@mtchstck / cont.
Matthias grit his teeth and wiped the spit from his face. She thought he was here to bring her to the stake. Bile rose in his throat at the thought- he had joined the Drüskelle to save people from the Grisha, to stop them from orphaning any other children and killing innocent people- but this was a child. She couldn’t be older than ten, terrified and trembling, the same age his little sisters had been... This was not the enemy he had been trained to fight. This was a little girl- how could no one else see that ? Matthias had never questioned his teachings, he had witnessed first hand the horrors Grisha could wrought but when he thought he would be fighting monsters.
The courts had found her guilty, of course they had, she was undeniably a Grisha- a witch and an abomination. Her very existence was a crime against Djel. Matthias argued, surely she could be rehabilitated, she was so young, she could be taught not to use her powers. She was still so young, not old enough to sin. But Jarl Brum had called him a naive child and shamed him for his weakness. Were his convictions truly so weak? Was really he so easily swayed by the drüsje ? I thought I trained you better than this Matthias. This was supposed to be his Hringkälla, his first mission, when he proved his worthiness to Fjerda and was finally accepted as a full members of the order. But he couldn’t. He wouldn’t put a child to death.
Trassel pressed into his side and growled at the Grisha, ears flat to his scarred head but Matthias shushed him and knelt before her. He produced the key that he had stolen from a sleeping Giert. Guilt bored a hole in his gut like boiling water through ice but he didn’t let himself linger on his hesitations. He unchained the girl’s feet and looked at her intently. “ You are not going to die today. I am getting you out of here. ” He hoped to Djel she spoke Fjerdan and unchained her hands, going against everything he had ever been taught.
