☯ + that moment Argath was told to shoot Tetria.
(( I finally got off my butt to write this. Under the cut in case anyone could be upset by: strong and foul language, violence, and blood ))
That man is a heightened fool if he thinks he can bargain a commoner for his own befouled blood with Lord Zalbaag, Argath thought with a slight upward curl of his lip. Tighter his gloved fingers curled around the shaft of the crossbow, christened ‘the knight killer’ by the outfitter who had granted it to Argath on the grant of House Beoulve.
This would be over quickly before long. At least, it seemed it would had the frantic figures of Ramza, Delita, and their stalwart companions not come trudging through the violent blizzard.
“Lord Brother!” Ramza cried, face blotched from the cold. “Argath!” The scorned nobleman looked at his better, that slender face filled with worry and perhaps fear. And he sneered at him in kindly.
Delita however, seemed more focused on the bridge above him than the hostage negotiation– or rather, his sister, who was being held captive on the creaking and frozen splinters. “Tietra!” Heiral’s breath fogged out in a desperate puff as he stopped beside Ramza and looked up.
“Delita!” She cried back, shivering pathetically in the loose summer dress that was not meant for the horrible winter weather here at the fort. She had to be more than was comfortably numb by now.
Finally Gragoroth drew back, holding Tietra tightly as if she was his grandmother’s heirloom. “Withdraw at once!” He roared, like the animal Argath had known him to be. Just like the rest of his mates, all blooded and broken. “I’ll not warn you again!”
Argath scoffed to himself. About this wretch, about how Ramza and Delita were going to try and play hero, about the absurdity of all of this. Just slit her throat and let us be done with you, cur.
Zalbaag made a sound that Argath managed to hear above all the din of the winds that sounded less than pleased. “This changes nothing, Argath.” He said in a low voice before it suddenly grew louder. “Loose your attack!”
The slight smirk Argath had grew into a smile that spoke to a satisfaction perhaps even beyond schadenfreude, as he lifted the knight killer crossbow and fired his first bolt. It punctured Tietra in her lung and rib cavities and she fell over with nary a gasp.
“Gods have mercy…” Gragoroth seemed to voice everyone’s surprise save Argath and Zalbaag’s his eyes widening in surprise as his only bargaining chip crumpled onto the bridge and began to die of poison and a nasty wound in of itself.
Delita let out a horrible scream, more terrifying and raw than any beast Argath had heard before. But the fear Argath was feeling was overpowered by deep satisfaction.
Because even if Delita choked every bit of life out of him, Argath had taken one of the very last things Delita held dear in this world.
