“Plant.” The sheer weight of the bitter irony flattened the one-word response, which he had uttered in a tone as resolute and unfeeling as stone. “But the raccoon, Cypha, won’t use it. She’s as lazy as she is fat.”

Perhaps a better man - or even the Embric of long ago - would have cared that he had judged the pair guilty without even allowing them the opportunity to prove their innocence, but Elderkeep had stripped him of his compassion for certain individuals. Those with red hair, those who enthusiastically supported the ones with red hair, and those like Rhidian and Cypha topped the list.

“He won’t fight back, either,” Embric continued, following Aine’s guidance as he led the way toward the row of abandoned wagons where the thieves had settled down. “He’ll whine and plead. Maybe cry.” Probably cry. “He might try to run, so you might have to stop that.” The last words were directed more toward the dingo stalking along beside them.

As for a plan? Embric knew that one of them alone would have been more than enough to handle Rhidian and Cypha, which meant that both of them together was nothing short of overkill, but he could appreciate the request for a plan of attack nonetheless. With Aine offering specific details, he outlined for Elaxi and Ferb the position taken up by the useless Dresmondi: how Rhidian had cornered himself by sitting with his back against the wheel of a rundown wagon, how the only sign of Cypha was the sleepy heartbeat from under the wagon beside him, how they were both conveniently positioned out of sight of the main road.

It was almost as if he had asked for the beat down. “If he sees me, he’ll probably try to leave,” Embric mused, thinking of his last encounter with Rhidian. “But he won’t recognize either you - or, at least, he won’t have any reason to run. You could get close and hold him in place, then I’ll join you.” By now, they knew what the other was capable of with their respective element. “Or Aine could blind him, Ferb stops him from running, and we approach together.” A brief pause as he allowed her to consider the options or pose her own. Then he added: “And, unfortunately, I don’t expect you’ll have to worry about ruining the tomatoes. No doubt they’re already gone.”

That was what they did.

Hanging back, Embric lingered out of sight while Aine circled and swooped low, leading Elaxi and Ferb toward the two thieves before landing herself upon the wagon under which Cypha slept. The dingo did not hesitate. He manipulated the water in Rhidian’s and Cypha’s blood, in their muscles, and every one of their cells to hold them in place.

Embric rounded the corner to find Rhidian frozen and Cypha mostly out of sight, though similarly immobilized under the wagon. If she was even awake enough to realize. From an initial glance, he couldn’t tell. What he did recognize, however - what they all recognized - was the evidence of the pair’s thievery that lay in the puddle of tomato juice on the ground nearby. Not that Embric had ever doubted the other man’s guilt. Arms crossed, he strolled forward to stand beside Elaxi and studied Rhidian for a moment. Whether recognition flickered through the culprit, he couldn’t tell. After a moment, he observed lightly, “I would recommend punching him, at least once. It’s quite cathartic.”

He needn’t have wasted his breath, for barely had the words left his mouth than he watched Rhidian’s eyes widen and heard him began to sputter and choke. In a flutter of white feathers, Aine landed on the ground beside the dingo and sent light under the wagon at the raccoon, blinding her. Unnerved despite his indifference toward the thief, Embric paused, casting a glance toward Elaxi, who seemed just as resolute in causing more lethal damage as her dyr. Well, he thought, arms falling to his side, it wasn’t as though Embric would protest on Rhidian’s behalf.

”Embric.” Aine drew his gaze to the ground, where wispy excuses for shoots had begun to emerge from the ground around them. His eyebrows rose. Unable to see her targets, Cypha’s poor attempts at a counterattack were aimless at best, but more than that, after years of Dresmondi eking every possible nutrient out of it, he was rather impressed that the untended soil of the paths on which they stood was capable of supporting any plant growth at all.

Unfolding his arms, he strode forward and stepped on the closest shoot, crushing it easily underfoot. Amusement flickered toward him from the gyrfalcon’s side of their bond as he casually repeated the action.

While Embric busied himself with this, Ferb had darted under the wagon and taken a hold of the fat raccoon. He dragged the immobilized dyr into the open and, without any hesitation, lunged toward her throat with snapping jaws. Embric froze, but he couldn’t have stopped the dingo even if he’d wanted to. Instead, he stood nearby and watched as fur and flesh unceremoniously gave way to fangs. Blood spurted, gurgled, and pooled like it had so many months ago from a far less deserving individual.

Ferb swallowed the piece of Cypha’s throat that he had torn away.

“Guess we’re serving raccoon tonight,” Elaxi mused.

Darkly amused despite himself, Embric huffed and shook his head. If only killing Tazmin had been so easy and painless; perhaps they should have called upon Elaxi and her healer’s knowledge of the body that night. Now his gaze turned toward Rhidian, who had slipped away silently while his attention had been fixed on the dyr. Slumped as he was against the wheel, the man had barely shifted sideways as his body became dead weight, and Embric could see a mixture of bile and blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth.

Striding forward, Elaxi searched the corpse until she found the stolen tomato, which she turned and showed to Embric before pocketing. He nodded his acknowledgement, watching as she approached him.

You don’t suppose any Eldouir would be invested in attempting to heal him? The idle question was posed to Aine.

“He did imply that he met one of the queens.”

Embric made a thoughtful noise. Then he reached out and caught Elaxi’s arm as she neared. Certain precautions couldn’t hurt. “Do you have any blade or knife on you?”

She did.

“I doubt that Rhidian would garner such care, but Hiram Eldouir can heal fatal damage,” Embric said. “Just in case, I think it prudent of us to ensure there’s nothing left for him to heal.”

Elaxi did the honors. Even if Rhidian had somehow survived the exsanguination of his dyr, no amount of life remained in his body after his own throat had been slit - more bile and blood had poured from the gaping wound - and a blade driven into his heart.

The Embric of the past would have been appalled at how indifferently the Embric of today stood by and watched. And how, when they finally turned away from Elderkeep’s newest corpses, the only thought he had to spare for such gruesome deaths was a simple

Good riddance.

---

Rhidian and Cypha are dead. All involved parties consented to this outcome, and permission was granted by Heather and Darkest for me to use their characters in such a way to get there. The post itself was approved by them prior to posting.