The woman looked over the quiet city. Her eyes followed the stream of torches showing the train of people moving away. She was wearing a dark cape that hid her features but if you looked closely you could make out her glowing orange eyes. She emitted a powerful aura- strong, yet easy to hide.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" a man's voice asked from behind her. "The city I mean. It is by all means the greatest city in the world, surpassing that of even Rome and Constantinople"
She didn't answer, she just continued staring out- her eyes studying the design of the great temples of the city, the Al-Aqsa and over Calvary.
"I am terribly sorry for your niece, Lady Hestia, or is it Vesta now that the Holy Land has fallen? It must be devastating for her, abandoned by her family… again." his voice was deep and filled with emotion, he sounded tired.
The man walked up beside her and leaned over the railing next to her. "We have a lot to discuss," he said "Things have happened in the world that you must know
about"
When he was finished the woman's head was in her hands and she was crying, her body convulsed violently with every sob. The man had his strong arms around her thin figure, in a way they looked contrasting- male and female, strong and thin, blue and orange, but in another way they looked similar- both had brown hair and both had an aura of calm around them.
After some time her tears stopped falling but she was still sobbing, the man continued his embrace, now rubbing soothing circles on her back.
"You have a lot to explain," she said, leaving his arms "like how you know about me, and why you broke your oath? What is your name, how did you know that this is the new Greece?"
"My name by birth is Airikiv Magnusson, I was born in a noble family in what is known as Göta Land. The Saracens know me as Al Ghouti. I knew about you because I figured there couldn't be only one pantheon of gods in the world. It is not a secret in the Order that gods exist. Plus that son of Zeus that had to give up the city is a little too obvious." He said holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
"That doesn't explain why you hugged me and still think you haven't broken your vow. Templars are not permitted to touch women."
"The answer to that is simple," he said, still calm. "I am no longer a Templar, my friend Yussuf, got me out of the Order."
"But Templars can never leave, they swear for life" she said. "Not me, I got exiled here by my family and after the battle of Hattin's Horn the Grandmaster released me from my vow. I am now a free man and I am walking towards the kingdom at the end of the road." he said with a sad voice. "Hopefully no one will recognise me at home."
"How long will you stay here before you leave? I think we could be great friends" she blurted out, instantly blushing as she realised what she had said.
"It depends on how many stupid European kings that decide to sail for the Holy Land now that Saladin has taken it. So far, only God knows. I yet to have completed some things in Europe that must be completed, after that, I might be going overseas."
"What do you mean overseas? To Asia?" Hestia asked, surprised.
"No, I think I'm going west, to V–"
He reacted quicker than anyone Hestia had ever seen, as soon as he registered the movement his legs instantly propelled him to the right, he dove and was up on his feet in a split second. But he hadn't been quick enough, a silver arrow was stuck in his shoulder, he stared at it as if he didn't believe it was real, only to dodge to the right again and in the same motion, breaking of the arrow.
The moment he was up he had a sword in his hand. Hestia recognised it as a standard Templar sword although this one looked different, the hilt of the sword was a beautiful cross, with gold and fair gems. The double edged blade was leaf thin and completely white. The same aura of calm that surrounded the man rolled off in waves from the blade, but with the sword it was a different feeling, the man was warm and gentle and though the sword felt warm and gentle, the feeling Hestia got from it was dread, this was not the weapon of a mindless killer, this was the weapon of a man who always hit his goal, swiftly and accurately, always the spot that killed.
Hestia stared in amusement at Airik as he tried to figure out where the arrow had come from, amused until she saw his eyes, they were no longer deep ocean blue, they looked like ice, cold and merciless. They scanned the area systematically, until the second arrow flew against him. He almost lazily grabbed the arrow with his left and and started sprinting in the direction of the shot. He dove left and propelled himself off a pillar, behind another and disappeared out of sight. Hestia only heard the scream, the high pitched scream of a girl.
She moved to observe the scene, and then he emerged from behind a different set of pillars, sword sheathed and clothes as white as if they had just been made.
"What did you do to her?" Hestia asked, scared.
"She got what she asked for. I'm tired of this stinking land, the heat is getting to my head. I'll be leaving now, milady, may we never see eachother again."
He spun on his heel and walked off, leaving Hestia wonder what happened. That is a strange man she thought he doesn't care about others, he's ruthless and cold, even inthe heat of the desert. I must warn Artemis to stay away from him, he is far too dangerous for even her hunters to take on.
Artemis woke up screaming from a nightmare. She had dreamed that her hunters all lay dead on the ground, a knight towering over them with no weapon other than a sword which was completely white. His face had been covered by shadows.
She knew it was only a nightmare, but she still felt uneasy, the hunters had captured a male the day before and the knight in her dream had reminded her of him. She tried to remember what time it was and was surprised when she saw the sun setting. Had she overslept almost a day?
What really scared her was the silence in the camp, at this time in the morning her hunters should be up doing their chores. But the camp was silent as the grave. She got a strange feeling that the dream maybe hadn't been just a dream.
Artemis ran, hoping she was wrong, that it had all just been a dream. She prayed to the fates 'Please don't let the male escape'.
The scene she saw in front of her was the opposite of what she prayed for. Bodies lay everywhere. They all had neat wounds, one single stab through the heart. She guessed they didn't stand a chance, the male had seemed eerily calm when they captured him and now it was too late.
She saw the pole where they had tied the male. Now a slender, silver clad figure was tied there. She saw the tiara in her black hair and realised that it was Zoë Nightshade, her lieutenant, tied to the post. Zoë's head moved and Artemis saw the tears in her onyx coloured eyes. She ran up to her and tried to untie her, her hands shaking.
When the girl was tied loose Artemis saw her injuries, a neat cut across her thigh, that she would have died of if it had only been a couple of millimetres deeper. It cut exactly across the vein in her thigh.
Zoë hugged Artemis with all her power, not wanting to release her grip. The girl couldn't stop sobbing, Artemis just hugged her. Then she felt the girl's shoulders tense, then she saw the sword that was placed just under her chin. Marble white, flour thin, blade, she followed it with her eyes, until they finally met with the eyes of her captive, the mysterious man. Just like in her dream.
His eyes were ice-blue and equally cold. When she locked eyes with him she felt the temperature drop to negative, even though the oasis where the camp was set up was in the middle of a desert.
"You made a big mistake attacking me, milady" he said coldly. He said the word formally but she understood that he was being sarcastic.
Suddenly she felt a rage boil up inside her. This man had brutally murdered her hunters, he should be punished. Her hunting knives materialised in her hands as she hurled herself forwards.
He almost lazily kicked her hard in the chest, sending her flying. Artemis staggered to her feet, struggling to breathe.
"You murdered my hunters! You murdered my friends! You are going to pay!" she screamed as she stabbed at his unprotected head.
"Like you haven't murdered people, milady! Think of every innocent male you have killed! Surely someone must pay for the despicability of many of us, but you can't just murder someone on the basis that there gender is wrong. I might actually have done the world a favour." his voice had an eerie sense of calm, like he knew exactly what to do.
Artemis continued stabbing, hacking and slashing at him but he deflected every blow with a swat of his sword, almost like if he was toying with her. She made a stab and got surprised when it got inside his guard, that was until she realised that he had let it slip through. He grabbed her arm in a crushing grip, and slapped away her knives. He locked eyes with her and she, once again, felt the temperature drop.
"You made a big mistake capturing me. You will however, not tell the other gods about this, otherwise you will not have a hunt left, understood?" he said with the same calm in his voice. "I will let you live this time. Hopefully for you there won't be a second. He dropped her on the ground and she realised that fighting against him wasn't worth it.
He started walking towards the sunset, but turned. He said: "And just so I know you won't follow me…"
she didn't even see him move, but she felt a sharp pain in her neck before her world blacked out.
The last thing she saw was the form of the man walking away, towards the setting sun, his form slowly fading as if he turned into a shadow…
