Breaking out

III. Chapter 5

"Do you even trust those two?" Zeke asked, breaking Yeran out of his silent contemplation.

"Hmm?" Yeran blinked, utterly bemused and definitely not having heard the question.

Zeke sighed, preventing the roll of his eyes by sheer willpower.

"Princes Aki and Ruth, do you trust them?" He asked, looking down at Yeran.

At sixteen, though Zeke had had his growth spurt and shot up like a weed, Yeran, being two years younger, was still very much shorter than him. Even if the two princes were both taller than both of them. They were older, so Zeke still had time, he tried to console himself.

Being looked down his nose by Prince Ruth was certainly a new thing for Knight in training Zeke Venon.

He had beaten warriors twice his age and just about the same experience. Though he would not dare enough to call him the best warrior of Aved, he was pretty high up on the list. He knew it, others knew at, and no one messed with him.

But then came the princes of Dilherra. Prince Aki had infiltrated the castle of Aved with absolutely no knowledge of a single guard, even Yeran's elites. Zeke had not been present that time, but he knew his friend well to know when someone had made an impression on him.

The first time he actually met him, still having not seen his face, Prince Aki was someone who carried himself with the languid elegance of a lazy predator. Someone who knew they could kill you, but just couldn't be bothered to.

Prince Ruth, on the other hand, who had already taken down a good dozen or more and was dancing between the rest with nary a scratch on his person reflected a very casual confidence that said he could, and would kill you if it came to it. This, for the first time Zeke had realized, is someone who could be an equal to him. There was a fire that burned in those amethyst eyes, suppressed, but there all the same.

They were dangerous, that was unmistakable. But that danger seemed tightly chained. Repressing themselves. Neither of them seemed completely relaxed, for all he could not see the face, he could see that in the tight coil of Aki's body, the taught line in Ruth's shoulders. Something is forcing them to hide themselves and he had a good idea of exactly who.

"No, I don't," Yeran replied.

"Those two, there will be hell to pay if we cross them Zeke, and an abyss of darkness if we turned against each other,"

"But you are still going to work with them?" It was a rhetocal question, asking for the sake of it, already knowing the answer.

"I need that strength by my side when I am conquering Terra," Yeran agreed.

Zeke nodded, seeing the sense in those words. Indeed, that is a strength indeed.

"What of Yor? What if he offers a better deal?"

"There is no better deal than the loyalty of them Zeke, with them, and you, I can have the whole world if I want," Yeran smiled, too vicious on a face so young, still round with baby fat.

"Do you_" Zeke felt obliged to ask, "_want the world?"

Yeran laughed, amused for some reason. They have been friends for more than a decade and inner workings of Yeran's brain could sometimes, still be a mystery.

"I might," he winked, saying nothing more.

...

TWO YEARS LATER,