The Silent Guard (mxm)

Chapter 2

With their current company, Zen could finally relax his guard. It wasn't that he wasn't wary of them, he definitely knew that they were walking directly into the snake's den, but with such a large group escorting them, the assassins were much less likely to be reckless. The noble third prince couldn't very well have his guests murdered right before his eyes. That would be a blow to his honor, as well as the emperor's. Thankfully, it would be a safe escort.

Glancing down at his hand, Zen slowly clenched and unclenched his fingers, feeling the poison remain stagnant with the movement.

It's not spreading.

He'd never seen, nor heard of a poison that just sat in a certain area. His skin had darkened to a purplish-black, and a faint burning sensation had taken over the numbness, but besides that, he felt no ill effects.

His msater's hand gently grasped his damaged one and raised it slightly, observing the injury. Zen lifted his own gaze to focus on Qi's face, reading what his expression said. The man kept his talents well hidden, but being his personal guard for so many years had greatly enlightened Zen to his true abilities. The man was a master healer, with skills that reached from tending simple wounds to terrible poisonings, yet... he did not seem pleased.

His master released his hand after a moment, not wanting to draw unwanted attention. It was a good idea, too, because the third prince soon found his way to them through the group, stopping beside Qi with a cold smile.

Zen would have immediately put himself between the two men, but he caught the gesture from his master's hand and immediately stopped himself. Instead, he began to reach out with his skill so that he could at least respond to any possible confrontation between them, only for his breath to suddenly be sucked from his lungs as he staggered forward. Frigid pain pulsed from his damaged hand, making him hold it against his chest as he fought with the dizziness trying to drop him to his knees.

He could faintly hear his master's call as an echo in the back of his mind, but he felt that he would surely pass out if he even tried to straighten his stance the slightest amount, let alone manage some sort of response.

Instead of thinking about what he couldn't do, Zen refocused his attention on his breathing and pulling his spiritual energy as far into himself as he could. It seemed to help, because he was soon able to quiet the ringing in his ears and return feeling to the tips of his fingers and toes.

"Zen?"

His master's warm voice finally drew his eyes open, the man's face blurrily taking up a large portion of what he could see beyond the darkness slowly drifting from the edges of his vision.

"Zen, how are you feeling?" Qi asked, clearly holding back many more words because of their current company.

He would never simply ask how are you feeling when the answer was clearly in front of him.

Another person appeared at the edge of his vision, making the arm holding him up tighten slightly around his midsection. The man's dark hair and cold aura made it easy to distinguish him from the others.

He could tell that Qi didn't want prince Yuen near him, either, but there was nothing he could do if he wasn't physically harming him. It would be rude to deny the prince of a kingdom a simple look to see if he could help... whether he was pretending in the end or not.

"May I?" prince Yuen asked as he gently touched Zen's injured hand.

Qi was clearly hesitant, but he bowed his head slightly and relinquished what was asked for. Zen watched silently as the man examined his hand, almost appearing as if he were considering his own handiwork as opposed to trying to decipher what the specific poison was and how to help.