Kari had stopped growing at five foot two inches, which made a serious career in the Watch a lot harder. In her first few months criminals had actually laughed at her when she had told them to ‘Halt and desist’. It wasn’t until she had demonstrated her vastly superior speed and strength by throwing a man four times her own weight over her shoulder and carrying him to the Watch House with no discernible difficulty, that they stopped asking if she was part dwarf. In fact, very few people laughed at her petite size after that; usually those that did had a sincere wish to be punched in the face.
The elf slowly dipped his chin and met her gaze. “Corporal True, they are waiting for you,” the harassed secretary said. Begrudgingly, Kari tore her gaze away from the guard and walked through the doors.
Inside she found three more elves, several more secretaries, a man wearing the black and red robes of a royal magician, and a Prince. They all stopped and turned at her entrance. The range of expressions was vastly different from each individual when then they saw her. The elves displayed careful disgust and revulsion, the magician was curious, the secretaries decided to pay no attention to her and went back to whatever it was they did, and the Prince smiled. Kari decided to scowl at everyone, including the Prince. If he was involved in this, then there were definitely not going to be any smiles.
“Your Highness, is this your idea of a joke? How can this demokin assist us in our investigations?” said the tallest and apparently youngest (though that was difficult to tell with elves as they didn’t wrinkle, only their hair gave it away by going silvery). He looked Kari up and down, and she supposed that she didn’t look very intimidating at a glance. She was short, even for humans, and had blonde, shoulder length hair with a few chunks cut out of it which made it look scruffy and untidy. Her eyes were big and a bright sapphire blue, that turned orangey-gold (as they were at that moment) when she was angry. Her skin wasn’t very scary either, a creamy, pale colour with a few freckles across her nose due to the many hours she spent on patrol.
The elf’s eyes narrowed though, as he must have seen the glow behind her irises, the slight point to her ears, tinted blue, of all colours, and the fingernails that could easily be mistaken for claws. She could see his gaze reconsidering what she was. His nose wrinkled. Fucking elves! And what gave this guy any excuse to judge her?
She narrowed her eyes on him in return, and using skills she had honed after seven years serving the City, estimated his height at around six and a half feet, brown hair drawn back from his face in many tiny braids woven into a larger braid that reached down his back to his waist. His eyes were the colour of wet moss with silver flecks that you could call dew drops if you were of a poetic mind, but since Kari wasn’t, she didn’t. His face was handsome, in an elfy sort of way, like someone had taken an exquisitely beautiful human man and made it a little bit more slanted, pointy and angular. His long robe could probably conceal several weapons and if she were on the street she would probably have done a stop and search, on the grounds that she didn’t like elves. Kari wasn’t as bad as some officers: she had known people to be arrested for “having a shifty look about him”, “eyeing up my young lady” and “being so fuck-ugly, he should wear a mask by law”. Corporal Baxter Milton had been forced to release his brother from that last arrest, as well as the arrests for “not sharing when we were little”, “being a little bastard” and “it’s for your own bloody good”.
The Prince turned to look at Kari, so she gave him the same considering glare. Prince Kevan was nearly six foot, with blonde hair and blue eyes, about twenty-nine years old and probably weighed one hundred and eighty pounds. He looked like he could handle himself in a fight - and Kari had seen him training a few times, so she knew he could. She also knew he had a very nice body under his formal clothing, one that she had once allowed herself to have a few fantasies about. But he was a Prince and she was demokin, and sometimes reality sucked.
He smiled at her again. “Corporal it has come to our attention that the Watch lacks a skilled magic user. This is Lord Elathir Aleanrae, you will be working with him from now on.”
The elf snarled, as did Kari. “You said I would be working with a lead tracker from the Watch. as our investigations are connected. This half-breed, she is probably one of them!” He looked mildly annoyed.
The older elves looked disappointed. The one on the left, with the silver streaks above his ears and grey robes, cleared his throat. He didn’t look very happy. “What I think my colleague means to say is that perhaps working with a demokin, whilst hunting a dangerous felon with demonic connections, may involve a conflict of interest for the corporal.”
Kari understood about three words of that, but she knew it was insulting. She bared her teeth and snarled.
“Kari, I mean, Corporal, I think he was asking if this would be difficult for you as you may have personal connections to hell through your racial heritage,” the Prince said diplomatically. “Lord Shalandalan, Lord Isililothina, Lord Aleanrae,” he nodded to the three elves, “let me assure you that the corporal has no familial connections or loyalties to the underworld and has been in service to the City for many years.”
Kari, confused and insulted, decided it was her turn to speak. “I have no loyalties to hell, demons or criminals and I’m insulted if you think I do.” She turned to the prince, “Your Highness, I don’t understand why I must work with elves when we have royal magicians in the City. Wouldn’t it make more sense to be assigned with one of them?”
Prince Kevan looked at her and smiled. Kari felt the smile right down to her toes and her eyes went back to being blue. No wonder he was more popular than his older and more arrogant brother. Prince Piron, the heir to the throne, was not a favourite, and he made difficult decisions about taxes and funding in the areas the King had allocated to his control. Currently Prince Piron controlled the budget for the Watch, and he had made some questionable cuts. Kari had thrown a desk through a window when she found out. The costs had then been taken out of her pay, which resulted in more breakages; she was still paying for a few of those items. Prince Kevan, on the other hand, was the “spare” and therefore lived the life of a Palace playboy. He stepped out with the most beautiful ladies in court, and, out of court, sponsored the arts and community projects and was generally very charming to everyone. Kari had once been assigned to escort him on a ride outside the City, and had actually enjoyed it.
“Corporal, the elves are also hunting a powerful mage who is importing demon contraband. This has now become a matter that needs co-operation between both peoples as the sources the elves have investigated have all pointed back to the City.” He turned to the elves, “Corporal True has also been investigating disappearances in the more deprived areas of the city, prostitutes and beggars usually, and we think they may be connected.” The Prince turned to look at Kari, and smiled again. “Corporal, your reports of missing people –”
“Someone actually reads my reports?” she interrupted. Kari was shocked anyone had even bothered to read her reports, since she had been investigating the disappearances of various drug addicts, low level dealers and prostitutes who she usually used for information, though her superiors had told her she was chasing shadows, as whores and addicts go missing every day.
“Yes, and they have coincided with large shipments of demonic materials making their way to the streets and into Elvish territory. This is why, Corporal, you will be working with Lord Aleanrae to discover the source of the shipments.”
*