Karthan Cr’Axsun, the fourth master of the Iordai Clan, stood upon the wall that surrounded his home. He looked towards the village and puzzled over how often the great master would have them on guard duty. Nineteen nights in a row had they kept watch over everything. Without special occurrences.

The worst thing that had happened, was the incident where two foxes had found their way in a henhouse down in the village. But sending two students had fixed that and such a problem one could hardly call special. Since then nothing had happened.

Karthan was longing to sneak into the village to pay Alissa a visit. The young woman loved him and he loved her.

In a few days he would ask the great master, if he could be relieved from his duty. Then he would finally be able to ask for her hand in marriage. He would be able to be there for her. Support her. Love her. But this seemingly endless guard duty was apparently very important for master Iordai. Karthan would just not stand for leaving his comrades in such times. There would be more opportunities once this was over.

Dreamily he recalled the recent evening, where Alissa had visited him here. Under the pretence of having to speak to him about the wooden badges for the students, they had loved each other in the weapon chamber.

Surrounded by beautiful, cold blades and other weapons that the great master owned, they indulged in each other. Karthan wanted to do that again and again. One word of her and he would lay down his weapon for the rest of his life.

When he was younger he had always thought, that nothing could ever deter him from his passion. That nothing could ever make him stumble on the way of the sword.

Day by day he was torn between deserting and serving her for the rest of his life and his honor, duty and the fact that he wanted to protect his students.

Nervously he fidgeted with the handle of his katana. The dark outlines of the village lay before him. And with them the craftsman's house. Her house. He played with the thought of asking Marun and Zartha if he could go for a “patrol”.

An hour would have been enough to see her. To feel her. To press his lips on hers and pull her body closer. His body practically ached for this. Tense, he pulled his weapon and executed a few challenging practice strikes to distract himself.

After some time the blade reflected something. Confused he looked for the origin.

A light was burning in the village. At this hour? Karthan sheathed his katana and tried desperately to spot something in the darkness. His eyes were not the best. At long distances he was unable to see clearly.

Karthan decided to call for help. “Marun!”

The second master of the Iordai clan, that had dozed off nearby, leaning on a wall while keeping an eye on Ollowyn, was quickly wide awake. A short sprint of his, a elegant jump followed by a few climbing grabs and he stood next to Karthan on the wall. “What’s up?”

Karthan pointed towards the village. “I have seen a light in the village, can you see someone sneaking around there?” Karthan scratched his beard before continuing. “Do you think there are bandits in the valley again?”

Marun stared into the darkness. “Hm. No, bandits wouldn't get so close or try to break into a house. They mostly steal livestock. But it has been really quiet lately, so that’s unlikely. This light also doesn’t really look like a torch…”

Karthan frowned. “What else could it be?”

At that very same moment flames started to penetrate the roof of one of the houses. The craftsman’s house. “Oh shit, fire. A house is burning. Karthan! I will go report this to the great master. Wait here for me!”

Karthan wanted to reply, but Marun had already jumped off the wall and was on his way towards the sanctum. Desperately Karthan stared towards the flickering light in the darkness. Alissa.

Alissa was still there! What if she still remained in the house? What if something happened to her? Karthan did not want to wait any longer.

He called Mephian over and ordered the child to take twenty students and get them into the village as quickly as possible to help extinguish the fire. The rest should get ready and wait for Marun’s orders.

Then Karthan exited the school and started running. He did not wait for Mephian to finish, nor could he leave Alissa alone any longer. She was too important!

He ran down the path towards the village, hardly able to see anything in this pitch black night. Quickly he was upon the first village. “Fire! It’s burning! Fire!”

He screamed on top of his lungs, waking all the inhabitants. They would come to help soon, but Karthan had higher priorities. Soon after he stood in front of the burning building. The flames had already taken over a big portion of the first floor.

Alissa and her father were sleeping upstairs! Without hesitating for a second he grabbed a bucket of water out of the hands of a villager and emptied it over his head. Then he kicked in the front door and entered.

A black cloud of smoke immediately hit him. Instinctively he held his breath and closed his eyes. He waved his arms around before opening them again a moment later. Immediately he spotted Alissa's father, collapsed on the ground of the dining room.

Unconscious. Quickly he stepped towards him, threw him over his shoulder and ran back out. Having arrived there he handed the lifeless body to a helper and drowned himself again with a bucket of water.

His skin appreciated the cool sensation, the heat inside had already stung quite a bit. Again he bravely jumped into the fire, broke through the already half burning dining room towards the staircase. When he arrived there, the water had all but vanished and the heat started to sting again. Still, Karthan continued.

Up the stairs he quickly kicked in the door to Alissa’s room. Flames met him. The room would be nothing but ashes very soon. A empty bed.

Cursing he stepped outside again, protecting his face helplessly with his arm and kicked in the door to the second, larger room: the workshop. His clothes caught fire as he stepped through another wall of flames.

Behind him a burning beam from the roof collapsed into the small corridor. Death-defying Karthan ran into the workshop, looked around and threw away his burning mantle. The heavy chain vest below was already like a frying pan.

Time ran out, and he could not spot Alissa anywhere. The way back: closed off. He eyed the window set ablaze. Cursing loudly he ran towards it and jumped through. A short fall later he hit the ground in front of the house hard.

Immediately helpers showered him in buckets of waters. Pain called him to rest. But he fought the sensation down, started to get up again. Alissa. Where was she? He had to find her. Groaning he forced himself to stand, his left leg and at least two ribbs felt broken.

His skin tingled painfully. His eyelids hurt unlike anything he had felt before, but again he forced his eyes to open. In front of him stood Alissa. Peace and calm came over him. She was safe! Thank god, she was safe!

Nothing could have made Karthan happier in this moment. All his injuries forgotten. As she ran towards him to hug him, the strain in his body vanished and he collapsed forward. Darkness greeting him.

~~~~~

Arryn waited for the reaction of the Iordai clan. As expected the swordmaster had run to his woman, as she was in danger. The assassin chuckled at the predictability. Love. It had paid off well to gamble on that factor. A few minutes passed and around twenty students left the school as well. The silver haired kid was not with them.

Unfortunate. It would have been easy to kill him out here.

Arryn waited for the last student to vanish in the village and activated the traps he had placed. On the only path connecting the village to the school, it would delay anyone returning to the school. He had effectively cut down their forces by half.

Satisfied he checked his weapons one last time and pulled out a small, white marble. Karrik-Nam, a explosive pearl, that could be activated by kinetic energy.

But this was a no lethal tool. Arryn stretched his legs again, the long wait had made him feel stiff. Then he dashed towards the school, shrouded in darkness. His black clothes and face covered in dark paint let him be one with the night.

Quickly he was upon the wall and climbed up. Within the school, students were running about, gathering on a rallying point.

Another swordmaster shouted orders there. The target however, was not with them. Arryn had planned to find the boy within the commotion that the fire caused. However, this appeared to be even easier, as the boy and the third master were standing below him in the garden. Isolated in the middle of the estate.

The assassin almost had to chuckle, considering how easy this was going to be. Quickly he threw the Karrik-Nam, and dove down the wall. Head first he arrived in the soft grass, rolling off in a single skilled motion.

At the same time the small marble exploded upon hitting the ground. A white burst of light blinded everything in the near vicinity. The assassin opened his eyes immediately afterwards, drawing two thin short swords in a single flowing motion while he approached calmly. His blades were extremely thin and light.

Coated in a strong poison, where a single drop would be enough to kill a human within hours, even a scratch was a death sentence. With a smooth dodge he dove below a katana strike, that the swordmaster had blindly thrown at him. Then he attacked the child with two quick stabs.

But the white haired demon had jumped back while raising his bamboo sword. If he had possessed a wooden sword or a real blade, he could have blocked successfully. But one of the thin blades stabbed right through the soft bamboo and scratched Ollowyn’s shoulder. Arryn was surprised at the child’s quick reaction and quickly attacked again.

Another thin wound appeared on the kids cheek as the bamboo sword struck past Arryn.

Quickly Arryn turned and fled. His target was dead. Two strikes had hit, the poison would do the rest. Then the blade of the swordmaster hit heavily. A deep wound opened, as the katana sliced through his shoulder.

Cursing, Arryn scaled the wall with quick motions. As he wanted to jump over, something hit him painfully, throwing him over the wall. He rolled off again, breaking the arrow stuck in his shoulder.

Then he began to run, he hardly felt pain, as adrenaline worked wonders. He had to hurry however, with his wound bleeding they would be able to stalk him easily.

If he was unable to arrive at the mountain pass Dunéin before them, then he was as good as dead. Luckily he had been hit in his shoulder and not his legs, so they carried him with the usual ease.

A glance back towards the village offered more helpful insight. The traps had been triggered and a few students were caught in hundreds of thin steel wires. It would take them at least another hour to free themselves.

Arryn increased his tempo, and did not stop to look back. If someone chased him, he could do nothing about that. For now anyway.

His mission was a success. The kid would die within the hour, he was certain of that. But the reaction time this child had shown when he attacked it showed again how important it is to kill these demons early on. Barely seven years old, but already so skilled…

Arryn sighed, glad to have fulfilled his duty. Now he just had to escape in order to serve Valuan again. A feat he had succeeded in dozens of times before. It was something Arryn Nightblade took great pride in.

As he continued his sprint towards the mountain pass, the reflected on the last hour. These swordsmen had real skill. His wounds were entirely out of his calculations. But his wounds did not seem to be deep enough to delay him much.

And he would rather die to the blood loss, than to stop running. Arryn closed in on the mountain pass quickly, his escape without incidents.

He could not wait to arm the trap he had prepared in advance and to pull out the arrow that now hurt so much. Then finally he could vanish in the woods and become invisible in the night. Nobody followed him.

When he finally arrived on the pass, he turned around. Nobody chased him. He smiled happily. A full blown success. Then he pulled the arrow out with a groan.

He cut a large cloth piece of his gear and bandaged his wounds provisionally. The pain let him groan again, it was really unpleasant. Then he forced himself to continue. It was nearly done. He stepped to arm his trap.

Then however, the unthinkable happened. The trap triggered! The mechanism shot a long thin tree trunk out, that crashed into Arryn’s side heavily and threw him painfully against one of the stone statues. How was this possible?! He had not activated the trap! What happened?

Then he noticed steps that approached from the other side of the pass. Of course! Someone had prepared the trap in his stead and changed the trigger. With multiple broken ribs and a arm that had the bones show through, Arryn pulled one of his thin short swords. A desperate attempt to offer resistance.

“Third Iordai Style. Demon Hunt.” His opponent dashed forward, past him and the dark blade of a duraksteel katana ended the life of Arryn Nightblade. Decapitated, his head fell to the ground.

Thasun Torreí sighed while staring down into the valley. Could he never leave once, without someone burning shit down???!