Heartless

Chapter 2: No Place Safe

The stranger took a casual sip of his drink before continuing. "So tell me then, have any of you ever seen an Otherworlder...much less a Half-blood?"

"Seen quite a few in my day, that's all I needed. And as for half-breeds, 'course I haven't seen one." Lakota took a proud swig from her mug. "Fine by me if I never do. I do just fine here than at the warfront. They're all likely dead by now if they ever existed in the first place. I've certainly never seen any human and one of those filthy creatures act civil enough to each other to 'procreate.'"

"Fair enough," said the stranger, sipping at his own drink. "Although it begs the question, how would you know if you did, if you've never seen one?"

Lakota was silent for several beats, and Ellis jumped at the opportunity. "They have bright eyes!"

"Aye." Another man nodded sagely. "Eyes that glow, in daylight and darkness like their wretched kin."

"And bright hair," Ellis continued. "Stories say they're more beautiful than any human-that Hunters can spot them in a crowd of people in an instant."

"Heh. Beautiful..." The female ranger gave a rare smile as she gestured lazily around the table. "More than I can say for this lot."

"Perhaps that can be said for some," the stranger conceded. "But I've been there in the markets, I've fought in the wars. Otherworlders look a lot closer to humans than you'd think, even before they're stripped of their magic to look like the thing they despise most. I witnessed all manners being slaughtered. Not only the nobility and warriors, but innocents as well. Children or people who had simply gotten in the way. Their blood is on my hands as well as any soldier who's fought against Diyosa."

His voice resonated through the room, quieting all in the common room, drawing them in as he spoke. Even Brynhild, who barely showed her marred face since returning, could be seen stepping slowly between the doorway to hear better. Eret himself paused scrubbing his table to listen more intently.

"I can tell one thing for certain. Otherworlders are closer to us than you'd think. They come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. Most have the obvious signs but some use magic to blend right in or go by unseen. Besides the obvious differences, they truly don't look all that different from us. In the end, they scream, bleed, and die...just like humans. And if that's just Otherworlders, who's to say there ain't a Half-blood among us right now?"

A short silence followed as the rain began to fall again outside, with twice as much fury as before, pounding against the inn's glass windows.

Ellis looked around the room as if seeing everyone for the first time. "So, it could be any one of us they're hunting."

"Exactly," the stranger said. "It could be you. It could be the innkeeper. Even that barmaid over there." He caught Brynhild staring at him and flashed her a smirk. Her only response was the sound of her nails digging into the wood of the doorway before she lowered her head, her long auburn hair covering most of her face, and limped away back to the kitchen. Hopefully, her actions would be taken as indignation for someone daring to accuse her of such when it was fighting against the creatures that made her look the way she did.

The small uproar it caused from the statement meant people thought about the same. Nice to know that in serving her country, it'd earned his sister respect and honor even if she'd lost more, Eret thought spitefully.

Once Brynhild's innocence in the matter had been cleared (quite ironic since in this situation despite the man's apparent suspicions, she was the only one whose father actually was human), the conversation devolved as Ellis and the others argued over the existence of Half-bloods, and whether those were actually Hunters camped outside town.