"Does your chest still hurt?" Syryn asked the prince.

"No. There's a very mild burning sensation but it doesn't hurt anymore."

"Well, I can treat your symptoms for now. And If the pain or bleeding persists, we can either get you checked on the way to or at Nua depending on the severity of your symptoms."

"Take your shirt off, Riaku."

Syryn side eyed Red at hearing those abrupt words.

"I don't think I should," the prince replied.

"I insist."

Red surprised everyone by suddenly ripping Riaku's shirt right down the centre of it. Syryn put a hand to his mouth like he was scandalised. It was when he noticed the scarring on the exposed part of his skin that the alchemist understood the motivation's for Red's actions.

"That was quite unnecessary." Riaku said to the redhead when he snapped out of his surprise.

"Then take off the rest before I rip it all to pieces."

"Since you asked so nicely," Riaku replied while frowning just enough to get his displeasure across.

The prince began to remove his shirt with stiff movements. The first layer of ripped cloth fell away and revealed an inner layer of white. That too was taken off and Red's suspicions about the prince was confirmed.

Scars - small ones, large ones, ridged scars, silvered scars, long scars, pitted scars - Riaku's skin was marked in places that no one else could see. Syryn stood up and circled the prince, taking in the expanse of more scarring all over his back.

"Do you enjoy getting hurt by the cursed weapon?" Red asked the silent man.

"No. But I enjoy even less the prospect of sacrificing to it."

"When you did you get your first scar?" Lucien asked.

Riaku avoided Red's gaze as his hands fiddled with the ribbon that held up his pants. "I was nine."

"Is that how young you were when they started brainwashing you?"

Syryn feared that Red would start a revolution in Nua by freeing their captive prince.

Red's inflammatory words deepened the furrows between Riaku's brows. "I cannot answer that. Anyway, I would appreciate it if you kept to yourselves everything you've seen till now. You don't have to worry about your matters being divulged to a third party either. I will have the guards take a vow of secrecy against speaking about the things you've done."

"Are you really okay just simply settling this with a word of honour?" Syryn asked Riaku.

"After all you've done for us, it goes without saying that I have faith in your goodwill towards us. Rest assured, the incidents that have come to pass here will not be spoken of again by any of us."

Syryn thought about the reliability of Riaku's words. Since the avians were privy to Red's power, he decided to leave the decision to the redhead.

"Lucien, it's your call."

"I guess I'll take his word for it," Red replied. "Only a man with a death wish would dare to harm his benefactor, especially when the said benefactor is capable of so much more." The underlying threat in his words were conveyed succinctly. Syryn was certain that Rowan was going to be immensely disappointed and yet proud of them both. They'd killed off a forest to save Nua's prince but the price was commensurate to what they'd gained.

In either case, what they'd seen of each other had been almost unbelievable and just incredible enough that the events witnessed could be dismissed as an outright exaggeration by people that heard it. Nua's prince being a demon? Lies! A child powerful enough to kill off hundreds of trees? An exaggeration made by some overly proud mother.

"Ah, looks like your guards have found the bodies." Red had a dark look in his eyes when he saw that the scarecrows had been found. "Syryn, don't you think that the cottage needs some decorations on it?"

"Now that you mention it, the cottage looks bare on the outside." The alchemist began to rummage in his satchel for a scalpel. "It needs to look more welcoming to future assassins."

A distinct lack of protest from Riaku was all the authorization that they needed to get on with their proposal. The trio walked back to the cottage after Emi took flight ahead of them. Three sets of footprints trailed behind the prince and his young escorts. When they reached the crowd of guards, Syryn noticed how desiccated the bodies had become. Wrinkled skin stuck to the skulls of the assassins who had failed to escape Red's killing spell.

"Where did you find them?" Red asked the guards.

"I saw a hand sticking out from the snow while atop the cottage. I suspected it was one of the assassins so Wen and I flew to it. When we dug up the arm from inside the snow, we found both bodies like this." Kai's eyes darted away nervously when Red grinned at him. The guard's behaviour had Syryn recalling how the avian had flown like the wind after depositing Red on the forest floor. He was ready to eat his left foot if it turned out that Red hadn't said or done something to terrify the poor avian guard.

"Good job, Kai," Red continued to smile at the fidgety avian. "Let's hang the bodies at the top of the cliff. It has to be close to the cottage and clear enough for anyone passing by to see."

"Hang the bodies?"

"A warning," Red replied as he looked at each avian guard in the eyes. "Let the masterminds behind the assassins know that your prince cannot be fucked with without inviting repercussions."

Syryn was on a knee examining the unearthed bodies. He twirled the scalpel between his fingers, an unconscious habit of his when he was thinking. The avians winced at how sharp the edges were. They feared for the pretty fingers that were flipping the gleaming knife around like it was a toy.

"Disemboweling is our best bet," Syryn told Red after an examination. "It'll look better if the intestines are hanging out of a rotting stomach but that's no longer an option. A dried up cadaver just doesn't have the same impact as a decomposing body."

"We could cut off the heads and have them hold it in their own hands," Rei suggested. He received nods of approval from the brothers.

"Are you trying to make an enemy out of the house of shadows? They will be angered by our actions."

"Emi," Syryn turned to the veiled avian. "They've made enemies out of Nua and her prince. A terrible mistake, don't you think? That is the message we want to send out. Mark my words, they will send more assassins whether or not we hang those corpses. The house of shadows never gives up. So now isn't the time to step back and act with caution. Let them behold the violated corpses of their brethren and know that acting against Riaku invites the same. It'll give them something to think about."

"You're both insane. And you too," Emi glanced at the purple masked guard. She wasn't convinced about the wisdom of provoking the assassins but that was for Riaku to decide.

"Rei, let's have a quick anatomy lesson while I cut this one open. You can have the other one."

The healer guard was an eager learner. He brandished his own sharp knife and knelt by a corpse as he watched Syryn making a deep incision in the belly of his cadaver. The journey had been an invaluable lesson to him on many fronts. But the biggest lesson he had learnt from the brothers was that appearances could be unbelievably deceiving.

-----

"Riaku, if you can stave off an attempt on your life for an hour, I'd like to take a bath," Syryn told the prince when he was done carving out the corpses.

"By all means. Are you going to the lake?"

"Yeah." Syryn watched Wen tie a rope around one corpse. "I need a ride to it seeing as I don't have wings like you avian folks."

Wen flew to the cottage and began to tie the rope around one of the wooden beams that jutted out. The disemboweled and headless corpse swayed in the air like a macabre decoration. It was just how Red had envisioned it, a picture of mockery aimed at the house of shadows.

"Riaku, avail yourself of a blessed weapon and sleep with it next to you," Red instructed the prince who was staring at the hanging corpse of his enemy.

"Blessed weapons are very hard to come by," Riaku replied.

"Syryn, can't Rowan get one from the temple of Eos?" Red asked the older boy.

"I'll ask him about it. I must warn you though, it'll cost Nua an arm and a leg."

"Nua has a blessed weapon in its arsenal but if the temple of Eos is willing to sell to us, there will be no lack of funding."

"Try not to get cut by it when you finally get one then," Red smirked at Riaku with a distinctly evil lilt of his lips. "I hear that Eos doesn't like the children of the dark."

"Lucien, stop teasing Riaku. It's time for a bath," Syryn called out to the boy while he rubbed his hands in the melting snow. He then took out a bottle from his bag and poured some of its contents down the scalpel.

"Are you truly as young as you look?" Riaku asked the redhead who was walking away.

Lucien stopped and turned to the prince. "What if I told you that I'm older than you?"

"Are you?"

"You'll never know, princie. But I'll throw you a bone. I'm old enough to notice a good looking prince when I see one." Red's words accompanied a wicked smile, and it had the prince freezing up.

"See ya, Riaku. Syryn is getting impatient."

(You're flirting with him!)

[Yeah so?]

(He's too old for you.)

[I'm too old for him, child. And don't get me started on how you're crushing on Magnus who isn't that much younger than Riaku.]

(But that's different. Magnus is Magnus.)

[And Riaku is Riaku.]

(It's not the same thing!)

[It is.]

(It's not.)

[Oh right, Magnus can do no wrong. He's the holy angel and Riaku is a demon.]

(That's right.) Luci's sarcasm detection was lacking.

[Go take a bath like a good boy.]