Addy The Deathsinger's Daughter(DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 22--Questions

It has been confirmed. Father is going to kill me if he figures out that I'm out here in the middle of unknown woods the night before we're attacking the vault. I look around as my cloak drags behind me and I speed up slightly looking around again when I hear the hoot of an owl. I eventually reach Kaltaria--or what remains of it. The trees and houses are burnt to a crisp and the familiar brush of ash still lingers. I see a green glow in the distance and quickly pull my cloak over my head to hide my markings walking up closer to see Elise by a body with a sad look on her face.

"I am sorry about what my father did." I say making her jump and spin around with her bow drawn. She pants slightly then realizes who I am.

"Why would you do this?" She asks and I look closer at the body nearly throwing up once I do. It is a older male about the Sendaris named Thalleous age was. But his body is much more ruined than any body I've seen. There are the marks of a sword being pierced through his arm his throat getting deep but not fatal scratch and there are a few other gaping holes and slashes showing that whoever killed him showed no mercy until the end. I eye the body and realize this must be the Kaltaris that killed mother. Father wasn't kidding when he said that this Kaltaris got a slow death. 

"I didn't--" I start looking back up at Elise who looks angry.

"Why did he get such a violent death?!" Elise demands and I pause slipping off my hood and showing my entire face.

"I..." I start. "I'll figure it out." 

"What do you mean?! Your clan attacked him so you must know who did it!"

"Goodbye." I say then activate my Mobilium song and in a moment. I'm gone.

         I head upstairs to the top level of the tower where my father is. He doesn't sleep often so I know he'll be up here. I walk up and knock on the door. 

"Enter." I hear him say and walk in to see him reading the same magazine. "Addy," he says without looking up as he turns the page. "Couldn't sleep?" 

"I just wanted to ask you a question...." I say hesitantly and he finally looks up with a raised eyebrow and gestures for me to continue on. 

"How..." I start hesitant to ask my question. 

"How what?" Ingressus asks.

"How did you..." I trail off at the sight of my father's bloodstained sword. I can tell he was thinking about cleaning it but thought better of it. 

"I wanted to remember when I killed that monster that killed your mother." He says noticing my gaze and I nod deciding to follow through with my question.

"How did you kill the Kaltaris that killed mother?" I ask.

"His name was Nervious Kaltairs." My father says as he reaches for his sword admiring the green-tinted blood. "And I simply slashed him and left him for dead."

"Are you sure...?" I ask stepping forward a bit more and he looks up at me before patting beside him. I walk over and sit down beside him a way away out of slight fear even though I don't know why. He notices this and gives me a concerned look. "Are you sure you didn't make his death more... painful?" 

"I--" He starts but I say something before he can finish.

"I know you don't want to scare me, but I want to know. I want to make sure mother's killer got the death he deserved." I partly lie partly tell the truth. My father looks down at me for a moment before resting his sword on his lap.

"If you really wish to know.... I found him and cornered him." He says looking down at the blood on his sword and scraping a bit off looking at it on his fingernail. "And then I slashed him on the legs so that he couldn't run away... then across the arms so he couldn't fight me, and his neck but I made sure it didn't kill him."

He glances over at me as he wipes the blood off of his fingernail onto a rag nearby.

"Are you sure you want to hear more?" He asks and the fire cackles slightly as I nod. He shrugs but continues on. "I stabbed him in arm then the side. Before he was begging for me to kill him." He smiles at this, and I shake slightly as he picks up his sword and spins it scraping off a bit of the dried blood and letting it fall on the floor. He admires his bloodstained hands and now I realize he didn't bother to wipe the blood off. "Then I grabbed him and choked him slightly digging my fingernails into the cut I gave him earlier, and then he finally just gave up and I decided he had enough tortured him enough and killed him, he's lucky I did that. I should have stabbed him until his markings went out for what he did."

I nod slightly then make to stand up, but he firmly puts a hand on my leg keeping me sitting down. I sit back down hesitantly and lean against the couch. 

"Stay here tonight." He commands and I know he means it. I lay down on a pillow and feel a blanket go over my shoulders. When I turn over, I see that he is admiring his sword once again with a straight face. Perhaps so I don't flitch away at his pleasured expression. He looks at his bloodstained hands slightly sad and I question what he might be thinking about long before I fall asleep.