127 Shock

A figure was lying down on his bed, eyes clear amidst the darkness.

"You have been called upon by Master. It is time to repay your ancestor's debt." The same black figure from before appeared to the person.

"What is the mission?" A lifeless voice replied.

"Kill the grandchildren of Elder Brevre and Freizon. Kill that Wind Dragon as well. You will use this." Pulling out two blood red daggers from his sleeve, the black-robed man delivered it to the subordinate. "There are remnants of light mana on that blade. Find a way to abandon the dagger at the scene to leave faint clues towards the Light Dragons."

The other person audibly grit his teeth, "is slaying them really necessary? Can I not just grievously injure them? And why not the Earth Dragon? I'm guessing you require me to kill Cerul so that the Wind Dragons are no longer neutral. The same could be said for the Earth Dragons."

"Don't be naive. You must kill them. Only that kind of action will cause the effect that Master desires. You need not worry about the Earth Dragons; that side is already taken care of. Everything is under our control."

"But, I..."

"Do you not recognize what is at stake here? What was the deal between your ancestor and my Master?"

"..."

"I will take your silence as acceptance. I hope you do not commit any careless mistakes. There is too much at stake. If something happens, I will personally come over to eliminate you."

"Alright. I understand." No longer looking towards the black-robed man, the other figure turned away in disgust.

"Do well..." Those last whispered words echoed throughout the silent room. Before long, a discouraged sigh escaped the assassin's lips.

"I'm sorry, Rose... Grey... Cerul... I have no other choice. This will be for my tribe."

...

The next morning, Rosalie pulled Greyson from dreamland with her incessant knocking. Yawning, Greyson rubbed his eyes still feeling drowsy. Back when he was waiting outside, he was unable to calm down enough to get any shut-eye. No longer waiting outside, Rosalie barged into the room and swung the door open with a loud slam.

"Sister, what could possibly be so tremendously important. Don't tell me the Light Dragons launched an attack at the crack of dawn?"

"Huh, attack? Of course not, why would they do that? No, I'm waking you up to meet with the others. We are going to try to think of a plan to prevent any fighting from happening. If both the neutral Earth Dragon and Wind Dragon tribes decide to help out the Snow Dragons, then we might be able to get the Light Dragons to just execute Almonis. We could let this conflict die down with that. There would be too much at stake otherwise. Bloodline suppression is a useful ability but it is not god-like. The more powerful a dragon, the higher the resistance towards the suppression. Beastmen are also not as affected since only part of their bloodline is dragon."

"Hence it would be up to Sloan and Cerul, then? Why do we need to meet, though? We don't really need to help them plan. There is not much we can do to assist them. It is the inside story of their tribe, and I don't know what the rest of the group could achieve by meeting with them."

"I'm also not quite sure. Someone from the group called for the meeting saying there is something urgent. They have a plan at how we could help. I, for one, am sick of sitting around and waiting for results. If someone could advise me on what I can undertake to push the situation along then I am all for it. Let's go already. We are going to be late because of you!"

"Well, maybe if I received the invite as well. I mean they all know me now, why would they only transmit you the message?"

"Because they know I'm the one who goes over and wakes you up anyways. Why be redundant?"

"Whatever." Shrugging, Greyson quickly got up out of bed and put on his clothes. "Let's go then. Lu, come on." The sleepy silver cat groaned a little, but still perched himself on Greyson's shoulder. All the ill omens forced him to stay careful and stick with Greyson.

...

Meanwhile, at the meeting spot, Cerul was the first to arrive as always.

"Hm... as always, they remain such slowpokes. For all one knows, I could just pick everyone up and haul them to the meeting spot. That might end up being faster than everyone coming individually. Haha, I can suggest it today~"

Humming to himself merrily, he paced around as he impatiently waited for the others to arrive.

*Crack*

Hearing a stick crack to the west, he turned to greet the newcomer but did not spot anyone.

"Cerul." A familiar voice called out from behind.

"Oh~ fancy you being here so early. You usually are last." Smiling broadly, Cerul turned around while teasing. However, his smile stopped dead on his face as his eyes widened. Choking a little, he looked down at his chest only to see the hilt of a dagger sticking out right above his heart. Spluttering blood, he could only look at his killer with disbelief. With one sharp motion, the dagger was yanked out. Blood spurted out from the wound followed by a sharp intake of breath from Cerul.

"I know I... can be annoying... but this? Why?" Squeezing out the words, Cerul's labored breathing continued to grow lighter. He tried to apply pressure, but the blood would not stop flowing profusely from the wound.

"I'm sorry, Cerul. You will never truly understand or forgive me. But just know I am sorry. I never wished for it to come to this." Deep sadness was present in the replying voice.

"No, the others... Don't..." Unable to get the rest out, Cerul's breathing soon stopped. Those green eyes still staring ahead with the devastation of betrayal. Uncomfortable from the gaze, the assassin cleansed the blood off before kneeling down at the side of an old friend. Hands shaking, the killer managed to close the eyes.

"I can't listen to your words. There are still others I must kill. Don't ever forgive me, Cerul. I know I will not either."

Leaving those words behind, the figure quickly escaped the scene and moved towards the other location that was written on the message. It was time.

...

Rosalie and Greyson arrived late as expected, however, they were surprised to see no one arrived yet. Not suspecting a thing, Rosalie merely thought they must all be running late since it was so early. Ordinarily, their meetings were later in the day. Greyson, on the other hand, did not feel so at ease as his sister. He had not cultivated the same relationship with the group as Rosalie. What if that message was some kind of trap?

"Rose, I think we should leave."

"Leave? Why?"

"That message. It is possible someone else sent it to you. I don't feel this situation is right. You said your friends were always punctual."

"No, you don't understand. My friends and I talk in code. No one else could comprehend it. We burn the notes after they are delivered. Undeniably it sounds all grave and paranoid, but it was just for fun. Possibly also practice if something untoward were to happen and we need to secretly communicate. I doubt someone would be able to employ it to deceive me."

"Well, what if..."

"What if what?"

"I don't know. Can we just leave? If it ends up that we miss the meeting, I'm confident the rest of the group would understand." Greyson wanted to bring up that one of her friends could have betrayed her. Somehow, though, breaching that subject did not seem like it would bode well.

"I cannot fathom why you are so nervous. Who would target us at this moment anyways?"

"The Light Dragons!"

"The Light Dragons do not desire a war. I've been trying to assure you, their hands are tied more than you realize. The full support of the Water Dragons and the semi-support of the Dark Dragons allow us to slightly outnumber the Light Dragons whose sole support are the Fire Dragons. By all means, the situation is not great right now, but I believe it will blow over eventually unless something outrageous happens."

"I don't know. There is something internal happening with the Light Dragons I think. Those guards earlier were not right. Some of them looked genuinely troubled by their fellow friends' actions as if such aggression was not part of the plan. But those guard who attacked Saemir looked completely in control and calm. Could that Elophis fellow be fighting with his brother?"

"Elophis? No, that doesn't make sense..." Listening to her brother's words, even Rosalie was starting to feel something was not right.

"Maybe you are right... we should leave for now just in case. It's odd that no one else has arrived yet. I don't know, I feel like I'm still going to be lecturing later about how suspicious you are being. I'm telling you, that code is exceedingly hard for someone else to use!" Although slightly disbelieving, Rosalie felt she should give her younger brother the benefit of the doubt. They started walking away when a voice called out to them from behind.

"Rose!"

The familiar voice allowed Rosalie to relax.

"See, Grey, I told you..."

In that instant so much occurred.

"Greyson, watch out!" Lucius mentally warned before kicking off Greyson and sending the boy flying out. A dagger slammed into the ground where Greyson stood formerly. He also turned to try to wrap his tail around Rosalie in time to jerk her away. The moment of priority allowed the dagger to be millimeters from arriving at its target on Rosalie's chest. Pulling on her wrist with his tail allowed him to pull her to the left in time to put the dagger off target. But the blade still stabbed straight into the right side of her chest. Touching the hilt of the dagger digging into her chest, Rosalie showed the same disbelief as Cerul. How... how could it be him...

Her shaking hands no longer held any strength at she began to bleed out.

"S***!" Lucius swore.