Two days later, five days before Tristan’s birthday, Theo is in the gymnasium with a large two handed sword clasped tightly in his hands and a frown on his face as sweat dripped down his body. He had discarded his shirt a few hours before and was beginning to question if his father was trying to purposely make him sweat.

“Your mother told me you’d been with another woman the other night,” his voice is calm and deep, bringing Theo’s attention to him immediately. Even though he liked challenges and getting into mischief, he still respected his elders and would never talk down to his father.

“Is that why you’re pushing me so hard today? Is this punishment for it?” Theo questions and his father just laughs, launching into another attack at his son.

“It may be, it may not be but you need to up your attack and defence son.” Theo grunts in response, swinging the large sword at his father who ducks and brings his own sword sideways, just missing his son’s chest. Theo growls lowly and lashes out with his leg quickly, taking his father by surprise as he drops to the ground; his son had swung his leg against his own to bring him down. The lighter blonde then places his sword against his father’s throat lightly, so he doesn’t break the skin and spill his blood.

Slow clapping sounds from the entrance and both men look over to see Tristan standing against the wall, his hands coming together slowly while a smirk takes over his face. Theo steps back from his father and allows him to stand, Elliot immediately bowing his head to the Prince, glaring at his son when he doesn’t.

“Prince, what are you doing here?” Elliot asks, Tristan coming forward with his hands behind his back.

“Just coming to see how far my Captain has come since the last time I watched him spar. That last move was a dirty one, Theo.” The Prince clicks his tongue at him.

“There are no dirty moves in combat.” Theo states defensively, a frown taking over his handsome face.

“Of course not,” the Prince laughs, walking over to the weapons hanging on the wall and grabs the other two handed sword. He moves back to Theo and Elliot with a grin taking over his features, Theo raises his eyebrow in question. “My turn, show me what you’ve got.” Tristan takes his shirt off when he gets the chance, Theo tilting his head with a smirk while getting into position; holding the sword horizontal in front of his face.

In moments the two boys were clashing swords, both grunting at the force behind the metal in their hands. Even though the Prince wasn’t as ripped as his Captain was, he had strength in his arms to knock back the small blonde a few paces. Though he came back at the brunette, hitting with all the force he could and Tristan revelled in the fire in his friend’s amber eyes. The smirks wiped off both their faces when the alarm rings out through the whole mansion, the swords stilling as they look around and look to Elliot for what to do.

“Put your shirts on, Theo grab some armour and get the two of you dressed as soon as you can. Arm yourselves and come to the ballroom if you can!” Elliot shouted, the boys instantly doing as told and going into the armour room once they had their shirts on. They both set to putting on the right sized armour, helping each other tighten it before grabbing two more swords each, strapping the weapons to their hips and strapping the two handed one on their backs.

“Stay behind me, Tristan.” Theo orders when they make their way out of the gymnasium, not even bothering to see if Tristan nods in agreement which he does. Even though he’s the Prince, he respects his friend to know what he’s doing when it comes to protecting him. They make their way to the ballroom as silently as they can, stopping in a shadowed alcove when they hear footsteps getting closer. Theo has Tristan pressed to the wall with his body covering his as a group of armed men and women go passed them, Theo holding his breath until they’re gone. Tristan releases the breath he’s holding when his friend steps away from him, bringing the big sword from between his shoulders and leaving the alcove.

If he knew what he does to me… Tristan doesn’t have a chance to finish his thought when Theo grabs his arm and tugs him down the hallway to continue their way to the ballroom. Theo’s footsteps are light as they walk, barely making a sound on the marble floor and Tristan tries his hardest to mimic him but he hadn’t been trained to walk so stealthily like Theo had. They make it to the double doors, slowing their walk when the doors are open and they could see their parent’s on the floor, tied together. They stop where they are when a figure wearing all black, like the boys were, stepped into view. Theo frowns when he takes a few steps closer to be able to hear his words.

“Where are the other boys?” His voice isn’t recognisable under the mask as it was muffled slightly; the boys share a look before watching Elliot shift on the ground. It was strange seeing the large man tied up on the floor.

“We don’t know where the boys are, why do you want them?” Elliot asks his voice strong and bold, Theo gasping when the stranger slams his fist down across his father’s face.

“I will be asking the questions, not you Captain,” the man spits, looking around and that’s when the two boys noticed the other people in the room; twenty men and women all dressed in the same black clothing, not armour to Theo’s surprise. If there weren’t so many people, he’d be rushing in there to save their family but he stayed where he was. “If the boys don’t come here or aren’t found in five minutes, you will all be put down.”

Theo goes to move in when Tristan grabs his arm and stops him, pulling him away to an alcove in the wall.

“Why did you stop me? We have to save our family.” Theo hisses and Tristan shakes his head.

“There’s way too many of them Theo, I may be a competent fighter but I’m not made for a fight with that many people.” Tristan tells him and understanding flashes across his face, before he nods. “There’s nothing we can do, except wait for the guards.”

Of course his prince would think that, it was the best form of action they had but five minutes was almost up and more and more of the people in black clothing kept turning up into the ballroom to report no one knew where the boys were. How stupid are they to not look in this alcove? Theo thought with a frown, he and Tristan moving to see what was going on with their family.

“Where are the guards?” Theo whispers to which Tristan shrugs, they should’ve been here by now.

“Well, your boys haven’t been found so it’s your lives that will be taken.” Their mothers were sitting closely, crying together quietly as their fathers simply glare at the man standing over them, not even waiting a second before he drives his sword into the King, pulling it out and pushing it through Elliot. The boys watch on with wide eyes as the man turns to their mothers, the Queen being cut down first and in the split second before Eliza is executed, her eyes find Theo’s from the doorway. The look in her eyes shout for Theo to run, the tears in his own golden eyes finally shedding down his cheeks, squeezing his eyes shut when the sword is driven into her chest. In that moment it felt like the world stopped, Theo’s chest feeling tight and he doesn’t even register that Tristan is dragging him away from the ballroom before they’re spotted. They get to the west wing and Tristan brings them into another dark alcove when some soldiers run passed them again.

“We need to get out of here, Theo,” he whispers, looking out for anymore intruders.

“Xavier, we need to find Xavier and then go.” Theo states and Tristan nods, he hadn’t even thought of his younger brother. So with Xavier in mind, they run up the hall and into the younger Prince’s room, stopping in the doorway when it’s opened, a gasp leaving Tristan’s mouth.

In the middle of the bed Xavier was laying without his shirt, his eyes wide and his mouth kind of open in question but there was no life to the younger Prince’s face with the sheets surrounding his body blood stained; someone had taken him by surprise and cut his throat.

“Oh my…” Theo trails off at the sounds of footsteps coming their way, turning and frowning, “Tris, we gotta go. Now.”

He grabs the older boys arm and drags him down the hallway with him, pulling him all the way to back of the mansion where the stables were for the horses. Running out to them now, they see the stable boy and his father were both dead in the yard and without giving them a moment to stop and mourn, they move into the stables, seeing two horses with saddles on while the three others looked like they were in the middle of getting theirs on. They thank whatever god had allowed this one bit of luck before they jump onto the horses and kick into their sides, seeing a group of ten guards rushing out of the mansion to see them speeding off on the horses.

The boys push the horses hard; not stopping until they were a good few hundred miles away and their horses were slowing down and panting hard. They see a shack ahead and decide to stop there for the night, tying the horses up outside around the little building so no one would see them and making sure they have water before heading inside to gather themselves. They sit in silence for a long time before Theo puts his face in his hands, quiet sobs racking his body and he flinches when Tristan sits beside him, wrapping his arms around his friend as he too starts sobbing. Theo hesitates a moment longer before wrapping his arms around the Prince too, their faces pushing into each other’s shoulders tightly and just holding each other close; they were all each other had now.

“What are we going to do, Theo?” Tristan’s voice is small once he stops his crying and straightens away from his friend.

“I don’t know Tris, I really don’t. We survive I guess.” Theo murmurs, unwrapping his arms from around the Prince and brushing his hair out of the way.

“They’re looking for us, but we haven’t done anything! Why would they kill our families? I don’t understand, Theo.” Tristan says, obviously panicking as his breathing gets heavier and that’s when Theo grabs him by his cheeks, forcing the older boy to look into his eyes. Green meets gold reluctantly and they stare each other down.

“Tristan, I promise you right now that I will do everything in my power to keep you safe from these people and I will get us somewhere they won’t find us.” Theo tells the boy, who nods slowly with tears dripping down his cheeks again. “Get some sleep if you can, we’ll head to Moila in the morning for some food.”

The Prince nods again and curls up in the corner while Theo keeps watch of the door, his sword laying across his lap and he closes his eyes.

Tristan woke with a start the next morning, after dreaming about his family together happily until at the end he sees them being slaughtered all over again. He sits up with a groan to see Theo wasn’t in the shack like he thought he was, standing quickly he’s taken two steps when Theo walks in through the door. They look at each other for a moment until Theo sighs and crosses his arms.

“It’s about time you woke up, come on we gotta go.” Theo orders, turning around and leading the Prince out to the horses.

“Wait, I gotta piss.” Tristan states and moves over to some trees, finishing quickly and jump up onto his horse. “How far away is Moila from here?”

“I don’t know, maybe a day; maybe less. We just have to keep moving before they catch us. My father knew some people in Capsicka, if we can make it there we should be safe.” Theo answers, his eyebrows furrow tightly in a harsh frown that made his face look fiercer than it already did.

They don’t talk after that, pushing their horses faster to get to the town known as Moila; it was a small city really with lots of shops and housing. People of nobility there dressed in bright colours while the slaves wore black, the boys had shed their armour the night before and had it strapped to the horses so their movements weren’t hindered.

Hours went by that they rode, though today they didn’t push the horses quite as hard so not to draw any attention to themselves. They made it to the town of Moila just after sun down and went in search of an inn for food and a bed for the night; thankfully Tristan always carried enough gold and silver on him to get anything they needed. They tie the horses up to a stable outside one of the quieter inns and walk inside, seeing it practically deserted made them both calm down a bit as they walk to the bar and get the attention of the young woman working it. Her hair was black as a ravens wing with dark skin and dark eyes, her gaze suspicious as the two boys approached her slowly. She let a smile take over her face when they sat down, bringing on the charm for the two men; they were strangely both very handsome and she couldn’t seem to take her eyes off the one with the golden eyes.

“What can I help you with?” She asks in the known language though a heavy accent could be heard. Theodore tilts his head with a grin as Tristan rolls his eyes; his friend always had a thing for foreigners.

“We need a room, some food and drink.” Theo speaks softly, his deep voice coming out calmly though he was anything but on the inside at the lustful look the pretty girl was giving him.

“That’s not a problem, I’ll get your food and give the key once you’re ready,” the boys nod and move to a table, smiling at her when she brings bread and soup with two tankards full of water. She goes back to the bar and wipes it down, Theo keeping his attention off her as Tristan looks down at his food.

“How did this even happen?” Tristan murmurs and Theo tilts his head again.

“What do you mean?”

“How did those people just get into the mansion like that and slaughter everyone? Where were the guards?” His questions spew out and Theo drops his head in shame.

“I don’t know, Tristan. I wish I did.”

The meal is silent after that, the boys paying for the food and grabbing the key before making their way up the stairs beside the bar and into a room with two small beds inside. They sigh and both strip off their dirty shirts, laying down with just their pants on. It was a long time before either of them were asleep.