10. Searching
As the sun set upon the hills south of Pharae Castle, Hector joined Ninian and Eliwood for dinner in the courtyard. Hector was quite aware that this was not going to be a comfortable dinner. He was here to save Eliwood, and Eliwood would listen to what he had to say, even if it did ruin dinner (the thought made Hector want to throw up because food was Hector's best friend).
"I'm so glad you could join us Hector, we have much to catch up on, no?" Eliwood's smile was contagious.
"Ah…well…" Hector started, but looking into those two sets of wide eyes, and Hector noticed Ninian actually looked joyous. "Indeed we do!" Hector said, forcing a grin. His hand went to the blue satchel he kept around his waist, and he took the talisman in his hands, it was still cold.
-¥-
Matthew strolled down the corridors fairly at ease. If one didn't know Matthew you would certainly think he was irresponsible, but that wasn't the case. Matthew always felt comfortable in situations where he knew exactly what was happening and why and what he was looking for or doing. This was one of those situations.
He heard a cluck a few paces back, making him spin swiftly on his heels and take a good look around and, seeing nothing, spun on his heels and continued his silent pacing of the corridors. He felt this was going to be a long night.
Matthew had already decided that he wasn't going to bring anyone into this, as no one else had the skills to avoid Jaffar he was trying to kill them, so no one else was going to know to be able to try to help stop him.
As he rounded a corner he heard a soft padding noise and he went to investigate. When he saw Fiora and Vaida going at it, he made a mental push to make him move away, a very hard task for a man such as Matthew, or any man in fact who liked women.
Finally breaking the spell, Matthew heard a soft ripping sound that most normal people would be unable to hear, and he sprinted off hoping to maybe catch Jaffar and get things over with.
Matthew instead came to a halt in front of a large oak door and he assumed this must be one the castle's larger bedrooms. Matthew entered and saw Lowen asleep. Matthew had to do a double take because usually people who were asleep weren't propped up against the wall. Matthew decided he should see if he was actually awake.
Matthew gave Lowen a small jab in the ribs, which Matthew found to be a person's most sensitive area, but Lowen didn't move his body or flick his eyelids in the slightest and Matthew started to panic.
Matthew heaved Lowen onto his smaller shoulders and threw him onto the bed, and tried his best to make it look like Lowen was in a deep sleep.
If Matthew didn't find Jaffar tonight there were going to be questions about Lowen, and Matthew would never be able to find Jaffar without the others getting in the way. Matthew realised this was a race against time. He had a thought then that was surprisingly disturbing, what if Jaffar found his Alexia.
With that thought in his mind, Matthew knew he couldn't let Jaffar get away from them, or even stay with them.
-¥-
The Magic Seal couldn't help but wonder what if Jaffar had stayed as the Angel of Death; surely none of Nergal's enemies would have been able to kill him. He was, in Jaffar's body, systematically dispensing of the warriors of Eliwood's Army, and he was pleased that he had so easily knocked out Eliwood's powerful Knight of Gold, Lowen (according to Jaffar's memory that was his name).
The Magic Seal using its magic in unison with Jaffar's skills, ran threw the castle without making a sound any louder then maybe a pin dropping. It didn't know that hot on its tail was Matthew, a man who had spent most of his life tracking people, and a pin dropping in a silent hall is surprisingly loud.
The Magic Seal made its way along swiftly, and without knowing its way around the castle, used the age-old method of following one of the walls which was proven to eventually get you where you wanted to go in a place with labyrinth like qualities, in this case castle corridors.
As the corridors became large hallways, The Magic Seal knew it was getting somewhere. Upon traversing the length of a particularly long hallway The Magic Seal gracefully rolled to a stop in front of a great, round, gold-plated porthole.
-¥-
It was times like these that Ames couldn't help but pity those on the lawful side. He had killed many people today that he had been planning to eliminate for a long time, but was unable to because of Hector's now legendary crack-down on murderers and assassins.
But Steward Oswin had recently reassigned more then half of the law enforcement soldiers to a new mission, which was to find any of the city's well-known and not-so well-known information traffickers, and bring them to the castle for 'questioning'.
Of course, Hector had been the nephew of the only man Ames had ever been afraid of, and as such, he considered that Hector must have learned a few tricks about catching criminals – which was why the take-over by Oswin came as a god send to Ames.
Ames would rule this city, would kill Oswin, and when Hector returned the mighty King would bow to Ames or he would be executed.
Of course, Ames held on to his sanity during this time of bliss, refusing to let thoughts of grandeur spoil the most brilliant plot ever designed (or at least in Ames eyes it was).
But, Ames considered the situation and furrowed his brow with irritation, Oswin hadn't totally stuffed-up the city's chances at keeping their precious monarchy, as with all the well known information traffickers and 'bad guys' currently in cells or running for their lives, Ames was finding it hard to find generals for his rebellion, as would be needed to command the thousands of scoundrels that would be needed to overturn Steward Oswin, and their again Oswin had hindered his plans – where was he going to find scoundrels now!
No, Ames thought, not scoundrels – warriors, even better, the warriors whose prowess in warfare is legendary; and whose hatred for humanity is never-ending. Yes Ames was very pleased at his genius and the fact the Nergal had never thought to take advantage of what he was going to made Ames want to hug himself.