The Thieves of Otar

Dancing

Daxtor took another swig from a tankard of whiskey as he paced the length of his tent. The drink rolled over his tongue, down his throat, and into his stomach. His mind clouded over even more from the alcohol and his rage increased for the thousandth time.

"How could they get away?" he screamed for what must have been the hundredth time. "I had them under lock and key and under constant watch! That's the second time that little she-demon has gotten away from me!"

"She-demon?" Elaina's small voice said from the corner. She had watched her father pace back and forth for the past hour, sometimes taking a drink from a tankard that he held with a death grip, as if it were the only thing that kept him from losing his sanity. Elaina had never seen her father like this before, and it scared her.

"That insufferable little brat, the Golden-Eyed One," he clarified.

"She seemed nice enough to me," she said quietly. "Are you sure she's going to destroy us? She may be a warrior and the Golden-Eyed One, but there's no way she could crumble our entire nation, right?"

"Wrong," Daxtor spat. "Trust me, my daughter, Zia will not hesitate until each and every one of our people are extinct."

"How would she do that, Papa?" she asked, her voice low. "How could one girl possibly cause so much damage and death?"

Daxtor gazed at his daughter with a steely look, like he was on the edge of madness. "I've told you many, many times, my girl, that she has a way with people. She tricks them into doing her bidding, getting her out of tricky situations. She used that power to get me arrested and foil my years of hard planning and thinking to get our kingdom to the place in the world that it deserves."

"But she had no such effect on you, and you raised her for six years."

He looked at Elaina and his look softened slightly. "Zia preys on the weak-willed, makes them feel compassion toward her. But I was strong. Her evil mind-manipulating powers had no effect on me." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "I fear your time with her has taken its toll, Elaina darling."

Her eyes widened in fear. "What do you mean? What has happened to me, Papa?"

"You are defending her, child," Daxtor said simply. "She has tried to gain your sympathy and turn you against me."

"What?" Elaina reeled back "No. Why would she want that?"

Daxtor shrugged. "Revenge. And to fulfill her task in tearing down our kingdom. She now knows that I am alive and well, and that I am in a position of great power and importance in our kingdom. Without my strategic knowledge and my quick mind, Skilae would lose this war in an instant. She knows that if she can turn you against me, turn me into your enemy like she has, then she can enlist your help in killing me. And if I die, my girl, Skilae will crumble into ruin. The kingdom couldn't get along without me, and she knows that and is willing to use it as a weapon against our country."

"But Zia didn't even know you were alive until recently, and she didn't know I was your daughter," she pointed out.

"No," Daxtor agreed, "she did not. But she bends the will of everyone she crosses to her own, just in case they come in useful when she finds herself in a tricky situation that her poor, weak mind cannot think its way out of."

"But she doesn't even believe she has any powers."

"That's what she wants you to believe. I believed it too myself for some time when I was raising her. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how deviously ingenious it was- pretending not to have powers or any knowledge of them to keep people's suspicions away."