Mark casually whistled as he felt the rough ground underneath him bounce the wagon sending him to what he felt was his impending doom. Bracelets were wrapped on his wrists, glowing a light blue. The final events of his journey with Lyndis's Legion had left him exhausted and battered, so much so that he couldn't bring himself to be worried about his return. To say he was broken would be untrue, but to say that he wasn't damaged at all would be an even bigger lie. Ursula sat across from him in the wagon. Mark was still unable to change out of his green formal wear from the party, but Ursula had changed from her silk blue dress into normal combat gear for a mage. She impatiently tapped her foot, bit her lip, and stared at the ground. On the first day of the journey, Ursula couldn't bring herself to sit with Mark. Starting from the fifth day of the journey. She had sat in the back with him. Finally, on this tenth and final day, she spoke to him.
"We should arrive today." She said quietly. Mark slowly held the note he was whistling and slowly let it drop into nothing. He sighed.
"...Wonderful." He said sarcastically. "What do I need to know?" He asked.
Ursula shook her head. "Nothing you don't already. I guess the only difference is Cecilia lives here now. Mother has disappeared."
"...Oh." Mark said simply, staring at the canvas hood of the wagon. He wasn't upset, but the way Ursula said it left a dissatisfying feeling, considering she gave no details. "Well that's something to know I suppose." Mark shifted uncomfortably. They would stop now and again to relieve themselves in the woods, but never enough time for Mark to bathe in a stream. He was really starting to be uncomfortable.
Ursula continued to tap at the floor with her foot and look out the back of the wagon. "Father requested an audience with you as soon as you arrive. You should be ready for that."
Mark felt any remaining energy drain from him as he felt himself pale. "Considering you just said there's nothing I need to know, there's a surprising amount of things I needed to know."
"I know, I know!" Ursula spat bitterly. Mark stopped complaining.
"...How's the fang?" Mark asked. Ursula looked up at him before her eyes tilted down again.
"...It's not bad honestly. All of our targets are people that misuse their power or status, so it's refreshing compared to fighting with father. Some of the higher ranked assassins think I may have what it takes to be one of the Four Fangs." Ursula said, disgusted.
"...Well, what's wrong with being strong?" Mark asked, unsure of the answer himself.
Ursula shuddered. "... Nothing is wrong with being strong, I guess. But still…" Ursula clenched a fist, lightning playing on her knuckles. "I may be strong enough to be in the Four Fangs, but I'm not the strongest mage in the guild. To be honest, I think she may even outclass father." She said the last part hushed, like she still couldn't believe it. Mark had trouble believing it as well.
"Well, even if you think that, you're wrong." Mark said simply. "No one outclasses father. He's made damn well sure of that, don't you think so?" Mark said.
Ursula shook her head in fear. "No, Mark, you haven't met Lady Sonia."
"She's nobility?"
"I have no idea." Ursula said. "The first thing I did when I came back to Etruria for the first time was check our library for any sort of records on her, but I only found someone who looked similar. Her name wasn't even Sonia, and father had killed her before Cecilia was even born. It's almost like she doesn't exist." Ursula said fearfully.
Mark shook his head. "Why are you even saying this? Trying to get my mind off of father's punishments?"
Ursula bit her lip and stopped tapping her foot. "...No. Sorry. Forget I even said anything it just… bothers me." She said simply. Mark shrugged and looked to the side, watching as the wagon travelled through the city gates. Mark gulped.
"Hey, Urs." Mark said turning back. He hesitated. Ursula raised an eyebrow. "... I tried my best at the bar to express how sorry I am that you're a member of the Black Fang now but… Words cannot express how guilty I really feel." Mark said sadly. "I just… you gave so much to me, just so I could escape and live the kind of life all three of us wanted and now you've got a thicker chain around your neck than ever before." Mark said, trembling. "You can't even fail a mission without fear of death. I-I'm…!" Mark started to feel a deep tightness forming in his throat. "I failed us both!" He shouted. Silence hung in the air for a moment. "You gave up everything for your little brother and what do I do? What do I do Urs!?" Mark shouted. He held up his hands to set them on fire in anger but the bracelets on his wrists prevented it. "I expose myself to the world immediately for a useless cause in a country I have no business meddling in!"
"...Do you really think it was useless? I think it's changed you for the better." Ursula said comfortingly.
Mark shook his head violently. "Oh I've changed alright." Mark said. "Somehow, getting the woman you love killed and having her die in your arms can do that to a person. Somehow, they change."
Ursula didn't say anything at first. "...You know that's not what I meant." She said. Mark didn't respond but Mark's mind drifted to the faces of his friends who still lived. Slowly his breathing slowed down a little bit.
"...I suppose." He finally said. The wagon stopped. Ursula sighed and stood up.
"Don't worry about the Black Fang situation." Ursula said confidently. "I would never let myself be killed due to my own inadequacies." Ursula offered a hand and Mark took it, standing on shaking legs. "Hopefully, father feels similarly towards you." She said thinly.
Mark was escorted through the main entrance of the giant manor on the outskirts of the city. All around it was training grounds, orchids, fields of wheat, fountains of water. Rose bushes adorned either side of the massive black iron double doors that lead inside the building itself. In the main hall, servants ran past each other from room to room, yelling and generally rushing to get the chores of the day done. Handel, the head butler, saw Mark accompanied by a platoon of soldiers and immediately walked towards them.
"Master Mark!" He said happily. "It seems Lady Ursula found you and brought you safely back. Master Saxton is waiting for you upstairs. May I take your coat?" He said bowing. Mark wondered if his father ordered Handel to act this nice. Maybe it was a gesture he was still welcome.
"...Yes. Thank you Handel. Please wash it and place it in my room." Mark said simply. Handel nodded and took Mark's coat from his hands.
"Of course sir. I shall also run you a bath. Soldiers, Master Saxton says you may disperse at this point. Please, return to your barracks." Handel said. The soldiers saluted him and dispersed. Mark awkwardly stood there as Handel and the soldiers left. Mark looked at the grand staircase in the center of the room, took a deep breath, and slowly walked towards them. As he ascended, he realized the magic inhibitors on his wrists were more for his benefit than anyone else's. If Mark felt like he could escape, he would take the chance, no matter how slight. With the inhibitors, his chances shrunk to zero. Mark reached the second floor, where a maid was waiting for him.
She bowed. "Hello, Master Mark. Master Saxton is on the third floor in his study, please, continue upwards." She said, standing in front of his way onto the second floor hallway. Mark nodded, making mental note of the knife and thunder tome in her apron pocket.
"Of course. Thank you Hailey." Mark said, continuing up the steps. Maybe his father thought he would still be desperate enough to escape without his magic. Eventually, Mark found himself in the massive hallway that lead to one room: Father's Study. Mark heard his footsteps echo across the hall whenever he continued along the marble floor. When Mark arrived at the simple, but massive wooden door, he slowly pushed it open and stepped inside.
Bookshelves were covering every wall, and several piles of books were organized on the floors runic carpeting. A small training area was in the back corner of the room, with three training dolls of various sizes, laying limp along the wall. A large oak desk with an ornate diamond studded leather chair was facing the door, and behind it was a large window reaching all the way from floor to ceiling. Standing and looking out of that window, with his back turned to Mark, was Saxton Reglay, Mark's father and acting Mage General of Etruria. He was wearing similar clothes to Mark, with gold trimming on his vest and a perfect white shirt, but his clothing was red. Thick brown hair like Mark's was combed back formally, and Mark could make out his father's heavy jawline and beard. His glasses gold rims glistened in the sun, and he was reading a book. When he heard Mark enter, he closed the book and turned around. The sunlight behind him made it impossible for Mark to read his expression.
"...Hmm." His deep voice resonated as he watched Mark enter. He pulled a curtain over the window and made his way to his desk. Sitting at the desk, he gestured for Mark to sit down on the simple wooden chair on the other side of the desk. Mark walked over and sat down. Mark's father wasn't smiling, but he wasn't frowning. He held his hands folded over his mouth, his elbows on his desk. "...Welcome home Mark." Saxton said warmly, putting extra emphasis on the word home. "How was your experience in Lycia?" He said, grabbing a notepad and being ready to jot down notes.
Mark looked forward at his father with a blank expression. "...You're not going to kill me, are you?" Mark said, not fearfully, but observingly. Saxton laughed.
"Of course not. You're my son, I don't plan to kill you." He said.
"Oh, I'll just stop you there." Mark said angrily standing up and slamming his hands on the desk. Saxton's eye's peered over his glasses, any warmth in his face having gone. "You sent assassins to kill me, you made your own daughter rip me away from people that I care about, and you've forced said daughter to join a group of assassins because I decided that maybe, just maybe, I didn't want to be a man who slaughters people for a cause as vague and pointless as country!" Mark said. Saxton didn't move, and kept his steely gaze unflinchingly.
"... I have never given either of you a task that I knew you couldn't overcome. Those assassins were low ranking. I was proving a point." He said calmly.
"A point?! What point?!" Mark shouted. "Four people, even if they're assassins, are dead because of your 'Point'!"
"...And yet, the point was made. You now know that no matter where you go, you don't get to escape who you are. Unfortunately, you don't have that luxury."
"The only reason I don't is because of you!" Mark countered. Mark sat back down, folding his arms.
Saxton calmly repeated himself. "How was Lycia, Mark? I am told you took back Caelin. I'm very proud of you." He said genuinely. Mark looked at him in disgust.
"...I did. I also got people killed." Mark said bitterly.
Saxton nodded, jotting notes. "Yes, it is always hard to give orders, and always harder when they result in casualties." He said sadly. "Let's see…" He said flipping back a few pages in his book. "Ah, yes, Florina was her name." He said. Mark froze and felt a chill go down his spine.
"...Excuse me?" Mark said, shocked. "How do you know that name?" Mark asked.
Saxton nodded. "Well Mark, I wished to hold this meeting with you right now for two reasons." He said. He held up a finger. "Number one. I genuinely wish to know what you've learned from your little outing. There are many parts I'm sure I don't know. The second reason, son, is that I want you to fully realize something." Saxton leaned in and his face slowly turned colder than Mark had ever seen, and he'd seen plenty of cold faces from his father. "You need to realize, Mark, that your father Saxton is not a man to be trifled with. Oh, I'm sure you thought if only you could escape the manor, then you could finally live the life you want, right? Well Mark there is no running away from destiny, not for people like us. We're simply too important." Saxton snapped and one of the training dummies in the corner sprung to life and charged at Saxton. Maintaining eye contact with Mark, Saxton grabbed the dummy by the neck and crushed it. When it went limp, his hand exploded into flame, burning it to a crisp. As it burned, lightning coursed through it, causing it to spasm and jolt at random. Slices of wind magic slowly shredded it to bits before Mark's eyes, and eventually all that was left was a pile of ash on the floor. Saxton dusted off his hand with a handkerchief from his pocket and continued. "Do you understand me Mark? I am Mage General of Etruria. There is nothing you can hide from me, and there is no place on this Earth that is out of my reach. Now, allow me to emphasize my point." Saxton pulled out a different book from his desk and began pacing the room. "You see Mark, you may think you and your sister are clever by hatching that little escape plan, but let me tell you my plan." He cleared his throat.
"Lundgren's eventual rise to power was something I predicted a long time ago. This would be catastrophic, as he would disrupt Lycia's already fragile balance and Etruria needs Lycia as an ally in the coming fights."
"The coming fights?" Mark asked.
Saxton help up a finger for silence and continued. "However, I was simply too busy to deal with it. So, I decided I would send you." Mark began to shake as if he was cold. He hung his head to the floor and continued to listen. "Firstly, your constant disregard for your position as Mage General is an easily exploitable weakness. I know the only reason you tolerated me at all is because I still have much time left as Mage General in me. So, considering you weren't ready, and how impulsive you tend to be when you're upset, I decided to promote you to Mage General in my stead. This, Mark, was a falsehood. I knew if I provoked you you would decide to run away. So, coronation day comes, you run away, I am reinstated as Mage General in your place, and you set off on your journey. Now things get slightly trickier." He flipped a page. "Considering how, as I just said, you are impulsive when upset, I knew you would go to the closest foreign country from the location of the manor. And, that is…?" Saxton prompted.
Mark held his temples. "...It's Sacae." He said.
Saxton nodded and continued. "Correct. Thinking you simply needed to get out of the country, you would head immediatly to Sacae. From a spy's report a many years ago, I came to the knowledge that Marquess Caelin's daughter had eloped to the Sacaen plains with a nomad. Then, some time after that, reports that she had had a child landed on my desk. Knowing Marquess Caelin is a sentimental, and rather lonely sort, I knew he would long to see her when he was nearing his deathbed. Assuming he would send someone to bring her home, he was going to name her the next heir of Caelin. This would be ideal, as young minds are easy to mold and manipulate as you like."
"...You can't… be serious…" Mark said, tears dripping onto the carpet.
"Oh but I am." Saxton said intimidatingly. "Now, before you arrive in Sacae I send the Immortals, who I bought as a personal vanguard right before you left by the way, to go and kill the Lorca tribe while posing as the Tavelier bandits, who are well known in the region. They were also told to leave one survivor: The daughter of the chieftain. This was to insure that she would be desperate enough to agree to go with whoever arrived to escort her. Now, it is a deeply held religious belief of the Lorca that if they come across someone who is injured, they must nurse them back to health or they will be rejected from the afterlife for not helping preserve life on 'Mother Earth", as they say. So, I have one of the Immortals catch you off guard as soon as you're near the Lorca's formal dwellings and…"
"...And… She nursed me… back to health…" Mark said, hyperventilating.
"Indeed. This was to ensure the two of you would meet. The rest was more up to you: Keep her alive and bring her to the castle. Take the castle over, install her as the new leader, and behold, Etruria's future is secure and you've had some time studying abroad. Again, I never give any of you three a job that you cannot handle."
"You… knew I would take over a castle… with twelve people…?" Mark said incredulously, barely choking out the words as he learned his entire journey was a lie.
"I figured you'd have more if I'm being honest." He said, shrugging. "But who cares? You did it anyway. Impressive! But, theres more." He said. He gripped Mark's shoulder tight. "I needed to make sure you understood how powerless you are to run from your destiny Mark. So I did two things. First, I sent assassins to you, including your sister, so that you could see that I knew exactly where you were at all times. Secondly, I put out a different assassination." He said. Mark froze and looked up at his father. His mind flashed to the bow he found right before Florina died, the mark of the Immortals etched into the wood.
"...No…" Mark said quietly, standing up. "You… y-you couldn't have…" Mark held his hands behind his head and curled downward as he cried. "Wh-Why would you-" Mark didn't get to finish that as his father punched him in the stomach and Mark keeled over, throwing up immediately from the hulk of a man's sheer power. He felt a tugging on his hair bring him up face to face with a furious general of one of the most powerful countries on the continent.
"Why, Mark? You know exactly why. You somehow think that you could try and run away from me, even if it's what I wanted you to do. I never told you to, you chose to, I merely didn't stop you. But, even though it all worked out exactly as I had planned, you are still the one who tried to disobey me and run away. I had to show you, Mark, that I, Saxton Reglay, am not one that you can run away from. No matter where you go, no matter what you do, my influence will be there, and I will not hesitate to tear down anything you build. You only have one destiny Mark, and I have set you on course. If you try to diverge from it again, there will be severe consequences. And, if you think you've already had severe consequences…? Well then I'm disappointed you don't realize how much your old man really can do.
A/N: Oof, heavy stuff. I'm back at school and taking on a lot this semester. Expect an update every… month and a half or so? Maybe two months? And also, welcome to the next two thirds of my story! Everything is a lie! We don't mess around here kiddos!
Till next time, and thanks for reading as always!
-Matt