Alice took a deep breath, and then another, choking on the air. She was breathing again and a sense of glee washed over her, it had been at least 25 years since she had st taken a breath. Opening her eyes Alice found herself staring at a worn and rotted ceiling. Rising from the bed Erik was sitting on another one next to hers, waiting. They were at a hotel or some kind of inn, judging by all the noise coming from downstairs, it was probably an inn attached to a bar.

  "You finally woke up," Erik said ftly.

  "What happened," Alice said, rubbing her forehead.

  "You lost control of your temper, had a panic attack and then passed out... again," he was clearly annoyed.

  "I've not done that for a while," she responded, denying what he was saying.

  "Your st episode was two weeks ago."

  "And..."

  Knowing this was going nowhere Erik changed topics, "I made some modifications to your hardware, and adjusted some settings, I'm sure you noticed you're able to breathe now. Additionally, some of your body's functions were disabled, I've reactivated them,"

  "What did you mess with," Alice asked.

  "You'll notice soon enough, it's not worth the effort to expin it," he said, "plus, I don't take fancy to messing with other's bodies."

  Erik often deflected questions he didn't want to answer, typically when he's decided she would have a strong response to them. It used to annoy her to no end when he would do such things, but for some reason she couldn't find it in herself to get angry. Her reaction was strange but she couldn't muster the will to care. Perhaps this was what Erik meant by changes, it wasn't worth thinking about though. While Alice was lost in thought Erik continued to speak, changing topics yet again.

  "Anyways, it's about time I expined why exactly we're here," he said, "What do you know of the story of creation?"

  "What do you mean," Alice asked, unsure of where this was going.

  "You are a follower of the goddess Acia are you not," he asked, "What is the story of creation according to her texts,"

  "I couldn't tell you the specifics, I only know the summation of the scriptures,"

  "That's good enough,"

  "Well, long ago there was a pce called The Garden of Eden where the two original beastmen, Adam and Eve, lived. Every kind of edible and medicinal pnt was grown in the garden and a great wall surrounded it, it was a pce where all their needs would be met. Acia had come down and given them one command, to not climb the walls and leave the garden, as there was nothing outside the wall worth their while. One day a beautiful voice called to Adam asking for him to climb over the wall and join her, he fashioned a dder out of sticks and vines and tried to climb the wall. Eve seeing what he was about to do pulled the dder out from beneath him, causing Adam to fall.

  In his rage he had struck Eve knocking her to the ground and leaving. She prayed to Acia, who healed her wounds and punished Adam for his transgressions. The next day Acia came down and again told them not to leave the garden as there was nothing but suffering out there. Of course Adam didn't listen and for the next 8 nights he snuck away to speak with the voice over the wall, plotting a way to escape the walls. The voice told him all sorts of stories about what existed outside of the walls, and he told her of what was inside of the walls. Upon learning of Eve, the voice told him to bring her with him. He told the voice that she would refuse to come and was the reason he failed on his first attempt.

  The voice taught him how to make a potion from ingredients inside the wall and to use it to knock Eve out so she wouldn't catch him trying to escape. The voice also told him to gather pieces of all the fruits and pnts he could to bring over the wall. For a week he gathered all of the pnts and fruits he could carry and hid them by the wall, with a new dder he had built. One night he took a sip of the potion and gave Eve a kiss, pushing it into her mouth, and rendering her unconscious. In the dark he snuck over the wall and met with the woman behind the wall.

  Adam couldn't see what id behind the wall in the dark but the woman assured him it was just as beautiful as what was inside the garden. As a reward for what she had done for him, she mated with him, and in doing so cast a spell on him binding him to her will. From then on each week for over a year, he met with her bringing more and more from behind the wall..."

  "I thought you said you didn't know the story very well," Erik said interrupting her, clearly enjoying her recounting of the tale.

  "Do you want to hear the rest of it or not," Alice snapped, annoyed Erik interrupted her.

  "Up to you, I already know the story, I have an entire copy of the scriptures in memory," he replied.

  "Then why did you ask me to recount it to you!"

  "I wanted to know if you knew," he said, "The story is in part, relevant to our goal,"

  She watched as Erik pulled a map out from somewhere before dramatically unfurling it between them. The map was old, perhaps even as old as Erik cimed to be, pieces of it crumbled off and fell to the ground as he presented it to her.

  "Where did you get that,"

  "Ammaris retrieved it for a friend of mine about thirty years ago,"

  Alice's face soured at the mention of Ammaris, she tried to hide her reaction but Erik had already noticed.

  "Leave him alone,"

  "I didn't say anything,"

  "You were thinking it though," he said, teasing her.

  Erik knew well Alice hated the archons, it was understandable, they often enjoyed being knee deep in corpses or sailing through blood stained oceans. These were not what she would consider normal activities, though for gods born of war like them it was considered a fairly acceptable pastime.

  "Your evolving friendship with the archons aside, we are here," he said pointing to the middle of a nameless semi-circur isnd on the map, "Our end goal is here," he said pointing to the centermost isnd, though its name was worn away with time, she could still mostly make it out, Eden.

  Alice stared at the map for a few minutes before saying anything, "Is this why you asked if I knew the story of creation,"

  "Yes," Erik said, his expression somewhat grim, "The story you know is a lie, or at least a partial truth. Long ago, an ancient and awful being was confronted by seven great powers who wished to strip it of its power and influence. This fight ultimately concluded in the country of Eden, the being's home, and where life was believed to have originated. Growing tired from their fight the powers overwhelmed it and she was sealed away in a prison of mirrored gss and simply left in pce, out of fear of breaking the prison,"

  "You just referred to this 'thing' as a she, is this a person you're talking about," Alice said, catching Erik's slip.

  Erik sighed, he said something he didn't want to, "yes, inside of the prison is a devil known as Lilith, in most texts, she is referred to as 'the mother of demons', though that title is ill fitting,"

  "What do you mean by that," Alice said, listening to Erik with a healthy amount of skepticism.

  "She made a couple more devils, not demons, and even then they're more like shallow clones than actual unique individuals,"

  "How many are a couple," she asked knowing full well Erik was trying to understate the number.

  "Seventy, eighty, could be more, could be less,"

  "By Acia's tail!" Alice excimed, "that's not a couple of devils Erik,"

  "Most are half baked copies, only a few are actual threats, and I doubt we'll encounter any of them," he said dismissively, "As I was saying, Shortly after Lilith was sealed the ground around her prison began to crack. Intentional or not, she dragged the nd around her into the abyss, and nine great chunks soon came with, forming the different spheres of Hell, all orbiting around Eden in the middle."

  Alice didn't want to believe what Erik was saying, but she had no means of disproving him. The whole situation seemed fictitious to her, that some ancient being was trapped in a prison of mirrored gss, biding its time and waiting for the prison to break. She already found it hard enough to believe that they were in hell, the fact that they were sitting in a town occupied by mostly humans and the other less common races already partially disputed that fact. After all, a city like this would be a rge target for those looking to corrupt mortal souls.

  "This has to be a lot to take in," Erik said, "Especially since what I've told you goes against a lot of your beliefs..." he trailed off.

  Alice didn't respond to him, she sat for a while thinking over everything Erik had told her.

  "I just have one question," Alice said, "Why me, why did you take me along for this,"

  Erik was taken aback by the question, "I thought you would already know,"

  "No...?"

  "Alice, you're my daughter, you're the only person I can trust to complete this if I fail. While we may not be reted by blood, and I definitely wasn't the best of influence at times, you are my child."

  "Not the best influence huh," Alice joked.

  "I'm sure there are worse influences,"

  "You got me killed,"

  "I'm sure there are worse influences," he said, again.

  "I almost died,"

  Alice always did view Erik as a father figure, she only had vague memories of her real parents as she was taken from them when she was four and sold to her old master. Erik and Melissa really were the only things she had that resembled family, and as much as she hated to admit it, she was gd to hear he viewed her the same way. Erik did have siblings, but he never spoke of them, he only ever mentioned his sister once in all the time she knew him.

  The two sat in the room and bickered back and forth for a while, it was rare for them to have moments like this. He called her an ungrateful kid, she called him an old pile of scrap, and the two ughed. It was incredibly rare for Erik to show any emotions, Alice knew very well he put on a fa?ade, though she could never figure out why. It was nice to see him act like himself for once. A bell tower soon rang and put an end to their conversation.

  "What are we doing now," Alice said, moving to a window and looking outside at the people walking about the street.

  "We wait till tomorrow to begin marching to the next sphere, we shouldn't expect any issues till we get to the fourth sphere,"

  "Why's that?" Alice asked.

  "Was a big war over territory there, nd cims are still disputed, it's a political hellscape right now,"

  "Ah,"

  The two sat in silence for a while; it was sparingly interrupted by the sounds of a pen on paper. Erik was drawing a copy of the map, not wanting to mar the original.

  "If you were gonna make a copy of the map, why did you even bother bringing it?" Alice said, breaking the silence.

  "The isnds move and shift their positions constantly, the original keeps track of their movements," he said, not looking away from his work.

  "And you handle such a valuable artifact so casually," she said bemused.

  "Tool's are meant to be used," he replied quite bluntly.

  The silence resumed for a short while before Alice spoke again.

  "I have a question about the changes you made to me," she said.

  Erik stopped drawing, and became quite tense, "Go ahead,"

  "When I was asleep, I found myself in a library filled with books. When I opened one it was an old memory of me and Melissa," Alice said.

  Erik was visibly relieved, having expected her to ask a more pressing question, "A typical Elysian can recall past memories passively, reliving past events as if they were happening again in real time. Unfortunately for you, we had to make changes to the code so that you were able to do the same. We decided a library was the best way to represent it all to you, as it's something you were familiar with," he said, resuming his drawing, while looking at Alice.

  "Who's we?" she asked, curious about Erik's associates.

  "We were having issues getting parts on such short notice so Ammaris, Saris, Varg and Elysia donated a few bits of themselves to get you put back together, your left eye and mana reactor came from Ammaris, Saris donated one of her DNRs, Varg donated another one, and your entire right arm came from Elysia. I assembled the rest of the hardware and my friend handled most of the software. The six of us got into a big argument over how we should implement the compatibility yers, but my friend came out on top with the library,"

  Alice looked down at her body, it was strange knowing she was assembled out of a bunch of other people's bits and pieces, especially pieces of the archons she hated so much. A rge opaque window containing a bunch of information about her individual parts popped up and blocked her vision. She swatted at it trying to make it go away and Erik ughed at her filing about.

  "You must've subconsciously opened a status window," he chuckled.

  "Make it go away," she said, still filing about.

  "Just think about it going away and it will,"

  Doing so the window disappeared and she could see again, Erik was very amused by her reaction. The window must've been one of the 'features' he turned back on.

  "What's even the purpose of that," Alice said, mad at Erik for ughing at her.

  "It's part of the admin functions, a bunch of diagnostic information to make sure you are working correctly. Maintenance had access to it but for some reason you didn't, so I enabled it,"

  "Anyways, how do I get back into that memory room," she asked.

  "Just think about it hard enough and you'll go there, you'll fall unconscious though when you do it... You should be able to also repy memories while conscious, I'm sure you'll figure it out."

  "What's up there, just my memories," she asked, trying to see if Erik knew anything about the memory of her old master's murder.

  Erik became serious for a moment, "Are somebody else's memories in you,"

  "No," she maintained her composure, "was just curious if you stashed anything in there,"

  "There might be a user manual somewhere, just think about it and it should manifest itself," he said very nonchantly, "otherwise it's just you and your thoughts,"

  There was something in her memory that didn't belong to her, perhaps the pieces the archons gave her carried some old memories with them. What scared her was that Erik appeared completely unaware of someone else's memories being in her head. She didn't want to dwell too much on the thought though, the fact her body wasn't entirely her's already made her somewhat uncomfortable.

  "Well," Alice said getting up from her bed, "I want something to eat, I'm gonna go to the bar downstairs if that's alright,"

  "No worries, I'm only halfway done with my copy of the map," he replied.

  Alice stopped paying attention to what Erik was doing, but he was apparently drawing the map the entire time they had been talking. She walked over to take a look at the copy; it was impressive that he was able to draw such an accurate replica all while not looking at the original. It probably wasn't something Erik could uniquely do, but it also wasn't something a normal beastman or human could do either.

  Alice walked to the door and opened it, turning to look back at Erik, "I'll be downstairs, let me know if you want anything...," she closed the door behind her.

  "Stay out of trouble," Erik yelled after her.

  Alice slowly walked down the stairs, making her way to the bar below. The stairs lead directly to a person sized entrance by the bar counter. Ducking through the entrance she was in a spacious room with surprisingly high ceilings, which she found quite fortunate. The bar was packed with a rather diverse crowd, including several races she had never seen before. Looking about she even saw a couple of beastmen at a table, though she seemed to be the only one of the lesser variant there.

  As she walked to a seat, a few people turned to see who came from upstairs, the loud chatter turned to hushed whispers. Erik must've enhanced her hearing, as she heard their conversations perfectly, all at once. It was quite overwhelming hearing dozens of voices at once and in response her body began to filter them out one by one. Though the voices were different they were all asking the same questions, who/what was she.

  Alice knew she had become much taller when she was transformed into an Elysian, though she had not been around other races in the almost twenty-five years since then. She towered over the others in the bar by a couple decimeters. It was clear she was at least a lesser beastman, but beyond the variant nobody could tell what else. Erik had told her to 'prepare for a party', and didn't eborate further, he was not often sarcastic so she had dressed quite formally. She appeared to be someone important or at least someone who fancied themselves as such.

  Making her way across the busy floor she found herself a seat at the end of the bar counter away from others. She didn't feel like talking with anyone, and wanted some time to collect her thoughts. There were many times where Erik had stopped by her home to visit and she was in a dark room reading a book or pying with her phone. She found comfort in solitude, especially in an unusual situation such as this. It took a while for the bartender to come and take her order, and she got something basic, roast chicken with vegetables.

  "Do you have any money to pay for this," he said, giving her a dirty look.

  Erik had always told her to carry gold on her for situations like this, opening void storage she went to pull out her bag. Remembering that it had been burnt to ruin on their way here, she opted to just dig around in it till she found a coin, instead of taking it out and embarrassing herself. Eventually she felt something hard and metallic in there and pulled out a small gold coin about the size of her thumb and presented it to the man.

  The bartender looked at her dumbfounded, he had just watched someone casually cast a rather complicated spell, maintain it for several seconds while they dug around haphazardly and pulled out a sizable gold coin. Several others had also turned to stare, having sensed the spell being cast.

  It took a few seconds for Alice to realize everyone was staring at her, she turned to the bartender and handed him the coin, "Is there something wrong," she asked.

  "Uh," he said looking at the coin, befuddled by the woman's ck of awareness, "I can't break this."

  "Do you need a smaller piece?"

  "If you have one."

  Alice took the coin from the man and put it into her mouth, the soft gold easily deformed under her teeth as she chewed the coin, breaking it into several smaller pieces.

  Spitting them back out into her hand she presented them to the bartender, "take what one is good enough, you don't need to worry about change,"

  The man had a visible look of disgust as he reached out and wryly grabbed a small piece from her hand.

  "Don't worry, I got my rabies shot," she said jokingly.

  He looked at her confused, having not gotten the joke. The gold piece in his hand was cold, dry, and clean, which he found very strange; irregardless any gold was good gold, and he put in her order.

  Alice sat in silence while she waited, new whispers echoed around the bar now, of her being a sorceress or witch. She was amused by them but also very confused, was the spell she had so casually cast that impressive. Erik had told her that Elysium was more technologically and magically advanced than most other pnes, but she just now was starting to realize how much more they were. She remembered hearing two elysians compining about how their subordinates were filling their void storage with literal garbage. She had wrongly assumed it was a simple spell anyone could cast.

  Amidst the voices trying to figure out what devil or god she signed a pact with, there was a set that stood out, they were arguing over if they should invite her to sit with them or not. Alice ignored them, she was gonna decline their offer anyways and simply waited for her food to come out. Soon her food was brought to her and Alice went to cut into the chicken.

  It was then she heard footsteps approaching her from behind and became tense, sensing the person behind her, "Hello, my name is Boris," he said, "the rest of my party wanted to know If you would like to join us for lunch?"

  She turned around to look at the man to decline his offer and was surprised to see not a human or elf but one of the beastmen she had seen earlier when she had first come downstairs.

  She took a minute to think about his offer, "Why not, it'll be nice to have some company," she replied, picking up her pte and utensils and following the man to the rest of his party.

  They had already cleared a spot at the table for her and she took a seat, the others all looked quite happy to see her which she found unusual. Erik had taught Alice about the different variants of beastmen and how to identify them and judging from their fur covered bodies and animalistic faces, they all appeared to be a greater or half beastman.

  The man who called her over was a tiger-kin greater beastman, judging by his green robes and the way he carried himself, he was some kind of martial fighter. Across from here were two half-beast rabbit kin, the matching mottled bck and brown patches on their otherwise white fur clearly indicated they were reted, one of them was buried in a book with his feet up on the table, the other was yelling at him to take them off it; they were clearly mages from the light vests and pants covered in ornate yet functional protective runes. Next to them on the left was a wolf-kin greater beastman, his bck fur was poorly kept, and he had several scars and cuts, some of which were recent. It was apparent from the suit of pte armor he was still wearing he was a knight of some sorts. To the right of the rabbit siblings was a tan cat-kin beastman, like Alice, though she was a half-beast. Clearly the silent sort, her face was covered with a bck cloth and was wearing darkly colored leather armor; she had a set of throwing knives slung over her chest in a bandolier.

  To her left was an alligator, or maybe a crocodile kin greater beastman, Alice didn't know the difference between the two. He was rge, covered in tattoos, and dressed very minimally in a monk's robes; another martial artist. On her right was the man who invited her to the table, and to his right was the st member of the party, a light brown furred mouse-kin greater beastman, she was also in pte armour, with some holy seals tacked onto it. Unlike the wolfman next to her though, she had removed some of the pieces to make sitting more comfortable and was obviously a padin.

  Alice and the rest of the table sat in awkward silence, all of them waiting for the other to speak. It had been a long time since Alice sat down and spoke with other people, she rarely left Elysium, and interacted with the same people almost daily; she simply didn't know how to start a conversation anymore.

  Fortunately for her, the mouse-kin came to her rescue and spoke up "Come on guys, you all fight over inviting the poor girl over and don't even bother to speak to her," she said condemning the rest of the table. "I'm Ami," she continued, "Since everyone else won't introduce themselves I'll do it for them. You already met Boris, and grumpy over to my left is Isak," the wolfman gave her a dirty look, "The twins are Lennard and Rina."

  "I prefer Len," he interrupted Ami, not looking away from his book.

  "You can call me Rin if you want, I don't care," his sister said kindly.

  Ami was about to introduce the other two when the cat woman spoke, "I can introduce myself," she said, "I'm Vanessa, it's nice to see one of my own down here,"

  Alice gave her a confused look, and she pointed to her ears, "Oh," she said, finally understanding what Vanessa was saying.

  "I'm Ahmose," said the man next to her, "I'm a caiman by the way," he said, jokingly.

  "To this day I still don't know what that is," Isak said, "You lizards all look the same to me."

  "I could say the same about you mutts," Ahmose retorted and everyone at the table ughed.

  "You've yet to introduce yourself," Ami said, looking at Alice.

  "Sorry," she said awkwardly, "It's been a while since I've spoken to normal people. My name is Alice, Alice Cavallesso."

  Rina turned to her brother, who was still reading, "You hear that Len, she says you're normal," he closed his book blushing and smacked his sister on the head with it before going back to his reading.

  Alice and the rest of the table spoke for a while, they were all from different pnes, and all met each other in Resistance and decided to form a party. Apparently they were the only beastmen in the entire city, Alice was surprised to hear this but also understood why this was. The beastmen and other races had a complex retionship, and a long history of ensving each other, something Alice experienced first hand. As she was thinking about this, Isak spoke.

  "So which one of your parents was the unlucky one," he said half seriously, half poking fun at her.

  "What do you mean," she said, not fully understanding.

  "Come on kid, who owned who," he replied, "I've met a few lesser beastmen in my day, most didn't know their parents for a good reason,"

  "Oh goodness no, my parents were the same as me, though I don't remember them very well..."

  "Got a secret past there kid," he said.

  "No, just very unfortunate," she said, with a cold look on her face, "Also, just so you know, I'm older than you," she said. Through their banter she learned he was the oldest in the party at thirty-two, and Ami was the youngest at nineteen, the rest were in their twenties.

  "Pff," he ughed, almost spitting out his drink, "I've been told it's rude to ask a dy her age, though I'm no gentleman, how old are ya."

  "Forty-seven, I turn forty-eight next month," she gave a fake smile.

  "Damn your old," he excimed, "And I thought you were in your early twenties OLDEST,"

  "Do you use magic to slow your aging?" Len asked, finally speaking.

  "No, it's a long story,"

  Alice sighed, she didn't like thinking about a lot of these things, but the rest of the people here wanted to know her, of course they would ask about her past, and who she was. It was only natural for people to do that. After some pressing she discussed her past a little bit, leaving out several crucial details. They learned she was of the nobility on her pne, then became a sve for a few years before being freed by Erik, who was upstairs at the moment, lived with Melissa and her husband and then on her own for a while after. Also that she suffered an accident that left her disfigured and then stopped aging. She didn't trust the table too much, and left out many vital bits of her story.

  The others all shared their pasts with her, though she was only half listening. Most of them came from an area in pnar space known as the bestial pnes, she could tell by the names of the pnes. Erik told her about them many years ago, it was just a collection of pnes that neighbored each other and had very high poputions of beastmen and animals. The only ones not from this region were Ami, and Isak. Ami was from a pne named Mauros, where they worship a mouse god, thus people considered her a vassal of their god; she was trained as a padin because of this. Isak on the other hand came from a pne by the name of Caldoria, where he was born in the gdiator pits and served as a sve for most of his early life, before joining a rebellion and breaking free. He'd been drifting between different pnes via the mist walls for years now as a mercenary.

  After a while of more talking about various things, Boris got up and spoke, "It was good talking today, but I would like to get something to drink, Isak, Ahmose, you two coming along," he said.

  "I can't let you outdrink me like st time," Isak said, getting up and hitting Boris with his elbow.

  "Anyone else care to join us," Boris yelled over to the rest of his party from the bar.

  Vanessa waved over to them, "I'll join, can't have you drunk idiots causing any problems again!"

  Seeing as the party was splitting up Alice stood up to excuse herself, "Well, it was nice meeting all of you, I'm going to head back to my room then."

  "You're leaving already!" Ami excimed.

  "Everyone seems to be going their separate ways no...?"

  "Typically once they go off to drink," Rina said, gesturing to the other four at the bar, "we'll find something else to do."

  "I see, I apologize for my rudeness," Alice said, taking a short bow.

  Ami and Rina looked at Alice confused for a moment, Len was peeking out from behind his book but quickly hid his face when she noticed.

  "You have some strange mannerisms," Ami remarked.

  "I told you," Alice said jokingly, "It's been a while since I've been around normal people."

  "We were going to head up to our room, I got a tarot nouveau deck," Rina said, "Do you know how to py?"

  "No, I'm a fast learner though," Alice said, interested in learning the game.

  The other three got up, though Len stayed behind when the other two went to lead Alice to their room.

  "Are you not coming with us?" She asked him.

  "N-no I'm gonna stay with the others," he said nervously.

  "But... you don't drink," she said under her breath, just loud enough for him to hear.

  "Don't worry we'll take care of him," Boris, who was already smming down shots yelled over to the three, almost falling out of his chair as he leaned back.

  "Stay out of trouble please," Rina yelled over to Len before rushing up the stairs to the rooms above.

  Rina led Alice to her room, and she quickly realized their room was right next to her and Erik's; she could still hear him drawing away in the room. She unlocked the door and held it open for Alice and Ami to enter. Her room was much rger than Erik and Alice's with two decently sized bunk beds with footlockers and a rather rge table in between them. There was a small study desk stuffed in the corner covered in books and papers. Alice walked over to check out the desk when Rina went to stop her.

  "I apologize, my brother likes to make a mess in here," she said, "He loves to leave his research all over the pce."

  "It's alright, I imagine my father is currently making a mess in our room copying over his map anyways," she said, the scratching sound from her room paused for a second as she said that before furiously resuming.

  Alice moved, joining the other two at the table, Ami had already cut the deck and began dealing out the cards while Rina expined the rules to her. With a basic understanding of how the trump cards and scoring worked Alice looked at her hand, typically the game called for four pyers but since there were only three of them, everyone got an extra six cards. She had six trumps, meaning the others had sixteen split between them, the odds were not in her favor. Subconsciously her mind began to calcute the distribution of cards between the three, when the chien was revealed, there were three trumps in there, Ami and Rina had thirteen now split between them.

  You barely know the game, stop trying to cheat, she heard a voice in her head say.

  I'm not, she pleaded with Erik who must've picked up on her doing calcutions.

  Stop counting cards, he retorted.

  I'M NOT!

  "Earth to Alice are you there," Ami said, her hand waving in front of Alice's face.

  Alice had zoned out arguing with Erik and didn't realize her turn had come up.

  "Sorry, I just got messaged," she said.

  "Ah, I hate those messaging spells, other people's voice in your head is weird isn't it," Rina said.

  "Yes, very annoying indeed," Alice said, looking behind her and hoping Erik would hear.

  The three continued their game, and it continued for a while without interruption. Alice wasn't very good at tarot but neither was Ami, so at least she wasn't always coming in st. By the end of their third game, Alice felt a presence behind her, turning back there was nothing there. Changing her vision to manalight, Erik behind the wall staring at her, clearly trying to mess with her. In one swift motion she grabbed a card from the chien pile and flung it perfectly into the gap between two pnks catching him by surprise. The card hit him in the head and he released a yelp as he loudly fell to the floor. After a few seconds the card slid back through the crack, which Alice got up and grabbed, returning it to the table.

  "What was that about," Ami asked, confused and a little concerned.

  Alice sighed, "my room is next door, my father was trying to mess with me through the walls, so I threw a card at him," she replied, as much as she liked Ami and Rina, she didn't want them to know she was rooming next door.

  Her expnation only left the other two more confused.

  "What do you mean," Rina asked, concerned for Alice's sanity.

  "He was using manalight to see through the wall and stare at me," realizing she sounded like a crazy person she continued, "Manalight lets you see through things that don't have souls."

  "Can you do that," Rina asked, intrigued.

  "Yes, unfortunately," Alice said, turning around to see Erik had returned to his post; she grabbed a card and motioned to throw it again. There was a loud noise of scrambling as Erik moved trying to dodge the card. The other two ughed hearing the commotion, and realizing Alice was telling the truth.

  "So, how many fingers am I holding up behind my back," Rina asked.

  "I can't see through you, I can just see you through things," she said, quickly changing her vision to x-ray, "though you're holding up four."

  "How did you know," Rina asked, shocked.

  "I never said I didn't have a way to see through you, just that manalight couldn't," she snarkily replied.

  "How about this," Ami grabbed a pillow and hid her hand behind it and held up two fingers.

  "Two, though you just changed it to three right now,"

  "Damn, thought I'd get you there," she said, "How about now?"

  "That's a very inappropriate hand gesture for a padin to make," Alice said.

  "Oh my~," Rina quickly jumped on teasing Ami.

  "I was holding up a finger," she pleaded.

  "I'm sure you were," Rina said.

  "Stop it guys," Ami pouted, "So Rin, when you gonna tell Alice what your brother said about her," she said, seizing an opportunity to turn the table on Rina.

  Alice perked up, and turned to Rina, "Did he have something to say about me Rina, I hope it wasn't anything bad."

  "Gosh, you're oblivious aren't you," Ami said, teasing Alice.

  "What do you mean?"

  Rina sighed, "The idiot's got a crush on you that's all."

  "What do you mean, we just met," Alice started to blush a bit.

  "That's how it works isn't it," Ami said to her, "He couldn't even look you in the face, was trying to act all cool and mysterious while reading his book."

  "You can just ignore him," Rina said to Alice, appearing to be embarrassed by her brother.

  "That seems a bit rude to do," Alice said, shocked by the revetion.

  The idea of entering any sort of retionship had never crossed her mind. Elysium was not a normal pce, the elysians were the most dysfunctional people she had ever met, any idea of normalcy was abandoned the second she entered that god forsaken pne. Even there the only thing she ever thought of was her home, her people were ensved, and she was the only one that could do anything about it. Once everything was said and done, once she had sin all of her enemies, could she possibly live a normal life... it was unlikely. Alice stayed lost in this train of thought for a while, until Ami spoke up.

  "Ignore Rin," she said, "You should talk to Len tomorrow, it can only go so wrong."

  It could only go so wrong Alice thought, Ami was right, what could really go wrong.

  "You're right, I'll talk to him ter,"

  Rina wanted to say something, but some loud voices and commotion from downstairs interrupted her.

  "That sounded like the guys," Ami said getting up, "We should see what happened, Len's too fragile for prison," she said to Rina, much to her annoyance.

  "I'm not bailing Isak and Boris out of prison for public drunkenness again," Rina replied, ignoring Ami's comment.

  The two rushed out of the room, Alice quickly following behind. As they ran down the hall Alice thought she heard Erik yell something to her from their room but she couldn't hear him. Across the room where Alice was originally sitting, Vanessa and Boris were holding back Isak as he was trying to attack a man and his party. Even at such a distance she could hear them clearly.

  "—you bastard," Isak was practically frothing at the mouth as he yelled at the man, "let me go already I—"

  "You truly are a bunch of unruly animals, I don't even know why they allowed you filthy hybrids into here," he calmly said, only provoking Isak further.

  "Who is that?" Alice asked Ami and Rina, as they watched from the stairs.

  "Derrik, some elf that came around recently, he thinks he's better than everybody else," Rina replied, annoyed.

  "Loves to talk about his lineage and how pure he is, probably inbred," Ami added on.

  Alice looked him over, he definitely looked like an elf, though he was not a pure elf. His ears were too short and were positioned differently. His blond hair and amber eyes were signs of being part high elf but he was far too short to be any more than a half-elf, probably mixed with a human.

  "He's not a pure elf though," Alice said to the other two, "he's half high elf at most, he's too short to be anything more."

  "How do you know...," Ami quickly became quiet and watched in horror as Isak broke free, grabbing a steak knife and lunging for Derrik.

  Alice sprinted across the room, getting in between the two and grabbing Isak's arm mid stab. She applied pressure to his wrist causing him to drop the knife and pushed Derrik away with her other hand, keeping them separated.

  "It seems the rest of your party has shown up, and you got a new member too," he said, ungrateful for Alice saving his life, "did the others find her working the same street as them?"

  Alice shoved Derrik to the ground and released Isak's arm, he moved towards Derrik, but she gave him a look and he backed down.

  "You're lucky she stepped in Derrik, don't think I won't do it," he said, turning around, Vanessa and Boris followed him back to the bar.

  Alice waited for Derrik to get up, "what do you want," he said to her, "go back with the rest of your half breed friends..."

  Ami and Rina went over to the others, Alice was talking to Derrik about something, and she did not look happy about it. The others, though their mood soured, went back to drinking and talking. The two went over to Vanessa and Ahmose, as Isak and Boris were in the middle of a drinking competition.

  "Where's Len," Rina asked, worried about her brother.

  "Passed out in the corner," Vanessa pointed to a stool wedged in between the bar counter and the back of a booth seat.

  "He finished two shots of rum, muttered something about grey cats and passed out," Ahmose added, "it was pretty funny honestly."

  Rina, concerned, went over to tend to her brother who was fast asleep, attempting to rouse him from his slumber.

  "So what happened with Derrik this time," Ami said, taking a seat next to Vanessa and Ahmose and ordering a light beer.

  "The usual, he showed up shortly after you three left and decided he wanted his life cut short," Ahmose said, "Honestly surprised Isak hasn't tried to kill him earlier."

  They were interrupted by Alice and Derrik yelling at each other, though nobody could make out what either were saying.

  "He called Isak a dog, and he lost it," Vanessa added, "You'd think he'd learn after the second or third time that Isak is gonna try to rip him in half."

  Rina was about to say something, but a fsh of light filled the bar, followed by a loud thunder-like sound that finally stirred Len awake.

  A shrill voice screamed in horror.

  "I want an apology," Alice said sternly.

  "Excuse me."

  "Do those knives on the side of your head you call ears not work," she said, "I want an apology."

  "For what," Derrik said, getting in Alice's face.

  "My friends did not 'find me on the street', I met them when I came here to get my lunch. I will not have you insultme, or them, like this."

  "And I will not hear the compints of a lesser beastman," Derrik snarkily replied, walking away.

  "I don't want to hear anything about race from a half elf," Alice's patience was being worn thin.

  "What did you call me!" he spun back around in rage.

  "I called you what you are, a half elf. Do you even know your lineage," she said, "You're too short to be a pure breed, and your ears are at an improper angle. Who are you to even pretend to be an authority on such topics."

  Alice clearly struck a nerve, as his yelling attracted the attention of the rest of his party, who had come over to see what was going on.

  "You're just the daughter of some lowly beastman whore," he yelled at her, "Know your pce in the world."

  "What did you just call me," Alice spit, her eyes narrowed and her tail began to swish back and forth erratically.

  "I called you what you are, a whores daughter, a worthless dreg born from those that crawl in the mud below even the lowest of society."

  "My family was nobility, the rulers of our pne; my mother was ordained by the highest order she could be, by the righteous hand of the goddess Acia," Alice screeched at him, "the blood that flowed through my veins is far purer and holier than yours ever will be you knife eared wet sack."

  Sensing the aggression within her, Alice's body began subconsciously disabled her weight suppression system, the dry wooden floor groaning in agony under her rapidly increasing mass. Small valves in her limbs opened up filling hydraulic lines and synthetic muscle shuddered to life as the small electromagnetic fibers in them activated. Alice was ready to kill, her hands instinctually curling into fists.

  Derrik ughed at her, and motioned to the rest of his party to join in, "That's the best joke I've heard all day," he said, "Tell me more, tell me of the purity in your tainted blood."

  Alice turned away, "There's no reasoning with you," she said, looking back, "You are only human after all, your ignorance shows no bounds."

  "Get back here slu—," Derrik was not afforded the luxury of finishing his sentence.

  He had pushed Alice over the edge, and in an instant she whipped around and punched him in the face. The full weight of her fist impacted his face, obliterating flesh and bone alike. The energy released caused a fsh of light and a loud crackling sound filled the room, fsh shields inside of Alice's eyes blinded her for a second, protecting the sensitive photosensors inside.

  Regaining her vision, Alice took in the scene before her. Derrik was obliterated, all that remained of him was a small potion of his torso and legs. She had evaporated the man, chunks of bone and flesh covered everyone and everything behind him. She wasn't safe either, having been spshed with a thick red slurry. His torso fell to the ground with a loud thump, the remaining organs inside spilling onto the ground with a wet sound, the remaining blood pooling around them

  A loud shrill scream pierced Alice's ears, as the mage in Derrik's party screamed in horror.

  "I—," Alice went to speak.

  Panic began to spread around the bar, people having seen the aftermath of Alice and Derrik's altercation began to try to flee the bar.

  The mage pointed her staff at Alice and she could sense she was casting something dangerous. She couldn't allow that to happen. Alice lunged for the mage, ripping the staff from her hands and in one swift movement, smashed the fragile gss focus of the staff into the mages face knocking her to the ground. She screamed in agony as the broken gss caused multiple deep cerations and gouged out one of her eyes. She begged for mercy but there was no reprieve, Alice didn't care. She moved mechanically pcing her boot on the mages ribs and grabbing her arm, pulling it. Her shoulder emitted a loud pop as it was pulled from its socket.

  "ALICE!" a voice yelled from across the room.

  Erik heard Alice fighting with someone down there; the bang and screams told him the altercation had turned physical. Blood was everywhere, and half a man's torso id on the ground. Alice was in the process of ripping some poor girl's arm off, and someone else had drawn a sword on part of the group of beastmen she was talking with earlier. While he did not want to get involved in whatever was unfolding before him, Alice would be quite upset if he had allowed any harm to come to her friends.

  He unched himself across the room pnting his shoulder squarely into the man's sternum. Erik could feel the bones in his chest breaking as he hit him, the man smmed into the bar wall before colpsing unconscious on a table. Of the fifty-two people that were initially in the bar when he came down, only eight of them remained, three of which were Alice's friends.

  "What are you still doing here," Erik practically hissed, turning to the mousekin and twin rabbitkin.

  The mousekin, who he assumed was Ami, went to speak but was cut off by a blood curdling scream and the sound of tearing flesh as Alice successfully liberated the mage's arm from her body. A man, who Erik had seen earlier hiding behind an upturned table charged at Alice attempting to stab her with a dagger. She hit him upside the head with the disembodied arm hard enough Erik could hear bones cracking. Grabbing him, she flung him across the bar like a doll. The man hit one of the wooden supports back first wrapping around it with a horrid crunch as his legs swung back and his feet hit his head. Somehow still alive and conscious he crawled across the floor, slowly and painfully moving towards Alice. Erik admired his determination, he would've made for a good elysian.

  For some reason Alice's three friends were still in the bar, the male seemingly attempting to join Alice in the fight.

  "Are you daft, get out," he yelled at them before turning his attention back to Alice, "Don't kill anyone else, it's not worth the trouble it will cause."

  "Len keeps fighting back sir," said the other rabbitkin, who was presumably Rina.

  Erik crouched down looking Len in the face, moving to cast a quick sleeping spell on him.

  "Don't touch me, lemme fight," he yelled at him.

  He spit in Erik's face, and though completely wasted he had a wild look in his eyes and clearly wanted to fight. Erik had a rge malicious grin on his face, and ughed; he liked Len. Wiping the spit off his face with his sleeve, Erik cast the spell and he went limp.

  "Drag him out of here, that will only st a few minutes," he said, "take the back exit, I don't know if she's gonna throw anyone else around."

  The trio quickly left and Erik was able to focus on getting Alice to calm down. As he turned to face her she was resting her boot on the mages head, the woman sobbing and begging for mercy as she slowly pressed her head into the ground. Alice intended to crush her skull under her boot, Erik could hear the crackling of her bones and the wood beneath as Alice increased the pressure on her head.

  Erik moved fast, he wanted to prevent Alice from digging the two of them into any deeper of a hole than what they were already in. He grabbed a nearby gss cup and flung it at Alice. Too focused on crushing the mages skull she ignored the sensors warning her of the gss and it hit her square in the side of the head and shattered. Surprised, she leapt back, removing her foot from the mage's head. Instinctively she unched herself forward towards the source of the cup, Erik grabbed her arm just before her fist had hit him, his hand slipping slightly on the blood that still coated her arm.

  It took a moment for Alice to realize Erik was standing before her, "Sorry," she stuttered, "I didn't see you there, I got caught up in... things."

  Erik released her arm.

  "I told you to stay out of trouble," Erik's voice was ft, he was enraged.

  "I didn't start it," Alice pleaded.

  "I know, it was the elf," his voice soured at the st word.

  "He..."

  Erik cut her off.

  "I don't care, go outside and clean yourself up, I will take care of your mess..."

  Alice left without argument, slowly slinking out of the front door, leaving Erik with her two victims.