"Will you surrender to anger, then? Slay an anointed emissary to avenge a fallen foe?"
With a deep, shuddering breath, Sari paused, her hand inches from her rapier. A massacre would accurately describe what she'd do to Asahi. He'd abandoned his katana, she'd be upon him before he could draw his gun. The adrenaline from her last fight still coursed through her veins, desperate for release.
"You cannot, of course. To do so would burn the bridges we have laboured so hard to build!"
Thoughts of the prisoners flashed through her mind. Zael, Hien, Alphinaud, Yugiri, she hadn't heard from them yet, didn't know if they'd gotten the prisoners on the boats. Her fist clenched, nails threatening to pierce her gloves.
"Ah, but I'm forgetting: they're already ash! This..."
Sari made note to thank Lyse for their sparring session. She was right. Few things felt better than a well connected punch with a deserving nose. Asahi's look of fear as her focus tethered to him, pulling her to him like a bullet, would be etched in her memory for a long while. He tumbled back, gun clattering uselessly away, clutching his face as he stumbled, eyes ablaze in frantic fury.
"How stupid. Your ruse was the only thing holding me back, and you just threw it away," she said, drawing her rapier. "At least your sister knew how to keep some semblance of control. No wonder he chose her," she added, not bothering to prevent the smirk that appeared.
"It should have been mine," Asahi growled, shaking with rage. "The power he bestowed upon her… I should have been the one to govern Doma. I would have repaid his faith! No one alive loves him more than I!"
She couldn't hold it back. Her shoulders shook, she held her side with her free hand until she let it loose, a wild cackling that echoed around the chamber. She met Asahi's gaze, the young man seething, his breath a rapid hissing.
"He became your whole world, didn't he? You worshiped him, would do anything for him, but he never cared for you, did he?" she asked, tilting her head. "I saw that day, when he saved you. He barely acknowledged you, so focused on a sword in the ground. You were an afterthought, just another soldier in the army. He cared not for toadies like you. You bored him."
"Silence..."
"In fact, I think he cared more for me! You know what he said to me before he cut his own throat? "Farewell my first friend, my enemy." He never mentioned you, though," she said, grinning wildly. "I gave him what he so desperately wanted, something you never could."
"Shut up!"
"Zenos is dead, Asahi. I watched it happen. The Zenos you so desperately loved, he's gone. You've been dealing with an imposter wearing his face!"
"Enough!"
With a feral howl, Asahi charged, fists raised to beat her to death. She raised her rapier, grin quickly replaced with grim fury.
Then Asahi gasped, stopped mid-charge, fury giving way to gasping pain. Two blades, one dark as night, the other bright as moonlight, piercing right through in a perfect cross, slowly lifting him into the air.
"Thank you, dear brother… for this precious gift. Vengeance."
