Kushiel watched her with a thoughtful, slightly strained expression. He knew a thing or two about crazy. He knew about the way flames leaked from his body into his mind, and from his mind to his soul, like a sneaky little worm that wanted to keep him idle and drowsy. He knew crazy so well that he was pretty sure it would be able to sniff it out on Elysteria. Furthermore, Kushiel was rather a good judge of character, and her character didn’t seem crazy. True, he usually chose to associate with the worst of characters, but he wasn’t blind to their natures. He just liked them that way.

He didn’t know Elysteria particularly well, but he thought he knew her well enough to know if she was crazy. It was a toss up of course, she could be a functioning lunatic who occasionally recovered from her fantasies enough to put in a good showing. Perhaps, she had relapsed again. Still, he was inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. His own father, after all, fancied himself a dark lord. You didn’t get a lot crazier than that.


“Now, when you say it was an accident, do you mean your condition was an accident or that…” This was the bit Kushiel had a hard time with. Yet, he was determined to do her the courtesy of not being overly skeptical.

“It was an accident that he was in your head. Furthermore, who on earth is he?” Kushiel, trying to stay positive about Elysteria’s mental faculties, flipped through the ways in which someone could be “in your head.” The most obvious answer was that someone had managed to worm his way into her confidence and then manipulated her. Kushiel could attest to how unlike that was. He, himself, had attempted to do something similar when they had met. Granted, his motives weren’t malicious so much as lecherous. Still, he had very little success. He couldn’t imagine that another could succeed where he had failed. So, another explanation then? He could think of a few, and each was more fanciful than the last. Still, he knew enough of magic to know that what seemed impossible was really quite simple

As he pondered her strange condition Kushiel turned his attention back to the filly. She certainly looked like Elysteria, save for the girl’s teal points. Elysteria explained, and he looked at her with interest.


“Well aren’t you full of surprises? A daughter and a sister.” He looked at the little filly. Certainly, Elysteria was capable of babysitting, but didn’t children usually stay with their parents? Kushiel couldn’t be sure, he was forever wandering away from his own mother as a child. The difference was that his mother could read minds, and used her powers without discretion to spy on him.

“Where are her parents? Your parents as well, I suppose.” Again, Kushiel was aware that he could be opening another box of mental anguish he wasn’t prepared to sooth. Nonetheless, the big stallion demanded answers, and hoarded them away like a kid with candy.

Kushiel is not known for saying the right thing, or even saying a good thing. Most days, he took pride in this. Other days, he wished he could get it right for a change. Today he felt the latter, for however much he liked to tease Elysteria, she was a good solider, and more patient then most. If only she would wise up and come join the Chamber. Then she would be perfect. Good things, it would seem, did not always happen to good people. Kushiel was living proof of that. His life had been nothing but good since the moment he stood his shaky little hooves on the ground.

On that day, the devil had looked up and said, “oh shit.”

While Elysteria’s story sounded more than a little far fetched, Kushiel didn’t doubt it. Stranger things had happened. He looked at her closely, and hoped she had some friends in powerful and magical places.

“It sounds like you got on the bad side of a magician.” Kushiel paused, considering this. He had recently had a rather uncomfortable run in with a magician. He had been dumped unceremoniously in the Deserts and had to walk home. No, it was not a tale of woe to equal hers, but it was blasted annoying none the less.

“I can think of only a few magicians, and none that you would want to speak too.” That much, at least, was true. Kushiel did lot of stupid things on a daily basis, but even he wasn’t foolhardy enough to confront some of the more powerful magic users in Beqanna. Scary bastards, the lot of them.

Kushiel ended his musing on magicians when Elysteria answered his next question. His face went from sober to dreadfully so. There weren’t a lot of things that Kushiel held dear in this world, and as much as he would never, ever admit it, his mother was at the stop of that list. As tortuous as she was, Kushiel would rather have her meddling in his life than all the peace and quiet in the world. He offered her a sympathetic smile, for all the good it would do her.

“I’m sorry Elysteria, truly I am. A mother’s love may be a heavy burden, but I wouldn’t inflict it’s lack on anyone.” He looked back at the little filly. She was lucky to have a sister to pick up the slack. Children in similar situations often weren’t so lucky. He was still looking at the little girl when Elysteria spoke of fathers. He snorted loudly, for he knew a thing or two about deadbeat dads.

“Tell me about it, sister. It’s impossible to find a good man these days, am I right?” He was trying to make her smile, and maybe it was he wrong tone to strike. Kushiel couldn’t really do sweet, and he had a hard time with comforting, the jokes, however, came easy. It would be well within her right to fly away, he wouldn’t even be mad, but you know what they say, laughter is the best medicine.