A/N: welcome to the first instalment of 'The Assassin and The Prince'… please Review if you have read it… as I love reviews ...Enjoy.

The Assassin and the Prince.

Two weeks after Folken's death, things are getting back on track, which is until a woman being chased by Zaibach soldiers run into him and drops a book. The book happens to be Folken's Journal telling of his life in Zaibach and of a woman named Temari. Van wishes to get to the bottom of things but that is not easy when someone is after his life.

Prologue

Zaibach.

A terrible cry came from the Emperors throne room, the Emperor was dead, the war was over, but that was not why the girl with the raven hair was crying. Several hundred meters on the main floor of the Emperors room at the foot of his unusual life-support machine there lay a black-winged angel. This is where she sat, her long hair as black as his wings, soon soldiers would come and find him, take her away. He was a traitor to the Zaibach Empire; she would never leave his broken body, she had already leaned over the pool of crimson liquid that had formed to close his eyes she loved so much, the key to the soul. Many had said that his eyes were hardened by his life, but for her they always softened, for her his eyes were always kind and warm.

"Ri…Ri what are you doing here? You have to get out." Came a cry from a woman at the entrance, she hurried in and gasped at the sight of the man in his mid twenties laid before the woman named Ri.

"Please Ri… I have a Guymelef waiting… the sorcerers are coming…" The woman looked older than Ri, and had short brown hair.

"The Sorcerers?" Ri stood, and looked towards the door in which her friend had entered. "Please Mii… you must hide." Mii stood shocked at her friend's words.

Ri slowly drew her sword as the first sorcerers began to enter followed by a few soldiers. Mii watched from her hiding place as Ri grasped her hair in her left hand and slowly ran her sword through the raven locks. Mii could not help but let out a little gasp of shock, Ri's hair was almost to the floor and now she had so crudely hacked it off leaving it to hang around her shoulders.

"I see, Miss Saki by order of General Adelphos you are to be arrested and sustained until further notice." One of the sorcerers walked forward.

Ri laughed.

"Do you know the type of people I killed? I only ever killed the evil-doer. And in my opinion they don't come as evil as you the sorcerers." Ri released her hair from her grip, the sorcerers watched as it slowly drifted to the floor their attention then moved to her sword which they noticed was drawn. Ri took her sword in both hands; took one last look at the fallen prince she loved and charged towards the sorcerers.

Immediately soldiers intervened but her skill was the best in Zaibach and they were no match for her sword. An assassin's sword.

Zaibach (still)… dungeon rooms.

Mii stood to the side of the large, cold, room, guarded buy several soldiers. She had never been in this section on the castle for she had spent most of her time on the Vione (Floating Fortress). Mii was a doctor and took care mainly for soldiers and Ri, before the war she was often called for to deal with the trainees small injuries, this was the reason she was here now. Ri was to be punished for her betrayal.

In her attempt to run away Ri had slaughtered all the sorcerers and around twenty soldiers, her punishment was a slashing of the hands. Mii could hardly watch as the beaten Ri was dragged into the room her hair still uneven and now quite dirty, she made a swing for the guard that held her and hit him straight in the face; she struggled until three more men came to tie her wrists and hands to the stone block in the middle of the room.

Mii winced as the first blow hit, Ri laughed.

"That all you got… I've felt worse from the bastards that did my back in." Mii could not believe what she was hearing, Ri had always been strong willed but this was ridicules; she was lucky they did not cut off her hands.

The man in charge of the slash laughed. This time it came down harder and even Ri winced at the pain.

Zaibach (still)… General Adelphos's quarters.

General Adelphos paced up and down in front of the knelling Ri. Her hands heavily bandaged her hair now neat and tied back.

"Well Miss Saki, we have decided to give you another chance since your talents are hard to come across." He stopped in front of her.

"Don't you mean that the others are dead?"

"Don't be disrespectful." General Adelphos kicked Ri in the face, sending her to the floor. "I can't believe you think you can speck like that towards me." Adelphos knelt to be closer to her. "We will make a deal, if you do this one mission for us then you have complete freedom within Zaibach." Ri sat up and looked the General in the eyes… he was telling the truth.

"And if I refuse?" Ri asked trying to sound polite.

"Then you will be killed, that is if you fail as well, But we know you won't." The General smiled down at the once brilliant assassin, the assassin known as 'The raven haired angel of death' but they had broken her spirit, she would do as she was told.

"I guess I have no choice in the matter then." She stood and held her sword. "What's the mission?"

Everyone around her began to smile and talk among themselves as General Adelphos picked up a file on the near by table. He handed her the file with a grin.

"The assassination of King Van Fanel of Fanelia."

A/N: well that was the epilogue… hope you liked it… and for anyone that did not understand the cutting of the hair it's like a symbol that she's left Zaibach and is no longer an assassin…well was meant to be anyway.

Disclaimer note: I do not own Escaflowne or anything related with it…But Ri and Mii are my own characters.