Kin's P.O. V

Almost two years later…

I held my knife tighter in my hand as I watched the two soldiers, who were of the rank of captain (I could tell by their uniform) leave the castle. I kept a good distance behind them as I followed them into the town. I carefully made sure I looked normal to anyone who saw me and tried to stick to the shadows as I walked with my knife in my hand just in case something went wrong. It was really busy, making it hard for me to keep my eyes on my targets as I pushed past some people.

Ever since I joined the Rebels I had been going on missions like this one, being a thief really did come in useful. It was my job to do three things;

1 Stealing money, weapons, important documents and such from the Black Armoured Army.

2 Assassination of high ranking officers and politicians. Before I never killed but these men were evil and deserved to die and needed to die if we were to be free again. Killing was thrilling but it wasn't fun and I'd rather not kill if I didn't have to…

And 3 Spy work. Getting information on their plans and finding out what they know.

Spying was tonight's mission. It was probably the least thrilling of the three jobs but was still quite fun and there was a good amount of danger if I was caught.

The army seemed to know all our plans and defeated us before we even had a chance to set our plans into action. The only explanation was that there was a spy within our ranks, so I had gone to listen in on conversations between higher ranking soldiers to see if they'd talk about their spy. It wasn't easy, I'd been spying on soldiers for almost two weeks, desperately trying to get information but I came up with nothing. My friends who I had recruited had also found out nothing. I was beginning to think that we weren't going to find out who the spy was this way.

I followed the two men through the city. Things really had gone to shit since the old monarchy was overthrown; there were more people in the street as wages and any other funds used to help people were cut and taxes were raised. The new king ruled with violence and killed anyone who spoke out against him, it was a dictatorship. People who were very fit and healthy were conscripted to the army and if they refused their loved ones were taken hostage. The streets were crawling with soldiers who abused their power, and used it to pick on the poor and steal from them. All the best food was taken to the castle, and left the people with scraps. The same thing happened with medicine, causing diseases to spread amongst the poor. There were even blockades set up around all major cities, so you could not leave unless you had special permission to do so, anyone who was caught trying to sneak through were either killed or imprisoned. People lived in fear every day of their lives.

I put the thoughts of how bad things had gotten to the back of my mind and watched as the two captains entered a pub in a dark alley that smelt like piss, and appeared to be rat infested. There were drunken people outside, throwing up and collapsing, there was even a drunk man pissing on the wall. I smiled to myself, this was good as I always got more information from drunken people. I also enjoyed a drink or two, this was a perfect excuse to have a drink. So I put my knife in my belt and waited, going into the pub five minutes after them to avoid suspicion.

The pub was dark and filled with drunken men and women. Smoke from cigarettes filled the air, thickly. The smell of the smoke, sweat and alcohol was also filling the air. There was no band playing music, the only thing that could be heard was loud talking, and the sound of drunks falling over and fighting. I began to walk up to the bar, where I had spotted the captains who had appeared to have already drunk half a beer each. As I was half way to the bar a clearly drunk woman in a low cut, short dress walked past me only to stumble and fall. I acted fast, and caught her by the arm and pulled her up. She smiled at me, her face was covered in thick make-up and her hair was a mess.

"Hey cutie!" She giggled as she looked at me, I smiled politely and tried to more on, she wasn't my type, so I wasn't going to waste time flirting. She seemed to have other plans, however, and grabbed my arm pulling me back.

"Hey now, don't run off! I'm clean and I don't charge that much. How about it cutie?"

Great a prostitute, I thought. I honestly should've expected that, considering the location and the way the pub looked, it screamed prostitution and drugs. Both of which had been illegal when the old king ruled, however, it had now been legalised which lead to these kinds of activities to increase, not to mention as people were earning less, they became more desperate for money.

I smiled at the prostitute again. "Sorry, I'm not interested. This was just the closest pub to me and I just need a drink, long day you know," I said hoping she'd go away.

"Aww, don't be like that, cutie. I'm good I promise!" She seemed to be very persistent, and I was beginning to get annoyed. I had work to do!

"Hey, leave the boy alone!" I heard one of the Captains shout, as he walked towards us and pulled her away from me. "Can't you see you're freaking him out?" He said. The prostitute huffed, and walked away over to someone else who just walked in.

I smiled at the Captain, hoping he hadn't realised that I followed him here. "Thanks," I muttered to him.

He chuckled and patted my back. "Don't mention it, boy. Those sluts can be annoying and half the time they won't leave until you agree, or someone with power tells them to piss off," He said. He then dragged me over to the bar where his friend was, and sat me down right next to them.

I was silently celebrating; he hadn't noticed that I was a spy/thief/assassin and I was sitting right next to them without raising their suspicions. I could listen into their conversations far more easily now. They spoke to me a little, making jokes about the prostitute and how I couldn't make her leave. I laughed with them and acted normally, hoping that they'd spill something, and they did, but it was not what I had expected.

They were both drunk beyond belief, so drunk in fact that I was surprised to see that they hadn't vomited and passed out yet. I had only had about two beers, and pretended to be just as drunk as they were. They had turned in their seats, looking at the prostitutes, making horrid jokes about them.

"Damn I wish these sluts were prettier!" The one who 'rescued' me complained.

"I know what you mean!" The other said. "If only we were allowed in the seer's room! I hear stories about how that seer is the most beautiful thing ever!"

His friend laughed at that, and added. "But unfortunately, even if we could get to see, doesn't his majesty plan to make the seer his mistress? We could never even hope to touch the beauty!"

"Yeah that's true… seems like a waste if you ask me, if this seer is beautiful as they say, the whole army should have a go!" They both laughed again, and stood up. "At least we get information on the Rebels from the seer though, seeing the future is such a great thing! It was a good move to kidnap and lock up such a powerful mage." They then walked out of the pub, following a girl who had just left, seemly having forgotten about me being as drunk and horny as they were.

I sat there for a second, a seer that's what it was? There was no spy. A beautiful seer was what was stopping us from winning. I smiled to myself, they said the seer was kidnapped and locked up, so she was forced to work for them. I began to plan my next move. Clearly the seer would be locked in the castle. I'd always wanted to break into the castle, and I couldn't think of a better reason than this. A beautiful seer was locked up there so if I rescued her I may get a great reward, not to mention this sounded like a lot of fun.

I left smiling, and saw the captains looking around for the girl they followed. It looks like I'd have to kill them; they probably won't remember anything the next day due to being this drunk, but there was no guarantee that they would. If they did remember, they may tell someone that they talked about the seer in a pub, and the seer could be moved away from the castle, so she couldn't be saved. I knew I had to kill them…

I took out my knife again, and sneaked up behind them and slit the first guy's throat, blood sprayed out, and the body dropped to the ground. The other Captain's reaction was delayed due to the alcohol, so I stabbed him before he could draw his sword. I then ran away as fast as I could to one of the secret bases, the Rebels used (it was an old church that hadn't been used in years. It was said to be haunted by ghosts, so no one came near it) and washed off the blood, before going to the room used for a large shared bedroom to chat to my friends for a bit, and get some rest.

The next night, I was at the castle again. I was dressed in my normal dark blue clothes with the hood of my brown cloak up, I was going to break in tonight and find the seer. I hadn't told anyone because I wanted the thrill of being the one to brake in and save her. Plus, the castle looked like a fun challenge to break into if I had more people, it would be less of a challenge.

I climbed into the gardens at the back, and hid in a bush as a guard walked past. Once he was gone, I made a dash for the castle wall and hid behind a large vase that was next to the wall. I then began to climb the wall, once I was sure it was safe. I only climbed up to the first floor, before I picked the lock on a window and got inside.

The corridor that I had jumped into was long, and was decorated with old paintings and large, red, silk curtains. I had no idea where I was going but I knew I had to keep moving, I couldn't turn back now. I ran through the corridor and up several flights of stairs, while I hid from anyone who passed me.

I began to regret going in without thinking it through first. I had no idea where the seer was, she could be anywhere! The castle was huge and I was getting bored of this. It wasn't as thrilling as I thought it was going to be; clearly these guys were cocky as there really wasn't very many guards, but I suppose they had a seer, they probably thought that she would foresee any brake-ins, and the lack of guards proved to me that she hadn't foreseen my brake-in unless there was some kind of trap waiting for me around the corner. The castle was so big that it could take me days to search this whole place, and I didn't have the time for that; I shouldn't have come alone, if I had some people with me, we could've split up and searched the whole place in one night!

Still I wasn't going to give up. I'd come this far, I at least wanted to see the beautiful seer! So I kept going, despite having no idea where I was going. I was pretty sure I was lost, but soon I reached the top floor. As soon as I was at the top, I spotted three guards (two males and a female) walking alone so I hid behind the curtain as listened to them talk.

"The Prince is handling the seer awfully roughly today, isn't he?" One said.

"Yeah, but that's what happens when you disobey our great Prince, you get punished! The little shit deserves every whip!" The female said, harshly. She was dressed head to toe in black armour like the others, but it had purple markings on it and she had a short, burnt, sliver cloak. Her short hair was purple and appeared burnt at the bottom, she even had a large burn on her face. She wasn't a regular solider that was for sure.

"I'm surprised you can't hear the screams from here!" The third added. Just as he said that, there was a loud scream coming from the end of the corridor, the three laughed and headed down the stairs.

The scream scared me and I began to run towards it when I was sure the guards were gone. Someone (most likely the seer) was in trouble! The screams kept happening over and over again. But when I reached a huge red door at the end of the corridor it stopped.

The door was slightly open so I looked in and gasped at what I saw; a young boy about my age was lying on the ground, his long brown hair swept out on the floor, his white clothes had red stains on them, his pale skin was covered in cuts and bruises, his hand were cuffed in front of him, his different coloured eyes were fill with fear and he had white angle-like wings on his back. The wings were so beautiful, they seemed to have a glow to them, they looked so soft and were such a pure white… but there were red stains on them like his clothes, and there were a lot of large white feathers on the ground.

"Get up!" Someone yelled, and my attention was turned to Yokai who was standing over the angel with a whip in his hand. The angel struggled to stand, but did so anyway, his legs were shaking and he looked like he would collapse again, he did when the whip was brought down on him. Yokai began to whip the angel again and again as the angel screamed and begged for him to stop as tears ran down his face. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, that poor boy… I wanted to help him but I couldn't; Yokai could easily call for guards and I wasn't confident enough to fight Yokai, if I interfered it would only get worse for the angel. All I could do was hope that he would stop the beating soon. I just looked at the angel, he was so beautiful… was he the seer?

The angel got on his knees when the whipping stopped, but Yokai still stood there with the whip in his hand. I heard the angel whimper as more tears fell down his gorgeous face. "I'm sorry, Master…" He said quietly.

"You better be!" Yokai shouted at him, spit flying from his mouth and landing on the angel as he did. "You fucking know what happens when you disobey my orders and lie to me! Those captains died last night, so there is no way you saw them disobeying me! Now what did you see in your vision?"

"I… I saw… a general with a bald head killing you… and then he… let me go free…" the angel sobbed, and then began to cry louder. His whole body was shaking.

Yokai laughed madly. "So you thought you were free? Thought you'd get to go 'home.' You know that'll never happen! YOU ARE MINE!"

"Yes, Master," the angel said through the sobs.

"I want to hear you say it!" Yokai demanded "say you are mine!"

"Please!" the angel tried to protest, but was whipped three more times and was lying on the ground again. "I… I… I'm…"

"Come on; SAY IT!"

Whip

Whip

Whip

"I'M YOURS!" the angel shouted as he cried harder.

"And don't you forget it! Now fix yourself and clean up!" Yokai snapped as he unlocked the handcuffs before he turned and walked out. I hid quickly and watched as he slammed the door, and locked it before he walked away.