The Forgotten Light

28. Fairlight

At the end of another day, she came across Xanti, who seemed to be waiting for her. He was standing in the shadows leaning against a wall in the courtyard. As soon as he noticed that she was passing that way along with others, he leveled his step with her. Fairlight looked at him questioningly. Their last conversation had not been one of the friendliest, and she didn't expect it to be any different now.

"What do you want?" she asked casually.

"To know what you are up to."

"Well, this is gonna be a very short exchange of words then, since I'm not up to anything."

He snarled, as if she had lied to his face and they both knew it. "I'm watching you and..."

"You're watching me?" she interrupted him. If she could, she would have stopped, but then the people who were walking and listening intently right behind them would have stepped on her. "And you think this is normal?"

"You are acting strange."

"Stalking others for no reason is strange."

"From the very beginning there is something I don't like about you. And for some unknown reason they treat you differently here."

Now it was she who snarled in disbelief. People around her began to send each other nervous glances. She looked at him, eyebrows raised. "Define 'differently'."

"You must have somehow bought your way into the Prince's favor. Otherwise he would have gotten rid of you long ago."

"As if! Look, I don't know what your problem is with me, but it will work out for both of us if we just ignore each other. My existence won't get on your nerves, and I'll be free of your epically ridiculous talk. Is it a deal?"

He was silent for a moment and she already thought the boy was really going to let go, when he spat, "You're sleeping with him, aren't you? Admit it."

She stopped dead, Xanti paused with her, and the people walked on, wanting to pass them as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, Invicta's attention was drawn to them and they were next to them in the blink of an eye.

"What is going on here? Move!" growled one of them, a black-haired man. He kept his hand resting on the shaft of a blade tucked behind his belt.

"I can't believe you said that," said Fairlight, completely ignoring the Beings.

"I'm not the only one who thinks so. A lot of people saw the two of you last night. Well, but it's no surprise. We are all fighting for survival, and only those who can weasel, will manage to do it. And you have beauty, so why not use it?"

She clenched her fists and gave him the evils. "I'd rather die than fall by the wayside like this."

He sent her the meanest, most malicious smirk she had ever seen. "Whore."

No one even realized when her fist bounced off his nose. Xanti yelped in surprise, rubbed his face and threw himself on her to hit back. She saw pure fury in his eyes. She managed to dodge the blow, but he succeeded in grabbing her by the hair and pushing her against the wall. She hit her back against it with a dull whimper. Invicta shouted something, but neither of them listened. They aimed their fists at each other, kicking each other where they could. At one point she pushed Xanti, and he stumbled and landed on his butt. She almost grabbed hold of him, but at the same moment he threw sand in her face, and she screamed, rubbing her eyes. Then he pushed her and she fell right into the guard.

"Get that crazy bitch away from me!" yelled the boy.

"Don't you touch me," growled Fairlight, violently pulling her arm from the paw of the Being. Blood was rumbling in her head, her temples pulsed. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt this furious.