She put the mildly bloody bag on the table.

"The mission was completed, however at severe cost. The ship, all hands and the rest of my team were sunk by a storm off the coast of the island," Xandria reported.

The three administrators (they called themselves part of the Council, but they were desk monkeys) stared at the bag, then looked to each other, then started whispering amongst themselves. This part was always the worst. She had to remain stoic, immovable, while trying to gauge what her fate for this disaster would be. Fortunately, she didn't have to wait long, as they broke from their ménage à trois to address her directly.

"How did you survive?" was the first question thrown at her, and the most obvious.

"I am not certain, as I washed ashore an indeterminate amount of time later," she answered. One thing she learned a long time ago was never to volunteer more information than was requested, it only got her into more trouble.

"And saw no others?" the second question came.

"None of the crew or the team, no," Xandria confirmed.

"How did you complete the mission by yourself and return here seemingly unscathed?"

"Another group of people were on the island, seeking another target related to mine, they assisted with the capture and kill, and allowed me safe passage back here," she explained in brief.

"Explain what you mean 'related', and who are these people who assisted you?" they demanded to know more.

"I am not certain of exactly who they are. All I know is that they were sent to rescue a hostage of a nearby noble family. I am to understand this hostage was being held by her brother, who was my target. Fortunately, they seemed to accept my credentials and allowed me to complete my duty, and look past my skin. At least, most of them did."

The three went back to whispers. She could hear well enough that they knew about the family in question, and apparently this complicated the matter greatly. She wasn't sure if it was the fact that she knew, or the fact that the family in question was well-connected and this might have blowback for the TCEA. All she knew was that she was comfortable in knowing what would come next.

"Very well, Agent Xandria, you're dismissed," and there it was. She turned on her heels and walked out of the chamber immediately.

The organization was more of a corporation than a church, and though it did provide a significant service, it was not without its own costs. Being involved so intricately in contract negotiations, the Church of Tehim had positioned itself to make a tidy sum of money for itself, and it showed with the scale of building involved in this particular branch church. Situated in the rich part of town, it didn't stick out like some of the more expansive mansions, but it did fit into the community. Tehim's children were not known for humility.

Xandria thought about all this as she found her own chambers and unlocked the door. Closing it behind her, she would have at least the rest of the day off. She was not rich, even as she did the bidding of those who had access to Tehim's vaults. Many humans did not have the stomach to accept these facts and live long in the Contracts Enforcements Agency. There were several, but the best ones were much like her: troubled childhoods, illegal acts, pariahs of their own communities, and the like. Even among them, those who were obsessed with attaining wealth were more numerous than those who enjoyed their work. And to be a part of the field agency was even more difficult for those with a working moral compass. Most times missions were mundane: work out arbitrations, settlements, and even penalty clauses were not too severe. But every so often words such as "wet work", "tag and bag", "facefuck", and many more came into it, and required those who were loyal to Tehim to a fault.

Laying in her bed, looking at the stone ceiling, there she was. One of the worst of society molded into an occasional killer because one person decided that it was important enough to kill someone else if they failed to deliver their product and/or service in writing.

As she drifted off to sleep, she was thinking that it was difficult to call it work when she so enjoyed it so much.

Usually when one loses a whole team and support, one is not granted a new team.  In this case, Xandria found herself put back into junior agency under a new veteran agent.  He would not tell her his name, and he only referred to her as 'Drow Bitch'.

So, par for the course.

Some months had passed since the last incident, and her officer was assigned to enforce a smaller contract.  Taking Xandria with him, they spent several days on foot headed towards a small farming village.  Along with them was a horse and cart, provisions for two weeks, a barrel of gun powder, and a small jar of kerosene.  He wouldn't tell her anything.  Usually his instructions were along the lines of "Stay the fuck out of my way and don't get into trouble."  Rarely did he go into more detail than that.  Ever.

As the two of them approached the farm village, they were met by what appeared to be farmhands, armed with large tools usually not meant for spilling blood, but it was obvious they were expected.

Xandria's companion stopped the horse, and went out to meet them.

"We know why you're here," one of the farmhands spoke up first.

"Oh?" the agent said with a look of complete disdain.  "Then you should have run away by now."

Xandria heard a noise behind and turned around, seeing four more farmhands armed and coming towards them.  Quickly she grabbed her bow off the cart and readied an arrow.  From the front, the other agent didn't have any weapons readied, even though he carried a large bastard sword.

"You know what I'm gonna do to you if one of you lays a finger on me or my companion?" the agent asked them.  "I'm gonna shitstomp on every last one of you, and burn down this whole fucking village.  You know what I'm gonna do if you all get out of the way?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing at all.  At least not to you."

One of them stepped aside, out of the road.  The four Xandria had eyes on and her bow trained had stopped as well, seeing that their coworkers ahead of them were capitulating.  She slowly released pressure off the bow string, and took her arrow off the bow.  At that moment, it seems they just realized she was a Drow and became a great deal more nervous at who they were dealing with.

The other two stepped aside for the agent.  He gave a toothy grin.  "Good men.  Ain't none of this worth your lives."  He whistled at Xandria to get a move on, and she led the horse further into the village.

Most everyone was not inside, a strange sight for a town that was built on outdoor work.  But today was a special occasion.  Xandria and her agent handler didn't linger long, and moved towards what she figured was their destination.  A landed man had broken a contract, and it was time for the penalty clause to be executed.  As they approached the ranch house, they were met by a man, some kind of decently rich man by the way he was dressed in a suit with a vest and bowtie.

The agent brought Xandria and the cart up to the steps of the house and stopped.  "You Jermey?" he asked.

"Aye, I am," the man acknowledged.

"You're a stupid fuck sending your hands out to stop us.  I don't enjoy pissing all over them, they got nothing to do with this, you do.  So I'm gonna get to it.  You got one minute to hand over the equipment you leased, otherwise I'm gonna burn down your whole farm," he told him.

His eyes widened.  "That isn't what I signed!  You can't just do that on your own!"

"Shit I can't, you put your farm up as collateral.  Either you give back the equipment or I repossess your land, and the other client has no interest in what you put on it.  So I will burn it the fuck down!  Thirty seconds!" the agent shouted at him.

"All right!" the man gave in quickly.  "I'll go get the equipment!  I'll need some time to get it ready," he said weakly.

"Whatever.  You got a couple hours, get to it," the agent told the owner.

Xandria felt rather uncomfortable at the whole situation and tried to keep herself discreet as possible.  After noticing it, the other agent whistled.  "Get up here," he told her.

She rolled her eyes and wanted to say something, but kept her mouth shut.  She came up front, and saw for one of the first times, he was staring right at her.  Usually he didn't bother looking at her when he addressed her.  "You don't like this assignment, do you?  Mundane, and threatening regular people ain't something you're suited for, is it?"

"I have a problem with most of this, yes," Xandria acknowledged.

"Good," the man said approvingly.  "Remember that.  When we get sent on these assignments, it's because a contact was fucked to begin with.  Good people get suckered into bad arrangements, and when they can't fulfill their obligations, they do something stupid and we get sent to do the work of the terrible people who got them to sign on the dotted line."

"Why allow such a contract to exist if this is the end result?" Xandria asked.  "The idea that a contract is supposed to be fair is at the core of what we do."

"Fairness ain't part of it.  Two sides go in, we hammer out details, both sides sign.  But when you got someone like this poor sap who ain't got leverage, and one side who got it all, shit like this happens.  And we become the thing people hate, when it ought to be the man on the other dotted line who should be hated."

"Would you have done what you said earlier?" she asked him.

"Shit no.  I ain't gonna burn down a fucking village because of a few farmboys trying to be men.  But I knew we were being surrounded and someone was gonna do something real stupid in a hurry.  Might've been you with what bow.  Had to scare them off before someone got hurt," he shrugged.  "Yea, it makes us the bad guys.  But I'd rather be a bad guy than the dickhead who slaughtered a bunch of people over a piece of paper."

It took an hour before several men began loading up large pieces of equipment onto the cart.  "See this, without this stuff, they ain't gonna be able to tend their land properly.  There'll be no good work on this farm this year," the agent told Xandria.  "Someone else will come in time, buy the land for a song, and throw these people out.  But it ain't our place to pass judgement," he said that last statement with some contempt.  "We let events take their course.  Good people move on, bad people move on, and we get ready for the next assignment.  Now let's get out of here."

Three minor reposessions, one contract restructuring, two attempts at bribery, five arbitrations.  Over the course of a month and a half, Xandria began to realize just how mundane the TCEA's work really was.  Her first job, she was requested due to her skillsets in combat.  But now that she was taken off the list for the big jobs, she only had this mundane work.

She wasn't exactly a partner, so much as 'someone who got in the way'.  He gave his name to others, but not her, and never acknowledged her when she said his name.  Melvin didn't like her, that much was apparent.  The only time he ever acknowledged her was when there was some lesson to be had.  Otherwise, he wanted nothing to do with her over the course of any given day.  It wasn't the attitude that gave her annoyance, but the fact that in all this time, the only thing she put holes into with her bow and arrow were trees or practice dummies.  One day, it came to a head.

"Oi, drow bitch, go get the supplies ready," it started with this statement from Melvin.  She woke up in a bad enough mood as it was, and she had enough.

"Vith tir dos zhuanth Ssa'ch d'shu," she said out loud in her native tongue.

He stopped and looked at her, first time in several days.  "Go get the supplies ready, I ain't gonna tell ya again," he said.  She wasn't sure he understood what she said.

"Good, so I only need to ignore you once more," she retorted.

"Fuck's your problem?" he demanded, walking up to her fast.  He was more than a head taller, so he was imposing when he wanted to be and got up very close to her.  "I ain't in the mood for your bullshit, so do what I fucking tell you before we got a problem."

"Fuck you, fuck your supplies--" she started to say, just before he backhanded her, throwing her to the ground.

"Don't ever do that again," he told her and started to walk away.  "Now go handle the supplies."

She got up quickly and pulled her bow off the mount along with her quiver.  With as much speed that she could muster, she had an arrow in hand, an aimed right at him.  Letting loose, she planted the arrow in his right shoulder.  With a great deal of surprise, he stumbled forward and to the left.  Marching up on him before he could turn around, she planted another arrow in his back.  Turning around slowly, he looked back at her.  He was at a severe disadvantage without his weapon or armor.  And she wasn't about to let him get it.

"I put up with a lot of shit from a lot of people.  But I'll be damned if I'm going to let some jaded piece of shit like you make me miserable when the job at hand does that for me," she told him, staying at just out of range for him to lunge at her.

He slumped to the ground, still staring at her, though his surprise was gone.  "So what now, you gonna finish me?"

"Not unless you give me reason to shoot you again," Xandria said coldly.  "You hit me, I put holes in you.  You come at me with your sword, I kill you.  It's nothing more complicated than that."

"Well you have a lot of patience, I'll grant you that," Melvin told her with a grin on his face.  He was perspiring, nervous at his situation.  "I didn't really think you'd do that, puts me in a bad situation."

"One-word test," Xandria told him.  It was an interrogation technique, something the Tehim organization learned a long time ago: words were lies.  Confining people to one-word answers gave more truth than a million sentences in some situations.

"Why antagonize me?" Xandria asked.

"Test," he told her.

"You're testing me?  On these jobs?  This is shit work as it is, why add to it?" Xandria demanded.

"Endurance."

"So you make me miserable.  We do these jobs, you marginalize me as if I weren't already, you don't let me be a real partner in this, don't let me help you, all to test me.  Now here's what I want to know.  Tell me why this was necessary, convince me why I haven't proven myself to the organization.  Tell me why being a Drow is such a crime.  Tell me what I have to do to be acceptable to you and everyone else around us.  And do it in one word," she said to him, pulling the bow taut once more, aiming at his face.

He thought about it for a bit.  His life was on the line, and he was bleeding from his rather painful wounds.  One word to sum up all that, and likely more.  Her own emotions were running high, so his answer had to be good.

"Xandria," he told her.

The tip of the arrow slid out and fell to the ground as the healing wand did its magic.  Xandria checked over the area, noticing it wasn't fully healed.

"God damn that fucking hurt," he complained, rubbing his shoulder.

"Kind of the point," Xandria told him.  "Now hold still while I treat the other one."

"Sorry," he muttered.  "Sorry about all this."

"So you're really not like this all the time?" she asked as she prepared the wand for another round of work.

"Not to people I work with," he said.  "Or people who cooperate.  Only to those who are useless or get in the way.  See, it's fine to stand up for yourself.  I saw you in training, you took a lot of shit that others wouldn't put up with.  Looks like you feel like you got to prove you ain't evil or whatever.  You don't have to keep proving yourself."

Xandria sighed, stopping her use of the healing wand because she was done.  "I don't know.  I see the looks I get every day.  I can say the sky is blue or water is wet, but people would argue with me because obviously I must be lying or hiding something."

Melvin chuckled.  "Well, your people are devious, lying, deadly sacks of shit stacked up five feet tall.  Hard not to pain all of you like that."

She punched him in the back, and he winced, but she didn't really hit him all that hard.  He was still sore, though.  "They're not my people when all I remember of them was turning me into some little servant girl, eating whatever scraps they had left, and not giving two shits if I lived or died.  If anything, I hate them more than most."

"Self-hating Drow?  Good gods, you ARE a walking stereotype!" he laughed.

"I will reopen these wounds," she threatened.  "Now, on to a shiny new topic, what's next?"

"Well, we got someone who skipped out on a debt.  We gotta go bring him in alive," he got up and put his shirt back on.  "Still need you to prep the supples.  I need to go into town and get the contract information," he started to walk then stopped, thinking briefly.  "Fuck it, you go get it.  I'll deal with the supplies."