After calming Miklian down some, the Madame stayed true to her word and left him in the capable hands of a young man. The elvish man, Domin, was kind and gentle with the grieving giant. Tall for an elf, Domin had dark brown hair and a scruffy almost-beard that suited his sharp features perfectly even if it made him seem less refined than the other professionals within the brothel.
"I think part of why it hit me so hard is knowing that my mother, the cruelest person I have ever known, is only one of so many people following this god." Miklian wrapped his hands around the new cup of hot tea, letting the warmth steal into his hands as he avoided looking at the elf. "She was, is, the most horrifically unkind person I have ever met, but I feel guilty hating her."
"Just because she gave birth to you doesn't make her family, Miklian. You are allowed to choose your own family and that includes being allowed to choose who is not." Domin's voice was calm and kind as he set the pot over a candle to keep it warm while they spoke. "You are worthy of stepping past the atrocities of her actions, and you are worthy of choosing your own path."
"I really don't think I am, though." The words left his mouth before he could stop them. Quickly pulling the tea to his mouth, he tried to stifle the words trying to leave him, hoping the elf would fill the quiet but he did not. "I just... All the terrible things I've done, all the people I've killed... I don't think I deserve- I don't think any of my people deserve a second chance. Not after everything we've done. This invasion, this whole war, is one of greed and horror. I can't live with this anymore."
Domin stayed quiet for a moment, watching Miklian's reaction to his own words as he stared into the tea cup in hand. Silent tears streaked down the giant's face while he sipped at his cup until the elf spoke again.
"What good would come of your death?" The question was heavier than Miklian had expected and caused a lump in his throat before he spoke.
"One less giant in the world? One less killer. One less cog in the war machine."
"And what good comes from you staying alive?"
Miklian paused, unable to find an answer for a few minutes before he shook his head. All the answers that formed in his mind were selfish or insincere.
"Do you want me to tell you some?" Domin's question was not mocking in any way, and he waited for the giant to nod before continuing. "You say you're just a cog, but a single cog can break the machine completely. You say you're a killer, but just because you've killed before doesn't mean you have to any more. You don't have to be just another giant, you can be a giant who helps the people who need it most."
While the words sunk in, a knock at the door caused Domin to stand from his seat and check through a small gap who stood on the other side before unlocking the human-sized door that was a part of the larger locked door. In stepped a darker skinned woman who was slightly taller than Wynessa, her curly hair vibrantly red.
"You're her giant, aren't you?" The woman asked plainly once the door was shut and locked behind her. She rested her hands on her hips which were cocked to one side under her pale tan dress waiting for the answer.
"I am Captain Miklian, yes. Are you the one taking care of Wyne-?" he wasn't permitted to finish his sentence as she held up a finger telling him to stop.
"Yes, but there's something else." She stepped forward until she stood just in front of where he sat on the floor, her standing figure taller than his seated one. "I am the Madame's second. You want to officially join, that's fine, but you'll need to be inspected and tested before we allow you in. We live in dangerous times, so I cannot permit anyone to compromise us. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I understand." Miklian looked much like a child being chastised, and Domin raised a pointy eyebrow to his superior who relaxed some and stepped towards the door. "My name is Cori. Don't worry about your little bird, she's resting at the moment. Stay the night if you need, I'll deliver your full instructions later this evening."
Once Miklian acknowledged her statements, Cori stepped out of the room, leaving the two men to continue speaking as she made her way back up the stairs to her room. She made sure to lock the door behind her before admiring the sleeping figure contentedly laid out in the nest of pillows and blankets. Wynessa was one of very few people who had ever made Cori's heart jump like this, but there she was, a beautiful woman in love with a giant though she would never admit it.
At least the giant seemed more willing to state the obvious than the adorable woman in Cori's bed. She smiled and padded softly across the room to finish cleaning and putting away the statues they had been using most of the day, the rag she used to oil and clean them sat draped over the one they had used last.
As she sat quietly oiling and cleaning the tools of her trade, she couldn't help but glance up at the open cabinet of uniform phalluses in graduating sizes. Her gaze pulled to the one with a silvery blue ribbon tied into a bow around the shaft and she chuckled softly.
"Don't worry, Wynnie. You'll be able to handle him in no time."
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"... Second left after the well with the black bucket. Black bucket." Miklian wandered nearly completely lost as he glanced between the page in his hand and the well directly before him. "Damnit. Ok, starting from the top then?"
He turned to leave just in time to see a couple of children gasp and duck behind a garden wall where they had been watching him from. He moved to step closer curiously before a voice behind him caused him to stop.
"Haven't seen your kind in this part of the city. You lost?" A male voice made him turn around and face the group of about five men with various make-shift weapons of shovels, clubs, and one sporting a rather large rock. Three of the men looked to be humans or half-elves while the other two had pointed ears. "I said, you lost, boy?"
"I seem to be, yes. Can you point me out to the main road?" Miklian smiled politely as he quickly assessed the gang blocking his path as they moved to surround him. "I don't want any trouble, gentlemen."
"That's funny. Your kind always bring trouble, so maybe we're wanting some trouble for you." One of the men spoke with a drawl it sounded like he was trying to hide, probably from out in the countryside.
Before Miklian could say anything further, he scrunched the paper in hand and shoved it in his mouth just as one of the men with a shovel slammed the flat of it across the middle of his back making him sputter. He tried to swallow the instructions before another blow landed, only succeeding in starting to choke on the wadded up paper as one of the clubs struck against his side. Another blow with a shovel caused his body to cough up the mangled paper, but the men surrounding him didn't seem to care at all about it. Instead, they began beating him more fervently with the tools they had on hand.
As the giant was brought to his knees with no sign of them stopping soon, Miklian debated using his strength against the men but he could not bring himself to. These men were right to be angry with his people. They had every right to be hateful to him. They would be doing him a favour by ending his life.
"Enough." A voice called out with authority from behind the men and nearly immediately they stopped and stepped back. Miklian dared not lift his head in case it was a trap, but as soon as he saw a pair of dark skinned feet in light brown slippers he glanced up to see Cori's face glaring down at him. "Why did you not fight back?"
"What?"
"Why. Did. You. Not. Fight. Back?" She paused between each word to emphasize her point as she crossed her arms and stared at his cowering figure.
"I... This was a set up?" A wave of confusion and shame swept over him as he shifted to try to get a better look at her.
"No. Thankfully for you, I had you tailed just in case something like this happened." She turned to the men as one of them opened his mouth to try to argue against the woman.
"An' what're you? Some kinda giant-lover?"
As the words left his mouth, a swift and solid punch to the gut followed by a knee to the groin caused the man to quickly find the cobbled stone ground. Before the other four of his crew could do anything, Cori planted her foot on the man's neck and slowly began adding pressure.
"Anyone else have something to say?" Her voice was cold but calm as she glared at the other four in turn. One after another they began stepping away until she finally released the man from under her heel and the lot of them ran off down a side alley away from the "mad woman" who could "keep her damned giant if she wants it."
Cori sighed and shook her head, turning to the kids who had been following Miklian earlier and patting a couple of them on the head while the giant collected himself as best he could. When he stooped to pick up the remains of the paper she had given him the night before, he found it completely ruined and unreadable. While that had been his intention, he was somewhat disappointed in himself as he tore up what was left of it and tossed it into the gutter with the sewage.
"This way, Captain." Cori waved over her shoulder and began heading down a nearby street. Miklian moved to follow her and the gaggle of children who seemed to come out of the woodworks to surround her as they moved towards an older well that was boarded over. This well had a black-painted bucket on the rope swinging softly in the wind. "You were so close to following the correct path. If you had waited one more corner to turn instead of being impatient, you would have been going the right way."
"What about those men back there?" The giant strode as quietly as he could behind the growing collection of children with Cori in the middle. She must have known them all because a few of them held her hands or on to the apron of her dress and they seemed to know where they were going.
"Clestus and his merry little band of idiots? They're just upset. Jermia's husband and brother both died in the warfront. Two of the others, Fressi and Bo, their daughter was also killed in the invasion and their grandson just left to join those purifying knights, so they're all alone. Clestus' wife ran off with a giant about a month back and left the city, so he and his brother-in-law felt it was worth it to try to make their little neighborhood gang." Cori shrugged as best she could with the children hanging off her arms and giggling. "They mean well, but they're going about it in the worst ways possible."
With the well behind them, they kept walking the directions she had written out for him and slowly gathered a herd of children at least twenty strong before they finally came to the edge of the city. A dry flood bank built into the edge of the city led to a tunnel going under the outer wall, but as Miklian watched the children file into the tunnel he grew increasingly sure that he was absolutely not going to fit in the same space. He waited until the last child was through the bars before turning to Cori with concern.
"There is no way-"
"I know. We're not going that way. Those instructions were supposed to get you here so I could lead you around the other way." She patted his elbow and moved to follow the wall towards the river.