He who dares__________________________Eric watched Marai for a few more moments.
"I see..." he said before he turned away and began setting up the tent, seeming angry about something.
Divine isn't dead then, he decided as he set up the metal framework for the tent.
Then we still have the chance to kill him, Harold replied in his inner world.
Yeah.... What's wrong? Marai is what's wrong. So she's a bit bigger and I'll have to take two bites to finish her. So what?Eric had finished setting up the metal framework of the tent and pulled out the canvas, beginning the process of draping it over the frame and evening it out.
She has all our memories Harold. Harold fell silent, realizing where Eric was going with this.
Oh...that. Exactly. Eric took out the ties and began securing the tent to the ground.
I gave her the memories when she was a baby. She wasn't supposed to be old enough to talk about them for years. Being four was okay because even then she would have a hard time grasping them but now... Now she's more than old enough. Right.Eric stepped back from the tent, seemingly focusing all his attention on setting it up properly. He walked over to his duffel bag and pulled out some blankets, opening the tent and spreading them out across the bottom to give it some padding.
I told you we should have just killed her. Eric didn't comment as he spread out the blankets. Once he had finished he went back outside the tent and grabbed his sleeping bag, bringing it inside the tent and unrolling it, making sure it was all set.
Could he kill Marai? The question was two-fold. He didn't know if he could bring himself to do it. The other, more dangerous aspect of the problem was that for the time being she had a leg up on him, ironically. He was confident he was still a lot stronger than she was, but there were ways to make that not count. He remembered how he had fought Nurse Mortem in Charlotte's inner soul room while Marai was being born. Nurse Mortem had been much stronger than him at the time thanks to the fact that he was only several breaths away from death. But his amount of experience, his intimidating aggression and the fact that Nurse Mortem wasn't willing to go as far as he was had made him the victor.
The situation was slightly different with Marai. The fact of the matter was that Eric fought his battles based on logic. They were a series of if-then choices. If enemy does this, then do this. If situation is this, prepare for that. That was one of the reasons giving Marai his memories had been so effective. He had basically given her an instruction manual with full audio and video step-by-step instructions on how to survive and win in all kinds of situations. A complete guide to his tactics. That wasn't to say Eric couldn't improvise or learn new strategies. He was sure in time he could out-pace Marai again. But for now there simply hadn't been enough time between when he'd given her his memories and now for him to develop new strategies. Her information was current.
Eric stood up and walked out the tent back to his duffel bag. He grabbed the electric lantern out of it and walked back into the tent, hanging it up from the roof. He sat back down inside the tent, running his fingers through his hair.
His mind went back to two days before the battle in the Center of Death City. That Kishin Scarlet had come to him and reminded him of when they had met, when they had been back at the arenas. And brought him horrible news as she'd always done. Two people from his past were out to get him. One of them went by the name "James Jetter", and the other one was some kind of dog. That situation had been slightly convoluted but it was clear the mutt wanted him to suffer just as much as "James" did. And they both had Miesters already. If it had simply been a matter of killing him, Eric would have gladly taken his chances and faced them in battle. But Scarlet knew that. She hit him somewhere he couldn't hit back. If he didn't cooperate, then she would inform them both of what Dara meant to him, as well as who Dara's little sister was, where they lived and their entire class schedule. And they would wait for the right time. As long as it took. Eric was sure.
The price of her silence was simple but steep: Shira's life. Scarlet had been keen on taking out the entire Death family for some reason. She planned to take care of Kidd personally, but she wanted to make sure the family line itself ended.
Eric held up his hand, it was shaking. His other hand reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, glass vial. The same one Scarlet had given him. The one with the poison that burned out your guts. He paused. Why had he told Shira that story back in the Medical Tent? Was it guilt? She told him that the vial was special; she would know as soon as it had been emptied so he couldn't just toss it out. And she would know when the poison touched the lips of a member of the Death family. He had no idea how, but he didn't doubt her. He'd accepted Scarlet's offer and taken the vial. The dead-line to use it was tonight. He slowly put the vial back in his pocket. After all that the battle at Death City had happened, and then he had given Mirai all his memories. All of them.
Scarlet had known the cure to the poison was chrysanthemum. She would have mixed the poison with something else to make sure the cure wouldn't work; she wasn't stupid. Otherwise he could just make Shira drink it and then cure her.
I'd have to fight Marai hand-to-hand. With Dara I'm sure I could still beat her but on my own it's going to be tough. The problem was he didn't know what Marai would do, or how much she could guess about what
he would do, considering he himself had never been faced with this kind of situation before. She could tell everyone and force his hand right then and there or she could decide to try something else. He didn't know which. Either way things would end up the same. He would make sure of it.
WINS
