Blood Night: The Breach
Gren was furious, though he hid it. He couldn't stop thinking about the night, several years prior, that Amaya turned him down. "Well, the joke is on her!" he thought as he left the party and headed towards the lower reaches of the castle. If his friends were to be believed, the agent would be here soon. Then he could make the General suffer like he had, when she turned him down and replaced him. Promotion his ass!
He reached the secret passage and awaited the signal, three sharp raps. After several minutes, he was beginning to get nervous, the moon was already rising into the sky. He knew that they had to co-ordinate the operations, but he was beginning to fear that something had happened, and they had just cancelled everything.
"No," Gren chastised himself, whispering to no one in particular. "they would have notified me by now." He was about to begin convincing himself to walk away from this whole thing when-
*Knock, Knock, Knock*
Stunned, Gren quickly recovered and began to open the wall opposite him. With the elves here, most guards were upstairs, and no one had been assigned this stretch. The person on the other side of the false wall, however, was not what he had expected. Expecting an elf to come and do the dirty work, he was surprised to see a human figure. A taller man, in a hooded cloak, had come through the opening.
"Has everything been arranged?" He recognized voice of his handler. It was quiet, and full of danger, the voice that belonged to someone who would gut you in a second if he felt like it.
"It has. The King is in his honeymoon suite right now with his new wife." Answered Gren. His handler motioned for Gren to lead the way, to the upper parts of the keep, where the suite was. Cautiously, Gren said "I should t-take your, um, cloak. If you walk through the party, people will ask questions.", as he looked behind him. Only to see nothing.
"Keep walking! No one will see anything but what I allow them to see!" Came the low hiss as a sharp point was brought to his lower back.
"Yep, yep. Okay." Gren quickly answered as he picked up his pace a little. The sooner his handler was done, the sooner Gren would be happy, and the sooner this scary man would be gone. He could get nack to his life and be there as a shoulder to cry on. With some luck, he could get the woman of his dreams to see sense, and he could live a happily ever after.
Guiding his invisible handler through was easier than expected, drunken men and elves were too busy laughing and swapping embarrassing stories about their comrades, the skirmishes they had fought in, and even the people they had killed. Bonding in ways that seemed only soldiers could. Gren was disgusted and was reminded of the second reason he committed to this action.
He had few problems with elves, but the idea of halflings? That was absolutely disgusting. It was better to have war between their peoples than to accept and deal with halflings. Especially with how different they could be. In the thirteen years since peace was established, many had been born, and they could range from almost indistinguishable from humans, to almost indistinguishable from elves. The idea of being able to mix elfin and human blood appalled him, even worse was the idea that even if someone appeared almost entirely human, they could still have elfin blood. Just thought sent him back to first annual festival celebrating the peace, nine months later the capitol was crawling with half elfin bastards. Damned harlots. He had never been able to use their-
"Keep moving, or I will kill you right here!" came the viscous hiss from behind him. As he felt the knife point penetrate his skin. Hurrying forward with stifled gasp, he elected to proceed without further distractions. Since he wished to keep his life, and legs. He had seen how Soren, the former Captain of the Crown guard, had been over the last decade. That limp and slow pace was no way to live one's life.
After several minutes, the two conspirators had successfully navigated the party and made it to the living quarters. The King's suite was some way down, but this is where he had to be to get General Amaya's attention. After all, he was doing this for nothing other her attention really. Halflings may have disgusted him, but SHE was everything to him. He would walk across the Breach's river of lava if he thought it would gain her attention.
The moment he heard the scream echoing through the halls, he burst into General Amaya's study. The door triggering her ingenious mechanism which pulled a string looped around her chair leg. Having felt the tug, she looked up at him with a serious look, and signed 'This had better be important'.
'There was scream from down the hall, towards the King's chambers.' Gren signed back. That most certainly got her attention as she up in an instant, grabbing her shield. She bolted past him and towards her nephew's suite. He followed behind her, trying his best to keep. She may have been closer to sixty than forty, but she was still faster than him.
They arrived to find the door wide open. King Ezran was lying on the floor, as Queen Ellis knelt over him, putting pressure on his abdomen. Throwing aside her shield, Amaya scanned the room and knelt on the other side of the King. She turned to Grenand signed, 'Get healers', before turning to apply pressure to her nephew's wounds. Gren could see two stab wounds before he turned heel to find healers.
He was quick to be reasonable, but not too quick. It wouldn't do to have the king survive this. Bringing the healers back to Ezran's room, Amaya sent him to prepare a letter to the capital to inform them of what happened. He went to her study and prepared the letter, folded it up and stuck it into his pocket. As a member of his supporters, the Crow Lord would "Deliver the message". He had to be careful, if he wasn't, General Amaya would catch him. She was just that wonderfully observant, and he couldn't help but wonder if it translated into the bedroom.
He returned to her to see if she needed anything else. By then the healers had done all they could for Ezran. The prognosis was excellent, for him, not for the King. The older, yet wonderful and beautiful woman dismissed him for the night. He allowed himself to get lost in his daydreams as he wandered towards the Crow Lord's room. He wanted to be there when the news from the capitol's operation came through. He snapped out of his trance when he heard a familiar voice drifting from around the corridor's bend.
"Halt! Halt! Sir take off your cloak!" said the owner of the voice, none other than Corvus' back. Gren saw, as he rounded the corner in time to see his handler remove his cloak. He looked familiar, Gren thought. He shook his head as he realized it didn't matter, reaching for his dagger. Corvus would figure it out, he was always Amaya's favorite. It was shame, because Corvus was a good soldier.
Gren grinned and thought, 'Oh well, the things we do for love.' As he drew his dagger and flicked it forward.
"Oh… I'm sorry prince-" was as far Corvus got, in his apology to the Crown Prince of Neolandia. With brief step forward from the impact in his upper back, Corvus turned around. Mouth gasped open in surprise, at the thought of anyone throwing a dagger into his back. Gren watched with mild satisfaction of the "Prince" kicked out the back of Corvus' legs and grabbed his hair bun with one hand. His other was almost too fast to follow as he drew out a moonshadow blade and swiped it through the air near Corvus.
It was so fast that Gren, and reality, took a few seconds to catch up, as Corvus body fell to the floor. His head still the man's hand. Gren approached in awe, he needed to get his handler, who was apparently a prince, out of the castle now. Lest he cause more trouble.
"What are you staring at?! Get me out of here!" the man growled at him. Gren could see why Corvus stopped him, he was bleeding heavily from right shoulder. Gren had a brilliant idea.
"Leave the blade here, it will help solve the idea of a moonshadow elf committing these acts." Gren said, as he retrieved his dagger and waited for the man to comply. Once he dropped the blade, Gren lead him to another secret passage. One that Amaya didn't know about, and he didn't think that anyone else did. He led his handler through the door, and ten minutes into the path he paused.
"Okay, its best you go on alone from here." Gren said as he moved to the side. It was a tight fit and perfect for his intention. As the man tried to squeeze by, Gren plunged his dagger into his handler's neck. They were far enough that the smell of body wouldn't even be noticed, and probably would never be found.
The man struggled, but it was over in a few seconds since Gren's aim was true to the man's arteries. After the deed was done, he travelled further along, following a convoluted path of tunnels that managed to take him to his room. Changing out of his bloody clothes, and tossing them into the fire place, which he lit. He put a clean uniform and left his quarters. Promptly, he went to the Crow Lord's office by different route than the one containing Corvus' lifeless body and head.
Arriving there, he could see out the window that the sun was rising, and the Crow Lord was not yet awake. His thoughts turned to the capitol. Just who did the cabal kill in the capitol? It would hopefully be every single one of Ezran's advisors. He couldn't tolerate them, especially not the step-prince and the elf. Those two and their-
Eager footsteps interrupted his thoughts, turning to their source, Gren saw a young messenger with a solemn look on his face.
"Is the Crow Lord in, Commander Gren?" the sad looking youth asked.
"No, he does not seem to be awake yet. What's the matter?" He inquired.
"The King, sir… has passed. I have a letter that General Amaya desires to have sent immediately to the capitol." The messenger responded.
"If you give me the letter, I'll make sure the letter is sent. I'm waiting to see the Crow Lord myself." He offered. This would even better, framing the Crow Lord for failing to deliver two message of utmost importance all but guaranteed his execution upon conviction in a military court. Over which Gren would preside, this evening.
"Thank you, Commander Gren." The boy said as he held out the message to Gren. Taking it, they bade each other good bye, as the youth wandered off towards the mess hall. Gren pocketed the scroll and waited for a few more minutes before the Crow Lord opened the door.
"Aah, Commander Gren. A letter came from the capitol. Sad news indeed!" he said with a glint in his eyes.
"Very good Crow Lord. I have some letters here, with a burning purpose." He said with a wink, as he pulled Amaya's two letters out his pocket and offered them.
The Crow Lord responded, "Very good, Sir. Unfortunately, I just lost two of my birds, they never came back from a delivery!". Promptly, tearing the letters to shreds, and dumping the shreds into the fireplace.
gren kept a dour face, despite his inner joy as he walked back to the King's suite. After ten minutes he arrived to see the King, on his bed. Pale and unmoving. Almost completely soaked in blood. The Queen, asleep by his side, her hands and arms dyed red. Amaya was the door way as he appeared, her eyes were red and swollen.
"Something happened," he signed, "at the capital. Something bad…". He was struggling to tell her, lest the shit-eating grin he was holding inside burst out. Luckily for him and his complicity, she was out of patience after the death of the King, her nephew. Walking towards him she snatched the scroll from under his arm and began to read it.
As fresh tears filled her eyes, he felt complete. Whoever they had killed at the capitol would have surely been important enough to help drive the General into his arms. For friendly comfort, of course. As Amaya threw down the scroll and hugged Gren, he saw the name on the scroll. Since the mourning Queen was still asleep, he allowed himself a smug grin as he wrapped his arms around Amaya, no, his love; and savored the moment along with her pain. It was all too… Sweet.