Thirteenth Step Chapter 2 teaser/something or other
[This is pretty much just a small portion of what I have planned, but I'm looking for opinions on how believable it is, etc. I have an evocative image in my head, but I want to see if it's not just me.]
Along the red blade of Asura, Asellus could see the rapid pounding of his heart, and the fear in his blue eyes. So young-- he didn't look much older than she was. She wondered if he'd been conscripted into this, or if he'd volunteered. Did he believe in his cause? Had he expected this? To be at the point of the enemy's blade, to die at the hands of the half-blood that his people railed against? Against the snow, his hair blazed, as pink as the roses of Facinaturu and not near as long-lived. What had he expected? What had he been told? Her hesitation gave birth to a flare of hope in his eyes-- that she would be merciful. That he would go home to his court, where he was probably a lowly page at best.
No mercy. The moment you show mercy is the moment the tides are decided against you. Mercy isn't a Mystic trait and it is a weakness.
The crunch of his sternum as Asura pierced and buried itself in the ground behind the boy, and the rush of hot blue blood, and Asellus sighed when the light faded from those eyes. As she looked at his face-- terrified in those final moments, though the smile of hope still played on those blood-specked lips--, she felt herself begin to tremble, and she looked around. Finding only Zozma, she felt the cloak on her shoulders feel suddenly heavy as lead, and she turned her back on the blue-blooded snow, her face crumpling as a sob escaped.
As Zozma held his young charge up, keeping that face and those tears hidden from prying eyes, he cursed Ildon for forgetting that despite so much power, the girl was still just a girl, and the battlefield was no place for an untried child.