Post #2767231 in Assassin's Pledge: Awakening, a roleplay on RPG

Linde followed Aetrius and Lonan to the Tavern across the way and took a seat as Aetrius paid for their drinks. Being a doctor, Linde did not drink. But she did partake of a cup of iced tea which she brought with her to the table as she sat across from Aetrius with Lonan on her right.

There was a rather loud commotion behind Aetrius from another group of men. Definitely drunk from the sound of things, but something Linde did not expect was for Aetrius to respond to them the way she did. She stood up, walked over, and started to speak rather aggressively to the man as if he had done some kind of personal harm to her. Linde didn't understand but was on her feet immediately until she heard something about someone Aetrius knew being harmed.

Linde froze in that moment, half-way to closing the gap between herself and Aetrius, and simply gave the man she was interrogating a thousand-yard stare.

For what seemed an eternity Linde did not move, but finally seemed to find her feet again as Lonan was trying to add to the interrogation. She held a hand up to silence Lonan, marching over to Aetrius.

She reached down and cupped Aetrius' cheek in her right hand gently forcing her to look up and placed her forehead to Aetrius'.

"Enough, Aetrius... Enough... Please." She whispered.

She looked Aetrius in the eyes the whole time, her gaze gentle and filled with sympathy.

"This man is not worth the energy you're expending. Please, let go of him. There is a better way to find out about your friend." She cooed softly, her breath brushing against Aetrius' lips.

As Aetrius was looking at the man she was so close to finally killing, she heard another voice that she recognized as Lonan, and growled. He should have just stayed out of this she thought to herself as she could tell he was walking up to the two. She didn't want them getting involved in this, as it could only make things worse and or ruin her chances of finding Kieran.

She didn't break her eyes away from the man as she spoke, "Lolan, stay out of this. For the betterment for you and everyone else, stay out of what you know nothing about!" she barked, she knew she came off too rough, yet again but she was not about to let him slip out of his grasp after all this time. She held the knife closer to his neck and her stare only deepened as her anger and fury rose.

But she heard another voice, and felt someone gently place their hand on her cheek. Her eyes widened and for a brief moment she looked away, breaking her eye contact with the man to see none other than Linde, mere centimeters from her face. She heard her words, but it didn't correlate to her brain right away, as she looked at Linde, for a split second she didn't see Linde, but Kieran. Linde looked so much like her, except the hair color. Aetrius looked her in the eyes, and tears slowly filed her amber eyes as she looked at Linde, reverting back to her last moments she had spent with her sister, "B...but...K-Kieran....he...he hurt you..I-I have to do this. For you....I have to." she said with tears and a whimper in her voice as she looked at the woman before her, and then looked back at the man, her tears still falling as nothing but malice and fury filled her heart. "I have to end his worthless, shitty existence..." her words came out as not simply a whisper but raspy and filled with sadness and hatred.

As the tears streamed from Aetrius' eyes and she uttered those words of an individual named Kieran, Linde was no closer to finding out who this was. But it didn't matter now. Aetrius had looked back to the man with hatred filling her voice as she said she had to end his existence.

Linde wasted no time in reaching further across Aetrius' face with her entire arm to cradle her head against her chest as her other hand came around and rested on her shoulder. Linde turned her head sideways and put her cheek on Aetrius' crown, and cooed softly to her while using her thumb to stroke and toy with the hair and flesh behind Aetrius' ear.

"Shhhhhhh... Aetrius. This man clearly has no fight to offer you, and his life is not worth taking." She whispered.

She turned and kissed the top of Aetrius' head before resting her cheek against her once more.

"Just relax, Aetrius, and I'll show you a better way to deal with men like him." She cooed.

As she kept her death stare locked with the man yet again, who was only able to look at Linde for further help, Aetrius smirked and scoffed. "You're nothing but a worthless piece of sinew that needs to be exterminated..." she growled, the man only coward more at her pure fury and urge to kill the poor bastard. He was the man that had done the crime, that she knew for certain. His voice, his face, body type, even his smell was the same. She knew it was him. After all this time, she found him and was finally able to kill him. As she was about to simply glide her blade across his throat, ending his life, she felt herself being touched yet again.

As her head was gently cradled into someone's chest, Aetrius reluctantly dropped the blade, it clattering to the floor with a metal and wooden sound. Her grip on the man loosened, until she completely let go of his shirt and and her hand fell by her side limply. The man managed to scramble away, and tried to make his getaway, but even his friends or at least drink mates grabbed him and held him for Aetrius, pinning him against the table, "Ye are even a worst bastard than we thought, Micah." the taller man looked at Linde and Aetrius, but more so Aetrius who was only being calmed by Linde, "Aye, Miss? What do we do with him? You get to be the one that does it yourself though. He hurt ya, and will receive his punishment." he said and held the man by his arms, practically smashing him back into the table, not letting him going anywhere anytime soon.

The method seemed to work, as Aetrius went nearly limp in her arms and melted into her embrace. The man tried to flee, but was stopped by his own mates who held him still. Linde, however, wasn't done with Aetrius. She continued cradling Aetrius' head to her chest and stroked/toyed with the hair and flesh behind her ear as she leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"Thank you, Aetrius. I'm proud of you."

Her hand came over and cupped around her cheek, helping guide Aetrius into a fully standing position as Linde smiled up at her and used her thumbs to wipe her tears.

"Now... Let me know you another way to deal with men like this."

Linde turned towards the man who was being held by his friends, and walked slowly up to him with a very, almost unnaturally calm smile on her face as she gazed at him with almost bedroom-like eyes.

She leaned in close to the man and kissed his nose.

"Would you gentlemen please lay him down on the table for me on his side, so I can see his back?"

Aetrius shook in Linde's embrace, not just from sadness as well as anger. She was so close, so close to finding where Kieran was, if she was still even alive and where she was. She calmed yet again as she heard Linde's voice, and slowly nodded, not a single word came from her mouth, just a simple nod. She looked up as her head was gently lifted, and sniffled. She tried to give Linde a smile, but it was barely a twitch in her mouth. She looked on as Linde had asked the men to turn him onto his stomach on the table, but before they did, Aetrius walked over to the man and looked him in the eyes, "I will not forgive you...Ever...But...You earned my mercy...for now..." she said softly and turned to almost walk away, but stopped and turned on her heel and punched the man square in the face, his body going limp for a moment as his knees buckled. Aetrius smiled slightly, and stepped aside, letting LInde have her way with whatever she had planned. Taking a temporary seat behind LInde she sat.

The two men looked at Linde as she spoke, and nodded. Holding him still after he recovered from being suddenly punched by Aetrius. They flipped him over, forcing him onto his stomach being pressed against the wooden table, his right arm being forcefully pressed into his back keeping him from going anywhere.

Micah looked from the corner of his eyes as Linde enclosed the distance, his eyes widened. "H-he-hey, Missy. Y-you gotta help me. Th-that love of your's is psycho." he stammered, trying to wiggle away, but to no avail as the other men kept him pinned down. Aetrius glared up at the man who had commented on Aetrius and Linde being a presumed couple, she scoffed at his comment, and spoke under her breath, "Pft, please...Not that fortunate...." she murmured, but after she said it she felt her face go a bright pink and looked away, hoping as to no one hearing her retort to his comment.

Linde stood in front of Micah's face and bent her knees until she was in a squat position, her knees held together in front of her body and her arms resting on the edge of the table. And in her eyes was a calmness accompanied by emptiness. No emotion whatsoever. Her gaze was dead, her eyes glossed over. A thousand-yard stare like none Micah had ever seen before.

Linde was silent, just staring at him for a long, long time as he stared back and tried to plead for his life.

Finally, Linde blinked and her eyes returned to normal as she smiled and stood up, placing a hand gently against his face.

"Micah... I'm a doctor. I am sworn to do no harm to those under my care. But you," her fingers slowly started curving until her nails pressed against the flesh of his cheek. "You are not my patient."

Her fingernails dug into flesh, blood seeping out around them as Micah cried in pain. Linde retracted her nails slowly, letting a few drops of blood drip from them to the side of his face.

"My mother was a doctor and taught me everything she knew. She was a beautiful, kind hearted woman. She raised me with love and tenderness. A mother's love. True and Pure. But my father..."

Her hand glided across his bloodied face to his neck as she stepped around slightly for better position. Her fingers slid out to different positions just beside his spine around the position of the 7th and 8th vertebrae in his neck and shoulders.

"He was a general in the Cre' Itian military until two years ago when he retired. And he taught me... Other things to enhance what I had learned from mother dearest. And this," she applied a small amount of pressure to each fingertip in turn, causing various parts of his body to twitch in response. "... This is what I learned."

She pressed down hard with all ten fingers on each point, and suddenly Micah's body began to spasm and tremble uncontrollably as Linde's face darkened. She was still calm, but there was another emotion now present in her face. Or, rather... A lack of emotion. Apathy.

Despite the pain Micah was in, Linde showed no signs of caring or acknowledgement of it. Nothing at all. It was as if she was staring into a chasm of darkness, and it was staring back at the world through her. She released her pressure, and Micah's body slowly calmed as his breathing began to become deeper, harsher, and more erratic.

"... Kieran." She said coldly.

She pressed her fingers down, and his body spasmed and trembled again. But this time muc more violently. Her pressure had increased. But a moment later, she let go. And as his body calmed, she knelt down, fingers still in place, looking him in the eye with that cold, apathetic glare.

"... Kieran." She repeated.

Aetrius watched on silently as Linde continued to interrogate the man, if that's what one would call it. It was pure torture, and Aetrius was relishing in his pain, maybe a little too much. But maybe it was deserving. Who knows, but all she knew is that she wanted to know where Kieran was, and then to put an end to his life, herself. She did twitch and wince when Linde did pop her pressure in between the spinal plates, something Aetrius absolutely hated. But she looked on regardless at the sight, and it also impressed Aetrius how such a kind and gentle soul could be so cruel....but also...made her feel something other than intrigue? She wasn't sure, but perhaps for another time.

Micah on the other hand was in complete agony, and wished for it to end at any moment. But it seemed like an eternity for it to ever end. Perhaps it wouldn't and this would be his fate forever. But as it continued, he eventually grew too weak and between gasps for air and pants, he softy spoke, "Veilbrand...She...she's in Veilbrand..." he said through panted breaths.

At the notion of that, Aetrius jumped to her feet and walked to him, forcing her way past Linde and smashed the man's face into the table, and grabbed him by the back of the hair, "What part of Veilbrand? Where is Kieran?" she demanded, her voice was filled with anger and fury as she was so very tempted to just smash his head into the table until it was nothing but sinew and chucks of flesh. One of the men looked at Aetrius and calmly said, "The Love Dove...It's a rather highly costly, popular place there...Or so I've heard..." he stuttered, looking away in shame. Aetrius looked back at him, "Thank you...Now...When was the last time you saw her?" she barked at Micah, who only spoke without moving anymore, as blood spilled past his now broken nose, mouth, and teeth, "A...A month ago...Just last month...She....she's a good one, ya know..." he chuckled weakily. With that Aetrius had heard enough, she was about to use her blade to simply slit his throat, but she opted for a new approach, she simply hit him on the back of the head with the knife's hilt, and walked away, knowing all she needed.

But as she walked away, her adrenaline and anger slowly melting, she collapsed to her knees, holding her side as she was able to feel a hot liquid on her side. "Dammit....N-not now...Not now..." she mumbled, she needed to leave, now. To find Kieran. But as her wound was now reopened, she wasn't even able to ride a worse, let alone go on a long journey to Veilbrand.

Linde thanked the men holding Micah and walked over to Aetrius, helping place pressure on her wound as she helped her back to her feet.

"Come, Aetrius. Lay down here on the couch. I will tend to your wound and we will go rest at the inn for the night. You can't travel right now. Not like this." She cooed.

Snippet #2767231

located in Cre' Est, a part of Assassin's Pledge: Awakening, one of the many universes on RPG.

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