Young Writers Society

(Gaius is a morbidly sweet kinda guy)

"He's alright." Sera stood, taking Ky gently by the shoulders. "He's not hurt, he just needs a moment. Gaius has him, see? You're my priority right now."

"I just killed a man," Tomhas sniffed, sounding like a frightened child.
"Not yet, you haven't, but soon." Gaius wrapped an arm around his little brother, bad leg splayed out awkwardly behind him. He was hurting, but Tomhas was hurting more. "Come on, sit up." Tomhas leaned into him instead, and Gaius sighed. It was like they were seven and fourteen all over again, after Tomhas had accidentally starved a baby sparrow he'd found under a tree.
"He didn't even get a trial!"
"Did he need one?" Gaius asked. Tomhas was silent, trembling. "I didn't think so."

(Want Sera to go help or no? Just checking cuz we're nearing the point of no return)

(Up to you! I’m not very good at writing much grislier than this haha so like if you want her to patch him up so they can torture him I’m fine with that but I won’t really be able to write his pov and am fine for you to do him in if you’d like… or he can just bleed out if Loquitur can’t stomach it haha)

“Aleth hurts everyone,” Ky wailed. “You don’t understand. He hurt him. You can’t let him— you can’t — he’s—“ she was hyperventilating, and would have fallen if Sera hadn’t held on to her, still trying to stumble forward. “He hurt him.”

Her vision was swimming too much for her to see what was actually going on. She just saw blood. So much blood.

(I have no idea how to save him honestly like how open is his stomach? That's all it depends on. And Loquitur definitely isn't gonna torture him, I think they'd both rather execute him and be done with it or put him in prison, which could give Aleth an opportunity to escape but again this all seems unlikely based on the severity of the injury as I'm rereading it)

"He did no such thing," Sera assured her, and helped her sit down. She scooped some snow into her hands and offered it to Ky. "Rub this on your face, wake yourself up. Everything's going to be alright, I promise. Look away."
Tomhas was vaguely aware that Ky was crying. She was frightened. Had Aleth hurt her before he cut him?
"Ky?" He tried to stand but his legs wobbled, and a wave of nausea passed over him again.
"Sera's taking care of her," his brother's voice said, and Tomhas closed his eyes tightly. So much blood, blood on his sword, on the ground, soaking into his trousers. There had been blood on him before, he'd been covered in blood. His own, his brother's, he'd washed himself until his skin was raw and still he stank of iron and fear and red. Mangled everything, that Reeve's son staring up at the ceiling but not seeing, Michael tugging him out of the bed while Septimus looked on, so much red.
"Tomhas," Gaius said again. "Stay here."

(Yeahhh let's just kill him xD)
(Also omfg this is the cutest thing ever Loquitur and Ky are both such hot messes but so concerned about each other)

Ky choked but took the snow. She couldn't help anyone with how upset she was right now. She needed to get herself under control. Then she could go verify for herself that Loquitur was okay.

But if Sera said he was okay, he was.

... Unless Ash was taking this as his opportunity to hurt Loquitur himself. Terror surged through her, but she shook it away. That didn't make sense. If they were hurting Loquitur, they'd also be sinking a blade into her throat. It wouldn't make sense to be gentle with her if they were hurting his own brother.

"Are you... you... sure?" She pressed the snow against her cheeks. It instantly melted a bit, mixed with her tears.

(A Good Broken Family)

"I'm sure." Sera rubbed her back. "Everything's going to be alright."
Tomhas threw up again, wiping his mouth.
"Get up," Gaius urged, pushing at him slightly. "Sitting here in this mess isn't doing you any good." He himself tried to stand but found he couldn't.
Tomhas stood woodenly, still feeling very sick to his stomach. He took Gaius's outstretched hand and pulled him to his feet, then almost sat down again.
"Get him to the tent," Gaius instructed Captain Bay, who nodded and took Tomhas's shoulder, guiding him away. Then he approached Sera and Ky. "How is she?"
"She'd do well to get away from this as well," Sera replied. "Is he dead?"
"Shouldn't be long now." Gaius studied Ky. "I'm sorry you had to see that," he said honestly.

Ky trembled so hard her entire body was shaking violently. Was Ash angry with her? He had to have been. Here she was -- caught in her lie. But she couldn't find any words to justify herself. Nothing mattered right now. Nothing but Loquitur.

She took a shaky breath -- it hitched in her chest several times before she managed to draw it all the way. She looked up at Ash. "Is he okay?"

"Tomhas?" Gaius looked over his shoulder. "Physically he's fine. He just needs a little time to collect himself and then he'll be right as rain." Maybe not right as rain, but functional at the very least. Gaius had never been as bothered by blood and gore as Tomhas was, but he understood that they'd endured things differently as children. One event might mean nightmares for Gaius and only bitterness for Tomhas, or vice versa.

Ky nodded shakily. That was good to hear. If Sera and Ash were both saying it, it was probably true. Probably.

She was vaguely aware they'd taken Loquitur away somewhere. But she hadn't heard a struggle.

She took the snow in two hands and pressed it against her face and closed eyes. The cold helped ground her. She panted for air, finally able to breathe past the block in her chest.

"Sorry," she murmured. She wasn't even sure what she was apologizing for -- but it felt like she needed to apologize for everything. Of course Aleth was the one who controlled her -- not vice versa -- but it still always felt like her fault when he hurt someone. That she hadn't tried hard enough to stop him. Maybe if she hadn't started shouting and tried to run away then the others wouldn't have come outside. And if they hadn't done that, then Loquitur wouldn't have had to fight with Aleth. She was being a burden. Yet again. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Gaius tilted his head. "You've done nothing wrong, child. You're not responsible for this man's actions." He hesitated. "Am I correct in my assumption that he was your former master?"

Ky looked up at him fearfully for a long, long moment, still trembling. What was she even supposed to say to that? At this point, he probably already knew the truth. There were so many things that'd happened and she didn't understand all of them. All she knew was that she'd lied. And she wasn't sure if she was supposed to continue lying now, or if she needed to throw herself at his mercy.

She nodded stiffly.

"I-I'm sorry I lied," she sniffled, looking up at him guiltily. "I didn't know he was going to be here -- and I didn't know you were going to ask -- and I didn't know what to say -- and -- and -- I'm sorry. Please don't be mad. I'm sorry."

"You said what you were supposed to, I expect. I can't hold that against you." Gaius gestured toward the tent. "Come, let's get out of the cold and we can talk further." He limped past Aleth, then paused beside him and drove his cane into the wound again to see if the man was still alive. Sera wrinkled her nose disapprovingly.

Ky nodded and pushed herself to her feet. She took a step after Ash, but her entire body froze in an instant as her eyes locked on Aleth's corpse. He didn't so much as twitch when Ash jabbed him with his cane.

He was... dead.

Her stomach turned itself over and she stared in a horrified silence, unable to tear her eyes away.

She'd never seen a dead body before. And certainly never seen one of someone she knew. Never saw someone killed before her eyes.

There was so much blood.

Aleth had gotten her used to blood -- mostly her own. And Tadaaki's.

But there was so much, contrasting sharply with the white blanket below.

"Let's go," Sera said quietly, urging her forward. Gaius tugged his cane out of the wound and continued on his way as if nothing had happened.

(I'm off to bed. Goodnight!)

(Night!)

Ky finally tore her eyes away at Sera's prodding. She felt so sick to her stomach. Felt so weak. So trembly. She shuffled forward, making a wide berth around Aleth. She looked down and noticed Ash's cane had made bloody splotches in the snow in the few steps Ash had taken away from Aleth. But then they disappeared nearly as fast as they'd started.

She wrapped her arms around herself tightly, focusing on her breathing, and lifted her gaze to look at the back of Ash's head as she followed him towards the tent.

Tomhas was staring at the bottle of mead in front of him but had yet to start drinking. General Wai, Captain Bay, General Xander, and Cecil had all seated themselves at their places. Sera sat down beside Tomhas and gestured for Ky to join her while Gaous took his place across from Tomhas.
"Are you okay?" Tomhas mumbled to Ky, wringing his hands. "I'm sorry."