God may be in His Heaven but there ain’t NOTHING right with this world!!

“Is there a problem here?” Belboz the shaman askes his customers, puzzled. Puzzled and a bit put off, but not enough to shut down this session and call it a day.

Odd people, these winged women...OBVIOUSLY by the very fact that they were not effected at all by the magical emissions that the elfin children give off as a defensive measure meant they deserved to be given the respect that mages of their caliber deserve. While not totally easy to throw off the defensive natural magic’s that elfin infants give off, lulling all but the most vile monsters into a complacent (easily managed) state, it took skill to manage it.

Oh, his tribe could probably take them down successfully. He himself wasn’t a slouch in the magic department, what with all the powers granted him due to his shaman nature and all that. It was just that the cost would be too high.

Too true that last part, Rei and her sisters were perhaps not the most POWERFUL magic users to ever to walk the face of Terra Prime but they WERE NOT slouches, either. Especially in the field of mental shielding!

. . .

After they had experienced a MOST unwelcome mental intrusion by the Angels codenamed Armisael (http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/ Angel_%28 Neon_ Genesis_ Evangelion % 29#Armisael) can one BLAME them for being a bit . . .er. . .paranoid when it comes to securing their minds away from unwanted intrusion? Those monsters forced all sorts of unwanted realizations upon the girls that REALLY tore at them...

. . .

Well, Lilith and Reika got kinda tore up by it. Rei? Well, it was a stressful encounter but honestly Fred Takahashi had been helping her get in touch with her feelings. Helping HEAL the wounds that Gendo had inflicted upon her (to keep her under his thumb) so OF course she was better able to deal with Armisael’s revelations/taunting.

But anyway, let’s get back to Belboz the elfin shaman, okay?

Best to try to work things out the way he’d hope to work them: making a profit to spend in bets for the upcoming Game.

Reika

“Oh no . . .heh . . .why would there be anything wrong?” I manage to ask sweetly, managing NOT to somehow choke on my own words.

EVERYTHING is wrong, WRONG with this mess!!

. . .

Sometimes even to this day it shocks me how strong and deep moving emotions effect me. I mean I remember being able to feel emotions and everything during my lifetime as “Rei 1” but that one “blank” time between my first death up until the time of rebirth when Rei and my family came (re: 62099) but what I feel right NOW is something . . .terrible.

I just would so LOVE to take an EVA unit and smash each and every last one of these pointed eared b*stards into the ground for what they’ve done here.

I LOATH slavers and slavery.

God may be in His Heaven but there ain’t NOTHING right with this world!! Lilith practically growls in her sending to me and my sister.

None of us like this situation AND it gets worse when this . . .monster tells us that the WHOLE lot (infants and all) are up for sale. We could even (if so inclined) buy the infants and leave the distraught looking elfin females behind.

. . .

To separate an elfin mother from their elfin children? What kind of world IS this? Not even the worst elves in history back on Terra Prime would have done such a thing!! It’s something that . . Only ONE person I know of would have the nerve of doing: Gendo Akari.

Hrmph. Pardon me but if you knew some of the things Gendo did to ME in order to keep me under his thumb you’d understand how vile of insult that was.

Ah, but after a brief conference/gripe session there is only one thing to do for this situation. Fight and kill the captors? Break the chains (and magical slave collar) that keeps the elves and their . . .pet? . . .docile while on display?

Nope. While perhaps the girls could pull a win here with might (ala high tech plasma weaponry) and magic, they won’t. While good enough with their combat magics they’ve kind of more devoted their arcane studies towards the healing arts than anything, you dig? Not that they aren’t of a mind to spill a little slaver blood here (so angry are they right now) they really don’t want to risk the real chance of the blood of small elfin infants being spilled as well here!

What? You thought that Rei and here were going to go hog wild into mortal combat without regards to that little factoid?

No, there is only one thing to do here. They cannot just walk away, washing their hands on this mess for to leave these elfin women and infants with such vile fiends wasn’t something they could stomach.

Nor are they strong enough in magery to be able to just blithely magic the minds of ALL of these slavers in order to get away with the slaves in toll. Not . . .safely anyway. Same problem as before: the infants might get hurt or killed in the crossfire once some guard shakes off the magic on their minds.

Would degenerate into a mess really quick once that happened.

What the three winged young women did instead?

Simple. They bought them all. . . .but even THAT wasn’t an easy thing, all considered . . . First, the initial asking price for the lot was WAY too much, even for the winged girls here! So began a session of haggling and berating (on both sides) that left the elfin women (and gryphon) feeling slightly embarrassed. Like they were damaged goods or something.

Rei going up and pointing out flaws with the "product" had almost been too surreal for them, anyway. The term "Feymarked" (pointing to the marks on the elfin women) had probably been case breaker for Belboz's side.

Feymarked? Gods, they coudln't HOPE to get a good price for this slave lot . . .and at five silver pieces (all) Rei had a certain satisfaction at getting the LOT at a basement bargain price (and rubbing it in Belboz's face).

But when it came clear that after they all got clear of the caravan and away from prying eyes? Well, Rei tried to just free them and let them scamper off . . .but there was another hitch . . .

1. "You're . . .letting us go?!" Nightfall blinks owlishly at them. "Uh . . .good but what about us not being Marked as belonging to any tribe? That's how we got into this mess in the first place."

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