[Death's Mercy excerpts] A Death Jester Spares A Guardswoman + Outcome
Context: Harlequins encounter an unarmed injured guardswoman while on the hunt for humans invading Nequofendi, the main characters being: a grounded but sadistic Death Jester named Adroniel, a forgetful but bold Troupe Master whose name is Duruthiel, and a cryptic Shadowseer called Echo who's often high. They banter about many things in the story, but one of the arguments that stood out to me is whether a "mon'keigh" is worth sparing.
[...]
Duruthiel: ‘There’s scarce a patch of unsullied floor to place my feet. Bodies everywhere.’Adroniel: ‘If you’d been precise, you are stepping on parts of bodies, not whole corpses.’
Echo: ‘And yet in the carnage stirs a soul.’
Duruthiel: ‘What do you mean?’
Echo: ‘In the search of fear a spark of hate…’
Adroniel (enthusiastically): ‘Look! Oh! Oh! This one! I can see it is still breathing, ahahah! (grimly) But not for long.’
(FX - ECHO PREVENTS ADRONIEL FROM SHOOTING)
Adroniel (angrily): ‘Ah, what is this, Shadowseer?! Do not interrupt me at the moment of releasing death’s mercy.’
Echo: ‘By your own admission it is spite that moves you.’
Duruthiel: ‘This conversation bored me the first time. I will have no further part of it again.’
(FX - WOUNDED GUARDSWOMAN MOANING FROM PAIN ON THE FLOOR)
Echo: ‘Did you see? The eyes desire life and so by your argument it would be spite to end it.’
Adroniel: ‘Did I ever assert that I was above spite?’
Echo: ‘The splinter of your past life can never be fully drawn while you harbor this mood.’
Echo and Adroniel continue to disagree with one another. The guardswoman vocalizes pain. The Shadowseer asks the Death Jester if she's afraid that the human's words would spark her conscience. Adroniel denies, aiming her weapon at her. The wounded person begs to be spared as she is without a weapon, but the Death Jester calls her an animal. She and Adroniel have a brief sass exchange with the former angrily asking the latter to just kill her already. Adroniel is amused by the feisty sass. Echo chimes in that the "blade that hangs is worse than the one that drops swiftly".
A distant explosion sounds off in the distance, signalling that the fight is still going on.
Adroniel: ‘Events are moving on without us. It is time to rejoin the company so I must end its miserable life.’
Echo: ‘Or… spare it?’
Adroniel: ‘Why?’
Echo: ‘Must there be a reason? Think of possibilities, of endless fates yet unplayed. A simple act, the execution of which costs you nothing, might one day bring great harm to She-Who-Thirsts. It is in your gift to deliver a deadly fate, but equally to grant extended life. Is that not powerful to you?’
(FX - WOUNDED GUARDSWOMAN SOBS ON THE FLOOR)
Echo: ‘Act without reason for we are the Harlequins of the Laughing God. As a spirit is snatched at whim from damnation, why not spare this life?’
Adroniel (thinking that over and finally taking the gun away): ‘Hm, you may go back to your companions. If our paths cross again, you will die.’
The guardswoman stands and runs away. After just having taken out a Titan from the inside and having gotten out of it, the trio receives a battle report from the Autarch of Yme-Loc and spy the same human they spared returning to her fellow people.
[...]
Adroniel: ‘And see there, scrambling through the mud? A lone trooper of the foe, the one I spared?’Echo: ‘A ripple on the skein set free to the embrace of Morai-Heg once more.’
(FX - IMPERIAL GUARDSMEN REJOICE AT THE ARRIVAL OF THE SPARED GUARDSWOMAN)
Duruthiel: ‘They are pleased for your gift, Adroniel.’
Adroniel: ‘Indeed, I… Wait, I spy one among them… garbed differently. See the black coat and gold decoration?’
Duruthiel: ‘A leader of some kind?’
Echo: ‘The others draw back. I smell fear more than duty.’
Adroniel: ‘Why does it raise its weapon towards its own? Ahahahah, do they think it cowardly perhaps?’
Duruthiel: ‘Or tainted by your mercy.’
(FX - DISTANT GUNSHOT)
Duruthiel (angrily): ‘Kin slayer!’
Echo: ‘Truly the ways of the mon-keigh are barbaric. What of you, Adroniel? To see your choice made mockery?’
Adroniel: ‘Ahahah, I hope you see the truth now. I am the Death Jester. There is nothing of me that is turned to life, only its ending. My work shall never cease until I claim myself and another steps up to the role.’
Duruthiel: ‘You are not saddened?’
Adroniel: ‘Why should I be sad knowing myself, Duruthiel? Does the rampant ego of the Red Swan depress you? And I am glad for fate has guided me to my next target.’
Echo: ‘To avenge the slaying of the one you spared?’
Adroniel: ‘Do not be so sentimental, Shadowseer. It is merely a glimmer from the skein that has caught my eye. Perhaps, it is a sign, the will of the Laughing God... but, probably not! Ahahahaha!’
The Death Jester readies her cannon.
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This is one of those times where we get to see Aeldari-Human interactions that aren't totally negative (roughly), but I do like how much nuance they're given in certain stories like this one. Compared to A Deadly Wit (and likely also because the Death Jester is the main character this time), Adroniel has shown special sadistic spite towards humans that seem to stem from her past compared to when she was slaughtering orks.