The Vigilant Yaksha

Chapter 43

"Venaaaaaaa-" A hushed voice came from around the corner, jolting the exhausted girl awake as she flinched in response, rattling the chains holding her up to the wall all over again.

Instantly her brows knitted together, really not wanting to have the impending conversation about how she didn't listen to him as soon as she felt his gaze rest on her.

Cracking open one eye, she met Childe's dark blue yet sad orbs as he gave her a quick look over, his hands rested on his hips as he exhaled in defeat.

"I wished you'd listened to me." His voice was soft, melancholy as he adverted his gaze, actually blaming himself a tad for not pushing the urgency of it as he now gazed on at her bloody and bruised form, far worse than when she had first arrived.

Not to mention, it was 4 am. He clearly had no intentions of letting her sleep in a real bed like the night prior and had left her to hang in the dungeon again and no doubt get not even a wink of sleep.

"You expect me to value the words of a Harbinger?"Her voice was raspy and calloused, laced with venom as well.

That was really just her way of deflecting instead of simply admitting to basically falling straight into Scaramouche's trap. Even though he didn't need a reason to harm her- he'd wanted her to give him one. He wanted her to step out of his "rules" so he could hold the power he had over her and she fell straight for it.

All he'd needed to do was bad mouth Xiao and she just couldn't help but react.

Does that make Xiao my weakness? People can use him to get under my skin? Because that more than likely means they could do the same to him but with me instead. Am I now Xiao's weakness?

Is this why so many people always said love makes you weak?

"I guess I can't say I blame you." Childe replied after a few minutes of awkward silence, trying his best to swallow his guilt, feeling as though he could have somehow spared her of some of this.

She was covered in dried blood, bruises and small cuts, the obvious burn marks of Scaramouche's distinct electricity. Childe had seen it far too many times.

Although he really had never given her a reason to believe any of his words, he was still sad he couldn't do more.

"Just leave."

Her harshly spoken words yanked the nicer Harbinger's attention back up to rest on her tired and defeated face as she kept her eyes on the ground, refusing to look at him.

"But I have some good news-"

"Don't bother."

"Vena-" A step toward her causing her to instinctively flinch away, a very unintentional reflex after Scaramouche's not so pleasant retaliation as she quickly turned her head away again, clearly embarrassed that he'd seen her so scared and hurt.

"I know you hate me, I know you don't trust us Harbingers and that's fine, but I promised you and Aether that I'd get you out of here and I intend to keep my word. Please, just hold on, and for the love of the Tarista, please don't provoke him again. I found them, they know where you are and they've secured passage to Inazuma. They plan to ambush here tomorrow, midday. I can come find you and Scara, and I can convince him that another matter needs him, maybe get him to let me 'watch' you while he's gone... I'll let you rough me up a bit to make it look real and act like you escaped. Don't give up, okay? That Adeptus was worried sick about you. He almost killed me the moment he saw me."

The last sentence sent a ping into the girl's heart, almost instantly sending her into a sobbing fit but she bit her lip, struggling to hold it back.