"Carrey, do you ever do anything except sit on this couch with that look on your face?"


Without looking at her, he handed the letter to her. Chanell took the letter and sat down to read. When she was finished, she handed it back to him. For once she didn't know what to tell him so she just sat there and looked at him.

Carrington turned to Chan.


"He's right you know."


He sat back and looked at the ceiling. All he did seem to do all the time was sit there, dumbfounded. He was a wreck mentally, and emotionally. Why was we following this path? Why?


"But Chan, how can I just NOT do anything? Am I supposed to let Arguyle's assassins kill me? I have to take action."


He sighed and looked to her.

 

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She looked back at him and arched an eyebrow.


"Why?"

"What do you mean why? You want me to give up and die? I know you don't."


He sighed. For one of the first times in his life, he just didn't know what to do.

 

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"Why. Why does everything have to be black and white? Either he kills you or you kill him. I don't buy it Mr. Whitethorn."

Carrington frowned. He looked at Chan as she pierced him with her eyes and words. He sighed and looked down. He sat Akvad's letter down and stared at it.


"ou're right Chan. You're absolutely right."


He looked her directly in the eyes.


"THAT is why I'm fighting to end this war. It's pointless. It doesn't have to be this way, but it is. However...this war with Arguyle, is also pointless...not only that, but personal, and backed my anger. Maybe you're right. Maybe I should try to stop it."

 

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The scout bowed politely to his assassin shadow. She smiled back at him. He found it interesting the feelings that had grown for her. There was something about their bonds in battle and death that seemed to be melding them together. Though a pair and each distinct, they had quickly grown so in tune that they now seemed more one than separate.


And now they faced their united task and single purpose – kill the traitor.


They spoke only briefly at the portal keep of Albion in Thidranki. Soon they had joined to hear the battle voices of their fellow soldiers.


“Mids incoming from MPK to MB”

“Skald and Dancer near sniper hill”

“Flank to the left”

“Oops…can I get a rez…”


The messages came and flashed through their minds in rapid order as they stealthed about the battleground. Now and then they would send reports of enemies seen or slain. And always, in the back of their minds, the Hibernians. They wandered near the ruins and watched closely the portal keep of the tree people. Now and then the doors would open. Sometimes a lone celt or two would exit and be slain on the hillside. Then again, the one might turn into several or a dozen, and they would report back to their brothers.


“8 Hibs heading MB”

“Hibs heading to MPK via river”

“Anybody seen that Carrington traitor”

“Don’t worry about him, just kill em all”


They continued to move in stealth most of the time as the battles, large and small, ebbed and flowed across the land. Sometimes they would be in the thick of matters and sometimes they were far away when the tumults came. And, as expected, now and then they would see the death screams of the traitor and hear only the whoops within the words.


“I got him that time!”

“Another Carrington dead.”

“Those dang mooses hit hard.”

“Oops…any rezzers left?”


For a long while they traveled the lands of war until sleep pressed heavily on their eyes. Carrington had been slain every time he had been seen. Yet, their mission was not complete. Not until they saw him on their own and placed their own blades in his belly would their mission be done.


And it was a mission in which they would not fail…

 

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"I usually am right. And you mean /we/, right?" She said as she looked back at him.

Carrington smiled.


"Of course."


He turned to look at her.


"We made a promise...I don't intend to break it."

 

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Arguyle was fuming by the time he heard Kilaitz make his comment about the ale.


"Look what your 'Brother' has done now Kilaitz! Look at it! He send his bumbling assassin to poison our very water supply and the ale! You know I had actually started to think that maybe I had made a mistake. That maybe this hunt for Carrington was wrong. But he has gone too far! There are children that drink from this water! The treacherous bastard does not care about anyone or anything except his own agenda! Choose here and now Councillor! Do you stand with the Order or with the bastard that would kill all of your Brothers and Sisters!! Men, women, children! He would kill them all! I will not have it! I shall see him hung from the gates of Forest Sauvage! I shall see him dead!" shouted Arguyle angrily.


"Jothan!! Khallie!! Somebody get them down here!" he yelled again.