The Deceiver

Tears fell down his cheeks as the mask he was wearing was ripped away by violent hands.

“You thought you could hide from us?” The leader hissed, mouth thinning into a cruel smile.

“You, who have been marked as ours, are running away from your masters. What a bad boy, did we teach you nothing? We will always find you.”

He whimpered as a hard blow was dealt to his cheek and the tears continued to flow from his eyes. The leader turned back to the boy and beckoned.

“Come Dante, we have work to do. There are many who must be punished, and where would I be without the one person I can trust to bring them to me? You deceive so well.”

He looked around at the people frozen in time. The Palace of the Noblesse was a perfect place to hide. It was a place built for the extravagant, the wild and the rich. If you had money and wanted to feast, dance and dress-up, then you go to the Noblesse. It was also a safe haven for anyone who knew how to use it. Behind a mask the identity of a person was in shadow, it did not exist. While wearing a mask, you became someone new.

The reason why the Noblesse wear masks is so that the searching eye cannot distinguish those who seek solace among them. But he should have known better than to even hope that it would keep Christian from him.

He rose from the ground, taking the fallen mask with him. He spent so much time searching for the right one, the one that would hide him from his master and other eyes that looked. He gazed at it, for what would be the last time.

It was pure silver, far more expensive of make then he should be able to afford, with a delicate engraving of a star trail from his cheek to his brow on the right half. For the Noblesse it symbolised hope and that was something Dante needed the most.  People began to move once more as Christian left the room.

Christian used Dante for the punishment of others. He would be planted in the way of possible offenders and he would mislead them into a revelation of their loyalty to Christian. If they failed, they would be interrogated until they revealed to which Lord they swore themselves to and then Christian would punish them.

He hated deceiving but as Christian always reminded him, he did it so well. He was born a deceiver, not made one, and when Christian had taken him, he’d perfected his talent.

A boy wearing a mask identical to the one Christian had captured, slipped like a shadow from the room.

Dante was a deceiver and that was why Christian had failed to find him.