The bowstring twanged, air whistled through the blue dyed feathers guiding the poisoned arrow. The courier fell to the ground.
"Bullseye." A lilting voice muttered, triumphant and female.
"Of course," The second voice was male, deep and coarse; it belonged to a large chested, broad shouldered man whose shoulder length black hair was tied back with a leather strip. The duo was concealed carefully in forest surrounding the highway. "Would you have expected any less?" The individual seemed to place a strange emphasis on his 'x's. The woman, pale with deep blue eyes nodded once at her companion.
"Not wh-" She cut her own sentence off, it was difficult to see in this light but she was lithe of body that was not without its scars. A messy lock of blue black hair had escaped it's bindings with the sudden movement. Both deep blue eyes and stormy grey ones shot over to the road as the clip of horses hooves could faintly be heard.
Around the bend came a small patrol of the Royal Searthen Army, there were no more than 10 men, and they hadn't yet spotted the body.
Captain Equius Zahhak made a few quick hand signals to his Commander, Vriska Serket. Slowly, she drew her curved sword and moved carefully closer to the road. Equius nocked an arrow, aiming for who he assumed to be the ranking officer. In the ground next to him were three more arrows ready for a rapid fire, several more were located in the quiver strapped to his back. As he let fly with the first one and lined up the second, the Commander had rolled out in front of the patrol, startling the horses. Their Captain went down, and the smell of blood filled the mounts nostrils, the horses bucked and shied away, dropping their riders on the ground and galloping away.
Vriska walked right into the middle, executing the soldiers who were too surprised to defend themselves, and laughing cruelly at those who had enough time to mount any sort of defence as she used her luck to mercilessly cull them. Equius barely had to do anything, he'd fired three shots and Vriska took care of the rest, an evil grin had etched itself onto her features and her sword dripped red with blood. The Imperial Archer strode over to join her.
"Did any get away?" He demanded.
"One." She replied. "Give me your bow and an arrow." He handed them over.
"Do you even know which direction he ran in?"
"Nope." She shrugged, drew the bow, aimed high in a random direction, and let it fly. The both watched it gracefully arc and then fall only a stone's throw from their position. A scream of pain followed and Commander Vriska chuckled.
"That is, perhaps, the only reason why you have not been executed yet. Your powers over luck are extraordinary." Vriska turned and winked at him and moved over to the courier's body, not for the first time he noticed the strange shape the pupil of her left eye took on. It seemed to be normal, if a little smaller than the pupil usually should be, but it was surrounded by six small circles. They all widened in darkness and shrunk in light, and acted how a pupil should have, but that didn't stop it from unnerving him, or anyone else who saw it.
"All of the luck. Aaaaaaaall of it." That woman had an annoying tendency to drag out certain words.
Vriska turned and rummaged through the courier's bags and pockets, the dead man's eyes looked up at her almost accusingly, sickeningly devoid of life, they were not the first she'd seen giving her that expression. It would most certainly not be the last, not if their Glorious Empress had her way.
"Was he the one we were expecting?" Equius kept an eye on the road with an arrow ready to be drawn at a moment's notice; he was a cautious man in enemy territory. Vriska didn't answer until she finally pulled out a sealed missive. It was stamped with the de Harley crest of a sword, a skull and a crown. She ripped it open with sharp nails, proceeding to read it out loud.
"Yadda, yadda, yadda, Alternia has declared war, prepare troops for defence and civilians to be drafted, bluh bluh etc…" She then frowned; the creases in her face did nothing good for her looks. "'Initiate Defence Alpha.' What is 'Defence Alpha'?"
"Assumedly some pathetic mongrel excuse for a battle plan. We shall pass this back to the main camp and the Intelligence Officers may deal with it then. Come. We have places to be."
