He felt the crackle of the axe's lightning-edged blade sweep the room in a sudden pressure before he heard Susie's low growl. His stomach plummeted.
"Let him go."
His dad laughed, but even the menacing chill which exceeded even Susie's intimidation factor wasn't enough to quash the rising pressure in his chest. No one had ever stood up for him before. Never.
"Heh. Hehehe. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Dad held him at arm's length, peering down at her like some form of insect, a spider to be quashed into nonexistence. "Let him go?" He rumbled, his arm shaking, whether through fury or a twisted sense of malicious pleasure Lancer could only guess. "You want me to LET. HIM. GO? Then…" He lifted Lancer high in the air, and it took all of his effort not to fall limp. He hated heights, he hated, hated heights. But there was nothing he could cling to, no last ledge to keep him steady, to halt his fall. "How about this? I'll drop him from the cliffs and let him splatter, unless you all KNEEL and learn. Your. Place."
No… no no no NONONO. He didn't want to die, he didn't, he didn't, he wanted to run, far away! The Lightlands! Yes, he could go there with Susie and live there and he'd never have to come here again! But again he couldn't move…
In that same new way he needed Susie, he needed his dad. Oh, the king would lecture him on sentimentality, but he was… he was his dad. He forced himself to separate himself from the king in an effort to never make him aware of the fragile bonds that existed between them but he clung to the man like a limpet. He hated everything about his dad but… he still loved him.
The only thing that had ever come close to that was how he needed Susie.
The purple girl stared defiantly back at black eyes, mad eyes, but dropped her axe and knelt down before him. To save Lancer.
"Now watch, Lancer…" He couldn't. He couldn't.
He was torn.
"See what happens when you befriend Lighteners."
Heartbreak. He heard whitened discs in the shape of arrowtips emerge from nothingness, heard their deadened hum as they turned to point at the clowns.
And suddenly he acted. He couldn't, wouldn't think, just… did. As soon as he was free, he ran.
Everything burned, but not physically. Like… emotionally? He betrayed big dad. But he betrayed Susie, as well. He was a coward. He ran- why did he run? Why didn't he stand and fight? But who would he fight?
He didn't know. So he ran.