[Nov 16th] [original] Her Life in His Hands

[saraste-impi.livejournal.com]

Title: Her Life in His Hands
Day/Theme: 16. “Kill his friends – the more, the better – but do not kill him.”
Series: The Tragic Adventures of Iridian and Mirdre
Character/Pairing: Iridian, Mirdre
Rating: PG-13

Iridian really, really wished, that they had come for him instead. It was not right that he was left sitting there on cold cobbles wet by the blood of his sister, holding her, dying, in his arms. Nothing of it was in any way acceptable. The rasp of her breath, the gurgle of the blood as she gasped for breath to keep alive her ailing, failing body... it was unacceptable.

He had raced to her, running against time, hoping to overcome the assassin on his sister's trail, but had been too late. She became one more person whom he had failed to save. There had been others. From acquaintances to friends to lovers, the ax had fallen on them all, their lives snuffed short because someone bore Iridian a grudge. As he sat there, now, his mind wanting to go blank as Mirdre bleeding on him, dying, was too much to bear. The weight of her life seeping slowly away and yet faster than he would ever have thought possible, was crushing. A string of why's flitted through his mind panicking over Mirdre, the biggest why being why he had not realized that the people dropping dead around him were doing so on account of him.

Maybe... Maybe Mirdre would not be dying now, had he been smarter, cleverer, more observant.

He was mumbling a litany of apologies to her, blaming himself. As he should. Why his enemies, who on earth they were, had deemed it fit that he should suffer through the deaths of his near and dear ones, he could not understand. But he surmised that they wanted him to suffer more than they wanted him to die. In that, at least, they were succeeding.

Later, he would tear his life to pieces in trying to prove them wrong.