"Speech"
Eltrys tilted his head at the leader. She had been made into a tool, with no escape and no choice.
"Does the claw carry the sins of the wolf? Or the tooth? Should the knife be held accountable for the atrocities it committed in the maw of its wielder?" He sighed ruefully, he did not want to tell anyone who he could be. Though here, it may not matter who he was supposed to be... Or was this the destiny he was meant to carry all along? Be forced to relive a life he'd lived before?
"Bellamy, I tell you this not to sound arrogant, but perhaps it will help you understand where I come from, but please, do not share this with any others.
I was told I am the reincarnated messiah of my sect, come again to grant absolution, and forgiveness. To grant audience and commune with the divines directly. I was raised with these expectations set upon me.
Whether it is true... remains to be seen.
My uncle sent an assassin to end me so my cousin could take my place. They took my mother while hunting me and said I would be blamed.
I don't blame the assassin. The fault is my uncle's."
He stood, stretched his legs, shook his shaggy pelt. Regardless of how things may be different here, fighting a battle and the responsibility should be the same.
"If the child was old enough to decide to risk a raid where anything could happen, then they are a fighter who should have known the risks. As the defender, you did what you needed to do to survive and protect your pack, your daughter, and your grandchildren. If the child had not known the risks, the blame rests with her parents for not warning her and should not have placed her in the raid to begin with.
There is no guarantee of survival when teeth and claws clash. Raid or not, customs or not. Hopefully, the child survives, she was lucky to be merely maimed."
He lifted his gaze to Bellamy's, compassionate, sorrowful, steadfast filled his arctic blues to near tears.
"Truly the only sin I see that is yours, is that you believe you must carry the world's transgressions against you as if they are your transgressions against the world. I am so sorry you have been made to feel like this is all your fault." He shook his head in sympathy, the way others are used as tools and then blamed for the crimes they were forced to commit was not right.
He perked his ears as Haydees name was mentioned, and he nodded.
"Haydee's scars seem to be filling in rather well, she carries them fiercely. I told her such when I met her. They mark her as a staunch survivor against giant odds. Every scar upon your body is your honorable award for beating death. Surviving another season is sometimes all that matters in this life. She is small but mighty!" He complimented with amusement, "Her might came from her mother no doubt."
"I don't believe your fears for the young of Ethne are completely unfounded." Eltrys finally started on what seemed to be weighing the second heaviest on her shoulders.
"I'm sorry you face the waking nightmares of your past. It is not an easy thing to live with. With the demons and hell you were forced to live through, it is no wonder you feel as if they chase you still. I cannot give you the remedy for those terrors, it is not mine to give.
But, What I can provide If you'll take it, and I understand if you will not, is absolution. As a target of assassins, as someone who lost my mother to assassins, as a trained priest of my sect, Bellamy if you'll take it, I forgive you, you can be absolved" Perhaps... if she believes, she can put down those sins that were not hers to carry, she could then focus on the nightmares that haunt her in the daylight. It was a long shot, she may need to hold on to them still, a form of self-protection against the evils of the world. He would not hold it against her if she denied his forgiveness and still believed she had to seek atonement. But perhaps he was set on this path... so he could come here and give her the peace that she desperately needed.
Knight
Professor
