The Great Core's Paradox

Elara leaned back into the bath, letting warm water fully envelop her skin. Her eyes closed, ushering in blessed darkness, and the kinks in her muscles slowly unwound. She could have done that herself earlier, manually forcing her body out of its tense state, but she had needed to be alert - and it was easy for the mind to follow the body’s lead. It was tense, and so she was. If it hadn’t been, she might have missed things.

Things that she couldn’t afford to miss.

Already, she had caught more than a few hints that things weren’t as they seemed within the White Towers. On the surface, it was a wealthy, lively place - and it was that.

But Elara’s enhanced ears could hear the things that were said when people thought she couldn’t hear, and some of the things she had heard - the things that she could hear even now, as she languished in her bath - were…troubling. Nothing incriminating. Nothing that had any proof to it. It was just whispers and overheard speculation. But, even so.

It was enough that she was worried.

“...Ella was found with that boy from the Towers three ponds down - you know, the little spindly ones? Anyway, I heard that he was sent to the mines for being a thief!” one of the attendants that had been assigned to Elara, Lilly, gossiped at the second. She was much louder than before; she must have felt safe with the knowledge that the scaryshadowguard was on the other side of a thick wooden door that muted her conversation.

It wasn’t even close to muted enough.

“Did he now?” Maria, Elara’s second attendant gasped, sounding positively mortified. “Sad. I thought he was rather charming; you know, in that roguish, break-the-rules kind of way that those sorts of people tend to be. What did he try to steal?”

“Well,” Lilly answered, her voice lowering conspiratorially. “They said that he tried to use Ella to get close enough to steal the Core. She was heartbroken!” Another gasp. “I know, I know! But, you know what?”

“What?” Maria asked, spellbound.

“I talked to Marc, and he said that the boy didn’t try to steal anything at all. That Ella’s father just ordered the guards to throw him in the mines to get rid of him!”

“No, really? And they just went along with it?”

“Well, you know how it is. He wouldn’t be the first. Remember what happened to Old Arvin, after he called the last Chancellor an ‘arrogant little shit’? I hear he’s still stuck working in the mines to this day, and they just keep extending his sentence over and over again. Besides, the guards get a little jumpy around the time of the tithe,” Lilly said. By the sounds of rustling cloth and the way her voice lowered, Elara could tell that she had leaned in for that last bit.

“Jumpy?”

“Well, they’re quick to jump to orders, you know? Real eager to put people to work.”

The two laughed, and the topic of a wrongly-accused boy breathed its last. Elara found that troubling; that they didn’t think what happened to the boy enough of an injustice to merit more than being slotted in between routine talks of boys and what they planned to eat for dinner that night.

Like it was just a passing bit of gossip to entertain them while Elara took her bath, no more important than any of the rest.

Elara stood up, water streaming off her skin. The bath wasn’t so comfortable anymore, and she couldn’t just close her eyes and relax in its embrace. Her armor rapidly found its way back onto her body - a more impressive feat than it sounded, with only one working hand - and her blade to her side.

She stepped out the door again, feeling anything but refreshed, but duty called. It was time to see what other bits of gossip she could dig up, and it would be easier if she was near more people.

There was a simple option for that, a place where people and gossip couldn’t help but come together.

“So,” Elara said, her redonned helmet warping her voice into something more intimidating than usual. “Where can I get some dinner around here?”

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Apparently, Elara’s escorts thought that her dinner would be best served near some sort of local dueling ring. From the tidbits that she overheard, it seemed like previous shadowguards had made their appreciation of combat well known, and it was assumed that she would be no exception to the rule.

And, for the most part, they were right. Aside from a brief distraction, when Elara could have sworn she heard a ridiculously loud crashing somewhere far off in the distance - thankfully, she didn’t hear anything like screams paired along with it, so she put it out of mind - she found herself fairly entertained. It helped that her presence inspired more than a few whispers among the bystanders about past shadowguards that they’d seen, which, while not telling her anything particularly useful, did at least give her hope that she might hear something if she kept sitting in the area.

“Enjoying the fights?” someone asked, taking a seat beside Elara and interrupting her thoughts. She glanced over, catching the newcomer’s eye. His lips twisted into a confident smirk as she looked him up and down. He was a handsome boy; somewhere around her age, too. She might have been somewhat interested, even, if she hadn’t just overheard him bragging about how quickly he’d get the lady shadowguard into his bed. Especially since it was paired with more than a few less-than polite insinuations - and while she was perfectly happy to hear someone saying less-than-polite things about people from Virtun, she didn’t want to hear those types of less-than-polite things.

Especially not when there were so many references to some sort of crazy-hot scale, and even more especially when those things were said about her. She was regretting taking off her helmet to eat now.

“Mmm,” she responded half-heartedly, not too enthused with where this conversation might lead. Especially if it was just a waste of time; some random boy hitting on her was unlikely to let her learn anything interesting. “Could be better, but I guess they’re okay.”

The boy didn’t seem to expect that response, briefly looking offended, though it wasn’t long before he started talking again. “Well, it’s not like you’re seeing the best of the best. Just whoever happens to be dueling right now. In fact, I’m not too shabby with a sword myself. Why, I even…”

He just kept talking. And none of it was interesting. It was all subtle - and sometimes not-so-subtle - bragging about himself and his supposedly prodigious duelist skills, without even a hint of an attempt to ask a question to Elara. Was this his idea of flirting? Just an unending monologue of things that he thought she might be impressed by? Elara refocused, deciding to see if she could at least get something out of this.

“Wow,” she breathed out, having no idea where exactly in the long stream of boasts she was anymore. “Really? That’s impressive,” she said, figuring the response probably fit with whatever he was saying now.

The boy puffed up, throwing a smirk towards where Elara knew his friends were watching.

Nailed it.

Elara turned towards him, leaning closer. He tensed up - whether in excitement or fear, she didn’t know. Maybe both.

“For a bumpkin,” she finished. “Now piss off.”

It was a little rude, but he had it coming. And besides, wasn’t Elara supposed to be rude? From everything she’d been hearing, Virtun’s shadowguards weren’t exactly the spitting image of courtesy when they visited. Probably had to do with the fact that they had the Tower by the throat, and everyone knew it. There was no need for them to pretend to be nice anymore. Not like they had tried to do in Verdant Grove.

Just the thought caused Elara’s insides to twist up - until another thought, paired with a flex of her will, untwisted them again. She looked towards the scabbard at his side and, before he finished with his indignant sputtering, asked a question.

“Or are you better than that? Maybe you think you could beat me? We could even make it interesting. Up the stakes. If I beat you, you’ll…” she paused as if in thought, “I guess you’ll just do anything I say for a day. That’ll work, right?” Elara could think of a number of ways that could help, as long as he stuck to his word, though a few threats might be needed to make sure he actually did. “And if you beat me, well…I suppose I’d be willing to go on a date with you. That’s at least halfway to what you told your friends over there that you’d be able to do, right? If you can’t get further than that, that’s on you.”

The boy looked a little taken aback by that, suddenly realizing that Elara had heard his earlier conversation.

“I’ll even take off my armor and tie a hand behind my back before we duel, if that makes you a little braver,” she decided to say, making sure the words were loud enough that his friends could hear. It’s not like the hand worked anyway, and she needed something to make him annoyed enough to say yes. And with his friends hearing the challenge, they’d know if he backed down. If he ran away from a fight with a handicap.

Just like Elara expected, the jeering of his friends was enough that he eventually agreed.

Boys, she thought. The same wherever you go, I guess.