Arc 7: Chapter 5: Raid
I stared at the man, too dumbfounded for words for a long moment. However, as my senses returned to me I ripped my arm away and took a step back.
“Vicar.” My voice came out as a low growl, full of anger and hostility. My hand tightened on the rondel at my belt, on the verge of drawing it.
Kross stared at me warily. He looked terrible, his eyes sunken into deep hollows and ringed in bruised skin. His gray cloak — I hadn’t noted the color with all the snow and mud on it — looked tattered and worn. He still wore the fine plate armor I’d always seen him in, but the cuirass was dented and marred. One vambrace was missing completely, the exposed arm covered in stained bandages.
He looked like he’d just dragged himself out of a battlefield. Even still, I felt a deep and consuming anger build up.
This man — no, this creature — had caused so much grief. He’d been the hidden hand trying to force Emma into becoming a pawn of his masters. He’d helped the Priory commit acts of murder and torture on a mass scale. He’d condemned countless souls I would never know to the flame, and tried to steal mine at least once.
Renuart Kross, Vicar of the Credo Ferrum, was a monster. A villain in the truest and most unambiguous sense. A liar, a killer, and a servant of the dark lords of the Iron Hell.
A servant of devils may as well be a devil himself. I drew my dagger from its sheath.
Kross’s eyes widened. “Wait, please! I came here for help.”
“Don’t care.”
A hand clasped down on my wrist. I spun on the one who’d stopped me, but paused when I saw pale, almost yellow eyes staring back.
“This is neutral ground,” Saska said in a calm voice. “No violence.”