Chapter 18. Sacrifices
2109 Words
Layal was still very ill.
He was pale and wizened and had the be carried in a small sedan chair.
Currently, he was in the courtyard of the local barracks.
The same courtyard that he had slaughtered all the local militaria in.
He was awaiting a prisoner he had, to be brought before him.
Flanked by elite guards and dressed in the finest luxury silks a young man was brought before him.
“I trust you are well,” Said Lyal.
The prisoner remained silent.
“I hear that you were not eating or drinking?”
“Is there anything wrong?”
“We offer you the best food, the finest wine, and the most luxurious bed,”
This was not sarcasm, the luxury and pampering afforded the prisoner was far greater than the vast majority of barons or cardinals!
“Does not you kind eat drink or sleep at all?”
“We will offer you anything you wish,” Said Lyal softly.
“I suppose that would not include my freedom?” said the prisoner.
“Alas, Unfortunately, No!” replied Lyal.
“But it is not as if we captured you by force,”
“You came to us willingly!”
“What about answers then?”
“Can I have those?”
“Why do you want to keep me, prisoner, at all?”
Said the prisoner.
Lyal ignored the question as another man was brought forward.
He was large, dirty and injured.
He had NOT been kept in luxury quarters,
He had instead been cast in a normal dungeon!
This man was thrown to the floor in front of Lyal.
“See this man” indicated Lyal.
“He rounds up and tortures innocent people,”
“He has harmed women and children in front of their captured families and loved ones for his own sick twisted amusement,”
“So does that mean he get a promotion to local baron then”
Said the luxury kept prisoner sarcastically.
“He sounds like he is just upholding the values of your own Empire.”
Lyal was far to smart to allow himself to be drawn into a pointless debate about higher imperial moral authority.
Layl stayed on topic.
“This evil man was to be executed”
“Not just executed, but tortured for weeks!”
“He was to pray for death for a long time before we were finished with him.”
“We have managed to rescue most of his surviving victims and are giving them much needed care as we speak!”
The comfortable prisoner just stared at the wretched prisoner on the floor in front of him.
The comfortable prisoner knew all that Lyal had said was true.
He could feel the truth of Lyal’s words in his very bones!
“There are two possible futures ahead.”
Said Lyal
“One,”
“This man will be given equally comfortable quarters as you have.”
“His former victims, most of them young children, will be brought to him for his sick perverted pleasure.”
“One poor innocent victim each day.”
“When he is finished with his last victim,”
“We will supply him with another fifteen of equal innocence”
“ONLY THEN, he will be tortured for weeks far beyond his begging for death!”
The comfortable prisoner felt ill to his stomach.
“Why would you do such a thing!”
Layal smiled and replied
“However, the ‘OTHER’ future”
“Gives the former victims the care and help they all so desperately needed,”
“And this vile so-called man is given a quick merciful death for his crimes!”
“It is up to you”, Lyal grinned.
“Only You can stop all that potential suffering!”
“Only You can stop such evil from happening!”
“You have all the power here,”
“How is it in any way, shape or form my decision?”
Said the comfortable prisoner.
“This” gestured Lyal as a dagger on the cushion was brought forward.
“Is a magical soul dispersing dagger”
“It is very rare!”
“On its own, the slightest prick is enough to cause immediate death to most mortals”
“On top of this we have also added the finest, quickest, most dealy poison, know to mankind, to its blade!”
“On its own, this extremely rare and expensive poison would also cause immediate death to most mortals and an awful lot of magical beings also!”
“If this evil man was to get even the slightest scratch, he would die instantly and completely painlessly”
“No execution could be any more humane than this!”
“As far as I know, No execution has ever been as expensive!”
“I willingly give this dagger to you as a gift.”
The comfortable prisoner looked confused.
“Why would you give a prisoner, like me, such a weapon?”
“You decide,” Said Lyal.
“You kill this man, He gets a merciful death, his victims are helped”
“Or…”
“You don’t kill this man and his first victim will be brought to his new luxury waters within the hour!”
“A young traumatised child called Timmy”
“It is up to you!”
Layak felt that he could not lose
There were only a few moves that he could see the comfortable prisoner making.
He could kill the other prisoner.
He could attack Lyal of one of the guards, instantly killing them.
Or as an act of open defiance, he could take his own life!
For this comfortable prisoner (if you had not already guessed) was the Sin-Eater, Rats Stars!
He would be forced to kill,
He would become a mere mortal,
And the Lyal’s required orders would then be completed!
The lumps on Rats back itched like mad!
They itched so very badly that they managed to briefly distract him from even this horrendous seemingly “no-win” situation!
Rats picked up the dagger and pondered.
His hand tightening around the grip.
Lyal grinned!
Rats dropped the almost priceless dagger with its luxury poison harmlessly to the floor.
“What?” Exclaimed Lyal!
“You will let poor Timmy needlessly suffer at the hand of this sadistic p*****t!”
Rats looked up from the ground
“That’s your decision alone, you have all the power here, apparently!”
“I will let him have those victims!”
“DO NOT MAKE ME DO THIS!”
Screamed Lyal.
Rats met and kept the Sinister Agents eye contact.
“You complete wuss!”
“No one is making you do anything!”
“You have all the power here!”
“Don’t you?”
“If you feed the victims to this sick animal then that is your choice NOT mine!”
“Yet you have the pathetic gall to say it is somehow my fault because I refuse to be manipulated and controlled by the likes of you!” Rats shouted!
“KILL HIM!” Screamed Lyal!
“KILL HIM OR YOU MAKE THOSE VICTIMS SUFFER!” Layal continued screaming.
“Nonsense,” Said Rats “I will not make those victims suffer!”
“You do!”
“You control this barracks, You control the keys, You control all these guards,”
“You are responsible for your own choices,”
“But you try to self licence and blame me like some toddler having a tantrum!”
“YOU ARE MAKING ME DO THIS!”
Screamed Lyal!
“I SWARE!”
“IF YOU MAKE ME DO THIS!”
“IF YOU MAKE THIS HAPPEN!”
“I WILL FORCE YOU TO WATCH!”
“I WILL FORCE YOU TO WATCH WHAT HE DOES TO THAT POOR CHILD!”
Rats stare held.
“I make you do, Nothing!”
“Do not and can not make you do anything!”
“I am only responsible for My actions alone! NEVER Yours!”
“While you, whether you allow yourself to accept it or not, are only ever responsible for all of your own actions and never any of my actions!”
Lyle Screamed again!
“YOU ARE MAKING ME!”
“YOU ARE!”
“NOT ME!”
Rats stare still had not broken,
“Yeh?”
“You keep going ahead and keep telling yourself that… …Loser!”
“If you are so weak-minded that you need to!”
“HOW DARE YOU!” Scremmed Lyal.
But now in his weekend state, the effort and drain of this rage threw him into a coughing fit!
Black cursed bile spattered onto his lap in front of him.
All around the guards saw and heard Rats defiance and they would remember his words and argument.
Ninety per cent of them, as good and loyal guards, saw Rats as just a fool, an i***t who was far too stupid know how the world worked!
But ten per cent of them, about twenty-five guards in total, would over the coming weeks, be haunted by this defiance and confide this story and their new secret doubts to those closest to them.
A metaphysical wave of holiness stretched into the future touching thousands of lives over hundreds of years and beyond!
And this ripple effect bounced back from that future and ripped back into the present day.
For such true immortals, time is irrelevant, for they are at least partly, transtemporal!
Rats felt the energy of this demonstration come back through the new timeline and now surge through and into him.
Before his choking vomiting eyes of Lyal and all other eyes present,
Rats got a little taller and a little stronger.
He went form the physical age of Fourteen to Sixteen.
The lumpy itches on his back shoulder blades then popped,
And two glorious angelic wings spread out!
Rats Stars threw off his luxury silk hat and revealed his third forehead eye-opening.
This altered the present future timeline once again,
As almost all the guards were affected by this revelation of true holiness and its miracle!
Yet more, now much larger ripples surged like a wave machine at a community pool, back and forth!
Rats Stars The Sin-Eater got even stronger!
Now becoming physically Seventeen!
Lyal continued to choke from shock and overexertion!
Rats reached out a hand, Placing a palm of it on Lyal’s shuddering shoulder.
Lyal felt the offer to heal, to break his soul bound seal to the darkness.
There were NO ultimatums or pre-conditions to this healing,
There was NO offers or bargain!
Nothing asked for in return!
Just a ‘no strings attached’ offer!
All he had had to do was internally permit himself to be healed!
And a deep, pride fueled rage screamed back,
“NO!”
“I CHOSE MY POWER INSTEAD!”
“I REFUSE YOUR GRACE AND MERCY!”
Feeling his answer Rats Stars bowed his head in sadness.
He then looked down upon the evil prisoner in rags.
Who was also unrepentant and defiant!
Around this group, within the barrack square,
Many guards were openly weeping in floods of tears and remorse, for some of their worst past deeds.
“Following Orders!”, simply, Not longer seemed a good enough excuse anymore for many of them!
Rats sored up into the air,
The mesmerised guards to stunned to attempt shooting at him.
The more Lyal saw their lack of reaction the more enraged he became,
The more enraged he became, the harder it was to stop himself choking and gasping!
No orders or command could escape his lips!
His evil seal’s personality fled and hid at the back of his mind in terror, refusing to come to his aid!
Unopposed Rats let the victims free,
Folding back his wings and hiding his eye again,
Rats usher them out of the barracks and into the temporary safety of the woods!
All the excess holiness was pulsed from Rats like Gamma radiation from an exploding reactor!
The trauma and pain, both physical and mental being healed within them all in waves, for all the victims!
The vile evil sadist rolled onto the floor and cut his bonds with the Death Knife before running out of the courtyard and to freedom!
Taking the Magical Poisoned Death Knife with him!
This monsters name was Kyle Larrs.
Layl, still choking, Then lost consciousness!
- Writer
