He has valuable intel,” Jin sighs. “Refrain from injuring him further please. If you can’t, then go somewhere else. Our objective is to find out more about Angela. After we’re done, you can do whatever you please to him, but not a moment before.” Zeke nods sharply, turns around and leaves.
He gets it. Jin was correct in that he needed to stop killing people that pissed him off, but when that fucking bastard had made those… comments about Angela, how she would have looked so much better with Gormotti ears to match her pretty figure…
He’d snapped. All he could see was Nia, wide-eyed and frightened, muzzle over her mouth and rope around her wrists, huddled in a corner and crying. When he’d come to his senses, the subject had been bleeding, arm broken. Architect above, did Zeke wish he’d killed him outright.
Sand nips at his face when he steps outside, the wind foretelling quite the sandstorm in their path. Silently, he stands still, allows the sharp winds to snap at him, the pain of the punishing air of Mor Ardain doing more to settle his outraged thoughts than just standing about like some kind of useless lout.
Healer Angela had not had an easy life, from their confession.
Had Pandy been here, maybe, she could have calmed his temper with her implacable calm, her soothing presence.
Torna’s not a good place, Zeke, she’d said, Dromarch by her side and cautiously agreeing with her. Her heart, her bond with him had been in pain, telling him no. But she’d done it anyways, unable to agree to joining Torna.
He hates it, hates her, just a little for leaving him. Hadn’t they always been a team, he and Pandy? They shared a Core Crystal, adored one another in every way. He had relied upon her during his banishment, her calm, her friendship to soothe his broken pride and his lost spirit.
And then she’d bloody up and left him. Torna had offered them both what they’d wanted, and what they needed, after the betrayal of the Praetor. A purpose. A home.
His fist hits the wall, stinging pain not enough to soothe the stabbing pain along his ether bond. Pandy had left him, and he hated her for it.
And like a fucking fool, he still loved her too. Pressing his forehead to the rough metal of the wall he had just punched, Zeke thinks back to the confession of the vile man who had unwittingly roused his darkest thoughts.
Dear Akhos,
Angela is a damaged woman. Not in the sense that she is irreparable, but in that her life has been less than ideal. For her to take healing up as a profession either bodes ill or well, of which I am unsure. Given her history, had one removed me from my Driver’s life, I believe Angela and Lora would have been forced into the same profession, most assuredly not by any choice of their own. The man who claimed her as his daughter was a minor nobleman who had been stripped of his titles and land, banished due to his actions towards his daughter.
The Blade is as of yet still unknown to us. When pressed, the vile swine of which claimed to be Angela’s father had reportedly not recognized the Blade of which we spoke. He claimed that such a Blade would have fetched him a better price than his daughter in the noble courts of Mor Ardain. As such, it is not unlikely that he would have killed her for her Blade’s Core Crystal had it been in her possession while she remained in his care.
Once I was sure all information had been extracted, I lopped his head off his shoulders myself. So that, at least, is one less problem of which you need to concern yourself with.
Stay safe. If anything, I have learned that Angela’s history is gravely dangerous. Keep an eye out for men wearing a wolf pauldron - they may attempt to seize your healer companion. Stay safe.
