~*~

"What is happening?" Melinda asked with practiced calm.

"The other man in the inn, do you know him?" The knight asked, voice a commanding whisper.

Mellinda eyed Charles warily, questioning whether or not she could trust him.

"I need to know what is happening before I can give out information regarding my guests." She responded sternly.

Charles sighed.

"I have no time for this miss." Charles dropped the axe and with his hand on the hilt of his sworn, he followed Matthew.

Rose came running from where the knight had been, a confused expression on her face.

"Ma, is the ghost man a bad man?"

"Ghost?" Mellinda froze upon hearing the word. "Did he say you he was a ghost?"

"Ma...?"

*

Matthew darted up the stairs and nearly crashed head first into a hooded stranger, standing bent before their door. The man did not as much as flinch when Matthew threw himself to a stop, nose coming mere inches before the man's chin.

"Sorry," Matthew offered. "May I go through?"

"Matthew, back already?" Nadia called from inside.

The stranger turned from the door to cast cold eyes at the feline.

"I wish to see your other companion," he commanded.

"What for?"

"He is a... lost son of mine I believe. A fellow ghost wandering the land of the living. I've come to take him home. "

There are fears that people do not speak of. Yet despite the lack of chatter, people remain aware of them. Most do not believe them, as Matthew had not. But even those keep a wary eye out and avoid treading where such unnamed evils were rumored to lie.

As Matthew stood there, the knight's urgent tone reverberating in his head alongside the man's words, a trembling fear such as he had ever known grabbed him.

It was only when a blade whistled toward him that his body instinctively pranced backward. The stranger's cloak fell back, revealing broad tattooed arms and gauntlets similar to those Daniel had worn. Thick hands held two ridged knives, attached to the gauntlets through a thin silver chain.

"You are real..." Matthew gawked. "And the messenger..." He stumbled as he took a second step back, and the man attacked.

Two chain-tailed knives coursed through the air. Matthew dug his fingers into the wooden flooring and twisted his body out of the way, and down the flight of stairs he'd just climbed.

He grimaced in pain when a knife retracted from his thigh, pulled back to its owner by the chain. Before he could question how he had been stabbed despite his evasion, he crashed against a table.

His head was dizzy and his sight began to blur. But he knew better than to lie back and allow the fatigue to take over.

"Nadia! Run!" He yelled out.

"Nadia?" The man queried. "It couldn't... possibly be Solace's own daughter now could it?... oh dear nephew, what has he brought to us now?"

Matthew cursed himself. Daniel and Nadia simultaneously emerged behind the man. The door now behind Matthew flew open and the Knight joined in, sword drawn.

"My my, looks like it'll be a dead party." The man announced.

"What do you want assassin?" The knight sneered.

"Oh" The man casually stepped down the stairs as he nonchalantly explained himself. "I was just waiting in this humble inn for my dear Daniel to return home when you all decided to drop by. A pity, I had not known my nephew would have been travelling with companions you see. Only he was to go home with me today. But alas, such a shame. And from the looks of it, that one's a princess as well. What a sudden way to be reminded that rank means little in the real world."

When he finished his speech, He had reached the end of the stairs and was pacing slowly toward Matthew.

"Uncle, stop!" Daniel butted in. "If you kill these people you'll have a whole kingdom hunting for you. You know as well as I that rank does matter. Or have you forgotten?"

The man stopped and looked back at his nephew.

"Oh, you do not know do you?" He shook his head. "The kingdom of Solace is no more dear child. No one will be coming after me or anyone for that matter. This is where all your journeying ends."

Nadia moved away from Daniel, suddenly unsure of whom she could trust.

"And thus, I will start with this feline fellow, Consider helping out with the young maiden there if you will. I would not want to linger too long with these ones. The inn keeper may have decided to flee and that could be...problematic."

Daniel twisted his wrists and two knives slid into his palms.

"You know, that was always the problem with you uncle." Daniel said

"What?"

"You thought you knew me."

He attacked. He jumped down after the man, letting loose a single knife mid-air. The man retaliated, throwing his own knife to parry Daniel's, who landed on the floor swinging his second blade. Punches rang with metal as blades met and slid across each other.

The stranger feigned a left jab and caught Daniel on his side with a strike to his right. Daniel grimaced but did not let up. As the man's hand went to twist the knife, he stabbed at his now exposed torso, forcing him to forfeit the twist and retreat.

The knife at Daniel's side was yanked free and he fell to his knee, one hand clutched at his oozing blood.

"Tenacious as ever, I see. "

"I was never what you made me uncle." Daniel let out. " And I'll never be."

A sword cut through the man's back and into his heart.

He fell, dead, a portrait of disbelief and shock.

The knight pulled his sword out of the corpse and stepped forward. He levelled it at Daniel's throat, not sparing his injuries and sympathy.

"Speak,"

Daniel craned his head up and looked the knight in the eye, he turned and watched as a trembling Nadia followed down the stairs. Matthew was now up, hand supporting his weight on the table he had fallen against.

"Yes," Daniel responded. "Speaking seems wisest, considering the situation."

~*~