InkSkin

Another Half

Alsuha sought refuge in her garden, as she thought of it only in her mind. She sat cross-legged beneath an enormous sycamore tree. She reached up and touched the interwoven trunk. The tree was actually several sycamores, which had entwined themselves together so that the trunk resembled a sort of woven funnel or a basket. She felt at home beneath its massive overhanging branches

She sat and she reflected on all that had happened, from being in the Pitts, to being forced to fight in countless wars in the past fifteen hundred years or so, to being brought to the Palace to be given to LuSol, but, most of all, she thought about who and what Erif and the other Ink'd, especially Char, believed she was.

She didn't feel like she could change lives like they believed she would. It was hard to even remember anything past her life in the Pitts. She just felt empty and alone most of the time. Except... except for when she was with Haku and... LuSol.

She felt odd relying on LuSol for anything, especially for a sense of belonging, of being whole, but it seemed to be out of her control. She couldn't stop, and she had tried to control her reactions to him especially the unnerving way her heart sped up whenever he looked at her or touched her. It was different with Haku, this sense of belonging. She welcomed it. He was a part of her. LuSol was not.

Suddenly, Alsuha's Ink pulsed with heat and her back stiffened. In one fluid motion she went from sitting to standing. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She had learned long ago that it was always easier to find what wanted to remain hidden when she used all her senses except sight.

Alsuha felt them coming. There were two of them; one was rushing at her from behind and the other from her left. She slowly rolled onto the balls her feet and waited. She opened her eyes just as the first blow was about to land.

She shifted her weight slightly to the right while she drove the palm of her hand out and up. The sound of bone breaking told her what she had already felt; a broken nose. She didn't stop to dwell on it; she kept going, her other arm swinging wide with the momentum of her body. Her fist was caught by her second assailant inches from his throat. Alsuha thrust her fingers forward hitting him squarely in the windpipe. He gagged, but didn't let go of her wrist. He stared at her disconcertingly, almost as if he were trying to place her. Alsuha ignored him.

She rotated her arm pulling her wrist free of his grasp. She felt him let her go a second before she actually pulled away. Alsuha ignored the nagging little voice in her head that was screaming at her that something was not quite right. She brought her leg up, her knee hitting her chest and she kicked out at him as hard as she could. He stumbled backwards losing his balance.

Her first assailant grabbed her from behind and tried to drive her backwards. Alsuha used his momentum against him and bending at the waist she swung her leg up and hit him in the face. She couldn't help the smile that tugged at her lips as she heard him scream. She had hit his broken nose. Alsuha braced her weight on her arms and wrapped her legs around his neck.

"Alsuha, stop!"

She saw an upside down Eyre running towards them. His shouts registered enough that she didn't snap the man's neck like she had intended. Instead, she unwrapped her legs from around his throat and let them swing back to the ground.

"What?"

"You're not supposed to kill them!"

"Why would I not?"

"It's going to be a pain buying more of them every time they jump you and you snap their necks."

"I was only going to snap the one neck and then I was... wait, what?"