The New Figure

"What?"

The question was Andreas's immediate response to the short elfs impertinence.

"Mistress!" She screamed with a squeaky voice. "I know she is here somewhere, stop hiding her!"

The small elf tried to look past Andreas, but he obscured almost all her vision of the insides of the house.

"Hang on a moment, who are you?"

In the same moment, Sally's head peaked out into the corridor.

"What's going on?" She asked.

"Mistress Ashelis!" The small elf managed to squeeze between the door frame and Andreas's arm. The intruder then jumped straight towards Sally, almost knocking her out to the floor.

"Ilsevell? What are you doing here?"

Sally asked after she managed to dislodge the small elf and put her on the ground.

Andreas just sighed, closed the doors and turned to them.

"I'm here to rescue you from this horrid creature!"

Ilsevell turned her head towards Andreas, raised her hand and showed him the universally known middle finger.

Voigt just crossed his arms on his chest, and waited for explanations.

"Illy... This man is my friend and roommate in this world. Andreas, this is Almoralla Ilsevell Keawenys. She is a... Friend from the old world."

Sally explained, clearly leaving out some of the details.

"Don't forget that I am also your oldest servant, mistress, and that after your ascension I will be..."

The elf started to speak, but Sally just put her hand over the small woman's face, so whatever was coming out next was too muffled to be recognizable.

"Andreas, can I have a few private moments with Illy? It seems she is rather confused about some things."

He just shrugged.

"Sure. I'll be upstairs. Just shout if you need help with... her."

Andreas took his time going up the stairs. His knee started to hurt again and he didn't want it to just refuse to work. He saw that Sally grabbed the elf by her hand and brought her to the living room. Voigt didn't care enough to try and listen to their conversation. It was their thing to sort out.

He stayed in the cinema room, turned some crappy action movie on Netflix and just enjoyed the ridiculousness of fiction while eating some chips. He always got some of those on hand in that part of the house.

An hour later he heard someone opening the doors.

"Oh, you're here."

Sally said and slid inside the room to take place next to him.

Andreas nodded, and moved the bowl with chips closer to Sally, so she could enjoy some as well.

"You are probably wondering what was that about."

"You could say that." He responded. "But I'll understand if you don't want to talk about it."

They were both silent for a moment.

"I knew Illy all my life. She was always there for me, in the old world." Sally began. "In the hierarchy there, she was my servant, but I always considered her as a dear friend, someone I could always rely on."

He knew exactly the kind of person she was taking about. Someone like that for him was Lisa. He mentally scolded himself for not calling her.

"I... I was an important figure back home."

"I gathered that." He said and completely lowered thevolume of the movie, so they could have easier conversation.

"How so?"

He smiled.

"You barely talk about home, but from the few things that you said and did, I could only guess that you must have been some kind of important magic user."

She let out a soft sigh of relief, that almost went unnoticed by him.

"R-right. I was a mage. And Illy was both my servant and an apprentice."

He nodded.

"I... There were some things that were expected of someone from my position. Some things that grew tiresome every day I was doing them. It was like just because I was good at something, didn't mean I enjoyed it. This... Job was slowly consuming my sanity. I had to escape. And where better to escape than to a place you can't go back from, right?"

The expression on his face tensed.

"Wait, you can't ever go back?"

"No. But it's fine." She smiled, and put away a random strand of her ashen hair right behind her ear, where it belonged. "I much prefer this world over the old one."

Sally cleared her throat.

"Illy is down stairs, resting. Would you believe she somehow traveled all this way in here, on her own, with barely any knowledge about this world?"

"That's... Impressive? I guess she is resourceful."

The Lamia nodded, and then turned her head to him, bowing slightly.

"I have a request."

He snorted in an annoyance.

"Just say it normally, no need for theatrics."

"Right, sorry." She looked in his eyes. "Can Illy stay here for a couple of days until we figure out what to do with her?"

Andreas gritted his teeth. The elf was antagonistic towards him, and he didn't feel like having someone like that under his roof.

"Can't AWIO sort this out?"

"No." She shook her head. "I called them, and apparently she said that I am her guardian, and that she belongs with me."

Andreas couldn't hold back his laughter.

"Wait, like a parent?"

"Yes!" The Lamia looked upset, but not mad about it." I mean, do I even look old enough to be her mother? Hells, Illy and I are the same age!"