The Ten

‘What was strength if not a series of scarifications?’ Gaine asked himself for the hundredth time.

He looked at his trembling hands and they were dark with the answer.

Blood, a rich red like nothing else.

Also, there was a dull ringing at the back of his head.

To say he was unwell was an understatement.

"You seem troubled," Eren Trost called to him.

It was a sly jest as his own words were being thrown back at him.

His eyes met Eren's.

His opponent was not in a better place than he was. He too was leaking out his lifeblood.

‘I could say the same for you.’ He wanted to yell back at Eren, but he was not sure he had the strength.

‘What was strength if not a series of scarifications?’ The question plagued him again.

It is time to finish this, Gaine advised himself. It was way past time in fact.

He knew exactly what to do.

The night he woke from the Dream state, his father was a presence hovering over him.

"Do you feel it?" He had asked Gaine after the house servant who had been tend