A Queen's Spectacle: Prologue
Bloodwalker's heart was pounding in his chest. Not just because of the last few days being some of the most chaotic and dangerous he had ever experienced in the past decade. Well, he assumed that was a part of it, but nothing could have prepared him for the sight of his wayward cousin, flying into the Sandwing Palace with an unfamiliar Nightwing, a familiar Sandwing's head, and an Icewing prince.
All in all, not high on his mental "Things I Can Expect to See" list.
He watched from a distance, not going closer out of duty to remain close to Glory in case an attempt was made on her life…again. Speaking of which, it gave him quite the ping of satisfaction seeing that it was Sobek's head. Between the former Outclaw's outright betrayal and how he had nearly killed Bloodwalker a while back, safe to say, he wasn't exactly on good terms with that Sandwing.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a guard coming down the halls, walking in a nervous sort of way. Adjusting their shoulder straps with flexes of their spine, their barb flickering between retracted and extended. He supposed it was a new recruit. Thorn had recently changed out the guards in her palace, so he supposed he should have expected that. Walking out of the alcove in which he was hidden in, he met with the guard. Male, rather lean frame, probably 16 years, which considering they were adults at 7, was a rather considerable time of experience.
However, whether this guard was suitable to guard Glory was in question. This guard most likely was from an outpost, where there wasn't that much action. Thrust into this little hellhole of activity and secrets, most anyone would crumble.
"Hey, you." Bloodwalker said, facing the rather startled guard, "I need to go somewhere for a bit. Do you think you can manage guarding this post until I return?"
The Sandwing shook his head a bit, and though he averted his eyes, he nodded. Mustering up a professional tone he responded, "Yes, I suppose I can.".
Giving a brief nod of acknowledgement, Bloodwalker raced down the hallways to get to the main hall. Thorn was holding court at the moment, and his eyes widened as he was able to get a better look at his cousin. Thorn had already called for Qibli and Moon, one her trusted advisor and son, the other a mindreader. He had to give it to the leader of the Outclaws, those two together were a valuable asset.
"Call for Veneno, and get Bear here. I want this room to be secure." Thorn ordered one of the Sandwings, who nodded and rushed off to carry out their Queen's order. Soon enough, the tan scales of Sandwings were covering the room. Veneno and Qibli took the Queen's sides on her throne, as Bloodwalker stuck to the sides. He picked up on the Skyfire worn by his cousin and this strange Nightwing. While it was certainly not rare per se, as a larger chunk of the comet had been found a few years after the false brightest night, it was still peculiar.
Walking forward slightly, the Sandwing guards watched as he slowly shifted through the circle of armor and tan scales that had surrounded the two new Nightwings. The older one, who displayed several scars on his body, came forward and bowed his head to Queen Thorn.
"Queen Thorn, I hate to intrude on your province at such an hour, but I found that returning two items of great value exceeded the cons of waking you up earlier." the older Nightwing said, his tone full of admiration and respect, though for the life of him, Bloodwalker couldn't tell if it was legit or faking it.
"Bloodwalker?" his cousin said, finally noticing him. He had been facing Thorn this whole time, only looking away to watch a guard drag Sobek's corpse to the dungeons. The single word was filled with emotion, and unlike before, the red eyed assassin could tell it was genuine.
"Deathbringer." Bloodwalker responded, doing his best to remain professional. He was in an audience with Thorn. The older Nightwing turned to look at Bloodwalker, and he couldn't quite place it, but something about this Nightwing seemed familiar. "So, Deathbringer, want to explain your new…friend here?"
"Oh, umm, right. That. I don't know how to say this easily but…he's my father. Soulseer. Bloodwalker, he's alive."
Five seconds is a remarkably long time for someone to process a thought. But that was exactly how long that remark took to register in Bloodwalker's mind. Deathbringer's father, who had been missing for the better part of twenty years, was now right in front of them. Alive, and definitely not strown up as a corpse in the Scorpion Den.
"But…how..I thought. Is this real?" Bloodwalker said, choking a bit on his own words.
"Oh yes, I am very real. Nice to meet my nephew at long last." Soulseer said, a warm grin on his face.
"As much as I hate to break up this reunion, I believe you said you had information for me Soulseer?" Thorn interjected, not really annoyed, just a bit grumpy.
Taking the hint so obvious it could be seen from the moons, Bloodwalker moved to the side as Soulseer began to tell of their exploits in the recent days. As more and more dragons showed up, the last of which being Glory, Bloodwalker found that his cousin had changed. Given what was being said, he wasn't surprised. Escaping from Vulture is hard enough, but given what he must have seen there. Eugh.
He had this odd feeling though. His instincts told him that something was off about his cousin and uncle. Recoiling a bit, he had to reaffirm that indeed, he had an uncle now. He knew Deathbringer for years, yet the Nightwing that stood before him wasn't exactly him anymore. Maybe he had finally collapsed under the years of torment serving as Glory's bodyguard. He supposed Deathbringer would tell if he needed to.
A few hours later, he heard his cousin storm out of the room where Glory and Mistral had interrogated him about his side of the story. His cousin was grumbling to himself, furiously. Following Deathbringer, he caught up to him at a balcony.
"What happened?" Bloodwalker asked, not entirely facing Deathbringer.
"Glory happened." Deathbringer huffed, "She is such, a fucking, HYPOCRITE!" he exploded. His nostrils flaring and huffed out a puff of smoke. "Talking to me saying I had my shot, and I blew it. I rejected her once, playing hard to get, and when he acts like a total ass, she just falls for him even harder!"
Bloodwalker listened to the rant, which continued on for a while. While he didn't entirely agree, he did unfortunately see where Deatbringer was coming from. But he didn't want to point out that Deathbringer had led Glory on for far longer, seeing as that may make him more volatile.
"So it is. Yet you still love her…don't you?" Bloodwalker responded quietly. He wasn't exactly the best with understanding the very complex web that was Deathbringer and Glory's relationship, he did know that his cousin did love her, and that love had kept him at his post for all those years.
"Yes….I do…" Deathbringer responded. And for a moment, Bloodwalker could sense the broken dragon his cousin had become. Regret, hate, love, all those things had simmered inside, and now it was all coming up charred and blackened. He waited for a follow up to that statement but it never came. Bloodwalker stared into the sky as he heard his cousin get up, and slowly walk away.
After having returned to the rainforest, while he was still remaining incognito as his current position required him to do, he heard Peril asking for him. She wasn't exactly discreet about it. She was walking down the hall calling his name, briefly giving everyone a heart attack with her wings flaring up and down, since they probably forgot at that moment that she was safe and not going to burn the forest down.
Quickly determining that he should probably go with her to prevent more stress among the already tense guards, he walked out and flagged her down.
Glory had apparently called the two of them to hand out jobs to the pair of them. He walked to her pavilion, where Hope, as he recalled, and Glory were waiting for them, "Allright, now that you are here, I can tell you what needs to be done. Long story short, I need you to do something."
Bloodwalker's eyes narrowed slightly. Not antagonistically, but intrigued. Was she going to assign him to a job befitting his other line of work? That would certainly be a stretch. Depends on who she wanted him to find, "Go on."
"Magnificent. I need you to track her down. She's a valued piece in the cultist's ranks, and removing her would be a well placed blow to their operations. We also have reason to suspect her of stealing my enchanted bracelet. Getting that back for us would be positive for us and negative for them."
Bloodwalker nodded briefly, taking in the situation. He did have one question though, "Is this a kill, or capture mission." he asked. Given what he had generally seen from treatment of cultists so far, he wasn't really shocked that it was the former option. But something that Hope had said rubbed him the wrong way. What were they planning to do to get more information out of Deathbringer? He waited for elaboration, but when none came, he simply excused himself to go pack for this mission.
Flying through the trees, a simple task for him, reminded of his days training under Loyalty, he quickly found his way to his hut. It was two rooms wide. One for many of their personal belongings, and the other was dedicated to Jewelwings' writings.
Knocking on the door, he heard Jewelwings start, falling over if the rustle of papers was any indication. He then heard her walk over to the door. She looked half happy, half annoyed to see him. Happy was a given considering it had actually been a while since they had seen each other, but annoyed was probably because she had been busy writing at the time. Given her very literate nature, he hadn't been surprised she wanted to write stories and scrolls.
"Bloodwalker, listen, if you are going to knock, do it between evening and midnight. You know I'm working otherwise. You don't need to disrupt me like that." she said in a quarter serious manner, though he could tell she was struggling to keep it up.
"Well what time zone would you be referring to? I mean, it's much later in the Ice Kingdom, so…."
"Oh shut up." Jewelwings chuckled. She swung her wing lightly at his head but he easily avoided it, "So, how goes the job? Glory treating you well?" she inquired.
"It's fine. Actually, it's because of that job that I was able to stop by. I have to pick up some of my things."
Jewelwings put a hand over her chest dramatically, "Oh my! How gracious I must be to be in your presence, if it is only to pick up some things!" she said in a mocking tone. After Bloodwalker's laughter had died a bit, she said, "Well that's all well and good, but could you at least say hi to Vision and Starstriker before you leave. It's been a while, and they've been so energetic. Hard to believe I was like that once. So full of energy I could stay up for weeks." Jewelwings said, thinking back to how overwhelmingly potent she had been. She still was almost impossible for the average dragon to hold a conversation with due to her extensive vocabulary.
"Of course. I wouldn't dare think of leaving without saying goodbye." Bloodwalker responded. Walking inside, he saw the two young Nightwings that brightened his life as much as a thousand brightest nights. One had a misty look in his eye and was looking around as if curious, and the other was running in circles, jumping up, trying to catch Bloodwalker's eye. Passing through the doorway, the energetic one leaped up onto his back, which he admittedly had to brace himself to keep upright.
"Hi, hi, hi! You're back! I could sense you! I could hear you!" the energetic youngling said, the teardrop scales behind his eyes glinting in the dim light. Yes, he had found out quite early that his son was a mindreader. After a rather intense debate between Bloodwalker and Jewelwings on a trivial bit of information in her story, it had been very surprising when Bloodwalker found his words stolen out of his mouth by Starstriker, who had read the thoughts right out of his mind.
"I knew you were back." his other son, Vision, said. Taking note of his twin brother's rambunctious activities. Bloodwalker gently set Starstriker down on the floor, before hugging them both with his wings. He felt their hearts beating against his wings. He wished he could stay there forever with the two brightest things in his life right next to him. Ever since they had hatched, he'd not taken a job until Glory had approached him about being her bodyguard.
To be perfectly honest, half of it was just relying on his paternal instincts, as his mother and father weren't exactly the best role models. He didn't hate them, but the environment he was raised in was much different from the one his dragonets were growing up in. And due to the fact raising a dragonet with Mind Reading Powers hadn't been needed for the last few centuries, that was a very steep learning curve.
"Sorry to be so brief, but I have to grab my things." Bloodwalker said, opening one of the cabinets. Within lay a single box, finely crafted and polished. Opening it slowly, the knife within gleamed slightly. The same knife that he had thrust through Loyalty's heart all those years ago. Her last gift to him. He always took it on assassination missions as a symbol of luck and a memento. Jewelwings knew full well the implications of what that meant, so she ushered their dragonets off to the other room.
"So this is a kill mission?" Jewelwings asked hesitantly.
"Yes. Magnificent. Glory and the rest of her close inner circle have decided she is too dangerous to be kept alive." Bloodwalker said, twisting the grip over in his hands. He took a moment to admire the material this blade had been forged with. Despite not using it for so long, the blade did not appear to have dulled or lost it's effectiveness. Twirling it nimbly in his claws, he felt it easily cut through the air, swift and precise.
"Bloodwalker, I thought we talked about this. Remember, about a year ago?" Jewelwings asked. Bloodwalker did indeed remember. Before Starstriker and Vision had hatched, Jewelwings and himself had a long discussion about his line of work. Killing always brought negative attention, and Jewelwings didn't want their dragonets to be dragged into it.
"Yes, I do. But if I stand to the side, and the cult wins because I did nothing, would our sons be any safer?" Bloodwalker responded. Jewelwings flicked her ear slightly, which he recognised as a sign that he had countered her argument.
"I see. Ah well. Good luck!" Jewelwing said shrugging. Bloodwalker rolled his eyes and sighed. To most people, that may have been seen as disrespectful, but to Bloodwalker, it was a sign of her faith in his skill. He had never failed her before, and he refused to start now.
"Love you too." He said, kissing her lightly on the forehead as he left, waving goodbye to his dragonets through the window. He didn't want to leave them, but he had a job to do. His old teachers from the island had drilled it into him that integrity must be maintained, no matter what.
After scrounging up a few provisions, as he hadn't the faintest idea of how long he would be gone for, he had his standard supplies. Chakrams, his tail spike, and a few select poisons. And a little something that Jewelwings and her brilliant mind had cooked up. Outwardly, it looked like a coconut, and that was because the outer layer of the shell remained intact, but inside, were compressed petals of the Fiero Flower. By burning the petals, they caused a gas to be released that burned the victim's throat viciously for 20 minutes. Other than that, the knife was the only other thing he needed.
After a few hours, Turtle had finally made it back with his bowl. Distributing the now multiple coral to those who needed it, they made sure to give Peril a few extra, just in case ... .incidents, happened. Looking around, he wasn't surprised that Deathbringer wasn't around, but still…it hurt. Taking the coral in his talons, he did as instructed. "Find Magnificent. The coral jerked to one direction, almost falling out of his hands. He took off from the platform, flying off into the distance. Keeping an eye on the receding line of the forest, until it was soon out of sight.
Whoo! I am BACK! Man, it feels good to get out of this slump.