>>5153465He saw the sadness in his son's eyes, one that indicated a lack of drive and existencial dread, yet he never quite knew what to say to ease his son's worries.
"Gallahad! Are you there?" Jacopo asks before coughing heavily, the plague getting to him on top of all that feels like cosmic timing, a bad joke of the lord testing his conviction in both to him, and to his son.
Silence. Several grunts and blows were heard not that long ago, surely Gallahad was still alive... He would show up at any time now, saying something about how it took no effort to bring that mob down, and how he would do it again if his ankles weren't nagging at him to sit down... wouldn't he?
"AAAAH!" The last of the insurgents rushed inside the room and aimed a dagger at Jacopo's side as he scrambled to roll himself out of bed, but still got hit anyway. The only thing that stopped him from a quick death was the last bolt still inside his crossbow, which he shot and dragged across his enemy's throat before he could pull his weapon back.
Jacopo now laid on a pool of his own blood, only having a few minutes left in him. He thought dying alone after all of this would be the utmost despair, but thankfully, Gallahad slowly dragged his feet back inside the room, having a spear lodged inside his shoulder along with several arrows in his stomach.
"So much for Gallahad, the unmoving, eh old friend?" Gallahad limps over to Jacopo's bed, both of them about to be devoid of life in instants, but still found peace in knowing that they took their enemies down with them.
"Gallahad... Where did we go wrong?"
"If Vlad is still alive? Nowhere. If he really did succumb to the silver eyed clan... Then I really wish I kept living as a lumberjack. Would have raised a family instead of taking care of another man's son." Gallahad chuckled, even in this dire moment, not wanting to make his old partner even more depressed.
"If it makes you feel any better, I'll have you know that Vlad is not my real son either..." Jacopo reveals what only his wife knew, but being at his deathbed, there was no point in keeping secrets.
"What?! But he looks exactly like you! Don't give me that crap!"
"Michelle is infertile... We found him in our home the same day we escaped from the swamp... Surviving that fiasco and coming home to see a son that I always wanted to have... It felt like a dream come true... But looking back on it, I wonder if that was a precedent... A retribution of sorts, for all the lives we took inside that swamp... The fact that he never liked going to church, or studying the ways of our lord...."
