The Bizarre Adventures of a Half-Elf

Safe Summary for "Get Out Alive"

**AN: Hello there! I am assuming that you are here either because A) You skipped last chapter due to the intense content, or B) You did read it and you want a better idea of what happened. Well, you've come to the right place. I hope this clears some things up!

Charlotte is dreaming, although this isn't clear at first. She's standing in a dark alley, and sees someone wearing the armor of the Imperial Legionnaires. It turns out to be her Sun Elven half-brother, Lansear. She expresses confusion as to why he's in Markotia as a Legionnaire, thinking that he would have been in Valalfheim training to be a Paladin of Volaria (which is said to be the position that guards the Valalfheim border from the Scarred Lands). He just replies that it didn't work out.

She tells Lansear that she doesn't want to see him, as he had introduced her to a Legionnaire recruit named Braern (an apparently unsavory character), and asks about her other half-brother, Gerred. But Lansear says that he is not here to talk about their sibling, and says that he is here to take Charlotte in for desertion. But Charlotte protests, claiming that she couldn't have deserted if she abandoned the Legionnaires as a recruit and never swore an oath to them. 

He asks why she left, and she claims that he knows why-- that it was because of that night with Braern. He presses her, and she turns to run, but is blocked by a Sun Elf who she recognizes as Braern. Caught off guard, Charlotte proclaims that he couldn't possibly be there because he's dead. But Lansear grabs and holds her still, saying that he's alive and that she will have to keep reliving that night. 

It is revealed that, during their training, Charlotte was smitten with Braern. They became involved, and she gave her virginity to him. Not long afterwards, he told her that it was a cruel prank to see if she was "as good as a real Elf". When she confronted him about it in an alley, he told her that he "needed other opinions" and planned to let some of the other recruits use her. Luckily, Charlotte managed to stab Braern in the eye socket with his own dagger, killing him, before he assaulted her. 

Lansear was not a part of what happened that night, but he holds her down in the dream because he is a representation of her blame for him introducing Charlotte and Braern. As he holds her, and the hands of Braern and the unseen recruits behind him press in, Charlotte puts her hands over her head and screams that this isn't real and that she killed him. The figures all vanish, and she is alone again. 

Now realizing that this is, in fact, a dream, Charlotte looks up to see a Dark Elf, Jericho. In a series of back and forth questions, the two discuss what happened that night and afterwards. Jericho had been in the alley the night of her near-assault, because he had been sent by the Scarlet Wyvern guild to shake down Braern for a gambling debt. He arrived just as Charlotte killed Braern, and decided to help her kill or scare off the rest. Instead of going back and facing the Legionnaires in a trial under the cause of self-defense, Charlotte decided to go with Jericho to join his guild, even though this meant that she could not return to her training and that a warrant would be out for her arrest in Audulais. She had originally planned on finishing her training for the Legionnaires in the hopes that she would get placed in the Audulais Griffon Battalion, but she did not feel safe or like she belonged anymore. 

She expresses how much she loved Jericho and the guild (although it was never determined exactly what her relationship was with the Dark Elf, aside from mentor and student), but that they pushed her too far. She didn't have a problem with committing numerous unspeakable acts, because, to her, having the mutual loyalty of the guild was worth her morality. But then they began asking her to perform risky jobs while she had warrants out for her arrest. When she refused to do them, because she wanted to lay-low for a bit, they scarred the backs of her hands as punishment. Jericho did not perform the scarring himself, but he seemed to know about it, and expresses regret as he kisses the backs of Charlotte's hands, leaving small wyvern marks. 

Charlotte says that the final straw was when the guild threatened Christa. She knew that she had to get out, and so she drugged the guild members with a sleeping draught, barred the doors, and set the guildhouse on fire, hoping to fake her own death. She never knew what became of the Scarlet Wyvern guild, but one fact has haunted her since then: One of the side effects of the sleeping draught was muscle weakness. 

The dream turns to a scene of the guildhouse burning down. Charlotte asks why Jericho was there, and he says that it was to warn her. He says that even if she hadn't committed herself to a militia or a guild, that she was still forming attachments, and that they both knew what she reverted to when situations became complicated. 

The fire flares up then, and Charlotte can hear people inside. They're screaming, begging to be let out. She watches the dream take on the scene that she was always worried about, letting the sounds and sights burn into her memory as a punishment for what she might have done. She begins to cry again, telling Jericho that she is sorry. But he is gone. It is unclear whether he was a figment of her imagination or a spirit come to visit her dreams. 

Then, she wakes back up on the beach. 

Timeline:

0-18: Charlotte lives in Audulais with her parents, two half-brothers, and younger sister.

18-19: Charlotte trains to join the Imperial Legionnaires, specifically the Audulais Griffon Battalion.

19-21: Charlotte is a part of the Scarlet Wyverns.

22: Charlotte goes to Aushire.