Chapter 199: True Motives

Outside, it continued to pour evermore. You couldn't even tell anymore. Staring up high, watching down low, everywhere the Blight wasn't there no more.

Something sorta fizzled inside me, it didn't feel like a bad feeling - or at least I didn't think it felt like a bad feeling. I think, if anything, like the gray clouds hovering from up high, the clouds in my mind were just as murky and dark.

"Relinquish…" It was such a broad term to use, a confusing term to use. "Meaning what?"

Amelia swiped from her face a sprinkle of rainfall, her disdain for rain eliciting more emotion out of her than anything she's ever shared with me. 

"Your Fey does not speak, it is peculiar," She said, absentmindedly rapping her pointed claws atop the windowsill. "But I gather that it simply means what we both think it means. The poor Elf will be your Knight no longer."

The clouds from above and within got murkier and darker.

"I take it that's a bad thing," I paused, thought for a moment - no good, haven't a clue. "It doesn't sound like a bad thing. Okay, I'm no longer her Master, and she's no longer my Servant. No biggie, cause the way I see it, we had always been equals anyway."

"And that, unequivocally, I suppose, is the ignorance of an outsider such as yourself," Amelia answered back, twisting both her neck and elbows towards me. "I ask you… were it as trivial as you think it is, do you really believe the Fey would have accepted such a bargain in exchange for her services?"

"Maybe not, that's why I'm asking you," I said, feeling slightly agitated. "What does relinquish mean?" 

Thunder and lightning, a smile on her face.

"Elves, Elf-Knights, they live a long life of servitude. It is not uncommon for one to outlive the Master they serve. If so, the Elf would usually pledge him or herself to the next of kin. Of course, the Master is also free to give his or her Elf up to anybody he or she so wishes. It is a common occurrence - be it for a hefty sum of coin or as a generous offering of good faith, a singular Elf-Knight could serve a dozen or so Master throughout their lifespan.

"See, this pact between Master and Servant, when Elves undergo the process of becoming devoted, loyal Knights… this invisible bond they share with their Masters is the only thing keeping them the way they are. Without it, without another's will holding back their own, there is nothing holding them back from reverting back to how they once were.

"So one thing is always for certain… there is no such thing as an Elf-Knight with no Master. If a Knight were to exist reigning free… should a Master relinquish his title but offer it to no other… shall you choose to break the pact between Master and Servant - then there is no other choice but the Elf be put to death."

There it was, just as the sky was, my mind exploding in a rumble of thunder. 

"Why?" I heard myself asking. 

I didn't shout it, don't even remember myself how I felt saying it. Like any other question, it left so easy. 

"It is, as you no doubt know yourself, simply as is," Amelia said, tapping her fingers no longer. "A free Elf is a living atrocity, and one wandering astray with the powers of a knight… why, I dread to even wonder."

"Ash isn't like that."

"So you say, so you say…" She drew her eyes away. "As for me, I believe it different. I believe she's keenly aware of what she truly is and what she can be… and with no Master, with no one to serve other than herself - it was only a matter of time before she would have given in to her true nature." 

I shook my head. "Good thing you're wrong, then."

"Am I?" Amelia raised a brow.

"I met her when she first got here, Master-less too," I said, confident both in stance and tone. "Does trying to slay a fearsome monster for the safety of the town sound like an act of evil to you?"

A frown. "Fearsome… monster?"

"Okay, garbage truck, but I digress!" I sprang a finger up. "Before I became her Master, she was nothing but kind, understanding… offering to help out some no-name stranger just because she was offered some food and a roof over her head."

"And is that really it?" 

The hell is that supposed to mean? Why the hell did you word it the way you did - Amelia, I swear to God…

"Must it really be anymore?" I could feel the rise in voice, the edge in my words. "Which part of any of that sounded the least bit diabolical to you?"

I really hated where we were now, and there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to hate even more everything that would come next - case in point - the small scoff slipping past her curved lips.

"If she wanted to just help you, then she would have just helped you," She said, flicking away a bead of water that landed near her fingers. "Why was it necessary at all in the first place for you to become her Master?"

Suddenly the words wouldn't come.

"Did you not find it odd?"

My lips wouldn't loosen.

"Did you never once bothered to ask?"

I was lost deep in that violent storm in my head now. Somewhere in the many puddles that formed rippled that scene of that fated day. I didn't ask for it, she didn't suggest for it. I remember… she decided it, on her own, of her own volition.

Her first bow… her first 'Master'... 

I…

"Sounds to me she wasn't thinking of just only for your benefit that day," Amelia continued, her raven-black eyes somehow looking so distant now. "I do admit, however, that your Elf is not like most others. To voluntarily offer herself as a servant once more to a complete stranger - perhaps she really does believe she is good, after all."

"She is good!" I finally shouted, only to be drowned out by the pouring rain. "Even if it is as you say it is, that just adds to my point, doesn't it? She only became my Servant - Ash formed that pact with me just so she wouldn't give in to her true nature."

"So you admit that she does indeed have a side to her that you have yet to see?"

"I don't admit anything," I respond back. "Only giving hypotheticals to your hypotheticals. If - listen - If that's really the case, it doesn't change anything. No one truly evil would give away their free will… Ash is good - that pact she made shows that she's good.

"And now, with the Blightfall's end," She flicked another droplet. "That pact will finally be severed and she will be free… body, spirit, and will." 

I decided. Amelia was not a good conversationalist to have around. Everything I heard, not a single word offered any levity. If anything, I think she was rather entertained by it all.

"Just a hypothetical though, yes?" She looked at me from the corner of her eyes. "If it is as you say, by all means, let it happen. If she is truly the saint you claim her to be, then just wait and see."

It's hard to believe for one moment she was related to Adalia in any way. Twin sisters? More like split personalities. One inherited all the warm fuzziness, and the other is left as a prickly cactus that was capable of shooting out its thorns at will. 

For some reason as well, I continued to be the bullseye in her sights, and she always hit her marks

"You must be quite perplexed by all this," She remarked.

And you must be magic. How'd you figure?

"I suppose now there's only one question left to ask, isn't there?"

Yes. One question. The same one that left so easy in the first place. The one that started all this.

"Why?" I softly muttered, I quietly wondered.

Why was this the deal? Why did they agree to it? And why did Sera asked for it? 

I wanted answers, and I wanted them now, but Amelia, still wearing that smile of amusement simply shook her head at me.

"If you really want to know the answer," Her stare drifted over my shoulder to an open doorway empty of its one and only guard. "Then I suppose you better go ask them yourself."

Fine by me. Didn't want to stay here, didn't need to be here… at least so long as you're here. Amelia, you're like poison in the air… you like playing with your food… you enjoy seeing my face so hot and bothered, don't you?

Bonafide sadist.

I take back everything I said before. None of this could ever be a dream, it couldn't even pass off as a nightmare, cause I know my imagination - and I know it ain't too bright… something like this, I could never think of something like this.

No, sadly, this was reality. This was me awake… too awake… I wish I took that rest now that Amanda kept insisting on me.

"Oh, almost forgot to mention," Amelia called out after me, adding even more weight to my waking nightmare. "Your phoenix you placed next to me…"

How foolish I was to think that everything was coming to an end of sorts.

"She isn't waking up."

How foolish, indeed.