Chapter 300: Charred Husk (Part Two)
"The battle isn’t over yet," Nyrielle said, taking Ignatious hand for support as she forced herself to stand. "Collect Hamdi’s body. He isn’t dead, but he shouldn’t wake easily after what I’ve done to him. I’m afraid that his progeny has finally arrived. If we don’t stop the battle upstairs soon, tonight will be even more of a tragedy for both sides."
She was certain that Hamdi would hate her for decades to come for what she’d done to him, but at the moment, it was still possible for things to recover. Matters could begin and end between them.
If the damage to his household grew much greater, however, she was afraid that things would turn into a blood feud that would never end until his entire lineage had been exterminated and that was something she wanted to avoid almost as much as she needed to avoid losing any of her own progeny in this battle.
"Battle upstairs? How do you know what’s happening up there?" Ignatious asked in genuine confusion as he scooped up the much-diminished figure of Hamdi.
The charred body felt impossibly light in his arms. It, or rather, he was nothing like the towering presence that had dominated his existence for decades. Holding his body, in its charred and desiccated state, it was hard to even think of him as a person.
Each time Hamdi’s limp head lolled against his chest, Ignatious trembled in a combination of shock and disbelief and he had to look down to remind himself that this moment was really happening.
How many times had he imagined it? How many hours had he spent imagining reducing his tormentor to ash and cinders until he’d given up all hope and lost the ability to imagine anything different than his current suffering? For decades, the only thing he had desired more than the sight of this man’s death was finding a way to end his own life and for much of that time, the only thing that kept him from staking himself out for the sunrise was the idea that one day, he might live to see Hamdi fall.
Yet now, holding what was little more than a burned and blackened corpse, he felt none of the satisfaction he’d imagined. Instead, his heart swelled with a long-forgotten warmth as he watched Nyrielle push herself forward despite her injuries.
Seeing her determination, the hatred and bloodlust that had fueled his vengeance seemed to have burned away with his holy flames, leaving behind a deep desire to live on at his Mistress’s side, serving the woman who had touched his soul in a way that he realized the Holy Lord of Light never truly had.
"I gave Zedya her Mesmerizing Eyes," Nyrielle said, her voice pulling Ignatious back out of his thoughts as she began walking toward the door. With a slight smile, she tapped next to one midnight blue eye to reveal the slightest hint of an amethyst glow. "Since I gave her that power, I’ve long been able to see what she sees."
"I expected that Hamdi might order his men to cause some trouble for our people," Nyrielle explained as she picked her way carefully across the floor. The flames had all gone out when Ignatious drew on the flames within the room to construct his avenging wraith, but the floor was still littered with the debris of her clash with Hamdi, and navigating through it while she was injured was more difficult than it appeared.