Assassins in Broad Daylight

Heron was startled when Elswyth suddenly started. Her brow furrowed and she looked around as if looking for something. "Is something the matter?" He asked, a bit worried by the suddenly tense ranger.

"I thought I heard something." She frowned, "But I don't se-"

She was interrupted by them suddenly being attacked. There was about five of them in total. Assassins it seemed to be from their dark garb.

One of them had struck at Elswyth who now had blood trickling down her arm. Whether it was luck or the assassin being untrained, but he had somewhat lost his balance and it did not appear deep. Another had tried to attack Heron, but Kimp had shot out of Heron's sleeve, startling the assassin as the viper sunk its poisonous fangs into him.

Shaking off his surprise, Heron jumped back out of reach of their weapons, and started to weave a spell, as Elswyth turned and struck at one of them with the blade she always had at her side. Though Elswyth preferred the bow, she wasn't bad with a sword. Heron had never seen her actually fight with it though, other than mock fights.

He found himself somewhat admiring her form as he finished casting his spell. A ball of fire rolled into them exploding.

Naturally this really took the five assassins by surprise. Two of them fainted outright from the damage as they caught on fire, the one Elswyth had already drew blood from and the one his viper had damaged. Two others looked staggered, but one still looked rather up.

This one exclaimed, "Wha-? Was that just-" It seemed that he was so surprised that the prince of Amriel had just cast a spell it took the fight out of him.

Elswyth cut him down, well, knocked him out anyway. The other two turned to run, like cowards.

Heron was about to give chase when he heard them give out loud shrieks and their bodies hit the ground.

He blinked. He had not even noticed it before but there were two men standing there, knights even. This alarmed him as he wondered how much they had seen. Had they noticed him using magic? He wasn't yet ready to have that revealed.

One of the knights stepped forward and asked in a tone he was mostly used from hearing from Asrar when his sister's future husband went full knight, "Are you okay, my Prince?"

"Yes." He decided to act like it was nothing. If they hadn't noticed that would be okay, "My friend is grazed but neither one of us is all that damaged."

As he spoke he had been taking in the two knights. He had seen them before, and distantly recalled they were brothers. They had fairly young, a bit older than he was, and had been knighted at the same time as Asrar.

He didn't know either of them fairly well. He couldn't even recall their names.

"That is good." The one who had talked smiled, as if in relief. "It is good you were able to protect yourself. It would have been a great loss for the crown prince to be hurt."

Heron nodded in acceptance of the words, and looked away, "It would have been just as sad if Elswyth or you two were hurt either. I thank you for your timely help."

"It was no problem." Answered the knight.

Heron really relaxed assuming the two knights had not noticed his magic. He wouldn't have to fast talk and –

Then the other knight talked, "How did you do that anyway? That was beautiful. The way the air around them exploded! I've never seen anything like it!"

So they had noticed. Heron tried to think of how to answer without giving away that it was magic. That was dashed when the young knight continued, "It was magic right? It had to be!"

"Uhh…" Heron stared at the strangely excited knight.

"It was!" He grinned from ear to ear. "I'm glad."

"Kion." The other knight said, "Calm down. Forgive him your highness. He doesn't know what he's saying."

"It seem like you aren't scared of the idea of magic." Heron said with a raised eyebrow, wondering if perhaps he might be able to use these two to help set his plans in motion.

"Ah…" Kion looked down as if suddenly realizing he could get in trouble for his enthusiasm. "But if you casted a spell you can't really fault someone for finding magic interesting."

"True. So may I ask why you seem interested?" Heron crossed his arms, "And also, is your brother of the same mind?"

The two knights exchanged a glance, then the first knight spoke, "Actually all the younger knights are okay with the idea of magic, my prince."

"They are?" Heron was surprised to hear this, "May I ask why?"

"Ah. That's… I think I'd rather not say. We do have a reason for it, but we can't just tell a member of royalty without more insurance. Even if you did just seem to cast a spell."

"Why not Aklane? He is even more precarious than we are. Being sympathetic isn't that punishable, actually dabbling is." Kion said.

"It's okay. I understand." Heron said. There conversation was interrupted by another young knight bursting on the scene. He seemed agitated as if something bad had happened.