The Fourth Zaldizko

Marilyn flew off my shoulder to perch on a seat at the top of the room.

"Take a seat gentlemen." Trix gestured to the absolute front row near the screen.

I scoffed and walked up the aisle to the back row where Marilyn was perched, sitting in a seat that looked down on Trix. Death and War followed to sit next to me.

"Figures." Trix sighed and brushed off my small protest to take a seat in the front row on his own.

Not long afterwards Deacon, Leinard, Colin, Gavin, Teagan and a few others I had yet to be introduced entered the room. I counted twelve knights in total a.s.sume a seat near Trix in the front rows. All of them turned to face us.

"Gentlemen, why don"t you join us?" Deacon politely gestured to the front where knights were seated.

"And be tricked into a transpiration lock again? I think not!" I answered back, which made Death and War"s lips twitch with a smile.

A few of the knights stifled their chuckles before Deacon took notice.

"Suit yourselves. You are Trix"s responsibility after all, so any wrong doing you cause falls on him and your precious Lieutenant Colonel for recompensation." Deacon pa.s.sive aggressively commented.

"Then I"m fine where I"m sitting. Since I recall sitting in a seat wasn"t a crime." I forced myself to answer calmly, holding back the seething I was feeling with tight fists to my sides.

"Are you sure about that Famine? If the seat was a throne, it would be." He coolly challenged me, which held the entire audience enthralled with our verbal showdown.

"Since it isn"t. It"s fine."

"Then we will commence with our meeting my fellow captains." He brushed off further conversation on the matter and commenced with the purpose of everyone"s attendance.

_"Dat"s my Famisto."_ War proudly gave me something of a pat on the back in my mind.

I heaved a deep sigh and relaxed my fists. Maybe challenging the admiral of the order wasn"t a smart move, but since he dropped the matter I guess I was lucky this time that something else was more important.
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"Like, you"re so s.e.xy when you"re brave. Your man, like, totally loves it." Marilyn carefully whispered into my ear.

I rolled my eyes and focused on Deacon"s address to his knights. He stood before the gla.s.s wall, giving them a spiel on something that held their attention.

"As you know Captain Bryan Adams is investigating on the Baleful Rider"s claim on Marla"s ego. We all know this is a smoke screen. Teagan." Deacon said and turned his attention to Teagan Arlingdon who stood to take a stand next to Deacon and address her fellow knights.

Her lean frame in a navy patchwork overcoat, gentleman"s suit made her look like a taller next to Deacon"s smaller frame. Her short bob of fuzzy curls hung unruly about her neckline and forehead. Her large brown eyes carried her usual stern expression making her sharper features more obvious and lips thinner. As her hands gesticulated when she spoke, I saw her captain rank on her shoulders.

"Marla was in my squad as you know. She was investigating rumours and strange disappearances of homeless and orphan folk around Evadale, White and Eros Lanes." Teagan explained.

My heart slowed when I paid further attention to her retelling. It seems that Marla had stumbled upon information that would prove a connection of the disappearances to the increased sightings of ghost apparitions and that of the Baleful Rider. She had arranged to meet with Teagan at the Red Shoe Tavern the day we had been there, and provide this information.

"The Baleful Rider conveniently rode in to claim her ego before we could meet," Teagan said, not sounding phased by the missed meeting. "Fortunately, Captain Sewell Hunter was nearby to gather her maplink and tracelink items before the Illuminate Group could."

She nodded her thanks to a young pristine looking knight next to Leinard.

I blinked at the uncanny resemblance between the two. Not for any blood line reasons like being brothers, rather for the fact the man wore his hair and uniform in a very similar way with the exception that his jacket being single breasted like all the other knights. Was he trying to copy the colonel"s look?

I shook off the thought and returned my focus on Teagan who held a small iron cube in her hand, which looked like a die used in card games.

She approached a large metal black box that had been perched on a tripod next to Deacon and unclasped a latch that activated a change to the box.

It rea.s.sembled itself, so the front had two round gla.s.s discs protruding from the center. A tiny round lamp popped up at the top with a small squarish chute in front of it. She dropped the iron die into the chute, which turned on the lamp and made the box whir with spinning noises.

Deacon dimmed the lights in the room.

Light streamed out of the gla.s.s discs and landed on the silver-gla.s.s wall, creating a vivid moving image that was being played out before us. We watched the screen carefully and listened to the voices somehow coming out of it.

---[

Marla was talking to a shady looking old man in a ratty bowler hat and dirty grey overcoat covered in dirty stains and holes.

They exchanged words and went their own way.

She was walking confidently down a narrow, obscure lane and about to turn a corner when a couple of men in the next street made her pause and hang back to the shadows, so she could eaves drop on their conversation.

"That brat"s more submissive now. Won"t be long before we can control his ego completely." Aidoneus smirked with an evil tinkle in his brown eyes.

He was dressed in a full black body suit to show off his muscly body, but also cover the silver scars that peaked out of his cuffs and collar occasionally when he moved. His hands and feet were covered in matching leather gloves and heavy rider boots.

"My dear, Hades Lion, do not underestimate that boy. He was reared by Trisellian and Melchizedek at Gat Shiem. They would"ve taught him well," said the deep voice of another man we could only see his back. "If he"s the boy I remember, he naturally has a cunning mind."

He was wearing a dark tweed overcoat, fedora had and plain black loafers with white spats. His exposed ear held a small silver crescent moon stud on his lobe. His coat collar was turned up, so his neck and most of his face was disguised.

"Bah. He"s only a boy. I love corrupting his sweetness the most, especially thinking he"s the brother of that Famine." Aidoneus spat his disgust to the cobblestone path.

"Have all the fun you want with him, gently for now, please. The boy must not be broken too quickly. We need to maintain control of that Baleful Rider. Until we have means to do so without him, hold back."

"Pft. So you want to put him in the Tank then? Kind of could use Triuta training." Aidoneus licked his thin lips wickedly.

"We"ll let Marlo decide. For now, do as you"re ordered and nothing more."

The men finalized their meeting and motioned to go their own ways.

Marla said a stealth spell and hurried out of the lane in the opposite direction before they could notice her.

]----

The box"s light went out. The screen changed back to its blank silver-gla.s.s wall again. The lights returned to normal.

My heart swelled with anger and fear for Pesti. I wanted to find that Aidoneus and slay him again. Again and again and again. Torture that p.r.i.c.k, rip him apart, hurt him beyond imagining and revert his ego to null, so he wasn"t a memory in anyone"s mind. He will be nothing!

"FAMINE!" Deacon"s voice bellowed into my ears that sent my head banging hard against the wall behind me.

When I returned to my senses I saw Death and War had taken seats closer towards the knights. The few seats before me were ripped out of their rows and lying haphazardly in the aisle.

"You have to learn how to control that emotion of yours!" Deacon scolded me. "Need you not forget you contain the Power of Null! Even if it"s a small bit."

"That"s my brother they were talking about," I said when I regained composure. "My baby brother."

Tears slipped down my eyes, which I was unable to hold them back.

"I"m well aware, which is why we called you and your elder brothers to this council." Deacon relaxed his tone of voice. "You need to pay further attention. There is more."

I nodded my head, feeling calmer but still uneasy.

Marilyn perched on my shoulder and rubbed her head against my neck with her form of a hug. She looked rugged with her feathers fluffed up all over the place and her silver-gla.s.s eyes were cloudy. Was this because my heart was in a poor state?

"Sweetie. Like, listen to the good man, he knows his stuff," she soothingly whispered into my ear.

I took a few deep breaths to calm my emotional state further and a.s.sumed a new seat next to my brothers.