Blood-Forged

Two hundred and some odd years ago...

For a few breaths, Eun stared into Ves’hil’n’s eyes... Ves’hil’n stared back, wide, open, unassuming... and completely oblivious... Eun sighed. Ignoring Ves’hil’n’s offered hand, he stood up.

With the grace and decorum of a man that didn’t just get hit in the head very hard, he walked over to Ka’shin’lai and the Soothsayer. He bowed a few inches at the waist, “Your Highness.”

The kneeling guards exchanged a look. When Eun wasn’t instructing the second prince, he was a menacing shadow behind him. The two prince’s didn’t have many opportunities to interact and so the guards had never seen the crown prince and the Swordmaster interact. Never seen the blatant disrespect the Swordmaster was treating the crown prince with. And it didn’t seem to bother the crown prince one bit.

Eun tilted his head up and stared coldly at Ka’shin’lai, his eyes dark, narrow slits. “What did you call Prince Ves’hil’n for, if I may ask?”

One of the observing guards flinched, expecting to hear the crown prince scolding him for his flippant tone at least if not much, much worse but Ka’shin’lai merely answered him normally, “Ves’hil’n has been given a mission. You and Tejara will be joining him. You will protect him with your lives.”

Hearing her name, Tejara stood up from her kneel, walked a few steps closer, and kneeled again, “I will do as I am commanded. My life belongs to the second prince.”

Eun rested his wrist on the hilt of Piercing Gale, “naturally.”