263 Speak up

Evlin helped Auren stand up after finally returning to normal and recovering control of her body from her terminal power.

"You okay?" Auren asked while analyzing her expression.

"About as okay as I'll ever be..." she replied, "Let me give you a hand..."

The woman proceeded to lift her arm that was tangled in her magic whip and tried to apply healing magic to her friend's wounds, but no matter how much she tried, nothing happened. Auren assumed she was suffering from magic exhaustion but her body was still moving normally so that couldn't be it.

"Oh, great... They weren't kidding..." she whispered.

"What?" Auren questioned, "Who?"

"My powers..." she replied as she attempted to perform an earth spell, a modeling spell, or even a reconstruction spell by waving her arm up and down over and over again, but to no result, "They have started to develop some kind of consciousness lately, and it seems they are mad at me for grounding them..."

"Ah... That explains why you were acting so weird earlier..." Auren noted as he proceeded to fix his own wounds himself using his ability to revert time.

Evlin looked at him and tried to show a smile of appreciation to him, "Thank you, Auren... I thought for sure I would be gone for good this time..."

"Don't mention it..."

"No... I do need to mention it..."

"Eh...?"

"I could hear everything while I was in there... And... Well... They were right... About everything... I do feel like I'm stuck sometimes, forced to always help the people around me because of my magic... I do feel like everyone tries to take advantage of me, and I do feel like I can't even rely on my own friends sometimes..."

Auren took another look and noticed that Evlin was rubbing her upper arm, almost as if she was embarrassed to admit these things.

"And yet, you still risked your life to save me, even though I was holding all these feelings about you all... So... Please... Just know that this gesture you did... It means a lot to me..."

Auren was a little surprised to hear Evlin open up like this which made him feel like he should do the same as well.

"You know, Evlin... A little before I got to meet Marceus and joined his group... I would often get to know a lot of people that would try to get closer to me in an attempt to become my 'friends'... But as time went on, I started to notice that they weren't my friends at all... They never tried to talk to me, tried to know me, tried to understand or help me... They just wanted to use me due to my strength and my ability..."

Evlin began to look the other way, "I know the feeling..."

"What...? What do you mean?"

"I mean that I have not been a good friend to you... I became part of Marceus' team because I wanted to help people, but I never really tried to help you..." he commented while sitting on the ground with his legs crossed, "But I'm going to change that now."

Evlin continued to stare while Auren gestured with his hand so she would sit as well.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"You and I are going to talk..."

"... ... ... What?"

"You are going through a lot, and you need someone to lend you an ear... Take a seat and let's talk" he offered while lightly tapping the ground.

"Here? Now??" Evlin asked while looking at their surroundings and noticing the panic going on, "In the middle of this battlefield filled by all these terrified people and all these dead demons?"

"You are my friend and you need help... Nothing else matters right now..."

"Oh... O- Okay..." Evlin finally took a seat on top of the sand as well and began to stare at Auren not sure what she should do, "What now?"

"Now... You tell me everything that is troubling you..."

"Everything??" Evlin replied while thinking about her current issues, "We might be here for a while..."

"I don't mind."

"If you say so..."

And so, the two of them began their conversation. Evlin would share with him all of the things that were weighing on her mind at that moment. How she was still in shock after hearing Knucker's confession, how she always felt like everything was against her, how she felt bad for not being able to help Mia, how she was angry that her sister was so ready to send her to fight a dragon without even considering her feelings just because some stranger asked her to, being worried about Ellie and the other kids, and many, many other things that Auren never even knew could be a problem for her.

Auren would silently nod sometimes and try to clear some doubts any time Evlin would talk about something from her real world, but most of the time, he just did what he promised, lend her an ear to unleash all her worries, which surprised him as he realized she had way more worries than he expected.

Part 2

A couple of hours passed and the guards of the emperor finally arrived to rescue the civilians that had been entrapped by Evlin's terminal power. They all hurried to get away from there as fast as they could while the duo continued their session.

The emperor finally awoke and almost immediately began to shiver in fear at the sight of Evlin, but after a quick explanation from Auren, he began to calm down a bit, although he would still try to keep a safe distance from her.

The three of them followed the action of the citizens and also exited the arena. Evlin had to admit that she was indeed feeling a little better after chatting with Auren.

She didn't know if it was because he was just a really good listener or because she was keeping a lot of stuff bottled up, but she could feel her mood improving a bit. Although that soon changed as she noticed the gazes of pure horror people would throw when looking at her. Some would run away scared, others would beg her not to hurt them. It appeared that the experience of the arena was a bit more extreme than they could handle.

Auren also took this chance to inform Evlin how this entire city had been built in her honor, which confused her a little bit.

"What does this mean, exactly...?" she asked.

"It seems that this guy's father saw you when you were younger and saved Sphinx from a group of hunters... They began to form a culture taking that day as an inspiration and began to develop some kind of beast magic that allows one to connect with the monsters..."

Evlin began to feel a little excited thinking she had opened the doors for such an amazing thing to happen, followed by immediately getting depressed as she realized that everyone now was scared to death of her.

"I think we should leave..." she commented, "They probably don't want to see me again after that rampage from Termina... These guys are a little crazy but they have a good thing going in here.. let's just leave them be..."

"Termina...?" Auren asked.

"Oh, right... That's the name I gave to my terminal power after it came to life..." Evlin explained.

Auren began to rub his shaved head, "Yeah... That does sound like something you would do... But are you sure you want to leave like this? They got a completely wrong impression of who you are as a person... Don't you wanna clear that up?"

"I little bit, not gonna lie... But who would listen to me after seeing me just punch the emperor in the stomach and almost killing him?"

Auren shifted his gaze to the emperor, "Can't you do anything?"

The man wasn't sure of what could be done to fix that situation, but a part of him was afraid that if he angered Evlin again she could start rampaging again.

"Well... I could try to set up a stage for you to make a statement... But I'm not sure how much that will help..."

"A stage...?" Evlin asked, thinking about the same kind of stage where rock bands tend to perform and picturing herself singing and dancing in front of everyone for a split second.

"Whenever I need to inform the folks of something important, we usually gather in the center of the city to share it with them... I could call a meeting for anyone who wants to come and you can offer your side of the story..."

Auren stared at Evlin again, "What do you think?"

She wasn't sure how much this would help, but she still wanted to at least take the chance to apologize for the mess she made, even if this mess was caused in great part by the emperor himself and his imbecilic way of handling his culture, "Well... I guess it's worth a try..."

Part 3

After the sun had already set, a small stage had been set up in the center of the city, just like the emperor promised.

Evlin had some time to rest, eat, and clear her head a little bit before trying to speak to the citizens. She was excited at first but now that she was actually there, she began to have second thoughts, mostly because aside from Auren and the emperor, nobody else had shown up.

"Where is everyone...?" Evlin asked.

"Probably hiding in their homes..." the emperor replied, "You did scare the hell out of them earlier today..."

Evlin began to look down, "Maybe we should just leave after all..."

"Don't worry..." the emperor commented while handling her a strange wooden device about the size of a pencil case in the shape of a trophy that had a piece of absorbing crystal sticking out on top of it, "You just need to speak on this thing and your voice will be transmitted all over the city."

"Oh! A magic microphone!! Cool!" she whispered.

"Are you ready?" Auren wondered.

"I think so... " she answered. Part of her wanted to give up on the idea, but she could see that Auren was trying really hard to do something nice for her.

The woman took a deep breath and began to analyze the city of stones from the top of her stage while noticing some citizens peeking through their windows and looking at her with concern.

Evlin began to think about what she wanted to say and finally started to release her words.

"Good night, everyone... My name is Evlin... You might know me as the crossbow mage, the crossbow girl, the crossbow whatever... Which must probably be really confusing right now since I'm carrying a whip and not a bow but-"

Auren looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Well... That's not important right now..." she continued, "The important thing is... I know that you all tried to shape this place in my honor... And I also know that you must be scared because of what I did at the arena, and must be holding a lot of mixed feelings towards me right now...

There is a lot about this place that I appreciate... I like that you guys try to get along with the animals and try to treat them with care and respect... And I also like how you adopt this policy of trying to connect with them using your magic... I heard this was done based on me, and I'm really flattered by that...

But I also know that you people built that arena based on me... Because you think I'm some bloodthirsty warrior that loves the thrill of the battle and adores the idea of engaging in fierce and dangerous fights..." Evlin commented while glaring at the emperor, who responded by shifting his gaze.

"I also know that the way I acted probably didn't do much to change that view... But I just want to say... This is really not who I am... I am a bit aggressive and impulsive, but I don't particularly like fighting or violence...

Anytime I enter a fight, I mostly do it to defend myself or someone important to me... If possible I often try to avoid getting into conflicts... I'm always either running away from things or trying to talk my way out of my problems... I'm actually a really boring person once you get to know me... My dream job was becoming a teacher after all...

But this was not what you saw today... You saw someone possessed by a thirst for destruction and chaos... Someone convinced that nothing nor anyone could stand in its way... Someone who fits the exact image of the crossbow girl of your culture..."

Evlin made a small pause to look at Auren and tried to remember about their conversation from earlier. About how he described her, how he saw her, how he made sure she understood that he knew who she was deep inside.

"I'm here to say... That this person was not me... And hopefully, it will never be me... What happened today was an accident... But who I really am is not someone who takes pleasure in causing harm to others... I know you might not believe me... But this is how I truly feel... And I just wanted to share it with you... Thank you."

Evlin returned the magic microphone to the emperor and climbed down from the stage to get closer to Auren as they waited to see if anyone would show up to give a response.

The emperor was having a hard time processing all the new information he just acquired. The crossbow mage from the tales he would often hear, the warrior woman that faced so many demons one after another, the scary person that almost tried to kill him, and now this frail mage that just wanted to clear her name. He really did not know what to think about Evlin by that point, and neither did most of those living there.

If anything, Evlin just became more mysterious to them after she arrived than when she was just a part of their lore.

"I guess everyone is still afraid..." Evlin commented.

"You said what you had to say... Whether they believe it or not is up to them now..." Auren explained.

Evlin tried to force a smile for Auren and shifted her gaze to the emperor.

"Now that that's done... We really need to get moving... Can you lend us one of your monsters so we can cross this desert...? Maybe a griffin...? I think the sooner we leave the better the people here will feel..."

"Of course... I'll show you the stables..." the emperor commented.

As the two followed the white-masked man to the monster stables, a couple of citizens began to open their windows to get a better look at Evlin while she distanced herself. The image of a woman with multi-colored eyes seeking another victim to slay was still engraved in their minds, but hearing her final words began to make them think if the two were really the same person after all.

Evlin's speech didn't immediately manage to clear up her reputation, but still planted the seeds for the people to start actually questioning what was the actual truth instead of just accepting what was told to them. There were more sides to her character than they previously assumed, but finding out which parts better represented who she was going to take a little bit more than that.

The three finally arrived at a small building where all the monsters were being kept and taken care of, and as soon as they entered it, among the many monsters there gathered, Evlin was taken by surprise by a large number of griffins jumping and rushing to get closer to her.

"Whoa... What's going on??" she wondered as five beasts of the size of a lion with wings on their backs and heads of different types of birds would not stop cuddling her.

"They are probably smelling the scent of your griffin..." the emperor assumed, "This type of monster can be quite docile once it senses its own kin..."

And for a single moment, nothing else mattered. Evlin didn't care about Knucker, the gods, the demons, or anything. Being there, surrounded by all these giant feline-creatures fighting to be petted by her, the woman just began to feel like she was in the happiest place in the world.

"I want them all!!!!!" she yelled while trying to hug as many of them as she could.

"Evlin..." Auren whispered.

"Oh, right, right... Sorry... Uuhhh..." she began to closely look at each of them while thinking who should help them get back safely, "This one!"

The emperor gazed at her choice. It was the largest griffin he had and also the strongest one as well. He assumed she had picked him due to her probably being an expert when it comes to this type of monster, but the truth was, she just wanted one that would have more spots for her to pet. And also because it was orange and it reminded Evlin of Sphinx.

"Excellent choice... I expected nothing less from the crossbow mage!"

"Uuhh... Thanks, I guess... Sorry again for frightening your people... I really wanted to have made a better first impression..."

"Don't worry about it... They are scared now, but time can heal many things... I'll make sure to properly re-shape this place into a city that you can truly take pride on... Not a place to glorify violence... But to spread the good-will of our culture..."

"How are you going to do that...?"

"You told us your dream job is that of teaching, right? Well, starting tomorrow, we will begin a training program to send our finest mages to the outside world in order to spread the knowledge of beastly magic... Hopefully, this will help prevent the deaths of innocent monsters out there..."

Evlin released the biggest smile she could make after hearing these words, "I would love that... I would love that a lot!!"

"Your support is all the motivation I need! I wish you luck in your travel!"

Auren and Evlin climbed the large orange griffin and the two exchanged a couple of words.

"Thanks, Auren! I was really lucky to have you by my side during all this!"

"That's what friends are for!"

And with that, the two finally parted the city of the beast tamers and proceeded to fly towards their next mission, reunite with their friends and defeat Knucker and the demon dragons.