no good reason

‘I’m not going to justify what I did Li-’

‘You couldn't if you tried. You ordered us into a bloodbath, Syraw. I know people don’t believe in your little cultists but your obsession got my... my Billy killed for no good reason.’

Her blue eyes were icy and tears smudged what little makeup she’d seen fit to apply in her state of raw mourning, a droplet gathering at the tip of her nose.

‘I know, I’m sorry about your husband Liz, I really am.’

‘No, you’re not. How many others have been killed like that under your command? They slit his fucking throat, Syraw. I watched them slit his throat.’

‘I know... I know. If we don’t stop the Cult though-’

‘Then what? There are plenty of crackpot religions spouting all kinds of nonsense, are you gonna have them all locked up or shot?’

It had come to the point where I’d run out of words. I couldn’t make her understand. Not if I moved the heavens for her. Not unless I could prove what I knew about the Cult with hard, irrevocable evidence, which of course I couldn’t. I knew how much it was harming Elizabeth to be in the same ship as me, breathing the same air, but I doubted it would be for too much longer, remembering Dr Jonko’s wise words - Let her go. Clean slate. She doesn’t want to be on the Dog’s Head. I looked from Elizabeth’s swollen lips, pale nose and cheeks to her watering eyes. Lips and eyes that had so recently loved and been loved, before I ripped love from her completely.