wretched and wonderful: rest

After slitting five more throats, Lyuben followed Darzi.  They walked the grey streets in silence.  He was too tired, too sore, too sticky in these leathers, and those were the only words which occurred to him.  Over and again all the long way back from the [District], the words rung within him.

on the crest of a high dune

On the crest of a high dune, Aislinge sat.  The waxing moon was high overhead, and the dark sky full of stars.  Her black eyes stared up, but she did not see.  She did not feel the cool sand beneath her.  She had felt wet leaves and hard earth against her cheek that night in the woods.  It'd been early spring, the green just creeping back in, the rains giving each day a brisk chill.  She'd shivered.

wretched and wonderful: beginning

Darzi first met Lyuben five years ago.

She’d been full of wine and leading some dark-haired human back to the shop.  She couldn’t remember his name.  Or much of that night.  The majority was a blur between moments clarified by their intensity.  Even then, even five years later, the recollection twisted in her guts and knocked the breath from her lungs.

different

What makes you different?  Or are you the same?  There's safety in belonging, in being like others.  With others to support you, to agree with your thoughts and feelings, the world is a warm place.

And if alone you must gather wood for fire.  You have only yourself for comfort.  Only yourself to affirm or deny the thoughts and feelings which occur only to you.  So, how do you find the courage to say yes, I am different?  Yes, I am different, and that's what makes me wonderful.

wretched and wonderful: only the first

"Boy."

Darzi snapped her fingers at Lyuben.  He stared at her back, still bent over the man dying at her feet.  Lyuben did not move.  She straightened, turned to glare at him.

"Problem, boy?"

The two stared at each other.  Her name was Darzi because that's what she was: a tailor, as her troll father had taught her.  Her elf mother had taught her how to manage a business while killing for coin.  Darzi was tall with broad shoulders and hips, thick waist and legs.  Her skin was a dusky violet, her eyes red, her hair a deep shade of blue.  Her face was round with high cheekbones and a wide, upturned nose.  Two long horns twisted back from her forehead.