Into the West

=^-^= lalala yet another chapter! yay me!

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~Othello’s Private Quarters, Sanc Palace~


“What do you mean you haven’t found anything?” yelled a furious general as he paced back and forth across a very well worn carpet.

Across the large table, with its scaled model of Sanc, eight of his most trusted lieutenants cowered.
It had been a very long time since any of them had seen the blond prince this angry about anything. His normal devil-may-care attitude had flown out the window along with his self control, or so it seemed at this moment.

Ever since the assassin had swung from the wall and escaped in the dark alleys, he had been in a rage. There seemed to be no end in sight to his ranting, the men thought collectively.

Worst of all, none of them had the slightest idea how to calm him down.

“My lord, please. It has only been a couple of hours. There are three times the normal amount of guards on the gate. The assassin can not leave the city without our knowledge.”

Spinning on the eight men his blue eyes ablaze, Othello slammed his hands firmly down onto the table and glared at them. “Only three? I want that assassin caught, not given a free pass out of Sanc! I want ten times the normal amount of guards placed on the gate, plus dogs!”
Othello paused long enough to take a deep breath before he slowly said, “You have given the dogs our prey’s scent from all that blood we found on the temple wall, I gather?”

Seeing the anger fading from the general’s eyes, the men nodded quickly.

“Good, at least you did one thing correct today. Now get out of here – dismissed,” he said coldly.
Turning away from them, Othello began to fiddle with the model of the capital on the table before him.

He did not bother to watch them leave and he did not see the cloaked figure slip through the door just after his lieutenants had departed.

“You seem to be in an exhalent mood today…brother,” commented a familiar voice.

Glancing up, Othello scanned the darkened room until his blue eyes fell upon a tall figure leaning against the far wall. Smiling slightly, the general turned and threw a couple of logs on to the fire.

“Are you surprised to see me again?” the figure whispered in a honeyed tone.

The elder prince chuckled softly, “I am always amazed by your ability to get yourself through things that would kill others, Kira. But, yes, I must admit that I am surprised to see you again.”

Pushing away from the wall, the forth prince walked into the light and pulled back his hood. His dark face was etched with angry lines. “Really? Personally Othello, I find it insulting that you thought I would die so easily. I thought you knew me better then that, brother.”

Running a hand back through his long hair, the general walked over to the open window, “Two months. What do you expect Kira? We all thought you were dead. Lir’s spies could find no trace of you after your assignment was completed and neither could mine.”

“Well, as you can see Othello, I am very much alive, although I can’t say the-”

“Yes, yes, that is all well and good,” Othello interrupted coldly. “But what I want to know is what happened to you in the two months you’ve been missing!” Turning his back on the window, the general shot him a look of deep irritation.

Taking a deep breath, Kira smiled tightly and fought the urge to hit his brother. He had expected nothing else of him though; Othello had always been on track when it came to things like this.

“I was about to tell you that when you interrupted me,” the forth prince said calmly as he folded his arms across his lean chest.

Leaning on the windowsill the elder prince nodded slightly and sourly muttered, “Please continue.”

Rolling coffee coloured eyes Kira muttered, “Fucking icicle stuck up your ass now?” This earned him a withering glare from the elder prince, but didn’t faze him in the slightest, he was use to worse. “After your mission in Saville, I headed back here. My men were supposed to meet me on the north-eastern edge of the Great Forest, but they never showed up.
I decided I’d go to the last place I saw them and see if I could find any clues as to their whereabouts. When I got there, I found them.”

Pausing, Kira turned and looked into the fire with a troubled expression on his face. “All dead. All of them, right down to the last man. Can you believe that Othello? I couldn’t. All of my team taken out before most of them could so much as raise a dagger in defence!”

All of a sudden the air around Kira became suffocating.

From his seat on the window, Othello stared at his brother in disbelief. Kira’s entire team taken out and before they could defend themselves? It did not seem possible; it could not be possible. Kira took only the very best that the continent had to offer. The best fighters, the best tacticians, the best trackers, yet, his entire group had been killed off like amateurs.

“How, how could that be possible Kira?” Othello whispered into the stillness of the room.

Casting his eyes towards his brother, Kira could not bear to meet Othello’s gaze. Finally, he hung his head and looked deep into the flames. “It was an assassin, an assassin with skills unlike anything I have ever seen before.”

“An assassin? As in a singular assassin?” Othello’s question came out sharp.

Kira nodded, “A single person took out all of my men using a dagger, the wounds and the few footprints I found told me that much.”

Pushing away from the window, Othello moved towards the table. “Were you able to trace them?”

“No. I found tracks in the glade, leading into and leading away, but then I lost them. But the tracks I did find led out of the forest on the west side. I think they might have headed here.”

Othello’s eyes narrowed, “What direction did they come from? Do you think that it is possible that they were working for Pyriel or Lir and were sent after you?”

“I don’t know, but I would not think so,” Kira said softly. “They came from the north. I was able to trace them back to the Ancient watchtower at the edge of the Invoria Range. I was lucky that it had not snowed and the weather has been mild…I’ve never had so much difficulty tracking anyone before. I actually lost the trail for three days and it was pure chance that I found it again.”

“What exactly does that mean Kira?” Othello asked as he turned towards the fire.

Taking a deep breath Kira turned to the general, “The attack on my men was bad luck I think. If it had been our brothers, the assassin would have been waiting where I told the men to meet me, that or they would have waited until I arrived and then killed me, but they did not, which tells me that I was not the target.”

Moving away from the fire, Kira added, “As for today and I know that you’ve been thinking about it, the last thing Pyriel and Lir wanted was our father dead. They needed him alive for the Passing. They would not have hired an outside source to kill him, and I have to believe that this assassin is not from Arisis.
It had to have been an outside power, but both Saville and Irothe have troubles of their own to deal with currently.
That aside, it doesn’t leave us all that much. It could have been any number of rebel factions, but I don’t know of any that possess an assassin of such outstanding calibre.”

Othello slumped into a chair beside the table and placed his head in his hands.

“Amazing isn’t it? I find it hard to believe that such a fighter could exist without our knowledge. There is one more possibility,” Kira added softly. “The knife. Did you see what it had engraved into its side?”

Looking up, the general nodded and pulled the knife from his pocket.

It lay shining in his fingers for a moment before he tossed it onto the table. The Andine inscription glowing blood-red on the silver blade.