Young Writers Society

"It's..." Jerica growled, rubbing her face roughly. "Complicated."

She didn't give a fuck if it was pissing Eve off. How were you supposed to explain your entire life story in five minutes?

She was silent for a long moment, getting more agitated the longer she thought about it. Why the fuck did Eve care so much? This was getting on her nerves. It's not like it mattered what Jerica did outside of this hellish existence. She knew she was in the military... ish. That was enough.

And, yet, she didn't feel like fighting, either. And it wouldn't particularly matter if Eve knew who she was. Gods knew everyone back in Beirania knew who she was. What she was. And hated her for it. What was one more person added to that list?

"No, I'm not an executioner for the military," Jerica sighed, defeated. "I'm General of the Archers. I mostly just train my men and do a bunch of shitty fucking paperwork. But as King--"

She tried to cut herself off but it was too late. May as well go with it.

"King's Assassin, yes, I execute people. And assassinate them. And spy on them. And any other nasty thing you might want me to do," she finished sourly. "Up to, but not limited to, sleeping in fucking trees so I don't get slaughtered. Happy?"

Finally. Jerica cracked.

Evaline listened intently, absorbing as much information as she could and trying to put the puzzle pieces together.

General of the Archers. She didn't know what she meant by archers, but Evaline had a feeling that Beirania was more archaic than Earth. At least, it seemed that in the fictional stories she used to read as a kid, dragons were associated with medieval times, so maybe the same was true there.

It was only reaffirmed when she said that she was the king's assassin. She must have had intricate ties with royalty and people in power if she took direct orders from the king of her land.

She didn't sound particularly pleased that this was her occupation. She probably wanted a way out. A way to escape her reality and stop killing.

Maybe. She didn't know her enough to know for sure.

And Evaline also had to consider the possibility that this was all a lie, although she thought that was unlikely since the story seemed too complex and deep to be fabricated. It was likely a truth.

She was surprised she'd tell the truth, honestly. She knew she wouldn't have.

Still, if Jerica really was trained to kill people, then Evaline had to be extra wary of her. She probably already thought of a thousand ways to kill her. Maybe she was waiting for the chance to pounce, just waiting for the opportunity.

She didn't trust her. Not one bit.

"Thrilled," Evaline said back with obvious sarcasm. "I assume you perform your acts through the use of weapons? And you don't have any special... abilities?"

Jerica seemed genuinely confused about powers, although Evaline did see her seemingly create fire out of simple friction very quickly. She'd rather believe she was hiding something rather than it being a trick of her eyes.

"I. still. don't. fucking. know. what you keep going on about abilities and powers and all that other bullshit you keep spouting." Jerica wasn't even going to give her the dignity of a response with her other question. What kind of an assassin would be pathetic enough she had to rely on weapons? "How about you go ahead and tell me about that now? I told you what I am."

Fair enough. Jerica's world didn't have powers. Evaline couldn't tell if that was better or worse.

She shrugged a little, sitting up straight and not letting her annoyance faze her. "Everyone on Earth has a power," she said. "Hardwired in our DNA. Everyone's abilities are different. Some can manipulate matter, others can manipulate cells, or elements, or electromagnetic waves, and so on." She leaned her head back on the tree, thinking of the half-lie. "Mine involves brain chemistry. Memories and the like."

That sounded outlandish. But, then, what about this world actually made sense? "So, like... you actually did see my memory?"

Oh.

Jerica didn't realize that? Evaline thought that was obvious.

"Yes," she said slowly. "I did. Hence why I believe you when you said other realms exist."

"So, you can just like... see? What's going on?" Jerica was getting uneasy at the thought of the alternative. "Or, like, hear stuff? Or... other? stuff?"

Honestly, Evaline wasn't even sure what she was going on about.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "Yes, I saw the one memory and heard everything, if that's what you're asking."

Jerica didn't like Eve's tone, acting like she was stupid just because she'd never met a freak like Eve before. "Look, I don't know how your weird little 'powers' work." She did air quotes. "Whether it's just, like, the gist, or if you can see things, or hear things, or... like, my thoughts or whatever."

She didn't know why she was doing this to herself. It was just going to be agonizing. And yet. She was desperately curious and was letting the curiosity get the best of her.

Evaline narrowed her eyes in the darkness. She didn't have to see Jerica to tell that she was annoyed but still desperate to know. Still, it seemed childish for her to land on that specific implcation.

"Are you asking me if I can read your mind?" she asked, holding back the sneer in her voice.

"No," Jerica said crisply. Eve had already told her she couldn't, and she would have figured it out by now anyway even if she hadn't. There'd be no point in probing Jerica for information if she could just make her think about it and know the truth. "I'm trying to figure out how this power works. If you're able to see my memory, what parts of it? What I saw? Heard? Touched? Thought? Felt? It's clear you have to be touching me for it to work, I just don't know what you actually do when you are touching me."

Evaline sighed. For someone who was skeptical of this in the first place, Jerica seemed really invested to know every detail. She suppose it didn't hurt to tell her how it worked since it was fairly harmless. But still...

"Sure. I can tell you," Evaline said as she flicked another blade of stuck grass over the edge. It slowly fell down, landing near one of the pacing wolves around the tree. "But tell confirm this first: you don't have any abilities at all, besides being a master of cursing?"

"Don't really have the time to become a master of more than one fucking thing," Jerica spat back. Of all the things that there was to critique about Jerica, her cursing bothered her the most? Not being an assassin. Not her sarcasm. Oh, no. She was offended by four-letter words. What was she, eighty?

"So that's a no?" Evaline continued to prod, noticing how she didn't answer the question.

"That's a no," Jerica agreed. There were certain things that didn't matter if everyone knew -- such as her generalship and the fact that she was an assassin. She'd prefer not to share that she was royalty because she could already hear the snarky 'yes princess' jabs that would be coming if Eve knew. But she wasn't about to share any actual secrets with this ho that didn't seem capable of direct statement, outside of insulting Jerica.