Paladins' Parabellum

Chapter Sixteen: A Moment Of Peace And Self Reflection

I stay with the elven soldiers, breaking down all that I heard between Veronna and Ayla. The squad leader orders his soldiers to publicly set Veronaa's corpse on fire for her treachery against her people. For Ayla, he wants to give her a proper burial in full military honors. I bet it'll be a grand spectacle to witness, but I don't know if I want to attend something that'll depress me.

Meaningless death. Such a sad time I'm living in.

I slither away from soldiers to look for Ulrika in the woods.

"Ulrika! Ulrika, where are you!" I shout, using my hands to increase my voice.

"Kaioson," Ulrika responds, stretching out the O letter in my name. She emerges from behind a thick tree covered in moss. I jog over to her and into her embracing hug. "Are you okay? You've got blood on your hands."

"I'm fine. It's not mine." Out of nowhere, Jesse's gargling-like snore breaks the happy reunion moment with her. "He's still out cold?"

"Such a fragile man. Don't mind him, what happened back there?"

"Ayla succumbed to her wound right before taking Veronna's life."

"What was her reason for all this mess?"

"Him," I answer, pointing to the side of my head. "She was madly in love with Jesse. She made a deal with the devil to ensure they'd live in solitude together while the world burns."

"Unbelievable." She crosses her arms, giving Jesse a stern stare.

"I've seen desire make a person do crazy things, but this is insane."

"Let's," she pauses, lifting Jesse over her shoulder, "go turn this asshole in. I'm pissed right now."

We hike back to our horses then Ulrika uses the ring to open a portal back to the Agency building. Vaeril comes down the steps to handle our horses.

"Take them to the stables," Ulrika says.

"Yes, ma'am," he replies. I follow behind her while looking at the blood on my hands. My mind starts drawing parallels to the little boy's blood from Thaa Alora. I shake my head and blink hard to try to wipe that memory from my mind.

"Haleema," Ulrika shouts.

"Greetings, Ulrika. Who's that behind you?" Haleema says.

"Huh?" I look up to see who she's seeing, but I'm the only one behind Ulrika. I wave a hello. Her eyes bulge, then she comes down to me in a hurry.

"Oh my goodness! Your hands!"

"This isn't mine," I say.

"Who is it?"

"A guardswoman of Thaa Alora named Ayla. She died by betrayal, right before killing the person who did it." Ulrika scrunches up her face while shaking her head left to right. I sigh and look down at my bloody hands. Once again, my mind reminds me of the little boy.

"Hey," Ulrika says in a quiet voice, gently holding me by my forearms. "Are you okay?"

"I need to get this off of me and go relax."

"We have bathhouses here you can be at peace in and showers to wash the blood away. I'll show you where they are after I process Jesse."

"Great," I say with some excitement.

**

Before I can enter the room to the bathhouse, I clean off the blood from my hands. There's an isolated shower room before entering the central area. Just by the volume of voices, there must be lots of people bathing here. When I open the shower door, a naked woman walks by me.