No Cure For Bad Luck (Magyar)

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Eckhart pursed his lips slightly. "I literally just stopped you from killing him." he said indignantly, crossing his arms. "Unless what you had in mind is non-lethal, I'm not going along with it."

[Magyar]

"And if I had not arrived, no one would have stopped him from killing you," Raoun snapped back, annoyed. The child had a skewed sense of things, obviously, but there was nothing to be done about it now... "My proposition, healer, is that you devise a way to deal with the loose end or I'll do so."

Natalie chose that moment to butt in, and say, "Like your "non-lethal" would really make a difference in his eyes!"

Raoun swatted at her apparition, sending a hand through her face and shimmering the whole image like a mirage, "Non-lethal means they aren't dead! Was the tailor in Uthlyn dead? No!"

"But he couldn't remember his own name, or how to walk, or chew, and was effectively as useful as a vegetable! As far as fates worse than death go, that should by all rights be one of them!" Raoun opened his mouth to retort, but Naia continued, cutting him off, "Now, I'm not so opposed to that if it is for our shared wellbeing, but we have to consider Eckhart now... at least for now, in this decision." Raoun marvellously returned to form with a winning scowl, and a quick glare at the little Von Musel.

Eyes narrowing on the child again, he asked, "Then tell me, Eckhart, what shall we do with our loose end?"

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

"I... I..." 

"Shit, what do I do? I can't let him die- what would I have saved him for?"

"Um... I, uh..." The boy shifted on his feet uncomfortably, avoiding Raoun's gaze.

*But they're right. If he's alive, he'll just cause trouble for us later..."

Eckhart's breathing began to grow sharp. "We, uh, we need to..." 

"Damnit! I don't know! Maybe-"

The healer was broken out of his thoughts by a low groan. Panicked, Eckhart whirled his head around to see the mugger slowly pushing himself up. "Wha'... Wha' happen..." the man moaned groggily. "Wa' that a ghost? Where'dee go?"

[Magyar]

"Enough of this!" Raoun snarled, "I will not have my wellbeing endangered by an indecisive child, Naialei!"

"Raoun-"

Without warning, Raoun launched off of his good leg, twisting almost out of control in his attempt to balance a one-legged propulsion with a dud leg's extra weight. He ascended and then began to fall in an impressive arc, perhaps six or seven feet horizontally. Nonetheless, he fell short of his target by a foot or two, and almost fell despite landing on his good leg. He hopped once, clenched his jaw, and fell elbow first towards the mugger. Secretly - although perhaps not so secretly, for Naia -  he was proud of himself for coming up with a way to kill this man without weapons and lacking a working dominant leg.

His elbow landed with a hollow thud just above the centre of the man's sternum, and slid uncomfortably towards his throat. The mugger coughed reflexively, but didn't have time to do much else before Raoun used his free hand to shove his elbow deeper into the man's larynx. The coughing became wet, and Raoun, now on the ground next to the choking man, raised his elbow and hammered it back down against the already damaged esophagus. This time, a sickeningly loud crunch was audible, and the mugger spat out a gob of blood with his next hacking cough. The man clawed at his throat desperately, but he was already choking on his own fractured larynx, never mind the blood flooding his mouth and lungs.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

"W-wait! No!"

Eckart cried out, reaching out his hand as if to grab the man, but it was too late. Raoun had crushed the man's throat, and the healer watched helplessly as the mugger died in front of him. Eckhart's arm went limp, his shoulders slumping. "You..."

"What were you going to do?" said a snide voice in his head. "Give him a hug and offer forgiveness?"

Eckhart turned away. His face was wet, but it may have just been the rain. "...There wasn't a choice that would have made us the good guys, was there?"

Eckhart already knew the answer.

[Magyar]

Raoun held his elbow tightly against the dying man's throat until he felt the last bubbling gasps fade. Naia said a prayer for the man's soul, and Raoun bit out a curse for his damnation.

He rolled off of the corpse, pushed himself up to his knees, and without a word, unfurled the glowing wings again. The raindrops splattered in all directions as the large wings extended and stretched. Raoun flapped once, then twice, turning in the air as he did so. When he faced Eckhart, his expression was cold and stony, his eyes like burnished bronze. Naia materialized behind him, adopting the same position draped over his shoulders she had assumed earlier.

"I am sorry, Eckhart. I truly am..."

Without saying another word to the boy, Raoun flapped his wings again, the full power of his ethereal limbs launching him above the alleys and into the sky. He pivoted tightly towards the south, and jetted away on glowing wings. Subtlety was obviously not a priority anymore. As they flew, Raoun's hard expression began to falter, becoming softer, even ashamed... but only for a moment. He hardened his features and with them his heart, and Naialei saw it all with a sadness that she decided -  in that moment - to keep entirely to herself.

[Eckhart_Von_Musel]

Eckhart remained silent as Naia spoke, clenching his fists as he he heard the two murderers disappear into the sky. It wasn't right, it wasn't what he believed in- so why did he feel okay?

"Ansgar, what is wrong with me?"

The boy slumped against the alley wall, staring the corpse in front of him. There was a look of fear in the man's eyes that Eckhart had never seen in a person before now. The downpour had quickly washed away the blood, leaving the body looking like an oddly positioned ragdoll.

"No. It's over. I can't look anymore."

Abruptly the healer pulled himself away from the body, eyes wide. Looking around to make sure nobody had been watching, he ran down the ally and back into the street, not looking back once...

~fin~