Chapter 4

The black-haired boy in front of her fell to the ground as she took out the dagger from his abdomen and pushed him aside to the ground.

He groaned as his sword fell to his side and he dropped down against the wall, as Kayla dodged to the side and moved a step over to Falecith.

Jayden was used to being stabbed, he was in the Royal Army after all, and Kayla stabbed him in a part where he was usually stabbed in combat.

She could have killed him, but her concern wasn't if he was dead or not.

In her thought, she would kill him sooner or later, but that night, her concern was just the keys for the vault.

Jayden was about to take his sword to charge again when Kayla punched him across the face so hard that he fell against the wall unconsciously. With a stroke of her indigo sorcery, she took away the memories he had of the night in the alleyway.

All the Guards she'd killed, they were all stupid. Both in combat and in logic. And she thought Jayden was the same; but no, she was wrong.

He knew better.

Jayden observed everything and he wasn't just a normal Guard. His father had hunted for witches, and that's what got him executed, and so he had prior help and knowledge from him.

As he slept, she took Eros's body with her enchantment and the keys from his pocket, cleaning up the blood on the street and the walls and then walking out of the alleyway and back to Cyl. She made sure no one saw them and pulled the reins on Cyl to bring both of them to the mountains, to bury his body there.

It was all the least of her concern. If the Guard she had harmed was still alive or not, it wasn't her fault. His memories were gone and he was still going to die if they met anywhere else.

After all, she thought, everyone thought that all the witches had died in the kingdom. So, it'd be impossible for that boy to speculate her as a witch if they met anywhere else.

Little did she know that he was one of the few people who still believed they existed, and will do anything for them to be demolished.

~~~

Kayla went back to Pendagline after midnight and went inside her house. She took off her ripped coat and burned it in the fireplace. She had many where they came from, the people of Emitha had made them for her.

As she walked over to her office to put the keys where it was safe, she saw the glass cabinet, which was filled with bottles of wine that Adrian had wanted, had been shattered.

The glass was all over the floor and a paper was found on the shelf where the bottle of wine was stolen.

She walked over to it and took the paper, written uglily in black ink.

'heads-up, you'll be seeing a drunk adrian nellister by tomorrow morning'

She scoffed at the note and put it back on the shelf, "And he didn't bother to clean up the glass,"

She didn't mind, and walked over it, putting the keys back in the drawer and then going upstairs to change to her night gown. She needed sleep, as in a day or two, they'd be taking over Santelle.

~~~

The sound of birds chirping woke him up.

Other than that, nothing else did.

It was dawn, the sun was only shining dimly, and he had his blood-stained sword right beside him as he was bleeding out of his abdomen.

He groaned in pain, and his jaw felt so sore. He picked himself up, not finding Eros Falecith's body in front of him. It was confusing.

But he knew better.

He dragged himself, hoping no one would see him at such an early morning, and went to Rennie that he had tied on a tree near the markets.

"Father," he muttered as he got on top of his horse, "You've helped me a lot this day," a sly smile formed on his lips, both of relief and madness.

~~~

"Let me guess: he's hungover?" the girl leaned on the doorway of the two boys' house.

"Very much. He's sleeping with the bottle," Alex replied.

Kayla gave an exasperated sigh, "Tell him there's archery training for everyone today, and tell the army that we're going to take over Santelle tomorrow. There's a possibility the Royal Army would be there as your faces are seen and they've probably found a pattern of our attacks. Gather more people, and see if there are any volunteers. Don't pick those who are just wanting to show off or who are being told to. Choose the ones who are genuine. I don't want lying cowards in the battlefield,"

"Yes, Lady Allensilf," he teased.

Kayla broke out a laugh, "And told Adrian to clean up the glass pieces in my house. Make sure he wakes up too."

"Yes yes," Alex replied. "I'll be training the rest once he wakes up,"

"Send some people to Glandithe to rebuild and remake the place there. They can start moving there whenever they want," she stated and stood up straight, "Thanks, Alex,"

"Anytime, Grape,"

Apparently, it took around 2 hours for Adrian to wake up, and even then, he wasn't woken up fully. He only woke up as he needed to throw up but Alex splashed him with water so he wouldn't go back to sleep.

"What was that for?" Adrian yelled, his breath smelled like wine.

"Wake up, you have to lead the archery training," Alex said. "You drank the entire bottle, are you insane or something?"

"I'm lazy," he whined, "I wanna sleep."

"You've slept for 12 hours."

"Oh."

"Get yourself ready, we're taking over Santelle tomorrow and if you're not going to train or teach anyone today, we're as good as dead meat," he said, "Now."

"Fine, fine, okay, wait." Adrian replied and dragged himself to the bathroom to change himself and sober himself up.

But no, he wasn't sober. Not even 50%.

~~~

Alex dragged Adrian out of the house. They were roommates, not that Alex wanted but that Adrian had begged to buy the house in front of Kayla's residence so they could be roommates.

He was starting to regret agreeing to it.

Adrian had a lousy face on him, and he wobbled as he walked that Alex had to hold him upright. Along the way to the training area, he kept on smiling and waving at people, both boys and girls, as if flirting towards them.

"Are you not ashamed?" Alex muttered in his ears.

"As long as you don't tell it to me when I'm sober, because I won't remember anything," Adrian cheekily smiled.

Alex pouted and continued to pull him to the archery training area where many people were already practicing.

Suddenly, a boy, quite taller than them, with a buzzcut and bronze-colored skin and dark-colored eyes, stepped in front of them. He had a smile planted on him, and he was wearing the clothes given by the people.

Since Alex hadn't seen him, he must've been a newcomer from Glandithe.

Adrian smiled while showing off his teeth," Hey," he said to the new boy, dragging his words, then looked towards Alex with mischief, "He's kinda cute, y'know."

Alex flinched of embarrassment while putting his palm on his mouth and pushed him away, "Apologies. He's drunk."

The boy deeply laughed, "No worries. I'm Reagan Hill, from Glandithe," he lent out his hand for a handshake, and instead of Alex receiving it, Adrian did instead.

"Pleasure, I'm Adrian Nellister," he smiled.

The fluffy-haired boy scowled from behind, and gave a small respectful head jerk to Reagan, "I'm Alex Davis,"

"Yes, I'm aware," Reagan replied, "The Lady has told us about you both, and I'm here to ask Adrian to teach me archery,"

"It'd be a pleasure, Reagan," Adrian said with puppy eyes.

"You need to get yourself together." Alex slapped his back and went back to Reagan. "I'm sorry, but who's the Lady?"

"Kayla Nellister," Reagan remarked, "The blonde girl who saves us from the greed of our cities,"

"Oh,"

No one knew that she was a witch nor a daughter of House Allensilf. Her name was still Kayla Nellister, her adoptive name.

She never uses her sorcery in front of anyone else except Adrian, Alex or the people that had to die in her own hands. And she limits her use of magic when in front of the North people, because of the discrimination that had been going around the kingdom for the witches. Nevertheless, they wanted her to be queen, they just didn't know how.

"You can leave us, Alex," Adrian said, "I'm just going to be training and teaching,"

Alex furrowed, "If he does anything uncomfortable, please do tell me. I'll be at the swordplay area,"

"Yes, I will." Reagan replied, "Which way, Teacher?" he asked.

"This way," Adrian grinned and led the way.

Alex kept an eye on him as he went to the swordplay area, to train and teach the rest.

~~~

"So you tug on the string then release, like this," Adrian released the arrow, and even if he was drunk, it still hit the hay figure's chest.

"Woah," Reagan clapped his hands and took the bow and arrow.

"You can try to relax a bit," he touched his shoulder to lower it down, "And it's fine if you miss your first try. I did." he chuckled and stepped back. He was still not sober.

Reagan grinned and put the arrow on the string, and pulled back, aiming. He released the string and as soon as he did, the arrow shot through the air, hitting the hay figure right on the head and passed through it.

Adrian flinched and he didn't breathe for a second, "Oh. Wow."

The boy put the bow down and looked back at Adrian, "Is that good?"

"You don't need a teacher anymore," he replied, patting his back then looking back at the hay figure and his jaw dropped, "Wow." he muttered.

"Really?" Reagan asked.

"Yes." Adrian patted his back and felt his stomach churn. "I'm sorry," he put a palm over his mouth, "Just continue practicing. I have to take a puke,"

He ran off to where the nearest trees were and let it all go. He continued puking and maybe he should've listened to Kayla or else he wouldn't really be embarrassing himself at the moment.

"Do you need this?" asked a voice from behind him. He stood up and turned around, seeing Reagan with a handkerchief in his hand.

"Oh, yes, in fact I do," Adrian took the cloth from his hand and continued puking. Reagan smiled, trying to hold back his laugh behind him. He wiped his mess with the handkerchief and looked back at him, "Although I'm not sure if I can give this back to you, sorry,"

~~~

"Looks like you've arrived later than I've guessed, Jayden," Garland remarked as he stepped into the throne room with his abdomen wrapped with white cloth. "And injured too."

Jayden saw Ed already there, and it was late morning, and he had just been back from the base to treat his wound.

"I had some issues, Your Majesty. But Eros Falecith has been taken care of perfectly," he stated.

He knew better.

"Oh I know it's been taken care of perfectly. Eros Falecith has been proclaimed missing all over the kingdom," he replied, "Where's the body?"

He pursed his lips. He didn't know where she buried it.

"In the Riverend Oceans, Your Majesty. I threw it there," the boy replied.

"Very well," he took out a bag of coins from his pocket and threw it to Jayden, "That's your pay,"

"Thank you, Your Majesty,"

"I've gathered you both here to order you to do something else," Garland said, "As we know, the North had taken over Pendagline, Emitha and Glandithe, and their next target is Santelle. Duchess Adelaide of Joalarkin has informed me that we will be placing guards in Santelle to weigh off the attack, and then Ed will join the North as a citizen and report back to us about it,"

Ed looked quite nervous, while Jayden was rather uneasy about the plan.

"I need you to bring Ed with you," Garland stated.

"That'll be easy to do but..." Jayden replied, "Why aren't we rescuing House Tulaine and the citizens from Santelle?"

"And where will they live? Joalarkin? Coranius? How do you think House Tulaine would react if they found out I asked you to kill their secretary?" the King asked back, "They'll try to put me off the throne. I couldn't give a damn about Santelle if all the important documents and sources are in Joalarkin and Coranius. If we get information about the North, then we can plan an attack on them to protect the two cities. The Royal Army isn't weak."

Jayden knew that the Royal Army was, in fact, weak, in the hands of the Assassin and the North.

"We need to find out who this Assassin is, and once we do, we'll kill them. That is Ed's task, and maybe if it's possible, you can do it too," he faced Jayden.

He was another sacrifice in his kingdom to spy on the enemies that fear him.

"Yes, Your Majesty. We'll be there by tomorrow." Jayden replied. He had to survive the Santelle attack so he could kill the king and let Titus rule.

This was it. This was the mission that could make Garland trust him if he found out who the Assassin was.

"Dad!" a voice called from the stairwell. Titus, the prince, "Cassandra's pudding doesn't taste good because she switched sugar and salt!"

He was two years younger than Ed and Jayden both, but he acted as if he was above everyone. He had brown hair and green eyes, which he gotten from his mother and father respectively, but he was short for his age. But all his demands, all his wants and needs, they had to be done.

A maid, with ginger hair stepped down behind him, "I'm sorry, Prince Titus. It won't happen again. I've not rested for two days."

"Excuses. Were you trying to kill me, huh?" he pushed her and she fell on the steps.

"That's enough!" Garland shouted back, "Put her in the cellar overnight."

"Sir- Your Majesty!" Cassandra, the maid, begged as two soldiers dragged her away to the basements. "Sir- I'm sorry. Sir!"

All was vengeant.

"Go now. I want to continue sleeping." ordered the King to the two boys and they bowed.

When the King left, Ed walked out of the throne room, without saying anything to Jayden. And that was strange.

Jayden caught up with him, and he had a sorrowful face planted on him. He had troubles, that was for sure, but troubles to whom?

"You good?" Jayden asked.

"Summer won't talk to me," Ed replied, keeping his head up high as he clicked his tongue.

"Is she mad at you because you agreed to going to the North?"

"Yes, and she's worried. And maybe, I won't be able to attend her birthday party next week," he frowned. "I'm her only friend and she's definitely anxious about me leaving,"

"I'll make sure nothing will happen to you, Ed," he placed a hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry."

Ed formed a thin smile that lit up his dull face of guilt, "Thanks,"

"No need to thank me. You've helped me in all my missions, this is my thank you to you,"

~~~

Kayla lied there, on her bed. She would take over Santelle the next day and now, at midnight, she couldn't sleep.

Johanius had told her about her family, her mother and her father.

Mostly, she felt guilt and anger. But on the other hand, she felt sadness and the ability to not fight back. The story would tear her up and her vengeance would stitch her together again and again. It was her medicine, the little spark of light in her entire past of death and blood. Maybe she could go back into her mother's arms, and grow up in the countryside and watch the stars as she practiced her witchcraft. A hopeless little wish that wasn't going to come true at any given time, but that wish, that simple little wish kept her going and going.

Because if the King was the candle, she was the flame that melted it.

She was afraid every time she stepped into battle. Who wouldn't? She was a human with sorcery in her veins, but that didn't mean she didn't have feelings. It didn't mean that she wasn't afraid of losing or dying. But what she was most afraid of was failing; failing to take over the throne and satisfying her vengeance.

Shutting her eyes, to drift away from those thoughts of negativity and terror, she valued the benefit she had that allowed her to take back the throne: her bloodline.

~~~

Early in the morning, Adrian, who was now sober and embarrassed as Alex told him what he did the entire day the other day, was both getting ready with the horses and the people in front.

This time, Adrian got A1 and Alex got A2. And apparently, Alex had given proper hair care towards his horse, and Adrian felt annoyed that now he couldn't tell the two horses apart except for their places in the stables.

Kayla had a new cloak on her that covered her black armor, and black boots at her feet. Her dagger and knives were placed on her waist belt and inside her boots.

"Today we will be taking over part of the South: the city of Santelle." She announced to the crowd, "House Tulaine have abused their power and made children and adults work, to pay their debts that don't even exist. These are then used to buy products from the black market, gambling and other irresponsible and incompetent things. Just like you all have been saved, we will today save the citizens of Santelle."

A huge wave of cheering went over the crowd, cheering her name and giving everyone support.

Kayla yelled, "For the Bounds!"

An ocean of smiles waved across the crowd and yelled back, "FOR THE BOUNDS!"

~~~

"Are you still not going to talk to me?" Ed asked. He was getting ready to get to Santelle.

Santelle and Joalarkin were just opposite of each other, so he would just meet Jayden there. There was only the thick lane of Everwood Forest bordering the two cities, and since the forest was very much deep and dark, not many people would want to go through it.

Summer sat there, at the bench in front of their house, and the ring on her thumb glistened as she looked away.

"Sums?"

"Even if I prevent you from going, you'll go anyway," she said, standing up and approaching him, "Is that what you want me to say?"

"I told you that I'll come back. You don't have to worry about anything," he assured.

"How long will you be away?"

"I need at least one week to observe everything and all they do. Not to mention, I have to take the leader's hearts so I can get closer to them," he replied. "By the time that happens, I'll send the letter to Duchess Adelaide, and maybe a few letters before that, and the Royal Army can invade the North with the information I've given. I'll be back in no time."

"One week?" Summer asked.

"One week, we'll meet again." Ed repeated.

"Do you promise?"

"I promise."

~~~

The Royal Army were placed in the entire perimeter of Santelle. The residence of House Tulaine was guarded by the soldiers who worked for them, and no help from the King was given to guard the nobles.

In his thoughts, only he mattered.

Jayden stood at the entrance, with his sword unsheathed and his wound healing. But his head still felt heavy, from Kayla's punch across his face.

Ed was at one of the houses, acting like a normal citizen. And since he was born in Santelle, even if the North would ask him where he was from, he didn't have to lie.

From afar, through the thick foliage of Everwood Forest separating Joalarkin and Santelle, there came a huge group of people, filled with armory. From sword to bows to daggers to knives.

The group was led by the two wanted men, and Jayden noticed them immediately.

Adrian and Alex exchanged looks of excitement to each other. All they needed to do was take down the soldiers surrounding Santelle and that's it.

Alex took out his knife and pointed up the air, and shouted until his throat felt sore, "FOR THE BOUNDS!"

The crowd yelled in unity back and the horses neighed, galloping towards the entrance.

"CHARGE!" Jayden yelled right after and all the soldiers wielded their swords and crossbows, as they all charged towards each other.

Joalarkin, was just off the opposite of Santelle. But of course, they didn't want to interfere at all. The North had a terrifying reign over the Bounds, and sometimes, laying still was the best they could do.

From afar, archers on their horses attacked the Royal Army, ambushing them one by one.

Adrian galloped around with A1, while throwing out potions with fun. He was basically laughing the entire time.

Reagan showed up beside him, on his horse as he continued shooting arrows, and hitting them right on the soldiers.

"You are definitely going to be one hell of an archer," Adrian praised as he poured green liquid over a soldier.

Some of the North fell to the ground. Everywhere, death always happened. And Kayla also had said that only the genuine soldiers should come to the battles. And their genuine souls who have fought, would count on her from afar, to take rule over the kingdom.

Alex stepped down from A2, and used his swordplay skills to slaughter and fight off the soldiers.

The Royal Army was weak, and Jayden knew they were going to lose. But all he needed to do at that moment was to find the Assassin, and he just realized how stupid he was.

"None of these people are the Assassin," his eyes widened as he realized. He pulled on Rennie's reins to turn around and into the city, as he muttered, "I'm so stupid. So. Stupid."

He directed Rennie to where the residence of the Tulaines was.

Of course. The Assassin wouldn't use the entrance as their ticket of entry. They would use another way, and Santelle was close to the mountains, therefore, they went through their, to get to the residence.

He got off Rennie, and walked over to the neighborhood around the residence, specifically near the mountains. He needed to find out the Assassin's face for the King's trust. That was all in his head.

And his speculations were correct.

From afar, he saw someone in a black cloak running past the alleys and he ran in pursuit of the unknown.

Kayla had placed Cyl in the mountains, tied to some sort of old log. And now, she was in the fastest speed so that no one would notice that she was heading for the house of the Tulaines.

But suddenly, she heard fast footsteps behind her that weren't hers. As she looked back, it was the same Guard she had stabbed, memory-wiped and punched the other day. She flinched and ran faster.

Jayden didn't know who it was, he only saw a hooded figure in front of him, running for their life. Even if he commanded them to stop, they wouldn't stop and they would just run faster.

The cat-and-mouse game went on until there was an intersection and she continued running ahead, even if she was going to be out of breath.

Jayden, on the other hand, took the right lane to block her up at the front.

She looked behind, and noticed he was gone. And she stopped running, hands on her knees and caught her breath.

All of a sudden, her hoodie was pulled down from behind. The girl froze and turned around, as cool metal pressed against her throat, and his dark eyes widened as he winced.

There was a small scoff heard from him as his eyes hovered from top to bottom. He stared back at her, who was about to touch the sword to get it away from her neck.

Her heart thumped of alarm, while he stayed rather calm. He just continued to glare at her from all the strands in her hair to all the little knives in her boots.

He was putting the Assassin of the North on knifepoint. But it wasn't just that.

Jayden looked down before finding her eyes again, catching it there as his face turned into an intimidating expression. He pressed the blade deeper into her skin and let out some blood and reduced the distance between them when he took a step closer.

After a small pause, he opened his mouth to speak, "We meet again, witch."

Kayla flinched at what he called him. There were a million things in her head at that moment, but what just happened bugged her the most.

How does he remember?