Scales and Swords ✓

50: I Like You

No, it wasn't KB, it couldn't have been. But as much as I tried to believe this, I knew it was. Because I didn't want to believe what came along next. So I made up excuse after excuse because I knew, I'd never be able to tell anyone of her without crushing what was left of my dignity. So I followed after her, because I needed an excuse for my conscience.

She and Neritha sat at the bar, talking, drinking, like good friends would. Like they weren't who they were. But could they have been just that? Just friends catching up after a while? It wasn't impossible, but even I couldn't fool myself into believing that that was the least plausible explanation.

And suddenly, I had an idea. What if I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. I just return to Cyr and I tell him nothing. I continue to do nothing. Then I return to the Castle and I continue to do nothing until Lady Higgins returns. But that seemed to sum up to worse than what I had already done.

But the longer I did something the more I felt like nothing. Empty and lost. A body without a soul, just passing through. A life without a purpose.

I was standing in a dark place, when someone caught me from behind and slid a blade under my throat. And I didn't fight back because I didn't think it was necessary. I welcomed what was sure to come next.

"Did Cyr send you?" Neritha whispered into my ear. Her blade hiking against my throat, tearing my skin only by a sliver. "December, is that what you're called again?"

When I didn't say anything she hissed, grabbed a clump of my hair and forced my head back, giving herself more area of my throat to decorate with her blade. "Won't you speak dear? Or would you rather not for the rest of your life as well?"

A beam of light cut through the darkness and illuminated a patch of loose earth. Before my very eyes sprouted a flower. Gold and many-petaled, it grew, a Marigold. The breath caught in my throat and before I knew it tentaclelike structures lunged towards us, no not me, to her. Her grip loosened and I fell to my knees gasping for air. I turned behind me to find tendrils coiling around her body, squeezing and suffocating her.

"That's enough!" I reached for her, clawing at the tendrils. 

Her body lowered to the earth as the tendrils slipped off her body and disappeared into the shadows. But as soon as her feet touched the earth she swung her blade. And I didn't know what she had done till half my cheek was on the ground and my warm blood hit my skin with a puff of steam. I doubled over screaming. So this is what pain feels like.

Her sword came down on me again when another blade met hers. I didn't need to think too hard to know who had arrived. 

"This katana," Philip said, "where did you get it?"

Metal scraped against metal. Sparks flew. A light laugh.

"Who are you?" Neritha murmured. She disengaged but just the same her thin long blade swung, clashing with Philip's. 

"Not anyone that should concern you," Philip said lowly. "We didn't come to fight."

"Well you've fought enough to make me think otherwise," she bit back, her eyes narrowing as she pushed on her sword.

"We'll leave quietly if you'll let us."

She smirked, but immediately returned to a cold regard. "I don't trust you." Her grip twisted and lunged towards Philip's chest.

Her blade met his chest and sunk beneath his skin but before it could go any further a shout filled the alley. "NO!"

"They're just his lackeys, spare them," she said, stepping into the light. Her snakes flaring, hissing in all directions agitatedly.