"I do not believe we have met!" Keith grinned, despite the rock that was swirling under his feet. Ten units away Lance and Pidge were bound, eyes wide and reflecting the light emitting from the old mage. "I am Keith, and of which has heard great stories of you!"
The mage cocked his head, those beetle-like eyes blinking in surprise. "Thou heard of me, and yet come to my own?"
"Not to come to own, but to talk! If you are the great Mage like the stories say, say you turn my words to lead like the Fae?" Keith crept one unit more into the cave, avoiding the bottles of glowing liquid and and crumpled sheets of parchment. "The Fae stole a word from me once, and I never retrieved it. I do not wish to return it, but wish to see the same trick."
"Trick? Magic is nothing to the tricks the Fae perform. Can the Fae bring water forth with only hands, or change the path of the sun?" The Mage roared, eyes cast about two units to Keith's left. He did not grin, but his eyes sparkled when he realized the Mage's secret.
"I cannot say, but the Fae I have seen make livestock fly, and cure traces of the Fever with only a blink. I have only seen you put on a show of lights." Keith cast his voice to one side using his mouth, then stepping quietly in the other direction. The Mage followed the sound of Keith's voice, a sneer forming on his crooked face.
"I read the text of the Ancients, and eat the hearts of men. But do you see the Fae reading the stars like vessels, or tricking Queens?"
"I have not, but you have never tricked a Queen. You forced the Queens of Nefara's hands to give two prize knights, but you forgot one detail." Keith growled, bringing the blade to his lips and it practically shoot from his hands, pinning the Mage to the wall by the skin of his cheek.
Keith drew his sword, the magic falling to the ground. The Mage's hands rose once, but Keith slapped them down with the blunt of his blade and bringing the point to his neck.
"You relied too much on your ears."
The death was a swift and painless, like how Shiro taught him. A slash to the throat, and a breakage to the neck.
The rocks under his feet stopped swirling, the source of their movement as dead as they were. Keith retrieved the dagger from the man's body, and rushed to Pidge's side.
"Are you hurt, friends?" He asked, untying the gag and beginning to hack at the thick cords that bound the former rouge's wrists.
"No, he wished to keep us in health until the moon rose. He wished to have the healthiest of blood, and the finest of souls. I supposed that's why he wished to use knights rather than peasant folk." Pidge begin untying the knots on their ankles, smirking. "Imagine how shocked he would have been had he used a rouge's blood!"
When Lance's gag was free, he was grinning. "Sir Keith, that trick with the dagger was so graceful! You did not tell us you were gifted magic the same as Shirogane."
"It is no gift." Keith raised his left hand, blackened with purple bruises beginning to blossom among his skin. "I was born with the power, but not gifted."
Lance's hands were freed not a moment later, and Pidge helped him to his feet. "This adds another title to your name, know? Maybe you will draw the eye of men and women at last."
Keith let out a hearty laugh, eyeing the parchment that scattered the cave's floors and the vials of liquid. "I have no desire of the eyes of men nor women. The kinship with one of not blood is enough."
He turned to the body of the Mage once more, the magic already beginning to turn his bones to dust. "He could not steal words from our mouths, could he? A shame."