Mercenary

Mercenary: Chapter 10 - Decisions and Indecision

New chapter. :) The picture that's on the side (if it's not on the side, I will be very put out with Wattpad) is a map of the world I'm placing my story in. And yes, I realize this is supposed to be "historical fiction". In that aspect, let's just say that I take the "fiction" part very seriously, while my interpretation of the "historical" part is a bit more...loose.

                                                                                                         ~Nicole

“Adella, this isn’t right.”

Adella groaned in annoyance at Longshot’s plea. He’d been arguing with her for over an hour, and neither party had made much headway. Longshot still held that they should stay. Adella asserted that they needed to leave.

“You have made a pledge to help these men. And if you do not think of them, think of you. Cynric’s rebellion ravaged your homeland, destroyed entire cities, killed your family. Do you wish for no revenge? Do you not wish to fight him?”

“Longshot, this is not about Cynric, never has it ever truly been about Cynric. Besides, what do you know about my country’s rebellion? You are Neskana born! You’ve never even been to Kantonava! The most you know about my homeland is what Wilhelm and I have told you.”

With an irritated huff, Longshot plowed on, stating, “The fact that I know little of your country does not make the fact any less true. You have a duty to your family, to your ancestors, to avenge their deaths.”

Adella sighed deeply. “Longshot, you are forgetting that Neskana is the only country whose religion emphasizes the ancestors. To me, my ancestors are dead bodies in the ground, nothing more. Regardless, what will they do if I fail to ‘avenge them’, as you say? Come to life and attack me.” Adella snorted in derision. “Hardly. And if they did, I am much too far away from them for them to accomplish anything. If they manage to escape their graves, their rotting bodies will collapse after ten feet, if they even accomplish that!”

Longshot clenched his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to stave off the annoyance that was creeping up on him. He knew what Adella was doing. She was trying to avoid the conversation at hand by staring an argument with him, and it was working.

Clearing his mind of mind of any thoughts of ancestors or walking corpses, Longshot took a deep breath, and, eyes still shut, said, “You’ve made it your duty to help these men. You’ve promised them your allegiance. You cannot leave them because of a petty fight between you and Lord Alexander.”

“Of course I can,” Adella retorted. “What do you think I’m doing? And the fight was not petty!”

“Yes, it was,” Longshot replied. He ran a slightly shaky hand through his hair. “How many times has someone called you a spy? Or called you incompetent, or outright ignored you? What makes this so different?”

Adella rose from her perch on her bed and stood before Longshot, arms crossed. “You really want to know what makes this so different?”

“Yes!” Longshot exclaimed.

“This time, they insulted you. All of you.”

“What?” Longshot asked, confused.

“He called you all traitors. He called you spies.” Adella’s expression grew soft. “I can accept people not accepting me because I’m different from them. But your talent, and Micael’s and Pierre’s and Wilhelm’s, and even Doc’s and Acton’s, has always been so obvious. No one ever thought to question you, because to them, you six have been everything they’ve come to expect of true warriors. I’ve never had to deal with anyone doubting the six of you, because no one ever saw anything to doubt.” A small smile bloomed on Adella’s lips, and her crossed arms wrapped around her torso, as if she were having trouble holding herself together. “And the six of you, you are my family. You’re truly all I’ve ever had for a family. Doc is like a father to me in ways my true father never was. And Acton’s like my baby brother. And, true, Micael and Pierre are more like family friends than anything else, what with the way they court me, but they are still two of my best friends.” Adella stopped to laugh a bit, but tears shined in her eyes. “And you and Wilhelm…the two of you are like my older brothers in so many ways. You two are both my twin, and at the same time, you are the furthest thing from me, and…”