Chapter 64: Another One

Stepping in through the wooden door that barely hangs onto its hinges, I'm quickly assaulted by a familiar and irritating scent.

Antiseptics. 

On my right and on my left are bunk beds lined up all the way to the wall. Even dead ahead, the rest of the relatively wide room is filled with nothing but bunk beds and at my feet at the heads of men women and children, some sleeping fine and dandy, others not so fortunate, groan, moaning and writhing in unbearable pains.

The building is split into two other rooms on the left and right. Bursting out of these rooms are people of all shapes and sizes; humans, elves and is that a dwarf?

Dwarves exist in this world? Well, I guess I shouldn't be so surprised; first sentient beings I met here were my killers, a dead guy and goblins who I might have offended.

I don't get a good enough look before the dwarf hobbles off into the other room with a dripping bucket of dirty towels and liquids. My feet take me forward, guided by curiosity I take a peek into the room on the left, the one the dwarf disappears into.

There's isn't much except for the steel slabs that have people laying on them. They lie deathly still and I can't tell if they're dead or just sleeping.

The dwarf however, goes around the room picking and throwing all sorts of utensils off the slabs, tables and trolleys that lay about into his bucket before walking out of an unseen door.

Just as I'm about to go investigate or stalk, I'm swiftly pushed aside by two hurrying female elves. 

"Out of the way!"

"Make room! Make room!"

They bark their orders at me. Remembering where I am, I let them pass. The two are sharing the weight of an adult man, quick on their feet they scurry into the room with steel slabs and heft the man up and onto one of the free slabs.

Worn-out, the two bend over, hands on their knees and gasp. I watch them do this for a bit and find them watching and discussing me as they recover. It felt a bit odd the way they stared, like they could see straight through me and weren't impressed much with what they saw.

Satisfied with their short break they tap back into work and begin strutting back to the room on the right. Except, one looks like she's headed towards me and the other has a look expecting cringe; not at all in support of whatever she's about to watch her friend or colleague do.

Great, a confrontation. 

Before I can prepare myself, the average heighted elf steps up to me, her face right in mine and her breath clear. Her hair- both their hairs are white, hers is cut short at the back and has long bangs falling down to her neck.

Despite the bit of smudge and dirt covering her face it is plain to all who can see that she's exceptionally beautiful. Her lips are full yet tender and light to look at, and her chin curves perfectly at the end, cementing the oval shape of her face.

A face that held her pointed nose, full cheeks and the unruly white strip of hair that fell between her deep caramel eyes.

"Who are you?"

"…"

"Hey!" I blink, "I'm talking to you. What do you want?"

"Oh, I'm sorry I'm-"

"I know your type," she sneers, or makes an attempt to crunching up her cute face, "You're one of those Nobles who think this is the best place to get rid of their little fuck-ups, aren't you?"

She slaps my shoulder and snorts, "You did a good job trying to look like the, poor, unfortunate and filthy scum that make these mistakes." The sarcasm in her words is palpable.

"No, I'm n-" 

I try again to get a word in but she just doesn't relent. "Shut up and crawl back up to your mansions, reserves and lodges. The Madame has said she doesn't do that anymore and the Madame's word is final!" She punctuates this with a finger jab to my shoulder, making me stumble a bit.

She and her company whip their white hair back and begin to leave.

However, I've not gotten a single word in or been attended to since I stepped foot in here. Even if it's a hovel of a clinic I don't rightly care for being silenced.

In a quick motion I take hold of her retreating hand. She stops, turns, her free hand travelling through the air. I've been in this scenario too many times so it's easy to foresee her hand rippling through the air to land on my cheek.

In all but a second I have both her hands in mine. Next she begins to struggle silently as she glares, not doing a good job hiding her frustration nor her surprise at her assault being intercepted.

Meanwhile, I'm only bothered at how slim her arm is. I know my fingers are long and thin but for them to wrap around her arm with such ease is something else.

"Excuse me but, I have no idea what you're talking about." I finally say, getting a full sentence at last.

"Get your hands off of my sister you vicious fiend!" The speaker in question is the elf girl who earlier would have not wanted any hand in her sister's confrontation, the one that stood in the background while her sister accused me of all sorts of things.

Now she stood in a strange stance-if that is a stance-holding a scalpel in hand and waving it threateningly at me as she breathed.

Sisters huh. Well, that made sense, they were both white-haired after all. But the one who struggles against my grip is much…different than my would-be assailant.

I do as she requests and let go, stepping back for good measure.

She waves the scalpel at me a bit more before finally feeling satisfied with my surrender.

"If you're not filthy Noble scum," the first spits hatefully, "Who are you and what do you want with us here?"

I blink and wonder. I only came in because I needed to get a citizenship, a form of identification. But now, at her mention of Nobles I wonder more of how they hide down here in this hovel, living out of sight and off of the mercies of whomever sustains them.

I wonder, with how the mouse described and spoke of this place, the underbelly of the city, how well kept a secret are they? The process I went through getting here says it's certainly a secret, at least this place is, much unlike the Northernmost part of the wall.

There's reason for it to be a secret too. Many of the people holed up in here were elves, essentially neutered elves but elves none the less and in such numbers. Isn't the ruling Mage worried? I would be.

"I'm here to get registered." I say simply and hope that's all there is to it. I haven't been given any slangs or codes to say to express my intentions and simply hope the vanilla truth will suffice.

I see the two let out a sigh. The accusatory one rolls her eyes at me, while her sister sets her scalpel away at last.

"I'm sorry about that, sir." She says, polite and sweet all of a sudden, "I'm Merlara and this is my sister Kaylin. She's sorry too, right, Kaylin?"

The elven woman now named Merlara not so gently nudges her white-haired sister in the sides until she spits out the words that please her.

"Ow, Okay! I'm sorry. I'm sorry for my behaviour sir."

Merlara smiles and lightly taps my shoulder as she walks past, "She's just a bit unruly sir, don't pay her any mind. I'll go inform the Madame that she's got another client."

I barely get the chance to return the smile before she disappears into the room on the right. This one extends much further out than any other part of the building. Guess that's where the action takes place.

As I'm left with Kaylin, I don't have much choice other than to try and figure her out. The normal tingling, I feel when I meet an elf is going haywire around her and I can't put a finger on it.

Usually, the tingling only lasts a few seconds to a minute at most but hers…well it's getting annoying now. I've got goosebumps forming every ten seconds and when I touched her earlier it's like I got shot up with a lot of static.

We stand awkwardly in each other's presence, I thought she'd be leaving for whatever clinic work she had piled up with all the moaning, groaning and screaming going on in the background to remind her but no, she just stands there rubbing her arm and occasionally tossing sidelong glances at me.

"Hey I'm actually sorry about how I behaved towards you." She manages to bunch out.

"No, that's alright I-"

Merlara's voice cuts me short as she peeks out of the room she disappeared into, "Madame will see you now."

I give a curt nod to Kaylin who remarkably shyly nods back.

Following Merlara into the room I'm glad to be finally getting some progress.