Dragons, Dystopians, and Denial

Upset? No, that wasn't the right word. More like...

... well, Elias didn't know either. But he was glad that Jerica offered to change the subject.

He swallowed. "Sure," he said softly. "What's, um... important to you? Besides your horse."

Jerica took a deep breath.

That was a jarring change of topics -- from her hypotheticals to him asking about her values. She... didn't really get asked that. But, fair was fair. She'd asked him questions he didn't like -- and offered to let him ask questions. She'd need to be more careful about that in the future.

She sobered, thinking through the question thoroughly. She obviously wasn't going to tell him who was important to her. Probably ever, but certainly not now. But what?

"It is important to me," she started slowly. "That innocent people don't get harmed. That they're either taught how to protect themselves or that they have someone who can protect them."

Elias's brain seemed to lag. He was expecting Jerica to talk about something simple, like her hobbies, like gardening or sword-fighting or horse-riding. Not some philosophical view point.

Especially when it seemed to contradict her earlier sentiments.

... Okay. He'll bite.

"So you wouldn't throw an innocent person at me if I got hurt?" he asked carefully, questionably looking over at her.

"I never said I'd throw an innocent person at you," Jerica said, a little indignant. She continued dryly, "I know everyone seems to think I'm a monster, but I don't actually go around stabbing indiscriminately."

She hesitated, taking a deep breath. You're getting defensive.

"If someone stabs you, then they are no longer an innocent person who deserves my protection," she said crisply. "They become an enemy. And I'd absolutely sacrifice an enemy to save myself -- that's kind of how soldiers work. But I'm not planning to throw a small child at you, if that's what you had in mind."

There was a lot—a lot—to unpeel and think about, but naturally, Elias focused on the first thing that stuck to him.

"Why would everyone think you're a monster?" he asked.

Jerica snorted, but then slowly realized it was a genuine question. And then she was dumbfounded for a long moment. He doesn't know anything about me. It felt so liberating -- and so scary. This was a chance at a first impression. An actual first impression with someone. She hadn't had one of those in a decade.

Everyone had their opinions about the King's Assassin. She was used to those opinions being negative. Why else had Elias taken such an instant disliking to her?

A little prick of hope welled up inside her. Am I actually likeable if people don't know who I am? She shrugged. "I mean, isn't that what people think all teenagers are?"

Elias snorted. "Guess you're right," he said, repressing a smirk.

Then he paused, and the smirk faded away. Since she clearly had no boundaries, he wondered if she'd care if he just asked the question that had been gnawing on his mind.

"Why are you a soldier?" he asked. "Did you want to be a soldier?"

Jerica sucked in a deep breath.

She hadn't thought he'd be able to find much more loaded questions than he'd already asked -- and yet, here they were. With an even worse question.

How could she even answer that? Of course, she didn't want to be a soldier... though she had technically volunteered for it... but that was just so that she could get under Derik's authority instead of Biryn's... that hardly counted.

"Does anyone ever want to be a soldier?" she countered, looking back towards him.

Elias shrugged. "I dunno. I didn't. But some people are born into it and don't mind it."

He looked at Jerica, trying to study her, but getting nothing back.

"So is that a no..?"

"It's complicated."

She was trying not to withdraw -- she actually had a chance for some conversation with someone who didn't know who she was. And who knew how long that one would last? The woman thought she'd known who was Jerica was. It was only a matter of time before someone who could speak Elias's language called her on it.

"I'm very good at what I do," she answered, forcing herself not to be combative. She tugged at the fray of the leather on her saddle. "But it's not exactly something I'm allowed to decide about... If I had the choice, I'd be a scientist. I like learning new things."

Elias nodded slowly.

"I understand," he said. "It sounds like we might be in a similar situation."

He decided to end the thought there, instead hearing the word 'scientist' echo in his brain.

"There's science in this world then?" he asked.

That was intriguing. Jerica made a mental note to circle back to what his situation was... eventually. She was sure they weren't even remotely similar -- but maybe he was conscripted, or a child warrior, or some such thing that they could relate with. And that wasn't something that would be shared freely.

She snorted, but a grin tugged at her lips and she looked over at him. "Worlds can't exist without science, Elias. It's the foundation of our very existence. Without science there is no life."

Elias smiled, deciding to ignore the sarcasm.

"It might interest you to know that Earth is fueled by science then," he said with a nod. "Not magic. Science."

He glanced over at her, not sure if she wanted to hear him talk about it.

"Are you... interested in hearing about it?"

"Yes!" she said, a little too enthusiastic. "Tell me all about your Earth-science."

Elias wanted to smile at Jerica to show that he appreciated her enthusiasm, but he found himself talking fast, and the smile slowly forming upon his lips anyways. He didn't know how much she'd understand without an explanation, but he didn't want to assume she didn't know, and figured that if she didn't know about something, she'd ask.

"I'm not the smartest or most sciencey person to tell you all this," he began, "but my powers are based on cells. The fancy name is 'reverse cellular regeneration,' or something like that. I told you that something can't come from nothing, and I meant that in the physical, scientific way. Regenerating the cells I lost has to come from somewhere. But I think—it sounds like—it works similar to Aerik's magic—Rhy'k?—that you mentioned."

He paused knowing that he was fully excluding an aspect of his power that made him a little different, but it had nothing to do with science or cells, and he didn't feel comfortable sharing it anyways.

"All powers work like this as our limitation. Energy conversion is a common power, for example, and those that have that power can manipulate energy things. Like, kinetic to thermal energy, and the reverse way, I know is one of them. And that's where all the fire stuff happens." He nodded. "It's all in our DNA. We were born with it, and there's this long, long history of how it all happened and the world we live in now, and..."

He looked over at Jerica, realizing he hadn't even begun to touch the technology on Earth.

"Sorry, I don't want to overwhelm you," he said sheepishly.