Chapter 16
You should have seen the signs!
Why didn't you?! They were right there!
Why don't you ever see the fucking signs?!
YOU ARE A FOOL!
- SHUT UP! – screamed Lyndon, his nerves snapping from the combined barrage of the horrible heist, Quiet's continuous wailing and his inner conscience berating him without pause.
He came to a sudden halt, surrounded by thick fog, stumbling over a root that slightly stuck out of the ground. He quickly set the crying Quiet down before collapsing onto the ground himself, fingernails sinking into the skin on his head. Lyndon stared before himself, heart racing like it wanted to burst free from his chest, feeling like he was suffocating despite his respiratory tracts working fine.
They sat there in the foggy forest, one wailing, the other heaving, both consumed by terror.
Minutes passed, maybe even half an hour. Quiet finally settled down, sniffling, small hands wiping away the tears as he worryingly looked at Lyndon.
- Leendonn? – he called out uncertainly, tears still shimmering in his eyes. – Leendonn, you alright?
- No—no, damnit, I'm not! – Lyndon stammered, gulping down air. – What the hell was that back there?!
Quiet didn't answer, he sat before his caretaker in a hunched, miserable position, casting his gaze to the ground. Minutes later, Lyndon managed to regain some self-control, and he ran his fingers across his hair in agitation.
It was happening again, he thought with dread. First Reah. Then Johanna and the others. Now Quiet. Lyndon was losing everyone to darkness! Was he cursed?! Was this his destiny, to somehow spur everyone around him into a murderous rampage?!
He could feel his nails sinking into his head again. He was terrified, but this terror was slowly turning into anger.
No… No, gods damnit all to Hell and back, he will not let this one happen! He was sick and tired of this! He was not cursed, that was bullshit! He will not let this one get out of hand.
Releasing his own head, Lyndon took a deep shaky breath.
- Quiet. Look at me – he said firmly.
The angel didn't comply.
- Quiet. Look at me, this is very important!
Finally, the red eyes turned sheepishly at him.
- What you did back there was wrong. So very wrong! – Lyndon scowled at him. – That is what bad people and monster do. That is what demons do! Do you understand?!
- But I just wanted to he—ellp – Quiet whined, bursting out in tears again. – They wanted to hurt you!
Lyndon gently scooped him up from the ground and sat him on his lap.
- Quiet, I love you, I really do, but what you did back there was horrible – he looked into his eyes. – Very bad. We are better than this. You are better than this.
Quiet sniffled, allowing his caretaker to wipe off his tears.
- Life is a good thing, it is a beautiful thing. It isn't something we should be playing with. We only kill those who try to kill us, when we have to defend ourselves, do you understand? Those people back there wouldn't have found me, and wouldn't have hurt me. We could have snuck in and out without them seeing us. Nobody would have gotten hurt.
Quiet shook his head, casting his gaze at his hands. Lyndon sucked in his breath sharply.
- Quiet… answer me this. How would you feel if someone suddenly killed me? If I promised you that we would see each other in the evening, but then never come back because I was killed by somebody. How would you feel?
-… B-badd.
- Exactly. Some of those men you've killed… they had someone at home waiting for them, just like you would be waiting for me. Wives. Children. Sons. You do remember what a "son" is, right?
- Y—yes…
- They all will wait futilely for their beloved to come home, because you killed them. That is why we must avoid killing as much as possible. Demons and monsters, yes they must be eliminated because they are evil and only want to destroy and hurt others. But people, humans, often have families, friends to return to. We cannot ruin those lives, unless we are forced into it. Unless we are attacked without reason or nearly killed by them. In self-defense it is acceptable, but never at other times, do you understand?
- Ye-he-heess – Quiet cried, snuggling into his hug. – I'm so so—orryyy.
Lyndon sighed deeply. He never would have guessed that he would need to explain morals to an angel. Aren't they supposed to be the good guys? Were they not born with a basic set of ethics?
"… and I care not that he seeks to destroy you and your kind."
Lyndon grimaced at the memory. Of course… how could he have forgotten? Imperius, Archangel of Valor, the Aspect that was supposed to be all about protecting the weak and those in need. He sure as shit didn't care about how many millions of humans were slaughtered by his "poor sick" brother, Malthael, but the second those damned Death Maidens made a scratch on his perfect posh shiny Heavens, he was immediately ready to send Johanna to do the dirty work.
So it was true then. Angels did not have built-in moral codes, or at least they had a code that was vastly different than the one on Sanctuary. Lyndon needed to take that into account. He would teach Quiet to be a good person, even if he himself fails at that miserably. He had clearly overlooked this problem, but now he would make sure it was solved.
- Alright… alright… We will make it work – he rocked the crying angel in his arms. – I will teach you everything you need to know, okay?
- I am baddd…
- No, no you are not bad. You have made a big mistake, yes, but that doesn't make you bad. I will teach you, and you will know how not to kill and cause grief, and you can be good. Promise me you will pay attention?
- Yes, I pro—omissss – Quiet sniffled.
- That's my little firefly – Lyndon smiled at him, kissing his head. – Come on now, we should travel further.
- Tired – Quiet mumbled.
Lyndon paused for a moment. True, he was exhausted as well.
- Guess a small nap couldn't hurt. Help me make camp and we will sleep, alright?
oooOOOooo
- HA-HEE!
This strange gleeful cry jolted them out of their light sleep, with Lyndon reflexively grabbing the dagger in his belt as he sat up with a start.
A Treasure Goblin stood before them, barely a few meters away, staring right at them and grinning widely. At first, the scoundrel was taken aback by its friendly behavior, but soon he noticed the ivory-white nose-horn and the white spot on the head.
Oh… it was the very Goblin he freed from Edlin's home back in Kingsport.
- What are you doing here? – he asked, still blinking the dreams out of his eyes.
He did not expect to see the little creep ever again, to be honest. Quiet uncertainly eyed the little demon before them.
- Haaaeee! – the Goblin pointed at the scoundrel with great conviction, then began rummaging in his sack of a once again incredible size.
Lyndon couldn't help but eye the creature warily as it threw gems and coins everywhere. The Goblin resurfaced with a giant longsword that had some kind of magical aura around it and he happily dragged it to the stunned scoundrel, shoving the weapon into his hands. Lyndon stared down at his gift uncertainly, his fingers automatically, if clumsily, curling around the long handle.
The Treasure Goblin frowned slightly at it, then swiftly yanked it out of his hold and threw it back into the sack. Another short rummaging later, he came back with a smaller, one-handed magical sword. Lyndon took it again, but he could barely register its weight before it got taken away again. The Goblin grumbled under his nose, sounding troubled and dissatisfied.
What was it doing, honestly?
The demon gave him a dagger with an ebony-black blade and wooden handle dotted with dark gems. Lyndon held it with expertise, feeling the hidden magic in it. It actually fitted into his palm well, strangely. The Goblin noticed too because he finally nodded satisfied, and left the weapon with Lyndon.
He pulled out a mace next.
- No, I can't use that – the scoundrel shook his head, finally catching on.
Quiet was still completely lost next to them.
The Goblin quickly shoved the weapon back, and pulled out a pike. Lyndon shook his head again. Next came a crossbow of incredible craftsmanship. It looked like it was carved out of completely ivory, it had complex and quite divine decorations and patterns edged into its handle and onto the two ends of its limbs. Its metallic parts were of steel and they glimmered in a royal shine. Its string looked like it was of sheer light, it had its own dim shine. There was an aura around it, one that whispered great power.
Lyndon gawked at it. This was the single most beautiful object he had ever seen in his life.
The Treasure Goblin cocked it, and a bolt of light and electricity materialized on the weapon. He shot it at the sky and it disappeared, seemingly flying straight among the stars.
- Incredible – Lyndon looked after it.
- He-heeeee! – the Goblin agreed and offered it to him.
He took it uncertainly, marveling at its design.
In the meantime, their sudden ally turned to Quiet and the two of them, roughly at the same height, eyed each other uncertainly. The Goblin eyed the angel, clearly pondering. Quiet squinted his red eyes at the demon, no doubt puffing up his cheeks in the darkness. With a soft grunt, the Goblin dived into his sack after a moment, and surfaced with a walking stick.
The cane actually looked pretty nice, it was carved from some kind of dark and no doubt tough wood. Its shaft had an odd appearance to it, like it had saw teeth on its side, and the handle ended in a T, with a transparent gemstone in the middle of it. Quiet uncertainly took it. The cane was at least as tall as he was. He carefully knocked it against the ground and suddenly the cane fell apart.
No… not fell apart. It turned into a notched whip, its shaft splitting up to many sections, all with a sawtooth.
- Heeee? – the Goblin gestured at the cane.
-… Luther wants to know if you want to keep it – Lyndon translated to Quiet, catching on the demon's meaning.
The angel stared at him, and the scoundrel realized he just gave a name to this little creep.
Luther?! Seriously?! Where did it even come fro—
Ohhhh…
Looter. Got it.
Lyndon wanted to hide his face into his hands at this. What was he thinking?
Quiet stared at the whip. He strongly flogged it mid-air, and it jumped back into its cane form. He stared at it briefly then nodded swiftly, accepting the gift.
- Ha-haa! – Luther happily exclaimed.
- Thank you, Luther – Lyndon said. – You helped us out greatly.
The Goblin pointed at him and managed to surprise him yet again.
- Ffffriend! – he said confidently.
- Friend?
- Frrriend!
-… So be it – Lyndon smiled softly. – We are friends.
He instinctively reached out one hand to shake and Luther actually grabbed it, doing just that.
- Ffriendd! – he said one more time, then looked at the still wary Quiet. – Ssmalll ffffriend!
The angel tilted his head a bit. Luther gave Lyndon a strange dime that had the demon's profile engraved on it, then he took one out of his sack and flipped it in the air with his thumb. The scoundrel uncertainly sunk the dime into one of his pockets, not exactly sure what that had meant. Luther nodded to them in farewell, lifted his sack to his shoulder, and disappeared through a portal.
Silence settled back in.
- We have a new friend, Quiet – Lyndon smiled at his charge. – Maybe we are not alone.
-… Sssure?
- Yes. I am – the scoundrel said softly, holding up his new dagger and crossbow, both holding great powers on their own.
oooOOOooo
Once again, they fell back into their usual slow journeying towards Wezztmarrch, but now Leendonn talked about a lot more things. Now whenever he gave Quiet a dagger, he always explained much about where to aim to kill and where to aim to only hurt, and even showed it on his body with his fingers.
That last part really unnerved the already stressed out Quiet. He didn't want to hurt his friend, and his mind kept going back to that horrible question Leendonn had asked.
What if one day he doesn't come back? What if he gets killed?
Quiet really did try to listen to everything his friend was teaching him, and he was making progress, but sometimes he just couldn't hold it together any longer and broke down crying for no reason, curling up into a tight miserable ball that had to be carried around and somehow calmed down by Leendonn.
Quiet felt horrible. He remembered the rush of power vividly back at that wet place: the huumans who died by his hands gave him an incredible sensation. He felt like he could take on the world and win. It felt so good, he just wanted to keep going. Leendonn's slap knocked him out of this madness. Back then that power felt amazing, so much better than the happy buzz he always got in crowded places, but now it felt bitter, repulsive even.
He was bad, just as bad as demons and it really hurt and even scared him. He did not want to be like them! He wanted to be good! Leendonn promised him he would teach Quiet how to be good, so the little angel tried to pay as much attention as he could. Leendonn told him about huumans whose job was to guard something or somebody, and would need to attack during a threat. He said that those kind of people should never be killed or even attacked, unless there is no other option truly. That is why sneaking and staying silent was important. If you could trick them, bypass them somehow, then nobody had to get hurt.
Quiet also saw that Leendonn did not attack the little ugly demon with the sack that night, because it didn't attack them. They even received gifts from it, which was really surprising. The cane Quiet got was too big for him and it turned into that weird toothy rope-thing he couldn't do anything with. Leendonn kept it in the backpack and instead he used his old dagger to teach the angel.
- Sometimes, even if you are attacked, you can still not hurt anybody – Leendonn told him one day. – There are a few ways to do it. One: you can scare them away. It doesn't always work, but it is never a bad idea to try it out.
Quiet thought for a moment, then took a deep breath, and let out an ear-splittingly loud sound that was a strange mixture of honking and thunder. It echoed for long on the fields. Leendonn looked surprised. Quiet guessed humans couldn't be this loud, then.
- Why, yes, that can work too – his friend finally said. – It can also work to look bigger or tougher than you are. Maybe threaten them without actually hurting them. The other way is to quickly knock them out by strongly hitting certain spots on the neck – he pointed there. – You are too small for that yet, but one day you will be big and strong enough to do that.
- Punching hurts – Quiet pointed out.
- Yes, it does, but they won't feel it for long, because they will faint – Leendonn nodded as they walked along the dirt road. – And once they wake up, they might be sore, but they will be alive and well in a few hours, maybe days.
As time went by, Quiet slowly shook off the paralyzing misery, although something always lingered in him. He was determined, however, that he would learn to be good from Leendonn.
He would not be bad as demons. Never!
Never again.
Quiet blinked in surprise. Strange. Where did that come from?
He shrugged it off, focusing back on Leendonn.
oooOOOooo
Lyndon was eternally grateful for the fact that Quiet was clearly listening. Thank the gods, they might salvage this yet!
Honestly, he was expecting the little angel to stubbornly refuse the teachings, but whatever blind madness had gotten over him back at the estate, it clearly shocked him enough to want to avoid it in the future. It would probably not go seamless the next time they get into an unavoidable conflict, but at least Lyndon now knew he had to keep Quiet close to himself. That way, he could make sure the child would not get carried away.
We can make this work, he assured himself. I just need to stop whining and actually do something against it. It's going to be fine on the long run.
He knew he had that bad habit of overindulging in self-pity at times, instead of getting up from his ass and work for things to be better. Unfortunately, he could very rarely catch and call out on himself for whining, and only looking back did he realize them. At least now that was not the case.
In all honesty, Lyndon couldn't really blame Quiet for his horrifying brutal reaction back in the estate. Recalling the start of their shared journey, almost everyone they had met had tried to attack and/or kill them at some point, or otherwise screw them over. From being forced to run from an old friend, to random bandits, a turn-coat captain, those stupid ceramic figurines, the sea battle and finally to the entire population of Kingsport as well as the Lord of Wrath himself. Those days had really been rough on both of them (Lyndon sometimes still couldn't really believe they had made it through), no wonder Quiet had learnt to be aggressive at the sight of the slightest trouble. Children were like sponges, afterall.
After this sudden plunge in mood and morale, this new crossbow was god-sent. Lyndon couldn't believe how much he had actually missed holding these weapons, and such a perfect and remarkable specimen such as this at that. The handle seamlessly fit into his hands, it was deadly accurate, and its reload time was almost nothing: the bolts of light (maybe?) appeared in it nigh-instantly after firing. It nearly brought tears of joy to his eyes. Lyndon also had a sneaking suspicion that Luther had stolen this fine weapon from the High Heavens itself. Truly, there was no corner of Creation where these little creeps couldn't get into.
Lyndon could respect that.
But regardless whether or not this crossbow was of angelic craftsmanship, Lyndon loved it from the first practice shot and knew that Fate would need to work damn hard to separate them this time.
The black-bladed dagger too felt amazing in his hand. It was simple, fast, elegant, and deadly as all hell. It was so sharp it could the hair off of his arm with ease. It even had a barely noticeable gleam, and at night it was almost invisible even for Lyndon, which meant it was made for concealed stabs. He had yet to figure out what the hidden magic in it was, but it was bound to be something nasty.
Bramwell quickly came and went. The city had been hit hard during the Reaper attack, and unlike Westmarch, it had no huge wealth and power to quickly stand up from the disaster. Lyndon saw that it was gathering itself together slowly but surely, yet the scars showed clearly. The lack of city life most notably showed up on Quiet, by any case. Instead of the usual energized and super happy mood the angel usually got in big towns for some reason, Quiet remained pretty much the same throughout their stay in Bramwell. Lyndon wanted to move on quickly, but he did take the time to teach the angel more about humans, most notably the many good things they were actually capable of doing.
- See that lady in that big house? – he once pointed out to Quiet, gesturing at the window of a hospital. – That is called a nurse. Do you know what nurses do?
Quiet blinked at the figure standing over the beds for a few seconds, then asked:
- They make huumans sleep well?
- Almost – Lyndon smiled slightly. – You see, those people in the beds are sick, or injured. Nurses like that lady help them get better as fast as possible. They heal injuries and treat illnesses. They are very kind, and always ready to help.
- Why?
- Because they want to. That is their job, and they chose it to help other people. There are times when someone gets so sick that they cannot be treated. Those times, nurses make sure they don't have to be alone. It is a hard job, and you need to be brave to do it.
- Why?
- It can be very sad and stressful even, especially when they cannot help someone to get better for some reason. They need to be strong during that. And they can catch sicknesses very easily as well, being surrounded by so many ill people. That is why they are so brave, doing what they do, to help others.
Quiet knocked his head to the side, watching the lady attentively.
- Lady good – he concluded then.
- Yes, nurses are very good – Lyndon nodded, guiding him down the street. – There are a lot of other good people all around the world. It is always better to try and be one of them.
- I will be good! – Quiet announced in a determined tone.
- I'm sure you will be, firefly – Lyndon patted his head. – You need to learn a lot, but you will get there. I promise.
Bonus point to those who can tell me where the weapon Quiet was given is from! Hint: it's a video game. One that I would never EVER play in my goddamn life, but it has some pretty dope weapons, not gonna lie. ANYWAY!
Hooowdy all, FanFic hates my ass! Did you guys know?! First there was this weird ass glitch where I couldn't upload anything, and NOOOW I got a super long and very kind Guest review (from the style, it appears to be Miss Gems, FF only logged you out again XD), but guess what?! It does NOT appear among the reviews. It shows up in the counter, but nowhere else! And it sucks ASS, because 1) it's too long and the email does not show it in its full length so I cannot appreciate it in its full glory and 2) since it is a Guest review, there is no link pointing at the review itself, unlike in the case of those written by site members. Bullshit system, but what can you do about it? So I'm a BIT aangrryyyy about that, in case you couldn't tell from this rant. FanFic, get your fucking shit together already, what is wrong with you?! Did your server room got attacked by an army of rabid hamsters, or what?! I will keep bombarding their asses with support emails until I get some kind of response, I swear!
Phew, anyway, enough of that. As for the story, I have a bit of a confession to make. I FEEL like that scene with our friendly neighbor Treasure Goblin isss a bit wonky/cranky/dumbass, and is a bit strangely timed after that big morale breakdown they had. In all honesty, this is due to pacing stuff. That scene had been ready for a long time, and I realized it NEEDED to happen before Westmarch. Soooo, if you cupcakes also feel like it's a bit shit in placement, I cannot blame you, and feel free to tell me so I may pay more goddamn attention next time. Hopefully. Anyway, that's all for today.
Take care and keep being awesome!
P.S.: Miss Gems, if you could send the review as a PM (IF it was really you writing it), I would very much appreciate it, because it is bugging the CRAP out of me, for not being able to properly read and respond to it! Thanks!
