"Are you finished yet?"
Astra chided Seth after he had continued to lay there, pretending to sleep, for another full minute. In that ti she hadn't moved herself, still sitting with Olette's head resting in her lap, a most enviable position, whilst she gently caressed and petted him.
Seth grumbled as he lay there, before eventually sitting back up again and stretching out his stiff muscles.
"It's not my fault you decided to sneak attack with that."
"You're just jealous you didn't get to be the one who said it."
The pair of them chuckled slightly, Seth not bothering to give that a response as she didn't deserve the pleasure of being right. He run his hand through his hair, pushing it out of his face, only to feel that it was still slightly damp.
Frowning slightly, he patted his hair again before glancing towards Astra.
"So... What happened exactly? I'm guessing I landed in the river or sothing. Is that how we got away from those Hell Hounds?"
"You really don't rember?"
Seth simply shook his head and shrugged.
"Nothing after the crash. Well, I rember bouncing along the ground, so that was fun. But after that I'm pretty hazy."
"You happened Seth. We didn't escape them, you scared them away. I didn't see most of it, but from what I did see I don't bla them. You went berserk, slaughtered half of them without a care for yourself.
I'm surprised you're still even alive."
As she spoke, Seth's eyes trailed down and landed on his tallic arm. His mind accepted her words, but they were muted as he stared blankly at the holes in his arm, the tal around them rolled and lted from the heat of the Hell Hounds teeth.
Honestly, he could rember it. Not all of it, not in detail. But he rembered the pain, the anger, the sadistic pleasure. He rembered it, but his mind separated from himself so much in those monts that he had thought... he had hoped it was nothing more than an insane dream. A dream that could only be brought about from repeatedly hitting his head.
He traced his fingers over the lted tal, flashes of that ti appearing in his mind. His previous screams and howls of rage echoing within his mory. With every flash of mory, he could almost feel his blood heating up within his veins. He could feel it churning faster, almost as if it was excited by the mories.
Clenching his fist tight, Seth closed his eyes and focused his mind. He focused on quelling the growing feeling, forcing his blood to cool down and return to normal. Only once he was certain he was fine, did he finally open his eyes. He glanced over his shoulder, noting that the other mbers of their group were a few tres away, far enough that they couldn't overhear their conversation.
While that might have been the main reason, he wasn't ignorant enough to believe that was the only reason. He couldn't help but catch a few glances his way, especially the ones from Erik, who seed almost fearful of him.
Looking back at Astra with an ashad expression on his face, his head still lowered ever so slightly, Seth spoke in an almost timid voice.
"Did I hurt anyone?"
"...No. By the ti we found you, you had collapsed from exhaustion."
Seth narrowed his eyes ever so slightly at Astra, locking eyes with her as she spoke with the slightest hint of hesitation. Of course he suspected she was lying, but even if part of him wanted to root out the truth of the matter another part wanted to simply bury it and move on.
Letting out a soft sigh, he simply nodded and accepted her explanation for the current ti. But even still, he couldn't just let this sit and fester. Slowly, he rose to his feet and brushed himself off, before making his way over to her and Olette.
He knelt in front of her, gently stroking his hand against Olette's cheek and feeling his dry, crumbling feathers at the sa ti. He could feel the trembling, strained breathing of the Wyvern underneath his hand, a sensation that caused new pangs of pain within his heart.
Raising his head, he looked deep into Astra's eyes with a morbidly serious expression.
"It's good to hear no one got hurt. But since that's the case, I need you to promise sothing. No... I need you to swear it, swear on your life that you will do this for ."
"What would that be?"
She maintained the eye contact, her hand slowing her petting and simply resting atop Olette as they stared into each others eyes, as if probing each other for their hidden emotions.
"I need you to kill . If that happens again, and you think that I'm a danger to anyone else. I need you to kill ."
"What? You can't be... I couldn't do th-"
"Please..."
Seth's expression softened, his eyes trembling as he practically begged her to kill him. Instinctually, he reached forward and placed his hand on top of hers, squeezing it slightly in his grip as he leaned just a touch closer.
"Just... Please, swear to that you will do this. If I lost myself and ended up killing any one of those people, or any one for that matter. I don't think I'd ever want to co back. I wouldn't be able to live with myself.
Not just losing myself to rage. If I ever lose myself to the position, if I beco like that Lightbringer and start to throw these people's lives away. I want you to kill , for them. If that is what I beco for any reason then I certainly wouldn't deserve to be their leader any longer.
I refuse to be a tyrant of blood, but I know how much power corrupts. I just... I need to have soone I can trust to keep in check. And I have trusted you with my life, so now I am trusting you with my death.
Do you swear to do this for ?"
Astra's eyes darted between his own, before trailing down to his hand resting upon hers. She seed to linger on that sight for a few seconds, before raising her head once more. He could see a mixture of emotions within her eyes, so many feelings fighting for supremacy and for the right to co to the forefront.
In the end, she parted her lips and spoke those faithful words.
"I do. I swear it."
Seth let out a deep sigh of relief at those words, not even realising he had been holding his breath up until this mont. He nodded a few tis, squeezing Astra's had before letting it go and standing up straight.
He glanced at Olette, his eyes trailing over his body, before he turned on his heels.
"Now, I think I need to take care of a little business. We've been on the road for a while, after all and I haven't had a chance before now."
He chuckled softly as she rolled her eyes, before waving him away. Without another word, Seth moved away and started to walk to a secluded section of the field they were in, sowhere with a nice bush he could hide behind.
As he walked, he let his threads extend outwards and trail behind him. Although they had been tangible and visible for a brief minute during his fugue state, they had returned back to their ethereal nature. Invisible to all except those with the right eyes.
Once he was safely behind the bush, and double checked that no one was watching him, Seth didn't pull down his trousers to pee. Instead he clenched his fist, tightening his threads and dragging them towards him.
As he did so, they trembled and vibrated like a fishing line, paired with a fresh catch on the hook.
Seth although he appeared to be holding nothing at all, Seth raised his hand and at the sa ti lifted his 'catch' into the air. His iris' glowed white as he glared at the invisible creature that had been clinging to Olette's back like a parasite.
Ensnared in his threads, with its limbs bound tight to its body, was a lizard like creature. The sa one he had seen in his fugue state. He didn't rember much about that ti, his mind intentionally blocking out most of it. But this thing... he rembered seeing this thing at the very end.
And if that ti wasn't a dream, then this thing wasn't either.
It wriggled and squird in his ethereal snare, desperately trying to free itself. As the threads tightened around its body, it's figure shimred. The pure white lizard in his soul vision shifting until it was nothing more than a blackened silhouette, just like all other people looked like.
With the shift in its body, moving from the intangible to the physical realm, it began to drop as Seth's threads now passed harmlessly through its body.
Such a sha for it that his reflexes were too quick to allow such a worthless escape attempt. Seth imdiately lashed out with his foot, catching the little critter right in the gut and punting it across the grass like a football, bouncing a few tis before it finally skidded to a halt.
Strolling over to it, Seth summoned his spear into his hand and lifted it above his head, turning it's point downwards towards the parasitic little creature.
"I bet if I kill you, He'll get better. Or at the very least, he'll not get any worse."
However before he could plunge the spear downwards, the creature rolled over and raised one of its hands, its snout moving as it let out a series of desperate squeaks that sounded a lot like words.
"Nid genaz, Nid Krii!"
Reviews
All reviews (0)