From the Ruins

Chapter One: "Blood Stained Hands"

Laekonus Thanaeaa: (Character) Lay-cone-us Than-A-ah

Nas: (Character) Nah-z

Artilof: (Kingdom) art-ill-off

Atric: (City) A-trick

Kob Noshe: (Kingdom) Cob NO-sh

Image (not mine): Laekonus's armour concept

Chapter One:

     Laekonus Thaneaa had taken her time planning the assassination of The King's protege. The assassin had too many ideas and all of them would be effective and get the point across. She dreamed about the dagger she would put against the Mighty Commander's throat she just had to choose how to get to that point. Then came the decision of which blade to use, there were many options: long dagger, short dagger, extractable wrist blades, the commander's own sword, something more dull out of spite. She usually planned everything to absolute perfection to truly enjoy the kill but she felt that considering she had been waiting for this since The Great Trouncing and had failed at her first attempt, a little room to play was allowed. Even if it had to be quick, because she had to be back on the East coast by sunrise to meet Nas to sail North.

     Creeping towards the Duke's Manor, she was completely calm as a kill was a kill even if she had long anticipated this one. She had to move carefully and lithely through the trees surrounding the building to prevent the wind or a stray branch from shifting her hood off her head. The place was crawling with guards that she did not feel like dealing with and if the moonlight reached her luminescent hair the reflection of light would act like a signal giving her location away.

     After having to spare a few minutes for the guards to rotate positions she lunged from the tree line onto the balcony attached to the Commander's room.

     Laekonus originally planned to kill everyone in the manor and wait for the Commander to wake up and find the bodies, then slit his throat from behind, but she didn't have the time to do so anymore. She had to be in Artilof to assist in the rebel uprising at the Atric Mines and The King needed to know what had happened here by the time she was within human seeing distance from the outermost guard tower that surrounded the mines in order for his reinforcements to be in the wrong place at the right time.

     So instead the assassin had planned to wait for him to get comfortable and right before he fell asleep, she would go for the kill. Simple but effective as she usually was not one for the dramatics but maybe she would spend an extra minute to carve something into his chest. A sparked flickered across the total darkness that was her solid black, doe shaped eyes.

     Her name? Her kingdom? Maybe something old fashioned like "Long Live The King" since after all, this was a message to The King.

     But when she got there, that plan quickly dissolved.

     Before the next rounds of guards could reach a place where she could be spotted, she skillfully picked the lock and climbed through into the dark room. The only things that were visible were what was touched by the moonlight pouring in behind her. The room was huge and impersonal. No visible paintings or decor, just bland and darkly colored furniture along the even darker colored walls. The seemingly glowing jewel in the hilt of the Commander's sword was the only source of color visible.

     Laekonus thought it was strange for a man that seemed to never stop traveling from Kingdom to conquered Kingdom to not have any collectibles. He was lead raids on every continent and nothing seemed to peak his interest enough to bring it home to place like a trophy in the home of his childhood.

     He's even taken control of the fascinatingly cultured people of Kob Noshe , and not a thing but blood stained hands to show for it.

     She quickly moved her back against the wall to conceal herself in total darkness. The dark leather of her vest, gloves and boots paired with her ability to move to fast for mortal eyes to track kept her movements silent as to not wake the great warrior.

     It was is if the Old Spirits themselves had willed it as if to make up for how much they had wrong her, that the light fell directly onto his figure, marking him as some kind of holy offering. However, she also saw the pain that moved across his features and she felt a harsh tug in her chest as multiple realizations dawned on her at once.

     A spike of pain shot through her head as she remembered the only other time that she had seen his bare face and not the hand-crafted second one that others chose to call armour. The vivid memories of how she stood in the shadows then too and watched as this boy cut through her beloved family and companions.

     Before taking his current position he did not adorn the infamous helmet mended into the head of a wolf, so Laekonus saw every emotion that never passes over his features as he ruined everything around her. Thirteen years later and she still could not help but still only see the face of a warrior far too young to handle the aftermath this would have on his soul, someone still to inexperienced to even check the shadows in front of him for a lone survivor.

     She also saw how he twitched in his sleep. His hand by his jerking head failing to grasp onto the handle of his sword that so rarely ever left his touch. Another spike shot through her skull as she recalled on the nights she was forced to relive endless, gore-filled, and merciless battles. The feeling of drowning brought on by the inability to stop a swinging sword or fist or a sharpened shard of empty bottle that was thrown into the ring- she blinked herself out of the memory, suppressing it.

     He was haunted by his past and Laekonus felt that it would have been unfair to kill him now, to rid him of that suffering. Her new plan that was forming quickly in her head would make sure of that because she believed herself to be nothing if not merciless.

     As she crept to the doors on the opposite side of the room, the Commander jerked up violently to the point the Laekonus thought he had been lucky enough to pull himself from his own personal damnation. But with a faint cry that rung in Laekonus's ears he fell back onto the bed into a deeper sleep.

     His cry for his mother echoed in her head as her plan finalized and she rolled her shoulders as the long tips of her ears twitched in anticipation after stepping into the hallway towards the rooms between the Commander's and the one opposite of his down the long hallway.

     Five out of six of those rooms were occupied by the Commander's most favored officers but both of those things would be changed.