>>5894635Though night has already fallen, you’re able to muster up a small guard consisting of Ashe, Corrine, Diana, Ingrid, Scratch and Sebastian. You walk in front of the group, following the lead of the soldier who’d alerted you about the parley. In the forest that surrounds Castle Rusalka is a small clearing. You recall often coming here as a child when you needed to escape the rigors of martial training, or just when you wanted to be alone. True to the soldier’s words, a group of Rusalkan Guard stand in the clearing waiting for you. And at the front of them is none other than the enemy commander and your first martial instructor, Wedge.
Your two groups stand-off, facing off against each other for some time. Once things grow sufficiently awkward, it is you that opens your mouth first to speak.
>“Wedge.”“Blair.”
Another pregnant pause. Though Wedge was likely pushing well into his 40s, he didn’t seem like he’d lost a step. His armor was neat and polished. His stance was tall and straight. And his glare could still pierce right through your soul. You could tell he was currently judging every facet of your being, as if seeking some sort of vulnerability that would grant him victory. The man was a professional through and through.
“I find it hard to believe that you would dare show your face here girl.” Wedge says suddenly. “It was one thing to betray the Count after all that he’d done for you. How he took you from the gutter and cared for you like his own child. But to now turn your blade against him? Any vestiges of the sweet and shy little girl I took under my wing must be long gone. Replaced by this…Witch.”
>“…The Count has betrayed his own people. People he was supposed to safeguard and-““The Count fulfilled his responsibility to Emperor and country.” Wedge interrupts you. “He did what was required of him because he was the only one that could. Even when it was difficult, he never faltered in his duty. That you were unable to learn from his example is your own failing.”
It was no use. You knew well that Wedge was fanatically loyal to Charles d’Rusalka. If Hoff was his right hand, Wedge was his left. There would be no convincing him of anything. You recall Anemone once confirming to you that Wedge was not an Agarthan. Did that mean he served the Count truly believing he was human? If so, a part of you pitied the man. To have such earnest loyalty wasted was a grave shame.
>“I did not come here to be insulted, Wedge. Nor did I come here to reminisce. You were the one that offered this parley. Tell me, what is it that you want? If you wish to surrender before we attack, know that no harm will come to you and your men. This can still end peacefully.”Wedge’s lip turns upward in a sneer of contempt. “They taught you some find jokes in that academy of yours.”
