Published at 16th of August 2024 8:39 am

Book 2 Chapter 50: I'm the One Standing With the Knife

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Dantes mumbled along with the rest of the temple in prayer while he shifted his full focus to looking through Jacopo’s eyes. At this point there was no mental handshake between them, he blinked through his own eyes, and opened Jacopo’s. Jacopo was sitting at the end of a long hall looking around the corner at a door with what looked like a perfect single cold plate at the top of it. A woman wearing a gold half mask stood at the door. She wore no weapons, but the smile on her face was somehow unsettling.

“Wait there. I’ll meet you,” sent Dantes as he stood up from the pew. He drew a few annoyed looks, but mumbled the usual half-hearted apologies leaving a temple pew warranted as he made his way out. He opened a side door and quickly slid inside. A temple guard, still praying in unison with the rest of the temple, shook his head and went to follow him inside. He opened the door, but found no one there, save the tail of a rat as it went around the far corner. He shrugged, and returned to the main room of the temple, not wanting to miss the offering.

Dantes reviewed the memories Jacopo had of maneuvering through the building and followed his path, eliminating a few dead ends that he’d run into during his search. He met Jacopo there and looked at the scene. The woman was smaller than him, but radiated a kind of menace that made him wary of a direct approach. He could likely slip past her and under the door as a roach, but he would likely be making enough noise with Danglars that she would wind up coming in and being a problem anyway. No, he’d need to take care of her.

Dantes shifted into roach form and started to crawl along the bottom of the far wall from her, trying to get a good angle at which he could shift and strike her. He made it halfway when she very suddenly launched forward with her foot outstretched in order to kick him.

Dantes shifted back to himself before the kick could land, turning a fatal blow into a just painful one as he hit the door. He raised his wooden hand and sent out his fingers like branches to wrap around her. She swiftly dodged out of the way and drew a long golden needle from somewhere on her person that she brandished at him menacingly, still holding the same smile she’d had before attacking him.

Dantes covered his eyes with his right hand and raised his left one, letting the yellow marble sunrise peek through his palm. He sent his will through it just as the woman charged him and searingly bright light filled the hallway. There was no sound to accompany it, which gave it an uncanny and eerie quality. The woman stumbled before reaching him and he quickly drew his stiletto and slid it between her ribs. She coughed a bit of blood on him, and he stabbed her swiftly several more times to speed her demise. She collapsed on the ground, dead.

Dantes caught his breath for a moment and looked down the hall. There was no one there to hear his struggle, they must’ve all been attending the service. He lifted her golden needle and pocketed it. He then went to remove her mask and found himself lifting the entire top of her body along with it. It wasn’t just a mask, it was fused to her face. He looked closer and found that there wasn’t even a seam where the mask started and her face began. He stood back up, and looked at the needle again. Now that he was putting more attention on it, he realized it had a kind of…sickness emanating from it. Something he couldn’t quite define.

“It’s like the gold in Mondego’s basement,” offered Jacopo.

Dantes didn’t know what that feeling meant, but he did trust his instincts on it. He dropped the needle. He then dragged the woman’s body into the far corner. This room was at the end of the hall after a corner, so no one should walk that far unless they were headed for the room anyway, and at that point he would be discovered either way. He approached the door with the golden plate, and picked the lock with his wooden hand, pushing it open.

The door creaked as it opened, and Dantes found the room to be darker than he expected. The curtains were drawn, and not a single candle was lit. He didn’t see Danglars, but could sense someone his size hidden behind the bed against the far wall. Dantes slid the door closed and locked it. He slowly approached the hidden figure, hearing mutterings as he got closer.

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“I’m sorry mother.”

“Should’ve kept my temper as you taught.”

“Yes mother. I should be disciplined”

“I’m just a foolish little piggy.”

“Can’t be trusted with more than rooting around in the muck”

Dantes came around the corner of the bed. Danglars was curled up in a ball. His clothing was disheveled and covered in blood. He didn’t even see Dantes as he stood there in full view. His eyes were full of madness, sadness, and desire all at once. He was pathetic.

Dantes smiled, feeling immense satisfaction spread through him.

Jacopo radiated that same satisfaction from Dantes’s shoulder, reflecting it like a mirror.

“You know. This is exactly how I’d hoped to see you when I arrived here.”

Danglar finally took notice of him, he sat up a bit and gave Dantes a crooked smile. “Oh, Dantes, welcome,” he slid a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his face. “It’s good to see you. Have you met my mother?” he pointed to the empty air to his right.

“No, I hadn’t,” he gave an exaggerated bow to the pocket of air Danglars had indicated. “It’s a pleasure Madam Forteville.”

Danglars chuckled a bit. “Oh Mother, that’s not a nice thing to say. Even if it’s true.”

“It’s okay. I don’t expect her to show me any kindness. Not after I took everything from her son.”

Danglars stared at him blankly.

“Although, maybe that would make her like me more actually. She didn’t seem to really be rooting for you to succeed. Not beyond what would benefit herself anyway.”

He laughed again, a bit of the dried blood on his face cracking as he did so. “That’s true. She’s always been a bit selfish.”

Dantes pondered his stiletto. “Well Danglars, are you going to fight me, or would you prefer that I make this quick?”

“Why would I fight you? We’re friends.”

“Do friends let friends rot in the Pit?”

“What? I-” a bit of sanity seemed to slip back into his expression, but it was brief.

“I spent five years in that shithole just so you could have the money and power gained through half promises by a man you’d only just met. That’s all it took for you to take everything from me.”

A bit more clarity came to his eyes and he started looking fully at Dantes.

“I stole your symbol of office to cause you trouble with the docking authorities and Mondego. I stole your mother’s letter from your desk. I had Mistress Dosia poison every drink she gave you. I forged letters in your mothers hand to torment you.”

Danglars was starting to breathe more quickly as Dantes spoke, but the madness that had overtaken him wasn’t fading. A harsh speech wasn’t exactly the cure to months of poisoning.

“There was not a single person in your life that was unwilling to betray you. All of them were filled with contempt for you at best and hatred at worst. You will not be missed.”

“You’re no better. You weren’t then and you aren’t now.”

Dantes shrugged,surprised at the coherence of his statement. “That might be true. The difference is, I’m the one standing with the knife, and you’re the one curled on the floor with his life in shambles.”

Danglars looked at his hand, raising his ring finger to his eyes. There was a sliver of gold still on it. He looked at Dantes, and then at the window.

“Oh, I’d really rather you allowed me the personal satisfaction Danglars. Come now, that sliver of cursed luck is far more likely to get you past me than to let you survive that fall.”

He stood, eyed Dantes and the window again. He ran for it.

Dantes ran after him, leaping onto his back before he could get close enough to a leap of his own. He drove the stiletto into his back again, and again, and again. Danglars cried at every blow, screaming for his mother and begging for mercy the entire time. Dantes felt no sympathy for him, he just kept stabbing.

Eventually Danglars was completely still. Dantes drove the stiletto into him one more time, and felt the blade stick into his spine. He left the dagger where it was and stood, panting. He closed his eyes and felt the joy of revenge wash over him. Only two left.

Jacopo leapt off and began to eat Danglars's eyes.

“Eat quickly. We’re going to need to get out of here as soon as we can.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said a voice behind them. “You could stay for a glass of wine if you’d like. I’m sure we could find something to discuss.”

Dantes turned around to see Godfrey, leaning in the door frame with a smile across his golden face.

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