“What are you doing here?” Mikel’s staff was slack in his hands as he stared at Thelma. She looked at him with an emotion he had never noticed before, hostility. Why was she here, and with the King of all people?
“The same as you, fighting for a cause.” Thelma took a step closer to him. “I like you Mikel, I really do but I cannot let you disrupt my love’s plan. What else is a queen to so but support her husband?”
Love? Queen? Husband?
Mikel looked at Thelma as if she’d grown three heads. “Get back Thelma, I don’t want to hurt you.”
Thelma gave off a laugh that seemed to mock Mikel, clasping her hands together. “I should be telling you the same thing. I don’t want to kill such a handsome face off but no one stands in the way of my King. You have no one but yourself to blame if you do not do as I say.”
Mikel remained where he was, looking back and forth between Thelma and the King as if he did not know who to not attack first. With a sigh, Thelma dusted off her cloak, regarding Mikel with pity in her eyes. “Very well. I call upon my debt, you must pay what is owed in the name of Erynla, goddess of war.”
“What are you talking about?”
That is what Mikel would have said, had he been in a state to speak. As soon as those words left Thelma’s lips, Mikel’s body fell into a submissive position, forcing him to go on one knee and bow his head deferentially.
The words which he spoke the next second were not of his will.
“I honour the pledge of a debt and the dignity of Erynla. Blessed, what is it you desire?”
At the confused look on his face, Thelma came closer to him, squatting beside him with a giggle. “Poor you, no one must have told you what it means to owe a debt here.”
His lips felt glued together but Mikel forced himself to speak, thoroughly confused at the turn of events. “W-what debt d-do I owe y-you?”
Thelma tapped her chin, humming a tune under her breath. “Let’s see, when you were first brought into this world and ended up at the church without a letter of recognition, I helped you procure one, didn’t I? From that moment, I claimed it as a debt and foolishly, you agreed, not knowing what it entailed. Tsk.”
She stood up, brushing her dress with a chuckle. “And now you must pay what you owe.”
Thelma turned to the King, who was still sitting atop the Khadit and watching their interaction wordlessly.
“What say you my liege? Your will determines his fate.”
The King turned to Mikel, and in that minuscule moment, Mikel caught a glance of a merciless, callous smile. “Kill him.”
Thelma turned to Mikel once again, still overwhelmingly cheerful. “This Blessed calls upon the debt that is owed, and commands the debtor rid himself from the earth.”
Mechanically, Mikel reached into his coat and pulled out the sole dagger he owned, in the event of an emergency. “This Blessed honours our agreement.”
Those were the last words he spoke before he plunged the dagger into his chest, pushing it in till the hilt of the blade met his flesh. Blood, warm and vibrant, coated his hands till he lost sight of his ebony skin and the ground below him bloomed crimson.
Heavily, he fell to the ground, the world around him blurring into nothingness. The last thing he heard was her laughter, just as he had remembered it, high pitched and jaunty.
*
For the first time in a long time, Praise’s life was silent, the way it used to be when she still lived alone. It was disquieting, how engulfing the stillness was, as if there was no one in the world but her.
YOU ARE READING
No Blessed ✓
Fantasy- Completed - For Mikel Ark, being offered a job by the world's biggest gaming company is a dream come true, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will launch his career as a hotshot programmer. But what Mikel hasn't been told is that his employer's...
