Chapter 46
"If I can't see my wife even in the guise of a potion, I will burn this world apart until I get back to her" thought Capricorn when he woke up from the potion that day suddenly feeling an urgency that was different from the one he had before and that no one seemed to question when he emerged from his tent that day. Until that point, he'd simply been waiting on the Adderhead to call on him, but when he woke up from the potion, he wasn't content with that anymore. Capricorn left his tent, immediately barking orders to ready the horses, and pack up camp. Gemini watched him do so and as she did, she knew exactly why he was doing it. He was acting out. He wanted to go now and cause others the pain he was feeling. That was why she didn't question him in that moment, why she would never question him again after that, but merely advise him as was her job. They didn't say anything to each other that morning, but Gemini thought that was for the best. She knew her brother would need time to mourn the loss of the connection that had had to be severed between his wife and him. Mortola was strangely silent that morning as well. She took orders uncharacteristically and when she rode passed her son, she said naught a word. Capricorn barely noticed that though, not until Gemini made her presence known, and rode up besides him.
"What are your plans now, brother? No amount of carnage will take away what you feel" whispered Gemini, boldly looking at him, but he didn't look at her. Not until she looked away. He gave her, but a glance without an answer finding there was no answer because he did not want one. He didn't want to admit that he was acting out in the wake of pain, but he only wanted others to feel it for themselves. As he looked at his sister though, Capricorn knew she already knew that even as he glanced away at the sight of smoke in the far distance.
"I can act out as I wish, Gemini, and a plan I do not need. All I need is to be free of these woods. Of sitting dormant waiting for the Adderhead to call me like a dog. I am no dog, sister, I shouldn't have to remind you" snarled Capricorn looking only briefly at her knowing already the words she was going to say.
"Capricorn…please consider what you are doing. Our liege the Adderhead might not appreciate any chaos you cause without his say" whispered Gemini instantly seeing a rage befitting only him when Capricorn finally looked at her once more. Gemini stayed calm, but when he looked at her that way, she recognized the danger. His words quickly overshadowed hers and Gemini didn't dare interrupt him or move to speak at all.
"I am sending the wrong message, sister. Before I was plucked from this world, I never took orders, not from the Adderhead or anyone else, but I was pure carnage and nothing more. I was always the Adderheads servant, yes, but I served my own cause as well. You keep acting like that has changed, but it has not. I am still my own man, sister, always" exclaimed Capricorn feeling annoyance as their eyes met. He looked at her for a moment before snapping his reins swiftly breaking his eyes away from hers in the same moment. He had never felt this way with her before and seeing it now startled them both more then either cared to say. When he left her sitting atop her horse, Gemini could only look after him, and she didn't know what she could have said to keep him from going. The whole ordeal left her wounded and Gemini couldn't remember it ever being this way before. She knew more then anything this was his way of being angry for the separation he must endure. She didn't blame him for it, but the wound that was festering between them pained her more then she would ever care to admit. She knew though that she wouldn't need to tell him that because as always, he already knew.
He could feel her eyes on him on his back the entire time after that, but Capricorn couldn't look at her now. He told himself that being parted from his love had nothing to do with it even as a resentment lay hidden within the bowels of his heart. As he rode away though his sister's eyes were not the only ones he felt. Through no means of his own doing, Capricorn found himself riding next to Silvertongue, but when he turned, he found the man already looking at him. He was glaring as always as he rode tied to his horse with a guard on all four sides of him. Capricorn couldn't help but look at him instantly thinking of Meggie. Of her eyes, her face, but this man was the last he would have expected that thought to conjure. Capricorn for that reason couldn't stray from the man's gaze. Because despite the crimes of the man in front of him, Capricorn longed for Meggie, and anything that reminded him of her was only something he longed for. Even if it was this man that gave him that feeling. Yet when he looked into the man's eyes, he was also reminded of the things he'd done to hurt the very woman he reminded him of. That very thought hardened something within him.
Meggie deserved better than him as her father. Capricorn would have liked to return to her with his heart still beating in his hand. He wanted to give her the justice that she deserved for what this man had done to her, but now was not the time. One day it would be though and looking at Silvertongue, Capricorn promised that he would see that day, someday. He found he could only take that stare for so long before he had to ride away. As he did, he saw the graying mist of smoke as it lay wafting in the distance. They rode towards that and when they rode into the village, screams began, and Capricorn found himself leaving his horse.
"When we're done here, I want nothing to remain, but corpses" exclaimed Capricorn needing no other words before it began, and screams were the only sound he could hear.
Capricorn was part of the chaos this time. He slaughtered who he pleased and set fire to whatever he would. As he did there was a pounding guilt within him as he kept seeing Meggie in the recesses of his mind. Because he had promised when he left to keep the link between them tied. He had specifically waited to come along to do this until Mortola could find a way to keep that tie, yet now it was all for the naught. They were separated in the worst of ways anyway. Capricorn felt a type of anger over that and he took that anger out on that village.
