Princess Maria De Lemor, third in line for the throne of the Empire; she has two older brothers, both of whom garner a lot of respect in the Empire. One younger brother is currently attending the Mage’s Coliseum if I remember correctly. I don’t know much about the Princess herself, other than the fact that she tries to stay out of the fued her brothers are in for the throne.

This girl is now my responsibility. And I know enough about my organization that I will likely have to kill her.

Captain Coy had escorted us to a large room in the palace. It is ostentatious, expensive and larger than most houses.

Surprisingly enough, I like it. Someone had made the place their home, with sculptures, paintings and personal items littering the place. The sculptures and paintings aren’t professional, but they were obviously made with care.

The woman who lives in this room sits on her bed, staring into space. She had refused the captain and his men entry into this room, but the captain had insisted that as her new guard, at least I should be able to accompany her.

I watch Maria De Lemor awkwardly, I have no idea how to comfort anyone when they see people die for the first time, let alone comfort a woman. The Hooded man had simply looked at my kills professionally, telling me to just deal with it.

I don’t think that I should do that with her.

So we sit in silence.

“Thank you.” She says after a few minutes.

“For what?” I respond without thinking, quickly adding “your Highness?”

“For rescuing me. I doubt that things would have been pleasant for me, if they had managed to capture me.” She says, falling into her bed as she speaks.

I nod, trying to think of something to say. “It must have been hard for you. Watching those men die.” I finally say.

“It was.” She says, with seriousness. “But that isn’t why I am locking myself in my room. I have seen men die before.”

I ask the question that naturally comes after that, “Why are you locking yourself in your room?”

She is quiet. After a few minutes, I realize that she probably isn’t going to answer me, so I start cleaning my weapons.

“It was the betrayal.” She says, shocking me out of my cleaning. She reaches a hand to the sky, almost as if she is trying to grab some unseen object. “I trusted all three of those guards with my life, unconditionally. I have known Blake since I was three.” A sorrow enters her voice. A sorrow that reminds me of an old life, long ago. “All of my guards have known each other for years. I have seen them- Blake, Hyde and Flare, laugh with each other. Play games with each other. Treat each other like brothers.” She pauses, for a brief, heartfelt moment. The sorrow switches to pain and no small amount of confusion, “But when Blake ran Hyde through, there was no sorrow on his face, no regret. Only a casual smile.”

She stops speaking and I consider her words, all the while running cloth down the length of my sword in long, smooth motions, cleaning off the blood of a man she once trusted. After digesting her words I speak. “We are killers your highness. Each and every one of us in the Royal Guard have killed, or will kill.” I put the cloth in my pocket and study my mostly clean blade, “Killing another human goes against our nature, but once we have done it, something snaps. We realize that humans, they are fragile.” I pause, thinking about where I want to take my words. “It is so surprisingly easy to take a life. That realization can change a man. ‘If it is so easy to kill an enemy, it must be just as easy to kill a friend’ we realize.” I hold my blade to the light, looking at the dried pieces of blood lining it. “We have already suppressed our humanity. All we need is motivation, and then.” I slice my blade through the air, listening to the sound it creates as it moves through the air. “We can kill anyone. That is the abyss that we almost step into every day.”

The Princess stares at me in surprise. Her eyes wide at the sight of my blade. I had been so engrossed in my thoughts, that I hadn’t seen her get on her knees at the edge of her bed.

I blush as I realize the dark path my words had taken. I quickly sheathe my blade.

“I think I understand now.” She says, her eyes watching me with an emotion I can’t quite describe, almost as if she was seeing me for the first time. “I have never killed someone personally, but I think I can understand the dark path it can take you on.”

“You look a lot better, your highness.” I say before my mind realizes what my mouth was doing. This girl puts me off somehow.

“Yeah. Surprisingly enough, what you said made me feel a little better. And please, you are my new guard, call me Maria when we are in private. Oh by the way, what is your name? I feel silly for not knowing it.” She says with a small smile, moving to the door to her room.

“Damien, your hi- Maria.” I respond, surprised by the sudden change in the Princess’s mood.

She opens the door to her room, where an angry Sir Johnathon is waiting, behind him stand five Royal Guards, ready for anything.

He calms down as he sees her. “Your highness, I came as soon as I heard. We will assign new guards for you right away.” He says politely to her, glancing at me with an irritated look before opening his mouth to speak some more.

Maria smoothly interrupts him,“There is no need for that Sir Johnathon. I will be deciding my own guards.”

“But your highness-”

“Where are my mother and father?” She interrupts him again.

Sir Johnathon grinds his teeth at the interruption. “They are in the middle of an important meeting with the high nobles and heads of state.”

“I didn’t know about any meeting.” Maria responds, her eyebrows furrowing.

Sir Johnathon’s eyes go serious, “Someone tried very hard to kidnap you, your highness. We need to find out who they are and why.”

Maria thinks for a moment, tapping her finger on her chin, before she nods to herself. “Thank you Sir Johnathon. Please have your guards accompany me to this meeting.” She says, turning down the hallway.

“Your Highness-” He starts.

She pauses mid-step “This meeting is about me, I have every right to attend. So don’t argue.” She interrupts him again, I am starting to notice a pattern here.

She continues to walk down the hallway. I lengthen my pace to catch up.

A quick glance behind me shows Sir Johnathon silently fuming, he motions for the Royal Guards to move. The Royal Guards rush into positions around the Princess. I realize that I don’t know how to move into their formation, so I walk to the side and slightly behind the Princess.

“Do we have any idea who the kidnappers were?” Maria asks Johnathon, who is standing behind and to the left of her.

“I’m afraid that I do not know, your Highness. I have had my hands full elsewhere. The Emperor likely knows more.” Sir Johnathon responds, his calm tone vying with the angry expression on his face.

The Princess nods, staying quiet as we continue the rest of our walk.

She stops in front of two ornate doors, guarded by two Royal Guards. The Royal Guards in front of the doors look to Sir Johnathon questioningly. He nods at them, signaling for them to let us through.

Both Guards salute, bowing slightly as they open the doors to us.

“This is obviously a ploy, no professional organization would be so obvious-” A masculine voice cuts off as we enter the room.

Men and women of all ages surround a round table. Most of them wear the silk clothing and gaudy jewelry identifying them as nobles, but a small minority wear the ceremonial uniforms of the various militaries.

But the two most important people in the room sit in two ostentatious chairs, making them look slightly taller than everyone else in the room.

The Emperor is an older man of fifty winters or so, his brown hair turning grey from many years of service to his kingdom. His blue eyes hold a powerful gaze that I suspect to be slightly magical as he grabs your attention.

Demurely sitting next to The Emperor is an olive skinned woman, who looks to be thirty winters old. Long flowing black hair goes down her back in gentle waves, she holds a fan in front of her mouth, hiding any expression, but her green eyes hold amusement in them. My gaze briefly goes to her ears, which taper to a point, suggesting that she has some elvin or fae blood in her. It also means that she is much older than my earlier guess. I can see that Maria gets her delicate features from her mother.

Sir Johnathon and the other Royal Guards kneel before the Emperor and the Empress, I follow them a half-second later, placing my hand on the hilt of my sword and bowing my head.

The Emperor looks over the Royal Guards “You may rise.” He says before turning his attention to The Princess “I wasn’t expecting you to be here Maria.”

She smiles at him, “This meeting is about me after all. Of course I would be here.”

The Emperor nods at her, motioning to an open chair. As Maria passes me by, she gently taps my shoulder and motions for me to follow her.

I politely pull the chair out for her, bowing as I do.

An assassin that says he doesn’t know etiquette is either a terrible assassin, or lying to you.

She sits down and I stand quietly behind her. “So…” The Princess starts, “What do we know so far about the kidnappers?”

The Emperor motions for an elderly man to speak. The man is one of the Nobles at the table, likely a High Duke from his position at the right hand of the Emperor. “Unfortunately, all we found on the kidnappers were their weapons and their clothing. However, amongst Royal Guard Blake’s things we found a note.” He motions for a serving boy to come forward. The serving boy hands a piece of paper to the Duke.

He holds the piece of paper out, all it reads is;

Today

Below that, the image of a crow is stamped.

The style of the crow, with its wings wide open is used by very few people. In fact it is used by only one organization really. An organization that I am deeply familiar with. Apparently, I am not the only man they sent to infiltrate the Royal Guard.

The Duke puts my thoughts into words “The crow is a symbol used by very few, and this style points to one organization. The Order Of Crows.”

The Princess looks at him curiously, “The assassins? What could they want with me?”

A military man stands up, he wears a red sash across his chest, marking him as a general. “If I may, Your Majesty?”

The Emperor nods at him.

The General salutes the Princess with a fist to his chest. “I am General Parton of the imperial army.” The Princess motions for him to continue. “I would not take this note at face value. It is unlike the Order Of Crows to be so obviously traced. It is very possible that someone is pinning the blame on them.”

I consider his words, while it is possible that he is correct. I think that it is much more likely that they wanted the Emperor to know that they were behind it. If they had succeeded in kidnapping the princess, they could have used her as a bargaining chip. You can’t use a bargaining chip unless the other party knows that you have it.

The meeting continues with everyone stating different theories. No other evidence surfaced and no one came to any conclusions, but somehow the meeting still managed to last a good two hours, before the Emperor excused himself. The rest of the imperial family soon did the same, leaving the nobility and high ranking military officers to bicker amongst themselves.

Sir Johnathon and his men accompanied Maria back to her room. She sat on her bed, looking at him questioningly.

“Until you decide who you want to replace you former guards, we wait here, guarding you. Your Highness.” Sir Johnathon says, making it clear that he won’t accept any arguments with his tone.

“Very well. Please set up some interviews for tomorrow.” She responds, snuggling into her pillows.

Sir Johnathon bows to her, “As you wish.”

“Your highness,” I start, looking outside at the starry night sky, I was supposed to have gotten off of my shift an hour ago. “If you have no other use for me today, I have some matters I would like to take care of.”

Maria doesn’t respond right away, stretching like a cat underneath the pillows on her bed. “Where are you going?”

“Some other Royal Guards and I will be meeting at an inn in the commoners district, I was planning on looking into something that happened last night.” I respond carefully.

She jumps out of her bed, showing a surprising amount of energy compared to moments before. “Perfect. Why don’t I come with you?” She says, moving over to her wardrobe and pulling out a surprisingly common dress. Just rich enough for her to pass as a merchant’s daughter.

I stare at her wide eyed, unsure how to respond. Luckily, Sir Johnathon isn’t as lost for words.

“Your Highness, going out into the city so soon after a kidnap attempt isn’t-” He starts, before she interrupts him. I’ve noticed that she likes to do that.

“Oh hush Johnathon. I will be going in disguise, plus, you heard Damien, there will be other Royal Guards there.” She says, moving behind a screen to change.

“Still, I must protest!” Johnathon’s voice rises, his anger becoming obvious. When no response comes from behind the curtain for a few minutes, he continues “Very well, give my men a few minutes to prepare-”

Princess Maria De Lemor walks out from behind the screen in her new dress. The world stops around me for a second as I see her. The makeup that she had worn was gone, and her hair was no longer in some elaborate style, instead, she wore it loosely. She smiled, a small dimple appearing in her cheek.

Blood rushes to my face as I realize that I am staring. Boys and girls were kept carefully separate at the training institute. Yes, I saw them, but I was never allowed to look at them. Because I knew that if I became attached to one of them, it would be the death of me. Everyone there was looking to rise up the ladder, be noticed by Alex, or one of the teachers. Everyone. And I was at the top, so the moment I became attached to someone, they were used against me, or they used me.

But, all of that carefulness was lost as I stared at the beautiful girl before me. I forgot that she was a Princess, I forgot that I was an assassin. Until I remembered. And then the moment was lost.

I forcefully got control of my expression, turning slightly away from her. My mind turned back to the conversation.

“-We must accompany you!” Sir Johnathon was saying, his voice rising. “Someone tried to kidnap you!”

“Sir Johnathon.” The Princess’s voice snapped. “You forget your place.” She carefully brushes one of her hands through her hair, taking a moment before continuing. “Damien faced two trained assassins and a Royal Guard. And he won. I do not wish to be surrounded by men as I make my way through the city, I will not be surrounded by men as I walk through the city. Feel free to complain to your superiors. I will be back before the night is up.” After saying that, she grabs my arm, leading me out of the room in front of a red faced Sir Johnathon.

“You should have listened to him.” I say as soon as we are out of the room, a faint blush coloring my face at how close she is to me. “Just because they failed once, doesn’t mean they won’t try again.”

She looks ahead, her hand still around my arm, “As I told Johnathon, nowhere is safe right now and… Whoever is after me, they won’t expect me to leave the palace.” I must not have heard that part. “Plus, I cannot let myself be caged. Once they realize that they can cage me, they won’t ever let me go.”

I look at her, not quite understanding what she means.

We reach a branching hallway and Maria stops.

I wait for her to move, but she seems frozen. She looks at me, a slightly embarrassed expression on her face, “umm, I don’t know where we are going.”

To my surprise, a small laugh escapes my mouth.

She smiles as I bring my expression back to normal.

“What?” I ask.

“That is the first time I’ve seen you smile.” She says, looking at me strangely. “You should do it more often, it’s good for you.”

I ignore her comment and start walking. “Come on, it’s this way.” I say, leading her to the right.