Written by me.

Editted by Fuuko no Miko.


Read, review and enjoy.


In that short hour Nikolia ceased to be a boy and became a man. The weight of the responsibility he now felt he carried to avenge and correct this hideous wrong that fell on his shoulders like a heavy cloak.

It all seemed like a nightmare where he could not wake up from. Where it all started, you wonder. The best place it can, the competition between two brothers. With Emperor Claudus's failing health, he appointed the younger son, Lion-O, to act as a client king. The older brother, Tygra, though a competent warrior, military leader, and the apple of his father's eyes, wanted to prove his worth while telling his little brother that he was not untouchable.

Since Nikolia is Lion-O's godson, it only made sense, to Tygra, to accuse his family of treachery against the crown. He claimed that his father secretly supported Mumm-ra's Domain and gave large sums of money to them. To the Enforcers, that is all they needed for a public execution.

Slumping down on a pile of discarded sacks, he felt his whole body begin to tremble. His world had just been torn apart. His father... Viktor... Sergia... all gone, all dead, all murdered because of one stubborn prince. Holding his head in his hands, he broke down - unable to control the pouring sorrow, fear, and hatred. Only after several hours was he able to uncover his face - his eyes blood-shot and run through with an unbending vengeance. At that moment, Nikolia knew his former life was over. The skills his father had been teaching him, and praying that he would never use, now served Nikolia a purpose. Nikolia the boy was gone forever. From now, his life was forged for one purpose and one purpose only - absolute justice.

Much later in the day, knowing far too well that the watch would still be out looking for him relentlessly, he made his way via back alleys to Katerina's family mansion. The last thing he wanted was to put her in danger, but he needed to collect his pouch with its precious, lethal, contents. He waited in a dark alcove that stank of urine, not moving even when the rats scuttled at his feet, until a light in her window told him that she had retired for the night.

"Nikolia!" she cried as she saw him on her balcony. "Thank the Divines you're alive." Her face flooded with relief - but that was short lived, grief taking over. "Your father and brothers..." She could not finish the sentence, and her head bowed.

Nikolia took her in his arms, and for several minutes they just stood holding each other.

Finally, she broke away. "Are you mad? What are you still doing in Timrod?"

"I still have matters to attend to," he said grimly. "But I cannot stay here long; it's too big a risk for your family. If they thought you were harboring me-"

Katerina was silent.

"Give me my satchel and I'll be gone."

She fetched it for him, but before she gave it to him said, "What about your family?"

"That is my first duty. To bury my dead. I can't see them thrown into a furnace like a common criminal."

"I know where they have taken them."

"How?"

"You forget that my family is the ruling class. My father has been talking about it all day. But no one will be there now. They are down near the Port of Saint Angelo with the bodies of the other criminals. There's a furnace prepared, they're waiting for the clean-up crew to come in the morning. Oh, Nikolia!"

Nikolia spoke calmly but grimly. "I must see to it that my father and my brothers have a fitting departure from this world. I can not offer them a Requiem Mass, but I can spare their bodies indignity."

"I'll come with you!"

"No!" he snapped. "No... Do you realize what it would mean if you were caught with me? You're entire family name would be put at risk."

Katerina lowered her eyes.

"I must see that my mother and sister are safe too, and I owe my family one more death." He hesitated. "Then I will leave. Perhaps forever. The question is - are you still willing to come with me?"

She drew back, and he could see a host of conflicting emotions in her eyes. Love was there, deep and lasting, but he had grown so much older than she since they had first met each other. She was still a girl. How could he expect her to make such a sacrifice? Nikolia already knew the answer.

"I want to Nikolia, you don't know how much - but my family - it will kill my parents -"

Nikolia looked at her gently. Though they were roughly the same age, his recent experience had made him suddenly far more mature than she was. He had no family to depend on any more, just responsibility and duty, and it was hard.

"You're right. I was wrong to ask. And who knows? Perhaps, some day, when the heat dies down and all of this is behind us-" he put his hand to his neck and from the folds of his collar withdrew a heavy silver pendant on a fine chain of gold. He took it off. The pendant bore a simple design - just the mark of a bulls-eye, the sign of his family. "I want you to have it. Take it, please."

With trembling hands she accepted it, crying softly. She looked down at it, then up at him, to thank him, to make some further excuse.

But he was gone.

On the south bank of the Tiber, near the Port of Saint Angelo, Nikolia found the bleak place where the bodies were arranged next to a huge unlit furnace. Two sorry-looking-Enforcers, raw recruits by the look of them, patrolled nearby, dragging their power mauls as much as carrying them. The sight of their uniforms aroused Nikolia's anger, and the first instinct was to kill them, but there was too much blood spilt today, and these were just country boys who were trying to make their lives better.

It caught at his heart when she saw his father's and his brother's bodies lying near the furnace, still with their nooses round their scorched necks, but he could see that, once the guards fell asleep, as they soon would, he could carry the corpses to the river's edge, where he had prepared an open boat which he had loaded with brushwood.

It was about the third hour, and the first faint light of dawn was already bleaching the eastern sky by the time he had completed his task. He stood alone on the riverbank, watching as the boat bearing his kinsmen's bodies, all aflame, drifted slowly with the current towards the sea. He watched until the light of the fire flickered away into the distance...

"Requiescat in Pace..." he whispered, steeling himself.

He made his way back to the city. A hard resolve had overcome his grief. There was still much to do. But first, he must rest and think of a plan. He returned to an empty shack, and made himself comfortable as he could. Some little sleep would not be denied; but even as he slept, Katerina would not leave his thoughts, or dreams.


Author's Notes:

Fuuko no Miko: That's so sad! Send Nik over so I can give him a hug.

And don't worry Nik, when and if you finally come back, I'll make sure to give your pieces a proper burial.

Fuuko no Miko: But I get to keep his head.

Wow. Nikolia. Fuuko. Head. Three words I never thought I would see in the same sentense.

Fuuko: Nikolia, I have some tiger paint waiting just for you.

It's amazing how we end a somber chapter with you wanting to keep Nikolia as a trophie.

Fuuko: No. It's that I want to keep Nikolia's decapitated head trophie.

Good night everybody!