A Man Cloaked In Darkness

"We need you to realize that inside those walls there are innocent people and not everyone you will come across is the enemy," Hilda said. I had not uttered as much as a word after the old man had said he and the girls were of Fyn descent, why had they kept it a secret? They knew what their people had done to my family, now thinking back it was for the best. Back then if they had told me when my wounds still ran deep I would have handled it differently back then when my anger still owned me and I didn't own it I would have killed them or died trying.

"Why are you here then, why are you trying to overthrow the ruling kingdom and betraying your lords?" I asked after staring vacantly for what seemed to be an eternity, they had let me soak it in and what it meant. The old man is a good person and the girls are like siblings to me but for some reason, after this revelation, I trusted them a little less.

"We fled years ago, the King had taken our mother from us and she was never returned to us. Father walked the town like a mad man trying to get people on his side to help him stand against the king as other women were taken. But they were all scared, no one dared. The king quickly found my father out, he sent people after us at the dead of night. We ran and ended up in the outskirts with the help of a few people. The king is a wicked man Circe, he is the embodiment of evil itself" Emily shuddered.

Emily was near tears when she concluded and it broke me.

"The king has 18 sons" Hilda took over. For a moment I thought my ears had failed me. 18 sons?

"That is presumably why all those women were taken, it's just a postulate we do not even know why he would collect women and breed them, and all we know is that his sons were all born around the same time 9 months after he had dispatched soldiers into the village to collect women. It's like he was building an army. We still do not have enough erudition regarding certain things so we cannot charge in foolishly. That is where the first stage of our plan comes into play, even though we have planted moles within the royal courts they are not trained and the information they can relay is inadequate." Hilda continued.

"Planted moles?" I asked

"There are a lot more of us Circe, the king has many enemies and that is going to be his downfall," the old man said.

"So there are 19 royal courts each court for each son and the king's court, we have moles in each court as servants, cooks and royal soldiers. The people working in the royal courts are all Fyn the king does not take people from the outskirts as helpers. There are also 4 high lords each living close to the palace you can think of them as the king's right-hand men and each as vindictive, we have moles there too as of them they take people from the outskirts as servants" Hilda explained and I heed each word with caution.

"More like as thralls" the one guy I can't seem to get his name down commented

"The first part of the plan is to plant an assassin among them the assassin will also gather more essential information, as I said we are still pretty much blind about what happens behind closed doors we just feed off of rumors that servants happen to hear. The mole will start by killing 1 high lord, that is very much closer to the king, gathering whatever secrets he was not willing to take to the grave, the killing should be staged as a suicide. The mole will be planted at one of the royal courts as a servant, for some reason servants are made to rotate between courts every 3 weeks and that could be used to our advantage as slithering into each of their studies and gathering information would be easy as the mole rotates between royal courts. Information will be sent back to the headquarters after every three weeks. The mole will lay low and take orders as we prepare for the final attack to assassinate the king and whoever stands with him, with the information the mole will be relaying. In the case where the mole is caught, not a word about this organization should be uttered. I'll place a spell that will seal the mole's thoughts and memories in case the king has a mage." Hilda concluded

"That was just a run over for you, I could have set off months before but the old man insisted we waited that you could be of great value to the plan," Miranda said.

She was the planned mole?

"Who is the high lord we have to kill first," I asked remembering that one high lord the very one that had sent his soldiers to our house.

"Lord Mantis, he disguises his heinous deeds and poses as a virtuous man instead, he is the King's advisor according to sources Lord Mantis spends hours every week in the king's study if anyone knows anything of value it would be him" Miranda explained.

"Let me go, let me be the spy," I said quite unsure of what I was suggesting but I wanted to be the one to do it if anyone wanted to see that man reduced to nothing it was me. Logically speaking I was one of the strongest here and it was true as of recent Sarah could not lay a hit on me and if she ever did I deflected it off easily with my magic and my flames overpowered the old man's, not that I was ruling off Miranda to be incompetent, I just felt if someone had to do it, that person should be me.

"I do not think that would be a good idea, what if she messes up because of personal issues, we can't afford to screw this up," Cloe said sitting a chair across from mine.

"We all carry the same sentiment, Cloe. The ruling leaders of the Fyn have hurt us all to a certain degree. Wasn't your best friend's sister taken by lord Saki? Or how they had once burned your whole village to ash Miranda, killing your younger brother in the chaos? My point is the best person suited for this mission should be dispatched." Simon spoke his voice strong and silencing. He was right and Cloe was also right we cannot afford feelings to get in the way, whoever was going to get this done had to do it right.

"I knew majority would say that after all, she is one of the people who has dealt the most damage, that is why I had her tame her anger as the first part of her training and how she just handled the news that we belonged to the clan she is sorting to seek revenge after. I believe that she is very much capable of carrying out this mission without a problem." Barok spoke on my behalf.

"Please Cloe, Miranda and everyone else just have your faith in me just this once, yes the main reason I want to be the one to do it, is that I want to see Lord Mantis blood on my hands but then how many of you can confidently say it would not matter if they did not return from this assignment who can say they absolutely have nothing to lose, how many of you would not cling on to their lives if they were given the option, unlike you I have no family left to protect the sole purpose that I am here is revenge so you do not have to worry whether or not I'll get the assignment done properly, so please leave this to me" by the time I was done talking it sounded like I was practically begging and yes I was desperate.

"It is okay Circe we were all somewhat reluctant to go, we knew what it meant and it was a tough decision on my end too, I have never seen anyone who is so keen to be sent to her death, but I really do hope you make it out alive or at least you do not die until we have enough information to machinate a frontal assault," Miranda said rather playfully '

"What color are your flames at the moment?" Hilda asked

"They are white, I still have some time before I can conjure clear blue flames then black flames, the old man said it would take about a year depending on the intensity of my training and what my limit is" I explained.

I found out during my training that fire users have tiers and levels that's why the color of our flames differed depending on what tier you are currently in, even though you can level up there is a limit whereas other fire users may not have a limit which is very rear and usually only found among those who have royal blood. You would usually start with orange, red, white, clear blue then black respectively and the "training" is just simply blasting off flames till your magic drained hoping at some point they would change color. The higher up the tier you go the hotter the flames and the more destructive they get. The old man told me that black flames can reduce a person to ash in less than a mere second.

"Well that is good enough, the stronger your flames are, the stronger my spell will be," Hilda said clapping her hands like a child

"Albert is going to peel his skin off once he learns that you are the one leaving" Hilda added

And it was decided that I was to be dispatched in a week. That night I had a dream, this time I did not dream about mother or Alcina. I dreamt of a man cloaked in darkness.