Chapter 7: Standoff

Cyn stared blankly at the ceiling of his room as he tried to justify the massive headache he was suffering from. He felt utterly exhausted, mentally, physically and emotionally and a painful bruise was developing on his jaw. As the memories came trickling back, he struggled to his feet, walked totteringly to his bed and poured himself a glass of water. Checking the time on the hourglass, he noted that he had blacked out for about an hour.

He was lucky to have come out of that situation with as few injuries as he had. Ira's willpower truly impressed him.

Leaning back against the headboard, he massaged his temples as he turned to the other occupant of his bed. Ira had reverted to her immaculate self and was meditating in the lotus position. She opened her eyes and said, "What did you do to me?" The thinly masked anger in her voice spoke of the consequences of half-truths and lies.

Cyn shrugged nonchalantly as he lied, "Nothing too drastic. I tried to hypnotize you into answering my question. Ended up going too far. The technique probably reacted poorly due to your being newly awakened. Had to hypnotize you back to normalcy." He worked his jaw gingerly, it hurt to talk.

Ira gritted her teeth at the unreasonable answer. She couldn't believe that he had been using her as a guinea pig. She felt frustrated for reading his intent to her so wrongly. While she had been naively dreaming of being under the command of a master so deluded by her wiles that he was willing to discard any suspicions he had of her, Cyn had proved again that she had been underestimating him. He probably saw her as a spy and in return for not revealing her identity, he was going to use her as a double agent to plot against those who would scheme against him.

Cyn, unaware of her deepening misunderstanding, decided to shift the offensive of the conversation towards her to prevent her from questioning his shoddy explanation. "What? No more honorifics? You won't refer to yourself as 'this one' any longer? It seems that you have finally decided to drop the act. Tell me who you work for and we can negotiate for your life. After all, I quite appreciate your competence and there are very few who can keep their cool despite my technique aggravating their emotions."

Ira replied in a cold monotone, "I am a member of the espionage department of the Pavone clan. We call ourselves the Spiare. I was formerly tasked with keeping you out of your brother's way."

Cyn barely managed to keep his expression from distorting as his heart clenched with grief. It was all an act? Four years of companionship just a ploy to keep him out of his brother's hair? What if he hadn't merged with the soul of the Chief? Would he have lived as an ignorant puppet for her to manipulate into a useful lackey for his brother's enterprise? Was his lack of ambition towards the position of the head of the clan a result of his own thoughts or was it a consequence of her manipulations? He had suspected her after reading her Aura, which was why he had probed her, yet he hadn't prepared himself to face her betrayal.

As the native portion of the young Pavone's soul spiralled deeper into self-doubt and depression, the more mature personality of the Chief took over. The intrigues of the nobles of the kingdom left him both disgusted and apprehensive. The fact that that a girl barely a dozen years old had been trained so splendidly, spoke of the intensity and bad risk inherent in the struggle for power and of the competence of those who finally won the contest. Reinforcing his determination to be more discrete in his behaviour, he kept his face devoid of expression as he said, "Well then, what are you going to do now that I have discovered you?"

"Explain the structure and objective of our organization to you and then I'm supposed to assist you in whatever you want to do." She went on to brief him about the Spiare and their operational principles. Cyn calmly soaked the information in while being internally shocked by the practicality of such an organization. The waters of the kingdom were deep and it seemed that he had somehow stumbled upon a huge fortuitous encounter at the beginning of his journey. Deciding that the misunderstanding held by the Spiare towards him was very advantageous, he played along with them.

He sank deep into his thoughts as he parsed through his options. He could stay here within the family and inherit the position of the head. While that would be the fastest path towards the accumulation of resources, he would also be bound down by the responsibilities that the title represented. A General was a second order officer in the kingdom and was equal in status to a Baron. As a successor to a Barony, it would be politically difficult to oppose a General slated for promotion such as Alfred Leon, let alone his backers.

Another thing to consider was that proximity to the mages of the Pavone clan increased chances of his anomalous soul being seen through. Also, be it due to his own scholarly temperament or Ira's ministrations, the former Cyn had been more interested in seeing the world and life in the capital rather than the seat of the clan Head. So, instead of antagonizing his brother, the best course he could follow would be to strike out on his own in the capital while grasping the real power of the Pavone clan from the shadows through Ira.

Or, he could join the army, working his way up into the favour of General Leon and his backers before landing a fatal strike from the interior. After all, a mage was a scarce commodity and they always started off in a position of command. But, this would be out of character for the former Pavone scion who had no interest in the martial path.

Determining his path, he said, "Then, I want to cash in my invitation to the Imperial Academy right after my awakening. You said that you have become an A ranked member of the Yohei. Then come with me to register at the guild headquarters. You can work towards increasing your rank, repute and combat aptitude while I work on my research projects at the Academy. You will be my liaison with the Spiare while I am there. I believe the pattern here is too small and any allies I make while I am there will be extremely helpful to the advancement of the Pavone clan while my brother can hold down the fort for me, assisted by Gloria."

"As you wish, Young master."

"Well, since that has been settled, unless we want tongues to wag we need to erase all traces of our lover's spat.", said Cyn, smiling and pointing towards his swelling cheek and the marks on Ira's neck.

Ira's stoic façade cracked as she blushed with shame at the reminder of her transgression.

As they sneaked down the hallways towards the infirmary, Ira's mind was a mess as she tried to analyse the young man walking in front of her. He had been able to take her by surprise even with her Aura enhanced despite his apparent disinterest towards the martial path. He had callously experimented on her with a fearful hypnosis technique which had been strong enough to force her into a state of Reserva and later manipulate her emotions. He had managed to learn said technique at some unknown point in time while circumventing her supervision from some dubious source. He had done it all without a smidgen of Aura.

This raised questions. A lot of questions. Had his heretofore disinterest in the martial path a pretence to put her off her guard in the case that she was a spy? If so, then since when had he known and who had trained him in his techniques? Since that person was able to avoid the vision of the Spiare and had such powerful abilities, was he or she going to be a powerful ally or a dreadful enemy?

Also, how was he so accepting of her description of the Spiare even after her betrayal? Did his technique also allow him to determine the veracity of someone's words? Or, did he already know or had been informed by his mentor of the Spiare and was testing her loyalty by asking her to corroborate the information?

Ira was the person closest to the young Pavone and she felt a marked difference between the naïve scholar that had entered his room two days ago and the enigmatic young man who had emerged last night. His decisions for the future seemed compatible with the former personality which raised doubts since that was apparently a façade. Also, his decisions seemed to distance himself from the family. Was this his meaning or that of his mentor?

If it was the ambitious girl from last night, she might have chosen to overlook all of these anomalies as long as she could rise to the position of the Matron. Yet, the Pledge of Lust had worked its charms on her. Her loyalty to the clan had been amplified and she set firm resolve to report all of her doubts about Cyn to Luxuria as soon as possible. Maybe they could nip a plot in the bud or follow up the trail to Cyn's mentor and either acquire or extort his techniques. Non-Aura techniques that could break the protection of Tunica could be the key to promote the clan by several scales. Maybe she should get started on convincing Cyn to contribute his technique to the clan.

A sigh from in front of her snapped her out of her musings.

Cyn had stopped his footsteps in the middle of an isolated corridor. Ira looked around hastily and found that they were located in a portion of the Keep in between the servant's quarters and the infirmary. As the nurses who worked in the infirmary had high statuses, they lived in better accommodations to the other side of the Keep. Thus, this corridor saw very little traffic.

"You are too intelligent for your own good, love. Being unused to controlling Aura means that despite your masterful acting, I can still read your emotions off your Aura. Deepening suspicion followed by determination? Its quite easy to infer that you plan to betray me again.

I gave you a chance, my dear, when I invited you to the infirmary and you threw it away. A part of me is very fond of you and that's the only reason I am giving you time to prepare. It is quite regrettable but it seems that only one of us can leave this corridor alive."

Ira's heart thumped loudly as Cyn turned around and his dark eyes seemed to radiate a spooky brilliance. Her Aura flared as she drew upon her anger at how simply he was willing to murder her and betray his clan for his ambitions.

The brilliant light of the midday sun poured in through the grilles, casting a checkerboard of light and shadow upon which the battle of two children of Destiny was to be set off.