Xilanada - Unforsakable Birthright/Part 1

The 17th Day of Descending Earth, 766 in the Year of Our Empress.

To a man like Fex Tay, you got by in a place like Nexus by taking every opportunity that came to you. Arguably the biggest city in the world, next to the Imperal City way over on the Blessed Isle, even the rich could be reduced to insignificance. For someone like Fex Tay, the son of a bonded leatherworker, crime had been the only way to get ahead. He wasn't much more than a lieutenant of a protection racket for a local crime ring yet, but he knew he would get there. It was just a matter of Chance.

Chance was his God and Goddess. And so he offered a reverential prayer of thanks when Chance brought the woman past the outside bar he and four of his better men were drinking at.

She was such a pretty little thing...too pretty to belong in this part of Nexus. A soft, fragile blonde, her hair was long, thick and curled in an improbably natural way. She looked like a high, high class whore, what with the red silks that wreathed her body and the costly sandals that looked to be altogether impractical for walking the frequently muddy streets.

Fex Tay swirled his beer, imaging the bottle was one of her breasts. He would make his move in a minute. But first he wanted to be sure of a few things.

She WAS good-looking. So good-looking that it made him wonder how a looker like that could possibly be here. That she had made it this far was suspicious. It meant she was either bait for someone, that she was one of the Little Gods herself, or she was more than she seemed. Fex Tay wasn't stupid. If a woman like that was out walking the slums, there had to be a good reason she had made it this far.

Some of his concern quelled when she stumbled over a loose brick in the street and nearly fell. It was hard to imagine a God being clumsy. Likewise on her being an Exalt of any kind. He'd only seen a few God-Blooded or Terrestrial Exalts in his life, but they had all been graceful. He couldn't imagine a Prince of the Earth stumbling on anything.

She was disappearing into the crowd, heading away, when Fex Tay gave the signal and rose to follow her, his men moving to flank him. No sign of pursuit. No obvious trap here. It could be dangerous, pursuing this woman. But that was Chance for you. If you didn't embrace Her, She would never embrace you.

Fex Tay moved through the crowd with practiced ease, having lived on the streets his whole life. It helped that the people in this section of the streets knew him. Oh yes, respect was the other thing crime gave you. The respect of those who would have sneered at you otherwise. He liked that.

He wondered what it would take to get a woman like that to respect him.

With a wave of a hand, one of the men followed his lead and dropped back to keep an eye out for anyone else following the woman. The other three covered his sides and his back. The people parted and he gained ground.

For such a beautiful woman, she certainly was clumsy. She stumbled several more times as he drew nearer. Though it could be she just wasn't used to walking for long periods of time. Who she was on the run from was beyond him, but he did intend to ask.

Still, the enjoyable sway of her ass brought a smile to his face.

"Hello," he said as he reached her, caught her by the arm and turned her around to face him.

This close, her face was even more breathtaking than her figure. Soft, creamy skin without a flaw. Long eyelashes and a noble nose that gave her more true beauty than just the spoiled, curvy whores Fex Tay usually saw. And her eyes were a breathtaking blue. Like tiny faceted sapphires, just a little paler than the large stone on the ring of his boss.

Praise be Chance.

"What...what do you want with me?" the woman asked. Her expression was strange, unfocused. A little like the haze of drugs but somehow...just a little different. Like someone who really wasn't understanding anything she was seeing.

"I just want to know how a girl looking the way you do wound up in a neighborhood like this. I and my men might like a little fun. But mostly...I want to know why. Why you're here."

Fex Tay thought that was fair of him to ask. It wasn't as if he were completely uncultured, after all. Though by the looks of her, this beautiful petite little doll had already breathed more culture in an hour than he had in a lifetime. Maybe that was why she seemed so powerfully compelling. The urge to possess her, to use her and take from her what he could lurked just close enough to remind him not to be too kind.

"Why...I'm here." She blinked and looked like she was seeing this from far away. "I'm here...to start again. To start over."

Her gaze cleared and something horrible loomed in her eyes, those perfect gemstone eyes.

"This life fits me so strangely. Yet it's already better than what I left behind." Her eyes took him in, measured him and found him lacking. The brutal judgment in her eyes seemed somehow intolerable and yet he couldn't move against her. Or away from her, which was starting to sound more and more like a good idea.

"What are you?" he asked, now knowing that he had prayed to Chance and She had let him down. That was the roll of the dice. He only hoped he lived through his mistake.

"A...woman," she said. And suddenly she laughed. It would have sounded merry, if not for a chilling bitterness that just skirted the edge of madness. "Maybe this way I won't have to hurt anyone. Even you, Fex Tay."

"How did you know my name?" he demanded, anger being his only method of mastering his fear.

"How do I leave this city? I can't seem to...remember," she replied, as if she had not even heard his question. Her eyes went distant before focusing again. "What do you want with me?" The entire timbre of her tone changed, becoming strident, authoritative. "Don't you know who I am? What I am? Leave me...before I bring down such destruction upon this city as it has never known since the Great Contagion. Leave me...before I do it, whether I mean to...or not."

Fex Tay decided enough was enough.

But even as he started backing off, she threw a punch at him. It connected squarely with his nose and, weak as she was, it was still direct enough to flow waves of static pain through his head. Without thought, he struck back.

Blinking from the unexpected injury, Fex Tay looked and saw the blonde madwoman, whatever she was, sprawled out on the ground. Not moving.

The temptation to take her anyway was still there. But the pain in his nose echoed the warning in his mind. She wasn't just mad...there was something underneath it. Maybe she was a God and maybe she wasn't, but she was something more than human and he had no intention of finding out what that was.