Soldiers of the East

What is the first thing which comes to the mind when death comes knocking?

Regret, fear, but it was for common man. He was Tetsul Kaari, once a general in the eastern army. He was a soldier of the east.

He has fought shoulder to shoulder many times with Lord Drawzhi in the past, will probably still if his duty calls, but a night raid fractured his femur and though it was alright after a few months but by then he has been offered the job of a messenger. So he resigned from the fast paced life of battlefield and started enjoying the slow paced life of a messenger. He sent his son in his place to do the duty to the army and himself saddled his horse and become a messenger for the Lord.

His duty was to relay important commands fast and precise, commands which can't be trusted to ordinary messengers. This was his second visit as a messenger to the capital, the first visit was a hush-hush affair and the second was to the ambassador Lord Merak.

Merak was an idiot as far as he was concerned, the man was a parchment noble of the East bereft of eastern ideas and full of grand delusions of greatness. Parchment nobles were those nobles who were a noble family now declined or recently packed and anointed by capital without any experience of warfare, those who have tossed the eastern ideology of Blood and Loyalty and were nobles only on paper. These nobles have started calling themselves man of culture and talked about using pen, commerce and familial relation to guard their legacies. None of these nobles believed in way of blade and as a result they were neither respected nor valued in the East.

Merak was one of the leaders of these parchment idiots. So, Lord Drawzhi tossed him outright to the capital where his blathering and babbling won't be giving him migraines.

Now as ordered, Tetsul went to Merak and relayed the orders of Lord Drawzhi. Surprisingly Merak didn't asked any questions on the orders though he looked visibly displeased about the orders. He signed the undertaking of receiving orders via courier and after making this urgent and immediate delivery Tetsul returned or rather started his return journey.

Since, the order was classified as an urgent undertaking, so Tetsul started his immediate return with haste. Everything was going good for the first day but as soon as the Sun set, that moment his intuition started blaring warnings and alerts to him. To a man, who has spent his life in battlefield, ignoring intuition means courting death. So, he picked his three horses, tightened his sword belt, buckled up his armour and started racing his death in the night.

He knew that the only reason someone will wanted him to die here can only be related to the order he has just delivered. Someone didn't want him to either convey the delivery receipt to the East or someone wanted to know what the order contains. Whatever the reason the only way he can outrun his pursuing foes was by crossing three provinces between the capital and the Baltik pass. Once he was in Baltik, even an army can't act as that was East and killing Drawzhi's messenger in east was akin to entering and killing a wolf before the wolf pack because wolves fear noone and vengeance will be swift and merciless.

Other messengers might have trusted the commander of these provinces but not Tetsul. Someone dared to kill him despite knowing his identity and Lord Drawzhi's wrath will not be stopped by these commanders or worse these men will turn out to be working alongside the conspiracy. So, he chose the best bet, the first chance he got he removed his traces, ditched the charted routes and paths and started traveling incognito village by village, farm by farm. Today, he will run but he was a soldier of east and he would have his revenge.

A few moments later when the team of assassins pursuing the messenger came into clearing where the traces of messenger disappeared. The man leading them frowned and said to his second in command.

"Spread out and find his tracks. If you can't, go a few miles in every direction. He would have his tracks somewhere ahead even if he removed his traces from here."

After a few hours, new tracks were discovered but they were a few miles away going towards farmlands. It was very difficult to kill a messenger in private, but killing a messenger in public would be disrespecting his lord and then even warlocks might be dispatched and it would be impossible for lowly mercenary guild like theirs to escape from the aftermath, so it was better to drop the idea itself. He decisively chose to give up the contract for lives of his comrades and told his subordinates to turn around. This mess was not for him.

Two days later, a personal mage from western embassy was dispatched on the same mission, but unlike the mercenary assassins, she didn't turned out street smart. By the time, she reached the last known location of the messenger, the messenger has crossed a province and disappeared in the crowds of the second. But, she was a mage and the world beconed her, so as swift as air, she started following the new tracks.

Tetsul knew he was compromised the moment tails appeared on his end after the first day, so he simply went to the secret outpost of east in each location he crossed for help and dispatched nearly half a dozen messengers using different routes for Baltik command house lieutenant general Aamir Katan. Aamir was once personal guard captain of Lord Drawzhi and his loyalty was unquestionable.

He didn't handed the message receipt of Merak for High lord to any messenger though, but the message he sent described his plight and was strictly worded to provide a safe passage. Unlike other's thinking, he stored his belongings and the documents in a safe house, changed his appearance and mixed in the hubbub of the second province Qart, and waited for his assassins.

The hunters on his tail will appear but unlike what they think, he will not run ..he will wait and he will hunt. Because he was a soldier of the east and he has never been a prey.

But seven days later when he registered who his followers were, even he himself was shocked as unlike his initial assumption, it wasn't a mercenary but rather a mage following him and from the attire, there wasn't even an attempt to hide the identity of the mage. The western ambassador has sent one of her own personal guard to bring him down.