Elegy for a Star

After Tess and Gwen departed from the briefing room, only Mairaela, Joyona and Miren remained. What an awkward trio this was. The murderer, the victim and the victim’s best friend. Still, it must’ve been more awkward for Miren, which Mairaela was glad for. She deserved it, that conniving Froster bitch.

Joyona was giving Wydwen pets, cradling him in her arms. She was so adorable. Mairaela couldn’t get Joyona out of her mind. Nearly losing her really dug in just how important the half-giant was to Mairaela. She placed a hand on Joyona’s arm, “Hey.”

The Evigkin turned to look at her, “Yeah?”

“Want to stay the night?” Mairaela hoped it was obvious enough what she meant. She wanted her so badly right now; to have their first time together. She wanted Joyona to throw her around and handle her like a little plaything. She wanted to ride the half-giant’s face and feel her thick fingers deep inside of her. Just the thought was making her wet.

Joyona looked like she thought on it for a moment, “No.”

Mairaela was so shocked she blurted, “What?”

It even grabbed Miren’s interest, who looked similarly surprised.

“I said no,” Joyona replied with a dry voice, “I’d like to do it another time, but not tonight.”

“Oh,” Mairaela said, still incredulous, “That’s okay. Yeah. Another time.”

“Goodnight,” Joyona said to the both of them.

Each of them said their goodnights as the half-giant left with Wydwen in her arms.

“I don’t get it,” Mairaela spoke, holding her arms out to the sides a little, “Have I lost my game? Do I smell?” Of course she didn’t. With her new senses, she’d certainly find herself more offensive than anyone else could. She was certain that Joyona liked her. The giant was hard to read, but that much felt so certain.

Miren said softly, “And I’m the killer? That was brutal.”

“It is too soon to make jokes,” Mairaela snapped, but really she knew Miren was right.

Miren nodded, hugging herself, “Sorry. You’re right.”

Mairaela didn’t expect an apology, so she was happy to hear that, at least. Still, she was a long ways off from forgiving Miren, if that was even possible. She began to head toward the door, wondering what she should do before bed. It’d be hard to settle enough to fall asleep with this weighing on her mind.

“Hey, Mairaela?” Miren caught her before she left, “If you don’t have any other plans, want to go see Ellywick with me? She’s got that nice wine.” Miren winced and corrected herself, “Well… she has that wine.”

“Um…” The Summer Fey hadn’t expected that. Was Miren trying to make amends? It was going to take a lot more than a bottle of wine. Mairaela didn’t want to spend the night alone, though. Plus, Ellywick would be there, right? Even if she didn’t want to talk to Miren, it’d pay off to meet another Corpsman.

“Sure,” Mairaela replied to Miren, “But don’t think for a second that-...”

“Yeah, I know,” Miren acknowledged with a bit of a sigh, “But after that whole ordeal, I need to get drunk, and after that talk with Joyona, maybe you do too.”

“Yeah. Okay, where’s her room?”

“Next to mine,” Miren replied, tipping her head toward the door, “Follow me.”

Miren’s dormitory was located in a different part of Kravana Hall than Gwen and Tess’. She wondered if it was because she was a Winter Fey that they were trying to keep her separated from the majority of the Corps. She didn’t know much about Ellywick. It wasn’t a Winter Court name, but maybe she was another person that they didn’t want around.

The barracks itself wasn’t any different than her own; Clean, plain halls of stone with the occasional banner of the College and Corps. Miren stopped in front of her room and said, “Want to drop anything off in here before we head to Ellywick’s?”

“Sure, yeah, a couple things,” Mairaela responded.

After leaving the little bit of leather armor she still carried, along with her cloak—it helped to have the items with you in order to believably bring them to the Void.

“You still got that plug?” Miren asked, “You should probably leave that here, too.”

It dawned on Mairaela that she still had it in her pocket, so she placed it down with the rest of her gear. “Right,” she replied.

As explained, Ellywick was in the room just beside Miren’s, and she responded quite quickly to the knock.

Ellywick was a short girl, considerably shorter than the two tall Fey, with a pink pixie cut and big, blue doe eyes. She appeared with a big smile on her face and seemed to maintain that smile all throughout her greeting.

“Ylla, hey!” She shouted Miren’s old, fake name, “And Mairaela!”

The Summer Fey quirked her brow, “You know my name?”

“Yeah, of course!” Ellywick responded, not really answering the core of Mairaela’s question.

Miren also added, “I go by Miren now, Ellywick.”

“Miren, got it. Call me Elly,” Ellywick responded

“Yeah, I know,” Miren replied.

Her voice was quickly drowned out by Ellywick’s volley of words, “Or Ells. I thought that would be a cute nickname. Everyone calls me Ellywick though, so that works too. Why Miren? I liked Ylla, it was unique, you know? Miren just sounds like every other name I hear.”

Miren just shrugged her shoulders.

The woman spoke so quickly it was hard to keep up sometimes.

“Can we come in?” Mairaela asked, feeling a little awkward standing in the hallway while the pink-haired girl rambled on.

“We were looking for some of that wine,” Miren asked, “Got any?”

“Oh, yeahyeahyeahyeah,” Ellywick responded quickly, turning around and leaving the door open. The two Fey stepped inside.

Mairaela was greeted by the sight of one of the messiest rooms she’d seen in Kravana. Anywhere at all, really. It wasn’t messy in the sense that there was leftover food or anything unhygienic, but there were parts and pieces of gear all over the place. Gadgets and gizmos littered the floor. There were all sorts, from weapons to armor to utilitarian things. There were some things that Mairaela had no idea what they were meant for, let alone what they would do.

In no time at all, the three of them were sitting in Ellywicks room with a bottle each. Mairaela was on one bed, sitting beside Ellywick, while Miren was on the spare bed in the room. Mairaela noticed that there was no one paired up in this room with Ellywick. No one was in Miren’s room either. Were both of them simply kept separate from the others in the Corps?

It was a thought for another time as the three joked and genuinely enjoyed one another’s company as they grew tipsy, then warm, then fuzzy.

Mairaela learned a good bit about Ellywick. She came from Wexrush in Sevarra, but fled when the Absolver cult sprung up. Some time before that, she’d suffered a head injury that made her forget a lot of things every couple of weeks, so she’d write notes to herself to keep informed. Every now and then, Ellywick would write down notes about Mairaela and Miren while they had fun and talked about one another. It was a shame about her head, because she was a brilliant inventor, but often would move on to different projects when she had a lapse in memory.

She learned a little bit about the Winter Fey’s escape from the Court, too. She fled to Bracklewhyte, a city that was technically under Winter Court control—being that it was in the center of their nation’s borders—but was resistant to their rule and style of government. They seemed to be able to hold off everything the Winter Court threw at them, and eventually it was left alone in favor of protecting the Court’s borders. She had to evade some guards there, but managed to escape to the Empire’s border some months later, crossing at Middlesbrough.

Mairaela learned that Miren had actually passed through Lannercost briefly. Gwen grew up there! She couldn’t wait to pass that along to the silver-haired swordswoman. From there it was a long walk to Ampleforth before she was able to take a ship to Oar’s Rest and from there walk to Hastenburgh.

There was a bit of building respect for the Winter Fey, as that must have been quite the arduous journey.

Before she knew it, Mairaela was good and drunk, leaning against Ellywick and sharing stories with her and the Winter Fey that she certainly wouldn’t remember later on. She even made out with Ellywick for a minute or two.

Time was smeared after that. When she woke up, Mairaela found herself in bed with a pounding headache. She rubbed her face, squeezing her eyes shut as she let out a bit of a groan. “Fuck,” she sighed.

“Oh, what the fuck!?”

Mairaela turned at the surprise of someone else in bed with her. She noticed she wasn’t in her room anymore.

And she was in bed with Miren.

“Oh-.. oh my gods,” Mairaela said, wide-eyed.

Miren sat up and kept herself covered with the blankets. The both of them were completely naked, staring at once another like they saw Captain Maupoissant streaking naked down the halls.

“Mairaela, did we-...” Miren started.

“Yeah, pretty sure,” Mairaela replied with a panicked tone, because there was something that affirmed the truth for her, “The butt plug’s in me.”