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Chapter 6 - The Beginning of the End

The changeling girl cowered against the wall as Kai tightened his grip. Bubbles of anger popped in his veins. He hated them. He hated them all.

"P-please," her breath of air would have been unintelligible to him had it not been for his heightened hearing.

"Drop the act," he shouted. Everything about her screamed 'evil whore'. He refused to carelessly lose his people to the Five Nation's brutal slave trade.

He'd never seen an 'ensnarer' on this side of the sea, but that didn't mean he was blind. Beauty rushed in torrents from the girl, and the damsel in distress story she pulled was just far too coincidental. Plus, the Anellian clothes she wore gave her away entirely.

"How long have you been recruiting?" He hissed, loosening his grip slightly for fear that she would pass out. Then again, Anellian's hadn't exactly been known for their interest in keeping slaves.

"I-don't-you," she choked out incoherently.

His anger would have had him strangle her there against the wall but the logical part of his mind continued to whirr as always. He needed information from the girl more than he needed to kill her right that second. Fucking siren.

In a flash he spun her so she was facing the wall and a split second later, her hands were tied uncomfortably behind her back.

Kai stepped back and tried to pull the white haired girl along but she went limp and collapsed into him. He caught her reflexively, looking to the skies and wondering how his day had taken such a turn. An ensnarer in Craine City? This was insane.

Sighing with resignation, he hoisted the unconscious girl onto his shoulder. Perhaps she was an Omarian in disguise. But that couldn't be right either. Her skin was the creamiest of whites, glossed over with a light caramel tan. Nothing like the burnt chocolate of the sand people.

He walked as he thought. Perhaps she was an escaped slave... the thought made him feel bad about his actions. He grabbed her limp forearm to check for a serial number, systematically going through all her fingers. The draping of white skin over bones remained unmarred by black numbers.

Kai immediately stopped feeling bad about his actions. Slaves hadn't escaped this way in years. But then, ensnarers hadn't been here either.

His head spun at the puzzle. What Anellian had white hair anyway? He could count the number of people he'd met with hair that blonde on one hand, and they were all part of the same family. Perhaps she was a witch? It was possible, she had the look of one.

Whatever she was; ensnarer, witch or lost human, there was no way Kai could turn her in to Nefasu. She could be a serious danger to Craine. Especially if he was right and she was here to kidnap his people.

+++++

Her whole body pulsed steadily. Beating, beating, throbbing pain. What she thought were her eyes wouldn't open. She tried again. There we were. The grime which had been gluing them shut separated.

There was an dark orange glow to her right but she daren't look in that direction before having a better grasp of her surroundings. The ceiling above her seemed fairly low from where she lay, the creamy colour splashed with bleeding pieces of brown and black. In places the paint even dangled completely free of the plaster. It reminded her of the hastily painted suburbs in Paladu. Oh gods she missed home.

"You're awake," a rumbling male voice spoke from the direction of the light.

Nereyda hesitantly shifted her head to face the right. The events of the previous night grew vivid with the sight of the blonde man. He sat on a simple stool next to the light, hands clasped and elbows resting on his knees. A knife sat on the table beside him.

Her heart skipped a beat, her eyes widening at the sight of the long blade. Had he brought her here, just to wait for her to wake before he killed her?

His seemingly weary gaze followed hers to the knife on the table beside him. His eyes darted back to hers, a glint there that wasn't before.

"I'm not going to use that yet." His teeth flashed in a predatory smile. "Not if you cooperate."

A tear slipped out of her eye closest the bed. She didn't think he could see it in the half dark. What had she gotten herself into?

The man called Kai stood, his hand casually retrieving his knife from the small table.

Nereyda scrambled to push herself into a sitting position, retreating as far into the corner as the physicalities of the world permitted.

"So upon reflection, I would conclude that I was being somewhat irrational last night." Kai paced the small room as he spoke. "I did not give you a chance to properly explain yourself." He started tossing the knife in his hand. It spun end over end in the air as a blur before falling handle first into his open palm. This was one of the most fearful men Nereyda had ever encountered in her life.

"I have my suspicions," he continued. "But I shall not presume to accuse until I have heard your part. My apologies for yesterday. I was," he waved his knife through the air to illustrate some kind of point. "Taken off guard." His knife stilled in the air and he turned so as to make full eye contact with her. "So speak."

Nereyda's mind whirled. How should she say? She could tell him the truth but what if he sent her straight back to Paladu and to her father? What if she told him and he didn't believe her at all? People might not know anything about Five Nation politics this side of the sea. She could say she was just a nomad, looking for a better life. That was why most people travelled this way.

His hand seemed to tighten around his knife the longer she stayed silent. "Know that if you dare lie..." he held her eyes in a glare as his thumb flipped the knife in the air. "And I will know."

For some reason she believed him. He seemed powerful in a strange way. But certainly to the point that he would know if she spoke untruths. So there was really only one option left to her.

The breath that she had been holding rattled out in a sigh. How to begin? Her voice was barely a whisper when she spoke. "I come from Paladu. It is a kingdom East of the Tainted Sea. I was-" her voice wavered and split. "I was a princess there. Destined for the crown."

Kai stumbled in his pacing, the knife pausing in its hypnotic dance through the air. "Princess of Paladu you say?" His voice was softer than she'd ever heard it.

"That's correct sir," she whispered.

In the hazy light, she thought he might have paled. He moved to sit back down on the stool he'd vacated.

He motioned with his knife for her to continue. She flinched at the sight but opened her mouth to speak.

"There was...a misunderstanding between my family and myself. I had to run away. Crossing the Tainted Sea...it was my only option. And my last option."

Kai brought his hands behind his head - knife and all - stretching as he blew out a breath.

"You mean to tell me that you are a snow leopard changeling? One of the most powerful beasts in history, a little thing like you?"

Nereyda growled lowly, the sound rumbling through her chest. The audacity of the dalatzef. He would dare to jeer at a princess.

His eyes sparked with interest at her anger. "You claim to be a changeling. And yet I cannot smell you. Why would that be?"

She appraised his challenging stare, suddenly wearier than she'd been before. He said that he should be able to smell her, thereby implying that he himself was a changeling. Was he speaking the truth? "If you think you should be able to smell me, why can't I smell you?"

His lips lifted for the first time that she'd seen. "While you make a valid point, I don't see that you're in a position to be conducting the interrogation." He smirked.

She knew that he was right. He was in the position of power and she would have to submit to him...for the moment.

"I am trying, and failing miserably, to keep a distance between myself and my true identity."

Kai continued staring at her expectantly, obviously not taking that as an answer.

Nereyda sighed. "I had a witch mask my scent." She hated having to show him all her cards from the outset but she really didn't have much of a choice at this point.

He was thoughtful for a couple of seconds. "So before I believe what you say, you must find a way to prove your identity."

Nereyda found Kai's suspicion disarming. Was everyone over here this distrusting? "Why does it matter so much to you who I am?" She was suddenly defensive. "What, are you going to send me back to my father?"

Kai picked at his nails with the tip of his knife, leaning back against the wall behind him. "No," he said casually. "But you should know that changelings get thrown off buildings in Force."

Nereyda felt the colour draining from her face. Was that a threat?

"So if you did actually happen to be a changeling, you would be very fortunate to have encountered me first. Since we are of the same."

"Fuck," she breathed in relief. She let her eyes glow and her canines elongate, baring her teeth at Kai. "Stop playing with me!" She growled.

This time his lips lifted into a full blown grin and he laughed at her anger.

She blew a piece of hair out of her face and allowed her features to soften.

"You're cute," Kai said still chuckling, "Snow Princess."

Now that the tension in the room seemed to have eased and he wasn't pointing that knife at her anymore, she found herself relaxing. Her lips tilted at his apparent amusement.

"My apologies, your highness," he said rather sarcastically. "But your name seems to have escaped me at this second."

"Nereyda," she said quietly. "My name is Nereyda."

"So we'll call you Rae then."

Her whole body jerked at the sound of the nickname. "N-no," she spluttered. "Anything but that."

Her eyed her carefully for a couple of seconds. "Okay," he said. "Not that." It was quiet for a moment as he seemed to be thinking. His lips moved around her name several times. "Nereyda, Nereyda, Nereyda," he whispered. "What about Daliah?"

She shrugged noncommittally at him. She guessed it made sense for her to use a different name, especially if she didn't want to be tracked down by her father. "Does this mean that you're going to help me?" She didn't want to assume his cooperation but she just had to know.

He leveled a careful stare her way. She squirmed under his scrutiny. Why did she feel like he could see every shameful secret she hid?

"What do you know of Force?" He asked in a austere tone.

He rose to his feet as he waited for a reply.

"I-" she was taken off guard by his open ended question. "Really not much sir."

He held out his hand to her and she hesitantly allowed him to pull her off the bed and to her feet. "Just Kai is fine," he said, releasing her once she stood.

"Follow close," he commanded before crossing the small, sparsely decorated room and strolling out through the door.

Nereyda nearly tripped in her haste to follow him.

The small room opened onto a narrow stairwell. The walls were unpainted and the stairs themselves were hard, unpaved concrete.

She looked down to see how far ahead Kai was but she found that she couldn't see any trace of him. Her heart sped up in panic. Surely he wouldn't be so brutal as to leave her now?

"Are you coming?" His low voice bounced off all the hard surfaces in the enclosed space but there was no doubt that it came from above.

Without seeing it as her place to question him, she could do nothing but scramble upwards silently.

He took the stairs two at a time and she found herself having to lift her skirts and run to even keep his blonde head in her view.

She didn't know how much time passed but about ten flights of stairs later, Kai pushed open a door with a green sign that read 'fire exit'. She panted while attempting to nod in thanks as he held the door open for her.

It wasn't that she wasn't used to so many stairs, it was only that he went up them so bloody fast!

At the top of the building she was struck with a sudden bout of homesickness. The city sprawled out around her, some buildings still reaching even higher than where she stood. Observing the world from this high a point reminded her sweetly of the view from the back of her castle in Paladu. She had stood there with Lord Oscar so many months ago. How she'd wished for freedom.

Now, buffeted by the wind on a building the height of a mountain, stuck in a lost land with nowhere else to go...she wasn't so sure that freedom was what she wanted.

Kai walked on ahead of her, striding straight up to the edge of the roof. Nereyda's heart rate picked up as he stood on the lip of the flat expanse, tipping to and fro in the wind.

She hesitantly took a few steps forwards to see him better. His eyes were closed and as she watched, he stretched out his arms to the sides. His hair flickered, his lips parted...and then he fell.

Nereyda's hand came over her mouth as she screamed.

Running to the edge of the building, she hesitantly peered over the edge.

Kai stood on the roof of the next building over, a couple of floors lower than where she was. Her breath left her in a relieved rush. She guessed he had jumped more than he'd fallen.

He turned to grin up at her making a 'come here' gesture with his hands.

She'd only known this guy for a day and yet he'd managed to nearly give her a heart attack multiple times.

"No," she said even though he couldn't hear her, vigorously shaking her head.

He opened his palms in a 'why not' gesture. "I'll catch you," he shouted to her.

There had to be at least a two metre gap between the buildings. If she listened to this madman, she was going to fall to her death. Then again, she had definitely jumped larger distances when rock jumping on the river back home. And it wasn't like heights were really anything new either.

Nereyda inhaled deeply through her nose. "I swear to all the gods that you better catch me!" She screamed over the wind, shaking an arm at him to emphasise her point.

He guffawed in response and she wasn't sure if that was supposed to give her more confidence or not.

Closing her eyes, she took a few of steps and, before she could lose her nerve, ran to the edge of the building and launched herself in the vague direction of Kai.

For an exquisite second, dark buildings met with blue sky and since Paladu she hadn't thought the world would seem this beautiful for a while yet. Then her body hit something hard and the world span in tight circles.

When she stopped rolling she pushed herself into a sitting position, blinking in wonder that she was still alive.

Kai was chuckling as he walked over to stand next to her. "I really need to teach you how to fall," he laughed.

"Urgh," was all she could say as she tried to roll out her shoulders. It was strange but all the activity had seemed to loosen her muscles, even though they'd been aching from the previous night's events. In fact, she felt more alive than she had in awhile. 

--- A/N ---

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! I hope you all liked my gift to you <3. I'm really sorry I haven't been around much, life is really starting to take over. Just please know that I am trying to update when I can :). Let me know what you thought, or drop a vote if you liked it. I will try my hardest to give you something next week seeing as it's New Years >.< Merry Christmas again, I love you all <3 

- Zoe x