The Soul Engine Ch. 46 (Original Fantasy) (Patreon)

A/N: "I don't need sleep, I need answers!" - Mikael, probably.

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As the Knight-Superior’s words hang in the air, answered by a baffled silence, Mikael just stares at the man, wondering if he’s taken leave of his senses. Meanwhile, Bula bristles and then growls low in her throat. Timothal takes that in stride though, spreading his hands apart and dipping his head apologetically.

“I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t be asking if it weren’t a case of literal life or death. At this point in time, there isn’t much else to be done. If we can’t find allies… even from the unlikeliest of places, then we are likely doomed.”

Mikael blinks as this actually seems to give Bula some pause, the growl cutting out and the half-orc considering the Knight-Superior’s words for a moment before grumbling under her breath. For Mikael’s part however, he can’t keep silent any longer. It just doesn’t make any sense, really. In one breath, Thayla’s father has gone from declaring Zuveria’s military out of reach to aid them, to talking about Bula’s people… the orcs, presumably.

“I don’t understand. What exactly are you talking about? Bula’s people… you just finished telling us why it would be impossible for the armies of Zuveria to turn away from the border with the Savage Lands to meet Ocreatha’s advance in any reasonable time frame. Pardon my language, but how the fuck is Bula supposed to bring her people together any faster? And even if she can, how can they possibly be trusted to fight against Foss and not just pillage and raid across the Empire?”

Indeed, even if Bula managed to somehow become a unifying leader among the orc tribes like something straight out of a fairy tale or something, they still had a number of hurdles to leap over and hoops to jump through. Getting the Zuverian Military to let a bunch of orcs out of the Savage Lands and into their Empire definitely didn’t sound any easier than getting them to abandon their posts on their border with the Savage Lands to turn their attention towards Ocreatha!

He feels like he’s taking crazy pills, but at least when he looks at Avina and Thayla, they’re just as confused as he is. Bula, on the other hand, is avoiding his gaze for the first time in his memory. Meanwhile, Timothal has fallen silent under Mikael’s questioning.

When he’s finally done speaking, the Knight-Superior has an eyebrow raised, gazing between all of them in quiet contemplation. Mikael doesn’t like the older man’s look to be honest. It feels like the sort of expression one might have when they realize that they’ve overestimated their company’s intelligence. Seriously, what the fuck is going on here?!

“Hm. You truly don’t know? None of you?”

His eyes sweep from Mikael to Avina to Thayla. Honestly, as confused as Mikael was, he was a little relieved that he wasn’t the only one in the dark this time, apparently. Finally, Timothal sighs.

“… I see. I owe you another apology then, Warrior.”

Crossing her arms over her chest, Bula huffs.

“S’fine. Tell them. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter.”

She certainly sounds like she cares. Mikael almost wants to say they don’t need to know… but obviously they do. Whatever this was, it certainly seemed to matter a great deal, if Thayla’s father was to be believed.

Nodding at Bula, the Knight-Superior looks back to the rest of them for a moment before speaking plainly.

“I was not talking about the orcs. After all, Bula’s orcish side only represents half of her heritage.”

That hangs in the air for a moment, with Mikael nodding slowly… before furrowing his brow. Yeah. Bula was a half-orc. Which meant…

“However, you all seem to have assumed that Bula’s heritage was half-orc, half-human. That would be incorrect.”

Wait. Mikael’s eyes dart to Bula’s knife-like ears. And then he finds himself thinking back to a certain conversation about a certain forest of massive trees a couple weeks ago. No way.

“Bula is half-orc… and half-elf.”

Dead silence hangs in the air as Mikael continues staring at Bula’s sharp, pointed ears. Seriously, how could he be so blind? Meanwhile, after a beat to process Timothal’s words, Avina lets out a squawk of disbelief.

“W-What?! But the Sylian Elves are just a myth!”

But Timothal just shakes his head.

“I’m afraid not, your Highness. The elves of the Sylian Woods are very real. You should assume the ancient legends all have a kernel of truth to them in a world like ours, to be honest. But even setting those myths and legends aside… I’ve seen Sylian Elves with my own two eyes, long ago in my youth.”

It’s Thayla’s turn to gawk a little bit as the female knight blinks rapidly.

“What? Father, you never told me that story!”

The Order of the Rose’s Grandmaster shakes his head.

“It’s not a very nice story, Thayla. I was very young and under the command of a Chevalier who thought it was the Order of the Rose’s duty to spread our reach as far as possible. I would like to say he had good intentions, but ultimately his arrogance and overconfidence led to the loss of eight knights and ten squires. It was the last time that the Order of the Rose officially sanctioned an incursion into the Sylian Woods.”

For a moment, Timothal looks off into the distance, clearly remembering things based off of his grimace. Then, he shakes his head.

“I would not be alive today if it were not for the Sylian Elves. Those of us who survived that expedition owe our lives to them. The reason you have never heard this story is because the Sylian Woods are off-limits to members of the Order of the Rose. For good reason.”

There’s a brief moment as everyone in the room digests that. Thayla in particular looks floored that her father might not have always been the powerful, stalwart, and altogether implacable man he is today. Then again, from what Avina had said about the Sylian Woods, Mikael doesn’t know if Timothal, even as he is now, would fare much better out there. That said, Mikael can’t just leave it at that. Based off Timothal’s words alone…

“If you have some kind of bond with them already, then why can’t you contact them yourself? Why does Bula need to do anything?”

As he speaks, Mikael glances in the half-orc’s direction with some concern, frowning. Bula doesn’t seem to be listening very well… rather, she’s scowling angrily and glaring off to the side. No, rather… now that he’s paying more attention, Mikael realizes that Bula is glaring southward specifically. In the direction of the Sylian Woods, like she has been for weeks now.

“It’s not that simple. I might owe my life to those elves who saved me and my comrades… but I doubt they would even remember me, let alone care if we came asking for aid. The elves who rescued our ill-fated expedition that day did not do so specifically to save our lives. They were merely hunting the beast that slew half of our number, including our overconfident leader.”

Clearly still thinking back to that day, Timothal huffs and shakes his head.

“They barely even paid us any mind save to tell us to get out of their woods if we valued our lives. And I don’t even think it was a threat if I’m being honest. They were simply stating facts. The Sylian Woods are no place for humans. And as far as the Sylian Elves are concerned… we’re little more than an afterthought to them.”

On the one hand, that sounded like the vague memories of fictional elves Mikael could still pull forth from his life back on Earth. Immortal Assholes who couldn’t be bothered to interact with the world around them. Mortals were fleeting existences to them, and they either hated them for it, or were merely apathetic more often than not.

On the other hand… Mikael’s gaze flicks back to Bula, more worried than ever now. Because none of that really bode well for the half-orc’s history if she really was also a half-elf. It didn’t bode well at all.

“… Bula? Are you alright?”

Still staring southward, Bula growls, a sound that starts deep in her chest and reverberates up through her throat and out her clenched teeth.

“They’re calling to me.”

Wait, what? Mikael blinks at that, even as Bula finally tears her eyes away, grinding her tusks together and flaring her nostrils.

“Have been since the Colosseum. Dunno why then but its fucking annoying.”

Her blunt admission takes him back for a moment. All the way back to Alether… to the Grand Melee. From off to the side, Avina makes a noise of understanding in her throat.

“The Slave Collar. It was hiding you or… or something.”

Bula just grunts, responding to that with a half-shrug.

“Maybe. Didn’t hear a call before the collar. Heard it ever since though.”

… It made sense, Mikael supposed. Though only barely. It didn’t begin to explain WHY the elves of the Sylian Woods would be calling out to Bula, but if the slave collar blocked their perception of her, then as soon as Mikael broke it back in the arena… they would have been aware of her existence. Still…

“Bula, what do you mean exactly? They’re… calling to you?”

She nods sharply, her nostrils flaring again. She bites out her words through clenched teeth and shifting tusks.

“Trying to beckon me home.”

Then, her face contorts in rage and she stomps hard enough that it cracks the floorboards beneath her feet.

“Pah! As if they have any right to say what is my home and what is not! THEY! ABANDONED! ME!”

CRUNCH!

Swinging her fist around, Bula strikes a nearby stone wall hard enough to put a hole in it. Mikael glances at Timothal, half-expecting the Knight-Superior to admonish her. But Thayla’s father stays quiet, seemingly content to let Bula get her anger out in her own way. To be fair, it seems to work. Despite her anger, Bula manages to mostly calm down all on her own. Or rather… the half-orc merely tempers her rage, focusing it in the right direction. Nothing and no one in this library has earned her ire in the same way the elves have it would seem.

“Yes, I am a half-elf. My father raided the Sylian Woods many years ago and made off with an elf maiden.”

Bula snorts and shakes her head, clearly reciting history that was told to her, rather than anything she lived through.

“The feat brought my father much acclaim within the tribe. So much so that he was able to become Chieftain. Even when the elf maiden escaped within the turn of a moon, his place was still secured. Even more so when I was… retrieved as evidence of his victory.”

Oh. Mikael’s blood cools in his veins as Bula grits her teeth. Retrieved? Through another raid or…

“As my father told it, they found me on the border between the Savage Lands and the Sylian Woods many moons later. The moment I was birthed, I was tossed out as little more than trash.”

Between Timothal’s description of them and now Bula’s own experiences, Mikael doesn’t think he likes the Sylian Elves very much. To be fair, their behavior isn’t really all that surprising if he spends a moment thinking about it. After all, if the elves of the Sylian Woods HAD been willing to keep a half-orc in their midst and raise her as their own, it would have immediately made them some of the most accepting, open-minded elves that Mikael had ever heard of.

No, with what he recalled, it actually made a lot of sense that an elvish society would throw out a half-orc like Bula and basically toss her to the proverbial wolves. However, that didn’t make it any better. Especially since Bula was… well, someone he cared about very much. He can see how hurt she is, under all her anger. How much it pains her to think about being thrown away by her mother and the other elves, even now.

Taking two steps forward, Mikael embraces the startled half-orc before she can react. Wrapping her in what would be a bone-crushing hug for anyone else, Mikael gives her a tight squeeze. After a moment, Bula starts to squirm a bit.

“W-What are you doing, Mikael?!”

“Hugging you.”

“Why?!”

“Because you deserve to know that you are loved and cared for.”

Bula falls silent at that, going still in Mikael’s arms. He keeps the hug going for a little while longer… and is beyond delighted when she slowly raises her arms after a moment and hugs him back. It’s undeniably awkward on Bula’s end and he’s not sure if she’s ever even hugged someone before outside of copulation or a grapple, but she’s trying and that’s all that matters.

When they finally pull apart, Bula has a small smile on her face and huffs when he returns it with a broad smile of his own. Of course, the moment is somewhat ruined by Avina piping up.

“I’m surprised that your father did not seek to use you to take on the Sylian Woods again, later on.”

Mikael gives Avina a look, though he has to admit it’s a pretty good point. Bula’s father doesn’t sound like the sort of orc who contents himself with past achievements. No, an ambitious orc like him wouldn’t just stop there. Oh. Wait.

“He did.”

Bula’s words echo through the library. But her tone… her tone is one of pride.

“I was nothing but a tool to him. A way to relive his glory days and eventually raid the Sylian Woods again. As I aged, he trained me for that sole purpose. He made no secret of that fact.”

There’s a vicious, savage grin on the warrior’s face to accompany her next words. She looks so damn pleased with herself, though Mikael has to admit that she almost certainly has reason to be if his suspicions are correct.

“When I came of age, the tribe threw me a party that lasted all night. Father told me that in the morning, I would lead them into the Sylian Woods and together we would hunt down the elves. Didn’t really feel like it. So I gutted him like a fish and left instead. Haven’t looked back since.”

Right. Bula had told him as much before, hadn’t she? She’d told him that she’d killed her father. Mikael had been too relieved that Bula wasn’t some sort of Orc Princess to care about WHY she’d killed him. But now he knows. He doesn’t think any less of Bula for it, of course. In fact, he’d go so far as to say she did the right thing.

Of course, Bula has her own opinions of her actions.

“Tch. Doesn’t mean I give two shits about those damn elves though. Just didn’t feel like being used by that bastard for a single day more, that’s all. Been trying my best to ignore their call, but they’re getting… insistent.”

Well. That wasn’t ominous or anything…

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A/N: Anyone have "Bula is actually a half-elf" on their bingo cards? Legitimately curious if anyone saw that coming~

That doesn't mean she's some sort of Elven Princess tho, don't jump to conclusions now :V

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