Of Blood and Duty

Chapter Three • The Guild

-A Stranger- 

Mae did not bring him breakfast the following morning like she usually did. To his surprise, it was someone else who entered his room that morning. Like a gust of wind, nearly inaudible and swift. He would have missed the person had he not been staring at the door from near starvation while waiting for his first meal and sip of water for the day. Like a rotting prisoner kept at the brink of death just so he could not pose a threat to whomever came to feed him.

Instead of Mae, it was a man who came through the door. He saw it was not Evor as soon as his eyes landed on the visitor. No, this man did not look a bit like Mae's father. He did however, share a lot of Mae's features. Which peaked his interest instantly when he realized it. 

The straight hair which reached his jaws, was as jet black as Mae's. Watchful eyes never releasing him from his iron stare, were the same deep rich brown like hers and the honey colored complexion of his skin the exact shade as Mae's. What set them apart was that he did not carry a scar like the one that ran diagonally from underneath her eye, across her lips to her jaw. This man's face was in no way a clean slate, he carried many scars, but none that looked like it had hurt as much as hers. 

"Who are you?" The stranger asked casually, his tone low as to not startle his visitor. A precaution he deemed necessary because the man had an expression in his face that clearly stated how much he did not want to be in the same room as him. Blinking more than one normally would when calm, avoiding eye contact at every price and the biggest tell-tale of them all: flinching at the mere sound of his voice. Making him unpredictable if spooked. 

A scowl replaced the uncertainty that had inhabited his face a second ago. Making the effort to look untouched by the stranger's presence and seem completely unfazed by what so evidently drowned him from within; fear. However, to look confident proves an impossible task once your opponent had already seen a glimpse of your inner thoughts. So, it was easy enough to see that the fear had not gone anywhere, it had just been poorly disguised.

"You are not Evor." He stated coolly to spark a conversation, or a flicker of frustration. Stating something so obvious could cause the man to speak without thinking, perhaps revealing something that could be of use to him. "Nor Maeve." He added with a vexing tone when his first sentence went unanswered. The man had seemed perfectly unfazed by the first observation, but the moment he heard Mae's full name come out of his mouth he turned stiff.

The man's eyes flashed alight at he mentioning of her name on his lips. Before speaking, he inhaled deeply with an involuntary tremble on his lower lip. "Keep your nose out of my arse, stranger, and more importantly; her name out of that hole of yours." 

Such a vulgar response for the most common of questions.  Another sign that he was a threat in the man's eyes. He needed to be careful with this one.They are close. Protective of her. He thought as he replayed the man's response to himself. He now knew a little bit more about him  than when he had first entered. Now he knew one of his triggers, and it was Mae. He could not help but to wonder how they were close, or how close. 

"I asked who you are, nothing more." He replied camly while readjusting himself a little to show his visitor that he was not trying to intimidate him or try anything. However, this did little to calm the man down. He remained stiff and his jaws clenched. Judging by how apprehensive and defensive he is... and how familiar his voice sounds... could this be Hagan?  He decided to not waste anytime, and threw the question straight out. "Hagan? That is your name, is it not?" 

The man's eyes met his, radiating an instinctive reaction upon hearing his name. There was shock and dread in them. When realizing his mistake of letting his feelings be read clear and visible in his eyes, his lips pursed in anger along with his brows furrowing. Completely giving his identity away despite pointlessly trying to keeping it secret.