I watch Lust care for the stranger's wound as a part of me wishes she isn't.
Loka returns from her stroll later. She also assists in healing the stranger.
Gar claws and fangs are filled with a stubborn poison that spreads to a person's heart once they are scratched or bitten. The poison slowly turns the heart to coal with each second that passes. And within a dozen hours of the tragic event, the person would be greeting the grim reaper.
This stranger's own seems to be around ten hours ago, seeing how Lust and Loka are struggling to revive his nearly blackened heart.
The man breathes hoarsely, his eyes partly open as his skin rapidly turns pale and cold.
I, on the other hand, sit quietly across them and watch, knowing how this one action would end up as a regret for Lust.
After cleaning him up and covering him with his own woolen jacket, Lust approaches me, standing next to where I'm sitting while Loka disappears again.
"Your mistress left you again?" she mumbles grudgingly as if trying to stress how she was a better mistress. I don't reply, which earns me her huff and scoff. "It's funny how you had a million things to say before, but now you suddenly have none. Loka has that much effect on you?"
Does she think I'm quiet because of Loka and I's previous entanglement?
Wait…
Do I sense jealousy?
"Should I be the one begging you to speak now?" Lust murmurs before I chuckle.
"I didn't think you'd be a jealous swan."
"Who says I'm jealous?"
"The forty words you've spoken in less than ten seconds says so. It used to be zero."
Lust scoffs and walks away.
From where I'm sitting, I see her patient lying on one edge of the tunnel, while she lays on another edge.
I, however, stay awake to watch the cracking fire slowly burn out as the moonlight takes its place.
Come to think of it, Lust doesn't sleep. I haven't seen her sleep.
But on a night like this, when she shouldn't, she does.
The night passes before my eyes, accompanied by dawn. I still was unable to sleep, mostly because I wanted to keep my eye on the stranger. And I was right to do so. Because he suddenly wakes up and slowly rises to his feet.
Lust did heal him right, as he's now approaching her sleeping form.
I watch him move closer with each cautious step until he reaches her.
When he tries to stretch his hand towards her, Loka's voice comes from above.
"One inch further and you lose those fingers," she threatens. Who knew she was hanging upside down like a spider on the tunnel ceiling all along?
Despite her threat, the stranger doesn't retreat his hand. "I was hoping to have a drink of water," he croaks out.
It's only then that I notice Lust's jar of water right next to her abdomen. She hasn't drank from it, though. I think she brought it for me.
"You could have simply asked," Loka emphasizes while jumping down.
"I couldn't find you." The man coughs.
"Alright. Alright. Take it."
The stranger reaches his hand to Lust's abdomen and takes the jar, gulping down its content.
After doing so, he suddenly starts coughing again, falling on all fours and drooling spittle, causing Loka to approach him in a hurry.
Maybe her zipping to him is why she doesn't catch the split second that changes everything—that small time when the man slips something from under his tongue and blows.
The tiny needle pierces Loka's arm before she could realize it. She crumbles to the ground as the stranger immediately approaches me and bows.
"I'm sorry for taking so much time, my lord," he utters without daring to look at me.
"Who are you?" I ask.
Not to be mistaken. Me knowing the man's agenda doesn't mean I'm familiar him. I merely know my supporter when I see one.
"My name is Kelper, my lord. We are agents secretly trained for your protection."
"Oh, wow. I haven't heard of you." True, I haven't.
"We're few, my lord, and newly formed." The man unshackles me. But before we set to go I stop and look back at Lust. "She won't be waking up any time soon," he notes as if he read my mind, "I slicked one of these into her stomach." He shows me the needles on his bracelet.
"You never know. Firnes are difficult to defeat, especially these ones," I say as we start running through the tunnel.
"The first batch of loyalists sent was a test. I stood around to watch and discovered one thing; Firnes might be nearly indestructible, but not these ones. These ones are the wrong types of Firnes who happen to be the right ones in our case. They have compassion. That's their weakness."
Speaking of compassion, all I see is Lust.
"I'll need more of you in the war to come."
"It's a pleasure, master."
"But I guess you haven't stopped to think that those chains can't have been able to enslave me."
"The ones you had on? They're meant to reduce witch powers to nothing. They basically make you human."
"I know," I see Lust's face in a rage of fire, blood rolling down her eyes like tears. And it's my fingers dug into those eyes. I shake the image off. "but how does it stop a non-witch?"
Kelper suddenly looks at me. "Wha—"
"How many of you are there?" I cut in while stopping.
The other man does so as well, catching his breath. "Four dozen."
"Hm. And how does the needle work?"
"It's a secret tool of ours. Of course, it's still in making and haven't been brought to you for approval yet. It has a mixture of witch elements that turn a person's body system upside down. It shuts down the body within a split second and dumps the mind in fear. Its effect is temporary, though. No worries, it has no effect on us witches, as it's specially made for Firnes."
I huff a smile while placing my hand on the stranger's shoulder. "Kelper, you don't know how grateful I am that there are people like you out there."
The man smiles. "It's my honor— ah!" he gurgles blood when my fist dives into his throat, cutting his words and air supply.
I whisper bluntly, "but you should never have discovered a Firne's weakness. That I won't condone."
Shock forms on Kelper's face as he croaks out, "why?"
Then he falls to the ground dead, while I wipe my hand free of his blood on his shirt.
"Because I alone should be the bane of Firnes."