He glanced away from the lanterns to the young woman at his side, her voice a complex conflagration of mixed and twisting emotions, none of them good. He watched her as she spoke, the hissing growl of her speech sparking something dangerous in his own breast, a reminder of blood and and the hunt and the ending of small lives.
Big ones too, but fewer, far fewer of those, technically. Or rather, he didn't wield weapons with his own hands so much as he wielded people who had weapons. If he counted those killed at the hands of those he had protected and empowered...
It was not a night for thinking of that. He turned his face back to the lovely lanterns Melita had made, only two and neither souls lost on Caido's cursed land. Ah, but then there was Emmett's lantern, dark and nearly hidden in the night. "You've been succeeding better than most," he said quietly. "May your lanterns stay as few as this next year, too."
He gave her a shallow bow as he swallowed back the bitter bile of remorse and turned away to make find his own tragic trio of lost souls, wondering who among them would be chosen.
And traitorously hoping it would not be him.
Big ones too, but fewer, far fewer of those, technically. Or rather, he didn't wield weapons with his own hands so much as he wielded people who had weapons. If he counted those killed at the hands of those he had protected and empowered...
It was not a night for thinking of that. He turned his face back to the lovely lanterns Melita had made, only two and neither souls lost on Caido's cursed land. Ah, but then there was Emmett's lantern, dark and nearly hidden in the night. "You've been succeeding better than most," he said quietly. "May your lanterns stay as few as this next year, too."
He gave her a shallow bow as he swallowed back the bitter bile of remorse and turned away to make find his own tragic trio of lost souls, wondering who among them would be chosen.
And traitorously hoping it would not be him.
