Eros

Breaking Point - 41

The skies were clear and the sun was bright over the castle's training grounds.

Sebastian Silverwood paced along the line of soldiers. He cut his hair short enough to reveal streaks of grey through its slick black strands, trimmed and groomed his beard into a thin goatee, and polished his armor to reflect the sunlight across its pitch black, bronze-fringed plates.

His blue eyes skipped from soldier to soldier as he passed, examining their mail armored physiques and the stern faces they persistently maintained.

All of them were in their early twenties, too young to have participated in the Unison War. He had asked it to be so. For his task, he wanted the blind desire of rookies eager to prove themselves heros rather than the level-headed grit of veterans.

Their good shape was no surprise to him, he had asked five captains he knew personally to supply him with the top notch of their squads. There were thirty two men and eleven women. One of them had blushed under his gaze, but maintained her firm posture.

"Good morning soldiers." He spoke softly, surprising the soldiers, who were used to getting screamed at by their officers.

The soldiers tensed upright, hands darting to their foreheads in a salute. Only one of them spoke back. "Good morning Sir."

Sebastian glanced down the line, finding a girl with a dark pony tail and a cheeky smile.

"I am glad to find at least some manners here." He pursed his lips. "Though manners aren't what I am here for."

He reached the end of the line, and turned to the soldiers. "My name is Sebastian Silverwood, and I am here to assemble the taskforce that will eliminate the Syndicate."

He paced back along the line, his back straight, hands entwined behind his waist. "The operation I plan is very delicate. A single mistake will undo everything. Hence, I can not allow any incompetence. I don't need many soldiers, I need the best soldiers. I need the soldiers who would not fear the power and the influence of the vilest man in Aros. I need the soldiers who would dare face the Black Prince himself, and bathe their sword in his blood."

He halted and locked his gaze on a soldier at random. "Knowing what is at stake, does any of you wish to step back?"

Silence answered him, and he spoke on, still looking at that one soldier, making the sweat pool beneath his armor. "My tests will be hard, the training that will follow even harder, and the task itself nothing a sane person would wish upon himself."

He let the silence settle in nicely before he bellowed out of his chest. "Answer me soldiers, are you up to the task?"

"Sir, yes Sir!" They yelled back in unison.

"Very well then," A thin grin sliced into Sebastian's narrow cheeks like daggers. "Divide into pairs and draw blades, I want to see you sparr."

The soldiers broke the line and turned to find themselves a rival. Sebastian drew a shortsword out of the scabbard on his right hip, leaving the Ebonsteel blade to rest at his left..

"You, with the manners," He caught the dark haired girl's eye, and tapped the grey flagstones before him with the point of his blade. "Let's see what else you have to offer."

-

Vanessa leaned against the barricade of the gate's walkway, gazing over the palace. Its towers blazed like colossal stone torches as their golden domes reflected the crimson light of twilight. Her eyes flickered across the dozen glass windows in the brick work.

Rather than dwelling on Kaelen, Nair, the future of the Warhawk Order, and her own delicate position beside Julian, she preoccupied her mind with calculations of how to shoot through each window. It was a practical exercise; one of them might be the window to Farus's chamber.