I was doing a side-split when the roots drew away and Ing appeared.
"Hey," I greeted casually as I shifted and bent my knees, bringing the soles of my boots together in front of me.
"Good afternoon, Nori," Ing greeted as the roots closed behind her. She sat down and fussed with her robes for a moment before placing the wrapped cloth between them.
"Thanks, Ing."
Reaching for the cloth package, I opened it and lifted the wrapped bundle placed on the top—
The motion of my hand paused a beat before I resumed pulling the bundle toward me and untied the food parcel, tossing some berries to chew on as I started to carefully untie the knots put on the ceramic bowl.
A knife and rope had been underneath the food, along with several more parcels that were a bit more compact.
I suppose it was good that Ing took the incentive before I had the chance to ask her.
"Are you sure?" I asked anyway since she did try to make my imprisonment as comfortable as possible.
"Yes. I wish we will meet again under more fortuitous conditions. As it is, I have tried to get you released with no result, not even when my mother tried to compromise with house-arrest. Eti Lifeflight… I do not trust him, wanting you so isolated."
I tucked a lock of dark hair behind an ear before I absentmindedly stirred the revealed stew. There looked like pieces of meat but I now knew elvenkind did not eat meat. It was probably a mycoprotein. Tasted like mushrooms. I would not have eaten this before bonding with 37 because half the food elves ate had low levels of toxicity for human consumption.
(Helping with my escape would also help her remove a chess piece Eti could utilize though I was fairly sure Ing did like me. She probably did not have the same reserved views as Verk might have had when it came to humans but I didn't really care since it wasn't my city; Ing would either win this political war or bow her head. Either way, she was fairly safe since Shamanic Magic practitioners were rare and essential for the elven way of living.)
"You might get blamed," I half-warned her of possible consequences.
"Most have forgotten about you, Nori. The majority of my kind consider the average human as children. As a Shaman, I learned that every living thing goes through a cycle. Humans may only live decades compared to our centuries, but your flames burn brighter in defiance of it. My kind think they know better but most have never even met a human before; how can they judge what they have not witnessed with their own eyes?
"I will create an opening for you to escape in the evening. There's food for a week if you ration it out and I included some flint, though I don't recommend a fire until you are outside elven territory. Likewise, the water will be safe to drink while within the territory. Once you leave it, I included a purifier; in the bottle, just a drop into the waterskin each time will do.
"I suggest you head west, toward Crown City if you want to learn magic."
Before she left, I thanked her again. There wasn't much I could repay her with but I took the white rabbit charm off my phone and offered it to her (she was fascinated by the artificial material it was made of).
Evening came, and I was just beginning to wonder how she would give me a chance to escape, when I heard the explosion in the distance.
[…]