“In all seriousness, I do sincerely apologize. In an act of desperation, I fled, and I shouldn’t have left you to fend for yourself. But you should be proud. You killed that sickening scum of Mavriel! If I were you, I’d go claim that bounty on his head! Those sammies would come in useful.”
“Yeah, maybe for my people when we finally get to repair our home.” After feeling much better, I scooped myself on my feet and staggered along the railing, then looked over my shoulder and noticed that Clave had no items to loot upon his death. Not only that, I gained no EXP for killing him…
“What the?” I turned to Rufian again. “Hey, did you get any EXP for killing this guy?”
“Don’t worry. There is no looting or points sharing for Clave. He has a special that doesn’t allow it.”
“The hell? What a waste of a power slot, seeing as it’s for a one time use.”
“Petty, yes, I know. Which is why I want to search this home of his for his treasures!”
I deadpanned him. “There are no damn treasures for a man who wants to be buried with his material possessions, mage.”
He shrugged lightheartedly. “Doesn’t hurt to try!”
I squinted my eyes, feeling that something was off. Clave wasn’t stupid—why pick such a skill that’d rarely be used?
Whatever. I was overthinking it. Besides, all of this worrying was making my gaping wound hurt more. While I was grateful to be alive, the excruciating pain was taking a lot out of me, and it was taking all I had to keep it together. “If you want to search this place for something that isn’t there, by all means. You have five minutes while I collect myself here.”
“It’ll only take three,” he said, before I noticed something moving to my left.
From the corner of my eyes, I saw a pile of shattered pews move, and emerging from the debris was Clover.
She tossed planks of wood off of her piece by piece, Rufian eyeing her like he’d forgotten that she was here. To be fair, I did, too, the younger of the twins missing out on most of the action. Clover swatted away some dust before she finally acknowledged Rufian standing in the center of the nave across from her, the both of them staring at each other lost. And then a creepy smile went on Rufian’s face for a fleeting second, but it was enough to keep me on high alert.
“Well, well, well…I thought that you would have fled a long time ago…”
She stammered on her feet, holding her broken arm in one hand as Rufian approached her.
“I don’t run,” she whispered under her breath, her eyes locked on the mage.
“No, you don’t. But you sure do fight…”
I stayed on the balcony to heal, and also for my safety. Unsure of her intentions, it was better I kept my distance and let Rufian handle it. Clover tried to assess Rufian’s friendliness, but honestly I was on the edge of my fucking seat between the both of them. Rufian had a vendetta against The Deo, and even though Clover wasn’t a killer, that mindset of hers was due to change as soon as she found out that we killed her older brother.
“I don’t want to get with it with you,” she insisted. “If I’d known you were following me, I would have led you astray.”
“And miss an opportunity to kill Clave? Never!” Rufian chuckled.
“You don’t understand. No one does, my brother is—”
“Dead.” Rufian said simply. “Dead at last. He had a long running. It was due time he took a dirt nap.”
Clover’s eyes grew wide as her breath shuttered. “W-what?”
“I know, hard to imagine, but he wasn’t a god,” Rufian said proudly, but then Clover did something completely unexpected.
She began to laugh, with tears pricking her eyes.
That wasn’t good. I couldn’t tell if those were tears of chaos or tears of pain. Either way, I leaped from the balcony, the support from my gears easing my landing. After making a full recovery, I slowly approached Rufian’s side, prepared to defend if Clover decided to spring at us.
But instead, she held her stomach in gut-wrenching laughter. Rufian stood frozen, unsure of what to do, and tried to make sense of her reaction. I took a step forward, curious to see where this interaction was heading.
“Hey, you okay?”
Still laughing, she looked up at me with glassy eyes. “I’m fine,” she said, her voice cracking. “I’m just so happy he’s dead.”
I exchanged a worried glance with Rufian. This was not the reaction we were expecting from her. Then again, she had volunteered to save us from his wrath. Not to mention his attitude toward her wasn’t the best. Clave seemed like the bossy tyrant type, and that persona didn’t change with Clover one bit.
So I went with my instincts and gave her an olive-branch. I reached my hand out, offering to help her on her feet, where she seemed to regain her composure.
“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping away her tears as she wrapped her hand with mine. “It’s just that I’m overwhelmed with relief.”
Rufian still looked skeptical, angry even. That smile on his face sailed when Clover cosigned her brother’s death, something about Clover’s confession irking him.
“He was still your brother, wasn’t he?” I began, trying to sound as sincere as possible. “We know how much your brother meant to you, but he was going to—”
“Meant?” Clover scoffed, struggling to stand up on her own. “He meant nothing to me. Absolutely nothing.”
Rufian raised an eyebrow at her. “And why is that?”
Clover took a deep breath, her eyes cold and serious. “Because I found out the truth.”
“The truth?” I echoed, intrigued.
Clover nodded, her expression darkening. “My brother wasn’t the man I thought he was. He was a monster. He did unspeakable things to innocent people. And I didn’t know about it... until it was too late. By then there was really nothing I could do but keep my mouth shut, unless I wanted to be his next victim. Ever since he was young, he’s had this darkness inside him that continued to burn. Letting him serve in the military only fueled his savagery and viciousness. They gave him a reason to kill, and a reason to be very good at it. And every time I tried talking to him about controlling the demon inside him, he’d bring up mom, and every time, I’d brainwash myself into believing he had every right to act like Mavriel’s number one public enemy. I was so naive then, it only got worse and worse. He told me to use my powers to shut witnesses to his brutality up. Because of course, he didn’t stop with just slaughtering the other races for the High Order. Fae were part of his high body count, to the point where a few rogue hunters took notice and hired him to be a mercenary. That part time job didn’t last long though. He messed with a crown, unbeknownst to him, and that was how the both of us were discharged and sentenced. All my life it’s been these seesawing emotions with him. He wasn’t my brother, he was this demonic shadow I had to live with all of my life, and now, he’s finally gone…”
Clover was the definition of don’t judge a book by its cover. First’s impressions were the most important, but there was so much more to her than face value. She wasn’t as black and white as Rufian made her seem. It was clear that she had been through a lot, and her words were heavy with the weight of years of pain and betrayal.