John Louis

Chapter Two; Sneak Peek #3

Added 2025-09-05 18:18:35 +0000 UTC

I've finished the series of conversations and shifted onto the continued march to Winstead (a town on the way to Castle Tanta/Jutrea). I'm quite pleased with how they all turned out, but there's still a lot of variations of them to be written, but I'll go back and write those later. For now, I want to finish the plot of the chapter.

This is also the start of a potential redemption arc for Vedran. He will try to better himself, should you have kept him alive, but the Marshal can effectively sabotage this in the same way they can push Mira to the edge.

Here is one of the variations of the evening chat with Vedran, cleaned up a little to remove the code and make it more legible.

"It did, by God! I can see it now!" His voice takes on a manic character. "You are dirt, Marshal! I am dirt! We are nothing. We have been told that we are nothing from our birth. You were sent to war to rot, and I was left here to fester."
"You were kept in the family. I was cut from it." You tap your missing fingers. "Literally."
Vedran reaches out and grasps you on the sides of both your shoulders. You flinch instinctively and pull, but he holds tight. The soldier inside you screams to fight, but you smother your paranoia and dare not look away from his eyes.
"Some good it did me!" He lets out a sputtering laugh. "Some good it did all of us! Do you know what father did to me? What he said and how hard he struck? I was the spare, and Sobik didn't even trust me. He cut me from the will for my sister."
"And then you betrayed us," you state.
"And you never did," he replies. "That is why I have realized that you are the Stiedry I should have been. I did not betray our father, a man who deserves ever betrayal he can get." He shakes you. "I betrayed you! betrayed Elya!"
At this point, your discomfort with his touch reaches its limit. You push his arms away and he steps and spin around, pressing his fingers to his temples. He rubs at his head for several moments in silence, before finally turning back to face you.
The prince is crying.
"If I cannot have the noose," he says through shuddering breaths, "then give me a sword--and let me become you."