7.23 – Arrival

7.23 – Arrival

Now that was a statement to send a chill down a girl's spine.

Elida liked 'hurting things' more than most people?

And she didn't miss the word Vanetta had chosen to summarize what she'd seen of Elida. The 'connecting thread' to Elida's challenges: the way she reacted.

Angry.

At someone, something, maybe the world.

Natalie had caught a glimpse of that cold-boiling fury herself, once.

***

"Oh, please. Dearest Elizabeth. Nobody smiles that much and means it. Nobody's that ..." Elida's lip pulled back, and she waved her hands in an exaggerated way that, oddly, made Natalie understand what she was getting at. Liz was an energetic, sociable person, to a sometimes amusing degree. "Much less a Beaumon," Elida said. "No, she's as much a schemer as any of us. You'd be a moron to think otherwise. Seriously. She's a Beaumon." Elida laughed. "Not that you understand what that means. I'm almost jealous of your ignorance."

Agitation appeared on Elida's face, coming surprisingly fast—almost out of nowhere. Her words grew hot, too.

"And even if it wasn't an act," she sneered. "It's because she's just been handed everything. Do you know what I've had to do, to get where I am? To get approval from my family? That bubbly bitch is just waltzing through life. No wonder she can smile so much."

***

The outburst had been uncharacteristic, appearing in a flash. It had only been a single instance, so Natalie hadn't let it influence her entire opinion of Elida—at least when it came to who her sponsor might be.

But with Vanetta's insight?

Anger. The guiding force behind that toxic, sweet mask was anger?

More surprising than the city was the young woman they bumped into.

Natalie kept her weapon at the ready, wary of a trap, but when she called out and the woman turned and raised her own weapon, she was pretty sure they'd simply found another delver.

"Oh," the girl said. "Oh, uh, hi there. Are you two newcomers? No, that's silly, look at your armor, of course you aren't."

Natalie lowered her weapon—though certainly kept it in hand—as she approached the woman. She digested the opening words.

"Newcomers?" she asked. "To what? This City? We're new, yes. What about my armor?"

Though Natalie already had an inkling of an idea of what she'd meant.

"You are new?" the unknown girl asked. She was tall-ish for a girl, an inch or two shorter than Natalie, with wide shoulders and heavy metal armor: probably a tank. Long black hair was tied in a ponytail, and she had dark green eyes. "Huh, I just assumed ..." she gestured at Natalie's armor and coughed. "Well, never mind. You'll find out soon enough. Why is it just two of you?"

"The dungeon split us up," Natalie said. "Where's the rest of your team?"

"In the City," she said. "It's safe, as long as you stay within its borders. I was poking around to see what I could find. Apparently some of the others have found stashes of Tokens and whatnot. Thought I'd try my hand, while everyone else was resting." She shrugged.

"Others," Vanetta said. "How many?"

There was something about the way the girl was phrasing it that made Natalie suspicious.

"You might not believe me," she replied. "But there's hundreds of us." Jokingly, she said, "A whole city's worth, you could call it."

At Natalie and Vanetta's astounded expressions, she coughed.

"And that's just the half of it," the girl mumbled. "You're in for a ride, let me tell you. I guess I can show you around, if you want. It's a lot to take in, your first time here, and someone else did the same for me. Time to return the favor, I guess."