A Dance Of Blades and Hearts

peace is a concept

The first thing I noticed about the room was how dark it was.  The elders sat on a straight line, with master rena and master marak in the center.

As much as I rarely concerned myself with information on who ruled zethna, I, same as everyone knew that master rena and marak had final say in every decision.

The now familiar sense of dread made my skin crawl as I bowed at the masters.

"darling, we hope this meeting is not in any way inconvenient for you"

master rena said with a small smile on her face which put me at ease alittle, I hadn't had any previous encounter with the woman but she was known to be kind.

"not at all master " I replied trying to not let my agitation by their stares show.

"as you know " master marak started, his voice booming in the small room

" our city has managed to stay fairly sheltered from the war for decades now, but still we're no stranger to the loss that comes with it. But now we fear that the perian emperor, will one day lay siege to our city " I listened carefully, the thought of being invaded sending chills down my spine,  but I couldn't help wondering why the masters were telling me all this. 

"the attacks outside the borders and in our sister cities have gotten worse and we fear sending more zethnans out to war wouldn't be enough, neither would it make a difference, and we would continue to loose more of our own " he continued, his expression was blank and schooled even with the topic at hand, but his eyes were sad.

"most of the cities and bigger nations including zethna have formed an alliance against peria, to finally put an end to this war and stop anymore blood shed".

My eyes widened, the war coming to an end had always been just a dream, an impossible one, his eyes were bright with the possibility, all their eyes were. 

" the current emperor took the throne three years ago after his fathers passing, " master rena started

" he's the sole heir, and our sources reported that the perian palace is taking recruits" she continued, with no trace of the earlier smile on her face.

"that is why young one, " master marak started, his eyes settled on me, his gaze was intense and the nerves kicked in, the question that had been at the back of my mind since I received that letter was slowly burning a hole in my chest, what did they want with me.. Surely..

" we the council of elders have chosen to send you kiara, daughter of Kayla and nile to peria " I froze, I was speechless, my brain was on overdrive, what? 

"you are to infiltrate the palace through the elite barracks, and when you're placed close enough to the emperor, you are to put an end to him  " he finished, his tone never wavered, and his eyes were cold but determined.

I unconsciously took a step back, my head was spinning and it took everything in me not to turn and bolt out of there, they couldn't be serious about this,

why me?I didn't realize I had voiced out the question till master rena spoke

"you are an amazing warrior and have far surpassed your pairs " she said, her eyes held an apology but her face was void of emotions.

My world felt like it had tipped on its axis

"and you came in highly recommended by joria " my eyes widened and found those of the said man, who along with the other masters in the room had stayed quiet throughout the exchange

"you haven't surpassed just your pairs kiara, but our male warriors also, we need to send out a person who hasn't been involved in the war one way or another to avoid any chance of recognition, you might have never been on the battle ground but you've always been able to hold your own, one of the best warriors zethna has ever produced " he said with so much finality.

Now on a normal day I would have been flattered to receive such praises from a master who made training hell and as only ever seen my mistakes, but this was all coming cuz they wanted to send me to Peria, to kill an emperor, they wanted me to end the ruler of the one place I have always viewed as the embodiment of evil.

I was silent, what could I possibly say?my head was spinning and all I could think about was going home to my brother and Tera, this had to be a dream

"you will go through 3 days of briefing on peria as a nation, you will learn all you need to know before your ship leaves in 3 days"

3 days

it took everything in me to speak past the bile quickly rising in my throat, I couldn't even reject this, I couldn't tell the masters no, refuse to help in something that could possibly end the war, something that would stop my brother from ever having to risk his life ever again, or anyone for that Matter.

My throat burned with the need to scream, it was clear to everyone in that room that I could very well not make it back, the possibility of everything going wrong settled in my stomach

"that's too close " I managed to say through the heaviness in my throat

"we have to set this plan into motion as soon as possible darling, we don't know how long its going to take for you to do this, we are well aware that it's not going to be easy, but nothing will be put into action until we get the go ahead from you, we might not get a chance to infiltrate the palace ever again if we let this pass by" master rena said,

her emotionless mask cracking somewhat, she almost looked sad as she looked at me. They all looked so sure, so happy with their plan and the prospects of peace

It wasn't the same for me, peace was something I craved, not having to send my brother out to war was an impossible dream till now, not having to loose anyone to war still seemed so impossible. But leaving zethna felt impossible, killing a man felt impossible, its something that would become a necessity as a warrior if I ever had to go out to war, but it didn't mean I was okay with blood shed.

but looking up at the masters
I knew I couldn't say no even if I wanted too, this was more or less an order, they the rulers and we the subjects, I have no choice.

I was wrong when azumi came back, nothing is balanced, nothing in my world would probably ever be balanced again.

My legs gave out before I could take the few steps left to get home, my head was spinning, the back of my eyes burned with tears that I refuse to let drop, azumi rushed out, his eyes were frantic as he took in my state and the expression on my face.

"kiara what happened? " he asked holding onto me, "kiara??" he repeated shaking me slightly, there was a panicked edge to his voice.

I looked up at him, "there's something I need to do."

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Hey guyss, so the plot thickens, in two or more chapters the pov will be from two people.. Yas y'all we're closer than ever to meeting our male protagonist,
And I'd like to say thank you to everyone thats taking their time to read this book, it means so much