Self-Inflicted Wounds
Chapter 2: Enemy Within
The man was standing in the throne room behind the throne as he had been instructed. Flanking him was his two companions. They watched with mild interest as four princesses entered the room. From their information, they knew who the four princesses were. Leading the four princesses into the throne room was Haruka of the Tenosei Kingdom, a tall, muscular blonde woman, and Michiru of the Nepuchun kingdom, a somewhat more feminine and petite woman with shoulder length blue hair. The two women walked with their arms linked together. The three men knew that the two women's kingdoms were very close and the two princesses were very close, although no one could confirm how close the two were. Directly behind them was a slightly older princess with long sweeping emerald hair, her ruby eyes carefully scanning the room. They knew that this was Setsuna of the Meiosei Kingdom, a very small kingdom on the southern coast of Ginoukoku. Following a step behind Setsuna was the youngest princess, a small frail looking girl with pale skin and dark hair, Hotaru of Meiosei.
"Looks like your information was correct, Taiki," the man with the dark hair whispered out of the corner of his mouth, his lips barely moving, "Again."
"Of course, Seiya, I've never once been wrong," the tallest man replied, a small smile of pride touching his lips. Shifting his position slightly to get a better look at the four princesses, Seiya could feel the excitement of the hunt building up under the surface. This assignment had by far been the most exciting one the three of them had accepted since becoming the "Three Lights".
"Seiya," the shortest of the men growled quietly.
"What, Yaten?" Seiya asked as his eyes drifted from Michiru to Haruka. Michiru didn't look like much of a threat, in fact she was exactly what you'd expect a princess to be, Haruka however, might pose a problem. She was lean and well built. She probably could have taken out half of the guards that were stationed around the room if she wanted.
"I still think this plan is flawed, what if the ambassador knew who was supposed to be her guard." Yaten voiced his concern.
"I've thought of that, just follow my lead if anything goes amiss," Seiya instructed. Out of the corner of his eye, Seiya saw Yaten nodded in agreement, then start fiddling with the uniform.
"Would you cut that out?" Seiya hissed, knowing it would draw attention to the three of them if any of them looked out of sorts in the uniform. He knew that this plan was flawed. So many things could go wrong; they had never pulled off an undercover mission before; going undercover was part of Taiki's purpose on the squad. It wasn't something either he or Yaten were accustomed to, but that was part of what made this mission so exciting.
A knock came at his quarter's doors; the knock was so quiet, Seiya almost missed it in the heat of the moment. He stood in the center of his quarters wearing only his leather pants, his bare chest heaving, glistening with sweat. Above his head, held with both of his hands was with unsheathed sword, he had been preparing to bring it down to administer one final blow to the imaginary victim before him. It had long been a habit of his to practice swords play in the evening. It was easier to practice here without the pressure of all the eyes on the practice fields on him.
Since becoming the emperor's high assassin, he had been something of a legend in Kinmoku. Rumors of his unheard of talents spread across the country side, but he knew most of it was lies. What made him so spectacular in the eyes of the population were not his own talents, but those he had borrowed from his two companions, Taiki and Yaten. He had the brute strength, the ability to act when others faltered, the leadership skills, but his ability to get in and out of a location undetected was thanks to Yaten's skills at stealth, and his infinite wealth of knowledge came from Taiki, who was the best in the empire at gathering knowledge. The three of them made the "Three Lights". The nickname made Seiya laugh. If anything, they weren't light, they were darkness. They brought on death and despair to their victims. The name came from the fact that the three of them shared the name "Kou" which translated to light from the native tongue of the country. The three of them were only distantly related, but the name had carried down to all of them.
Slowly, Seiya lowered the sword and looked over to the door, deciding whether or not he had actually heard a knock. He prided himself on his keen senses, but even he couldn't notice everything when he had his guard down. The knock came again.
"What?" he called over to the door.
"Um, sir… the emperor would like to see you in the throne room," came a small voice from the other side of the door. It was probably one of the Esquires who was on duty. Seiya crossed the room and opened the door, the air that came in through the now open door was cool and refreshing on Seiya's hot skin. Sure enough there was a boy, no older than fifteen standing on the other side of the door. He had dark hair and blue eyes, which was common in the empire. As Seiya looked down at the boy, he had a flash of his own childhood. He closed his eyes, fighting off the torrent of memories.
"Thank you," Seiya said to the young boy, "I know the way. You are dismissed."
The young boy nodded happily and smiled, then ran off down the long corridor. Seiya closed the door again and walked over to where his tunic was thrown over the back of a chair. Using a towel that was hung beside his tunic, he dried off his skin and then pulled on the tunic. The tunic was a soft, dark fabric trimmed in gold. It had a high collar which was made of a similar, but blue, fabric. The sleeves were short, but still came about halfway down his upper arm. It fell just past the bottom of his gluts. Around his waist, he tied a blue sash, and attached the sheath of his sword to it. Finally, he slide the sword into the sheath and turned to check his reflection in the standing mirror.
Another consequence of becoming a legend was becoming somewhat vain. Before he had never cared what he looked like, but he has since become very concerned with his appearance. Sighing he left the room, one hand on the pommel of his blade, ready for anything.
He walked down the long empty corridors of the palace. Although the majority of what he did was done in the dead of night when none could see or hear him, when he wasn't working, walking through deserted, dimly lit, deserted corridors made him uneasy. He was sure that at every corner there was an enemy, laying in wait for the perfect moment to strike him down.
He finally arrived in the throne room to find it almost as deserted as the corridors. The only people were the emperors few guards, a few Esquires, the emperor himself, Taiki and Yaten. The two of them were garbed similarly to him. The only difference between the three of them was the colour of the adornment on the tunic. The colour didn't represent anything in particular, for the three of them, the tunics had been designed with them in mind, and the colour matched the colour of their eyes. Yaten's tunic was accented with a sharp green and Taiki's had a dark purple.
The emperor looked haggard and worried. He was a tall, thin man, with a mane of grey hair and hard lines on his face from the years of worry he had endured. He had taken the role of emperor at a young age when his father had been assassinated by Ginoukoku. Since then he had been a clever leader, but power had taken its toll on the man. The worry that crossed his face now didn't make him look any better. In fact he looked even more frail than usual, and that worried Seiya.
"Late as always," chortled the emperor, his face breaking out into a wide smile and some of the tension on his face evaporated.
"I prefer to say that I'm just on time. Now I don't have to listen to all the preamble," Seiya replied, bowing to the emperor. "What can I do for you, Your Highness?"
"Not just you, Seiya, but what the three of you can do," he gestured to Taiki and Yaten, "I've just received the most troubling news. Ginoukoku is in the finalizing stages of working out a treaty with Kessho. If this treaty is to go through, we will lose this war."
"Let me guess, Your Highness, you want us to stop this alliance from forming," Seiya projected.
"You're sharp, Seiya. I need you to sabotage the negotiations by any means necessary. This needs to be done discreetly and quickly" the emperor smiled.
"You can count on us," Seiya replied. Taiki and Yaten nodded.
"I know I can," the emperor replied, dissipating more of the tension. The "Three Lights" bowed out of the room, stopping in the corridor outside.
"When do we leave?" Yaten asked Seiya.
"Immediately. You heard the emperor, it needs to be done quickly." Seiya replied. His companions nodded. "Meet in the stables in one hour. Have everything you will need. Prepare for anything."
It didn't take Seiya long to return to his quarters. Everything he knew he would need were it easily accessible places. On the writing desk was his dagger, which he strapped to his leg using a blue fabric the same as his sash. After pulling on a long leather jacket that fell past his knees, he strapped on his greave and bracers. In a wood framed pack, he tucked away other essentials. Finally, he slung on his back a worn leather quiver with an unstrung, unadorned yew bow.
He raced down to the stables as quietly as possible. As he came into the stable he saw Taiki already tacking up a tall bay stallion. Seiya knew that the horse had four white socks and a small star on the center of its forehead. Dumping his pack outside the stall next to the one Taiki was in, Seiya looked over the door at the large black stallion. The stallion, unlike the one that Taiki was tacking up was solid black with no other markings. The horse nickered as Seiya slipped into the stall.
"Shh… Yoru," Seiya whispered soothingly at the stallion in an attempt to calm it. He took a step towards the horse, his hand outstretched. When his hand came into contact with the side of the horse, he could feel it quivering with anticipation. Seiya smiled, Yoru was the perfect beast; he had never once failed to perform.
Taiki and Seiya were just pulling the bridles on their horses when Yaten came running into the stable. His pack was much fuller than either Taiki's or Seiya's, but as much could be expected from Yaten, who was also their chemistry specialist. If ever there was a need to mix up any kind of poison or drug, Yaten was the man to do it.
"Took you long enough," Taiki hissed, pulling a strap tight on his pack.
"Shut up," Yaten snapped, dumping his own belongings next to the stall on the other side of Seiya. The white stallion in that stall was prancing on the spot, seeing that it's companions were getting tacked up. "You couldn't have at least put his saddle on?"
"Nope," Seiya replied, grinning as Yaten struggled to calm the horse down enough to throw the heavy saddle over its back. Seiya sniggered slightly as Yaten let out a cry of pain when the horse stepped on his foot.
"It's not funny," he growled.
"Yes it is," Seiya responded, waling over to the stall, handing his companion the pack so he culd strap it to the saddle.
The moon was already setting when the three men rushed off out of the capital. The three horses galloping in time with each other, their muscles surging as they ran faster and further. Little did they know they were in for the adventure of their life.
…
Seiya knew that their plan was perfect. If only they had arrived a day or two sooner, then it might have been successful. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done to reverse the damage caused by an arranged marriage. The emperor had said that this alliance had to be prevented, no matter what. "Use any means necessary".
Seiya had already worked out what it was that the three of them had to do. They would have to eliminate the princess of the Ginoukoku empire or the prince of the Kessho kingdom. There was no other answer to their problem. Yaten had already sent a message to the emperor detailing what had happened. Taiki was doing what he did best, gathering information. All that was left was for Seiya to put that information to use and come up with a plan.
Yaten and Seiya were sitting at their camp a few miles from the capital of Kessho. Yaten was absent mindedly braiding three twigs together with his long, slender fingers while Seiya was carefully honing the edge of his dagger. The sound of the whet stone scrapping against the steel blade was oddly calming to Seiya. Each stroke was methodical and slow. He closed his eyes and focused on the sound. He let his whole world fall into the rhythm.
Off in the distance he heard the thunder of hooves. Seiya looked up and saw Taiki was approaching fast. As he watched his companion advance, Seiya stopped running the stone across the blade and paused. The cessation in the sound of the scrapping caused Yaten to look up from his braided twigs. Taiki had finished his information gathering for the day as was returning to report what he had learnt. He was a bit earlier than Seiya had expected, but Seiya doubted that there was a problem.
Taik arrived in the camp they had set up and jumped from his stallions back. He didn't look flustered or panicked, which only affirmed Seiya's assumption that nothing was amiss. A smile broke out on Taiki's face as Seiya stood up.
"What did you learn?" Seiya asked.
"A great deal," Taiki answered, his smile broadening, "it was far simpler than I anticipated."
"Good," Seyia nodded.
"It turns out that the prince is a no go," Taiki started, "he's well guarded at all times, as well he is a very strong swords man. So ambushing him when he's out for a ride won't happen, and neither will poisoning him. I'm sure there is a way around all of the defenses around him, but it will be complicated."
Seiya nodded, he would have to look at the facts that Taiki had pulled up in greater detail to completely give up on the idea of eliminating the prince, but they still had another option, and he sensed that Taiki was bursting to tell him what he had dug up on the topic.
"As for the princess?" Seiya asked.
"It will be much simpler," Taiki answered, "At first I thought that it would be impossible to get close enough to her. All the whispers suggest that the palace in the Gin kingdom is pretty much impenetrable. It would be impossible to just climb the wall in the dead of night, although it might be possible to sneak in the front gates, but not likely without a good cover story."
"I take it you've found one?" Seiya urged.
"Yes! As part of the agreement for the betrothal, Kessho has to send three guards to Ginoukoku to retrieve the princess to bring her back. These three guards will become her personal guards once she is married to prince Endymion. They are holding a competition tomorrow to determine who the three guards should be. I managed to get us into the competition."
"You are a genius!" cried Seiya, throwing his arms in the air. He understood exactly what Taiki had in mind. They were going to establish themselves in the Kessho government, and take the roles of the princess' guard. They would then have a clear entrance into the palace in Ginmokoku, and then they could deal with the princess however they saw fit.
"What kind of competition?" asked Yaten.
"Well that information is confidential," Taiki replied.
"Which means, you got a hold of it,"
"Naturally," Taiki answered, "The competition is a five day event where 13 teams of three are competing. It's essentially a battle to the death to find the best, although there are limitations to prevent unnecessary deaths." Yaten rolled his eyes at the last part.
"13 teams… that means that we will have to eliminate 12 teams," Seiya thought out loud.
"Four teams each," Taiki continued the thought.
"We don't need five days," Seiya said, "We'll only need one."
A/N: Okay okay! I'm sorry! I KNOW! I wasn't feeling great… and I wanted to watch Naruto and Bleach and Sailor Moon and Full Metal Alchemist… so I got a bit distracted… plus I had… as Richard Castle would say… writers embarrassment. That's when you're so embarrassed by the horrendous drivel that you can't bear to see it on the page… Anyways… then I started writing today… and I got so inspired… so I decided to give you guys a preview into the last few weeks of the "three lights" life… the next chapter is going to be about the competition… hopefully… and then after that I'll get into the main story line… hopefully… who knows… I'm just going where the story takes me! Anyways… I'll try and post the next chapter later tonight or tomorrow… and the next chapter of "The only thing I'll ever need" will be up today or tomorrow… hopefully…