Eris was left with a bitter aftertaste in her mouth. Had she gone too far?
The young man was too impressionable for this – you shouldn’t have done that. She shut off the accusing voice in her head and made her way back upstairs. Vanessa was ecstatic at the news, though she did seem a bit disappointed that the knight was still alive.
Together, they began the long trek to the area of the Bronze Wood where she had agreed to meet a member of the Iron Hands. Vanessa chatted on about this and that, at times going into the gruesome details of how she had murdered her fiancée.
He thanked you.Eris felt agitated beyond reason. She kept glancing back over her shoulder, pulling at Rhine’s reigns every few minutes… The scar on her palm was bothering her more than ever…
You can kill, but you can’t tell a lie. Pathetic.She would take Vanessa back to the bandits and everything would be alright, then. They’d tell her the information she had so longed to know. Everything would be alright.
He wasn’t even that incompetent. You didn’t just damage his ego… You know, you probably just ruined the man’s’ life. Shut up!Eris scowled, her eyes blazing with anger. Why did her pesky conscience have to show up in the most inappropriate times? With a sigh, she made a promise to herself – as if she didn’t have enough of those already – that she would tell the knight the truth some day. Some day, she would seek him out and tell him how things really went down.
By the time they had entered the agreed-upon meeting place, night had already fallen across the sky. Eris felt a chill run down her spine as she saw the hooded figure standing across from her. This was the man she was supposed to hand Vanessa over to. He gestured for her to bring the woman forward and as Eris made to nudge Vanessa to him, the woman twisted out of her grasp, brandishing that same cooking knife.
“What is wrong with you?” growled Eris,
“Haven’t we been over this?”“Well, I changed my mind. My money’s my own – I’m not giving it to that scum!” she shrieked, pointing at the hooded figure with the knife.
“Don’t be stupid,” Eris said, pulling out her own blade.
“Do relax, my dear,” came a silky voice from under the hood.
“You’ve done your job well enough and here’s your reward.”The man tossed a rolled up sheet of paper which Eris caught at the last second.
“Now leave. I will take care of everything else,” the voice added.
Eris was about to protest, to say that her job wasn’t finished. But the feel of that coveted paper in her hand made her reconsider. She had delivered the woman. There was nothing left for her to do. She nodded to the man and spun around on her heel.
As she dove back between the trees, she heard another one of Vanessa’s mad shrieks. It was the scream of a greedy woman, plagued by desperation and insanity. Her keen ears picked up the sound of blade screeching against a sheath. Then, there was one more female scream. Then, blissful silence. Eris bit her lip, suddenly feeling utterly exhausted. It has all been for nothing – her elaborate ruse, the knight’s stupid sacrifice. But now, there was silence and that was something she could be thankful for.
FIN