Innocent

~20~Xki

Zalea and I ride out to the stable where Apricot is kept, I ride my horse and Zalea rides Apricot who is now back in her fox form.

Under the foliage of the trees the ground is moist and there is a lot of shade to train under.

Zalea starts to take off her boots, "Why are you taking off your boots?"

She looks up at me, "I rarely wear shoes so it's better to train in the conditions you will most likely be using the skills that you are practicing." she stops messing with her bootstraps, "I have a question for you."

"Well, I have a question for you too."

She finishes removing her boots, "You can ask first."

I clear my throat, her response is standing up straight and looking me in the eye, "How are you alive?"

Her face remains neutral but I saw the smallest flicker of worry in her eyes, "What?" she reaches behind her back for what I'm assuming is her knife, "What do you mean by that?"

I look at her suspiciously, "How did you interpret that?"

"What are you really asking?"

I groan, "What I'm asking is, how the fuck did you not get killed by the king?"

Relief washes over her face, "Xki," she says as if I'm a child, "The king never intended to kill me."

"The king only sends me on retrieval missions when he plans to kill that person." I pause, "Who are you?"

She looks concerned with my question, "Azalea Nyx."

"And your last name?"

She pauses, "I'm not sure I'm permitted to give that to you." I motion for her to explain, "Well, I asked you what you knew about me, it wasn't a lot so I assumed that the king probably withheld that information on purpose. I also saw the way you looked at me, you looked at me like I was going to die at any moment, so I gathered that you thought the king was going to kill me and I didn't know if that was part of the plan or not so I decided to let it be."

"Who's your father? Your false father, that is."

"I can't reveal that, it would jeopardize his position."

"Aren't you here to kill him" she nods "Why not embarrass him at the same time?"

"I have been planning his demise since I was seven years old, it will play out how I wish it to."

"OK, whatever, I guess I'm glad you won't die now."

She chuckles, "I guess I'm happy I won't die too." her face changes, "Why would you care if I live or die?"

"Because I care for you and maybe want to finish what we started at the inn." I walk closer to her, "The tiny sounds you made when I touched you," I walk closer and touch a spot on her neck, "Like how you moan when I touch here," she moans when I press my finger in that spot, "Or how you taste on my tongue here," I press my finger to her lips.

I hear the second she stops breathing as if waiting to see what I do next but I'm going to wait here until she makes the move. After what feels like an infinity later she wraps one arm around my neck and weaves her fingers into my dark curly hair, she lowers my mouth very slowly onto hers, and she parts her lips so my tongue can enter her mouth.

I push her against a tree with a thud and wrap my arms around her waist as she raises one leg to my back. She uses her other hand to rub up and down my back, eventually, she raises her hand to my neck and starts feeling around. Her hand rests on a place just below my ear, when we finally separate our mouths she whispers, "Anyone can betray anyone."

Before I even have the chance to question what she just said she pushes down extremely hard on the place where her hand is which I realize is also where a paralyzation pressure point is.

My body hits the ground with a thump, "Sorry, I did say I came here to train though." she walks a couple of paces back and then says, "It should stop in around five minutes, then we can continue." I plead with my eyes and she smiles, "Yes, you are a good kisser and no I wasn't faking my pleasure, I just didn't want to get sidetracked." I level her with a stare, "I also have some questions, with that dirty mouth of yours I was going to forget my priorities."

This is probably the most calm Zalea has ever been with me but of course, I have to be paralyzed on the floor. I will probably never get to fully understand what goes on in her head but I hope I slowly get to see peeks of the inside now that I know she's not going to die and that she won't marry Lord Lucian from Arogonia.

After seven minutes I can finally get off my ass, "What did you want to ask?"

Zalea's leaning against a tree staring at me, "Are you loyal to your true country?"

"I suppose so."

"It's a yes or no answer."

"If it came down to it I would choose Agaricus."

"Good. Now tell me, what is your knowledge of the "Old World"?"

That's a random question, "It was destroyed because it was corrupted by magic, why?"

"You're not that off. What happened was people without magical powers were afraid of the people with powers so they killed them and created a world without magic. When this happens there is almost always a population that is missed and that ends up surviving."

"I have never heard of that as an issue, I have never seen a person with powers," I state.

"Healers possess magical powers, they were the only kind that were allowed to live. The only reason they were allowed to live was because healing runs amongst blood, if you are a child of a healer you will either have healing abilities or no abilities and healers could help soldiers in wars."

She waits for my brain to catch up, "So the healers are not the missed population?"

"No, there is a population of people with powers in Agaricus, the only reason they survived was because for many generations the children born had very subtle powers that were easy to hide. Unlike with healers, when a normal magical being has a child the child's abilities are unpredictable and doesn't have a connection to blood other than the parent also being magical."

"What is the point of this?"

She waits a little, "The resistance has a name, it's called The Eclipse Rebellion also known as the Court of Agaricus. People all over are getting powers that are hard to hide, what we are trying to do is revive cultures in which all people are equal and free. That's also the reason why I was taught so many languages, to make sure the base of the culture never dies."

This is so much to comprehend, "Do you have powers?"

She sighs, "Out of everything I just told you, that is what you absorbed?" I nod, "I do have magical abilities."

"And they are?"

"It's complicated, if you are a born royal you usually get many abilities but they tend to come in at different times. Currently, I only have one that I'm aware of, I'm extremely grateful for it because it has saved me so many times, it saved me a lot of brutality from my false father and it's helpful for survival." she looks to me, "It sounds dumb but my power is precision, more than just one type of precision though you see I have all kinds. Precision also connects to finesse, meticulousness, exactitude, and accuracy. That is what makes me really good at fighting, I can hit someone exactly where I wish with lethal precision also known as Deadly Precision which is one of the ways it saved me from my father's brutality, I didn't get beaten for making imperfect strikes.

I nearly faint from all the information, it's too much, "I don't know what to say."

"That's fine but you need to promise that you won't tell anyone about the secrets of Agaricus."

"I won't."

"Good. Let's start training now."