Chapter Twelve

Korrin hated every moment of following that bandaged bastard all the way down Noctra’s filthy ass crack. She much preferred the large estate walls, the soft pillows atop overstuffed beds, and quarters near her dear Lord. She had spent more than enough time out on the streets with her unfortunate mother, begging and selling anything they couldn’t eat, apart from themselves. Scraps here and there from the odd friend who had enough to spare kept them breathing, but hunger had a way of casting a waking death over those too starved to think. They sat, begged, dug, ran, and sat to beg some more from morning to dusk. But that had been before Korrin’s darling Lord had saved her and Jorrick, Korrin’s twin brother.

Their mother proved to be unfit, inadequate in supplying what they needed, so Lord White took them from her withering grasp before they could watch her perish and pushed them onwards, towards their greatest potential. Regardless that each of them was missing one hand and only had one eye left- she had her mother’s blue eye with a patch over the right, Jorrik had their father’s green eye, his patch over the left- Lord White took them in and taught them all they knew. He made the crippled duo into the perfect assassins meant to work for the better of Blancana and all of Noctra.

In the years since they had lived in the estate and Korrin had never even thought to refuse a request from Lord White… that was until he asked her to trudge all the way to the Northern Mines, just south of Trallenngard’s borders. Korrin wanted to scream and beg for a different assignment. Korrin wanted to plead with him not to send her away, not to banish them back to the desolate streets, but she bit her tongue. He had kept her close during the Fracturing and she’d proven herself, so it was only natural he should use her elsewhere. Jorrick would follow, in case she needed any of his particular… talents and that eased her mind a little, though not enough to let her sleep soundly through a single night they were gone. Wilder’s Edge held too many unfamiliar threats, too many strange, ominous sounds. To her, it sounded as if the whole of the Wilder’s shifted nightly. A sea of vines, oaks, pines, and beasts of all shapes, ready to swallow her whole.

Jorrick had proven to be an absolute shit traveling companion, unsurprisingly. Korrin had barely been able to get a full conversation out of him the entire year that they were gone and what little she had gotten out of him took a very genuine threat to “slice his cock in two, down the middle like a snakes tongue,” if he didn’t say something. The lack of sleep and proper entertainment for such a long extent of time had left her irritable and desperate for a reprieve by the time they’d even spotted “Silent One”, as guards had started calling him. Korrin thought “Bandaged One” or “Colorful Gimp” was more fitting, after all, if Jorrick could stay silent for long periods of time, anyone could do it. Didn’t stand out to her as his most outstanding feature; not like those fantastic framework hands.

Lord White had offered many times to give them the finest replacements Noctra could afford to mine and produce, but both siblings had their own reasons for denying them. Korrin felt like most of the framework hands she’d seen were useless and the integrated techwork usually only added a little flare. Not that bandaged bastards though, they were immaculate. Beautiful and fully functional. She’d struggled greatly to not jump down into his camps at night and steal the lovely little things. Jorrick had noticed their caliber too. Korrin could practically feel him peering over her shoulders as she watched Silent One sleep. Her brother had decided that accepting frame or techwork replacements was a sign of weakness, however, over their many weeks watching the bandaged Ta’ work, she could see his mind might be changing.

Korrin couldn’t help but gawk at the sheer irony when Silent One turned away from the road to the frosted kingdom and headed south. Had he gone to Trallengard and joined that ridiculous general’s movement against Lord White he may have lived a full enough life; instead, he marched towards his own imminent demise. A thought that made following him across every smoldering settlement left, just a bit more bearable. Every settlement aside from one, at least. She had been no less than astounded when the man who wore venerable colors, cloaks, and satchels completely avoided Ta’ Lands by skirting across Wilder’s Edge.

Jorrick thought Silent One was a coward for doing so, that he was avoiding an inevitable pain, or so she gathered from his one gruff scoff at her questioning later that night.

“Well..” she’d ventured as they switched shifts watching the handless killer, “Perhaps he already knows what is waiting for him. The futility of stopping, hoping there would be more than a pile of bones and ash. A waste of time he knows he doesn’t have much of, I mean, if he is actually the last of the Ta’, he’s been somewhere fuming for ten years. Planning some supreme vengeance I’d imagine.”

Silence sat between the twins for a moment as they pondered the true meaning of their mark skipping the lands of his birth before Jorrick had blessed her with a short jib.

“Yeah, planning diligently and losing limbs. Sounds about as dangerous as an ill chess master. Ah.” With that, he fell into a loud slumber and left Korrin to her thoughts as she watched Silent One’s chest rise and fall.

She wondered how such a haunted man slept so peacefully. So quietly. Then she considered, with a small chill building at the base of her spine, perhaps he wasn’t sleeping at all. Korrin often thought he might have been aware of them. More than once he cast a glance back as if checking to see if they were still tailing him. There was no way of knowing. Aside from a few long stints watching him butcher White’s guard in small shambled settlements, the trip had been extremely uneventful. And far, far too long.

By the time they had followed him back to Blancana, the southern wall was completely unrecognizable to Korrin. The markets were gone outside of the estate, everything was gone on the outer side of the wall and the wall itself had grown tenfold, adorned with ominous towers bearing Lord White’s sigil. Her Lord’s vanity had always amazed Korrin, in a humorous kind of way, though those massive towers instilled an uneasy feeling in her gut; one she tucked away to deal with later.

Korrin longed to sprint back to the estate and find her Lord White, to ensure herself he was still the same noble man beneath his eccentric displays. Jorrick be damned, she wanted to ride the wind into the main halls and spend an eternity in Lord White’s warm embrace, though despite her overwhelming desire, she stayed her course. Alongside an ever silent Jorrick, Korrin bore witness to Silent One’s chilling display at the southern border. The gore and blood were enough to turn her stomach but she was unable to look away, blinking only when a swathe of lightning flew from the man to the Watchers above. They followed as he floated away and stayed in his shadows all the way to Schuri’s shop where he stopped with his new companions. Then and only then, they went back to White’s estate to give their final report.

The twins arrived just in time to see Mezir limping up the grand marble stairs with his arm around Heria’s shoulder, the right leg hanging nearly limp as they ascended. Korrin had witnessed Heria’s encounter with the bandaged man and his new associate, but she couldn’t begin to fathom what had worn Mezir so terribly. Unfortunately, they had no time to stop and catch up, their report needed to be given immediately.

Korrin easily bound from ledge to ledge around the estate's ornate walls until she reached the balcony of Lord White’s chambers, where she flipped and landed silently in the pitch-black room. As late as it was she had expected Lord White to be sleeping soundly in his plush, massive bed, but there was no shadow to be found on the mattress or elsewhere in the large room. Her route around the estate had taken too long, it seemed, and he was likely hearing Mezir and Heria’s report already.

I suppose it can’t be helped.

White insisted they keep their coming and goings as discreet as possible but it often slowed things down on Korrin’s end. Only one thing she could do now.. Korrin hated to interrupt… to disobey, but there was no time for hesitancy. That silent freak didn’t stay in one place for too long and she knew Lord White would want to greet him personally. With a quick whistle to Jorrick who waited on a ledge outside, she strode to the door of the chamber and opened it confidently, startling the guards nearby who readied their thick curved words for a moment before one recognized her.

“Lady Korrin-” a broad-shouldered woman she was sure she'd never seen before stuttered, “we had not heard of your return.”

Her shift partner, a slight, smooth-faced man with platinum hair down to his thighs, still held his sword at the ready, though his legs had abandoned their wide defensive stance. A glance at the insignia on his chest indicated the man was a newly appointed private. Korrin noticed there were a lot more of those around than when she had left.

“You were not meant to. Where is the Lord?”

Korrin typically tried to reserve more kindness for guards around the estate but she knew time was ticking away. White would not be pleased if the bandaged man escaped after an entire year of covert surveillance. He had sent two of his best resources to take care of it after all.

“Downstairs in the study, Lady.”

The woman bowed low with her left hand over her chest while the young man eyed Korrin, his gaze stopping at her stump of a wrist. He chanced a look at her uncovered eye and the glare she held was more than enough to make him think twice. A large, solitary sweat bead fell to the floor as he bowed quickly and turned his blade downwards.

“I will escort the young.. Uhm, Lady to the study.”

Slim’s voice cracked like a boulder on stone and Korrin felt an embarrassed discomfort build for him in her own chest. She couldn’t blame him for the hesitation or uncertainty. There was no way she didn’t look like she’d been tossed about in the Wilders by dreadbeasts, and she knew her smell was no more pleasant a sensation than fresh dung. There had not been much time for bathing out on the trail either, something else she longed to remedy. Korrin definitely did not appear to be of any nobility.

Not that she actually was.

“Appreciated. And, to both of you, it is Korrin. Lady is far too... snobbish.”

“Yes my La- yes, Korrin.” The woman’s demeanor visibly relaxed and the young man beside her looked just a little less sickly than a moment ago.

“Good.”

Korrin gave a genuine, tired smile and walked on with a sweat-laden Slim leading her. The corridors and stairwells were as long and spiraling as ever and Korrin knew every single step by memory. Still, she let the nervous young guard lead the way by a few steps, figured keeping out of his sight would stop his armor rattling so vehemently. She had to admit his posture was very nice and he seemed to be checking diligently for any concerns. She loved a man with a good sense of discipline.

His chin isn’t half bad either.

Korrin allowed herself a quick daydream about his timid touch while they continued on past familiar marble walls and grandiose paintings of battle, after battle... after battle. Floor by floor her curiosity grew as she thought about the young guard, enough that she had decided she would be taking Sweaty Slim back to her chambers by night's end. After a quick rinse, of course.

The thought painted a smug grin across her face as she crossed the threshold into the study where White stood, towering above Mezir who still rested on Heria’s shoulder.

Jorrick would descend from outside, entering only if White called upon him personally.

Korrin shivered slightly at the thought before tapping Slim on the shoulder. A sign that he should announce their presence. For a moment Slim turned and simply stared at her, eyes flashing to her sweet honey-colored lips before he realized what the touch had meant. After a fierce blush overtook his cheeks the guard turned back towards the others in the study and cleared his throat.

Oh, how did I not notice? Slim’s ass is exquisite!