then packed up her shotgun, her fucking communist flag and her military jacket and just left. No one has ever heard of her again. That's 21 years ago now."

Sage swallowed heavily as the entire story was finished and looked into Hlaya's grieving eyes: "And now you're scared she will follow her mother's path?"

"Scared?" Kyus Grandmother asked with a hysterical sub-tone in her voice and grabbed her head with both of her hands. "I'm terrified of her making the same mistakes as her mother. She lacks the shining, commie-figurehead that Nadya latched onto to radicalise, but she is radicalising anyway. She is going down a path she believes her mother has laid out to her. I did everything I could to stop this from ever happening, but ever since I told her the true story of her mother when she turned 15, she is hell-bent on finding her and... Do something to bring about this dammed dream-castle of a revolution. I can't watch this anymore."

Sage nodded, slowly and carefully. "And what do you want me to do?" he asked.
Hlaya looked up again.

"She seems to look up to you. I know, right now it seems like she is just dragging you from adventure to adventure, but I've seen this kind of behaviour before, in her mother." she said with slight desperation in her voice. "I want you to stay close to her. And I want you to do what Curel and her sisters are failing at. Please... try to moderate her."