Bloodline

Mending - part 29

The soldiers see them walk into the fort and stare at them, seeing the hoods from the mages as Zircon and Tesath walk towards where Damian is. He sees them walk towards him, and sees the hoods. "You went out against my orders again and tried to prove yourself innocent didnt you...? How else would you have those hoods, probably were to the supposed "mages" you claimed to kill that day." Tesath steps in front of him, "I can explain everything Damian, we only went for a walk through the forest to talk, and were ambushed by those mages, apparently they used some kind of magic to make Zircon think he was fighting them that day, but they ambushed us and tried to take me captive, they were terrible in their attempt." She says, Damian staring at Zircon as he does the same, Tesath standing in between awkwardly. "I'm sure you can explain everything Tess, but that still doesnt excuse Zircon for his actions, in the battle and before it."

Zircon then turns away, holding his dagger and looking at the red gem as he takes his own hood off. "I never follow your orders Damian, I follow the teachings of the wind, and I know that I went against you, not as an assassin for hire, but as a friend, and I am only proving my innocence for my actions from earlier in this week." He drops the hoods, and pulls out the vial, revealing it as he faces him again. "I even know how this was made, and how it works, if you would let me explain the events when we went walking." Damian sees the vial, soldiers near them looking at all this happening. "I even know the king's plan with these, and if we dont end this campaign soon, he'll tear us apart as a one man army." "But you went against me, and are starting to lose my trust in your ability to talk with us about situations like this, this isnt something you can just prove yourself about, we need to talk about all this!"

Zircon puts the vial away, and gets the small box. "And I see this now, I'm paying the price for my actions, and I need help. I need your help Damian, I'm holding myself away from you guys and I realize this isnt the way I should be going, I know this now after talking with Maralyne and Tesath." Damian turns away from him. "You know you needed our help much earlier than this, but then you had to get those powers and you went on a full rampage, I'm not sure if the Zircon I knew before this war is the one in front of me right now." "Believe me, your not the first to say that, but if that's the real Zircon on the inside, I'll change it, I'll mold it into a better me, I'll be the person I want to be, not the assassin I was trained to be!" He opens the box, and takes out the blue zircon, putting it on the bracelet and taking off his mask. "I'll be the friend I wanted to be, and most importantly, I want to be the friend you knew again, the one that helped the people, who risked his life fighting for a small village for no reason, not the assassin the Wind trained me to be." Damian turns when he says this, staring at him for a second before walking away.

"I need to think about this, I'm not sure if I can take your word right now." Zircon watches as he walks away, looking at his face through the dagger and putting it away, Tesath putting a hand on his shoulder. "He just needs time to think right now, but I'm sure hes going to accept you again." He smiles as he hugs Tesath, her blushing a bit. "I could never thank you enough for trusting me again, I'm truly grateful for knowing that you're a friend." She hugs back, stroking his hair. "I know you'll come back and walk in our path, it's as we've always done, you're just going through some problems and need help finding the solutions to them. And I'll be there for you every time."

Some time later, another convoy of supplies from the village comes, much shorter in supplies and materials. "This is as much of everything I could bring from the village nearby, but as far as I can see, it's only enough to last a few weeks at best." Lutol says as he arrives at the fort with others, Zircon included. The soldiers begin taking down the supplies and ordering them with any remaining supplies they had before, Damian looking at all the materials and assigning soldiers to different tasks. Zircon walks towards his newly pitched tent as this happens, looking at the vial again. "One man wants to set the world on fire using these, and he's willing to sacrifice those who were unfortunate to become Valkyries to achieve his goal." He bumps into a soldier, who turns to look at him, and speed walks away after seeing him. "And all these other people are going to see me as a monster for this, too bad theres an even bigger one waiting at that castle." He thinks aloud as he walks to his tent, sitting down and looking through his pack. He grabs a plant from the pack, and a small set of cups, spoons, and a small pot. He proceeds to make a sort of tea when Maralyne walks in. "Damian thinks hes ready to talk now, and I think he's also ready to trust you a bit more again." He looks at her once he takes a sip of the tea, and gets up. "Have some if you'd like, it's a tea made to calm the nerves a bit, but dont take more than three cups, you'll regret it in the morning."

She looks at him strangely as he walks the camp, looking for Damian. As the stars begin to appear in the sky, he finds him overlooking the hill towards the enemy fort. He sneaks up to him, his cloak making him near invisible as Damian turns to the noise he makes in the grass. "Zircon, come out, there is no time for games and we need to talk." He comes out of the grass right next to him, and looks at him, Damian turning to face him. Zircon looks towards the enemy, "Shoot." "This isnt about the enemies nearby, this is about your actions since your fight with that...Opal person or whatever, are you entirely sure you're able to control yourself?" He looks at him, then to the blue gem. "I'm trying to Damian, it feels like theres something more I should be doing now that I have these powers, and after waiting so long only to be attacked by something you couldn't fight back to, it blinded me." He continues talking, but a figure shifts in the grass nearby, staring at them closely.