tueur compatissant

It was almost closing time when the bell rang on the front door. The physician's aggravation was highly noteable as he growled at the intruder. Sorticles had plans for those few moments before I returned to the insula and the intrusion was unwelcomed. The tirade was short lived however when he saw who had entered. A centurian, obviously in distress had found his way to the healer rambling about needing a serum to reduce fever. His young daughter was close to delirium with it. The entreaties of the armed guardsman would have been compelling to someone sentimental.Such a compassionate killer. It gave me an opportunity.
My employer was shooing the uniformed soldier toward the door with murmurs that we were closed .. come back tomorrow. All that it took was a gentle rest of my hand against the emerald sleeve to quiet him. We had a few moments to spare and it would offer a few more coins. I went to find the small vial that would cure the child's ails. The soldier's gratitude spilled into the street as he held the small package like it was made of gold. I took advantage of the moment to slip between the two men and bid them both farewell for the day.
I left them both behind while I hurried along the street. I sought that niche in the cement of an alley wall to poke part of the day's earnings. Once the bits were safe, I stepped back out within the crowds. If I had been studying faces looking for one in particular it was not the one that stopped me in my tracks.
Could it be? Was it him? My mind told me the improbabilty but the intense rise of emotion .. so new to me ...washed away reasoning. I found myself calling out across the way, trying to capture his attention. So emmersed in this beckoning, I'd not noticed Jelus coming up behind me. There was no mistaking that steel clutch at my arm. The bruises now layered on my skin in a rainbow of purple to greenish yellow fades. How long had he been there? How much had he seen?
For a moment I tried to break the grasp, reaching out across time, across distance, even across impossibility for Septus, the only male that had been allowed to live ... my brother.
That disobedience, that bit of defiance would cost me dearly. That night, Jelus earned a new place at the top of my book of retribution