Deadly Liasions

Deadly Liaisons

Okay so this was my Creative Writing final two years ago and I felt like posting it up only now. It’s a little….long *nervous laugh* and just in case anyone is wondering, no, my teacher didn’t bother reading it. Just gave me an outright A cause she didn’t feel like reading something so long. *cries* and I worked so hard on it too. Well….I wanted to know what people thought of it cause nobody commented on anything other than its length. Lol

“Stay here and don’t come out,” her mother ordered as she shoved her into the first place available. “No matter what happens, stay completely out of sight. You’ll be killed without mercy and then your soul won’t be able to reach the gods.”

The small girl nodded and crouched even lower in the nook she was placed in as she watched her mother run off around a corner where screaming and shouting could be heard.

Hours later the screams had disappeared and smoke was the only thing left from the torching fires. Grey eyes were looking around wearily when she didn’t see anybody walking around.

Mommy should’ve come for me if the bad men left. The small girl mused. She stood and looked more around the corner. But nobody’s running around anymore. Does that mean the bad men left? She pushed her short, charred, almost white hair from her face and stepped out from the shadow. Looking around she began to worry what had happened to her village. After turning the corner her mother did she froze and tears reached her eyes.

Dead bodies lay slain on the ground; hundreds of them scattered with blood dying the dirt a bright red. Her foot brushed against something, and when she looked down, she gasped and fell to her knees.

“Mommy,” she asked slightly, shaking her shoulder like her mother often did when she wouldn’t wake up in the morning. “Mommy, the bad men have left. Get up, mommy.” She cried.

The earth gave a tremor, and the girl looked up. She stood and ran to the edge of the village and stared at the horizon where she saw a giant tortoise with a city built along its shell disappearing.

That’s the turtle that…that the bad men came in. They killed my friends…they killed my mommy… Tears leaked from her eyes and dropped in the dust. “They killed my home.” She dropped to her knees once more beside an abandoned dagger, ignoring the brief pain as she felt the bruises already forming from dropping on them. “How can anyone be so mean?” she asked to the wind playing with her sallow locks. “I don’t want to be alone.”

She looked down at the dagger lying quietly beside her leg and picked it up hesitantly. Her mother had always told her not to touch sharp objects because they could hurt her. “Maybe…maybe it will help me see my mommy again,” she thought out loud.

The girl put the dagger to her chest, feeling its sharp point make an indent but not enough to pierce the skin as it pressed against her. Tears fell in rivulets down her cheeks as she pressed harder into her pale flesh.

A shadow suddenly flashed in front of her eyes, and the dagger was thrown from her grasp and to the ground behind the man that now stood in front of her. He was a tall man wearing a black cape around his shoulders. A sword handle was seen beneath with a strange red symbol burned into it. Looking up at his face the girl gasped at the large scar running down his left eye. She glanced back at his sword and, forgetting momentarily that he was the one that had saved her from her suicide, rose to her knees and clasped on to his cape. “Please,” she begged, “please, won’t you help me get to my mommy? I need to get to her!”

The man silently turned away and started walking in the opposite direction the tortoise had. “Follow me,” he commanded.

“But…I can’t…” she whispered to his back, her voice raspy from her cries.

“You must avenge your village’s death or their souls will never make it to the gods. No doubt the army of King Winburg slaughtered your mother since his kingdom was the one riding on the tortoise’s shell. Would you like to die knowing you could move on and your mother and village could not?”

“I…” she paused and shook her head, “No, I don’t want that.”

“Then you must learn to fight. Follow me,” he commanded again and started walking once more. This time the girl followed without argument.

They stopped at a deadened tree that a black horse with glowing red eyes was tied to. The girl paused at the look of it and shivered slightly. “Amon will not harm you unless you provoke him. Wait until he gets used to you before you approach him though.”

After that it was quiet until they had a fire lit and the bite of cold was down to a minimal. The strange man hadn’t so much as looked at the girl until she shivered, and he dropped his blanket over her shoulders. He sat down on a rock near the fire and looked over at her.

“Your name?” the man asked as he removed his cloak.

The girl gasped at the red symbol burned into the flesh of his arm; it was the same symbol on the handle of his sword!

“You’re the Shadow Warrior! I’ve heard about you all the time in my town. You’re the one who tried to murder the royal family and that burn on your arm is that of a traitor’s symbol!”

“I’d prefer Legale, and stories always have more to them then what is said,” he sighed, his eyes turning harsh. “Your name,” he repeated after a moment of silence.

“Cipheel,” she replied quietly, not sure if the man was upset with her for saying what she did. It was, after all, rude since he was the one helping her and not the other way around. “What do you mean that there’s more to the story?”

“That I shall tell you on the uprise. It is late and children must sleep.”

“I’m not a child,” she argued stubbornly. “I’m four!” She held up four fingers for emphasis. “And my dad says I’m a lady!”

“A child.” He threw an extra blanket at Cipheel’s bare, dirt-covered feet. “Sleep; we have work tomorrow.”

Cipheel wanted to argue, but a yawn won her over and instead she curled underneath the blanket and went promptly to sleep.

~~

It had been a year since Legale had saved Cipheel from her self-inflicting death. They had trained and studied the day after and, at first, Cipheel could barely handle half an hour of running through the desert on horseback and using her strength to bring heavy buckets of water down from a mountain. Now she could easily handle going nonstop on horseback and could go for five trips up the mountainside for water without little rest. Legale had said her training would only get harder though and that she couldn’t get cocky or over her head. Cipheel had thankfully listened to that because the week after he said those words they started harder work.

They were taking a break one day, and Cipheel was looking over the sunset in the direction her town used to be. “You know,” she started, “you never did tell me the day after you saved me what was meant by there’s more to your story then what was said. Did you ever plan on telling me?”

“No,” Legale admitted without even a whisper of sounding ashamed. “Not unless you remembered. Now that you have I suppose there’s no point in avoiding it.

“The royal family had sent their best guards and trackers to find my family when I was very young, a few years older than yourself. We were in hiding because my father and mother were running an illegally placed system for helping those not fortunate enough to have money and send their children to school. The royal family found out from a friend of my father’s who betrayed us just because he received a large amount of money on turning in any forms of rebelling against the government.

“They found us and my mother saved my sister and mine’s life, but my older brother wasn’t as fortunate and was slain with his back faced to the enemy. My sister hadn’t seen the actual attack but I had. I was upset with the man and ignored my mother’s orders to run. I picked up a stick from the ground and tried to attack the men with it but they pushed me into my mother’s stove; knives had fallen and I was rendered unconscious. When I had awoken, my sister’s body was stacked beside my mother’s and father’s along with my brother. They left a note saying that this is what happened to those who got in the way of the royal family’s wishes and I was to live with the regret of killing my own family because of what I had done. That’s how I got this scar, from the knives; I was lucky I didn’t lose my sight.

“I had wandered aimlessly for weeks until I ran into a rogue swordsman who traveled anywhere looking for a worthy opponent. I told him my story when I was asked to after he had fed me and cared for my injury. He agreed to take me in so that my parents could make it to the gods.”

“So I’m not that different from you in that, am I?”

“Yes, but the difference is that you’re going to succeed. My teacher had died while trying to protect me from the guards who found I was still alive somehow. In my anger and pain I didn’t bother to train as I rode to the royal family’s palace and tried to slay them all while they slept. Because I hadn’t trained, my muscles became unaccustomed to wielding the sword and I was too slow. This mark was burned into my arm the next dawn and I was beaten fiercely before I was released into an unknown town. After that I also became a rogue wanderer because no one would want anything to do with me. But I swore if I ever came across somebody who had revenge towards the royal family I would help them just like my mentor had.”

Cipheel was silent, not knowing what to say. Finally, after a moment of silence, she nodded and picked up the two empty buckets left beside her and jumped up from her seat. “Well, I’ll make sure not to let you down, Legale. I won’t forget to train.” She turned and headed up the well-known path heading for the side of the mountain.

Legale stared in disbelief for a second before a whisper of a smile brought his stubble-covered cheeks up in the slightest.

~12 Years Later~

Off-white waist-long hair swished elegantly behind a now seventeen-year old Cipheel. “Are you sure you don’t want me to take Skecksy instead,” she asked, talking about the white horse she had been riding since she had met up with Legale.

“I’m sure, don’t worry. You may learn why later but I’ll tell you now that Amon is no normal steed like Skecksy is. Now hurry before you lose too much of the night’s sky.”

“I won’t let you down, Legale.” Cipheel promised. “I’ll train every day I can until I get my revenge for my family and they can finally rest peacefully among the gods in the sky.”

“I’ll keep that in mind whenever I hear news of the royal family.” He told her as he mounted Skecksy and turned him in the opposite direction of Cipheel. “You will promise me that you’ll be careful.”

“Of course; I hope to meet up with you again Legale, someday maybe.”

“I hope that as well.” He turned back to his own horse. “Let’s go!”

Cipheel stayed respectfully in silence until the dust and sound of hooves against the sand had settled before she looked into the barren horizon where the sun was setting, lighting the sky into a rainbow of reds and pinks. “Let’s go, Amon!”

The mustang reared up and whinnied loudly into the air. The two raced stealthily across the desert and into the night.

I won’t let you down, Legale; I promise. I will have both of our revenges fulfilled at long last and both our families will be able to rest among the gods in the skies.

Cipheel rode into the next town the next night, having camped out in an abandoned cave for the day before. The place seemed peaceful enough but her master had told her this town was an ideal place for getting any kind of information you were looking for. It had the latest gossip and rumors from towns even thousands of miles away!

She spotted the bar Legale had mentioned and committed it to memory so she could find it in the daytime. Cipheel jumped off Amon’s back and headed down the street to look for a place to sleep, pulling on Amon’s rope bridal lightly before he followed. The swordswoman spotted a niche in the wall of a crumbling building not far from the bar and doubted anyone would look very often. She tied Amon to a pole before pulling herself up into the alcove. Cipheel wasn’t worried about Amon running off though; she was more concerned with somebody taking Amon, but if there was anything she could do better than fighting with a sword it would have to be tying knots. Even her Master Legale, who taught her how to do them, had a hard time undoing them when she was being tested.

The morning sun woke Cipheel the next morning, and she stirred uncomfortably in her stony bed. After fully coming awake she stood and untied Amon from the post. She pulled a bag from his side and searched at the bottom for her cloak. Legale had always told her that when searching for answers to never let the person see your face; they could easily use it against you if they did.

The teen stepped into the bar after tying Amon by some grass just outside of the town. Barely anybody took notice of her, thinking she was a passing traveler looking for a quick drink. Of course, their guesses would all be completely different and very suspicious if they could see that the stranger’s face was that of a female’s and a teenager’s at that. She walked to the front where the bartender was standing talking to one of his customer’s while drying a glass with a ratty towel.

She sat at one of the stools and pulled out a few coins her master had told her to save just for this purpose. She wasn’t going to drink of course, but she didn’t want to arouse suspicion by not getting a drink while in a bar. The bartender looked up quickly and stared greedily at the coins on the counter. He excused himself from the customer and walked over to her. Cipheel smirked under her cloak at how easy that part had been. If anybody knew the fools who leaked information it would always be the bartender.

“Can I help ye, sir,” he asked.

“I’m looking for a few answers; maybe you could help direct my search in the right path,” Cipheel answered, disguising her voice to sound deeper and older.

“Lookin’ for someone in particular, are ye? Well, what kind of person ye lookin’ for,” His voice got a bit cheeky and he was smirking in delight. “I see ye have a sword there; wouldn’t be lookin’ for revenge of some sort, would ye?”

“Perhaps I am; I’m looking for someone who murdered my family. The name I’m looking for is Winburg.”

The bartender gasped and dropped the glass and rag in his hand, the glass shattering and causing a loud hush to spread over the bar and all focus to turn on Cipheel. She knew this wouldn’t be good and she had to either come back some other time and force it out of the large man in front of her or try searching the town on her own. Of course, she didn’t fancy spending all her time around people and wasting her time so she would naturally enjoy threatening the porker with the sharp end of her sword until she got at least the right direction to go. To make sure she didn’t have to be here any longer than possible though she decided to let the man know just of her plans.

“I’ll have you know that I am trained to be a merciless killer, and I won’t have anyone get in my way. I know you know the information I require, and I won’t hesitate to kill you if you should so choose to continue in refusing to answer my needs.” She stood and pushed her coins into his hand before turning to leave, the silence continuing to follow her.

“Wait!” The man shouted just as she reached out to push the door open.

Cipheel stopped and smirked in triumph. “Yes,” she asked, not bothering to turn around.

“I can answer ye question; come with me, to the back.”

Cipheel nodded and followed the man silently, stepping into the back of the bar where the two were completely alone. The man hurriedly closed the door and put all the locks in place before looking around nervously.

“Alright,” he finally said, glancing at the hilt of her sword nervously. “The guy’s name ye want is Tugiro, but everyone who wants business with him calls him Zero as a surname so he won’t get found out and killed by the royal family. He always knows where the royal is and is headed at any time of the day so his information will be accurate.”

Cipheel nodded. “Where can I find him?”

“South of here, in the desert. Go straight out from town until you come to a cactus that looks like a man in the distance. From there go a few miles east and ye’ll find a cavern, he lives down there in a cave. Just keep following it south until ye see it. Ye’ll have a bit of a climb when ye do, but no one’s ever died from it so ye’ll be fine. He’ll be able to fix ye up if ye get hurt at all before ye set off again.”

Cipheel nodded and turned back to the door. “Consider your life spared then. Thank you.”

“Wait!” He shouted again before clamping his mouth shut. “I mean, wait. Why do ye want to see him so bad?”

“My business is my own.”

“That’s fine then; if ye don’t want to tell me that then what do ye really look like?”

Cipheel paused for a second in his request before nodding. The man was scared of her and that would do fine enough to keep his mouth shut. She lowered her hood and heard the man’s unmistakable gasp.

“A-a girl!?”

“Why are you so surprised,” Cipheel asked, clearly amused. “Surely you don’t find it too startling that a girl can go looking for trouble as easily as boys do, do you?”

“I-I-I…”

Cipheel stared at the man for a second longer before shaking her head in irritation and pulling her hood back over her face. “I thank you again, sir; have a good day.” She turned, unlocked the door, and walked out of the bar as though nothing had happened.

She headed out to where she had tied Amon only to see small children arguing while they tried to untie him. Irritated, she walked over to them and waited for them to notice her.

A small boy was the first to notice and he eeped and jumped away from her. He motioned to his friends who looked at him strangely when he fell by their feet. They turned to look at her and were easily sent cowering behind one another.

“May I enquire as to why you are all surrounding my horse?” She asked threateningly. The kids looked at each other questioningly and sent Cipheel sighing into annoyance. “Why are you stealing my horse,” she questioned, her voice louder in her frustration.

Realization dawned on the kids’ faces, and they shoved the same boy who had first seen her towards her. He gave his friends a dirty look before looking back at Cipheel. “We-we weren’t trying to steal him, lady.”

“Then why are you untying him!?”

The boy jumped back but was shoved up again from his friends. “We-we wanted to ride him. We don’t get many horses here, and we just wa-wanted to see what it was like.”

Cipheel resisted the urge to roll her eyes but moved over to where the kids had been arguing over the knot in the horse’s rope. She untied it and signaled Amon to kneel down. “Get on then; two at a time. They’ll be short rides since I’m in a hurry.”

Smiles brightened up the children’s faces and two scrambled forward first and clambered on the horse’s saddle. She led Amon in a circle for a couple minutes before it was the next two’s turn. Afterwards she pulled herself on and pat Amon’s back apologetically. She turned back to the kids and called, “Next time why don’t you try asking? Acts like that will get your hands cut off.”

The kids’ smiles easily faded into screams of panic. She smirked in amusement after turning away from them and motioned Amon into a run, heading south straight from the city like she was instructed from the bartender.

Miles of sand and dust later she saw something that looked like a man in the distance and sped towards it as fast as Amon could after his tiring run. She was pleased to see that it was a cactus, and she stopped there to give Amon a rest.

“A little while longer, Amon, and then I’ll walk on my own; I promise.”

Amon whinnied back to her and eased himself into a run for the next few miles east before a break in the ground was finally seen.

“There’s the cavern, Amon. You can stop here.” She told the horse, and Amon was grateful for the rest. He was still as she jumped off his back and followed slowly, but obediently, after her. The two continued on south until Cipheel finally saw a small crevice in the rock below that was unmistakably a cave.

Cipheel looked around for an easier path for Amon to take rather than just going straight down and risk him getting hurt, but she couldn’t seem to find any. She fought with herself over the possible things that could happen if she were to leave Amon, but, in the end, Amon practically gave his answer by rearing up and running off into the distance.

The swordswoman watched him go silently, knowing he’ll come back sooner or later after he has some time to himself. Just as she turned to start the steep trek down she saw a band of men on horses storm out from the cave laughing and shouting. The man in the lead had a large brown sack draped and tied on the back of his horse. Looking back at the cave a man had just run out throwing curses as loud as he could and said something about revenge.

Curious, she dropped her plans to get down carefully and stepped over the edge to slide down the sand on her feet. She got nearly half way down before a large rock caught her foot, causing her to lose her balance. She teetered for a second before she ended up diving head first and rolled in somersaults the rest of the way down, skidding across the cavern’s floor, and finally stopping at the feet of the man outside the cave.

She coughed up some dirt and dust she had managed to swallow on her fall down as she struggled to come to a stand. After patting excess dust off her clothes she finally gave her attention to the man staring at her like she had grown a second head.

Acting like she hadn’t made a complete fool of herself, she stood up straighter and announced, “I’ve been sent here from the bartender in the town north of here. I was told you would be able to help me find –”

The man cut her off with a wave and turned back into his cave. “I can’t waste my time helping you, I have to track down those men.” He ground out angrily.

Now irritated, Cipheel followed him in and found him just as he finished saddling up a horse and climbing on. “And why are bandits more important than someone who needs your help?”

“Because they stole something of mine and I need it back!” He shouted, glaring at her. In his vicious stare he noticed the sword at her hip, barely visible underneath her cloak, and his harsh expression lessened somewhat. “Are you any good with that?” He pointed to her blade.

“Of course I am; I’m a not a child who needs looking after. The only person one can trust the most with their lives is the person themselves.”

“Wise words for one who looks so young; how old are you anyways?”

“I hardly see what that has to do with anything.”

He shrugged and motioned his horse towards the mouth of the cave, Cipheel followed. “How’d you get here if you don’t have a horse?” he asked as he scanned the top edges around the cavern from where she had fallen.

“I have a horse; he’s just free-spirited and does things on his own.”

The man seemed to go in deep thought for a minute before he looked at her; his expression seemed to show he was debating on whether to leave her here or not. “I’ll tell you what,” he finally spoke, “you help me get my friend those thieves stole and I’ll tell you whatever you want free of charge.”

“You were going to make me pay you just for telling me a location?”

“Man’s got to eat.”

“True; very well then,” She put two fingers to her lips and whistled as loud as she could through them. In a matter of minutes Amon appeared over the edge of the cavern looking down at her expectantly.

“Nice trick.”

“He’s just smart. How does he get down?”

“He comes down the same way as you of course, unless you’d rather have him follow for a few miles from up there.”

Looking up at Amon questioningly, Cipheel smirked when she saw Amon had backed away from the cavern. “He’s not as stupid as some other animals. He’ll follow.”

“Very well then; he is a smart steed then.”

Cipheel nodded and climbed onto the back of the man’s horse. “Your name’s Tugiro, right.” The man nodded as they started walking. “Mine’s Cipheel.”

“That’ll make things easier then.” He picked up the horse’s speed and soon they were at a full gallop, Amon running along the side of the cavern right behind them.

“So what did they steal; you mentioned it was a friend of yours?”

“Yes, it is. He’s a spirit wolf and I’ve known him all my life. Those bandits have been looking to make a profit off him for some time now, but they finally got their chance to steal him while I was out. I came back just as they were running out of the cave. It didn’t take too much to know what they left with.”

“A spirit wolf? How is that different from a regular wolf?”

“Nothing special, really; it’s a legend actually. A man was lost in the desert and was nearly dead. He awoke one morning when he heard a howl in the distance and saw a wolf with a light, sleek coat that looked like it was from the heavens itself. The man followed the wolf and it led him to a town where he was able to get help and he ended up living to tell his tale. The wolf is a bit bigger than a regular though and their colors are never found on a normal one’s either.”

“So they don’t have anything special to offer for the name of spirit?”

“Nah, the man named it that because of its coat. The colors always seem ethereal-like though since they’ve never been seen before until the wolves became more known.”

“I see; they must run at high prices then if they manage to get a tamed one, right?”

“Something like that.”

He turned the horse, and they headed uphill until they reached the top of the cavern where Amon joined them. Without having Tugiro stop, Cipheel jumped over onto Amon’s back, and they rode side by side.

It was almost completely dark before Tugiro finally slowed his horse, Cipheel following his example. The two left their horses behind as they snuck quietly over to an abandoned well.

Cipheel didn’t quite understand why until they climbed down it and Tugiro lifted up a hidden trap door among the boards that led into an underground city.

They crept wordlessly through the shadows until they reached what seemed to be the very center of the large town. That is where they sat in utter silence, patiently waiting for something, anything.

Once, during their sitting, Cipheel turned and whispered, “Are we waiting for those men who stole the spirit wolf to come by?”

Tugiro shook his head ‘no’. “Whenever you want to know about something and you can’t be seen at any cost, go to the center square. It’s where all the loud mouth gossips go to talk of the latest news.”

Cipheel nodded and turned back around. She stored the new information away for later use, knowing it might come in handy later in her journey of revenge towards the royal family.

It seemed like not ten minutes later, a large group of middle-aged people were shouting and laughing loudly into the square. One lady wearing a puffy burgundy dress with slits too far up the sides and large blonde hair said in a snobby voice, “Did you hear about that pesky mongrel that Dieser managed to snag from that beggar in the cave?”

“You mean Tugiro? No, I hadn’t heard of that yet,” a large man wearing a bright red hat said gleefully. “So that fellow Dieser finally bagged that spirit wolf; how amusing.”

“I heard that he’s going to put it on show for a while before he announces it’s for sale,” sneered a horse-like woman with a large amount of piercings over her body.

Tugiro moved closer, probably to better hear the conversation.

“Really,” the man questioned curiously. “I’ll have to go take a look at it myself if I find out where.”

“I know where he’s having it held at,” another man spoke up matter of factly. “It’s at that rundown barn where all the usual illegal business is. He’s out spreading the word as we speak. Of course, he left the animal locked up tightly in the shed at his place, and he’s barricaded all the windows so one can get extra looks.”

The first man gave a mischievous smile and nodded. “Very well then; I’ll stop by there later tonight when he’s returned to see when he’s going to reveal the beast.”

The group moved on shortly after and Tugiro watched them go with a smirk. “This should be easier than I thought.” He jumped down from his hiding spot and gestured for Cipheel to follow him down the shadows of the street, making many twists and turns along the way until they stopped in front of a dingy shed placed behind a large, two-story house.

“Oh no,” he shouted before clamping a hand over his mouth and quickly looking around.

“What’s wrong?” Cipheel asked, looking at the door where a large padlock was placed with chains at the door.

“That bastard Dieser had to have luck to pick the one lock I don’t have any tools for getting open. This is just great; and there’s no time to go back and get all my tools.”

Cipheel studied the lock before pulling out her sword and placing it on a link between the chains. She muttered a quick spell to herself, and the blade began to glow a soft red. She brought the sword back and brought it down with a large crash, causing the chains to break apart right where she hit. She dropped to a knee and replaced the sword, breathing deeply.

“Wha-what was that?”

“There’s no time, someone was bound to have heard that. Hurry, rescue your wolf.”

Tugiro nodded and pulled open the shed’s doors. “Cipheel!”

Cipheel struggled to her feet and walked into the shed, seeing the same type of lock around a metal cage that the spirit wolf was being held in. She took a look at the creature inside, unable to help the bout of curiosity that came over her to see the creature so many called true spirits from the gods. The spirit wolf was…there were no words for it; he truly was a magnificent looking animal. His coat had a silver shine and his eyes shone an icy bluish white. Streaks of dark and light blues were splashed anonymously across his coat as well, and Cipheel couldn’t help but stare until Tugiro finally broke her light trance.

“Can you help?”

“Uh…sure.” She pulled out her sword and repeated the same process.

The wolf was glad to get out and jumped around happily for a minute to stretch out from the cramped space he was captive in.

“We need to get going,” Cipheel finally stated. She turned and ran out of the shed and followed the same path they had taken before. They only got two turns away from the square before they ran into the same man Cipheel had seen riding away from the cave with the bag holding the wolf inside. She pulled out her sword, ready to attack if necessary.

“Well, well, what do we have here? A couple thieves I imagine and just look at what they managed to snag from my shed. Why, Tugiro, how ever did you manage to get that lock off? I doubt you had the right tools to begin with.” He pulled out his sword and smirked devilishly.

Cipheel moved into a better battling stance and was about to charge when a growl reached her ears. Looking beside her she saw the spirit wolf snarling threateningly at the man.

“Mangy beast,” the man charged, aiming for the ethereal creature beside Cipheel.

Cipheel could only smirk. Wrong target; now, you die… Cipheel shifted and jumped in between the wolf and the man, swiping directly in front of her. Unfortunately the man noticed her deed as she had done it and skid to a halt before the blade could touch him.

She jumped forward quickly and slashed at Dieser, who jumped away at the last second, only managing to tear his long coat in the process. Dieser just laughed as he looked down at his ruined coat.

“So it would seem that you managed to find a descent fighter in your short travels; pity it’s a female and a child at that. It just proves how weak you really are.” He calmed from his laughter and brought his sword back up in front of him. “Very well then; I’ll deal with her first!” As soon as he finished he shot forwards, intent on driving the blade through her chest.

Cipheel dodged the attack and swung for Dieser’s throat, but he rolled out of the way seconds before that attack connected. The battle went on like that for minutes on end: when one attacked the other dodged and then attacked. Finally, when their blades had at last clashed together and were trying to force the other back, Cipheel glanced over to Tugiro and the still snarling spirit wolf. With the main threat dealing with her, they were free to escape.

“Go now! Hurry!” Cipheel shouted.

Tugiro looked at her warily before he nodded and ran past, the wolf close on his heels. She gave them a few minutes to put distance between them before she pulled away and tried slashing again. She didn’t see the rope until the last minute and tripped over it and wound up blinded by the dust and small rocks blown into her face. She knew Dieser would try something dirty while she was down so she quickly rolled, but she still moved too slowly, and the opposing sword sliced into her arm. Cipheel only bit her lip to keep from crying out and instead switched her sword into her other hand and cut upward using her good arm.

An agonizing cry met her ears and she jumped to her feet in an instant, plunging in the direction the cry was heard. There was a sharp jerk, and Cipheel waited in silence before pulling back; a heavy thump was heard as his body fell to the ground lifelessly. It was only then that she used her cloak to clean out her eyes and opened them.

A smirk came to her face as she saw Dieser’s limp form covered in blood. Bending down on one knee, she cleaned her sword on his coat before standing and heading tiredly to the well, cradling her bloodied and injured arm.

As soon as Cipheel managed to climb out of the well, a soft nose nuzzled her cheek gently. Without looking up she pat the horse’s neck thankfully. “Thanks, Amon; I’m too worn from that fight. Don’t let us take off tomorrow without me going for an exercise run.” Amon whinnied softly and shifted so she could get on without having to use her arm.

The ride back to Tugiro’s cave was in silence except for the whistle of the breeze and the thunder of hooves hitting sand. As they neared the cavern and the slope leading into it, a shine of something nearly white met Cipheel’s eyes and, with a closer look, she realized it was the spirit wolf waiting for them. Before passing it, the wolf stood and ran in front of them to lead them towards the cave.

“You’re alive!” were Tugiro’s first words when he saw Cipheel climbing off Amon’s back. Red drops fell to the stone floor and he gasped. “You’re injured; what happened?”

“Nothing some rest won’t handle. Would you mind if I stayed the night?”

“No, no, not at all. I’ll make you a bed and then I’ll fix up your arm. It’s the least I can do after you helped me.”

“Are you not going to tell me what I came here for then?”

“Wha—oh! Yes, of course; anything you want.” He hurried away and returned seconds later with a handful of blankets and his foot was pulling a bag of hay behind him with a small rope. “I hope this will do for you. I’m afraid what Dieser said before was true and that I am quite poor despite how much I charge for my information. Man has to eat after all and my animals as well.”

“It will be fine; I’m used to sleeping on the ground.”

“I’ll clean up a place for your horse as well.” He said as he finished patting the straw down and smoothing the blankets over the bed. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

When he returned with bandages and a small bowl of water Cipheel watched him carefully. “You’re afraid of me,” she said absently as he knelt down beside her.

“What?”

“You’re afraid of me because you saw me fight.”

“Well…I…no,” he finished lamely. He glanced up at her and flinched slightly at her hard expression. “Very well then: yes, I’m terrified. I’ve never seen someone fight as skilled as you and against a world champion as well. Dieser won the world finals battle two years ago and since then he’s been doing all he can to keep his title.”

“He won’t be able to try anymore.”

“You killed him then?”

Cipheel nodded and pulled off her cloak for him to have easier access to her arm. “You need not to worry. I only harm those in my way and wish to fight or if they’re evil.”

“Well that’s good news.” He pat the cut gently with a wet rag to clear the dried blood and started to rap the bandage around. “What is it that you wanted to know?”

“I want to know where the royal family is located.”

“Why would anyone want to find them?” He asked with disbelief. “Nothing but slimy toads, the lot of them.”

“Their guards slaughtered my entire village including my mother. I have been in training ever since I was four to get my revenge. I was told by the bartender in the town north of here that you would be able to tell me.”

“I see; it’s true, I have been watching them carefully. Actually, you just missed them by a few days. Stopped in the same town you did and headed west for the Valley of Escot.”

“What’s there that they could want?”

“Nothing really; it’s more like a rest stop for them before they head on for their city.”

Cipheel sat in deep thought while Tugiro finished with her arm. He stood, looking down at her. “Well, I’ll wish you luck then. I can tell you’re the kind of person who won’t stick around waiting for yourself to heal. On horseback it’ll take about five days to reach the valley. Just head west from the slope until you reach a river; there’s a town in between where you can rest up if you need to. From the river head north; you won’t be able to miss the valley if you follow it.”

She nodded and stood as well. “I should get some rest then.”

Before the sun had finished rising, Cipheel was heading out of the cave with her cloak wrapped snuggly around her. She bid Amon goodbye before running down the roadway and climbing up the rocks to the top of the cavern.

She practiced for hours with her sword, and by noon a sheet of sweat glistened on her skin as she headed back wearily to the cave. She had shed her cloak and long sleeved hide garment and heavy pants sometime during her training and was only wearing a short brown top and a loose wrap that she could easily move around in. She always wore them underneath her traditional dark clothes for times like that: when it was hot out and she was training.

Cipheel climbed back down the cavern’s side and headed back for the cave after replacing her clothes; it was time to leave.

Amon was waiting for her outside the cave alongside the spirit wolf she had helped rescue the night before. She stood next to Amon and rubbed his neck gently. “Let me gather my things, Amon, and we’ll be on our way.”

“So soon?” Tugiro asked from the mouth of the cave.

Cipheel looked over to him and nodded. “I should before the royal family moves on.”

The spirit wolf stood as soon as she mounted Amon and looked as if he were ready to follow. Cipheel was just as surprised at the action as Tugiro was, but didn’t show it as much as he did.

“It would seem as if Streak wants to come with you on your journey,” Tugiro said after a minute. “Is that right, old friend?” The wolf looked back at Tugiro and then up at Cipheel, barking once at her. “That would be wise, having two spirit animals with you.”

“What do you mean by that,” Cipheel asked, looking around for the second spirit animal.

“You mean you don’t know? You’re horse is also a spirit; a Nightmare Steed if you will.”

Cipheel took this into thought and decided it was believable since she’s Amon for a long time and he never showed any signs of fatigue or old age. Maybe that’s what Master Legale was talking about when he told me to take Amon instead of Skecksy. She nodded and turned back to Tugiro.

“So is that fine if Streak comes with you?”

“It’s fine if he wants, but he won’t get much.”

“That’s always been fine with him since he’s lived with me for years. He can help you hunt if you wish and will remain loyal to you as long as you respect him.”

Cipheel nodded and looked down at the ethereal creature waiting for her. “It would seem we have a new friend to help with my revenge against the royal family, Amon. Do you mind him coming along?”

Amon snorted but started walking without orders towards the slope heading out of the cavern. Streak also followed and picked up the pace as Cipheel told Amon to go faster. Soon they were running at top speed towards the slope and straight towards the Valley of Escot.

They hadn’t made it to the town Tugiro had told her about so hopefully they would make it by the next day. Then she could have something to eat and feed her two companions so they wouldn’t be worn out for when they meet the royal family.

When they did find the town the next afternoon, however, they met a big surprise. Two days prior the royal family had stopped in the same town looking for a traitor that was rumored to have been in hiding there. They had burned the entire town and some of its residents were mourning over the loss of their family and friends. Cipheel went looking for someone who could help her while Amon ate the little grass he could find outside the town and Streak went hunting for something worth eating.

She did manage to find a merchant trying to clean up the remains of his business towards the middle of the town. “Excuse me, could you tell me what happened here?”

The man laughed maniacally and looked at her through one good eye, the other having a black patch covering it. “That blasted royal family ruining everyone’s lives. Everyone told that traitor to leave as soon as wind came that the royal family were after him, but he would have no such thing. Thought he could fight them he did and died a terrible death doing it. Of course, some of the better fighters in the town managed to take out a few of their own guards; six to be exact. Now the rumor is that they’re heading for the Valley of Escot since they got good fighters there to recruit. I imagine they’ll have to go through some test though.”

Cipheel thought for a second before nodding. “Do you know if they’re going to stop for a rest at all during their journey to the valley?”

“Not sure; probably. They have a few injured from the small battle and won’t be able to move easily.”

She nodded her thanks and ran from the town, whistling for Amon and Streak. Streak came first, a dead rabbit in his mouth, and Amon came not long after. Without stopping to get on, she jumped onto the horse’s back and headed as fast as she could towards the valley, and as she rode, ideas and plans swirled in her head for ways to make sure she became part of the royal guards.

Cipheel rode for most of the night, and when she neared closer to her destination, she felt her heart begin to race faster at the prospect of finally being able to fulfill her town’s revenge and rejoin her family with the gods.

The Valley of Escot was a lush place, filled with greenery and beautiful waterfalls. It took Cipheel’s breath away as she looked over it. There was a bridge heading into the valley, and looking up the creak while crossing it, she could see three waterfalls combining into one further up a mountain with green trees and different creatures playing with each other; the most common was a cashure, a monkey-like creature with two tails and big eyes.

Further down the path leading into the more populated area of the valley Cipheel was surprised to see some wilder creatures even rarer than the cashures. One most surprising was a disketty, a grey and black panther-like creature with stripes going down the side of its face and further down its body they stretched in circular spots. They were excellent hunters and that’s why Cipheel was so surprised to see them so close to the village, though the village was full of fierce warriors.

The trees opened into a secluded clearing with huts and people wearing hides and paint on their faces walking around. The valley’s people were known by the paint, and they were given great respect because it marked them as great fighters. She climbed off Amon gently and walked over to one, Streak following closely beside her.

“Excuse me, would you be able to tell me if the royal guard have been through here looking for new warriors?”

“Yes, they’re camped just passed the village here,” he pointed in a direction to Cipheel’s right. “Just go past the trees and walk a little ways and you’ll find them in no time.”

“Thank you,” she nodded and gestured for Amon and Streak to follow.

“You wouldn’t be trying to join them, would you?” He called back to her, a chuckle reaching the three travelers’ ears.

Streak pricked up his ears and growled threateningly at him, his ears flat against his head. Amon only snorted and dug his hoof into the soft dirt, not even bothering to look back at the man. Cipheel stood where she was though, not showing how irritated the question made her and, even more so, the laugh that followed it. “And what if I was?”

The man laughed profusely this time, not even trying to hide it. Cipheel narrowed her eyes as she looked back at the man, reaching underneath her cape for her sword in case she needed it. “Don’t be stupid, child. Besides, you’re a girl; you couldn’t possibly join their guard. They’re much too advanced.” He looked at her more seriously, glancing up and down. “However, if you changed your attire a little bit I wouldn’t mind if you stayed here with me, I’ve been looking for a pretty thing to settle down with. Why don’t you remove that hood and let me see what you’ve got hidden?”

Cipheel pulled out her sword and glared at the man. “I will join that guard and I will carry out my task. Nothing will get in my way.”

By the tone and the obviously sharp blade resting threateningly on the soft flesh of his neck the man was shaking terribly and Cipheel smirked as she noticed it.

“I thank you again for the directions though.” She turned, putting her sword away. The swordfighter clicked her tongue once, causing Amon to settle down and follow after her through the trees. Streak stayed where he was though until Cipheel and the midnight-colored horse were out of sight. He jumped forward so quickly the man didn’t have time to react. Behind him, Streak looked back with a small sparkle in his eyes and watched approvingly as the man’s clothing fell piece by piece to the ground only leaving the man decent enough to still be in the public. The wolf barked before running after Cipheel through the trees.

In the clearing a few feet away from the town Cipheel looked around curiously before she spotted a soldier leaning against one of the coaches; she approached him confidently.

He looked up as he heard her steps and stared at her before he finally straightened up and glared down at her.

“I heard you were recruiting,” Cipheel said easily, getting to the point quickly so she wouldn’t attack the man. For some reason she thought she recognized him, but she couldn’t be certain.

“And why,” he looked her up and down before continuing, “would we recruit a child; a girl?”

“Because I could be your most valuable fighter,” she said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

The man raised an eyebrow at her as if she were daft. “You’re mad, girl. Go back home before you’re laughed out.”

“I won’t leave until I’m given a chance,” Cipheel told the man stubbornly.

The man laughed and pushed away from the cart, nodding. “Very well then, you seem like you’re ready to make a bigger fool of yourself; come with me.” He led her further into the clearing and to a cart bigger than the rest that had six horses pulling rather than the two around the rest of the carts. “Hey, boss! You have to see this!”

A large man with a jeweled sword at his hip came out and stared around before his eyes landed on Cipheel. He stared at her for a second before his eyes lingered over to the soldier. “What’s the meaning of this?”

“She, this child, wants to try for a position as one of the royal guard.”

The two men laughed together before the larger one suddenly cut off and glared at the girl. “Don’t be dimwitted. This is hard work, missy, and I won’t have a brat to look after. Go back home where you belong.”

“No, I won’t. I want a chance just like every other worthless candidate you have here,” Cipheel said again.

Streak barked beside her and growled up at the larger man.

“What’s that, your pet? Couldn’t leave home without it?”

Streak growled threateningly again and lunged for the man, Cipheel didn’t try to stop him; she only smirked. Just like the man from before, the soldier’s leader had been reduced to trying to cover himself profusely.

“Would you still like to call Streak my pet, sir?” she mocked him.

“Very well,” he grunted, backing back into his tent and using the cloth of it to help cover himself. “There will be a meeting tomorrow night for everyone in the initiation. Everything will be explained there, and you’ll have your chance to prove yourself.”

“Good, I’ll just go find a place to stay until this meeting comes around.” She turned heading out into the town once more.

“Wait!” Cipheel looked back at the two men. “You’ll need this to be accepted into the meeting. Without it you’ll be kicked out.” He threw something from his pocket at her and she caught it easily. Looking at it, she saw it was just a pin that someone stuck to their shirt. She nodded and walked away, Streak and Amon following behind her.

The wait for the meeting was rather boring so Cipheel decided to use the time to train and clear her mind, readying herself for whatever the task would be to ensure herself into the ranks of the royal guards.

The meeting was announced in the center of the town and Cipheel stayed long enough to find out the place the meeting was occurring and when. When that time came around Cipheel headed for the designated area, Streak following her curiously while Amon stayed behind without much care.

Cipheel ignored the stares and whispers when she was noticed among the crowd of burly looking men, all showing off some kind of muscle or weapon. She stayed off to herself until one of the soldiers from the guard came forth and started an announcement.

“It seems the anticipated men that were rumored to be coming could not join us as we had hoped so we don’t have as many good fighters as we would’ve liked at this meeting. However, this will do nicely; I can tell just by looking at the many that have come.

“Let’s get this test underway then. You may use any means of battle to fight; it doesn’t matter to us. Your task is to find one of the six ropes we set up earlier today. You must climb the rope and then cut it down so we will know when all six have been found. As soon as the sixth rope hits the ground it will signal the end of the test and the six men who cut them down will be our new soldiers. Good luck, fighters.” He turned to go, but one voice stopped him.

“So this is basically just to get us to kill everyone around you so you’ll have the better chance at finding the rope; very interesting way of recruiting. Basically, you’re just finding the most creative and blood-thirsty six there are among this group and take them as long as they’re smart enough to follow orders.” It was said by a male hidden underneath a dark cloak, keeping away from the others much like Cipheel was doing. His voice didn’t seem very old either; he couldn’t be much older than Cipheel was herself. “Well, you can just forget that.” He turned and headed away from the clearing.

Cipheel watched him go before turning to look at the soldier’s reaction. It was more like an irritated fury at being turned away so easily, but the expression was quickly brushed off.

“Very well then,” he said as he saw a few more of the group of men leave like the first one had. “Let’s get this started, the bell will signal the start of the test.” He left. Minutes later a bell in the distance was heard and the men hurried off in different directions to find a rope, others had already started dueling against others to kill off some of the competition.

Cipheel ran off in the direction the boy her age had and she was surprised to see a few men were already killed. Looking closer at them she saw marks of shuriken blades, star like weapons, in the backs of their necks and knew that it had to be the work of someone very skilled to kill with such a small weapon in one hit. She glanced around for a second before hurrying off, keeping her ears open for any sound coming towards her; Streak was right on her heels. Passing by the town and over the bridge she looked around and saw some of the cliffs in the distance. Following a hunch she whistled loudly for Amon before running towards them. The black horse came galloping towards them and Cipheel jumped on, racing towards the cliffs, hoping one of the six ropes were out there.

She raced along the cliffs before spotting a rope dangling innocently further down. She saw men heading for it and some were fighting for it as well. She raced faster towards them and jumped off Amon, swiping a few of the men with her sword before they could notice her. She’d come too far now to be turned away from her revenge because of losing some test.

Ignoring the others, she dashed for the rope and clung onto it tightly as she climbed up it, only making it a quarter of the way up before her legs were caught and pulled down on, causing her to fall. She had her sword up before she saw who had pulled her and slashed when his attention was divided between the wolf behind him and the girl in front of him.

“You shouldn’t take your eyes off your opponent.” She smirked, repeating the words her master had always told her when she was younger and got distracted easier.

The rest of the men were taken care of, but it wasn’t long before she could see other fighters coming from the distance. Cursing, she headed for the rope and climbed as fast as she could. She breathed a sigh of relief when she reached the top, and she cut the rope quickly, hearing the men curse when they saw it fall. Cipheel looked down at Streak and Amon and motioned for them to go hide so they wouldn’t get hurt before the sixth rope fell.

Cipheel scooted back along the flat surface of the cliff she was on and looked over the edge she had come next to, gasping as she saw a rope coiled messily on the ground.

That’s not my rope; there’s somebody else up here with me then she thought looking around.

“I had a feeling you’d be one of the new guards,” a voice said cheerfully from above her. Cipheel looked up and saw the one from before who had voiced his disgust at the thought of being killed so stupidly.

“I thought you refused to fight.”

“No, I was just getting a head start. Saw one of the men earlier putting two ropes out here for this test and came out here.” He jumped down to sit next to her and Cipheel took a few seconds to look him over.

He had messy raven hair, from what she could tell of the locks that peeked out underneath the hood of his cloak, and laughing green eyes. He had a red bandanna wrapped around his forehead and tied on the side of his head. She could tell that he was taller than her, but only just. He seemed to have the air of being carefree surrounding him and Cipheel felt a bit uncomfortable being around somebody so happy when she’d spent most of her life with the depressing thoughts of her family and her training for revenge.

Cipheel narrowed her eyes and finally asked, “Who are you exactly?”

“The name’s Robin,” he said, removing his cloak. Cipheel held in the smile when she realized her guess was correct: he was barely older looking than her. “I’m quite impressed with your style,” he said, motioning to her sword. “Haven’t ever seen a girl in my travels who could handle a sword like you before.”

“So you were the one using the shuriken,” Cipheel said quietly, looking at his waist where shuriken blades, like the one she saw in the men’s necks, rested in a pouch; some were bloodied and some weren’t.

“Oh, yeah, my most preferred weapon actually; took me quite a while to learn them.”

“I can imagine; are you on a quest?”

Robin stared at her and nodded slightly. “Though I don’t trust you enough just yet to tell you what that would be. I have a feeling,” he paused, looking down at her sword and probably considering the possibilities of what could happen to him if he finished his statement. “I have the feeling that you aren’t trying to be part of the royal guard like some of those idiots.”

“Your guess would be correct then; I’m on a quest as well. Though for the same reasons as yours, I’m not going to tell you.”

“I can understand that. So, what’s your name, pretty girl?” It was less than a second before a blade was touching his neck and he scooted away quickly. “Hey!”

“It’s Cipheel, and I’m not like those whores you find in bars.”

He held up his hands in defense, “Okay, okay, I’m sorry; I didn’t mean anything by it. And I wasn’t joking around; you are pretty, especially if you would smile.”

She put her sword away and sat back down, looking out at the setting sun. “Just leave it alone.”

A bell sounded in the distance and Robin straightened up, “The bell rang; the sixth rope must’ve fallen.”

“Yeah,” Cipheel agreed.

A few seconds later they saw horses coming from the city and stopped at the cliffs, the men looking up at them; both had the royal seal on their arms and the two teens knew they were being picked up.

“Good work, you two. You’re now a part of the royal guard. Come down and we’ll take you back to camp where you’ll be fed and rested up and we’ll head for the royal city in the morning.”

Robin stood and threw his cape back over his shoulders before jumping off the side of the cliff and showing off by doing a somersault in the air before landing firmly on his feet in front of the men.

Cipheel rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath about him being a show off before she whistled loudly and jumped off the side of the cliff as well, landing on her feet just as Amon and Streak came into view from the mouth of a hidden cave.

The two guards looked impressed and said so to the two teens. “It’ll be good to have two young and agile soldiers in the royal guard. You should be looking forward to being assigned working together for many of your duties for your skills could be greatly needed in many of them. I knew we wouldn’t be disappointed when coming to Escot.”

Cipheel pulled herself on Amon’s back and pat his neck gently before leaning down and stroking Streak’s bright coat as well.

The three horses rode back to the valley together, Robin getting a ride on one of the guard’s horses.

As promised, Robin and Cipheel, along with the other four new guards, were given new uniforms to wear, were fed a warm meal, and were left alone to get some rest. Neither Robin nor Cipheel saw much of the other four guards except for at the meal, but they were too interested in eating to pay much attention.

In the morning Robin found Cipheel on top of one of the wagons while Amon and Streak were resting within the animal cart where they were fed and given a nice place to sleep. He climbed on top of the wagon and sat with her.

“Ugly things, aren’t they?” He asked, pulling at the shirt he had argued about wearing before they pulled out. “I’m going to have to be on the lookout for a grey or purple bandanna now. I doubt they’ll let me wear my red one.”

Cipheel ignored him, preferring to look out in the direction they were going. Although, she did agree with Robin about the uniforms they were given to wear. They were the colors of the royal family, a rich purple and a light grey. The shirt was grey with the buttons and arm band around one of the sleeves purple, the band having the seal of the royal family printed on it. The shoes and pants were also grey and the belt was purple.

“Good thing we don’t have to wear them all the time; only on official stuff. Sucks we had to wear them when we meet the royal family later tonight. That’s when Dean said we would meet them, hoping we keep this pace the whole way though.”

“Dean?”

“Yeah, he’s the boss guy for this camp.”

“Oh yes, I met him,” Cipheel answered, finally looking at Robin. “He hadn’t wanted to let me join when I went to him. He’s been avoiding me since he saw me come in with you and the others last night.”

Robin laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I saw the way he looked at you. His face was hilarious. So, have you seen the others?”

Cipheel shook her head and Robin got a mischievous smile on his face. He took up her hand and pulled her down and over to where four men were sitting, talking on another wagon, the fourth was sitting on the top of the wagon like she had been before Robin pulled her away. “That’s them,” he pointed, though it was obvious since they were the only four in sight.

One was an average sized man with a white Mohawk blowing loosely with the breeze; he didn’t seem to care if it kept going in his face. He had an easy smile and one could tell that he was a happy-go-lucky guy with the way he talked with such swiftness in his voice. A whip was coiled at his hip along with a few darts and one dagger.

The one beside him was a much larger man, dark-skinned and his head shaved bald with weird, painted on designs along the sides of his head. He wasn’t wearing the uniform shirt, only the pants, and the boots were sitting beside him. There was an axe tied with a leather strap to his back.

The bald man was talking more intensely to the other recruit, who was smaller than the other, but not by much. He had long brown hair tied in a loose ponytail behind him. A long scar went down his right eye, but you couldn’t see it go down since an eye patch hid it. Two identical boomerangs with jagged blades rather than the smooth wood adorning them lay next to the man.

The fourth though was unidentifiable since he was wearing a cloak and the hood covered his face. The hilt of a sword poked out from the folds of the cape though so he must be good at handling it.

Cipheel looked them all over before turning to leave. Robin was surprised and looked back and forth between them before deciding to go after her. “Hey, don’t you want to join them? They’re part of the team now.”

Cipheel stopped, watching as the wagons continued to go by them. “Look, you said it yourself that you knew I wasn’t here for the title or the fame of being part of the royal family’s guard, and I told you that you were correct. I don’t have the time to waste on getting buddy up friends with anyone, yourself included.”

The harsh tone that Cipheel used caused Robin to stop in his tracks. His eyes hardened and he yelled back, “Fine, go be a loner. I can tell you’ve chosen to be one all your life.” He glared at her before running to catch up with the wagon carrying the other four recruits.

Whether it looked it or not, Robin’s words hurt Cipheel, but she forced herself not to show it. She meant what she said and she wouldn’t get close to anyone in case they ended up being her enemy some day.

True to their word, the camp arrived at the royal city that night. Cipheel was amazed how big it truly was, even if she had heard the rumors. She never could have really believed that it was a city made almost completely of silver and gold and was colonized on the back of a giant turtle.

The turtle’s head lowered and the gates built at its neck opened to admit them in. Once everything was situated, Cipheel found herself in her new home with the rest of the lower guards which included herself, Robin, and the other four newest members of the guard. The brief thought of where Amon and Streak had been taken passed her mind, and she made a mental note to ask Dean later.

Dean, the boss from the camp, came in and motioned for the six new fighters to come over. “Well now, the king has ordered that he meet with you rookies before he goes to bed. You have five minutes plus the walk up to the palace to get yourselves readied and presentable looking. I’m your leader now and I won’t take any crap or you’ll find yourself thrown out and replaced faster than the blink of an eye without any chance of returning again. Is that understood, troops?”

The six nodded and Dean seemed satisfied. “Good, I’ll return in exactly five minutes to escort you to the palace.”

Cipheel watched him go before looking at the four older men Robin had shown her earlier. She repressed rolling her eyes as she saw them trying their best to straighten out their uniforms and clean their faces with their own spit. The thought of They’re just trying to impress the few ladies in this city crossed her mind. Well, they’re going to have to do more than that. I’m not impressed at all.

She looked out the glassless window and watched as the scenery slowly went by with each step the giant turtle took. Feeling eyes on her back, Cipheel turned around and saw Robin looking at her.

“You’re not going to clean up either?” He said halfheartedly, almost sounding afraid that he’d get his head bitten off again by her cruel words like earlier.

Cipheel shook her head. “You aren’t?”

“Nah, don’t see a point really. The king just looks you over, makes a few comments, and then dismisses you. I doubt he’s even going to take the time to look someone as young as us over. He’ll probably just make some crude remark about our age and that you’re a girl and then go to bed.”

Cipheel nodded her agreement and looked back out the window. “Do you know anything about the royal family?”

“Not really, just who they are. I know there’s King Winburg, the vilest being that ever ruled the lands, his wife, Queen Matina, who only married Winburg for his money and high title, their spoiled to death daughter, Princess Mona, the oldest of the three, the youngest of the three, Princess Damita, who cries over anything even if it’s a good thing. The middle child is a boy, around our age I think; I don’t know much about him though other than his name is Prince Calix.”

Cipheel nodded and looked back around when somebody cleared his throat.

“It’s time, hurry up and don’t dawdle. I can assure you that you won’t be having any duties until we clarify you can fight up to our standards. Until then you’ll be able to have all the time you need to look around the city,” Dean announced before turning and heading out of the room that was going to be where they slept, expecting the other six to follow.

“They certainly don’t know what manners are here, do they? My master would be appalled to hear them talking like they do.” Cipheel sighed before following after the four older men and Dean, hearing Robin laughing at her statement right behind her. It was then that Cipheel came to the conclusion that Robin wasn’t such a terrible person anymore.

“So you had a master, that’s pretty cool,” Robin mused after he’d stopped laughing and walked in step beside her. “Who was it, anybody I’d know?”

“Probably, I called him Master Legale, his truest name, but you probably know him as the Shadow Warrior or Thief of the Shadows.”

“Really; that’s awesome; by looking at your skills I shouldn’t be as surprised as I am, but wow!”

“Yes, I thought so too when I first met him, but then it didn’t seem like a big deal after spending most of my life with him.”

“I can imagine that. I too had a master who taught me to use the blade shuriken and felt the same way after the few years I spent with him before he passed away. Of course, with your master you probably didn’t get to hear many rumors.”

Cipheel shook her head and paused mid-step when the three new recruits, not including the forever cloaked one, looked back at them. The one with the Mohawk smiled at them and joined Cipheel on her other side.

“I find it pretty cool that there are kids who are willing to make such a difference as joining the royal guard while they’re still young. Wish I could’ve but I had protective parents who wouldn’t let me near anything sharp. Now look at me, I’m killing things like crazy to quench the blood thirst that I’ve got from an over protective childhood,” he said, laughing when he finished, either being very brave or very foolish when he put an arm around Cipheel’s shoulder and practically dragging her closer to the two others.

Robin laughed and ran to catch up with them, looking sympathetically at Cipheel when he saw her annoyed look. Up close the men didn’t look all that bad and their weapons seemed harmless, but he knew better than to underestimate them like some had to him and Cipheel due to their age.

“My name’s Kaden,” said the one with the Mohawk. “We haven’t really had the time to be properly introduced and I didn’t see either of you two wandering around through the wagons on that ridiculously boring trip here.” He laughed, the two others and Robin joining while Cipheel felt completely foolish standing amongst the four laughing males.

The black, bald-headed man raised his hand in a half wave. “My name would be Jasper. It\'s a pleasure to meet such cunning folks as yourselves. It must be amazing to be able to become a part of the royal guard at such a young age. As Kaden already said, we’re very impressed with your skills to be able to join.”

The smallest of the three men, not counting Robin, piqued up cheerfully. “And my name is Rance, the ultimate master of the blade boomerangs; if you haven’t noticed that already.”

“Don’t be too modest or anything Rance.” Kaden laughed, Robin joined the laughter and introduced himself.

“And what about you, little lady; as beautiful as you are I can imagine a beautiful name to come with it and I would love to hear that name. Perhaps we can get to know each other a lot better while stranded on this turtle ride.”

“As entertaining as you might find that,” she replayed the conversation in her head and searched for his name, mentally nodding in satisfaction when it came to her, “Kaden, I don’t think that will be possible. You see, I tend to go for those without egos larger than their equipment.” She freed herself from his arm, having it considerably loosened in his shock.

As she walked away she could tell the shock of her words had warn off and the two men, along with Robin, started laughing hysterically while Kaden walked along in a trance like state, lost in the cruelty of her words rather than the joke. Cipheel made a mental note to talk to him about her sense of humor later on. She didn’t want to get on the wrong side of the fighters, even if they did turn out to be her enemies. She much rather fight them when she really had to rather than because some joke came out and hurt the guy’s feelings.

“You certainly know how to take care of yourself.”

Cipheel turned around and was surprised when she found it wasn’t Dean who had spoken, but rather the man in the cloak. “Thanks,” she said, “I find it important to know how to look after yourself as a female,” refusing to call herself a girl because it made herself sound immature, but woman just didn’t sound right when referring to herself.

“I quite agree.”

“Might I be able to ask your name? I saw you earlier on the trip here and didn’t want to approach the ones laughing. I’ll have to admit that though I can’t see anything resembling you other than your cloak, you’ve intrigued my interest.”

“Only if I may ask your name in return,” he stated simply. “I’ll also be one to admit that when I saw you the night we returned to the camp after the test I was surprised to find one so young, and a female at that, be part of the new recruits.” He paused for a second. “It’s Gerik.”

“Appropriate for your weapon of choice I’d say.”

“Yes, I agree. When I found out what my name meant I became very fascinated with the sword and made it an ambition to master it.”

“And my name is Cipheel.”

“A lovely and rare name in deed; you must excuse me for my bluntness, but those men weren’t exaggerating when they spoke of your beauty. It rivals even that of the eldest princess.”

“I’m sure the female highnesses enjoy having so many men wandering around.”

Something resembling a chuckle escaped the sullen man and he nodded, barely visible underneath his cloak. “Indeed; I happen to be of the same mind with that as well. You’re a very intelligent little miss. I believe the young master, Prince Calix, must be getting bored with the lack of ladies he’s presented at a time. There have been few women on board, excluding the royal mistresses. They’re either much too old for his tastes, too muscular for him to protect on his own, or too weak to protect themselves and ended up getting attacked by the men needing to relieve some stress. He’ll be rather surprised when he sees you if he’s present tonight.”

Suddenly, Dean stopped and turned to look at the six recruits following behind him. Immediately, the three men and Robin stopped talking and laughing and watched Dean, waiting for any orders that might come.

They weren’t disappointed when he opened his mouth and starting barking orders about being respectful to the royals in attendance, not speak when not spoken to, show further respect when being asked a question, and when given an order to follow it quickly. With that said he turned and led them through two large doors and into a large room with five chairs made of pure gold and intricate designs carved into them. Four of those five thrones were occupied; the one separating the oldest daughter from the youngest daughter, meaning the middle child, the son was missing.

Looking from left to right Cipheel looked over each of the royal family, suppressing all the rage she felt towards them the best that she could. She was so close and she could just feel her fists itching to grab her sword and slice through each one of them, even if the three youngest didn’t know anything about the attack on her family and village. She held it back as best as she could. She’d come too close to be caught and thrown out now.

King Winburg was an uptight man who obviously looked bored, even with his riches and family surrounding him, servants and attendants around him constantly. His graying hair was elegantly tied back in a neat ponytail with his over-jeweled crown adorning his head. His face looked like it was forever pulled down in an uninterested and frowning expression and wrinkles were starting to show; Cipheel was certain they weren’t from stress. His robes billowed out from the waist and looked like the only folds and creases in them were ones that were meant to be there and purposely placed in its spot before they had arrived.

Moving one spot to the right was Queen Matina in all her elegance. Her hair was pulled back in a precise bun, not a hair was out of place. Her flowing dress seemed to be made of the finest materials and her crown, also over-decorated, was placed perfectly atop her head. Her expression was much the same as her husband’s, and the folds also identical to the king’s in that not a fold that wasn’t supposed to be there was present.

One more spot to the right was Princess Mona and, just as Robin had described her earlier, she looked as spoiled as possible and more. She had more jewelry on her than was necessary, rings covering every inch of her fingers, gold and silver slippers showing only perfectly manicured toes. Her dress was the same as her mother’s and her crown, though slightly smaller than her mother’s and father’s, was still very much overcrowded with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires.

Skipping over the empty spot where the prince was supposed to be seated Cipheel’s eyes landed on the youngest child and second daughter of the royal family, Princess Damita. Her face didn’t show that she cried much but by the look of the tearstains on her dress it was obvious that she had been crying shortly before, probably about having to be in attendance to meet the newest guards. Her dress was identical to her older sister’s and her crown was also matching Princess Mona’s, only with a few less jewels.

The daughters looked very much like their mother with flowing blonde hair and a few highlights of brown streaked into it. Their eyes, though hard to see the color, also looked very similar to the queen’s, as well as the posture they sat in with their hands placed gracefully on their laps.

The king stood, still seeming as uninterested as ever, and gestured to the six guards. “It’s a pleasure to have you become a part of the royal guard. It pleases me to see it didn’t take as long as I had originally thought to gather the new recruits replacing our greatly missed deceased ones,” he spoke that part as though he wasn’t even sorry he lost them. “State your lines, starting with the dark one and go down the line from there. Also, state where you’re from and what weapon you’re most accustomed to use.” He then sat down.

Once more the bald-headed man stepped up, looking much more serious now that he had reason to be. “My name is Jasper and I’m from the north, a village from the mountains called the Cove of the Snow. My weapons consist of many things but I most prefer the axe to anything else I know how to use.”

The one in the Mohawk replaced Jasper’s place and bowed in respect. “I’ve been given the name of Kaden,” he said standing upright once more. “I come from a city to the west called Beshellton City and have mastered the darts to where it only takes one or two to bring down my enemy. Although, I’m quite good at them, I mostly prefer the double daggers and only use the darts as a last resort.”

Then the cloaked man came forward and finally removed his hood, allowing his face to show in the dim light. He had many scars covering his face and one in particular moving jaggedly across his left eye, though not rendering it useless. He had nicely shaved dark hair and his eyes were a steely grey. “My name is Gerik and I come from the far west in the seaside town, Seafore Ranch. I am a master of the double-bladed sword and have used nothing else.”

Cipheel started to step forward when a door suddenly opened, and a young man walked in slowly. Glancing at the top of his head, she instantly knew he was the prince and he took his spot, as she knew he would, between his two sisters. He looked very handsome and didn’t remind her anything of his two siblings or even his family. He didn’t resemble either his mother or his father very much. His face was smooth and almost depressed looking. He wore a princely suit decorated with the royal family’s colors and, the thing surprisingly standing out the most, was the simple gold crown on top of his head that had no jewels at all, unlike the rest of his family. There were folds looking like they weren’t meant to be there and, if the looks his older sister were giving him were any indication, weren’t supposed to be there at all.

“I apologize for my late entrance, father,” he said looking over at his father, though he didn’t sound sorry at all. “I was resting in my chambers and overslept by accident. Have I missed much?”

“Not at all, the new recruits were just introducing themselves. We haven’t done anything other than that.” The king looked back to Cipheel and looked at her pointedly, surprise evident when the realization hit at what he was looking at. He looked like he wanted to say something but he shook it off. “You may continue, please.” He added the last word merely because she was a girl and Cipheel knew it.

“Thank you, your highness,” Cipheel noted politely, doing her best and succeeding only just at keeping the disgust out of her voice as she spoke to the royal family. “My name is Cipheel and I come from an old city that was destroyed when I was only a child. I was too young to learn its name properly, but I was taken in by my master who taught me to use the swords. I have been living in the desert close by my old town though and trained with my master.”

The king looked slightly interested at her and straightened further in his seat. “Do you recollect your master’s name?”

“Yes, of course, your majesty. It was Master Legale who taught me.”

Looking along the line of the royal family thrones to see if she was surprising anyone else her eyes were stopped and held by the prince’s. His eyes looked very soft and gentle, not anything like the harshness that was easily pinpointed in the rest of his family’s. There was a ghost of a smile on his handsome features and Cipheel forced herself to look back at his father before she did something she regretted later on.

“I see, I believe I’ve heard that name somewhere before. Is he known by anything else?”

“Yes, my king. He was also known as the Shadow Warrior and the Thief of the Shadows.”

“Ah,” the king said with more excitement than Cipheel thought was necessary. “I’ve heard of him then. An excellent sword fighter; I should expect great things from you then? Will I be disappointed?”

“I shall do my best not to, my king. My master always said great things about my fighting so I should do nothing less.”

The king clapped his hands. “That’s wonderful. Dean,” he looked at the man who stepped forward quickly.

“Yes, my lord.”

“I shall want to know when Cipheel will be checked to see if her fighting is to standards. I am most interested in seeing her fight.”

“Of course, my lord,” Dean bowed and looked proudly at Cipheel, who resisted the urge to sigh and roll her eyes in irritation.
Finally noticing Robin and the shortest of the men the king cleared his throat and mentioned for them to come forward.

Stepping back into her place, Cipheel’s grey eyes once more moved to the prince’s and she allowed herself to become lost in them this once. The ghost of a smile returned and Cipheel couldn’t hold back her own answering one, and she didn’t hear Robin or Rance introducing themselves to the highnesses and, apparently, neither did Prince Calix.

The next nights went by slowly. They had told the six recruits that they were going to test only one person a day. The first day went to Kaden, who came back with red lashes over his barren arms and a cut just above his right eye. He looked exhausted and was obviously upset, saying things like, “I didn’t know you could do that with a whip,” over and over again. When he had finally calmed down he explained that they were tested by somebody in the royal guard who had also mastered the same weapon the candidate used. He was even more upset that he wasn’t allowed to do any missions until he could beat the person testing him, which he thought was impossible any time this century.

The second day it had been Robin who went in and had come back looking halfway mummified. He wasn’t bummed out though like Kaden had been since he had passed the test and was allowed to do missions. When he was finally strong enough to walk on his own he had strolled over to Cipheel and clapped her on the back. “There’s a strong chance we’ll be partners they said, you remember, Cipheel? Make sure you pass your test too so I’ll have someone to talk to when that rolls around,” he had said cheerfully.

Cipheel had taken a step back to make his arm on her shoulder slip away before she turned back to the window. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind when my test comes up.”

“You aren’t nervous, are you? After all, the king had wanted to be present when you took your test and who knows who else of the royal family will also want to be there.”

“I have nothing to be nervous about; it would only mean I wasn’t confident in my abilities. In that case, I would’ve trained longer with my master, but, as it is, I am here and not with Master Legale so I must think somewhat highly of myself.”

Robin gave Cipheel a confused look for a second before he laughed and clapped her on the back once more. “Whatever you say, Cipheel. Come on, it’s time for dinner.”

Cipheel now stood on top of the building she was supposed to be sleeping in, watching as the sun rose and changed the colors of the sky into different reds and oranges before it settled into the usual sky blue. She heard as Robin called out for her before looking around outside. The swordswoman had to repress a chuckle when Robin didn’t bother looking on the roof before he ran off, calling her name; she settled for a smirk. That’s when she saw Dean calling back after Robin, “Where’d Cipheel go off to?”

She stood and jumped down from the building as soon as Robin had turned the corner. Dean looked slightly surprised when she landed gracefully in front of him, but it was quickly wiped off his face when he straightened up again. “Ah, good, come with me, Cipheel. You’re to be tested today since King Winburg wants you and Robin to work together. His highness was greatly impressed with Robin’s skills and, if he’s just as much so as yesterday, you two will make a good team together.”

Cipheel only ended rolling her eyes as she was led in the opposite direction everyone else was going in. She was led into a large arena where blood was caked on the floor and walls. Looking closely she could tell it was new blood and was probably Robin’s with all those shuriken blades cutting through him. She looked forward to see King Winburg and, she was surprised to notice, Prince Calix. Standing off to the far wall was a burly looking man with bulging muscles in his arms and a long sword resting in its hilt, strapped onto his belt.

Dean was about to say something, but Cipheel had easily shut him up as she moved forward, towards the two royals directly in front of her. Dean gaped for a few minutes before hurrying after her.

Cipheel bowed respectfully to the two men before rising. “I’m honored to have you both come to watch my test.”

The king straightened up further and tried to make his face look important. She was starting to feel her dinner work its way up her throat at how sick he made her, but she was saved when she felt her hand being taken into softer, slightly bigger hands. She looked up and saw it was actually Prince Calix holding her.

“I wouldn’t have missed such a fight if I were given all the riches in the world,” he told her, a spark in his eyes. “To have trained with the great Master Legale you must be very talented and skilled and you have my respect for that. I look forward to seeing your fight.” He leant forward and kissed her gently on the cheek. “Even more so,” he whispered, “to bring this guy down. He is most aggravating.”

Cipheel resisted laughing, partly because of his joke and obvious dislike for the one testing her, but also how sensual his voice sounded so close to her ear. It reminded her of the many times she walked along the beach and picked up seashells, listening to the waves of the ocean crashing together and sounding harmonious as the breeze picked up.

“Come, Calix, I’m most interested to see this fight more so than young Robin’s yesterday. Let’s move out of the way so she can begin.”

Prince Calix nodded and Cipheel watched him head for some stairs that led to a balcony overlooking the whole arena. If the young highness wanted a fight worth watching, he was certainly going to get one. Her tester came up and unsheathed his sword, laughing as he looked her up and down. “This must be the gods’ sense of humor, young missy. A child, a girl; I’ve never heard of such a thing on the greatly respected royal guard. But I’ll have the honor of tearing your dignity apart just like I have with every other wannabe I’ve tested.”

“You’ll find I’m quite different from those would-be soldiers, good sir,” Cipheel smirked, not making a move to take out her own sword.

A gong echoed throughout the room and, just as she had predicted he would, the man sliced through the air, aiming for her head. She flipped into a back spring and continued it onward until she reached the wall where she had entered in from.

“Quite a clever girl you think yourself to be, but that won’t help you accomplish your task.”

All talk; doesn’t he ever stop? Cipheel couldn’t help but think, giving him a bored look. Little did she know similar thoughts were running through the prince’s head as he watched the test commence.

Cipheel did more dodging before she finally got the opportune moment. She had finally gathered up the speed she had needed to move so fast behind the tester so he didn’t know where she had gone until it was too late. She quickly unsheathed her sword and swung as hard she could, hearing her master’s famous words as she did, “Never turn your back on an opponent.”

A whistle was blown before she could hit the judge though and the man tensed when he heard it as well. “What the –” He turned and saw Cipheel’s frozen pose and cursed every foul word he probably knew when he saw why the whistle was blown. “No way, this isn’t possible.” She managed to catch before he bustled quickly out of the room.

Clapping distracted her and she saw the prince and his father clapping vigorously for her. She gave them a small bow before Dean approached her.

“An excellent job; I’m most impressed with your skills, Cipheel. Never have I ever seen such a cool head in times of these tests. I believe you’re the only candidate to actually come out unscathed before, especially against the judge you had testing you.”

Cipheel was about to comment something back when a shadow fell over her. She looked up and saw the king holding out his hand to her. “An excellent job indeed; I don’t believe I’ve ever saw a candidate not go to their weapon immediately; excellent skill and ability as well as the nerve to think before acting. You are a wonderful asset to the team; I know you’ll go far as a guard.”

“I’m most impressed as well, Miss Cipheel. Perhaps a more appropriate congratulation is in order. Might you be able to join me for lunch later today? We could get to know each other a little more.”

“I think that would be a wonderful idea indeed, Calix. Dean, could your fine new recruit join my son?” King Winburg said more than asked.

“Of – of course, your highness; I’m sure she’d be quite honored to join the young prince.” Dean looked down at her pointedly and Cipheel turned away in mock embarrassment.

“Yes, I’d like that very much, Prince Calix.” She bowed her head.

“Excellent.” The king clapped his hands together in excitement. He pulled his son with him as he headed for the exit, talking about things Cipheel thought would probably make her head spin.

An arm suddenly grabbed hers and pulled her along towards the exit where they had come in. “I’m most impressed with your abilities. I believe an apology is in order for the way I treated you when we first met. I-I’m sorry for that.”

Cipheel was stunned by the confession, she was expecting it much later, but she guessed even her estimates had to be wrong sometimes. She shrugged off her disbelief and pulled her arm free. “Save your apologies and excuses; I don’t have time for them.”

“Don’t you even realize who that man was?” Dean questioned, taken aback by her easiness.

“Should I care? I beat him; I passed the test, end of story. Can I go to breakfast now?” Cipheel said with irritation, staring back at Dean who had stopped walking.

“That man,” he pointed back at the entrance of the door, “is the best swordsman who ever lived.”

Cipheel raised an eyebrow as if to say, “And I should care, why?”

Dean sighed in exasperation and moved towards her, walking past while grabbing her arm once more. “Your tester, Shactly Purl, was once known in the dark ages before you were even born as the Killer by Sword. He was never defeated –”

“Until now,” Cipheel cut him off. “Look, I really could care less about that man. He’s gone, over with; let’s not dwell in the past.” She tore her arm free once again and, before Dean could get another word in, jumped off the pathway over the railing into a lower level of the city.

Knowing he wouldn’t be able to follow as easily as she had gotten away, Dean let her go. That girl, Cipheel, will be a great swordswoman some day; probably the best ever. Just like King Winburg said, she could get very far as part of the royal guard. She might even become the lead guard of the captain’s post. He thought with awe, meaning every word of it.

~~

Cipheel hid behind a corner, listening intently for any signs that Dean was following her. Once she was sure he wasn’t coming after her, she turned and headed away from the direction her captain was sure to be heading in. She wouldn’t risk her ears going deaf by listening to the man talk.

A rock fell at her feet and Cipheel quickly looked around, looking for the source. She spotted a family of three sitting in the shadows, looking at her with hatred in their eyes. At a second look though, she saw they were actually glaring at the royal family’s crest printed on her uniform. She stepped closer to them and the bars came into sight. Gasping, she hurried over to the bars and started as she saw the family was covered with rags with shackles around their ankles and wrists.

“Who did this to you?” Cipheel demanded, watching the poor family desperately.

“As if you don’t know, you traitor,” the man yelled, holding the woman, his wife probably, and a small little girl no older than three close to him.

“Please, you must tell me. I-I want to help you.”

The man stared at her before his eyes glanced at her shirt. “You’re a low level guard,” he stated.

“Yes, I’m new. I just got recruited a few days ago.”

“Well then that makes you even more of a cretin,” he spat.

“What are you talking about?”

“You should know! You joined the guards for a title, to be feared by the rest of the world. And if you’re still on this turtle than you must’ve passed their silly abilities test or else you’d be training to reach those standards. Now that you have passed you’ll be trained to kill just for the sight of blood.”

“You don’t know anything about why I’m here!”

“Then why? Why did you bother joining the royal guard if you didn’t want the bloodshed?”

“I’ll only tell you if you tell me who did this to you.”

“A fair enough deal; you can’t do much more harm since you’re only a child.”

Cipheel’s eyes darkened and she glared at the man. If there was one thing she couldn’t stand about people these days, it was their quick reaction to misjudge and underestimate somebody, especially when they could easily kill you. She pulled out her sword and threw all her energy into; the sword glowed an eerie red, and she forced her blade through the thick metal of the bars.

The man gasped and held onto his family even tighter, trying to force them behind him even when it was useless with the shackles keeping him firmly in one spot. “What kind of monster are you?”

“Try calling me a child again and you’ll find out in my favorite way,” Cipheel threatened.

“Very well; what’s your name? I’m Zander.”

Cipheel stepped through the ruined bars and closer to the family. Zander had eased up, but was watching her very closely. She knelt down a few feet away from the family and looked at the musty ground before up at the man again. “It’s Cipheel.”

The man nodded. “You don’t act like the guards I’ve met before.”

“And I don’t ever intend to either.”

“They’re the ones who put me and my family down here to be forgotten. We rarely get food or water down here and when we do it’s very little. We were caught trying to kill the king and his family and this is our punishment.”

Cipheel’s eyes widened, but she quickly settled down again and took a deep breath. “Why did you try to kill the royal family?”

“Because they’re killing our town with their taxes. They raised the prices every year and we were unable to meet them. As punishment for not paying, the guards came every day and killed one man in the town square. They said until we were able to pay with the interest they would continue to kill them on the royal family’s orders.” The man choked on a few tears at the memory. He took a deep breath before continuing. “A couple years ago my family and I decided we would take our revenge.”

“I see.” Cipheel said, speechless at what was just confessed. “Don’t worry; I’ll help you.”

“How you do that?” the little girl finally spoke. Her voice was choked and sounded dry and cracked.

“I’ll find a way; there are things about me that would surprise even you.” She heard footsteps approaching from somewhere off to her right and she fled into the darker shadows, watching as a guard walked up to the cell the family was in.

“I knew we should have ordered stronger bars, this cheap metal wouldn’t have stayed up forever.” He then chucked a bowl of stale bread into the cell just barely close enough for the man to reach it before heading back up the stairs all the while mumbling, “Good thing we had those shackles on you though or you would’ve escaped.”

She looked back at the family before she nodded at them and retreated after the man to find herself on the level of the city she dropped from when escaping Dean. She looked around so she’d be able to find the staircase again before heading off for her room. She still had to get ready for her meeting with the prince and she must look a mess after wandering around in that dank level of the city.

Cipheel stepped into the room and was immediately attacked by an over excited Robin flinging himself at her. She and Robin both fell to the hardwood floor by the force, but that didn’t stop Robin from talking breathlessly to her.

“God, Cipheel, Dean’s been looking everywhere for you! Why didn’t you come tell me as soon as it happened?”

Cipheel only growled under her breath about annoying twerps sticking their noses where they don’t belong before shoving him off her. “One, it’s none of your business what I do, and two, you’re not anything of mine to begin with that I would start telling you anything about me.”

“Well, don’t be rude about it,” Robin huffed, not seeming affected by the harsh tone she used. “You look a mess,” he said, looking her up and down. “What happened?”

“Still, none of your business.” She stood and headed into the closed off rooms to take a shower. It might be good to get close to one of the royal family so she could get around easier without being questioned. She could definitely use the prince’s attention to her advantage if she played her cards right.

Robin tried to follow her in to continue chatting animatedly to her, but instead he got the door slammed in his face. “Fine, but you can’t avoid this forever!”

After cleaning up Cipheel wrapped a towel around her and went to get a new change of clothes. It was only after she had started to shower that she had realized she had completely forgotten something to change into because Robin had annoyed her. She had entertained herself all the while washing by stringing together colorful words that she thought described him.

She was about to walk back into the bathroom with a clean uniform when Dean stepped into the room and called out to her.

“What are you doing, Cipheel?” He hurried over and took the uniform from her. “No, no, no, these won’t do at all.”

“Would you rather I go in a towel?”

“No, of course not, dear girl. Your regular clothes, naturally. You still have them, don’t you?”

“I hardly think those will be very appropriate for a luncheon with Prince Calix,” Cipheel stated dryly. “There’re holes and burns; everything.”

“Ah, I see. Come with me.” He ordered. He dropped her uniform on her bunk before heading out. Cipheel wanted to scream that she wasn’t about to walk all around this city with nothing but a towel on, but he was too far gone to hear. Sighing and tightening the towel around her, she followed.

The walk wasn’t all that long, like Cipheel had originally thought it would be. They stopped in front of a building that looked just like the rest, draped in expensive cloths of the royal family’s colors. They went in and Cipheel was surprised by all the regal and expensive looking clothes strategically and elegantly placed, covering every inch of the walls.

“What is this place?” she asked with awe, unable to keep herself from asking.

“Sometimes the guards are ordered to go under cover when it’s absolutely necessary. The highnesses have been courteous enough to have this building placed in so that we would fit in no matter what.”

Cipheel resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Oh yeah, all you need is a costume to fit right in. It takes more than an outfit to fit in, moron. You’ve got to know how to act too. She thought sarcastically.

“I’m sure we could find something in here for you. After all, soldiers also must get dressed up fancy for balls in the more sophisticated areas of this world and such and are asked to not wear our uniforms.”

Cipheel nodded and followed after him as he led down one of the halls. He looked through one curtain of clothes before stating, “Ah hah!” He pulled out a flowing yellow dress with a sewn on flower going around the waist to look like a belt. He held it up to her before nodding and shoving her into a changing room she hadn’t noticed beside them. When she came out however, Dean was shaking his head almost the second he saw her. “No, that won’t do.” He turned back to the clothes rack and buried himself under the different outfits. He was piqued up again when he pulled out with a similar red dress in hand, minus the flower. “Try this.” Still, when she came out he shook his head.

It went on like that for hours it seemed. Dean would pull out a dress, make her change, but when he saw it he would give her something else. Cipheel felt as though she had seen every color ever created and then some. It went from that red dress, to a flowing midnight blue dress with jewels along the edge of the sleeves, a ruby red dress that looked like it belonged in a whorehouse because it showed so much skin, an elegant white dress that was probably worn by a bride at one point, a kiwi green short dress, a spaghetti strap purple dress with diamonds along the collar and straps, and it continued on.

Finally, Dean pulled out a beautiful, mid-length dress that faded from a dark blue on the top and towards the bottom lightened just slightly. It had slightly thicker straps than spaghetti straps and a loose jewelry belt wrapped around the waist. When she came out Dean’s jaw seemed to have fallen through the floor as he looked her over. He nodded and dragged her, more carefully, to where different shoes were placed in straight lines on racks.

There, he pulled out different blue shoes before he settled for slipper type shoes that matched the dress almost perfectly and were raised only just with small heels. Dean smiles and nodded. “Very beautiful,” he commented. “You clean up very nicely.”

Cipheel nodded and took his offered arm curiously, wondering why he was acting like such a gentleman when before he dragged her everywhere.

“Lynette?” He called into a room.

A short woman came out with large glasses over her eyes. “Oh, Dean,” she giggled, the sound making Cipheel’s insides cringe, “what brings you here?” She looked over at Cipheel and gasped before looking slyly back at Dean. “Dean, did you pick yourself up a girl? She’s very beautiful, didn’t think someone like that would waste time with you.”

Cipheel took great pleasure in seeing Dean’s face immediately turn a bright red at the woman’s words. “N-no, of-of c-course n-not, L-Lyn-Lynette,” he stuttered. He cleared his throat and seemed to calm down considerably before continuing. “This lady is Cipheel and Prince Calix has asked her personally to join him for lunch today. I need you to have her hair ready before then.”

Lynette’s eyes widened and she nodded eagerly, jumping up and down giddily. “Oh I would love to, Dean! It’s been so long since Prince Calix has shown any interest with girls that have come by.”

“I was quite surprised when he did show interest, but I have no objections whatsoever. Cipheel is a wonderful combatant and even had King Winburg and Prince Calix’s utmost interest when they learned of her teacher of swordsmanship.”

“Ooh! How wonderful.” She grabbed Cipheel’s hands and led her into the room, sitting her down in a chair with a large mirror in front of it.

Cipheel shook her head and looked down at her hands. ‘I’m going to have bruises for months if they keep grabbing me like that,’ she thought as she saw purple marks already forming on her wrists and forearms.

Lynette seemed like a professional and was quite serious, much to Cipheel’s surprise but in no way complaining, as she worked on her hair. She dried it and had it straightened before having small rivulets of spirals spaced evenly around the crown of her head coming down over still straight hair. The short woman looked at it for a second before smiling and announcing she was perfect.

Dean met her outside again and his jaw seemed to go even further than the floor that time. He stuttered with incomprehensible words for a minute before finally stating, “You look gorgeous, Cipheel.”

Cipheel blushed and looked away. When in her regular clothes she could easily handle comments like that, just like with Robin when she first met him, but in her current clothing she didn’t know how to respond. She hadn’t actually seen herself yet either, she had her back turned to the mirror the whole time. “Thank you,” she whispered, forcing the blush from coming to her face.

“Come now, wouldn’t want to be late for the big meeting.” Dean announced, suddenly as arrogant as he always acted, except for when he offered his arm to Cipheel to escort her. Cipheel resisted rolling her eyes for what seemed like the millionth time that day and wrapped her arm around his.

The walk to wherever the prince was waiting for her was silent. Dean led her up thousands of stairs and around too many corners and through different buildings to count. The looks she received didn’t help to settle the nerves that starting floating around in her stomach the closer they got to their destination.

Finally though, Dean stopped in front of two large doors with the royal family’s emblem on them. Cipheel looked at them in awe before looking up and down the building to take in the rest of it. She gasped and looked back the way they came, her eyes widening. She hadn’t realized they’d been traveling up the whole time! They were on the very top of the giant turtle’s shell and were standing in front of the royal family’s palace. Dean didn’t seem to notice how she was acting because he knocked a few times on the doors and waited.

A few minutes later a bubbly looking man came to the door and beamed brightly at Dean. “My, my, Dean, what a surprise.” He glanced around and noticed Cipheel. “Ah yes, I had almost forgotten. Prince Calix had said a special guest was coming to have lunch with him. He’s been expecting you quite anxiously. Do remember to mind your manners around him though.” The man laughed at his statement and shook his head. “Whatever am I doing, wasting my time about telling you about manners? You’re a beautiful young lady who managed to impress the whole of the royal family, they wouldn’t settle for anything less than a lady.”

“Tanaka, as I’m sure you know, everything must stay on schedule and we wouldn’t want to keep Prince Calix waiting any longer than he should have to.”

“Ah, yes, yes, of course. Right this way please; I’ll have someone bring you to his quarters at once.” He led them inside and rung a bell.

Cipheel felt her nerves explode inside her as she stepped inside the palace. She had never been anywhere without her sword with her since she had lived with Master Legale and she didn’t like being this far from it, especially in the presence of complete strangers. Someone tapped her shoulder and she turned quickly, only feeling stupid when the maid bowed to her and gestured for her to follow.

Once more she was led up more stairs and down even more hallways. Cipheel was certain that the air of the room had changed from when they were downstairs in the entrance hall. Down there it was a bit drawl and too normal, somewhere during the walk Cipheel was certain they had passed by a similar hallway with everything looking pink and more like a child decorated it. Now they were walking down a hallway with blues everywhere, mostly light blue though.

They stopped in front of a door at the end of the hallway and the maid knocked lightly on the door. No answer came from within and the maid turned to Cipheel. “It would seem Master Prince Calix isn’t in at the moment. He has been awaiting your arrival however and it would do good to just wait here for him.” She bowed and headed down the hall before Cipheel could say anything in reply.

Cipheel turned back to the door and knocked softly on it, opening it when there was no answer. She gasped and looked around the room; it was HUGE. Did one person really need all this space for a bedroom? She stepped in and closed the door. Spotting a balcony and a shadow moving around behind the stained glass she headed over to it. She slid the door open and smiled softly. Prince Calix was pacing the length of the balcony nervously, his hands wringing together as he kept glancing at a table set up and different trays set on it. The swordswoman only then relaxed; the prince was just as nervous as she was about this meeting.

She crossed her arms over her chest and smirked. “It would seem the cool and collected Prince Calix has a weakness.”

Prince Calix gasped and looked up. “You’re here! I-I was afraid you wouldn’t come after all.”

“I always keep my word and I did say I would come. I just didn’t expect to get pampered so much or I would’ve headed straight here in my uniform,” she joked.

Calix gave a soft smiled and laughed gently. “Yes, I hate that kind of thing too. But I must say you look absolutely gorgeous.”

This time Cipheel did blush and she looked away. “Thank you,” she whispered for the second time that day.

“Please, sit down. I’m afraid I don’t know what you like so I ordered different things.”

“You could have asked; I can’t be that hard to find.”

“I – well – I didn’t want you to get any wrong ideas about me,” he admitted.

“Well, be lucky then I’m not quick to judge, especially when I’m as unarmed as I am,” she joked.

The prince seemed to relax at this and pulled out her seat for her.

It was a nice lunch and they exchanged few words during it. Afterwards they watched the sunset before turning to each other.

“You know, it’s strange. Other girls that I’ve asked have lunch with me usually have to leave by a certain time, but you don’t have to. I’ll be the first to admit that I thought you would’ve run out by now so I didn’t plan anything else for us to do.”

Cipheel laughed and looked out into the night sky, slowly going by with each step the giant turtle made. “I’m actually enjoying myself tonight. I thought I would be so nervous I wouldn’t be able to string two words together.”

“But you seemed so calm when I first saw you!”

“I was, but that was only because I saw you were as big a nervous wreck as I was.”

Prince Calix laughed and nodded. “Yes, I suppose that could calm anyone down dramatically.”

“Prince Cal –”

“Please,” he interrupted, “just Calix; I can’t stand titles.”

Cipheel nodded and continued, “Calix, I really enjoyed myself tonight. It’s been such a long time since I can remember having this much fun. (In fact, I can’t remember ever having this much fun.)”

“Why did you join your master? Is it something your parents wanted for you?”

Cipheel shook her head and looked away. “It’s kind of a touchy subject and –”

“Don’t worry about it then, I’ll wait in case you ever decide to tell me.”

“Thanks.” Cipheel looked over her shoulder at him and smiled softly. “You aren’t anything like what I thought.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, going into the room and sitting down on the plush couch inside.

Cipheel joined him and sat down beside him. “I don’t know. I’ve heard lots of…rumors about the royal family being cruel with an insatiable lust for blood and the same thing about your sisters are said when they’re in charge.” She looked at him, searching him through his eyes. “But barely anything is said about you so I couldn’t be sure.”

Calix laughed softly and nodded. “It’s true; I don’t care much for my family, my parents especially. They raise taxes to unspeakable heights and make it so villages have to be rundown because they can’t pay. They don’t care who dies as long as whatever task they assign is done.”

“And you?”

“Me? I’m grateful that I’ll be taking over for them instead of my elder sister, Mona. She’s every bit like my parents. But since I’m the only son I am the rightful heir to the throne; it’s my birthright as the son. As soon as I find somebody to rule with me and I turn eighteen I’ll be able to take the throne from them and rule the way it was supposed to be from the start.”

“You have a couple years to wait then.”

“Yes, but I still need a wife or I won’t be able to take the throne,” He looked at Cipheel and watched her for a second before shaking his head.

Somehow, Cipheel just knew what he was thinking and hesitantly rested her head on his shoulder, startling Calix but he didn’t pull away. “You’re right,” she whispered.

“About what?”

“Me; I’m not here to be a soldier and help the royal family. I’m here for revenge.”

This time Calix did pull away. “So I wasn’t imagining it. When I first saw you I saw such coldness and hatred every time you looked at my family, Mother and Father especially so.”

“Yes, when I was very young, only four, they killed my entire village, my mother included. My father had died a few years before that so I had no one. I was going to kill myself to join them but Master Legale saved me and told me what I needed to do.”

“So that’s how you joined up with him; you had no where else to turn?”

“Yes.”

It was silent throughout the room before Calix wrapped his arm around her and held her close. “I’ll protect you,” he whispered.

A small smile came to Cipheel’s face and she nodded, suddenly tired. She felt herself slipping and she readjusted herself so her head was resting on Calix’s lap. “Is this okay?” She yawned tiredly.

“Everything’s okay,” he answered quietly. “Go to sleep; you’ve had a hard day.”

Cipheel woke up the next morning and looked around in confusion. ‘How did I end up here?’ Then she remembered the night before and smiled softly. She looked around the room and spotted Calix’s crown, a frown coming to her face as realization suddenly dawned on her. She stood up quickly, tripping and almost falling over herself as the dress was tangled up in her legs. ‘This was wrong; so very wrong.’

She hurried to the door and down every staircase and hallway she found until she located the front door at last. She burst through the two doors and hurried as fast as she could without tripping over herself all the way back to her barracks.

Her only wish for the time being was not in fact to receive her revenge against the royal family, but to stay as far away from Prince Calix as she could until she was sure the whole thing would blow over and the heir to the throne forgot all about her.

It would seem the gods weren’t with her, however. A few days later the prince was walking around, getting some fresh air and release from the pressures of royalty. He looked over and saw Cipheel staring out over a railing, watching the scenery pass by slowly. A rush of excitement came over him and he hurried over to her.

Cipheel had finished going through a few training programs with Robin to see if they could work well together and she was exhausted. She heard footsteps approaching and thought it was Robin to come bug her about going through the rest of the programs, but the person actually approaching was much worse as she saw through the corner of her eye. Using all her strength she ground out as he got closer, “As you are part of the royal family and I’m here to slaughter them for revenge as I told you before, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”

Calix froze in mid-step, unable to believe what he just heard. “What…I-I don’t understand.”

“Let me put it in terms you can understand then: stay away from me,” she forced out through her teeth.

“I was worried about you,” Calix admitted, ignoring her threats. “Why’d you leave that night; you didn’t even say goodbye, leave a note, anything to know...” he trailed off into silence.

“Know what, Prince Calix?” Cipheel asked, mocking his title.

A betrayed expression crossed over Calix’s face after she spoke. “I thought I told you to call me Calix.”

“You did, but I don’t get friendly with the enemy.”

“What are you talking about? Did I do something wrong, Cipheel?”

Cipheel sighed and turned to face him. “It was wrong of me – of us – to become friends that night. Our roles in life are too different for us to become anything more than two people who know each other and had light conversation.”

“Is that what you thought that was? Cipheel, I thought you understood that was supposed to be a date. I want to get to know you more; I thought we could be more than friends. You couldn’t fool me that night, either. I knew before then that you weren’t any kind of lady my father wants me to marry and I was happy about that.”

“It was a meeting that I shouldn’t have gone to. You’re a prince of the royal family and I should kill you, but I can’t. I’m supposed to for my revenge, but I can’t because you’ve already admitted that you hate what your family does to people. I didn’t feel anything then, but I do now and I know it was wrong.”

Calix takes a step back, staring at her face with hurt. One look into her eyes though and he knew the truth. His expression hardened and he took his step back. “You’re wrong; you felt something that night, the same as me,” he argued. “I don’t care about roles between you or me or anybody else! We’ll be together, you’ll see, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to give you up so easily. You’re all I’ve ever dreamed of and I want to know if we’ll have a chance or not together!”

Cipheel turned away from the prince and shook her head hastily. “You’re the one who’s wrong, your highness –”

“Calix,” the prince ground out.

“Your highness, I didn’t feel anything that night and there will never be an ‘us’ as you want it to be. We have different responsibilities to fulfill and I won’t let anything get in my way. So if you get in mine, I’ll kill you and I won’t feel a thing doing it.” Cipheel then jumped over the railing and landed down in the level of the city right below and by the time Calix looked over she was already gone.

Cipheel waited in the shadows for Calix to go away before she made her way towards the cell holding Zander and his family. She’d been meaning to go visit them soon since she had been piling up food in a handkerchief at the meals she went to so she could give it to them.

“You’re back!” Zander exclaimed with surprise. “I didn’t expect to ever see you again.”

“I said I would help you, didn’t I?” Cipheel looked at the busted cell doors and smirked as she remembered what had set her off to do it, “What did the guard say when they saw the cell in ruins?” As she looked around the room she saw immediately that Zander’s daughter was curled up as far from her as possible and that his wife wasn’t anywhere.

Zander shrugged, “Not much; he just thought it was the cell itself that fell down.” The statement pulled Cipheel from her thoughts.

“Idiots,” Cipheel muttered, shaking her head in disbelief. “They really have no idea what kind of power a sword and pure energy can do.”

“Is that what that was?” Zander asked, dazed. “I’ve never heard of anyone putting pure energy behind their sword.”

“It’s a very difficult skill to control. I wouldn’t have done it if I wasn’t completely sure I could control it. However, I mastered it while training with my master.”

“Is that what that blue aura was?” he asked, referring to the red glow that shown like harmless flames right before she attacked.

“Yes, it’s one of the few times one is able to see their aura without the use of an enchanter.”

“You become more and more remarkable every time I hear of what you can do.”

“What do you mean by that?” Cipheel asked, sitting down next to Zander to lean against the wall. His small daughter crawled over the best she could and rested her head in her lap. Cipheel was unnerved by the harmless action, but shook it off and rubbed her back soothingly.

“The guards that come down here talk about you; they’re very impressed by someone so young’s abilities with a weapon so deadly and often impossible to master.”

Cipheel shrugged off the glory pressed her way, “I do what I can to survive; it’s not much.”

“Why won’t you ever accept the credit bestowed upon you?”

“I won’t be truly satisfied until I master the skill to which my master showed me a few months before I left him; the Spirit Wave.”

“The spirit wave,” Zander asked dumbly, “what kind of a name is that for something that you seem so interested in conquering?”

“Don’t mock that attack unless you wish to meet its power face to face,” Cipheel glared at him. “It may not be the best of names, but it isn’t well known either and with such a boring name no one will think anything of it if it’s said in wide public. It isn’t something to be played with.”

“That’s understandable; for someone as powerful as I’ve heard you to be, it must be a hard skill to master.”

Cipheel nodded, looking sadly down at the small girl, “No one should live this kind of life.”

Zander was silent as he looked between his daughter and the low-class guard. Many levels could be taken to a statement like that and he didn’t want to have misunderstood it for something that wasn’t so.

The swordswoman continued to pet the girl’s back and played with her hair. “As I was growing up with my master I was wishing the whole time that no child should ever have their childhood taken from them as cruelly as mine was.”

“I see,” Zander said quietly, “It is a terrible fate to have.”

Very carefully Cipheel moved the small girl to her father’s lap and stood up, brushing the dust off her uniform pants. “I need to get back to my barrack. Missions have been rumored to be posted soon and if the guards talking about my ‘great power’ are anything to go by I’ll be sure to have something to keep me busy for a while.” She pulled out her handkerchief and placed it in front of Zander, “I hope it hasn’t gone too spoiled; they’re scraps I managed to steal off the table to the meals I went to.”

Zander’s eyes widened in surprise, “T-thank you, Cipheel.”

“Don’t worry about it, just keep her safe,” Cipheel gestured to the sleeping little girl in his lap.

“I will,” he pulled the handkerchief close to him and nodded at her.

Cipheel turned to go but looked back once more. “Might I be able to ask her name? And where did her mother go?”

Zander looked down sadly, “Her mother’s gone; she was trying to protect our little girl because the guards said they had plans for her if she survived and she was beaten for speaking out.”

“I’m sorry.” Cipheel looked down at her feet.

“There isn’t much that could’ve been done to stop it; you’re undercover after all.”

“Yes, I know,” Cipheel looked at him. “I suppose you’re right though. If I had done something then even if they were killed it would arouse suspicion that there’s someone like me in the ranks and I’d have to be even more careful.”

“Her name’s Kathryn,” Zander told her, pride lacing his voice.

“It’s a lovely name.” Cipheel nodded. “I need to go before I’m missed.”

Zander nodded and watched her go before leaning back against the wall to sleep too.

Cipheel made it to the barracks before many of the troops had even realized she’d been gone very long. She smirked as she looked around at many of the respected looks she was being given as she headed over to the new posting at the far wall. Her not being noticed probably had much to do with people knowing not to question her either.

As soon as the large group around the mission postings noticed she was standing there they quickly parted for her and waited patiently. Giving them a nod of thanks she quickly looked for her name and repressed a groan when the rumors were all true. Everyone somehow knew that the shuriken-user Robin and swordfighter Cipheel would be paired together and that’s exactly what she didn’t want. She moved away from the list to go find Robin, who was sitting on his bed cleaning his deadly weapon of choice.

“I take it you saw the listings then.” Cipheel nodded. “Isn’t it great?” Robin jumped up from his bed and grabbed her hands, making her do this stupid dance around the bed. She pulled herself away from him and glared. “What?” he asked as if he had done nothing wrong.

“You,” she started, turning around and heading for the door, “are a child.”

“Hey.” He ran to catch up with her.

“Are you going to follow me around all the time?” she asked, exasperated. “Just because we have one bloody mission together, you’re going to follow me as if I’m holding your leash?”

“No, we have to go report in with Dean,” Robin explained. “I thought it would be more professional if we arrived together.”

“You know, I worked hard to get the respect I deserved around here and if you haven’t gotten any on your own I’ll see to it personally you don’t suck up any of mine.”

“But I wasn’t trying to do that, Cipheel. It’s just…we haven’t really talked at all in the last couple of weeks. It’s hard when you’re all withdrawn and hard to find in the first place.”

Cipheel rolled her eyes and stepped into the meeting hall where Dean and several other fighters, some paired up and some not, were already waiting for the rest of the troops. The group waited a few minutes longer before Dean stood and made the room quiet down.

“We don’t have the time to wait for others lagging behind,” he started, “After all,” he stared pointedly at Cipheel and Robin especially, “some have pressing issues to address. You know your missions and duties so I don’t expect your firsts to come out a disappointment. Is that understood?” A murmur passed through the large crowd and Dean seemed satisfied. “Good, try to understand yourselves while you’re out and about on your own for a while. Before you leave the city you will be given a tracker that will lead you back to the city when we’re done,” and with that he nodded a dismissal.

Robin turned to leave, but Dean’s voice stopped him. “Just a minute you two: Cipheel, Robin.” Cipheel was expecting a confrontation from Dean after he stared at them during his speech so she wasn’t surprised by it. “Cipheel, your presence has been requested at the palace before you take off. The prince wished to speak with you before you left. You can leave as soon as the business with Prince Calix is finished.”

Cipheel didn’t roll her eyes in annoyance, but she didn’t exactly want to speak with the youngest male of the royal family so soon after an argument; she was actually nervous about seeing him again. “Yes, sir,” she said as politely as she could, “we’ll head there immediately.”

“Do you need me to escort you again?”

“No, I’ll find the place okay, thanks,” she turned on her heel and headed out the door with Robin close behind her.

“You know,” Robin started after a minute of walking up the stairs and turning corners, “you’ve been especially mopey after your meeting with Prince Calix. Did you two have an argument or something?”

“That would be none of your business,” Cipheel stated hardly.

“Oh, come on, Cipheel! We’re partners now and if we’re going to make this work you’ve got to trust me,” he argued.

“Fine, trust, I can deal with that. I’ll trust you if you trust me, deal?”

Robin nodded and Cipheel was satisfied. She jumped back onto the railing and from that jumped on top of the building right beside it, “You’re going to follow me my way. The original way is much too boring.”

The shuriken-user smirked and followed after her. “I knew you were an adventuresome type,” he joked.

They jumped over the rooftops of the buildings, going upward with every few roofs until they reached the palace doors. Cipheel smirked at Robin as he gasped for breath before turning to the doors and knocking on them. They were only kept a few minutes before a cheerful as ever Tanaka opened the door and smiled at them.

“We’ve been expecting you, Miss Cipheel,” he grinned at her. “We feared Commander Dean hadn’t been able to catch you in time. We were certain you were especially itching to get to your mission.” He then noticed Robin and smiled at him, gesturing to him as he asked, “And who’s your friend?”

“This is Robin, my partner,” Cipheel answered, stepping into the palace as Tanaka moved aside, “The prince wanted to see me.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” he clapped his hands together happily, “Would you like one of the maids to escort you or could you find it on your own?”

“I’ll be fine on my own. I don’t plan on staying long either,” Cipheel stated easily, heading for the stairs; Robin followed after her nervously.

A few halls up the duo ran into a maid dusting and Cipheel recognized her as the one who escorted her the first time she had come to the palace. She greeted her and the maid smiled happily at her.

“Good thing you came; Prince Calix has been moping terribly whenever I see him. Always staring out that balcony of his with a sad expression,” she explained.

“Has he? I’ll be sure to straighten things out. I’m afraid I might’ve given the wrong impression towards him,” Cipheel explained.

The maid stared at Cipheel before smiling at her, “I don’t think that could be so, Miss Cipheel. The young highness was excited about meeting you before you two even spoke. It was love at first sight for him, I believe.”

To say Cipheel was surprised was putting it lightly. She nodded quick thanks and headed down the hall quickly, Robin having to jog to keep up with her sudden pace.

“What was that about?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Cipheel told him absently.

“What are you talking about? That must’ve been something, Cipheel. What did the two of you do when you came here?” he pressed.

“It’s none of your business, Robin,” Cipheel ground out.

Robin wanted to say more, but he decided against it as he eyed her hand near the hilt of her sword. He knew better than to aggravate her and he wasn’t about to say she was slow would be the biggest lie he could tell. She was much faster at unsheathing her sword than he was at pulling out a shuriken from the pouch at his waist.

After a few minutes longer of complete silence they stopped at a light blue door. Cipheel knocked on it and when there was no answer she tried the door and went in when it opened.

Robin was shocked to see she was so bold to enter a royal person’s chambers without being invited but he didn’t say anything when he saw her staring almost longingly at the prince who, just like the maid had said, was staring out on his balcony.

“Wait here and if I find out you eavesdropped I will personally cut off your ears,” the swordswoman threatened before heading out to the balcony to join the prince. She took a deep breath and asked, “If this is a bad time I could come back after my mission.”

The prince jumped and turned quickly to stare at her. “Ci-Cipheel, you…you’re…” he stuttered, unable to think of anything to say.

“Prin – Calix, I need to talk to you,” Cipheel said, correcting herself from saying ‘prince’.

“Y-yeah?”

“You don’t have to be nervous, Calix, I’m not here to fulfill revenge on anyone right now. I have a mission to get to and I’d rather have trust built up so I can get in and out without worries,” she explained, “I came here because I was requested to.”

“You did,” she nodded, “Then why are you here?”

“I was summoned to come here and talk to you because, according to the maid a few halls down, you’ve been moping around since I left. I’m not going to be responsible for somebody I care about again.”

“Y-you…”

“Yes, Calix, I care about you. I don’t know what happened to the ‘don’t get emotionally attached’ rule, but it happened. That one evening we spent together you made me feel like nothing ever has before. I thought the only thing that would make me happy was killing the royal family and then taking my life so I can be with my family again, but that changed when I was with you,” she admitted.

“You do,” he paused, “I felt that way too. I’ve always thought about running out of here and ignoring all my duties. All I’ve ever wanted to do was find someone I can be with and live normally and then… then I met you and that changed. When I saw you I could tell immediately you were the one I wanted to be around no matter what it took.”

“You can live normally, Calix, but not right now. I won’t lie and say I don’t want to see if we can make something work between us, but right now isn’t the best of times for me to get involved with somebody.

“There’s a prophecy told to me by my master that when the royal family’s evil ways have fallen the world shall be purged of slavery and will be free once more. That’s partly why my master took me in as well, I’m part of this prophecy. If I fail another shall be born to try to fulfill the prophecy and he will train them.”

“I understand that and I’m willing to wait however long you need me to,” Calix explained.

“Thank you, Calix. I promise to you that I won’t fail,” she pledged.

Calix leant forward and placed a chaste kiss on Cipheel’s lips, “I know you won’t either. I’ll help in whatever way I can.”

A knock reached them and Cipheel looked over to see Robin pointing out into the sky. The pair looked over to where he was pointing and saw the sun was starting to go down and the sky was beginning to darken.

“I should go, we still have to complete our mission and I’ll be damned if someone finishes theirs before me,” she joked.

“Yeah, okay,” he agreed. He watched her go as she dragged the teen behind her and out of the room, arguing to him that there’s a good time and a wrong time to interrupt someone when they’re talking.

“I was only trying to help,” Robin whined as they walked towards the animal stalls.

“Whatever, just next time don’t do it in so apparent a way. You could’ve embarrassed me,” she told him grumpily.

“You?! How in the seven worlds could I have embarrassed you?” he shouted.

“I’m a fighter who needs to be babysat by someone who uses shuriken all because I’m a girl and the prince just happens to have this crush on me,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Robin grumbled about it, but didn’t say anymore than that, which Cipheel was grateful for. They headed over to the animal stall the rest of the way in silence.

Amon and Streak looked happy to see Cipheel again and the spirit wolf jumped over the small fence keeping him in his paddock to greet her, watching Robin carefully.

“It’s okay, Streak,” Cipheel told him as she stroked his silver coat, “He’s going to be coming along with us on a mission. Are you ready for some exercise?”

Streak woofed and ran over to the pen holding Amon in, barking some more in his excitement to finally get out of the building he’d been contained in for days. Cipheel felt bad that animals weren’t allowed to roam the city, even if accompanied by someone else. It became quite lonely without her two friends with her.

Cipheel led Amon and Streak, followed by Robin a few feet back, out of the city. After climbing on the black stallion she waited for Robin to take his place behind her before they started off for the city of Tarak.

Once they reached it, they took a look over it and weren’t surprised to see they were collecting from a city that couldn’t possibly scrounge up the taxes they were supposed to be collecting. It was completely rundown and some of the buildings looked like they were going to collapse at any moment.

Entering the city it looked much worse than from the outside. The people were dressed in rags and were giving them glares that could send some of the bravest of men running, had the people giving them looked much healthier.

Robin wanted to stay back to have a look around while Cipheel went up to the main hall to collect the taxes.

The mayor was a short skinny man, much like the rest of the city’s people looked like. Unlike the other people though, he didn’t glare at her but instead greeted her nervously. When he asked the reason for her visit Cipheel felt terrible for asking so much from a city that obviously had hard enough times staying alive and not starving or freezing to death.

The man’s small eyes widened though when she mentioned she was here for the taxes, and he quickly backed away from her. “I – I’m sorry,” he stuttered, “We don’t have it all yet. Please, please can’t you ask your king to give us more time?”

Cipheel looked around nervously. She knew what her and Robin’s orders were to do if the city didn’t have the money.

“I won’t do it,” Robin’s voice said from the doorway as he stared at the dusty floor of the hall, “I can’t and I won’t slaughter these people.”

The mayor quickly became panicky, and he backed away to the far wall in order to put as much distance between Cipheel’s still form and him.

Cipheel looked up at Robin and nodded, “I can’t either. It isn’t right to kill people for something they couldn’t control or for any other reason as insignificant as this as well.”

Robin’s form changed immediately from tense to relaxed as he smiled at her. “What are we going to do then,” he asked, “If we return without the right amount they’ll expect our weapons to be bloodied and there’s no possible way to get enough money in such a short amount of time.”

Cipheel smirked and looked out the window, “I’ve got a better idea. We’ll still get some taxes so it won’t be too obvious but we won’t have to kill anybody either.”

After Cipheel explained her plan, the mayor, along with the rest of the city, quickly got to work, and by the time night fell, everyone was ready to go. Robin and Cipheel waved goodbye to the city with a good sized bag of the taxes and headed out. The city’s calls of, “thank you,” and, “we’ll never forget what you’ve done for us,” followed them out.

“You know,” Robin yelled over the wind rushing in their faces, “I’m very sure you aren’t trying to be part of the royal guard at all!”

“What do you mean?” she called back.

“A regular guard would have massacred that city without question, but you actually helped them!”

“Of course, the only people I’m going to kill are the royal family and anybody who gets in my way to protect them!”

“I had a feeling it was something like that! Are you going to tell me what’s rolling around in that head of yours?”

“I’ll tell you when we get back to the city!”

The rest of the ride was silent except for the rushing of wind whistling by their ears and the hoof prints and paw prints of Amon and Streak running across the sand of the desert.

At the royal city Cipheel placed Amon and Streak back in their stalls with apologies and promises to visit more often. Heading up to the palace to drop off the taxes they had was a completely different mood altogether.

“Are you going to tell me? I’ll tell you why I’m here,” Robin said quietly.

Cipheel nodded and explained about her family being killed and her home being destroyed because of the royal family. There was complete silence until Robin finally spoke.

“That’s awful,” Robin whispered, “I’m so sorry. Nobody should ever have to live through that at such a young age.”

“What about you?”

“It’s not as good a reason as yours, but it is still important to me,” he admitted. “Some of the guards here killed my sister when I was very young. I also wanted to join her by killing myself but I didn’t have the courage to do it. My master found me crying by her body and he trained me so that I could have my revenge against them.”

“Was there a reason?”

Robin clenched his fists and looked away. “They said…they said they were bored and wanted some fun. That’s why they killed her, and I won’t rest until I’m satisfied they suffer the same pain I did when I watched them torture her.”

“You must’ve loved her very much.”

“I did.”

The conversation came to an end as they reached the palace doors. They knocked and were allowed in to see the king.

Cipheel bowed and offered the bag of money to the king. “Your highness,” she started respectively, “when we arrived at the city it was completely deserted. We went up to the town hall and this is all that the town left behind.” Cipheel watched the emotions running across the king’s face before he nodded.

Robin had to bite his lip to keep himself from laughing. He couldn’t believe their lie was that easy to pull off.

The swordswoman smirked inwardly, glad that her plan had pulled through successfully. ‘Can somebody really be this stupid and be king? Nobody in that kind of a panic attack as the mayor was having could possibly have come up with an idea to leave the town before we came.’

After the palace doors closed, Cipheel was shaking with anger. “It’s people like this,” she started, “that make me upset. I think I’m going to have to act sooner than I would’ve liked.”

“What do you mean?” Robin asked, “You don’t mean that you’re going to kill the royal family are you?”

“Yes,” she nodded, “I am. Tonight I’ll gather everything I can together, and I’ll have my revenge fulfilled by tomorrow night.”

“And then you’ll kill yourself?” he asked quietly, the fear in his voice obvious.

“Yes, I will join my family soon.”

Robin watched her leave down the steps before looking back at the doors. ‘What about Prince Calix? She couldn’t be thinking of killing him too when he’s so different from the rest of his family.’

That night Cipheel waited for everyone to go to sleep before she headed out for the building holding all the weapons. ‘Soon’ was all she could think about. ‘Soon I will be able to join you mother and we’ll all be a family again with father.’

She picked open the lock and snuck in completely unnoticed. Cipheel gathered a few poison gas balls and other knick knacks, thoughts of her family taking over her as she worked in silence.

When Cipheel returned with her bag of weapons in a safe hiding place near the castle she snuck back into her bunk and took a quick look around to make sure no one was awake. One thing did manage to catch her eyes, and as she laid her head on the pillow she thought, ‘Where’d Robin get to at this time of night?’

The whole next day Cipheel sat watching the palace. She ignored everyone who came to see what she was doing and only ate a bit of stale bread that Zander had made her keep when she told him of her plans to go after the royal family that night.

When night fell Cipheel waited a few more hours until she finally moved and headed stealthily towards the palace, completely undetected. She had briefly noticed as she passed her barracks that Robin wasn’t in his bed again, but she wasn’t worried about him since she knew he wouldn’t try stopping her.

She pulled out her bag she had hidden within Amon’s stall and patted his head lovingly. “I’ll never forget you, Amon. You were wonderful to me, and I’ll never forget you. Once my body is found they’ll release you and Streak and then you’ll be free to do whatever you want.”

Amon neighed quietly, nuzzling the side of her face. It was almost as if to say, “Don’t go.”

Cipheel smiled sadly at him before moving on to Streak and saying her goodbyes to him as well before moving out of the small building.

She climbed into the palace through an open window in an upper level hallway and moved down it quietly. She opened one of the doors with a small crown painted on it with the letter ‘D’ in the middle of it. ‘Princess Damita,’ Cipheel thought absently.

She pulled out two poison balls and pressed their buttons in before quickly rolling them towards the bed where the sleeping princess lay. She closed the door and blocked the bottom of the door with a raggedy blanket before heading back.

Realizing that she was near Calix’s room, she went to say goodbye to him. Her hand only went as far as touching the doorknob before she paused and shook her head. If I see him now then I won’t have the courage I need to finish what I started. I’ll come before I leave.

Cipheel headed back down the hallway and down the stairs to reach where she thought Calix’s older sister, Princess Mona, resided. She looked around for a few minutes before she smirked and headed for another door with a larger crown in the center with a ‘M’ in the center. Both are the same, Damita and Mona. If I’m lucky Winburg and his wife will be just as easy to find. They’re probably somewhere in the highest part of the palace.

She pulled out a poison tipped arrow and crept into the room. The bed wasn’t that hard to find with it being in the center of the room. She moved towards it quietly and watched the princess sleep for a minute before bringing up the arrow. Carefully she pulled out Princess Mona’s arm and placed it wrist up. Knowing the poison would run quickly if the girl struggled she didn’t bother being careful as she drove the arrow through the wrist.

Sure enough, Mona awoke screaming and thrashed around to try removing the burning pain lacing through her wrist. She was gone a minute later.

Hoping nobody had heard she poked her head out the door and listened. When she was sure nobody was coming, she quickly pulled the bag away and left it by the door, not needing it for the king and queen.

Cipheel must’ve wandered around for the better part of the night before she finally found a hidden staircase leading further up into the palace. There was one hall after climbing it leading to two large double doors. There wasn’t a crown like the two princesses had had on their door, but it was blatantly obvious that it led into the king and queen’s chambers.

She pushed the door open quietly and immediately the king’s snores met her ears. Cipheel gasped and kept herself from tripping over something as she stepped further into the room. Looking down she found a pillow and smirked. She was about to pick it up but the atmosphere of the room suddenly changed and she looked around.

A shadow in the corner shifted, and Cipheel pulled out her sword when the shadow took the form of a person.

“I should’ve known somebody like you was too good to fall into a ruthless band of guards,” the person said. It was a man’s voice and oddly familiar.

Cipheel eyes widened when it came to her. “Dean?”

“Smart, just like I thought,” He said as he stepped into the moonlight creeping out through a window. Dean also had his jeweled sword pointing straight at her.

“I don’t have time for you,” Cipheel argued.

“You’ll be surprised how much time you’ll have on your hands when I kill you,” he shouted as he lunged forward.

The war cry was the thing that startled the queen awake. When she saw what was going on she screamed, awaking her husband with a sudden jolt.

Cipheel growled lowly in her throat before dodging the attack and thrusting her blade at Dean, who blocked it with his sword.

“You might’ve been able to beat Shactly Purl with your cute tricks, but they won’t work on me, girl.”

“You’ll be surprised what tricks I have up my sleeve.” She proved her point by pulling two daggers out of her belt loop and throwing them at Dean.

He ducked one but the other gashed him harshly in the leg. He cried out and nearly dropped his sword. Cipheel took the opportunity and lunged at him. He noticed her attack though and dropped to the floor so that Cipheel only managed to make a long cut along his arm.

“And your fatal mistake,” Cipheel shouted as she held her sword with both hands and forced it all the way through Dean’s body. He died instantly.

The queen screamed again and clung to her husband, trying to force him in front of her so he would die first.

My family, I’ll be with you again, the words repeated over and over like a broken record in Cipheel’s head. She held her sword over her head before slashing the blade horizontally across the queen’s neck, killing her almost instantaneously.

The king scooted back across the bed, holding a large, feather-filled pillow in front of him as though it would save him somehow.

“Do you know,” Cipheel started as she tore the pillow from the king’s hands, “how hard it is to go on living when you’ve seen your entire family slaughtered? With that weight resting on your shoulders and wanting to cry but knowing it’ll be useless?”

She carried on asking him questions he couldn’t possibly have much feeling about until she had him backed up against the wall. “It’s unforgivable what you do to people and their homes,” Cipheel told him in a deadly calm voice, “And by some miracle you do think you deserve forgiveness for any reason at all, then I won’t be the first to give you such a gift.”

She pulled out her last dagger from her belt and slashed it across the man’s right arm, enjoying the yelp of pain that followed it. She continued making slow precise cuts along the skin showing until she dropped the dagger and brought her sword up again.

“Do you wonder like I do every day about whether you have a heart or not? It’s something I’ve thought about everyday since I decided I would have my revenge for what you did to my family – to my entire city. Let’s see if it’s true,” with that she plunged her sword where his heart would be, reveling in the screams of pain that followed as blood dribbled from the king’s mouth. He collapsed into a small puddle of his red liquid when Cipheel released him by removing her sword. “May you never find the afterlife pleasures some people only dream of finding,” she whispered in a deadly quiet voice.

Cipheel looked out the window and gave a small smile to the moon, “Mother, Father, I’ll be with you soon.”

The swordswoman walked over to the bed and wiped her bloodied sword on the sheets until it was clean. She then placed the blade to her chest and closed her eyes. I’m sorry I couldn’t see you one last time, Calix. If I don’t do it now I might never find my parents with the gods.

That’s when she heard a gasp come from the doorway and someone running across the room to pull her forcefully away from the tip of the sword. She opened her eyes and found herself lost in ocean blue eyes.

“Please don’t leave me here alone, Cipheel. If you kill yourself you might as well take me with you,” Calix whispered, “In the short time that I’ve known you I’ve come to fall in love with you.”

“Don’t you hate me?”

“I couldn’t do that, Cipheel. I was actually thinking of doing it myself once or twice, but you – you had the courage to actually do it. I was too scared about what I would feel afterwards.”

“You still want to be with me even after knowing my deeds?”

“Nothing will separate us,” he swore.

“I promised my family though that I would join them as soon as I avenged them.”

“You will find them, Cipheel, when your day to join them comes. Don’t make it that day, Cipheel.”

Slowly, hesitantly, Cipheel nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck. “How did you know?”

“Robin came to me last night,” he admitted, “he told me you were going after my family tonight. He’s down in the main hall making sure nobody comes up here right now.”

“Cipheel nodded and allowed herself to be led out of the room and down the stairs.

When Robin saw her he ran forward and threw his arms around her. “I’m so glad you’re safe,” he breathed out. “Please don’t be mad at me for telling Calix.”

Cipheel only shook her head and walked out of the palace, not wanting to be there anymore. She was surprised to see Amon and Streak, along with her regular clothes, standing by the stairs.

“I thought you might like to get out of here in something you’re more comfortable in,” Calix told her. “I don’t want to rule as a king. I just want to be with you.”

“If you want to be with her, Calix, than you’ll have to have your own horse,” somebody said from around the corner.

“Who’s there?” Calix demanded.

There was a chuckle before Gerik stepped into view with a chestnut stallion in his grasp. “You two belong together and I won’t let something so small as transportation bring you apart. I want you to have her.”

“Gerik,” Cipheel asked in disbelief, “but, but why – how?”

“I knew from the moment I saw you that you weren’t the type to be held to some useless code as the royal guard’s code. That’s when I was certain that you weren’t here for the pleasantries and decided to tell Calix about you.”

“How did you know Calix?”

The man chuckled and placed a hand on Calix\'s shoulder, “He’s like an adopted son to me. He ran from the city once when it was becoming too hard. At the time I was also a good friend of your master’s, and he told me about you and how you were progressing nicely; that he had high faith in you. I was the one to tell Calix that he had hopes to look forward to if he stuck them out a bit longer.”

“So you knew all along, Calix, before I even told you about why I joined the guard. That’s why you weren’t surprised.”

Calix blushed lightly and nodded, “I couldn’t let on that I knew so soon into the game.”

“Let’s get out of here then.”

Streak seemed to agree and barked a few times excitedly before running a head start down the steps. Cipheel followed soon after she had pulled herself onto Amon’s back. Calix followed her on Windum, Gerik’s chestnut horse.

Hours later the two sat on a hilltop watching the sun as it rose, the different colors of red and violets contrasting together in the sky.

“The prophecies been fulfilled at last. The royal family is no more and this world may finally receive their long awaited peace,” Cipheel said softly into the wind.

Calix watched lovingly before they rode off for unknown adventures, no longer a prince, no longer responsibilities to hold on his shoulder, and still with the only one he’d ever come to love in his life.