The sound of anything but heavy footsteps echoed its light ring throughout the stone corridors of the castle's massive shape. With the armory in sight, Aiden couldn't help but rub his chin in curiosity, his bright blue eyes turning to Casper for a moment before the boy tilted his head and analysed the situation a bit closer.
"Wonder if he'll let me get to know him a bit more. Cassy's so...reserved." As the dark featured boy extended his hand and opened the heavy wooden door otherwise barring their path to weapons and armor, Aiden followed suit with curious eyes tracing across the countless blades and shields decorating both walls and stands.
"Did you put all of these up?""Gotta' be doin' somethin'..." Indeed, being the keeper of the armory, Casper has proven his perfectionism more than once. He hasn't stayed his tongue when lashing out against those who attempted to weasel past his system and get their hands on a weapon without signing into the ledger, something which often got him in trouble. A lowly servant should after all not speak out of place, but Casper still had difficulties adjusting to the spot. Only a year has passed since he arrived within Camelot's walls in the guise of a servant. In the back of the large armory one could clearly see a row of bookshelves, each ledger neatly rowed up in chronological order.
"Is your father a smith, Casper?" Carefully tracing his finger against the dull side of an axe, Aiden's attention quite easily shifted from item to item. His attention span wasn't something one should neglect, of course. He was after all a physician, though Aiden had never truly understood weapons and as such, they interested him in a different way altogether.
"Huh...?" Reaching for the ledger furthest to the left, in the leftmost bookshelf, Casper placed the large collection of text on the wooden desk.
"Since you're in charge of taking care of the weapons." "Nah..." Shaking his head, Casper's blood red eyes carefully traced the many lines within the ledger, analyzing each sentence. There was one blade which had not been returned yet, a blade rented by a Gregor Mane.
"I'm just a hundred year old vampire who likes shiny shit..."The way Casper stated that blunt piece of fact was flat in every possible way, almost as if he was telling the truth. Managing a soft string of laughter, Aiden couldn't help but playfully pat the Egyptian boy's shoulder and crossed his arms.
"Yeah, and I'm a fairy!""Pretty sure they're smaller..." Dropping down on the chair placed by the desk, Casper reached for a quill and ink, dipping the feathered pen in the dark liquid before he continued to add a few notes to the ledger.
"Hehe, like you?""Nah, I'm vampire sized..." "I don't think vampires have a specific si-..." A loud opening of the wooden door brought forth a large man dressed in heavy leather and a less than hygienic beard. It was quite obvious to the eyes if nothing else that he had not bathed in quite a while. Perhaps a traveler? His manners lacked much in terms of entrance and the man's brutish appearance did little in impressing the small vampire sitting at the end of the room.
"They told me I should have my weapon examined here." Dark and brutish, his voice matched the man's frame quite perfectly. Given the expression of disgust on Aiden's face, Casper was quite happy breath laid vacant with him.
"Uh-huh...whaddya' got...?" Raising his eyebrow, Casper leaned back in the seat and didn't appear to be in the least bit intimated by the man's large presence. Truly, the only location one could place him and be respectfully satisfied with the outcome was nothing short of a bandit crew. Aiden on the other hand backed up out of pure reflex, making his way behind Casper's chair.
"
"You're going to examine my weapon? Boy, you couldn't even lift it." The warrior patted the quite enormous sword sheathed by his waist, a weapon someone of Casper's stature would indeed have difficulties carrying.
"Luckily I have a big, strong man here to carry it for me..." The two locked a gaze upon the other, Casper oozing an uncomfortable presence once his unnaturally colored eyes met the soldier's green emeralds. Without uttering another word, the participant released his blade and placed it on the table with a loud huff, resuming to cross his arms as Casper went on to examine the weapon. A large blade indeed, the edge nicked and broken in several locations wearing the sword down quite a bit. The hilt showed the years of tear with cracks making its way through the wooden grip and the wrapping at the bottom of the blade to allow for half-swording barely remained in place.
"Pick another one...big blades are over there..." This was supposed to be an extravagant tournament. None of the combatants were going to participate with nearly degenerated equipment.
"I ain't fighting without my sword! She's been with me since the beginning!" Slamming his hands down onto the table, Aiden jumped back in response and nearly swallowed his heart. Casper could clearly hear the boy's heavy beating from such a close distance.
"You wanna' be the one tellin' the King that ya' refuse to look your best in his event?" Raising an eyebrow at the man, Casper remained stiff like a board, his demeanor unmoved in the slightest. This lack of physical response had not gone by without notice as Aiden stared down at the vampire with wide eyes. This was not the time to mention it, however.
"Why you...!" Clenching his teeth, the participant was about to continue but Casper took the moment to cut him off.
"The Prince is also in the tourney, ya' know? Gonna' fight the Prince with that? You'll be shot with an arrow for darin' to show up lookin' like a vagabond...Savin' your life here, buddy...""Fine! Where did you say the big fucking blades were!?"
"Over yonder..." Casper motioned to the left, seeing how the participant walked off to pick a more suitable weapon for the trial to come.
"What was that...!?" Lowering his lips to Casper's ear, Aiden couldn't help but ask the question which had been spiraling within his head.
"Huh...?""That guy could kill us both with his bare hands...!" Shifting his eyes between the Egyptian boy and the tournamnet's participant, Aiden lowered himself further as if an attempt not to be spotted.
"I live dangerously..." Like always, Casper's words were flat and dry. It was almost impossible to hear if he was joking or not but it could only have been in jest, couldn't it?
"Here, then!" Returning to the desk, the large man presented the new blade he had picked out. He wrote his name in the ledger and left his beloved 'Darling' of a sword in Casper's care until the tournament was over. With the name Fletch Kagan now written in the ledger, the man left but didn't seem quite content in doing so. This was going to be one long day.
"Fighters from all over the fuckin' world are comin' here today...if you're stickin' around, expect more of what ya' just saw...""You seem to have handled it well enough. What did you do before you came here?" Aiden lowered himself to the table and sat down, his arms crossed as curious eyes once more peered at the vampire.
"Been...around..." The stories he could tell...they were never ending.
"Yeah, around. You seem to have been to scary places." It was a good guess, given Casper's complete indifference in the face of danger.
"Scary...? Yeah...a few..."Though cold or warm, it mattered not against the skin of a vampire. The desert sand moved in tune with the endless winds, city streets now calming with the night's gentle embrace. This was quite the odd contract, though nothing Asad was a complete stranger to in his nearly twenty years behind the cloak on an assassin. Though, while there was a charm in moving through marvelous palaces with sandstone and marble decorating their beauty, there was something absolutely magical about the night sky. Countless stars were shining at an impossible distance, their faint light casting a stage for the moon to dance so gracefully. Moon, it was a word filled with grace itself, beauty and mystic all wrapped in a single silk covered bundle. Such was the name of Asad's blade, it's twin Night for what was the Moon without the Night?
Indeed, as was the task of an assassin, the young vampire found himself perched on top of a tower with curious eyes tracing the movements below. Ladya, it was the name of a woman whom had crossed one too many paths with her wicked deeds. Slaves were indeed prominent in the Egyptian society but there was an unspoken rule that some respect was to be shown towards the human skin, a rule she had defiled with demonic and monstrous efforts. Was her crime that of the flesh, or of a spiritual nature? Truly, this was ritualistic on only a madman's level. The Pharaoh wasn't known for being tolerant of other religions but his own, however this contract did not come from him. Make no mistake, even the Pharaoh will send a request to the Sand Snakes for that was their name. Hidden in the shadows and acting through blade and grace, these masterful assassins were known as a force throughout Egypt but none had been said to have seen them. It was speculated that they were not even human, for such a being could not manage their creed.
Though a Sand Snake does not ask questions, an employer with such a grieve stricken heart as the current contract entailed would gladly share their story. Was Ladya's sins that of a religious nature? A desperate attempt to conjure a false God? No, it truly was not, for this sin laid deep within the skin and bone of a beating heart. That of the flesh, Ladya's sin was drenched in the blood of curiosity and insanity.
A noble woman by every account, her habits followed what would be expected of one such as herself. She attended gatherings with other nobles quite frequently, enjoying the social development which had followed her life since birth. Though possessing the responsibilities of her wealth, the end of each day would bring her into the basement of her magnificent home. Indeed, stalking this target had been a task like so many but what laid hidden at the end of this journey was enough to force pause even from a vampire trading in death.
Asad ascended to his feet, effortlessly leaping from building to building, rooftop to rooftop on a straight path to Ladya's home. It was time to enter her domain and set the employer's dream to fruition. Now, Ladya was not the only target. Her guards were just as guilty. They knew what their mistress had been doing but did nothing to stop her horrific deeds. One could argue their innocence but with their existence finding its way to the contract, their fates had been sealed. Lowering both hands to his thighs, Asad drew his blades in a fluid motion as the boy made a final leap through a window allowing passage. A guard had been stationed by the open slot, dotting his end when the vampiric assassin skillfully sunk both blades into the man's neck upon reaching the window. As the man's large body met the floor, Asad rolled back to his feet like a cat which had just met the ground with eager paws.
"Snake...!" One guard remained on the top floor, his blade swinging viciously towards the boy who danced between the strikes masterfully. With impressive finesse, Asad twirled his body and fainted the next attack, rather landing his own to the guard's leg. A deep wound now found its way to the surface, forcing him to a knee. "M-monster!" Now defenseless beneath the assassin's blade, the man met his end at an edge forcing its way through his throat.
Was this a contract that involved stealth, more effort would have been put into the shadows but as it was, blood was desired. Moving to the stairs, Asad noticed how another three guards came running towards the sound of combat. Lunging forth like a deadly arrow launched from a bow, the assassin displayed his vampiric feats as the power and speed from the lunge left naught but blurry image mid air. His blade made its mark thrice over in a powerful swing before the boy found himself at the bottom of the stairs, three guards tumbling down to the first step. Only one individual remained, the crown princess of this story.
She had not heard the song of battle, just like Asad had not heard the screams from below. The thick stone door barring his path on the lower level dotted the basement's location. Though, getting through this passage was no impossibility. Carefully placing his hand upon the stone walls, the boy allowed his fingertips to trace the hard surface until he finally heard a click. Indeed, the most satisfying click lead to the hidden door unlocking from place and glided into the wall. Making his way through the darkness, Asad allowed a whiff of air to pass through his nose. It presented the smell of blood and other bodily fluids much less appealing. The stairs he walked upon lead deep into the ground, something akin to a tomb for that was what it truly had become.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Asad allowed his eyes to linger upon the sight. The stench was ever thicker here, a reminder that he seldom chose to breathe. The sound of bones snapping, flesh tearing and screams filling the stone confines drew a very clear picture. Naught but a silken drape covered the horrors beyond, Asad's silent feet bringing him past a soft fabric to reveal the gut wrenching scene. Slaves in abundance, their bodies had been torn apart, limbs and organs stitched onto foreign body parts to create abysmal, misshapen creatures. A madwoman's attempt at science, her curiosity bringing a hellish nightmare to life with slaves having been tortured beyond imagination simply because this woman wanted to see their reaction to the treatment. Cages were their only respite, a place where they rested before she returned the following night to continue her experiments. Playthings, that was all they were, playthings for a mad child completely void of emotion and soul.
Having torn the skin from a slave's frame, Ladya was continuously bending and breaking his bones, something she had been doing for quite some time given the slave's gut wrenching appearance with limbs permanently stretched in inhuman ways.
"Ladya Nalah..." The boy's soft voice was undoubtedly the only source of comfort these slaves, no, experiments of all ages had been granted. Children and elderly alike, she had gone too far.
"Wh-what!?" Turning to see the assassin at the entrance to her nightmarish dungeon, Ladya abruptly stopped her torture to lay eyes on the boy who had now entered her secret domain. "How did you get past my guards!?"
"Your name has been signed, thus is forfeit..." Taking another step, Asad's naked feet met the blood soaked stone, his advance not halting for a second.
"Such is the contract...so shall it be done." "W-wait...! I can make you rich! What are you paid? I'll triple it! These creatures are only slaves, they're not worth the life of a noble!"
"Allow me to show you...the worth of a noble's life..." Charging forth, the boy left a massive wound from shoulder to hip and saw how the peak of lunacy had brought this noble to floor she had soaked in blood. The task was complete, but there was still a lot of suffering to end. Indeed, the contract had been fulfilled, but Asad could not leave these people to suffer. Raising his blades once more, they would swing in the name of mercy.
Member
Hexes
