Helmond was sitting in a tree, rotating a browning leaf between his fingers. The downside of this being an extremely sensitive mission was that he couldn't use his authority to break down the door at the inn, arresting the intruders.
He had to wait for them like a common bandit.
After hearing about the two `adorable` new guests from the keeper Talaar, he had put two and two together, especially after seeing the princeling Azymondias in the window. Had they counted on nobody looking up? He shook his head. For an agent of the Lucid, Sicarius Rayla was deplorably careless.
Movement around the archway got his attention and he watched his two marks walk down the road. He noted with suspicion that one of the guards meant to be posted was not, a detail he had neglected so far. Puzzling about what that might mean and staying well above and behind them, he followed swiftly.
They ate while strolling casually, talking enthusiastically about their morning. He was close enough to make out the odd word and the implications of what he heard disturbed him deeply.
Another thing that confused him was that they did not appear to have the princeling with them.
Finally, after what had felt like an eternity, they strayed from the path and descended into the forest.
His chance came when the human bent down to fiddle with his backpack.
Impatiently, Helmond found a spot above them in their path. He grabbed for his bow and realized with blazing annoyance that he had left it in his lookout tree, having focussed too hard on their repulsing conversation.
He had been out of the field before this affair had sucked him in. In this very moment he swore to return to his office after it was done and to never respond to Chalis' summons again.
No matter, he would simply attack. A young, inexperienced Sicarius would not be an issue.
He jumped, landing expertly behind the boy, his knife coming down between the human's shoulder blades. What he obviously hadn't expected was the Sicarius, ramming into his shoulder, spearing him against a tree with one of her switchblades and turning his attempt at a stab into a slashing cut.
"Wha-", he gasped with disbelief as he looked at her, fury blazing in her eyes.
She left the blade stuck. He saw the fury fade from her eyes, a shaking hand clasped to her mouth. Dropping her other blade, she turned to her companion. Rendered unconscious by the impact and presumably shock, he was breathing, the knife lay on the ground. Helmond had failed, utterly.
"How could you, Sicarius", Helmond stammered, "what of your vows? What of Xadia?"
She whirled around to face him, crying. "I vowed: `my heart for Xadia`! All I've been tryin' to do is to preserve the peace! You almost ended that!"
Kneeling next to her mate, she apparently checked for his vitals. When she was satisfied that he was alive, she got up again.
"Here I was, thinkin' I could get through this without murder", she came closer, picking up her dropped blade.
As she looked up, she gave him a tearful smile, "You're probably going to bleed out before you can get help once I pull this blade. Tell me your name and rank."
He took this to mean that she was going to show him mercy and slit his throat.
If he was to die here, at least his killer would know his name.
"Helmond, Legate of the Lucid", he said proudly.
"Well, Legate, try and stand still. I will go and get you both help."
She ran off, leaving her companion lying where he had fallen.
Helmond was utterly shocked.
Why would she help him?
Inspecting the blade, he realized that she was right. It had torn through a major artery and he would die quickly once it was removed. The realization turned his stomach. This was really the first time in his long career that he'd come close to death. A strange, sobering experience, having his life hang by the width of a blade.
His consciousness faded in and out, more from the realization that he had been struck than anything else.
When he came to, the human was also rousing, grabbing at his wounded shoulder.
"If I was you, I would leave it. Bringing a dirty hand near an open wound is a foolish idea", Helmond crowed, not knowing why, exactly, there was a feeling of remorse in his chest.
The boy sat, his face screwed up. His glance wandered over the old elf's impaled shoulder.
"Wow, nice work!", he observed, "You got her mad enough to stab you!"
He looked around.
"Where is she? Did she take my pack?"
Helmond shook his head, vision becoming blurry as he did.
"Back to Larwein, I believe. She did not take anything of yours."
"What?"
He scrambled to his feet, clutching his wounded arm and started searching the ground in a growing spiral.
"What are you doing? Sit down and rest! I'm sure you can replace anything you had inside it at Larwein", Helmond offered with some annoyance at the boy's uneducated order of priorities.
"The Dragon Prince is in that backpack!"
Helmond wanted so badly to place the palm of his right on his face but could not muster the effort. Another detail missed on his part, yes - but these young idiots were nothing but lucky to have gotten this far and now their luck had run out. He sighed deeply, the settling of his shoulder sending pain through his impaled body. Better not do that again.
There was shouting in the distance as four of the seven guards and the doctor from Larwein came into view running, the Sicarius leading them.
"Boy!", Helmond warned, "You should want to hide those ears of yours!"
The group arrived and the Sicarius immediately tended to her wounded friend, who frantically talked at her. She embraced him gingerly and pressed her lips on his, still weeping.
Their touch sent confused shivers down his spine. Though, what right did he have to judge? Would he not embrace his summand thusly in the same situation? He lightly shook his head. This was exactly the sort of thing Chalise had warned him of. Empathy was indeed a strong emotion for his people, they were quick to identify with other living beings.
He was an officer tasked with protecting his culture, not here to judge the validity of his orders but to execute the command given to him - and yet. He was getting old. The Sicarius had spared him his retirement years. Could he now justify taking the majority of their lives from them?
The soldiers of the Auxilia encircled them, both to keep everyone in place and to keep them safe.
The young doctor looked him over and said, "Do you have trouble breathing? Do you taste copper?"
"Neither. She did not strike to kill."
Over his shoulder the doctor said to Rayla, "From what I can see so far, you have indeed found your mark in that he will likely recover. However, we will have to act fast once the blade is removed."
She appeared to breathe a halting sigh of relief.
Helmond's confusion grew. What use was an Assassin who refused to kill?
"Prepare yourself, Legate", said the doctor.
With that, two of the soldiers braced the agent and the healer removed the blade. Helmond growled, but remained standing. The wound bled quite terribly, but the doctor managed to stem the flood. He then washed it, stitched the clean edges together and bode one of the soldiers to bind his shoulder up tightly with some herb paste below the gauze.
He then approached Rayla who was attempting to clean the deep, bleeding slash in the boy's shoulder.
The physician recoiled. "Red?!", he exclaimed, "Hu-Human!"
The guards drew their blades in unison, immediately moving on the pair.
Rayla brandished hers.
To Helmonds astonishment, the boy had flung himself to his feet, the beginnings of a fulminis rune beginning to take shape under his finger. Did he have a primal stone?
This was going to escalate. "Stand fast, all of you!", barked Helmond, "They are a secret envoy."
Everyone present gaped at him.
The human looked even more confused, apparently mouthing "What did he just say?"
Helmond himself didn't quite have a concept of what he had just said.
"He is human, Princeps. How can he be a charge of the Lucid?", asked one of the guards.
Helmond's mind raced. Was he going to stop them here? Expose their mission? Their relationship was already quite plain, the damage done, he reasoned. His mission was over and he somehow now felt trepidation at the prospect of destroying these two young beings. He resigned himself to lie.
"I am not privy to orders handed down by Regina Draconis herself."
The soldiers gave each other shocked looks.
"Tend to him", Helmond told the doctor, "If you can."
He turned to the female guard who had been wrapping his shoulder. She was carrying a large quiver of eagle arrows. "Noticar, you are to send the Interpreter at Bastion Korhal a report that I will write now."
"Yes, princeps!", she finished her work, then followed him to a flat stone where he sat.
"Most honoured Eminence", Helmond started in code, his hand trained from many such occasions,
"My judgement has faltered and I now have doubts as to the legitimacy of my assignment. The Sicarius has spared my life and I cannot bring myself to take a blade to her or her companion's throat. Princeling Azmondias is lost to us, removed from their care by an unknown third party, though I suspect it may be the Ortis' doing since they have been following similar tracks to mine. I have failed to execute on your mission and must request relief as my morals require me to recuse myself. My current position is the village Larwein on the river Ibalin."
He dated and signed the document, then tied a band around it to close it.
One of the guards had put away her blade, the others held them tightly, their discomfort with the human obvious in their faces. The Sicarius held him in a careful but obviously romantic embrace while the doctor was busy with his wound. For a young human, he was surprisingly stoic with the situation.
"Interpreter Chalise!", an eagle arrow flew off the Noticar's bow, in a westerly direction.
Helmond sighed, clasping a hand over his aching shoulder. With the message sent, he felt his professional guilt subside, replaced by a cold dread. He had fulfilled his last duty as an agent of the Lucid, informing his superior.
This was important since he would feel the consequences of this failure directly. He simply would not pass his sins on to his kin.
But.
Chalise was not going to let this go easily, it was not in her character.
One of the guards who had sheathed her weapon earlier now pointed unsubtly at the human and his elven companion and leaned over to whisper something into another's ear. The man shook his helmeted head wildly then boxed his squadmate in the shoulder which produced loud, metallic clattering.
"No, she's right", the Sicarius said with a vaguely amused look at them, "We're a couple."
There were more unsure glances but none openly hostile. Maybe this was owed to the fact that there were only two moonshadow elves present; Helmond and Rayla.
"Sicarius", said Helmond, "A word."
They separated from the group after she had ensured her partner's comfort. It filled him with some alienation to use the term, but it was apt enough.
Once they were out of earshot, he faced her, having to look down to meet her gaze. Compared to him, she was so very young. How did she and her equally teenage companion end up with such a dangerous burden?
"Sicarius, I know of your loss of the princeling Azmondias. Have you concluded anything yet?"
"Callum says he saw a large person pick up his pack while he was on the ground. That may have been a bounty hunter we've run into before", she said, then smiled, "Legate, I want to thank you. I know it was your mission to hunt us down. You just saved our lives!"
He shook his head. "You misunderstand. It is my conviction that what you are doing with this... Abuser... is not only treasonous, but the very definition of vile."
Her mien turned from thankful ease to distrust.
"My concern is with the safety of the princeling at this time. I am an officer of the Lucid. I cannot abandon duty as easily as you may have managed it. I know what you've done, Rayla."
The greying agent scoffed at her sinking mien, "Yes. I know that face all too well. You know better than anyone what you've done. Well; Get used to this feeling, it will follow you to the pyre. So will the guilt."
His eyes narrowed, "Just punishments for those who would defile the relationship they share with their band, Sicarius."
Finally, his glance softened as he looked at his hands, "All that aside... you made every effort to spare my life and I cannot stand for taking yours. I have withdrawn from this mission and have notified my superiors of our whereabouts. They will likely want to send more qualified personnel to continue the hunt."
Explosive fury returned to her eyes.
"So what you're tellin' me is that you let us live but are calling more dangerous people after both you and us?!"
"As I said. I am a loyal officer of the Lucid. Subscribed to a code. As your parents were. Naturally, you are best known among our people for having no such integrity."
She whirled around, ready to stomp off.
"Sicarius!", he barked and something deep inside her head made her stop dead in her tracks against her better judgement, "You were `not` dismissed!"
The young soldier turned smartly, her face wrought by anger at her inability to completely shake a round decade of elite force conditioning and frustration at the harshness of his words.
"You are correct in the matters of Azymondias. I have reason to believe you will find the Dragon Prince in the hands of Kel and Ithral Ortis. They are, as you know firsthand, extremely dangerous Predators. But, far beyond what you can imagine, they have wreaked bloody havoc in the Auxilia's lines whenever we have joined battle with them. They will be far more challenging foes than any of our own agents. We must bring them to justice."
He breathed deeply.
"We must regain the princeling. Thus, I must join your effort."