Zyden Straka Practice Writing
TW: slavery mention, abuse (Just in case!)
I haven’t written in 500 long years so I’m sorry for awful writing and typos since this was done on my phone. Enjoy?
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The last bell of service in the Quicksand tolled its eerie chime, struggling to stay afloat on the thick fog which made itself at home just as much as the bar flies that refused leave at a decent time. Their giggles and drunken advances fell short in the deadening silence that was making its way across the entire city-state.
A hooded figure sat statue-still at the very last barstool, head bowed and rested atop a single hand with just enough of a tilt to give the nearby women a glimpse of a handsome face. Were he not used to the later bells at the local dives, the sudden shriek of a redheaded Hyuran woman and the feel of a hand on his thigh would have him fist-first in a bar brawl. Instead, the tilt of his head became more pronounced until half of his face and a furious red gaze looked down at the pair now painfully close to him.
“Off. Now.” It wasn’t a suggestion. The man’s tone was clipped, sharp, and dangerous. A warning.
Neither women budged and the second, a Raen, flushed at the tone. She giggled and pressed her chest against his back, the hand on his leg sliding upwards until her fingers splayed on his bare abdomen, “You don’t mean it… Besides, we like to share. Is that not a fantasy for you?”.
“Not interested. Now get off.” He inhaled through his teeth when neither seemed inclined to move and his attention turned to the mead in the tankard in front of him. It was a shame he’d be missing out and wasting Gil on something he’d looked forward to all day, but with that, he stood. All six fulms, seven ilms of him. The women may as well have slid down his form to the floor as he peeled himself away from them and made for the door.
Their cries of protest followed behind him but their attention shifted elsewhere when a rather uniquely dressed Elezen passed him and took his place at the bar. With curiosity piqued, the hooded stranger rounded the corner and took a place against the wall just far enough to take in the conversation but remain unseen.
It didn’t take long for the new patron to pay the women full attention, his long, slender fingers trailing through their hair or running the length of their necks as he praised them. Ivory white teeth showed often and his sultry tones whispered in their hungry, willing ears. Excitement rang in their voices when he inevitably asked them to accompany them back to his room… but the mention of a journey through the Pearl Lane to the Sapphire Exchange had their eavesdropper raising a brow. Another long sigh escaped the stranger’s lips before he shifted on his feet, moving just so that he could peer inside the Quicksand through the doorway. He managed to catch the last sight of the three before they disappeared through the doors on the opposite side of the bar.
“Godsdammit… seriously?”
The hood did little for hearing, and although it was invaluable for obscuring his face, it would have to be done… Quickly, the fabric was pushed back to reveal one red eye complimented by a deep leather eyepatch accented in gold. Some semblance of a tattoo crept up what could be seen of his neck and seemed to mingle in an unusual pattern until it hid beneath the eyepatch. The raven hair atop his head cascaded on one side in an iridescent blue-green, crowned by one long ear and another that had seen better days… One half had obviously been shredded by ‘something’. A series of piercings lined what they could of both while another pair finished out his torn eyebrow.
As soon as his ability to hear was freed up, his ears perked forward and he began moving before he’d even been fully cognizant of it. The instinct of tracking was second nature to him now.
He silently cursed the door they’d passed through as it creaked like a large toad, but with whatever luck, no one seemed to be concerned that another had entered Pearl Lane. The vendors that usually stretched the length of the street had already packed up and headed home for the night, and weird noises weren’t out of the question for anyone that happened to be around after the final bell. However, the sound of rushed footfalls were a little suspicious, the stranger honed in on them and slipped into the shadows enough to follow but remain unseen.
The smiles that had graced the faces of the women in the Quicksand had faded into terror and the redhead was quietly pleading with the Elezen that led them at an uncomfortable pace, “Please… we’re all talk… let us go. Or just take me, let Tsuki go! She didn’t mean any of it.” By her side, the Auri woman sobbed into the sleeve of her sheer dancer attire.
As if affected by their words, the Elezen paused and turned to face both of them. A gentle, concerned expression formed in the corners of his lips before a hand joined it just as quickly to strike the Hyur across the face, “Perhaps you will learn in time to not make promises you cannot keep, hm?”. She recoiled and fell silent, trembling beneath the steel grip on her wrists, “Where you’re going, it won’t matter what you promise. Gil is king and you will never own a copper of it. Consider this ‘job’ the penance for those loose lips and looser morals”.
The stranger’s back stiffened and he felt every hair on his neck stand on end. As luck would have it, bell after bell of patience managed to pay off… This was the man he’d been tipped off about. The very same that his client had paid handsomely to make disappear. A fanged grin made a brief appearance before everything melded into the shadows.
Pearl Lane was running out of street and the Elezen seemed set on making it to the bazaars beyond it. They never slept and that made illicit trade much easier in the later evening, the exact thing that made the underground slave trades such a cash cow in Ul’dah.
One more turn and they’d be there… but a shrill series of clicks and a gentle whistle stopped them in their tracks. Eyes snapped upwards, searching the sky for whatever bird had sounded so closely.
“Sorry, guy, but I’m afraid this is your stop. Time to deliver your cargo and turn around, yeah? I’d be more than happy to accelerate that for you”, the Elezen started as the stranger simply walked from his station next to the wall, the tips of his fingers illuminated with what appeared to be blue flames. “But to be fair, you’d be helping me too. It seems you just made my job a little bit easier and I didn’t even have to lift a finger”.
Both women scurried to the side when the Elezen managed to release them, fists balling at his hips instead as his eyes narrowed to slits and a snarl rolled up the bridge of his nose, “You would have been wise to keep your nose out of business to which you don’t belong, but what can be expected of someone so closely related to a prey animal?”.
A bark of a laugh echoed down the lane as the stranger began a slow, methodical pace around the man, a hand creeping ever closer to one of the swords strapped across his shoulders, “What I find wildly fascinating is, here I am, an armed citizen, witnessing a man attempting to kidnap some city hotties for illegal slave trade and, despite very clearly being outclassed, you make an attempt to call me a ‘rabbit’… which is pretty rich coming from someone who descended from a Dhalmel…”.
A finger drifted across the stranger’s hilt and as soon as they connected, the alley behind him lit with a brilliant blue as the sheath that held it blazed brightly, “I recommend you turn yourself over or this could get particularly nasty”.
“…What is this? Who sent you?”, the Elezen’s voice turned to pleading as he thudded against the brick on the opposite side of the alley. The starched, manicured suit that housed his lithe body crumpled under the stress of his movements, “I can pay you. Whatever you want. I’ll even generously offer you five times the Gil these women are worth if you’ll… overlook this whole thing”.
The stranger’s head canted and he looked inquisitively at the other man, a black-tipped finger prodding gently at his chin. The fire he’d previously wielded seemed content to snuff out for the time, “Mm… what a generous offer… but… these women offered themselves to me for less than a single copper so… would that not, then, make them worthless? And even then… you couldn’t possibly have been given an offer. You didn’t even make it to the bazaar… How could you know their worth?”.
He stepped forward once more and the Elezen’s knees began to knock, all pretenses from him before fizzling out like the stranger’s flames. As he closed in, he looked the few ilms down at the other and an elbow pinned him in against the brick of the wall. The stranger put pressure against his throat just enough to make the Elezen’s eyes bulge and he leaned in, dropping his voice, “See, I don’t care about your money. In fact, I guarantee you that whatever sum you had to offer isn’t anywhere near the deal I’m about to make. It’s made all the more rich knowing that no one will hear you scream, no one will care you’re gone, and the rest of us can pick up women without them having to worry about some scumbag like you hauling them off to Costa and loading them up on ships like cargo to some end-of-the-world destination. You’re fucking sick and I wish my methodology wasn’t so merciful”.
The other squinted up at the Viera, his voice coming out ragged through his crushed throat, “Merciful? You think this is…merciful? What a joke… tormenting, c-cutting off air… torture… you’re as bad as I am.”
“That’s where you’re wrong…”
Without so much as a warning, the Elezen’s suit went up into blue flame. Everywhere the stranger’s hands had touched was ignited, and before he could even register what was happening, the man’s air was sucked from his lungs. He was dead before he even hit the ground in the alley. Or rather, his ashes. The only thing that remained was one small, gold button that rolled where the women had been watching from behind a crate. Nowhere to be seen.
The stranger smirked to himself and glanced down at the white powder that began to drift through the street like the rest of the dust with the encroaching storm.
“I’m worse.”
