Quia lied once.
She was no adventurer, but rather a deserter from her elf tribe.
One's inaction spoke more than how they acted.
So rather than listening to her grandfather sat still and whined about the old glories of elf, Quia would rather venture and become strong in her own ways.
Not for the elves. Just for herself.
She wanted a simple, humble life where she could live independently.
No taking back a 'home', a duty mentioned in her ancestors' mournful passing. No killing a Queen, a feat cited to be a shadehunter's highest honour.
There's nothing wrong with just living for the sake of enjoying life.
But even that normal life is so, so difficult.
"...Ciel?"
Because this world, full of faults and chaos, could not tolerate Quia's simplicity.
The nightly breeze swept across the clearing. Ciel, standing ahead of Quia, tilted her head at the two kneeling before her.
Heartbeat surged inside the elf. Her breaths were shallow, her nails bit into her palms. Blood dripped, but she needed this pain to fight the ache in her chest.
Ciel's back began to feel distant, her shadow more damningly vivid to the elf's dismay.
A myriad of visages flashed by in Quia's memory.
The Ciel who massacred half of the cliffside.
The Ciel who lied poorly with a strange, confusing innocence.
And the Ciel now, who, for the first time, didn't kill someone on sight.
Which one of them was Ciel at her most honest?
"What do you need Miss Dragon's location for?"
Quia watched. Blood trickled from the lizardman's lips, his protruding chin now colored by a blackened red, the consequence of muttering a dragon's name.
The sytheman, in comparison, looked fine as his head bowed further, replying.
"Our Queen of Hunt has waited patiently. Everything was prepared to kill the Dragon, kill any talent she could ever nurture."
Disgust found both Ciel and Quia.
If the age of Dragon died an unexpected death-
The age of Elves, who would have led a new wave of counterattack against the shadebeasts, died a slow and painful death.
The Queen of Hunt, after all, was obsessed with killing any 'talent'.
Children who would grow up to be heroes? Mentors who would inspire the next generation?
All dead by the Queen's hand. Elves lost because of this vile tactic. All futures were chipped away in due time, the elves weakened under the culled, talentless band.
And this time, the Principal of the Shadowhunter Academy is her target.
"I see now."
Ciel merely muttered, then raised her staff and fired.
A blue ray flickered to the now 'useless' scytheman. Yet the moonblast met a thick, leathery arm instead.
Mana scattered away as the lizardman blocked the attack, his expression one of panic, skin seething with lingering scorch marks.
"Wait! Aren't we on the same side?!"
Ciel scowled. Still kneeling, the lizardman then pumped a fist at his chest, a noble gesture if not for his quivering tone.
"Qu-Queen of the 45th Moon! I'm L'zaguu from the Lizardman tribe." He stated. "I'm not a mimic, but the Queen of Hunt has promised the betterment of my tribe at the cost of humanity's downfall!"
"Oh. So you're not a mimic." Ciel hummed, her expression flat with disinterest. "That explained why you're strong enough not to be one-shot."
"I… thank you for the compliment." He humbly bowed. In the process, he lowered his other arm that served as a shield to his head. "Our tribes had suffered for being much less than a humanoid. I-I just want to-"
A squash echoed and broke his plea.
The lizardman froze. Then fell onto the grass, as if just discovering how his head was missing.
Ciel's staff lowered, moonlight mana thinning at the bulging tip, a moonblast shot and dissipated.
"Discrimination or not, you try to kill Miss Dragon." The white-haired girl mumbled. "Go meet the ones you betray. They would be the ones least happy with you."
Sending him off, Ciel turned to the sytheman.
A spire rose and barricaded both beings, whose gazes refused to move away from each other.
Their emotions, void and empty, created a silence only they knew the meaning of.
Ciel asked. No, affirmed.
"You're a mimic."
The scytheman nodded.
"Are you aware what you're feeling right now?"
The scytheman shook his head.
"Then," Ciel's lips frowned. "Do you… still consider me your family?"
The mimic observed his Queen.
His mutter was the only answer he could afford.
"May we meet again in the Black Sea."
No more words needed to be exchanged.
Another blue ray flickered. And another plea silenced.
Quia watched as Ciel sank into deep thoughts. The now-headless mimic remained kneeling, a silent defiance disguised as loyalty.
The elf's curiosity itched. A scratch, and all the worms inside would squirm out.
She still had to ask.
"You're a Queen… Ciel?"
The apex of Shadebeasts. The monster that defied logic. The unliving hated by mana, whose very existence was enslaved by their grasp.
The weak shortie before her was a Queen? 'Ridiculous' wouldn't even cut to describe it in Quia's mind.
"Yes."
As if aware, Ciel spun around to her troubled friend, her black eyes burrowing into Quia's shaken gaze.
"Now you had two points, I had three, and Stormveil had four," Ciel stated matter-of-factly. "That leaves one mimic left."
"Hol-hold on-"
"Miss Dragon was in a graver danger than I expected. Queen of Hunt was known for her ability to snipe from afar, and even Summer could have trouble dealing with it."
"Stop for a moment-"
"Even if Miss Dragon ran, the Queen of Hunt merely needs to shift the target to one of us. One student died when the Principal left, and it would be a disaster for the academy's reputation."
"Ciel!"
"So," the white-haired girl lifted her head, finally acknowledging Quia's irritated look.
"We must end the exam early. Find the mimic, then kill them so all students would 'evacuate' without unnerving them to avoid chaos, before the Queen of Hunt makes her last move."
Quia understood that much. Her homeland was scorched to the earth by the Queen of Hunt herself, and she knew full well the exam was far too risky to drag on.
But what she understood was different from what she felt.
"You-" The elf gritted her teeth. "You don't have anything to say?"
Humanity was naturally irrational, and experiences only compensate.
Quia's resolve was shaped by her years of adventuring.
Yet its capacity has long been drained. Ciel's millennial of living had already left behind Quia, their rifts now broadening at an alarming rate.
"What's… there to say?"
And Ciel, too immersed in her kin's final words, was the only one who didn't recognise that.
"What do you mean what…" Quia's breath hitched. "No no no, this is not right. Everything is not right!"
The elf's shout wound into a desperate, hushed mumble. "Am I the only one who felt betrayed? Ciel, I-I also know you're going through something here, but… why…"
She once again observed Ciel's face, flickering with no spark of life. Her eyes were a deep abyssal black, losing all the innocence Quia admired.
"Why must you look like… that?"
Ciel blinked.
She truly couldn't understand Quia.
"How one look like didn't matter. Here, only actions will determine the course of one's life."
Ciel continued. "From back in the cliffside, till coming here, I've not backstabbed you once, and you trusted my protection in return. Did that not matter alone?"
"Of course I trusted you…" Quia clutched tight onto her skirt. "That's why… please understand I'm… well."
She chuckled with her clutch, losing her strength. "I'm a little hurt… well, not by a lot, but like…"
"There's no need to." Ciel interrupted. "We've shared only a few hours at most. I'm not someone close to you, and you do not need to feel obligated to me."
Ciel then added. "Besides, there's no risk of death here. You'll score high regardless in this exam, Miss Quia."
The worst miscalculation clicked here, unaware of Ciel.
"Then… does that apply to you, Ciel?"
Quia snapped back, her expression strained and unreadable.
"Tell me." She asked. "Was your spell bind rigged, Ciel? Did the academy consider you as a mimic?"
"That-"
"He- hahaha…"
The elf let out a solemn chuckle. She finally knew why Ciel proposed the dumb, contradictory 'mimic hostage' plan on the cliffside.
"You've assumed yourself as them from the start, didn't you?"
Quia's hand swept through her face, trying to wipe out all the tension from showing.
"And… to survive…" She deduced. "Did you partner up with me, with full intention to betray me in the end?"
The lone half-moon stared at the clearing, the sole witness of a friendship broken before it had the chance to amend.
Ciel's brows fell. Maybe she should be honest.
"I was just thinking if anyone backstabbed me, I wouldn't mind if it was you, Quia." She confessed. "Until now, that is."
A mocking chortle escaped the elf's nostrils.
The elf's neck hung back to reveal a mocking, solemn glare.
"That doesn't answer anything, shortie."
With a leap, the elf's fist pulled back, trembling.
"Stripey.... paw."
A magic circle manifested. The paw followed Quia's punch, plummeting toward Ciel.