The Iron Alchemist

Chapter 11

Leslie didn't take the news like he'd imagine; she stood cool as ice. "You have proof?"

"Not yet..."

"And what draws your conclusion?"

Jerocobish allowed himself time to find the right words, and once found, the moon seemed brighter in the sky. "Poison..."

"Poison?" Leslie said. "You need to speak to Jostice-"

"No," Jerocobish said forcefully.

"He has a right to know-"

"He is no longer a part of this family."

"Because you disowned him..."

Jerocobish raised a finger as his lip trembled. He still remembered those words...the words of his son admitting his crime. It was me, Jostice told him. I killed him, Pa. The words still ripped at him day and night. Blood or no blood...There was no forgiveness to be had.

"Jostice died with my son," He said.

Leslie crossed her arms while her eyebrows furrowed. "You'll do it or Boone will ride back with ya." Her words hit like bullets. "You can't hide from the past forever..."

The Duelosseum cleared and the crowd had gone back to their wagons, partying until the mornings' dawn; prepared for the long track down the mountain.

Jerocobish stood by the sign humming to a fiddle when the sound of approaching boots caught him.

"You've gone gray, old man."

His ears perked. Jerocobish knew the voice though it'd been lost in memory; only found amongst the wild and the drunks. Just where it belonged, He thought. Where he belongs...

Jerocobish saw the moonlit silhouette of a man; the man he hardly knew. "You were slow."

Jostice laughed as he faded into the torchlight, skinny as he ever was. "I still got him."

"And nearly paid the price." Jerocobish spat. "Why don't you ever listen, Boy? Stay on your guard...Shoot qui-"

"Quick, I know." Ace shook his head. "Easier said than done when facing off against a friend."

Jerocobish head burnt like coals beneath a cauldron turning his face red. "Is that what you did for your brother? Take your time?" He couldn't stop himself, "you butchered him, and for what, an Alpaki bitch..." Jerocobish felt the mans swollen eyes boring through him. How could he be so cruel? Say things that drove flesh deep...And to kin at that? This wasn't what he wanted...To destroy him further. "I'm Sorry...my tongue got the best of me.*

"Don't be. You're right, afterall...you were always right." Jostice looked to the wagoners who were in a ruckus. "I think I've earned myself a drink." And headed towards the fiddle.

"Wait." Jerocobish grabbed the man's coat. The material felt rough and torn between his fingers; rough and torn as the man before him. "It's your mothers...she's been taken ill."

Jostice yanked his sleeve free. "She'll recover. She's the strongest woman I know-"

"It's poison...A dark alchemy, one I've never seen before." Jerocobish shook his head. "I've spent my whole life studying elixirs, hexes, and spells yet this one eludes me."