The Broken Crown

~4~ Kai

Kai had never expected the supposed heroine of Jorvik to be so... sensitive. He had expected a stone cold girl who wasn't afraid to walk up to a kriger and slit his throat. Instead, Mila had brought him a shy little girl who got lucky in a fight sometimes. Asyn wasn't all bad, though. She had healed Mila twice so far: her hangover and her strangle marks, although Mila didn't want that healed. "I don't need to hide the fact that someone tried to kill me and I survived." She had said. Asyn healed her anyway.

They sat at a campsite north of the Hollow Woods and Valedale Lake, but still east of the Valedale city. Mila had left to scout the area for threats, leaving Kai alone with Asyn. A part of him wanted to get to know her better, but the more logical part just wanted Klaus to join their ragtag group. Kai and Klaus had known each other for a little when they were boys, and Klaus had helped him get over the death of his parents.

"Shouldn't we go into the city for the night?" Asyn looked up from her previous preoccupation, which was picking the dirt out of her tight black boots. Kai didn't want to tell her they were just going to get dirty again.

Kai shrugged. "Valedale's full of elves, and if they spot us traveling through their city, they'll kill us for sure." He agreed with Asyn for the first part, but Mila's previous argument had changed his mind. "But if we go during the day, we can manage to blend in and not cause any havoc."

"I'd much rather try to sneak in." Asyn mumbled. She had a point, with at least ten krigere guarding the Valedale gate at all times. There was always the shortcut from the north, but he would wait for Mila to tell Asyn about it. If she wanted to go in that way, she would have to go against what Mila had planned.

"We can wait until Mila gets back and ask, but she's done that before. She got caught and sat in a holding cell for a week. She won't go for it." Kai rolled his eyes. Mila didn't like talking about her losses at all, and she would flip if Asyn asked her to try the same thing again.

Asyn leaned forward on the fallen tree that she was sitting on so that her face was less than a metre from Kai's, and she whispered. "Or we can go without her."

Kai laughed, ruining the quiet atmosphere that Asyn had created. "Sneak in without Mila? She would kill the both of us."

"Think about it", Asyn defended. "We go in, recruit Klaus, and get out before dawn, and Mila comes back to find that we did all the work for her!"

It was a solid idea, but Mila was a girl who loved to be involved in the action, not stand back and have the work be done for her. On the contrary, Mila didn't want to speak to either one of them, especially Kai, and she would probably stay in the area for the entire night, staying awake and thinking. What was the harm in speeding things up a little?

"I like that plan." Kai mentioned. "But on two conditions. We have to be out of the city by dawn, and we tell Mila that Klaus came to us."

Asyn nodded. "But how will she believe Klaus came to us?"

"Klaus is a bit of a crazy guy who goes hunting here a lot. It wouldn't be a surprise if we ran into him right now." Kai said, leaving out the part where Klaus admitted he used to hunt noidae for extra coins.

The girl stood up and wiped dirt off her skinny brown pants, which really looked more baggy on Asyn, like she had ran out of food before she met Mila. She probably did, which was why Kai didn't say anything. Mila was the only reason he kept a stock of girls' clothes, but he didn't have much use for them after Mila went into the same career as him. "I'm ready." Asyn stated, and Kai threw her a coat from his bag.

When Asyn gave him a weird look, he simply said, "It's freezing in northern Valedale." She put on the coat, which was tan with a white fur trim. A luxury in places such as Firgrove, but not for the richest assassin in Jorvik, although Mila would argue otherwise. Kai grabbed his coat from his bag, a black heavy coat the same color of his shirt. The only thing that stood out from his dark attire were his tan pants.