Misstep [Degare]
Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 8:10 am
42 Frost 4617
There is nothing worse than the foolishness of youth. It was a dangerous beast, one that made you abandon your principles, one that made you deaf to the warning bells tolling in your head. It made you bend and bow to the pressure of your peers, and made you capable of great things you would never even think to try.If there was one type of person Amyas Dal'Morian feared, it was those jackals that lurked at the top. The Entente and their myriad miracle-working, their breaking and making of the laws that were absolute to everyone else. That instinct, that urge for the prey to evade the predator, had managed to keep him alive so far. Or at least, the Sil'norai liked to think that kind of caution was what had gotten him this far.
Unfortunately, any illusion that he could ever stoop below their notice shattered with a simple scrap of paper. Fortunately, that scrap of paper would not arrive for another four years.
But that was a tale for another time.
This was a decision far less grand than the one that would occur, far more simple in its implication. It was, in short, the choice to do your job.
The man dressed in sombre finery was so obviously nobility it hurt to look at him. The people seemed to part before him, as the river parts before the rock. There was a certain level of distance being kept from him, a halo of space that all had wordlessly agreed should never be encroached upon.
All except a boy who took the dares of his friends far too seriously. Slowly, slowly, from behind… The lack of cover made Amyas shiver, but there were just a few steps forward, and many steps back.
One step, then another, assessing where his hand should reach towards. The hairs on his arms raise up as he readies himself to make a break for it. A patch of glass growing on his outstretched hand dimly catches the sun. And then—