Unspeakable Secrets The Alchemist Series (A Dark Medieval Progression Fantasy)

Chapter 71 Clemency

"So, what happened?" Connor asked.

"We thought my mother didn't know. That we could hide our friendship. We were naïve," Adelia said.

She sighed heavily.

"I came down to the arena one day. I could sense something was... different. Taste it," Adelia said, "They wouldn't tell me who or what I would be fighting. They gave me a single dagger and when I came out into the arena itself... I saw Melisan. Holding the mirror of my dagger. Her eyes were blue from crying.

"Her family had been arrayed around my mother to watch as the announcer essentially named Melisan a traitor and declared that if she served to help teach me a lesson... that her family might be granted clemency."

Adelia let out a heavy breath and Connor had the feeling it was the first time she'd ever told anyone this.

"Melisan apologized and cried even as she swung her knife at me," Adelia continued, "We both knew she could never hope to so much as land a hit. I evaded her even as she begged me to kill her for the sake of her family.

"I didn't care for them. Most were concerned only with saving their own skins. They deserved to die regardless. And I wanted to show my mother that she couldn't control me... but... Melisan just..."

Tears welled up in Adelia's eyes as her voice broke and she looked away as her lips quivered.

She looked back at Connor, a mixture of helpless rage and sadness in her eyes.

"She wouldn't stop begging me to kill her. For the sake of her stupid family! And if I didn't do it then my mother would've had her tortured to death just to spite me!" Adelia spat.

"So, I cut an artery in her neck," Adelia said, "It was a clean cut. I don't think she even felt it. I cradled her in my arms as her cold blood pumped out of her and I swore then. Swore that I would kill my mother. But she was too strong for me... in the end, the best I got was to kill some of Melisan's family. Only the ones that looked too relieved, of course.

"I knew she wouldn't have wanted me to but she was gone and some of them irritated me. They thought they were safe because my mother gave them clemency. They should've known better."

Connor finished applying the gel to the last of her wounds and she paused as though finding it difficult to speak.

He handed her a beaker filled with a green herbal concoction. "Drink this," he said.

"Thank you," Adelia said softly.

She sipped at it. Her face screwed up and she shuddered.

"This is disgusting," she said.

"It's medicine," Connor said, "It's supposed to taste awful."

She took another sip and opened her mouth, scraping at her tongue with her upper lip as her entire face contorted with revulsion.

"Ugh..." she groaned, "It must be incredibly good medicine then."

Connor gave her a small smile and wiped away her tears with the back of his index finger.

Adelia stared at the murky green liquid in the beaker.

"Do you hate me now?" she asked.

"Of course not," Connor said.

"I killed my friend," Adelia said with a look in her eyes as though she were watching events unfold all over again.

"It wasn't your fault," Connor said.

Adelia downed the remains of the herbal concoction and set the beaker down on a rocky outcrop beside her.

"Yes, it is," Adelia said, "I should never have befriended her in the first place. Or kept the secret better or found some other way to—"