14th Zi'da, 716
South Side
3rd break
South Side
3rd break
Continued from here
She cursed Finn. She cursed ever knowing him. She cursed the first time she'd met him, the first time he'd ever made her smile, the first good word she'd put in for him and, most of all, that she'd ever breathed aloud to the world the truth that she cared for him. Loved him, in that pure and impractical way that only the the young can love. Oh, and she meant it, too. For trials she'd been bound and gagged and blindfolded. Sightless, soundless, powerless. Beyond her bindings, she knew she was a prisoner. Locked in a fetid little room that stank of piss and mold. Clawed feet scampered around under her mattress. A few times, they weren't under it, and only her mad thrashing had frightened them off.
Betty had cried and begged until her throat was raw and her eyes dry. She cursed Finn every time she did. And every time - without fail - she took it all back.
"I want to see you... one more time," she'd whispered to the darkness, as she smelled the smoke and heard the madness unfolding outside. "But since I won't, I... I hope you-"
The door was kicked nearly off its hinges and the monster of a man that watched over her stomped in to claim her. She gaze a squeak as she was carried out through a smoky, flaming hallway. Then she screamed so loud when they jumped out the window that her gag slipped off. She breathed in the freezing air that sizzled on her skin black with soot and smoke. She was alive. There was no surer way to know than this prickling of her skin... and then she saw Death. They all did.
One by one, Silvester's men died in front of her. Until only the man himself was left, a dagger to her throat, using her as a hostage, as a shield, as just one more thing. Just like he used everyone else around him, once he'd finished pouring shit into their ears. Finn included.
Finn.
Betty closed her eyes, and heard boots crunch slowly over the ground. Getting closer. Inescapable. Implacable. She'd never seen anyone kill so coldly. It was almost like artistry, the marrying of lethal skill to smooth, practiced movements. He didn't waste an ounce of muscle or energy. His blows were precise, almost like he was a healer turned away from mending bodies and gone far, far the other direction. But Betty knew what he was. He was a scratcher, a gutter mercenary, and she'd known plenty. But as she watched him, as he killed, and she took in the ragged cloak and the masses of hair... and then saw those black, bottomless eyes... she breathed three words.
"The Raggedy Man..."
"Shut up you fuckin' slut."
Not so fancy in his words when he panicked, was Silvester. He snarled them in her ear as the assassin put the last touches to Haev. Then he was walking towards them and Betty closed her eyes. Silvester was making his speech, giving his terms, with that sneer of cold command he was so used to. Betty whined as she felt the fine, sharp, sickening pain of her flesh being parted, just under her chin. The Raggedy Man did not say anything back. He was just watching them. In that same, intense way she'd seen Finn do. When he had much to decide and ponder, his body seemed to still itself in every way. Until all that potential, all that life, was just in his head... until he decided to let it out.
He looked her in the eyes, and told her she wouldn't die. Betty's own widened, and her mouth opened to beg just as Silvester's opened to bark and-
SHUUUUK
There was just enough time for her to blink, but no longer. In that time, the gladius at the man's side went from pointing to the floor and vertical, to horizontal and thrust out across the frozen air and-
-she could see her face in the bloody steel, mere inches from her face. The gladius had shot past her face, through one of her ears and-
Wet. Ugly. Retching. Words bubbling and not coming out. A mind that wasn't working properly, or lacked the machinery to work any longer. The dagger to her throat started to dance and jerk. She stiffened yet again as another line was carved in her. This was it. This was-
No. Not that night.
The dagger started to lower. The arm around her loosened. Betty opened her eyes. The pains and cramps of days in bondage... the pulsing, needling, dribbling cuts on her neck... the rushing, roaring agony in her ear... all of this was forgotten for a moment. She was suddenly free, and she looked around as the sweaty bulk behind her sighed with bile slick on its tongue-
-and she turned, to see the gladius punched through his eye socket.
Betty tried to scream but she was too exhausted, too frightened. Instead she staggered away and her bonds brought her down. She couldn't look away, scrambling on her backside as best she could but unable to tear her gaze from this horror. The sight of the Raggedy Man, still again, holding the gladius that skewered Silvester through the eye. The Professor, the master of The Rues, now just a twitching statue of meat that didn't understand it was dead. Spasming like a cat struck by lightning, dagger still gripped tight and yet useless. Behind them both, the watermill burned and burned and the bodies within were cremated all together.
Kasoria ripped the blade out with a wet, sucking sound. Silvester coughed, and Betty wondered if it was a conscious act or just his lungs trying to purge themselves-
-then silver and scarlet arced through the air. Kasoria swung the blade in a flat, easy motion, with both hands-
Silvester's body sank to his knees. Then slumped forward. His head went somewhere else.
"Right," the Raggedy Man said to her, his face a mass of shadows thanks to the inferno behind him. Save for his eyes. Two pinpricks, like twin stars in a sky where all others had died out. "Let's finish this..."
