Warwielder - Book 1 of The Evernoth Odyssey

Chapter 26 - Unim and Vaisp

The man had been running for the last several minutes until he tripped over his feet. His face landed onto the hard iron floor with a solid thud. He groaned for a while before slowly pulling himself up onto his elbows. The man started crawling across the cold surface, desperately urging himself to move.

But he didn't get far before a hard boot landed on his back forcing his face to meet the floor again.

"Please...please don't...I didn't mean to...I just...I didn't mean to-"

A gloved hand covered his mouth and pulled his head up, exposing his neck. The heavily garbed warrior then placed his curved blade onto the victim's throat, preparing to slice it open.

"Vaisp!"

The warrior peered behind him to see his companion, Unim, frowning at him with piercing honey-coloured eyes. He noticed the pair of her feathery antennae twitching ever so slightly above her sleek black hair, a sign of her irritation. Her slim figure glided down the iron corridor with her colourful mosaic wings draped over her shoulders and splayed out on the ground like a long cape. He could see the stringed neck of her cotheri, protruding over her shoulder from her back, a musical instrument native to her homeland. She had always cared more for that instrument than her own wellbeing.

"As per usual, you are overreacting," said Unim.

The warrior, Vaisp, kept his blade on the man's throat as he listened. He raised his free hand at the Emeri and responded with hand signals.

He attacked you.

"He stepped on my wing." Her wing capes edged closer to her body, hugging her form like a colourful blanket. The ends of her wings slid across the floor. "It was an accident. Hardly worth a death sentence."

More hand signals.

He hurt you.

"Only a little."

That seemed to be enough for the warrior as he turned back to the human beneath him.

"Vaisp, no!"

Unim's wings flared outwards as she launched herself into the air. She then landed in front of the heavily cloaked warrior just as her wings wrapped back around her body again.

"You will not kill this poor man. I forbid it!"

Vaisp peered up at the Emeri through the thin open slit between all the cloth wrapped around his head.

"Vaisp."

The warrior looked back down at the human's face with his trembling lips and skin sheened with pitiful tears. So much open flesh. So weak...

"Vaisp. I said no."

He then looked back up at his companion.

"You'll hurt me if you do this," she said with a softer tone.

Vaisp took one last look at his downed prey, with the blade's edge still caressing the man's skin. The human began to blabber pathetically, no doubt begging for his life. Killing him now did seem rather...undignified. Perhaps he did overreact. The warrior had always found it difficult to navigate Unim's sensitivity and unnecessary displays of compassion.

Then again if it weren't for that compassion......

The warrior loosened his posture and moved the curved blade away from the human's neck. As soon as he did, the man broke down sobbing, burying his face in his arms.

After he stood back up, Vaisp gazed down at the bawling human mess and couldn't help but wonder if killing him were not the better option, to spare him the ugly misery of his humiliation.