A One-Sided Disgust

 He saw the news in the boy’s dreams. Heard it from the words of one of his spies.

That gourd-headed ingrate had been driven away once and for all. Now Mezmerane was free to do as he wished in the town. He was absolutely giddy!

He strolled through the empty streets of Olai at night, practically skipping as he made his way to the Kensida residence. What better way of getting his revenge by setting his most hated rival’s family up for the same fall they set up for him? Ooooh how he would relish the screams of the man of the house.

He quietly, carefully entered the house. The lock meant nothing to him; He could make any key he wanted. The cleric hovered above the floor as he moved through the sizable house. He felt a weight upon him as vague memories came rushing back to him. But they would be done with soon. As he made his way up the stairs and into the hall, he heard snoring in one of the rooms closest to him. His sneer grew ever wider as he moved towards the door. He placed an almost trembling claw on the door handle.

And someone opened the door. A man who couldn’t be any younger than 40, hair black as night with a bit of grey, and a scar across his face. He wore the armor of the town guard’s captain. He stared at Mezmerane, eyes half-lidded. He made a brief snoring noise.

“Ah. Hello th-” Mezmerane could barely finish his sentence before he was sent tumbling down the stairs and out the door by a particularly spirited punch to the face. Once he came to a stop, he looked up at the quickly approaching man, and flashed him a malicious grin, minus a tooth as he drew his dagger and locked blades with him.

“You must be the man of the house! Is the misses home?”

“She’s safe. Far away from here. From you.” he snarled as he bashed Mezmerane in the chest with his shield. “And you shan’t find her nor my daughter. Not here, or anywhere else.”

“I’m sure your ancestor said much the same thing when he was alive! Before I gouged his eyes out, tore off his head and left him a wandering reminder of my power.” The cleric stood his ground as the knight swung his blade. However, it… just, seemed to go through him. Mezmerane laughed as he grabbed the man by the torso and tossed him to one side. “And if you don’t play nice, I’ll make sure to do something even worse to you, so your family gets a nice long glimpse of who they abandoned.”

The captain slammed a fist to the ground, causing a pillar of rock to knock Mezmerane skyward as he stood back up. “You mean the man who patroled the streets, warding you off? You think me a fool not to know terror when I see it. Especially given your history with him.”

The cleric stopped mid-air, and dove at the knight, a flurry of blades as the captain kept his shield up to block them. “THE KENSIDAS HAVE SOME BITE LEFT IN THEM, I SEE!”

But, the mortal body can only move so fast. A brief cut made its way through his defenses, and sent him reeling backwards. Not as dramatically as Mezmerane, but the wound had hit fairly deep.

“Nnrgh… Enough bite to get you riled up, it see-Ghlk-!”

Mezmerane didn’t let him finish. He grabbed him by the throat, and tossed him back into the house. The two waged a heated battle throughout the estate, making a mess of things to the cleric’s delight. The captain got a few sizable hits in, but he was wearing down. Mezmerane, even missing an eye and a chunk out of his torso, still kept at it, ending with a stiff kick to the head.

He picked the man up by the hair as he put his dagger to his neck. Not cutting into it. Just keeping it leveled.

“Mnnhmhmeheheheehe… I forgot how nice it was to smack around a mortal man. Any last words you want to pass along to your father?”
“R-nnng… ‘ncle.”

“Nothing, hm? So s-… what? Are you begging for mercy?”

That got Mezmerane a bit of bloodied spit in the face. “Korinja. Was my uncle, you retch.”

Mezmerane stopped for a moment. Dead still. You would easily confuse him for a statue were it not for the building sense of dread vocalizing in the back of his throat. He dropped the man to the ground with a thud as he stepped backwards. That was about enough to leave him unable to move.

“N-… no. That’s not. We n-… He. Hehehe, they…”

Mezmerane stood over the crumpled form of the captain. Cackling. Choking. Crying. All in a sequence he couldn’t control.

If this man was Korinja’s nephew. That would mean he was Lunella’s son.

He. Grabbed the man again. Still laughing, sobbing uncontrollably. But it was a shockingly. Distressingly ginger grip. Almost cradling him as he carried him outside. He laid him down in in view of the stars and moonlight above.  And as he collapsed there right beside him, those words, laced with contempt and an absence of hope, echoed in the captain’s mind.

“It’s… no wonder where Korinja got his cutthroat nature. That they’d take the blood from my veins and from my legacy, and call it their own.

And here I am! Killing my wife’s son, with my bare hands, like the exact fucking monster they kept painting my family is. Killing my-… HehahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…” He gets up. Drapes something over the captain, and begins to take his leave. “no, you don’t deserve to hear that. You’re too good for it. For all this.”

In the time he spent on the ground, wide awake, clutching his wounds, Captain Jodel only shivered as he relived the moments he had first heard of his origins. Of the way both families had committed such atrocities, even if only one set of sins was phrased as such. He stumbled back into the house, tossed the black cloak he’d been given in the fireplace, hobbled up the stairs, and into bed.

He would report this mission tomorrow as a success.