The Kingfisher

XXXVI : Ela

The wine cellar was humid, and the round smell of aged wine didn't go well with the stench of mold lingering on the walls. It was a sweet, sugary odor that turned sharp at its edges.

Ela scrunched up her nose as she took a final step down the long stairwell to the cellar. There was a slight quiver to her limbs. Is this the right thing? she wondered for the hundredth time since she agreed to do this. Yet as the barrels of the wine room came into view, she realized right and wrong didn't matter anymore. Someone had kindly taken the time to light some of the torches, allowing her to glance at the already alert spy.

She didn't know what else to expect. Nora had been trained for this; of course she would have jumped to her feet, pointing a shaky revolver at Ela as a slow stream of blood trickled down her forehead. Sharp breaths rushed out of her chest, her entire body shuddering with every exhale. "I know your tactic," she breathed as her brows twitched to a frown.

A chilling shiver dashed across Ela's limbs. Her power had not yet abandoned yet. "Yeah?"

"You choose whichever side seems safer at the time," Nora spat. "You're a coward!"

Maybe she was correct. Perhaps what Ela truly wanted was peace, after all. The shocks of ice threatening to spill out of her stretching palms contradicted that accusation.

"I'm the reason you're alive."

"And you want to be the reason I will die, too?"

Sacrifices, sacrifices. No war was without losses, and some of them were bound to be unjust. Even though Ela couldn't shake off the guilt in her gut, she decided she had chosen the lesser evil. Kage was no saint, but lately she had realized Arden was closer to succeeding the devil.

The wrath his mistreatment toward the Ascended had spawned coupled with the utter shock his crimes against Zhao's family brought to her had been a disastrous combination. She had thought she was well acquainted with death after all this time, but she never knew how close it really was. The death of a sibling, the sheer anguish just the thought of it created in her; it was not something she ever wanted anyone to experience, no matter how cruel and vain and emotionally-driven theirs happened to be.

"This isn't about you," Ela repeated, and she hoped she was right. Kage was quite the vengeful prince and, knowing the spy was the reason Ailyn deserted her post, Nora's fate didn't look particularly bright. Still, Ela took a deep breath and stretched her hand out, the chill almost spilling out against her will. "So don't make it about you."

Nora huffed in disbelief. It only took a split second for Ela to notice the girl's finger against the trigger of the compact weapon.

Despite the pity she felt for the girl, she didn't hesitate. A crystal wave wallowed forth, smashing against the spy just as a bang resonated across the cellar. Glimmering shards of ice showered the floor as Nora crashed against the cold stone. Don't kill her, Ela reminded herself and stepped forward. With shallow pants, the girl on the ground backed against the wall and raised to her knees. Before she could shoot up and dash past the dual bender, four sharp spikes of solid water launched towards her, locking her shoulders into place.

Nora exclaimed in sudden pain. The tips fingers were already starting to turn a light shade of purple when Ela finally sighed, her breath crystalizing in the chilly room. The temperature couldn't be good for the wine, yet the beverage was the least of her problems. She knelt down, eyeing Nora's vicious scowl.

"What the hell is he paying all of you?" the spy wheezed, her chest rising and falling quickly and heavily. 

For the first time tonight, Ela thought about her answer. The rest of Nora's caustic remarks, she had been expecting. But this was a genuine question, one that Ela had no real reply to.  Why was everyone flocking to Kage, really? Some wanted money; others wanted asylum. Yet she wasn't interested in any of that.