Destiny Written

Chapter 11

He never believed he would set foot inside the impenetrable fortress of Elicien. Jalen and Ten had smuggled them in through one of their "secret" passages through the cargo bays. They had no time to sightsee, hurriedly reaching the safe house. It was a small apartment with the bare necessities. One that Jalen said she and Ten used to hole up in when they were planning their next mission.

Arden leaned against the bay window, peering through the slit of the curtain. The sun had started to set. An eerie glow bathed the city. The cityscape was a black outline against the fiery orange.

It was different from his home or the Tenebrisian cities he had been to. Not one style existed, a collage of ranging forms. Old cathedrals loomed in the background, buildings made of squares and rectangles jutted in between, roofs sloped, trees were intermittent and rare.

The lights had started to turn on, one by one. The sky darkened and Arden lost sight of the stars. Instead, the city began to blink alive. They were more numerous than the stars, outlining and dotting the shapes of the buildings. It was beautiful in its own right, but not as beautiful as the natural stars in Arden's opinion.

"It's something different, huh?" Ten walked in, sitting next to him in the bay window. He leaned against the wall opposite Arden, feet propped up.

"Yeah," answered Arden.

"It's your first time, isn't it?"

He nodded.

"I remember when I first came here." Wistfulness in his voice, weary and reminiscent. "A whole new world for a little boy."

"What's your story?"

"What?"

"From your conversation with Jalen," said Arden, turning his shoulder slightly towards Ten, "one's an assassin, one's a thief, both in a silent guild."

Arden glanced at the gloves, at Ten's garb that wrapped him head to toe. Not a single inch of skin available to touch. "You're a Shadow, aren't you?"

Eyes closing, Ten turned his head to the window. He chuckled dryly. "Good guess, but I'm not the assassin." At Arden's surprised glance, he continued. "I don't like using it. It's a curse, not a gift despite what Everrain says."

"So you turned thief."

"I turned thief."

"Why?"

"It's either the Silent Guild, or it's the empire. This is better."

"So you steal instead of kill."

"A lesser evil." He glanced at Arden. A look of contempt written on his face. "Hey," Ten leaned forward, arms on his bent knees, "this world is not kind. Life hasn't been any kinder. I've had to do things I am not proud of and hope my family never finds out. But I'm willing to do it for them because it's our only option."

Arden pursed his lips, regretting the question. "Sorry."

"You didn't know." Ten's voice softened. His shoulders slumped, free of any tension. "The girl was my next target." They both glanced to the bed in the small room they were hiding in. She slept peacefully. "Normally, I feel no remorse or guilt or regret, but finding her..." He paused. "Something was different this time."

Quiet filled the space between them.

"And you, prince?" Ten arched his eyebrow. "Why did you leave?"

Arden's jaw twitched, his body tensing. "I didn't belong there," he softly said. An understatement for the truth.

"Really?" He sounded disbelieving.