Eliron was sitting on a tree stump, his arms crossed, and his feet tapping impatiently as the Dullahan dropped Baldwin in front of him.
His legs had been chopped up, and although he was not very strong, Baldwin was still a warrior, he would not die so easily.
He pushed himself to a sitting position, shifting back until his body t the leg of the Dullahan. He did not raise his gaze to look, instead, he stared at Eliron with intensity in his eyes.
"A-are you working for them too? Are you working for the undead?"
Eliron frowned. "Of course not—"
"Then how?!" He yelled. "How did you get the Dullahan to do your bidding??"
Eliron thought back to the day it happened. After the prince had told him all about Baldwin, he dismissed the illusion spell and told the Dullahan all he had said while in the trance.
Eliron had never seen a more terrified expression in his life. When he stord into their camp and slaughtered each and every single undead, he had shown so fear, but not like that...
Whether Trajan liked it or not, he had betrayed his lord, and considering how vindictive the second apostle was, Eliron could only imagine what he would do.
So Eliron gave him a choice. He could either choose to serve him, or... Eliron would send his head back to Sataen in a cute little box.
It was clear what option he had chosen, and with the contract between them, it was now impossible for the Dullahan to betray him.
After all, serving Eliron was to his favour.
If Eliron could defeat Sataen then he would have have a chance at survival...
As foul as the Dullahan was, no matter how much Eliron itched to dispose of him for all the cris he must have committed, he could not deny its use.
A Dullahan was first stage minor commander level at the very least...
He stared down at Baldwin and shrugged. "It’s a long story, and you don’t have much ti."
His eyes widened. "You don’t think you can actually kill do you?" He chuckled darkly.
"I have ten thousand n in my army! Do you think even a single one would join you in this war if they find out I was killed by you?!"
"At best, they would march back to my kingdom, at worse." His voice dropped threateningly low as he ripped off his shirt, tying it around his wound. "...they will turn this entire place into a warzone."
Eliron gave him a blank stare.
Alexander and the Grand marshal had lectured him so many tis when he told them he would take action.
The reason they had to be careful with Baldwin was because of how much manpower he commanded.
They were already outnumbered, any more loss would put them at a severe disadvantage.
"You need ." Baldwin said in a strained tone. "You can not do without —"
He was interrupted by Eliron’s laughter, sweat running down the back of his neck.
"Let go and I’ll pretend this never happened, we can bla the attack on the Dullahan and say you s-saved !" Baldwin stamred, growing desperate.
"That is a genius idea my friend, it seems great minds think alike. You see, I was planning on blaming the Dullahan all this ti..."
Eliron gave himself a round of applause. "Imagine it, your ten thousand soldiers aggrieved by the loss of their lord, to an undead no less!"
Baldwin’s eyes widened, because he realised the implications of what Eliron said.
"Even those who know of your alliance with the undead, will rethink their allegiance and go against them. That way, I’ll kill two birds with one simple lie."
Baldwin’s face contorted into a look of pure, unadulterated terror. His mind racing for a solution, for a way out of the ss.
"They will know it is a lie! They saw you escort into the forest!" Baldwin scread, his eyes so wide that the whites of his eyes were visible.
Eliron’s smile widened. "Jusk like you saw approaching, right?"
His words were light, like a passing breeze, but his statent was a heavy weight on Baldwin’s neck.
He was right, Baldwin had not seen him until he was a few feet away from him, who was to say that anyone else saw him?
Baldwin bowed low. "Please spare ! I have a wife and children!" He cried, raising his head to et Eliron’s gaze. "If I die..." he closed his eyes. "There is no telling what would happen to them!"
For a second, Eliron was taken aback. He felt a chill run through him when he saw the genuine look of concern on his face.
But shortly after, that feeling turned into a searing rage.
"How old are your daughters, Lord Baldwin?" Eliron’s voice dropped to an icy hiss.
Baldwin was confused, but he answered quickly. "The oldest is just sixteen, the youngest is twelve..."
The air felt suffocating, like each breath Baldwin took could very well be his last.
"Do you really love your family, Baldwin? Is your love as strong as you say it is?"
Baldwin’s face tightened. "I love them with all my heart, with all my being!!"
"Hmm... are you sure?" Eliron raised a brow.
"With eveything in !"
Eliron nodded. "Then tell , what would you do if a man were to break into your ho, the place you thought was safe, and kill your wife and daughter, leaving only the youngest to gaze at the blood?"
"What would you do if the child lost her mind in the process and could no longer recognize you?"
Baldwin slamd his fist into the floor, his jaw clenched and face tight with rage. The woman he had given everything for, his daughters that were his life?
Was the elven lord threatening to kill them, was he thinking of committing such despicable acts?
"I’ll kill them, I’ll fucking kill them!"
Eliron smiled. "Well that is what you have done, Baldwin. Had you not sided with the undead, had you not brought cavil to the capital..."
"Maybe that girl would currently be enjoying the warmth of her mother’s embrace. Maybe she would be chatting happily with her sister..."
"Her father is out there." Eliron pointed in the direction of the army. "He still has to fight in this war, despite the grief in his heart."
It felt as though Baldwin had been drenched with cold water, he just stared, unable to utter a single word.
"Not just him. The attack on Stonewall that you helped plan, the massacre at Ceaspil, and now, what you planned to do in Kasket..."
All the death Eliron was forced to witness at the port, the permanent title that would always be a stark reminder of it.
It was all his fault.
And yet, he was talking about family?
"Why do only you get to have a peaceful life, why do only your children get to have a father?"
"If you loved your family so much you could have as well shipped them to another damn continent! But your greed would not allow you to lose your lands would it? Or the wealth you have amazed over the years!"
He paused and stood up.
"Let be honest with you, Baldwin." He spat out his na as though it irritated his tongue.
"I don’t give a fuck about your family."
Baldwin stared at the ground for a long second, his fists tightening by his sides.
Then he suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot. "And so fucking what?! Do you know how much I sacrificed to get where I am?! Do you know the things I was forced to do?! You expect to sacrifice everything just for a bunch of people whose nas I don’t even—"
Swish!
His words were cut short as the Dullahan’s blade ca down, splitting him in two.
Eliron stared down at the corpse and then he looked away. The shadows in his heart had not vanished, this was just one man, the real problem still lay ahead.
"You know what to do." He said, before he vanished into thin air.
Baldwin’s brother, Jansen had been worried from the very mont Baldein walked into the forest, and even more so now.
The soldiers had saddled the horses, serviced the carriages and returned back to formation.
And yet, Lord Baldwin was nowhere in sight... Did sothing happen? Was there a problem with their negotiations?
Lord Baldwin never took this long, and Jansen’s mind kept going back to how out of it he had been before he left.
His eyes hardened as he stared into the forest, praying the worse was far from them when suddenly—
BANG!!
Off in the distance, the forest trees were blown apart, and then out of the foliage ca a Dullahan, an undead that was caked in blood.
Jansen’s heart clenched the mont he saw it, his feet already ushering him right at the undead, a part of the army following behind him.
But by the ti he got there, the Dullahan was gone, and all that was left was the corpse of his brother, and signs of a battle.
They had used him to take two cities, drained all the information they could get from him, and now that they were done.
They killed him.
Air felt like fire in his lungs, hot tears streaming out of his eye as he stared at the only family he had left, the only one who had seen him as a human being.
They would pay for this, he would avenge his brother even if it cost him his life.
As Jansen stood there, grieving, little did he know that Eliron was standing right next to the corpse, invisible to them all, noting down the potential traitors, his face a mask of fury.
Maybe not now, certainly not tomorrow, but soday soon. They would all pay, every single one of them.
...
A/N
I’ve wanted to wrap up this traitor arc for so long so that we can get into the war proper, but shortening it felt like I would be cutting important parts of the novel out.
I hope it wasn’t a bore?
The war should span about 10 -s, and then we will be back in Artaris, with Eliron back to his regular shenanigans.
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