There weren’t a lot of other people out in the plains. Enna would occasionally see one or two caravans off in the distance, kicking up a cloud of dust visible for miles. She knew enough to avoid those. Caravans that cut through the plains were well aware of the roving bands of barbarians, and hired enough security to make it not worth their time. What chance did Enna have of even getting near those? Not much point in it, anyway. She sure as hell didn’t need anything they had.
The kind of people who lived their lives in the plains were twofold. There were the barbarians, of course. Nomadic tribes, going around, following the seasons and the herds, staying along sources of water and skirmishing when they got too close to each other. These were the people who chose to live in the plains. These people understood how the plains worked, born and raised there, the open horizons as much a part of them as their own bones. Others didn’t have much of a choice but to live in the plains. Exiled for one reason or another, kicked out of the cities and too chickenshit to try again. Maybe they were once big crime bosses who flew too close to the sun. Maybe they were toadies who sucked up to the wrong corrupt official. Maybe they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whatever they were before, many of them became small-time petty bandits, depending on the skills they’d had in their old life and resentful of the wealthy merchants who rolled through in their caravans from one place of belonging to another. Sometimes they organized enough to be a credible threat to the larger convoys, but most of the time they preyed on the wagons that couldn’t afford good security and, failing that, squabbled amongst each other. Enna knew enough to avoid those, too.
Avoiding them wasn’t enough, though. One thing about being alone in the plains is that there’s nobody to watch your back when you’re asleep, and there’s nowhere to hide in that vast expanse from people desperate enough to prey on the unsuspecting. One minute, Enna was deep in a dreamless sleep, curled in a ball on a skin she’d tanned herself. The next, she was awake, lying perfectly still as she heard the rustle of two men going through her saddlebags.
“There’s nothing here, Wulfric,” one of them whispered as he upended one of her satchels and dumped three empty waterskins on the ground. “This has got to be the worst bandit in the godsforsaken plain! There’s no jewels, no silks, barely any rations!”
Enna slowly extended one arm and slipped it under her bedroll, feeling the cold lacquer of her axe’s handle. She had no idea how strong or well-armed these men were. She might be making a huge mistake. But she wasn’t going to die from getting her throat slit in the night. Might as well do it with her axe in her hand.
In one fluid motion she rolled to her feet and brandished her axe before her. Enna screamed an inhuman roar as the axe’s blade ignited, illuminating her form and the faces of the bandits. Her horns gleamed and her red skin shone as if it was dyed by blood. Her lips were pulled back in a snarl as the men screamed. The flickering light of the axe’s fire showed her their faces, drained of all blood, eyes wide in an animalistic display of fear. “Demon,” one of them whispered, clutching at the hilt of his sword. Enna smiled, baring each and every one of her sharp teeth. She took a step forward, stomping her bare foot on the ground and tightening her grip on her axe, and the men turned tail and fled. She could hear their screams echoing through the night as they ran from her camp as quickly as they could. Demon, huh. She could live with that.
“So you’re the new hire?” Rodinus asked as he slid onto the bench next to her. She grunted around her mouthful of eggs, unsure how to respond. She was unsure about a lot of things these days. Moving to the city and signing on with an adventurer’s company had brought a lot of weird adjustments, like “interacting with people” and “sleeping inside,” and to be honest she was having a little bit of trouble navigating the whole mess. Not that she was gonna let anyone else know that. She was seventeen now, she could handle anything.
Rodinus looked her up and down and raised his eyebrows. “You’re a tiefling, yeah? Can’t say I’ve seen one who looks as… dramatic as you before. Most just have horns, maybe red eyes. Saw a guy with a tail once, I think. But you’re… well.” He whistled appreciatively. “You’re a lot, aren’t you.”
Enna swallowed her eggs and looked at the man, eyes narrowed. “Yeah. What’s it to you?”
Rodinus laughed and leaned closer, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Well, we’re coworkers now! You look like you’d really be something on the battlefield, and I think I have a lot I could show you. No offense, but you clearly haven’t ever been trained. Maybe I could teach you a little something.” He winked, and Enna felt the blood rise to her face. She nodded, and let him keep his hand on her shoulder.
Jaria sighed as she shuffled the papers on her desk. “And you left your previous adventuring party why?”
Enna leaned back in the uncomfortable wooden chair. She shrugged her shoulders, making her muscles ripple under her red skin. “Like I told the other guy, it was professional differences. Didn’t get along with the people there.” The exact words her boss had used were “disruptive interpersonal relations,” which Enna only understood a little. She sure as hell hadn’t seen Rod having any consequences, but she figured that was because he’d been a lot more levelheaded about the whole thing than she had. She couldn’t blame her employer, honestly. Having a tiefling on payroll had to be more trouble than it was worth.
“Hmm.” Jaria folded her hands on the desk and looked Enna up and down. “Well, you look strong. You said you're from one of the plains tribes?”
“Yeah, the Tribe-Which-Razes-All-In-Its-Path-And-Tramples-The-Unworthy.” The traditional barbarian tongue sounded a bit unwieldy when translated into Common, but Enna couldn't give less of a shit.
Jaria raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at Enna’s horns. “I haven't really heard of many tieflings coming out of the plains. You an anomaly?”
Enna laughed. “Yeah, you could say that. My mom was from a city, but she was human. Not sure where the demon blood came from, but I'm not complaining.” She traced a finger around the curve of a horn and smiled, baring her pointed teeth. “Comes in handy.”
“Hmm.” Jaria looked unimpressed by the blatant display of tiefling aggression. Enna felt her stomach drop. That usually worked.
“And also, like, I'm really good at fighting. I take the hits as well as I dish em out, you know?”
Jaria made another noncommittal noise. “Well, that remains to be seen. Again, you look like you'd be effective, but looks can be deceiving. I'm willing to offer you a trial, and based on how you do there we’ll talk about full-time employment.” She looked Enna up and down again, appraising. “Let’s hope you can control yourself.”
Enna had been pretty sure she’d seen everything that civilization had to offer, but that was before she met Emiel. She'd seen fancy people before, but they took it to a whole new level. For one thing, she was pretty sure she'd never seen an adventurer all decked out in fancy silks before. For another, they had little silver dots on their skin, and as far as she could tell it was their natural coloration. Jaria’d signed them on to help keep the party from dying since apparently they couldn't find a credible cleric. She didn't think much of them. It didn't look like they could hold a sword, even though they toted a fancy rapier everywhere they went and had a habit of flicking their cape back so everyone knew it was there. Apparently they were some kind of spellcaster. Lyle had explained to her what sort, but Enna had tuned out midway through his first sentence. If you weren't careful, that guy would talk your ear off.
She didn't have high hopes for their first battle together. They’d been hired to clear a ruin of direwolves that were terrorizing a local village, which Enna honestly thought was beneath them. They were mercenaries, not pest control. But the village’s coin was good, so they headed over.
They knocked out a couple of wolves with no problem. Trained adventurers versus a weird dog? No contest. Things only got hairy when they found the den. Thirty direwolves was a hell of a lot. Enna was fine, of course. She and the swordsage were competent enough to hold their own. She'd been expecting the fancy person to take out that rapier they’d been toting around, but instead they whipped out a shining silver pipe and started making music. Enna didn't see what good that did- no fireballs came out of it, no holes opened in the earth and swallowed their enemies, no zombies clawed their way up out of the dirt and started chewing on people's heads. It did get her pretty hyped to kill things, though. She'd never been a fan of music, but this shit was good. Her hits felt harder, her swings felt more accurate, and there was a part where they did this ascending run of notes that she was pretty sure actually stitched up one of her wounds, so that was sick. The fight went pretty well, all things considered. Enna didn’t get to bag the biggest direwolf- that dumb spellsword pirate guy stole her kill- but she was whistling happily as they collected direwolf heads to bring back to the village.
“Hey there,” piped a voice from behind her. She turned to see the flute guy, their hands clean of any blood, smiling brilliantly at her. She grunted in response and sliced through a wolf’s neck. The fancy person grimaced briefly and then plastered the smile back on. “I don’t think we were ever properly introduced! I’m Emiel.” They moved as if to stick out their hand to shake, then realized that Enna’s hands were covered in wolf blood and reconsidered, flipping their hair with a white hand instead. As they did, some glittering fluid flicked off their fingers.
Enna frowned. “What the fuck is that.” She pointed at the cut on the back of their hand. Instead of oozing red, it looked like they were bleeding some sort of glowing liquid. It wasn’t just shiny, it was actually putting off light, like a torch or a weird bug.
They laughed and held up their hand, moving it so the blood could shimmer. “Oh, this? It’s just my blood, nothing special.” The tone in their voice suggested that it was in fact extremely special and that Enna should appreciate it more.
“That’s weird. Why is it like that.” Enna tugged at the wolf’s head she was holding, ripping the last few tendons connecting it to the body.
Emiel frowned again at the gore that was now splattered over Enna’s legs. “Well, you have black blood. Why are you like that?”
“What, you couldn’t tell?” Enna flexed, and her muscles rippled under her red skin. “I’m a tiefling. Someone somewhere in my family line fucked a hideous beast from the infinite abyss, and now I’ve got sick horns and I’m cooler than everyone else!”
Emiel laughed and struck a pose. “What a coincidence. I happen to be an aasimar, which means that generations ago one of my ancestors was the offspring of a union between a mortal woman and Lath- uh. A mortal woman and a deity.”
“Huh.” Enna raised her eyebrows, stuffing the wolf’s head into her bag of trophies. “And that’s why your blood is all glowy?” She looked them up and down. That explained why their skin was closer to a translucent gray than any human tone, and why the freckles on their cheeks looked like flecks of silver.
“Exactly.” Emiel batted their eyelashes at her. “I’m a celestial, and you’re a demon.”
She’d heard that word before. Usually it stung a little bit, or made something twist in her stomach, or carried a sense of triumph at the knowledge of a successful intimidation. Now, though, it didn’t feel like a value judgement. Just neutral. More like a statement of fact. Enna smiled. “Hell yeah I am.”
Emiel laughed again, and it felt less posturing this time. “Hey, after we get back to the town, you wanna get a drink together?”
Enna shrugged, throwing her bag over her shoulder and grinning. “Sure. Sure, why the fuck not.”
“What did you say?”
Enna froze on the steps, one foot suspended above a wooden stair. Madison’s voice was quiet in a way that sent a chill up her spine. She turned around, unsure of why Madison had that tone in her voice. “I said, she’s not my girlfriend.” Madison was staring at her, wide-eyed with shock, and Enna rushed to explain. “Since, you know, you’re not! But for some reason everyone has been saying for days that I should go talk to you but they were calling you my girlfriend and I’ve been trying to explain to them that we’re just friends. Trying to clear it up, you know?” Gretchen was holding Madison’s hand with the tightest grip Enna had ever seen. She could feel everyone’s eyes on her and looked around the room, confused. “What?”
“I’m not… I’m not your girlfriend?” Gone were the tears in Madison’s voice. They had been replaced with a terrible stillness, a calm before the storm that turned something in Enna’s stomach. She knew this feeling. She’d made a mistake.
She came back down the stairs, facing Madison, fighting the urge to run. “No, yeah, obviously not! I don’t know why they all keep saying it, but you know, right?” The words were tumbling out of Enna’s mouth and she couldn’t stop them, couldn’t stop the feeling of hurtling towards something dark and painful.
“I’m not-” Madison stood up, brushing off Gretchen’s hands. “Enna, what did you think this was?” Color was rushing to her cheeks as she balled her hands into fists.
“I mean, this is just for sex, right?” Enna’s head was swimming and she struggled to stay focused, to keep herself in the present. “Everyone kept saying I should go to you but I figured you didn’t want to see me because this is just all for sex and that isn’t the-”
“This was all just for sex?” Madison shouted, and Enna felt anger rising inside her in response to Madison’s tone. “The dates, the dinners, the- you held my hand, you kissed me, you told me I was wonderful and the most beautiful woman you’d ever seen, and you’re telling me it was all just for sex??”
“Well yeah, obviously!” Enna couldn’t stop herself from yelling. She stepped forward, towering over Madison, who glared up at her. “What did you think I wanted? Did you think we were in a relationship?” It was Madison’s turn to step back now, her hands still balled into fists, her jaw still set, but her eyes wide with shock. “Gods, did you- did you think I cared?”
The room was silent. Enna’s words echoed around its wooden walls with a finality that dropped heavy into her stomach. Madison blinked once, twice. Her shoulders slumped and she looked down. Enna wanted to reach out and snatch the words from the air, and she opened her mouth to say something, but Madison got there first.
“Of course. Of course not. I don’t- I don’t know what I thought.” Madison’s voice was rising again, but she still wasn’t looking at Enna. “What did I expect from you-” Madison raised her head, staring Enna in the eyes, snarling at her- “you demon!”
Enna’s mouth dropped open. She could feel static creeping around the edges of her vision. All the defensive anger she’d built up drained out of her. “Oh,” she said, so quietly that nobody but Madison could have heard her.
The snarl dropped off of Madison’s face, and she turned, her hands clenched into fists again. “I’m leaving,” she said, and walked to the door. Gretchen stood up and followed her, shooting daggers at Enna with her glare. Enna stood in the middle of the room, unable to move, feeling everyone’s gazes sink into her skin, watching Madison leave without looking back.
Author's Notes:
Written 9/9/17. Y'all remember five times fics? This was also for the "judgement" square in H/C bingo. Lots of Enna backstory fics out there.