My Servant Is An Elf Knight From Another World

"Oh, Master! How I love you so!" The Elf-Knight proclaimed, her words, her voice, deeply entrenched in the embrace she held her master close. "If you would forgive me of this impudence, this transgression of my pledge to you. If you would truly permit this avarice, this undeserving desire of mine to pass… then let me stand by your side your loyal Knight no longer! Please, let me be yours, Master!"

There was a pause, a shared moment of a tender kiss between Master and Servant, Man and Woman, one that which the Elf-Knight clung to as long as she could.

"Your lips, Master," the Elf whispered, a light breathless quiver in her voice. "I never imagined them so warm, I—"

Ash leaned away from the mic, furrowing her brows at the lines given to her on a sheet of paper.

"What's up?" Amanda asked, glancing away from the recording software she had running on her computer upon noticing the continuous silence in the spectrogram. "Did you want to give that another take or…? Why'd you stop?"

"Lady Amanda," Ash shook her head, her disbelief heightening the further she read down the page. "Firstly, I must ask… is this truly supposed to represent myself?"

"Why, yes," she nodded. "Objections?"

"I do not sound like this."

"Sure you do! Like all the time."

Ash delves her eyes to the page again, choosing a line at random to recite out loud, and getting more exasperated with each syllable. "Let me feel your hands around me more, Master. I confess, a day bereft of your warmth and touch yearns my heart evermore for your affections. I love it, I love it when you touch me—Lady Amanda, this doesn't sound like me at all!"

"Which part?"

"Which…?" Her ears were in a rapid flutter, glowing red and flustered. "Every word! If it must be stated—know that there has not been a single instance where I've spoken to Master like this."

"Really?" Amanda squinted at her. "Not even once?"

"Well…" the redness in her ears extended over to the rest of her face. "...just maybe… maybe not so as… overtly expressive as you have inscribed here."

"That's the point, you see?" Amanda said. "Games like this, it's better if you highlight a trait of the characters. Make them stand out better. Embellish them, you know?

"Embellish," Ash repeated back, still not fully convinced. "So what aspect of my personality had you ultimately chosen to embellish here?

"You're, um… devotion?"

"Devotion, you say?" Ash went back to furrowing and frowning at the page. "Then, it must be said, the extent of this devotion of the elf on this page… I get the strangest notion I'm being mocked."

"Okay, look, if it makes you feel better at all, that character isn't necessarily even you," reaching forward from her seat, Amanda tapped a finger at the top of the page in Ash's hand. "See, this is Ashlywn. An Elf-Knight from the Realm of Easteria. Totally different."

Alas, Ash retained her doubts. If anything, she just seemed to have amassed even more of it.

"I have your assurance, at least," she said, sighing away a breath brimming with reluctance. "That this will eventually prove to be a memorable experience for Master, yes?"

"Oh, yeah, for sure—he'll love it!" Amanda said with confidence as radiant as the smile on her face. She swiveled around back to her monitor, hovering the cursor over the record button. "Okay, we'll do another from the top! Try to go a little bit sexier this time, alright?"

Ash had buried her face into the sheet of paper, quiet and still, but protruding out on either side, her pointed ears were aglow once more and moving in awkward squirm.

A couple of days, perhaps a week at most. So is the nature of video game development. Short, brutal, and hopelessly manic. That was all the time Amanda had allotted to finishing this gift-wrapped test of mental strength and willpower of hers.

Naturally, to have every single line of dialogue voice-acted, implemented, and fine-tuned for hours to perfection would be crossing over to the realm of complete insanity.

So, instead, she opted to just have only the major events and flags to be given the effort of taking the time off certain individuals' schedules to come and mutter and whisper for an indefinite period of time. First meetings, first dates, first kisses… things like that that just needed that extra depth of immersion.

Ash's contribution was just the first on a rather short list.

"Oh my. Oh my, my, my, this is amazing, Ash! All of this—perfect!" sound clip after sound clip, Amanda could feel the pop and crackle of excitement within her. The graceful cadence, the soft moans, the little nervous hitches in every breath. It was enthralling in all the right ways. "I never knew you could sound so… sensual. Or, like, this sensual anyway. You're making me blush."

On the other side of the spectrum, a defeated Ash sat slumped in her seat,

battered and crushed by the heavy, heavy pressure of her own shame and regrets.

"Lady Amanda, I believe that's… you've heard plenty enough already, don't you think? You don't have to keep—"

But she was drowned out once again by the sound of her voice amplified tenfold through the computer speakers, responding back to her with whispered words of love and affection so dear and true.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop," Amanda said, finally closing the audio program upon catching the bright shade of red Ash's face had changed to. "But seriously—thanks for coming over and doing this, Ash. I owe you big for this."

"The pleasure's all mine… dare I even claim it as such."

"Water?" Amanda launched out of her chair, hearing a low raspy note in her voice that surely had everything to do with a parched throat. "Or would some tea be better?

Ash began to rise as well. "Oh, you needn't bother yourself. I'll—"

"No, sit back down! You're my guest, I order you to act like it."

A demand like that left the elf no choice but to slowly slink back into her seat again allowing Amanda's generosity to run amok uninterrupted.

"So, decided yet?" Amanda asked, reaching into the kitchen pantry.

"Coffee, then," Ash replied, bowing meekly. "Thank you."

"Lucky you too—I've been practicing the way your Master makes it, so you're gonna be in for a treat."

Amanda got busy prepping drinks. And Ash, left with only the company of the many small windows opened on the monitor beside her, decided to peruse whatever caught her eye in the display… instead, she found herself staring right at an almost perfect mirror reflection of herself. The same green eyes, the same white hair, with just minute disparities in the little things that kept it from being her digital twin.

"That's Ashlywn," Amanda said, glancing up briefly from her mixing and stirring of a pair of mugs. "The elf that's totally not you at all, trust me."

"Ashlywn," Ash gazed at the hairclip parting her bangs, the tiny glimmers of gems hanging from her pointed ears, and the billowed hems of her flowing red dress, perfect for a night out with someone particularly special. "She's beautiful."

"No, you mean you're beautiful," Amanda corrected. "Use the mouse, go over to the next two tabs. You'll find Aladia and Irina there."

It took a moment for Ash to navigate through the application, but after clicking the correct rectangular box out of dozens on the page, Adalia's double appeared in the display, a pair of fangs protruding from innocent smirking lips, and a familiar murky swirl in the soft gray of her eyes. Irene's wasn't as detailed, but she recognized right away the distinct shape and pose of her silhouettes on the screen.

"Their voices…" Ash said, a thought occurring to her. "You intend on giving these characters voices too?"

"Sure. That's the plan."

"I cannot imagine Lady Irene being too keen on the prospect."

"Well, no, probably not at the get-go, but…" Amanda paused to reflect, horrors in her head of the inevitable phone call she will have to make filling her with dread. "...it's alright, leave her to me, she'll come around. I can be pretty convincing."

Ash browsed around the application a bit more, quickly noticing something that seemed cause for concern… or at the very least, an inquiry.

"Where are you?"

Amanda glanced up from her stirring again, and gave a single blink.

"What?"

"Your character, Lady Amanda," Ash clarified. "You have beautiful illustrations of all of us, but yet surprisingly none for yourself. Why is that?"

"Oh," she resumed her stirring. "Yeah, I haven't gotten around to drawing myself yet."

"You haven't?"

"It just feels… a little weird. Know what I mean?"

"Alas, I do not."

"Well…" Amanda emerged from the kitchen with a mug in both hands. Returning to her seat, she handed Ash one and placed hers right next to the half-eaten bowl of cereal now soggy and thin. "...drawing all of you is one thing, but drawing myself, presenting myself… it feels a little, I guess, narcissistic?"

"How so?"

Another innocent question. Except this time, Amanda couldn't think of a proper answer.

"I don't know, it's just a weird feeling," she said, swiveling back and forth in her seat. "But hey, it's not like I'm gonna cut myself from my own game. Maybe once I'm done with everything else, I'll finally work on it."

"But at the very least, you have recorded your lines already, right?" Ash continued to inquire.

"Umm…" Amanda reached for her drink, slowly slurping its contents with her lips pucked around the rims. "Actually, I didn't write… I haven't started on my character yet."

"I see," Ash said without judgment. "Another weird feeling?"

"The opposite feeling this time, but, yeah, just as weird," she admitted. "Remember what I said about embellishing?"

"Makes the character stand out better, as I recall."

"It's so easy to find things to embellish when I think of you," she said. "Or when thinking about Irene, Adalia. You're all so distinct, so colorful, diverse…"

"And you are not?" Ash cocked her head.

Amanda didn't answer right away, and for some strange reason, she felt her lips pull into a smile.

"I'm not saying that…" she muttered, hiding her senseless grin behind another quick sip. "It's just… maybe it's just a bias-thing… harder to think of good qualities when you're thinking about your qualities, you know?"

"If you're in such dire need of examples, then I believe you needn't strain yourself any further, Lady Amanda."

"What do you mean?"

"Look at what you're doing," Ash said, gesturing broadly at her. "Look at all you've done. From my point of view, I see your passion, your drive, your commitment… but most of all I see the depths that exist, the endless well of endearment you hold for the person you love. I ask, can you truly not say the same?"

"Well, it's… I mean…" it was getting warm, and Amanda couldn't tell if it was from her or merely the hot steam rising from her drink and splashing on her cheeks. "You're not wrong… I think…"

"Your plight continues to linger for it seems you do not know what part of you could be deemed admirable. But a single aspect can never define our individuality as a whole no matter how distinct it may be."

"True," Amanda nodded, not knowing what else to say.

"In which case, the answer is really quite simple, isn't it?" Ash said. "Do not constrain your worth to one defining trait. If you truly wish to stand out as you so desire—then embellish yourself."

That feeling. That weird feeling. It didn't seem so severe now to Amanda.

"Wow," she breathed out, chuckling in awe. "Seriously—you got a way with words like no one else."

"It is simply in my character," Ash said with a small smile. "You should make note of that for your reference."

Amanda laughed again. "On it."

It was then she noticed the mug in Ash's hands, still filled to the brim and seemingly forgotten.

"Not thirsty?" she asked.

"Oh, almost forgot," Ash hastily lifted the cup to her lips.

And as she took a sip, Amanda couldn't help but wait in anticipation, and maybe a little bit of suspense.

"You like it?" She asked. "I know it's probably not like how your master would've done it, but—"

"It's perfect," there was a soft clatter as Ash placed her mug on the desk, the head of the teaspoon visibly swiveling around the now-emptied bottom. "A slightly different taste, yes… but ultimately, perfect."

And with that, that weird feeling had totally vanished.

"Thanks, Ash."