Inheritance

Part 2. Chapter 55: Twisted

Francis thought about being his usual, haughty self and saying, perhaps he only told you that only because he wanted to keep you as a mistress on the side.

But he refrained and let her alone. The awkward silence was filled with Francis' rapid sneezes.

His head felt misty and out-of-sorts. He felt like he was burning up.

Hew came to sit by Kori with a flavorless biscuit in hand. He saw Kori eying it with ravenous hunger. The elf-human smiled and handed it to her.

"So, little waif." Hew said as the waif took a bite. "If you had an affair with your king, then it must mean you are more understanding of our plight than most. You don't see a problem with mating with other species, correct?"

Kori hung her head. Shame crept up onto her cheeks in the form of red blush. "I think the taboo exists for a reason. I think if your head is telling you that sleeping with someone is wrong, then you shouldn't do it."

Francis paused in eating his own biscuit. At Kori's words, he felt a guilt which he thought he had stopped feeling long ago. His hands fell lank at his sides. Suddenly, he felt like he didn't deserve to eat.

"And yet you slept with King Laurence." Hew reminded her.

Kori, realizing that denying she had slept with Laurence was a fruitless endeavor, shrugged her shoulders in surrender. "Sometimes, your body overwhelms your logic. I think that children should be freed from the mistakes of their parents, however. I don't think you poor creatures should be shunned from us and have to live so far from society."

Kori had Eory in mind when she said it. Her heart ached.

Francis crossed his arms. Foolish woman. Such deformed creatures are not worthy of life.

"I'm glad you think so." Hew replied. He looked apologetic "You seem like a kind woman. I wish it were someone else that we were leveraging."

Kori sipped her water daintily. She placed the flask next to her and said, "I met many human women and men who had been thrown in the dungeon and who engaged in taboo the same way I had with Laurence. They were sick in the head and wounded at heart. I did as much as I could for them—many of them the king even felt fit to release back into society—but even those who did get released turned up dead anyway. They weren't welcomed by family and friends any longer when they found out about their attractions. I feel like I failed them. I always thought to myself, 'why should they be punished so severely for an affliction they can't help'? An affliction which I, and even the king, shared?"

Kori could feel the guilt and revulsion from indulging in her perverse behavior even now when she was miles away from the king.

Hew wrapped a strong arm around her shoulder. "You are wise, Kori. I wish that my parents hadn't so foolishly brought me into the world, but I also find myself... Unable to blame them in many ways. One can't help burning at someone they find irresistibly attractive, but they rarely think of the consequences of their actions."

Kori's nodded solemnly.

__

They walked until it was night, and then the elf-humans made camp.

Hew untied his captives' hands and let them eat their dinner in comfort.

While looking up at the sky, Francis ate sparingly. His stomach was killing him. He at three berries, but couldn't stomach the generous slab of smoked meat offered to him.

You're a mistake! You shouldn't be here! Terran's voice was loud and accusing in his mind.

Through the fire that separated them, Francis saw Kori retrieve a paper from the pocket of her tattered and dirty dress.

The elf-humans all looked her way when she retrieved the paper—thinking it might be a weapon—but settled down when they saw it was only a paper.

Kori looked at the drawing with a wobbly chin and glassy eyes. She smiled a bittersweet smile and clutched the paper to her chest.

Francis wondered how a paper could possibly elicit such feelings. "What's that?"

Kori sniffled. "Something from Eory."

With shaking hands, she turned the parchment toward Francis.

It was a stark, very flattering picture of Kori drawn with charcoal.

Is this how the Arrozan sees her? She must be quite the lady... Francis thought to himself. "I must wonder how a woman with such a kind heart can love something that is so inherently deformed."

With angry tears in her eyes, Kori cried, "he is not deformed! He only acted in self-defense at the ball! He was gooder and kinder than either of us! He went out of his way to prove that he was good! It was only when his life was threatened that he defended himself! He's a good man! He can't help the blood he was born with! But nobody would give him a chance..."

"The deformed don't deserve a second chance! All they do is make things worse for everyone they know and love!" The words poured out of Francis' mouth.

"We're all deformed! All of us! Our skin looks fine, but we are all irrefutably sick and twisted on the inside—as sick as Eory or sicker! Antlers exists within all of us... Chittering like creatures who lurk in the underworld! Whether that sickness surfaces is another matter entirely! All I know is that everyone deserves a chance to show that they aren't deformed!" Kori rose her voice, and every elf-human in the camp focused their attention on her.

Francis was stunned at her outburst. He had no retort.

You're a mistake! You shouldn't be here! Terran's voice took hold.

"What about me? Do I deserve a chance?" Francis asked—automatically expecting her to say no.

Kori nodded. "Of course you do... You're a good man, I can tell."

Francis half-smiled at that, and almost believed her.