Aqua watched over Azure until dawn, making sure nothing approached her while she slept.
Despite being a slave of divinity…
No, Aqua. Questions first. Assumptions second.
She slapped herself.
Soon, Azure shifted against her lap. Aqua looked down just as the woman's eyes shot open.
By instinct, Azure rolled away and forced herself into a defensive stance.
Azure stared at Aqua in pure confusion. For several long moments, neither of them spoke. The silence grew heavy until Aqua finally broke it.
"As you can see, I was not an enemy," Aqua said, raising her hands and offering a gentle smile.
The warrior's eyes scrutinized Aqua, then dropped to her healed body before snapping back.
"Why did you spare me? What do you want with me? I will not let you sell me to your masters!" Azure demanded, suspicion sharpening every word.
Aqua sighed. She was already tired of being treated like an enemy. "It was not my intention to fight you. You attacked me first."
The woman gazed at her as if she were the worst liar in the world. "I know you are working for the enemy, inquisitor!"
Again with the inquisitor title. I have no idea what that even means, Aqua thought. Questions could wait. First, she had to clear the misunderstanding.
A guard who failed her duty would often fall on her own sword. Yet Azure still stood before her, wounded, hostile, and alive.
Perhaps that alone was worth something.
Aqua could not blame her for being distrustful. Perhaps names would help. If they introduced themselves properly, the hostility might lessen.
As she was deep in thought, she noticed the woman slowly trying to reach for any kind of weapon before stopping when Aqua's gaze fell on her.
Aqua crossed her arms as she shook her head before saying, "No, no, let's drop the hostility. I am not your enemy, you can trust me on that. Why not start with a proper introduction?"
The warrior eyed her with suspicion before answering, "Why would I ever trust an inquisitor? You are the enemy of our kind, actually worse, you are a traitor to all of elven kind!"
Even through suspicion and hostility, Azure was still talking instead of attacking. That, at least, was progress.
So these inquisitors are something like the divine exterminators that hunted elves in my old world, Aqua thought.
The realization saddened her. Being compared to them disgusted her.
She needed to correct this misunderstanding quickly.
Why was her kind always hunted?
Different world, same trouble.
Wherever gods touched mortal lives, ruin followed.
Aqua shook her head before replying. "Use your head and draw your conclusion. If I were one of them, there would be no conversation to have. You'd be gone long before I had reason to heal you."
As Azure checked her body, she realized the elf had told the truth. She was fully healed, but she still did not know who this woman was.
The elf before her was dressed like someone wealthy. Her clothes were made from materials far finer than anything common soldiers could afford.
No matter how much Azure wanted to trust her, suspicion still held her back. And yet, the young elf showed no hostility.
Azure decided to give her the benefit of the doubt as she finally dropped her guard before declaring, "I am Azure Hallowshield, sworn shield of the royal family, captain of the royal guard, and the Martial Champion of the Elven Kingdom."
Azure wondered whether she still deserved to call herself the shield, or even captain. She had lost that right when Sheira was taken.
But if Aqua was willing to help her rescue the princess, this could be Azure's final act as the shield.
Azure gave a deep bow before letting the elf in front of her speak.
So her name is Azure. Pretty name. And apparently, she is important. Aqua thought for a moment before speaking, "I'm Aqua, the Crimson Magister, but you can just call me Aqua."
Aqua gave Azure a slight curtsey.
"Crimson Magister, I have never heard of that title before, and certainly not in the elven Kingdom," Azure spoke with suspicion, but she let it go for now as her mind was full of one thought.
What Azure wanted to do the most was to rush to her liege and rescue her, or at least retrieve her corpse in the worst-case scenario, but if she wanted to have any chance, she should have someone reliable to count on.
Aqua seemed powerful, but Azure did not trust her. No matter how suspicious she was, she lacked the luxury of choice.
If she were caught alone, she would be overwhelmed and killed before she could do anything. The ambush had already proven that she was not strong enough by herself.
She gave the elf a false smile before answering, "It's an honor to make your acquaintance, Lady Aqua."
Aqua smiled lightly before answering, "Likewise, Lady Hallowshield."
Azure searched for a way to interact with her. Despite Aqua's gentle appearance, Azure remembered how she had failed to land even a single hit before collapsing. She did not want Aqua as an enemy. Suspicious or not, if Aqua had wanted to harm her, Azure would already be dead.
She tensed up as the young woman gazed at her with a small blush on her face before looking down and seeing that she was almost completely naked, with only ruined scraps of clothes remaining on her.
Azure covered herself on instinct, though shame was not what twisted in her chest. She had never hated her scars. They were proof she had lived.
But the patches of Argussian hide were different. Those were not scars. They were a brand of her failure.
Azure scanned her surroundings for anything she could use to cover herself.
What amused her the most was how the red-haired woman in front of her was blushing and trying to keep her eyes off her; she did not expect someone as powerful as her to be that sensitive to the naked body.
This made her suspicion of the woman drop quite a bit, yet doubt still festered.
"You are acting as if you have never seen a female body," Azure said with a small smirk forming on her face before turning her back to Aqua and slowly approaching one of her fallen comrades.
"Forgive me for failing you," Azure said, kneeling in front of the corpse.
She really did not want to defile them, but it was a necessity; she carefully removed the heavy armor pieces and put them aside. She moved to one of the fallen casters and ripped parts of their robe, wrapping herself in the cloth before putting on the armor of her former comrade and turning back to Aqua.
She smirked a bit before asking, "Better? Are you still flustered?"
Aqua shook her head, trying to hide a blush on her face before answering, "No, you're just so striking. I lost my train of thought for a second."
Azure's heart skipped a beat, her own face gaining a slight red tint.
Azure was not used to being complimented, especially by someone as beautiful as Aqua. Still, it felt nice. She smiled gently, her face heating up as she finished putting on the last strips of the armor. It did not fit her well, but it would have to work.
Azure brushed off the remaining dirt and dust with her hands before speaking, "I know we met in a bad situation, and that you have no reason to trust me, but could I ask a favor?"
Azure swallowed her pride, or what was left of it, and spoke to the young elf before her. Even if she declined to help her, she still couldn't afford to miss any opportunity to find her friend.
Aqua casually replied with a serious expression, "What is it that I can do for you, Lady Hallowshield?"
Azure had a worried look on her face for a moment. "I saw how powerful you are," she said. "And I want to request your assistance in the rescue of Princess Sheira."
Was someone captured? If they wanted slaves, they would have captured more than a single girl. However, the enemy had killed everyone except Azure and the apparent capture of a girl, leaving Aqua to come to a single conclusion.
They needed Sheira for a reason. That piqued Aqua's curiosity.
That changed everything. When Azure's blessing flared, Aqua had sensed another faint trace of divinity nearby, but she had dismissed it as nothing more than a weak Divine Child.
Azure took a deep breath before continuing to speak, "Of course, you will be rewarded for your service, so what do you say, Lady Aqua?"
Aqua smiled warmly before answering, "Of course, I will help you. I won't allow people like them to exploit our kind."
Her senses spread. I cannot detect any other elves in the forest. All she could pick up on was that many humans still remained in the forest.
Aqua looked at Azure, her lips stretching into a line.
She wanted to see what Azure would do while searching for her friend, and in addition, she was curious about why the attackers would need the princess.
Wiping out the remaining humans would be easy. Too easy.
But dead men could not lead them to Sheira.
Aqua needed one of them alive long enough to point the way.
Of course, if they found someone important enough, Aqua could always take the answer directly from their memories.
But this was Azure's failure, Azure's duty, and perhaps Azure's last reason to keep standing. Aqua would not take that from her.
Azure's expression brightened the moment Aqua agreed. "Then let us go. We cannot waste a single moment."
Azure took one of the fallen swords from the battlefield and approached her new companion.
She turned her head toward the site of battle once again, gazing at the loss she suffered.
"I will have to come back to bury my comrades," Azure muttered, a frown forming on her face at the thought she would need to bury many of her loyal soldiers.
But proper rites would take too long, and Sheira did not have that time.
"Forgive me." She gave a bow to her fallen comrades before turning back to Aqua.
"Let's move. I detected two groups still in the forest," Aqua said, turning toward the first group.