Tipping the Scale

The Past that haunts Them (Part 2)

"Your brother?"

She studied his appearance, only now noticing the familiar features hidden within his finer facial structure. Once she saw their similarities she couldn't unsee them. His face morphed into one that was older and more haggard looking. Carrying the scars of battle and loss. A rare smile broke his often solemn demeanor, causing tears to well up in her eyes.

"Damian..."

Her voice trembled as she whispered one of those fifty-three names that she would never forget. One of the men who she killed.

His smile disappeared and he looked at her with concern. As if asking why she was crying. He had never liked to see her sad. Told her that the tears reminded him of his kid brother.

As she reminisced, his skin turned pale. Suddenly she was standing on a forest path, his mangled body lying at her feet. Both the horse and him had arrows sticking out of them. Though the archer had been meticulous, hitting Damian only in the gut. They wanted him to slowly bleed to death. An undeserving and painful end for anyone. The message had been clear. Surrender or more will die.

I should have listened.

His empty eyes stared at her accusingly and she felt the guilt start to make her gasp for air. Closing her eyes, she tried to calm her beating heart. He wasn't here anymore, this was all in her mind.

A hand grabbed hold of her arm and she was sitting in front of Taylor once more. He looked concerned and his nervousness had been replaced by grief.

"I'm sorry. I should have recognized you sooner. You resemble him."

She tried to smile and rubbed away her tears. Dislodging herself from his hand.

"You are the first to say so. Most say I take more after my father than he did."

Steeling herself, she looked at his face again. Trying not to trigger her memories. She could still see the clear resemblance. They shared their honey blond hair and blue eyes, had the same button nose, and a similar slightly bigger than average mouth. More than anything, it was the way they carried themselves that differed. Damian had been a serious and mostly silent man, with a surprising knack for dark humor. Taylor instead seemed to be lacking his brother's confidence.

"I'm sorry for what I asked."

She found herself shaking her head even before he finished his sentence. He deserved to know what happened to his brother. In her own selfishness, she hadn't even considered contacting everyone's families. Something she would have to rectify.

"He died a couple of months before we lost. I had sent him to Valerian's.. the Prince's army camp. Thinking he would be ready to surrender."

Taking a deep breath, she tried to keep her voice steady. Flashes of his bloody corpse kept appearing but this time she didn't panic but instead fell into an almost emotionless state. As if she hadn't been the one to experience what had happened but was just recounting someone else's story.

"From what we could gather, the prince had him followed on his way back and killed him with an arrow."

Lidea held her gaze on the hands she had folded in her lap. Not daring to see the emotions in the other man's eyes. She shouldn't have been as arrogant as to think that Valerian would have surrendered. He hadn't attacked her not because he couldn't, but because he didn't want to. A fact that she would learn soon.

"Did he suffer?"

His voice sounded thick in emotion and she could hear him audibly swallow. Composing herself, she looked over to him. Not wanting to lie and tell him it had been a peaceful death, but also not able to bring what had happened to him into words. He seemed to understand her even without them. The emotion spilled over into tears. She had expected him to get angry, to look at her in condemnation. But that didn't happen.