Mischief Mage: Hi all! This fic is set six years after the battle with Nergal. I read somewhere that Nino was about 14 so she should be 20. If i read wrong, then...just pretend she's 20 anway. I don't know how long this fic is gonna be. Please R&R
It was a perfectly normal, seedy bar. It was in at the edge of a small village at the edge of Ostia. It was dingy and dark with few people, a wooden sign inscribed with the words "Loyal Lucretia" swung creakily on rusty hinges above the open doorway. An unshaven bartender was drying tankards that hadn't actually been washed, his apron stained with egg yolk probably from the week before. Small groups of tired men sat hunched over dimly lit tables, grubby cards laid before them. Meagre piles of coins were pushed in and pulled out of the centre every round, grumbles and moans as the stained coins were simply moved about the table. It was just as Jaffar wanted it.
The red haired assassin sat in the second furthest corner from the flickering candle light, head bowed over an empty shot glass. He would have sat further away but that corner had already been taken by another cloaked wanderer.
It had been six years since the conflict with Nergal. For most of Elibe, the six years had been years of prosperity and peace, but not for Jaffar. It was true that he had had a short time of happiness with his beloved Nino. They had been given a seaside cottage in Pherae where they lived together with their twin sons. But that had all ended a year ago when bounty hunters arrived in Pherae, searching for the infamous Angel of Death. With a family to protect, Jaffar had fled into the wilderness, leaving Nino with the two boys. It pained Jaffar to leave Nino, but her safety meant more to him than his own comfort. So now here he was, flitting between nations, his help in the defeat of Nergal made his entry to all nations possible, if unwelcome.
Jaffar sighed and trudged towards the door, flicking a coin onto the bar top as he passed, he heard it clatter has he traded the dim candle light for the pale moonlight outside.
It was a cool evening, the sky clear, no clouds present to blanket the land. Jaffar rapped his travelling cloak around himself more tightly and began walking quickly towards the equally dingy inn at the other end of the village. The innkeeper had made it clear that he would be barring the door at midnight, hardly necessary during times of peace but as he had said, old habits die hard.
Jaffar quickened his pace but stopped abruptly as he heard footsteps on the cobblestones behind him. His right hand snaked its way down to the dagger that he held in his belt, he slid it out silently. The footsteps came closer. The assassin whirled around, blade ready to see…
One of the groups of card players at the bar. Intoxicated, they zigzagged down the path before turning off into a side street. Jaffar took a breath. It was always good to be cautious. But the time for being cautious and avoiding danger had come and gone. He turned to face the small band of hooded men that had silently slid in behind him, blocking his path onward.
"It seems we meet again, Angel of death" said the hooded figure at the very front of the group, amused.
"Ares" Jaffar muttered.
The man called Ares pulled back his hood, his short raven black hair glinting in the moonlight. His amber eyes glowed in the darkness. The men on either side of him also lowered their hoods; cropped silver hair appeared from beneath one, blood red beneath the other.
"Deimos and Phobos" Jaffar said in disgust.
They were bounty hunters, all of them. They had found him, again.
"Come now Jaffar, how long did you really think you could elude us for?" Ares said lightly, his amber eyes leering.
Jaffar did not answer; he had been pursued by the same three men for a year now. They were joined by various hanger-ons but there had always been the same three leading them. Jaffar knew little of Ares's lackeys, Deimos and Phobos, but his time in the black fang had taught him much about Ares. The man had been Nergal's first successful experiment before Ephidel, Limistella and Sonia.
Jaffar had dealt with morphs before; there was no reason why he could not dispatch Ares just as easily and make his escape. Jaffar's other hand gripped the handle of his other dagger tightly and slipped it out from his belt.
"Oh, so you're going to fight us are you?" the tall morph laughed, his inhuman eyes noticing the slightest movements beneath Jaffar's cloak.
"What do you think?" Jaffar replied viciously, now pulling his two daggers out into the open, the moonlight catching on the blades.
"Good" Ares said, pulling a polished black bow from his back and nocking a steel arrow.
The others pulled out their weapons as well, light flashing as blades were pulled from sheaths into the cool night air.
"Now stand still" the morph said calmly, taking aim. He released.
Jaffar dodged, daggers ready. Ares had known that he would miss the first shot; it was simply a way to begin the skirmish.
The men behind Ares leapt forward, pulling their weapons back, preparing to strike. Blades slashed and clanged all around Jaffar as he contorted his body in the frenzied acrobatics that were what kept him from being sliced by the storm cloud of swords. He leapt, twisted, turned, ducked and when ever he was given a moments respite, he slashed at the nearest bounty hunter, his sharpened blades cutting a ragged line in his foes throat. Men fell to the hard ground, blood trickling down their necks from gaping wounds.
Every few moments, Jaffar would hear the hiss of an arrow as it speed through the air towards his chest, he would duck, slicing at the heels of the enemy, rendering them immobile while he avoided being plugged with steel.
The numbers of hunters dwindled, but still they leapt at Jaffar with reckless abandon. Ares held back, unconcerned that his band of fearless bounty hunters now only consisted of himself, Deimos, Phobos and another man, who as being gutted by Jaffar at that very moment.
The anonymous man feel to the ground beside his comrades, gurgling, as dark blood trailed down from the corners of his mouth.
Once again, Jaffar heard the rush of an arrow heading in his direction, he ducked, and at that moment realised that that arrow was not aimed at his upper body, but his calf.
The arrow pierced his flesh; Jaffar lost all strength in his left leg. He swayed before falling, bruising his wrist as he tried to stop himself from hitting the hard cobblestones.
All of Jaffar's being seemed to centre around the wound in his leg while his wrist reminded him that it was there with every throb of pain. Jaffar's daggers clattered to the ground as he grasped his now swelling wrist.
From a short distance away, Jaffar heard the stretching of a bowstring as Ares pulled it back to fire one last arrow.
Jaffar waited, eyes shut tight. His time had come.
Nino
"Jaffar!"
The assasin's eyes snapped open. It couldn't be!
It was.
The shape of a woman had slipped down off a pale horse and was now rushing towards him, seemingly unaware of the three dark figures that were the bounty hunters. Jaffar lifted a hand to try and signal for her to stop. But she continued running, leaf green hair flying out behind her as she ran.
Phobos stepped out in front of the woman, one arm held his blade towards her.
"Keep away wench! Keep away from him or-"
Phobos was cut short. The woman had pulled out a thick tome and had whispered something inaudible. Within seconds Phobos had been completely engulfed in bright orange flames, only his shrieks and screams could be heard, his darkening body writhing within the ring of flames.
As Deimos stared in horror, and Ares in interest, the woman rushed to Jaffar's side and knelt beside him.
Jaffar looked up into her face, "Nino" he whispered, grimacing in pain, "Get away from here"
Nino was no longer a child, after six years, she had become a woman, her hair was long, she was taller, more mature, but she still loved Jaffar as she had all those years ago.
"I'm not leaving without you" Jaffar's young wife replied simply as she pulled a slender staff from beneath her thick woollen cloak. The tip glowed for a few moments and Jaffar felt the arrow pushed out as his muscle healed and the swelling in his wrist shrink.
Jaffar sat up straight and picked up the arrow that now lay on the ground, the drying blood showed how deep it had pierced, he shuddered inside.
Quickly dropping the arrow, Jaffar grabbed Nino by the shoulders and told her urgently,
"You've got to get out of here! Go home, protect our sons! They need you more than I do!"
"Jaffar" Nino said, wearily, "I only began this family for you, I wanted you to be happy. My heart broke when you left, I've been searching for you ever since, and now you tell me to leave! I will not leave your side again Jaffar, I love you and I will follow where ever you lead."
Jaffar tried to push Nino away but she remained where she was. Jaffar almost broke down. Here he was, away from his home trying to keep his wife out of danger and now she was here in the thick of it, refusing to budge. Jaffar felt both a joy at seeing her again but also an urgency to get her away from here as quickly as possible. He looked down into Nino's eyes, her luminous blue eyes which were now shining with tears. She threw her arms around his neck and began to sob into his neck.
Over Nino's shoulder, Jaffar could see Ares and Deimos standing behind the blacked body of Phobos, staring straight at him. Time seemed to slow as Ares began to nock another arrow.
"Nino!" Jaffar yelled urgently, trying to prise her off, "Nino!"
Are's lifted his midnight black bow, it creaked as he pulled back the bowstring.
"Nino, please!" Jaffar cried, desperation mixing with panic.
At that moment, Jaffar heard the twang of a bowstring. He gasped as he felt sharp metal cut against his vest. A vest which had been covered by Nino's body.
Jaffar felt Nino's body go limp, she would have fallen backwards if Jaffar hadn't held her in place. He held her body before him, gazing into her bright blue, unseeing eyes.
"Nino" he whispered shaking her gently, hoping that she would blink, wishing that life would return cold eyes.
"Nino!" he cried out again, trying to block out the messages his brain was sending him. Nino could not have died, not in his arms!
"NINO!" Jaffar screamed in her unmoving face, screaming to the life that he hoped still flickered somewhere in his wife's body.
No reply.
Jaffar stood, cradling Nino's body in his arms, fear and panic now being replaced by unbridled rage that threatened to burst forth, setting all that it touched alight.
Jaffar turned his gaze to Sceleris and Deimos, the man flinched openly as the resurrected angel of death stared at him from behind Jaffar's hard eyes. The morph could only sneer.
Inside, the Angel of Death conflicted with the Jaffar that Nino had unearthed all those years ago. Jaffar quietened the Angel with promises of satisfying vengeance, allowing him to turn and fly down the cobblestone path, towards the village gate and out into the shadowy wilderness, the limp body of his love in the arms that had failed to save her.