tenth: an mcd ff

three

Tenth blinked. She didn't answer.

Zane rolled his eyes and traced his palm up and down his blade lightly. "I suppose if you want to get something done around here, you've got to do it yourself. I'll do it."

"No," Tenth said. Her blade just touched his and she kept her gaze straight ahead of her. "You will not."

"Let me leave," he said. "You are responsible for this. You let him know about your job, Tenth."

"What job?" she asked. "You've never used me to do anything. I'm living at an inn down the street because you won't do anything with me. You've completely forgotten me for years."

"I'm saving you for something important," he said smugly. "You'll just have to wait and see. It'll be the downfall of this city."

"What?" Tenth's eyes narrowed. "Maybe I will choose not to."

"You don't have a choice in the matter!" he raged. Then, Zane took a breath before turning around back to his throne. "I don't have time for this. I suppose I'll let him live for now. I'll be able to find another reason to kill him, don't you worry. Now, about this job."

Tenth put her blade away, but kept a hand on the hilt, just in case. "You're giving it to me now?"

He put a hand up absentmindedly. "I'm not sure if now is the time just yet. I need to get you out; you said it yourself--you've never been used yet. I'll pay the innkeep for your expenses, and in case Jeffory talks, they'll be a price to pay for him."

"So what's my job?" Tenth asked quietly. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know.

Zane's eyes turned up at this question and glinted. "Ah, I'm glad you asked. Your job will be to open a nether portal."

"What? I've never done that. You can't just expect me to be able to create and open a portal from scratch," Tenth responded. She knew she wasn't supposed to, but she was trying to avoid her first assignment from Zane.

Zane answered smugly. "I'm sure you can do it. I believe you'll discover a bit of yourself as well." He handed her a yellowed parchment from old age. There was something written on the front in a language Tenth recognized yet couldn't read. She couldn't explain the fact that she could recognize it. She figured it may have to do with her past.

"Is this for me?" she asked plainly.

Zane stared at her in a frustrated manner as if he was planning to say something sarcastic in response. "Yes," he said after a deep breath. "In this envelope are the full details of your mission. Keep in mind this mission was originally meant for a past member of the Jury of Nine, but unfortunately, he didn't make it out of the Nether. It wasn't too long ago though, so I have a feeling about you, Tenth. You're the one."

She said nothing. She wanted to comment on the fact that Zane had dismissed the death of a past Jury member without much care, but she decided to do the thing she did best--bite her tongue.

"I wish you good luck," Zane said although his tone told her that he didn't care about the type of luck he was wishing her. "I'm going to say what I say to every Jury member on a long-term mission; either come back dead with the mission incomplete, or don't come back until it's complete."

Tenth clutched the age-old envelope in her hands. "Okay."
---
Jeffory peered over her shoulder back at Tenth's home at the inn. "What does it say?"

"This is my mission," she explained. "Don't burden yourself with it. I don't want you to get hurt."

Jeffory sighed. "I'm just trying to look out for you, um, Tenth. I want to make sure that psychotic dictator isn't sending you off on some suicide mission. I won't tell."

"Of course you won't tell," she said. "I know you won't. I just don't know that you'll forget about it and not follow me. If it's a suicide mission, so be it. You're not going to die because of me."

He frowned. "Okay, I won't follow."

"Will you forget?"

He rolled his eyes like a little kid. "I'll forget. As Sir Jeffory the Golden Heart of the Jury of Nine, I swear on my life I won't follow and I'll forget."

Tenth held her gaze for a few seconds then turned her attention to the envelope. With short movements, she tugged on the sealed back, causing a tear in the paper. Then, she pulled out the edge of the paper gently and squinted to read the hasty cursive writing.

Sir Liochant the Fierce Gaze,

I have a message from the High Priest. He has become reckless ever since he knew he may be able to harness the power of the shadow knights in the Nether. All the rest of us in the Jury are trying to stray him from that, but he is set. The future High Priest doesn't seem any better. He's a freaky kid who appears to be blind in one eye. I'd be dead if they ever saw that sentence, but I'm dead anyway. However, since you're in Tu'la now, the High Priest asked me to deliver a letter concerning your new assignment.

They want you out of Tu'la, Liochant. You're going to open a Nether portal in here in Ru'aun and go inside. You're going to try to persuade the shadow knights to be on the High Priest's side. There's one already made just off the river near Brightport that you can use. I'm not sure where the shadow knights would be in the Nether, but I hope you can find them. Or not. They're hostile and deadly.

Please hurry, because if the High Priest is able to get the power of the shamens in O'khasis, he may almost be able to be as powerful as Irene herself. I know it seems like a long shot, a couple of shamens combined being as powerful as Irene, but the worst thing is that their power will give the High Priest the power to willingly go in and out of the Nether, thus giving him the power of Irene.

My thoughts and prayers are with you, Liochant. You were my first and only ally in the Jury of Nine, and I found a friend in you. May Irene be with you, and if you die, please know that I love you.

Signed,
Lady Armenia the Amber Eye

- there's gonna be a past and plan for liochant's involvment, i got it figured out~ hope you enjoyed!