Bruce walked after Ross, the floodgates that he'd maintained around the subject gradually cracking. The truth leaked, then flowed, threatening to crash down in a wave that might ruin the stoic barrier between the world and his emotions he'd built.
[color=0072bc]"I wasn't there when they first appeared. I think I was working, or whittling... It wasn't even important. All I remeber for certain is that I was eager. A ceremony had been scheduled, and we were both-"[/color]
Bruce cleared his throat, digressing from that part of the story.
[color=0072bc]"I noticed the fires first. I ran past others who fled in the other direction, shouting warnings. When I got to the house, she was..."[/color]
Bruce heaved a shaky sigh, pinching his eyes shut.
[color=0072bc]"They were gathered around her, and her dress had been torn... She wasn't screaming. I could see the tears on her face, but if anything, she seethed at them. Her father, who'd passed away only months before, was an old soldier, but made it a principal rule that his life as a warrior and as a father would not overlap. There were no weapons in the house, only his old sheath for his blade. One of them passed a filthy hand over her face, and she bit into his fingers as hard as she could. I took hold of the first chair I saw and managed to break it over someone's head before they were on me. I was still on the ground when I heard her cries cut short- her neck was broken."[/color]
Bruce gripped the sheath at his waist, biting his lower lip to keep it from trembling.
[color=0072bc]"I didn't know magic at the time. I had only just discovered Ki, and only practiced it for minutes a day in secret, because her father had discouraged seeking out mastery of it for the fact that it inevitably led to trouble. I swear I did everything I knew to bring pain back to the nameless monsters, but they grew tired of me and put me down. They left to join others in attacking the rest of the village. I don't know why they didn't bother to end my life. I would have laid there rather than confront her face staring up at me again, but I heard my little brother's voice- hoarse, and broken, but I heard it from the next room."[/color]
A definite wavering broke through Bruce's dam and found its way into his voice.
[color=0072bc]"He was crawling toward the door with one arm and a broken ankle, asking for his sister. I stopped him just before he turned the corner that lay between him and her body. 'It hurts,' he said, once he realized who I was. His constitution had never been more than average, and blood trailed in creeping puddles from where his right arm had been severed. He begged me to bring him to his sister so she could make it better."[/color] Bruce inhaled through his nose. [color=0072bc]"I assured him, repeatedly, that if he could just fall asleep, everything would be better when he woke up. His sister would be there, I told him. I could have done something- I might have been able to save others by helping them run if I'd left him. But I couldn't save him. And though it was more likely a minute or two at most I sat there before he closed his eyes, it felt like days."[/color] Bruce finished, grateful for the movement of his body that might otherwise be on the ground for all the weight of long repressed feelings coursing through him.
[color=0072bc]"I swore then that I'd never make another promise I couldn't make good on."[/color] Bruce whispered.