The Noble Truth

"I don't want trouble", Caspian said loudly, but as he did so, he was already condensing his magic.

"Now, now young master," the voice came the plump serf we just want to ask you questions, his smile was overarching.

"What kind? I am busy today. Can't we schedule a meeting?" Caspian replied.

"Oh, dear young master, I am afraid it can't wait. You see, we've been looking for you, Caspian."

Caspian was on full alert now, but he raised an eyebrow.

"I am but a bastard's son, what good am I?"

"Yes, but in a figurative sense, you are actually somewhat of a pureblood," The plump overseer began to move closer to Caspian.

"Careful now, you wouldn't want anything to happen to me lest you face Castle Blackfyre's wrath," his eyes now had a glint of malevolence.

"You do not wish to know why we say so? You do not wish to know your heritage? Caspian Destan."

Caspian was slightly shaken up. "How do you know of my grandfathers' house? I am certainly not entitled to bear that name I am a bastard's son," he stated in a now less threatening manner.

"Oh, but you are a full-fledged Destan, young master. I know not what your father told you but, Adrian was not a bastard. He fled castle Destan after he led a revolt against your grandfather and failed. You see, He was rather, unhappy of how his siblings sired from other less fortunate mothers were treated. Quite foolish in my opinion."

"You dare, bad mouth my father?" Caspian was furious, he didn't like anyone talking bad about his parents. He was still holding off his temper though.

"I am just stating a fact, anyway we were tasked to find Adrian and make amends with him, however, it seems we were too late. We investigated and found that you had become a retainer for House Blackfyre. We bear no ill intent."

"Where is your proof of identity? How do I know that you are who you say you are?"

The plump leader of the group took out a necklace he wore and threw it to Caspian. "Here is our proof of Identity."

"Why now? Why did you try to find me now?"

"Well, there has been a bit of a problem in our fiefdom,"

"What is it?" Caspian raised his eyebrow.

"Lord Destan has been wounded in battle, most of his children suffered heavy casualties, during a raid by the arcanists."

"Why should I care?"

"Well," as he told this the men backed away slowly, "you see you are one of the contenders for the Lordship,"

The men started to walk away, "We look forward to seeing you, Marquis Destan is waiting and hopes that you take kindly receiving this message. If you want to stay in touch we have agents at the Hungry Cow a tavern along imperial street" as they said this they walked away.

Caspian was still on high alert as he looked toward them as they disappeared in an alley in the distance.

He strode toward the flower shop he frequented in a meditative mood.

'I thought I was going to get mugged.' Caspian sighed. 'but security is too good in Bren so its unlikely to happen in broad daylight.'

'I think I should ask Lord Ezra in this matter, right now I don't know how to think about this information. For now, I'll buy flowers for my mother and father.'

As he took another step, he felt an odd breeze.

A dagger flew right toward him from his right side. He noticed in time to dodge the throwing knife which embedded firmly on the wall to his left.

"Wow, you are quite good," the youth who threw the dagger spoke.

He wore cloth that covered half of his face while his hair was tied in a ponytail. His black hair shone out.

"The other Destans we killed were hit by that dagger, it considerably slowed them down of course."

"Brother, why do you always talk to the target? We are assassins you know?" another person who had similar clothing to the assailant showed up.

"I was distracting him, why didn't you throw your knife?"

"He didn't have any openings. So, I figured we just do this the old-fashioned way."

Caspian began to speak up." Destans?"

'Seems like these people are here to kill me, were they sent by the messengers a while ago? No that won't make sense since they should have just outright attacked me back then.'

"You know we should stop talking brother, its bad to play with your food, mom used to tell us." Both of the men took a stance.

"It was hard tracking you, you know? So, we just followed those messengers around and we were in luck because they led us to you,"

"Hey, I thought we shouldn't play with our food."

"No brother, I said that because I just wanted to talk next."

"Anyway, this gonna be easy this is just a kid. The Baron ranked one was tough, we had to pay the barmaid quite a sum to put the poison in his wine. I think the hardest part of disposing this kid was finding him"

"Nah, he dodged the knife remember? You gotta give him credit for that."

Caspian slowly backed away, if they had already taken out a baron then this fight would be troublesome. He had to find back up.

"Where are you going?" the assassin lunged forward, the other moved in another direction looking for a way to route Caspian.

They looked exactly alike, even their movements were similar, Caspian understood that this was used to confuse the enemy.

Caspian eyed one of them he was moving quite slow.

Suddenly a swift blow to the head was executed, it came from a very awkward angle.

"Wow brother, look he is quite good, he dodged that one too."

"Hmm, looks like it's time to get serious"

The first assassin lunged at him, while he could hear chanting in the background.

Caspian kept on dodging. He was observant for now.

'I wonder what their elements are,'

The assassin tried to deliver a blow and missed. Caspian used this opening to counter a kick in the gut.

"Oomph"

The assassin was hit squarely as he flew three feet in the air. And Caspian drew his sword.

The assassin made a backflip in the air as he attempted to land on his feet however, Caspian didn't let up. He learned to battle like this from his training.

Caspian lunged forward, to the place where the assassin was about to land. But somehow, he landed in a different spot, it seemed that he could control his trajectory which puzzled Caspian for a while.

Nevertheless, Caspian went and kept attacking. He landed a punch and a side sweep. Just as he was about to land a blow on the assassin he was blown away.

"Whew, that almost did me in. This kid is good."

'So, their elemental affinity is wind. This is going to be tough I don't have training in dealing with wind types. Better ask Lord Voxis for pointers in the future.'

Just as he kept his distance anticipating on what to do next and looking at the assassin's movements.

"Finally, Done!"

A swift dagger flew so fast he couldn't see it. Caspian tried to dodge with the all the strength of his legs exercising the technique that Ezra taught him.

There was a clang.

It brushed his side, and the dagger hit his stomach.

"Hah, that was mission accomplished I guess." The two brothers congratulated each other on a job well done.