CHAPTER 1067: UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS (PART THREE)

"I’m told that you took ’Piety’ and ’Righteousness’ as two of your virtues when you became a knight," Ashlynn said as a faint, emerald green light began to shine in her eyes. The mist around her danced and swirled, caught in the eddies of her growing power as her resentment for everything Sir Tommin had done grew.

Nearby, Ollie’s hand tightened on the hilt of Frost Fang and his feet shifted subtly into a fighting stance. At this distance, if Ashlynn wanted to claim Sir Tommin’s life, no one could stop her, but Ollie never intended to make a move to protect the captive knight. Instead, watched the flowing patterns of energy swirling around her carefully and prepared to raise an icy barrier to shield the innocents nearby from getting caught in her fury if Sir Tommin’s words continued to enrage her.

Already, he was looking at Diarmuid and wishing the man wasn’t hovering so close to his blinded companion. Of everyone here, the Inquisitor was the most likely to be caught up in the fringes of Ashlynn’s fury, and Ollie wasn’t certain he could move quickly enough to protect Diarmuid if the Mother of Trees chose to use her tremendous power to strike down the man who had buried her alive.

"If you’d known I was a witch," Ashlynn said slowly, carefully enunciating each word. "Would you have acted like a knight protecting his lady? Or would you have done as your faith demands, serving your cause of ’righteousness’ by slaying a witch?" Her voice dripped with scorn as she emphasized the word ’righteousness’, and her fist tightened on his tunic, straining the heavy fabric so much that it began to tear in her grasp.

"Tell me, Tommin," Ashlynn spat as she fought to restrain herself from shaking the man like a cat would shake a rat. "Is ’Truth’ one of your virtues? As a knight, can you live up to that one, or will you lie to me again?"

"F-forgive me. My Lady," Tommin stammered as his heart thundered in his chest like the hooves of a warhorse dashing away from certain death. "I did not mean to decieve..."

-SMACK-

Ashlynn’s second slap echoed like thunder, followed by the sound of tearing fabric as the force of her blow landed so heavily on Tommin’s face that the cloth in Ashlynn’s fist tore free while the blinded knight fell heavily to the flagstones several paces away.

Tomin’s head swam and his whole world tilted as though he were a drunkard, making it all but impossible for him to return to his feet. The pain in his jaw burned like fire and a ringing sound filled his ear, nearly drowning out the sound of Ashlynn’s footsteps as she stalked toward the fallen Templar like a cat stalking its prey.

"Step back, and stay behind me," Ollie said softly as he took the opportunity to place himself between Ashlynn and Diarmuid. "This may be a little... intense," he said awkwardly as he tried and failed to come up with a brief way to explain his concerns to the Inquisitor in a way that didn’t make Lady Ashlynn sound like a dangerous and deranged fiend.

"Is she going to...?" Diarmuid asked quietly, his voice trailing off as he didn’t know exactly what he was trying to ask. Use witchcraft? Of course she would, she was a witch.

To her, it was likely no different from when a member of the Inquisition summoned Holy Flames to punish a heretic. Diarmuid himself had rarely found a reason to draw upon the power of Holy Flames, but since coming to Lothian March, he’d found many members of the Inquisition were much quicker to do so after spending much of their lives fighting against the Eldritch or rooting out heresy on the frontier. Percivus in particular was nearly as skilled as the best Inquisitors in the Holy City when it came to the use of holy flame.

But what a witch might unleash when confronted with the man who buried her alive and then lied to her face that he would have protected her if he’d known she was alive at the time... Diarmuid had no idea.

"I don’t know," Ollie said quietly. "I doubt it will be a storm again, but..."

In the time their whispered conversation had taken, Ashlynn had come to stand before the dazed and disoriented Sir Tommin who had managed to pull himself into an extremely subservient posture, kneeling on both knees with his hands pressed on the cool flagstones of the courtyard.

"I, I’m sorry, my Lady," Tommin said, speaking earnestly and from the heart. The shame that burned on his cheeks felt even hotter than the sting of Lady Ashlynn’s slaps and the ache in his heart felt like it had become a pit that consumed his entire being. "I, I’ve failed you..."

The words he’d spoken had been the right words to say. The correct, knightly words. But was he really that knight? No, he wasn’t, and he knew it. If Ashlynn had spoken up that night, if she’d pleaded for her life and confessed to bearing the mark of the witch... he never would have let her live.

He’d have struck her down alongside Sir Broll, and most likely, he’d have insisted on waiting out the storm so they could burn her body, break her bones and scatter the ashes the way Lord Owain had commanded. If she had risen up after the beating that Lord Owain had given her, he would have been too terrified of a witch rising from the grave, just as she had, to do anything less.

"I accept whatever punishment you wish to bestow on me, Lady Ashlynn," he said as hot tears streamed down his stinging cheeks. "Even if you wish to take my life for what I’ve done, I understand. I have nothing left," he said in a voice that was broken and frail. "So do with me as you wish..."

"You have nothing left?" Ashlynn said, raising a brow as glowered at the kneeling, broken knight. "Nothing at all that you would wish to live for? Then do you have any last words you want to offer before I claim your life?"

"I know that I have failed to meet my struggle," Tommin said as he raised his head, looking around for a moment before he realized that he’d lost all sense of direction and didn’t know where Loman or Diarmuid stood. "I can only hope to atone for my failings in the next life," he said, lowering his head. "If one of my brothers in faith would hear my confession so that I can leave behind the burdens of this life, I would be grateful."

For a moment, no one moved. Loman shared a brief look, as if asking which of them would honor their fallen companion’s request, but as soon as they saw the look of dark fury on Ashlynn’s face, combined with Sir Ollie placing a hand on Diarmuid’s shoulder to hold the man back, neither of them spoke up to volunteer.

"Well, Rosie?" Ashlynn asked as she turned to face the pair of women standing by the gate that had gone ignored this whole time as the tension between Ashlynn and Sir Tommin mounted. "He is your husband and the father of your child. Do you have anything you wish to say to him?"