at swords edge (alver x og cale)

Part 3

The deadliest poisons seep from within.

A lesson that Cale learned well in his time with Ron. There was no deadlier poison in this world than trust and no crueler administration method.

It made a job like Cale's easy though.

If he trusted no one, his risk was minimalized. Likewise, those that trusted him were in grave danger.

And Cale had spent the majority of his life acting. He could be just about anyone that they wanted him to be.

Becoming someone's most trusted confidant or sweetest lover was quite easy when compared to the hell that was spending a decade straight convincing everyone he loved to hate and fear him.

The best way to rot someone from the inside out was from close by.

Just another aspect of Cale's life that was so painfully obvious in retrospect.

Cale stood beside Violan's bed and scowled.

She was pale and her breathing was coming out in jagged broken breaths, sounding like there was serious damage to her throat alongside the fever and tremble in her limbs.

Violan was exactly how he remembered her.

At this point, it looked like the more merciful move was to smother her to death and put her out of her misery.

"...I always felt conflicted about you." Cale said, more to himself than to her. She was too far gone to understand his words. It was possible that the brain damage was severe after a fever this high sustained for such a long time. She might never be the confident and strong woman she once was, even upon recovery.

Regret filled his guts at the pitiable state his step mother writhed in. At this rate she would die a wretched death because of him.

Poison was such a wretched way to kill a person. Cale flexed his fingers and wondered if Ron knew.

Ron could see so much with ease but he chose very rarely to interfere with anything. It was only when it came to his son that Ron found the will to move. Whether it was to protect or destroy, Ron consistently only cared about one person in his heart.

It was very like Ron to leave the Countess to die. It wouldn't be the first time he'd done so.

No one had been able to pinpoint Violan's illness. How pathetic it was.

Cale stood at her bedside silently, watching her jagged breaths while he contemplated how or why to save her. Not out of hatred but mercy.

He'd seen what remained of those who suffered like this and lived. Sometimes life wasn't the kind choice.

"Violan."

Her lashes fluttered open and she turned very slightly in the bed to look at him with glazed over eyes, an expression of undisguised pain on her face.

The internal damage was immense. Parts of her would never recover.

"Do you want to live?"

He paused for just a moment, an unexpected lump building in his throat as he found his words.

"Or do you want mercy?"

The words sank into the ground beneath them and infected it with the rot of a murderer, spreading around the room and reminding the whole world what mold poisoned the mind.

It wasn't fair to ask her. Not like this. She couldn't make an informed decision. There was only one sure way to help her.

Cale realized belatedly that his fingers were trembling.

Violan Henituse. A tall and intense woman. She walked through the world with the confidence of a queen and the wit of a merchant. She was severe, strict, and fair. She was the first and only one who found out what Cale's tutor was doing to him.

He would never forget the fire in her eyes when she grabbed that bastard by the wrist and swiftly broke his arm before banishing him from the Henituse household. Later, Cale learned that she'd also ruined all of his future work prospects.

Before Violan's illness, she had been the strength of the Henituse household.

Perhaps that was why someone had deemed her a threat worthy of removal.

And Cale had been too blind and foolish in his youth to know what was happening to her. Spiraling in his misery over losing a second mother without ever doing anything to protect her.

Like an idiot.

A familiar fire flashed in her ice blue eyes, her hand reaching out for Cale's wrist weakly as she croaked with the voice of a woman at death's door.

"Don't... hurt yourself."

Cale flinched as though he had been physically struck.

Indeed, even in this state, Violan was a formidable woman who could never be underestimated.

She also wasn't a person who gave up easily. She continued her work as a Countess for years after her illness developed, working tirelessly until her body could no longer support her. She never complained. Violan stood straight with her eyes fixed ahead and an expression of determination.

Funny how he'd grown so much and still so little. She still had lessons to teach him even in her wretched state.

Cale moved his hand to hold hers gently.

"Ron."

A shadow moved.

Cale knew that Ron had been observing him closely all day, curious and suspicious of his young master's sudden changes and approaching him like a cat on a hunt.

"Go out and retrieve Mulieo antidote before dusk." He said, cold and clean. Waiting for the flash of surprise to pass from behind Ron's eyes before he continued. "And then, find the servants attending to my mother and investigate them all thoroughly. Don't let them die without finding out who hired them."

A curious smile crawled onto Ron's lips but he bowed subserviently before disappearing once more.

He's still curious about me so he won't bite me yet. I'll just amuse his curiosity for now.

Cale turned his attention back to Violan and squeezed her hand gently.

I'll protect you this time.

Indeed, the most deadly poisons came from within. The closest and dearest were the ones who had the best ability to destroy everything.

Violan had a soulmate mark on her wrist. Presumably it was Bassen's father but she never talked about it. He felt a strange kinship with the mark though. As though it was similar to his own in nature.

"When you wake up, maybe we'll talk about it..." He muttered. He didn't imagine that a severe woman like Violan was swayed much by the matchmaking of the god's. She might have a refreshing perspective to offer.

Something wretched ached in his chest.

The opportunity to have just one more conversation with her. His second mother who he only ever caused problems for. Would it be granted...?

Or was she too far gone at this point for the antidote to do much of anything?

"Fuck it."

Who cared about that sort of shit? Cale didn't need to restrict himself to that bullshit. If healing her via antidote wasn't an option, there were always other methods.

He wasn't going to give up.

Neither of his mother's would approve of that.

He'd rip out the poison at the source.