Wind and Fire--Earth Couldn't Make It

Enfys scooted closer to Roshannah, her hair blowing in the wind that accompanied her wherever she went. After a moment of feigning the patrons below, she cleared her throat.

"So...what was that you were talking about earlier?" she asked in a low voice. "The thing about...being a racist. What did you mean?"

Roshannah eyed her from the side, twirling a dagger she held in her hand. Smiling slyly, she placed it back into her belt.

"Are you willing to listen to reason now, or do I have to punch you again?" she asked, fluffing the hood covering her head.

"I'm always reasonable," she replied curtly. "I just wanna know what you meant. To clear the air, and remove any confusions between us." She rested her arms against the wooden railing of the catwalk, her armor making a loud thunk.

"Confusion, yeah, right..." she replied, narrowing her pupiless eyes. "So, then, explain to me how it's not racist to think that orcs and half-orcs are...lesser." She looked to Enfys expectantly.

She snorted.

"Greenskins aren't a race--they can't help it. They're like rabbits, or bugs--they're programmed to survive, not to think, really. They don't even live that long. They just rape and pillage and eat and die. They wouldn't be a problem if they didn't breed like rodents."

"Alright," she swallowed down anger rising in her throat. The fire at the end of her braid flickered. "So, then...my sister, who is a half-orc, is the same way, then?"

He looked Enfys straight in the eyes, waiting for her answer.

Enfys's eyes widened, and she placed a hand on Roshannah's shoulder.

"I am so sorry. I didn't realize your mother had been raped by an orc. They're a truly despicable kind."

Roshannah snarled, immediately turning away from Enfys.

"You're the despicable one!" she hissed heatedly. "My mother was not raped, you small-minded, air-headed moron. She was in love."

Roshannah crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes. "Something you would surely know nothing about given your piss-poor attitude."

"I love my family, I love my comrades in my patrol, and I love my God. Any love beyond the platonic sense is impossible for me." She gestured toward her suit of armor. "Pleasures of the flesh are against the oath I have taken.

"So no, I suppose I cannot understand how your mother felt--especially since orcs are hard to love in any capacity. I've never met an orc who wasn't better dead. My only regret is that I didn't get to see a certain group of them die in person."

"Oh, really?" she rose an eyebrow. "So, you can't have sex?" She wrinkled her nose immediately. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

She scowled, and the wind around her picked up speed.

"I am pious and honorable, that's what's wrong with me," she sniffed. "I have given up pleasures of the flesh in the pursuit of purity of mind and body. I am stronger for my sacrifices.

"Besides, I can't imagine what people see in sex. It all seems so...filthy. I've no desire for children, so why would I desire such lewd acts? I can't imagine there'd be much pleasure in it, anyway."

Roshannah almost died as she heard those words.

"Are you being serious right now? You've never had sex," it wasn't a question so much as a statement. "Or if you did, they must have been awwwfulll," she retorted. "Couldn't you sacrifice something way better, like...make an oath to not kill orcs?"

She smiled mischievously.

"Of course I've never had sex! Why would I? That's why I gave it up," she replied haughtily.

"Besides, why on Earth would I swear to do something silly like spare orcs? I was kidnapped by orcs as a child--screw them."

Roshannah clicked her tongue.

"I knew the truth would come out sooner or later," she said, mostly to herself. "So you plan to hold a grudge for something a handful of orcs did to you...how many years ago? They're dead, by the way. I can guarantee it."

"I know," she scoffed, "But it isn't good enough. I cannot guarantee that they felt humiliation and fear as they died--as far as I know, they completely escaped the same injustice they inflicted upon me. What is just about that?!"

Roshannah laughed before she could stop herself.

"Seriously?" she asked, before realizing of course Enfys was serious. "There's nothing just about anything in this world. I guess you haven't realized that yet."

"I'm a paladin," she replied. "My job is to create justice. That is my purpose."

She scoffed.

"You're doing a fine job of it in this casino," she replied, smiling somewhat maliciously. "Besides, what sort of justice is it when you purposefully target one race over others? How is it just to profile someone just because of what they are?"

"Have I been wrong once?" she replied dryly.

Roshannah furrowed her eyebrows.

"You're right. But this is a town of scum. You're just as likely to find a dirtbag human as you are an orc or a half-orc."

She shrugged. "It was the same for orcs in Lastwall--only ever ran into them when they were up to no good. How am I supposed to believe orcs can be good without proof? Jumping to conclusions without evidence is the definition of injustice."

Roshannah let out a noise of pure disbelief.

"You mean like what you're doing?" she replied, and her long braid wavered. "By assuming that all orcs are evil without evidence is unjust in your own eyes, you fucking hypocrite."

"I've never encountered evidence to the contrary--every orc I've ever met has been up to no good," she replied. "Obviously, there is something bad about orcs that doesn't seem to affect other races.

"Why, have you met a good orc? Ever?"

"My step-father and my sister are both orc blooded," Roshannah told her, looking at her pointedly. "And neither of them have ever one anything wrong."

"Orc-blooded, or full-orc?" she asked. "There's a difference--sometimes other stuff can squash the orc a little, make the creature less bad. Like tieflings or something."