A Terrible fate

Part 27

As I looked at the stars, the memoirs of my family seemed to bleed into my mind, one after another. Happy memories of times now long gone as I stared at the sky for what must have been hours.

My tears started to fall again as I remembered what my Uncle Kuro had told Lionel that day.

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It had been a long day, surely, perhaps even tiring if I were a lesser man. But I am not a lesser man.

Maintaining two lives amongst the guarded walls of the palace was exhausting though. Having to keep that old king believing that we were on his side in their pointless war. Keeping him happy, keeping him delusional.

If we kept him so, this war would end sooner rather than later, with fewer lives lost and more people returning to their happy families. And then we would all disappear, to live happily out on our own, our little found family in peaceful bliss for the rest of our days and the rest of our children's days.

That was how it was supposed to be.

We truly thought nothing of it, none of us did when we were summoned to the throne room by that bastard in a crown. He probably wanted to rant to us again, complain about pointless losses on the battlefields, demand frivolous explanations about our tasks, all useless things he used to take up our time.

We were all summoned. Ashur, Naiser, Kiaan, Corentin, Bjorn, Emeric, and myself, even the children. The little princess stayed in her room, she had been feeling unwell recently. From the stress of the war and that old king's pressure on her no doubt. I don't know what it is, but he is oddly obsessed with her. Out of all of his grandchildren, she is his favorite.

Perhaps it's because she is the only granddaughter. Or because he had only had a daughter before adopting Ashur and Naiser. Does she remind him of her? Regardless, his focus on her is too much. It rubs me the wrong way.

I need to look into why.

Still that would have to wait until this thing was over with. The sooner we are out of this meeting the better. We all have things to do, unlike him.

By the time I arrived most of the others were here. I was joined on my way by Kichii, who was watching Hanan today. The three of us made idle conversation, the young boy was getting better at lip reading, being able to answer me faster than I was able to finish signing to him.

"Kuro."

My father called me from the King's side. How he could choose to serve that man over Naiser is beyond me. He knows the atrocities that he has committed.

Still, however much I may hate his master, he is my father and I will not shun him. Not when we have so little family left with us.

"Father." I met him halfway on the stairs leading up to the raised dais that the throne sat on. He wanted to go over the usual things. Kichii's training, my training, I ate, was Kichii eating. What we were doing, what the guards were doing, if there were any suspicious people within the walls- within our ranks- that we had noticed, whom we had gotten rid of since last we spoke, all the usual things an ex-assassin asks his son who had once walked the same path.

He focused heavily on the topic of traitors this time around, the king must be getting paranoid then. Who wouldn't be, if you were as vile as that thing on the throne was?

Was he still a man after all he had done?

I hoped so, men could be killed after all.

Once the rest had filtered into the room I was waved off, my father returning to his master's side and I to Naiser.