The House of Life

Chapter 16

Ardeth's POV

You can never know who a person truly is until you push them into a corner. On the brink of death, people will do whatever it takes to keep their secrets. As a Medjai I was trained in the art of torture and how to bring out the truth from our subjects. It's a craft that only a select few can not only perform, but can also endure. I myself do not like to take part into torturing someone for information, but if it is necessary, I will do so. For only God can judge me and my soul. 

Finding Darius was the easy part, getting him to tell us vital information is another. Not only was he a Medjai himself, but he was one of the elites. He would be sent off on countless missions to bring about information or in worst case, kill whomever threatens the sanctity of the world. I highly doubt he would give us any information about Massika Reed willingly, so I have to make myself known to him. If he see's that I am here on important matters, he might be willing to cooperate. 

I tracked Darius down to the outskirts of the city, as he resides in a quaint homing environment. The house in which he lives is small, but as a Medjai, you do not need much to live off by. Usually most retired Medjai's would still reside in our village, surrounded by family. Darius, much like his siblings decided to live outside of the village. Even Dr. Terrence lived in Cairo, away from the prying eyes of the Medjai council, but he was still conducting business for the order. But their sister, from what I heard, left the village and dropped off the face of the earth for a moment. It wasn't until word spread of her death, that Darius and Terrence both were devastated for the loss of their little sister. Her body was brought back to the village where her brother's buried her, beside with their mother and father. 

Darius is the last of the Bey family, he had to bury the last of his family just recently, so who knows what kind of state he could possibly be in. I climbed up the few steps to his home and knocked three times in hopes he is here. But he might have already known I was here the moment we stepped into the city. I waited a few moments before knocking again, and that was when the door cracked open. 

"What do you want?" said the old man. I peered my eyes closer to get a better visual of the man behind the door. "Darius Bey? My name is Ardeth. You've probably heard of me from your brother Terrence." 

"Never heard of you." he replied. Well so much for being his star pupil. Thanks a lot Terrence. "I have important Medjai business I need you to attend to. I need you to follow me back to my headquarters so that we may speak." I lifted my sleeve on my right arm to reveal my tattoo for the Medjai order. The old man looked up and down from the crack of his door and opened it more to reveal his face. The old man was still built for his age, and unlike Terrence he still had hair on the top of his head. But it has been cut down to no more than stubble, probably for maintenance purposes. His eyes had bags under them and wrinkles across his smile line, he looked tired. 

"And what is this business about?" he sneered. I rolled down my sleeve and continued, "It's about a mission you and your men orchestrated, involving a woman named Massika Reed." The man's eyes flared open by the mention of the name, so it is true. Darius sighed and said, "Give me a few minutes, let me make sure my cat is taken care of." He closed the door as he retreated back inside, I walked back down the steps to wait for him. I leaned myself against the wall of his home, trying to ignore the throbbing of my left shoulder. Looking around, I took notice of the lack of personnel in this area and yet, there are house structures all around me. Maybe it's because the majority of the cities population is in the bizarre, either working or running errands. It's probably why Darius lives here, he wants to be alone. 

The sound of horses neighing caught my attention as it came about from behind the house. I thought it to be odd as one horse neighing I can understand, but multiple horses. I was inching my way to go over, until the front door opened and Darius was walking through. I looked over in the direction of the noise, but chose to ignore it. I may be prying too hard into the situation. After all he is a retired old man, he might be breeding them for sale. But why be worried about a cat? If it were me, I would be ensuring that my horses are attended to. Darius locked the door behind him and said, "Well, you just going to stand there or are you going to escort me?" Yup, that's definitely Terrence's brother.