"I suggest that you talk to my dear sister before you go," Katarina said, walking in stride with Talon down the halls of her mansion. Even beneath the light of countless golden chandeliers, his eyes remained hidden beneath a hood. Talon remained silent, allowing echoes of footsteps to fill the marble halls. Taking orders from a new commander felt alien to him. His fingers twitched, resisting the reflex to lash out in refusal. No, he swore an oath to the general, to serve the head of the Du Couteau house after his disappearance. Talon swallowed. "You're doing this for her, after all."
"I act on order from your father," Talon said. "Nothing else."
"We both know father will be gone a while. What do you plan to do next?" Footsteps. "That's what I thought."
"If you weren't his daughter, it would be your throat next, cur." Talon rounded the corner towards Cassiopeia's bedchambers. He left his back exposed to the fellow assassin.
"If you even tried, it would be your head, lapdog." The words made him falter in step. He ground his teeth. "You may be able to cross blades with me, but I have a husband. You should keep that in mind." Talon let the words fade away behind him.
There he stood with his back to the veil, only a few candles illuminating the room. It was thick enough that he could see her silhouette and not much else, but he still kept his eyes away. Was it habit or was it courtesy? Maybe it was something else. He knew the general would have had no qualms with facing her, but that was different. The bond between them was unlike anything Talon would share with her.
"I leave for the Freljord at tomorrow's dawn, Lady Cassiopeia," Talon said. "My duties as your bodyguard will be temporarily satisfied by your brother-in-law." A hiss pierced the veil at the mention of those last few words, and Talon edged closer to the doors.
"Why must I suffer that impostor? He is no replacement of any kind." The unnatural hang on every 's' that spewed from her mouth never escaped Talon's notice. He knew how much she prided herself on her eloquence, one of the more subtle talents that was robbed from her. "He usurps my father's title and fancies himself family because he has seduced my sister?" Her shriek echoed in the room as something behind the curtain shattered. Talon kept his eyes away, allowing the dust to settle before he answered.
"I must go, for it was his last request. No, his most recent request." Talon corrected his words after a pause, but it was still a moment too late. He turned around at the crescendo of her hisses. Her shadowy form was slithering back and forth, unable to hold still. Her clawed hands were looking for something to seize and smash. "You father is still alive, Lady Cassiopeia. Both your sister and I are sure of it."
"How can you say that?" Her voice raked the walls, as if trying to strip them of their decorations. Talon wanted to flinch as the shrillness ravaged the insides of his ears, but he stood still. The outlines of her arms reached up against the wall, claws set against stone. Rock screeched as her fingers tore away chunks and fragments of the room. Dust littered the air as her figure bolted through the drapes. Instinctively Talon dove away as Cassiopeia grasped at him.
"How can you say that?" she repeated, the rage drained from her voice. Talon looked up at her, her serpentine tail coiled. Even in the low light of the room, he could see her blinking, trying to clear her eyes of dust.
"General Du Couteau is the strongest warrior I have had the honor of knowing. He trained your sister and bested myself. A man of such grandeur is not destined to be murdered in obscurity and rot in grounds unknown." Talon stood and took her hands into his. The feeling of touching another person without an intermediary blade made him uncomfortable, but he persisted. "It is a feint to fool his enemies. Lady Katarina and I are both as certain of this as can be."
He made his exit from the bedchambers. The iron hewn doors took him extra effort to pull open. They were meant more to protect those on the outside from the beast within. As the grand hallways of the Du Couteau mansion greeted him, her voice called out once more.
"Talon, were you ever envious?" She was facing away from him, staring out of her window. "When you traveled as my guard. Did you envy those men that I charmed?" Talon did not know what to make of this question. With a heave, he shut the doors and walked to Cassiopeia's side, gazing through the window with her.
"No," he said. "Those of us who are used as nothing more but tools and cast aside when we are useless, we're not to be envied." Talon looked down to his feet, his hood hanging over his head. His voice dropped with his gaze. "We're pathetic." Silence hung in the air for a moment before he felt something warm on his hand. Her touch was gentle.
"He never used us, Talon." She spoke with a softness he had never heard before. Her voice barely hissed, the timbre of her old self back. "Think, every mission he assigned us was one of importance. He always pushed us to our limits. Why would he do that?"
A hand pushed the hood away from his head, exposing his short brown hair. When he lifted his eyes, Talon saw the light jade of her irises, with that delicate, unknowable glitter. Something strange filtered through Talon's chest, something unknown yet familiar. The answer came to him when he saw the tears of an abandoned daughter streaming down Cassiopeia's cheek.
"He trusted us," Talon whispered. Her only response was a nod. "Then you must trust me too, for your father asked that I hunt the scum who inflicted this torture upon you. I will bleed him until he changes you back and deliver him to an early grave." He turned for the doors again, quicker this time. He had to escape before this became too personal. Once more, at the doors, her voice called his name.
"Talon," she said, her voice rising with venom seeping in. "Make it slow, and make it painful. I want him to suffer."
"That much was assumed when your fathered ordered it, Lady Cassiopeia. There was no need to ask."
"But I wanted to."
For the first time, the two smiled at each other.