Orilis

I sighed in relief as I walked into my room, court had been exhausting.

After my chat with Veron, I stood and watched court for the next two and a half hours feigning interest in the affairs of court. Not that I wasn't interested in politics but simply put I had no interest in watching nobles continually cause scandals, arguments, and other such disturbances for their own personal entertainment. I snorted, I had zero hopes for the Heliva with the court in its current state. Absolutely none. They were all purely bred nobles to the core, old fashioned and against change. 

Years ago, when I was around nine, I had made the mistake of losing my temper in public. My father just lagged it off as me being a child, the rest of court following suit. But my brothers didn’t follow fathers lead, they saw behind the mask in that slip up that I had worked desperately hard to maintain. In those five minutes, they had seen the dark, dangerous gleam in my eyes. They saw my bloodlust, my intent to take it all. And it worried them, not for my sake, but for their claims on the throne and positions they would hold depending on who was to inherit my fathers position. 

* * *

I was seeing red, staring at the boy in front of me, he was my age, staring back at me with something close to disgust on his face. Like I was someone that shouldn't be allowed to breathe the same air as him. “You won't ever be anything, you are worthless. Be thankful you even have a place here, you don’t deserve it” the noble boy had hissed. He was the son of my fathers advisor, I was the youngest and least prominent of seven…the boy standing in front of me smirked, as if guessing my thoughts. I lost it. 

One moment I was staring at his face with hatred to rival my hate for my brothers, the next I was tackling him to the ground. My perfected calm disappeared in an instant. I felt my face twist into a snarl as my fist connected with his face. “Arrogant prick”, I hissed before raising my fist to strike again and brought it down hard against his face and I heard a sharp crack as his nose broke. The entire court stood frozen, staring at me in horror. None of them had heard the whispered insult that had broken my bored facade. Not even the guards moved immediately but as soon as it registered that violence had broken out their training kicked in and I felt strong hands pull me away from the advisor's son. God I hated his stupid face.

The angered trance I was in slowly faded and I glanced at my father, fear draining the color from my face. If this had happened in private he could just scold me and be done with it. I was the least important of his sons after all, nobody expected great things from me. But here though, the whole court had seen me. There would be no scolding, I had just attacked the advisor's son. And that could easily be seen as treason, regardless of my perfect behavior or bloodline, all it took was one mistake to screw me over. I fucked up, I fucked up bad. 

My eyes flickered around court anxiously, the guards dragging me in front of my father and pinning me to my knees. I caught sight of my brothers, Aliv and Zedian watching from opposite sides of the room. They were both staring at me like they had never seen me before. Pursing my lips I began to explain my lapse in judgment to my father as regretfully as I could muster. Life on the line for attacking the brat or not, I still knew how to play this game. “I-I, I’m sorry father, I lost my temper, he, he insulted the crown father!” I stared at him imploringly, mentally kicking myself for not sounding more convincing. But not because what I said was a lie, no it was true, by insulting me he had insulted my father because I was his son. By calling me worthless he had called the king worthless. But I couldn't just say that. It would sound like it was too thought out. The last thing I needed right now was for my father to realize I was an impressively good manipulator when it came to emotions. “He…” I trailed off for a moment trying to look as upset as possible, mainly focusing on keeping my mask from slipping again. “He called me worthless!” I made a show of sniffling, fake remorse and sadness perfectly expressed on my face. The king's eyes narrowed, turning to look at the advisor's son, “is this true?” As foolish and seemingly lacking in intelligence my father was, he didn't miss my point. He did however miss the small smile I allowed as I ducked my head so no one could see. 

“No your majesty, I would never-” the advisor's son was silenced by his own fathers slap to the face. He crumpled over in pain, I had done quite a number on him indeed. 

The entire court watched as the king's advisor knelt before the king and begged forgiveness for his son's behavior before turning to me and asking if my hand was ok. Nodding I faked a few more tears. The guards had let me go once they realized my father did not see me at fault. Massaging my arms which hurt like hell from the guards iron grip, I looked up at my father. He looked at me with no anger, only pride. He thought I attacked the prick for his sake. Ha! Whatever, I thought, glancing over to my brothers. They didn't buy that for shit. 

I guess I won’t be exempt from their war after this. Damn. 

* * *

I crossed the room in large swift strides. Now was not the time to be reminiscing, we had work to do. I felt her presence a moment before she shut the door behind her with a soft click. 

“How are you?” Liv asked, she always knew that court had a tendency to give me a bad headache. 

“Fine.” I lied, I wasn't in the mood to have a heart to heart with Liv right now. There was too much to do. 

Raising her eyebrows into a “like hell you are” face Liv walked over to the desk and gingerly sat down on the corner.
“I want to call Veron over for tonight's party” Liv said, yawning nonchalantly. Our quote on quote party was code for our expected assassin’s Both Liv and I knew better than to assume we weren't being watched. 

I chuckled as I sat down behind my polished oak desk. “You don’t need my permission to send word, just go easy on him Liv, he’s probably not used to a good fight anymore.” I said, a tone of amusement coloring my voice. I knew Veron was going to enjoy tonight just as much as Liv and I would. Hard opponents or no, this was where we thrived. 

I settled down into my chair as Liv scribbled a quick message in black ink using my quill and some scrap paper I kept inside my desk. When she was finished she folded the paper up and wrote Veron.  In her scrawling script. 

She held it out to me, I had to be the one handing off her messages because she technically didn't exist. Not legally anyway. The guild made sure of it. They even went so far as to change her name. From Linavi to Liv. 

Arivis. Anger always clouded around that name, like a storm cloud that would never dissipate.