Strengths, Smarts, and Subconsciousness

Evaline's mind halted as those three simple words seemed to oh-so-casually spill out of Jerica's mouth like it was an icebreaker introduction.

"What?" she said flatly, shifting her weight on the branch again. "An assassin? For... the military?"

Jerica sighed again. She probably should have anticipated that question. So much for an exchange of information. "For my uncle... I said my occupation, exchange says you tell me yours now."

Evaline sighed loudly. She wanted to fight and not answer her question, but if she wasn't from Earth, then she probably didn't even care. She didn't know the context, and she said Earth was a terrible place to be anyways.

"Fine," she said, then paused in thought. She never actually had to explain this to anyone before. "I'm not a soldier anymore because I got promoted. Now, I tell soldiers what to do."

At least... she still was, technically. She didn't know how much longer she'd be able to do this.

"So you're an officer." Jerica wasn't aware that Eve was making that sort of distinction. If officers didn't count as soldiers, then Jerica wasn't a soldier. Oh well.

"I don't know," Evaline said flatly. "Why don't you tell me more about being an assassin first?"

"No. You said an exchange of information and you still haven't told me what it is exactly that you are," Jerica said stubbornly. "I'm sure you can guess what assassin means."

Evaline suppressed a groan, and there was an uncomfortably long pause. She looked down and saw a wolf circling them and the sighed in defeat, leaning back against the tree.

"Fine," she said, although it was far from happy. "An officer is close, but I'm not military. It's more like..." She paused to carefully scan through her brain and select a different word. "Like an unaffiliated militia. And I'm the leader. Are you happy?"

As if she'd be happy with that teaser. Now she was just more curious than ever. So many more questions than answers at this point. "So you're leading a rebellion?"

Evaline eye twitched. Jerica guessed right, but she wasn't happy that the rebellion had so many more implications than what she started off with.

"You could say that," she said a little bit too casually before turning it back towards her. "And you? Why are you an assassin?"

Jerica wasn't pleased that the conversation turned back on her, but it seemed fair enough. She'd gotten several questions in, and now knew something fairly valuable about Eve. Leading a rebellion meant there was some resolve to this girl. Good. They'd need it.

"It's complicated," she sighed. Then, she realized that wasn't actually an answer. She was silent for a long moment. How could she even get into that without explaining everything? She sighed again. "I didn't have a choice. They started grooming me when I was four... got rather good at it."

Jerica's favorite phrase aside from curses seemed to be "it's complicated," but Evaline only noted this to recycle back to her in case she didn't want to answer something herself.

So, Jerica was an assassin. Who for, she didn't know, but it was probably this "they" she had mentioned. Since she was forced and groomed into it, Evaline would have guessed it was for the military, but Beirania likely didn't work the same way Earth did.

"And by 'they,' you mean... your uncle?" she asked, guessing based on her previous answer.

Fuck. This conversation was rapidly sliding downhill. Why was she always so shitty at talking. Derik was much, much better at this than she was. She cleared her throat, looking back at the wolves before answering gruffly. "Yeah."

Evaline just wanted to make sure she got the story right. She furrowed her brows in thought, repeating the story.

"So you're an assassin because your uncle signed you up for the job at four years old," she said. "And now you're partly working for the military, I assume as an executioner for certain people that your officers want eliminated. And your military background is why you're strong and know how to fight." She paused, nodding to herself. "Is that right?"

Jerica was grateful that Eve seemed to think Levin had signed her up for the military, rather than controlling it himself. That was good. The way she explained the rest seemed absurd when you said it like that, but wasn't actually all that inaccurate, if unnuanced. "I told you it was complicated."

"Can you stop saying that?" Evaline blurted out, starting to get annoyed. "I don't care if it's complicated or not. Just answer the question."