where to go to find the three Captains of the Garrisons. As well as tell you what your daily duties are, and how to go about them. Then there’s the fact of electing your sentinel.”
“ So what is a sentinel, and how will he help me?” said Kairo.
“ Well he will basically be your assistant, and help you with anything that you need help with. I have a list of different people that would be good for the job, but you can choose anyone you feel will be a good fit for the position.” Kairo picked up the papers that the King handed him.
“Thank you, I will be sure to finish these tasks promptly.” Kairo walked out of the palace, and into the markets outside of the palace. He walked into a few stalls, but he really wasn’t interested in buying anything. “So I guess it’s a matter for actually finding where the garrisons are for the branches.” He walked around for 30 minutes looking for anything that resembled a barracks, or military structure. He gave up, and decided that asking for help wouldn’t hurt. “Excuse me sir, I’m looking for the Navy garrison, do you happen to know where that might be?” Kairo asked to a passerby,
“It’s 1/2 a mile that way, then take a right when you come to a really wide fountain.”
Kairo nodded his thanks, and was off. After a few steps he noticed something, an empty something. He quickly shoved his hand into his pocket, and his gold pouch was gone, and so was his father’s note. “God dammit, everytime I try to do something useful, it goes and gets taken from me, or I lose it!” Kairo was pissed, but he couldn’t find the thief anywhere, so he moved on. He came to the fountain, and took a drink of the icy crystal water as he took a rest. He watched crowds of people walk by, until he noticed someone pickpocket another person. He quickly leaped up, and landed in front of the thief, and the person he robbed. He quickly drew his sword and aimed it at the thieves throat.
“ Give it back,” he looked nervous, but tried to play it off, “ What do you mean, I didn’t take any...” “Give back what you stole from him now, before I cut out your eyes, shove them down your throat, so you can watch as I rip out your heart.”
The thief gasped, and fell over. Kairo’s sword was an inch away from his eye. He shakily took out the pouch he stole, and handed it to Kairo. Kairo ripped it out of his hands. As the thief got up and started to get away Kairo whipped around, and sliced off his legs, below the knee, “Argh! What the hell was that for!” the thief gargled out, a pool of blood forming around him.
“Did you not think you would pay punishment for stealing.” The man started to crawl backwards, away from Kairo. A group of people stopped and stared at the two men.
“Please, please, I have a family. It’s the only thing I can do to feed them.”

Kairo looked into the man's eyes and saw fear, true fear. Kairo smirked a little, ”I believed you,”
“Thank you, Thank you sir.”
“Until you said it was the only thing you could do.” Kairo thrusted the tip of his sword into the man’s throat, and watched as he gargled in horror. The blood gushed out all over his blade, and clothes. Kairo turned around and dropped the gold pouch into the hand of the person the thief stole from, and walked away. He silently made his way towards the Navy garrison, when a young lad approached him,
“I saw what you did back there,”
“It was what had to be done.” Kairo responded,
“Yeah, I expected you’d say that.” the young man was a few inches shorter than him, but not all that younger.
“What do you want?” Kairo asked in an annoyed tone.
“I was wondering if you needed any help at all. You seem like you're an important figure, and I liked what I saw.”
Kairo raised an eyebrow, “You liked me beating the s*** out of a thief. You must have one sick mind kid if that pleases you.”
The young man shook his head, “No it was the sword technique, it was damn impressive.”
Kairo was a little confused. No one ever complimented his style before. He didn’t know what to say to him, “Um, well thank you, You seemed interested in the art, are you a swordsman yourself.” he asked shakily.
The young man looked around himself, and motioned for Kairo to follow him. They walked through a few markets, and stalls.
Kairo started to get suspicious, but he knew he could handle himself. Turns out the young man led him to a tavern, it was quaint, and the paint was peeling off the side. A few drunk men were mumbling to each other just outside the door, and stopped and looked at the two men approaching them. They calmly walked elsewhere to continue their conversation.
“Here, this is where we can talk.” The young man opened the door, and gestured for Kairo to come in as well. The smell of Rum hit his nose as hard as a train, and he stumbled backwards. They found a table, and took a seat. The table was scraped up some cuts from knives, and bumps from the all too often arm wrestle or fight. The young man motioned for a tableman and asked for two cups of gin. The tableman smiled and left to get the drinks.
“So what is it that you brought me here for.” asked Kairo after a long silence.
“Well here, the city guards can’t hear us talk. It’s safer here,” said the young man, “My names Petra by the way, it’s nice to meet you. What’s your name?”

Kairo wondered if he knew about his position in the military, “My name's Kairo, and Petra. Isn’t that a girl's name?” His cheeks get rosy for a second, and Kairo notices that ‘he’ doesn’t have a male figure. In fact he just now notices that ‘he’ has a bra on, “Oh no, I’m so sorry. It’s just you dress like a man, and I didn’t really notice your voice or. I’m so sorry.” Kairo felt embarrassed, and when he looked back up at Petra it looked like she didn’t care.
“Don’t worry about it, people mess it up all the time, those who I do know don't seem to notice either, it’s really no biggie.” she really seemed not to care, so Kairo tried to forget it and have a nice drink.
While they spoke to each other about techniques, and times they’ve gotten into fights for no reason a group of 3-5 men kept inching a little closer. They weren’t sitting down, they were standing by the back door. Every few minutes they’d take a few steps towards Kairo, and Petra. Eventually they were standing right behind them.
Petra looked up with Kairo, and asked them, “Hey do you guys mind? We’re trying to have a conversation and you’re a little distracting.” The men snickered, and grabbed Petra by the arms.
Kairo jumped up, “What the hell are you doing.”
“Nothing, just having fun, not like you can do anything about it country boy.” the men say while Petra’s fighting to get out of their grasp.
Kairo grips his hilt, and slashes across the man’s face. His face opened up into a mess of blood as he fell to the floor. “Let her go now.” he said calmly. The other two men let go, and started to back up. “You made the wrong move coming after her.” Kairo pulls out a strange tube like weapon.
“Wait man, you’ve got it all wrong. He was forcing us to do it.”
Kairo clicked back a tiny hammer. A large sound, louder than a cannon came from the tip of the tube. One of the men had a penny size hole in his left eye. He fell to his knees, and his face hit the ground hard. The other man screamed, and ran out the door. Kairo pulled Petra up, “Let’s go, we don’t need people to see us anymore than they already have.” Kairo then pulls her through the tavern and out the door.
After walking for a few minutes Petra finally is relieved of her shock, “Hey, did you just save me back there.” She looked confused.
“You were in danger, and I had the skills to save you from that danger.” Kairo kept looking forward, not turning his head towards her. Petra had a slight look of intrigue on her face.
“Plus, you're pretty much my only real friend in the city. I don’t get around much.”
Petra’s face looked a little shocked to hear that, “That can’t be true, you’re just trying to come up with an excuse. I mean a tall, pretty guy like you should have no trouble making friends, or deals for that matter.”

Kairo had noticed her voice got a little higher than before. He felt weird, he didn’t know what to think of her. He shrugged it off, and continued walking. They made their way back to Petra’s house, it was of medium size, and only two streets away from a marketplace. “Thanks for walking me home, I guess I could’ve been attacked again.”
He could see that Petra wanted to invite him in but didn’t want to make a good day turn weird. There was an awkward silence before Kairo spoke up, “So I’m gonna go to the Navy garrison now if it’s alright with you.” He started to turn and walk away but he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, um I was wondering. You might want to take a rest, I mean there was a lot of running and fighting today so it might be good for you yeah?” there was a hint of worry in her *Petra* voice.
He *Kairo* thought about it for a second, “I guess that it should be fine. I don’t see King whatever his name is, having a problem with it.”
She smiled, happy that he was able to stay. “Alright, cool. I guess come inside? It’s not to big, but it’s supposed to feel more homely than anything.”
Kairo walked inside, his eyes opened in amazement. Her house was filled with luxuries of all kinds. Diamonds, gold, furs, silver especially. She had a fireplace made out of silver, and a chandelier decorated with jewels, “Where did you get the money to afford all of this!” Kairo shrieked in amazement, “You made me pay for the drinks, and you’re the one whose loaded!” Kairo had said with a little resentment.
She looked sad, and poured some vodka into two mugs, “I just didn’t have any money on me, sorry.”
She made a cheeky smile, and finished pouring the drink. She brought them over to a table next to a huge bookcase filled with, what else than books.
“Thanks for the drink.” he said graciously, as he started to gulp down the vodka. He felt warm, as the drink flowed through him. “So, what do you want to talk about?” He was unsure why he agreed to come in, nothing was really going on.
“No, I just wanted to see if you’d like to rest, and drink todays pain away, you know?”
Kairo rarely drank, even though he had a high tolerance towards alcohol. He never drank away the day, having fun, spending time just talking. Apparently Petra’s lifestyle was damn different, fun, stealing, drinking, fighting, and riches was all she needed. So, why did she start talking to me. I tried to think if she was lying about being interested in the art of swordsmanship, but it looked like she knew how to handle a sword during a fight, “So, about your interest in my skills. What would you like to know?” They talked for a bit, Kairo did some examples, and explained his technique.

Petra even taught him a few things about small weapons like knives, and darts, “...and this one time I fought off an entire group of bandits, just with this beauty here.” He unsheathed his left sword, and he could see that Petra felt a dark force
emanate from it.  “Cool, cool, can you put it back I don’t want you to ruin the chandelier.” as its tip was only an inch from slicing off a crystal.
“Ok, I guess.” He put it back. Petra poured him another drink, and he could tell that he was a little wasted. “I think I should go before I get to drunk.” He said with a smile.
She nodded, and walked him to the door. When he opened it he was hit with pitch black, it was midnight.
“Damn, we spent a long time talking.” Kairo said surprised at the dark veil thrown over the city.
“You know, I can always let you just use the guest room, It’s not much, but at least you won’t have to worry about getting lost in the night?” she asked, Kairo shrugged and closed the door,
“I guess it wouldn’t hurt, I mean I’d be closer to the Navy rather if walked back to the castle.”
She led him into the guest room, and gave him a cover to go to sleep in. “G’Night I guess.” said Petra as she closed the door. The night was quiet, and cold until Kairo awoke to hearing a footstep by the window.
Kairo unsheathed his sword, and jumped out of bed, “Who are you‽ What do you want‽” The man stopped in his tracks, and tried to run back out the window, but before he was able to escape, Kairo ran him through with the rapier. The man fell back into the room, and screamed bloody murder.
A pounding of footsteps was heard outside Kairo’s door, “What happened, What’s going on‽” Petra appeared in the doorway, and she held a lantern in one hand, and a small dagger in the other.
“This thief was trying to sneak into your house, and he almost escaped before I ran him through.” There was a small puddle of blood on the wooden floor. Petra, lit the candles around the room, and as she did so Kairo was confused.
She slept in male nightwear too. Did she also dress like a man no matter what.
“So, who are you vagabond?” Petra posed the question to the man on the ground.
“An assassin, I was sent to kill this man. I was told he was sleeping here tonight.” The assassin tried to keep his face covered as Kairo asked him another question, “Who sent you? How much did he pay you?”
“Too much, he paid too much for this. As for who sent me, well, you’ll learn that soon enough.” The assassin kicked Petra in the knee, and pushed Kairo back. He  grabbed the knife Petra threw out of her hand and he cut his throat. He gargled a prayer before he died, and a pool of blood formed around the dead body.

“Let me help you.” said Kairo trying to help her up, “Thanks......” She looked mortified. She never realized that all of the enemies she made could easily sneak in and kill her, “Thanks for staying the night Kairo, I don’t think I would have been able to handle it myself.” She blushed, and looked away. She didn’t want Kairo to think she liked him. Well, she does but she doesn’t want him to know anyway.
Kairo stands up with her, and cries in pain. “My side, my f***ing side!” They look down, and see a huge gash in his side. They looked at each other, and Kairo said damn carefully, “We need to find out who sent this man.”
Petra nodded her head, and picked Kairo up from under his arm. She placed him on her shoulder, and quickly made their way down to the kitchen. Petra leaned him up onto the doorframe, and she swept all the stuff on her counter to the floor. She picked him up and placed him onto the counter. She got out a knife, and cut off his shirt to get a closer look at the wound. It was a straight cut. She got out some vodka, and poured it onto the gash,
“Argh, f***ing hell!” he screamed in pain.
She tried to hold him down on the counter, “It’s ok, it will help. It disinfects the wound.”
He calmed down a little, and untensed. Blood rushed from his cut, and she hurried to get a cloth to stem the blood flow, “Keep pressure here. Do not let go!”
She made sure he kept pressure on the cut as she searched for something to tie the cloth down. She grabbed a belt out of the closet, and returned to tie it around the cloth.
He moaned in pain as she tightened the grip around his side. He was damn pale, and there was blood all over her kitchen. She grabbed the rest of the vodka, and let him drink.
He downed the bottle, and asked for more.
She had to refuse since he would have gotten sick if he continued at this pace. He passed out on the counter a few moments later. She realized that she was stuck with him. She began to think how now her life will be forever tied to his, whatever trouble he gets into will surely come
to her as well. As the time goes on she has come to the full realisation that she had become intertwined into his destiny.
The surgery went on for a few hours. Petra had soaked his right side in the vodka to help clean out the wound and keep it from getting infected. It didn’t help that much at all. The bottle was already half gone since Kyro drank most of it to help him numb the pain.
She sat next to him on a large wooden stool. He looked calm, and alert as he slept. Well, as alert as he could be with the alcohol in his system.

She went into his room and grabbed his swords. They were cold in her hands, almost a frostbite-worthy cold. She had never felt such a life sucking loss of heat from a sword, not even a magical or cursed one.
Her eyes fell onto the sheaths, decorated with expensive metals and gems. Beautiful carvings etched up and down the ivory casing. One was stained black with a golden dragon etched around it until it reached the top with its glaring ruby eyes. While the other one had a white dragon of silver cut into the sheath with more natural ivory backgrounds. The eyes on this dragon felt mysterious, and special. Two rubies staring at Petra, the dragon seemed to peer into her damn soul, and judge her.
She put the two swords into their respective sheaths, and walked back to Kairo to place the swords at his side. She stared at the swords, while she lost herself in thought waiting for Kairo to get better.
She had spent some time with him now, but she hadn’t realized until now how much she liked him. He was everything that she wasn’t, and is as well. “Oh god, what am I doing. How could I even think about falling in love with a man as powerful as this?” Petra whispered quietly to herself, “I am a thief, I steal from rich and powerful people. I can’t fall in love with the King’s General. Nothing good could come from this arrangement, I’d only drag him down with me, I should have him leave when he awakes.” Petra paces around the kitchen trying to make up her mind. She never has had such a difficult decision to make in her life. Her gaze fell back upon Kairo, his chest slowly rising and falling, still breathing, a good sign.
She went back over and placed a hand on his face, “You’re a devil Mr. certainly a devil. What else would I have expected after the incident at the tavern and in the streets.....” Her gaze moved to the bandages she placed on his sides, “Look you’ve already soaked through these, you need to stop losing blood you damn idiot!”
She placed more bandage over the old ones, and tightened the belt around them. His body twitched in its unconsciousness as he felt the pain.
Kairo struggles to open his eyes in the blinding light. Tears stream out of them as they try and adjust to change in lighting from his slumber. He tries to sit up and winces, remembering that however many hours ago he was stabbed. Yet, he manages to push himself up into a hunched over position and slips himself onto his feet off the counter, “Now I’m hungry and hurt, great. Wonder where she went though?”
Kairo hobbled over to the ice box, and opened it looking for a cool drink. He pulls out a glass bottle filled about halfway with milk, “Oh it’s been awhile since I’ve had a cold bottle of milk.” He starts to sip on the milk bottle while hobbling around the living area.

He makes his way towards the couch, and hears a faint snoring. He looks over the end of the couch and is greeted by two feet, quite small but bare, poking out from underneath a blanket.
“Hmm I wonder what we have here...” He trails off and walks around to see who it is laying on the couch. As he rounds the corner his foot kicks an empty bottle of vodka across the floor and it hits three others before it stops. Situated under a blanket laying on her back with one hand clutching a bottle was Petra. “Mmm seems like she got no sleep after what she did for me,” he says as he clutches his side, “I wonder why she went out of her way to stay up as long as she did making sure I was wok, I mean we just met not even friends yet really.”
“I can hear you asshole,” Petra spoke softly as she still lay on the couch with her eyes closed, “How dare you say we..............’re not friends, I put your insides which became your outsides back inside.” She fell back asleep halfway through her sentence but was able to wake back up to finish her thought.
Kairo looked around to see if there was anywhere else to sit. He spotted an armchair just a few paces away, and he humbled over to rest his body. He couldn’t take the pain from standing for that long.
He felt his bandages and twinged at the pain. From his upper chest, down to his lower back was bandaged. “I must of been ripped up real bad for all these
bandages?” He questioned Petra. “You weren’t, at least not until you decided to roll off the table three days ago. Split your cut open even bigger than before.” Petra now fully awake sat up and rubbed her eyes, “Not my fault you decided you wanted to make yourself even prettier with all those beauty marks now.”
He hadn’t realized that Petra saw him minus the shirt when he was attacked. Full exposure of all the scars, and burn marks from the intense training he took
when he was younger. He still remembers one day in particular. It started like any normal session. He ran three laps around the town square, 50 push-ups, 50 sit-ups, 100 jumping jacks, and just regular stretches.
But it was his first magic lesson. He always knew that he was talented with magic from a really young age, but these lessons were exploring a darker magic. His father had never intended for him to learn the forbidden art, but his teacher the High Priest Jaime thought otherwise.
The high priest was inside of a conspiracy group focused towards bringing back the Dark Lord of the 6th Hell. Hiding as a holy man the high priest needed someone with a natural connection to the magic forces to summon the Dark Lord.
He started to teach him some basic fire spells which drew energy from the 7 layers of hell instead of nature, and it got quickly out of hand. Kairo’s natural connection to the light messed with the darker magic, and it corrupted it. Large chunks of earth erupted from the ground and struck Kairo, and Jaime. Fire rippled

out from Kairo’s mouth and hands scorching himself and the high priest, and ended with a collapse inwards.
The magic collapsed in on itself and created an implosion along with an explosion. It sucked all of the fire and earth toward Kairo as well as his teacher, and it sent them shooting out in all directions. His teacher didn’t survive. Jaime was ripped apart by the forces of magic and killed instantly. Kairo was left with burns all over his body, and scars marking the area between the licks of flame.
He wasn’t in any pain, all he had gained was the scars which felt more like tattoos to him than anything else. The underground conspiracy cultists disbanded a few days after thinking the death of their leader was a sign from the underworld that it was not yet time.
Kairo looked towards Petra and sneered, giving her full view of his teeth in a scary kind of cute smile only he could pull off. She shuttered a bit, but proceeded to
reach out as if to touch the scars on his chest. Kairo pulled back a little. “Oh, I...I’m sorry I didn’t mean to....” Petra retracted her arm but Kairo grabbed it, “No, its.....it’s ok you can touch them if you want. Just please be careful they still hurt sometimes since their magic and all.”
Kairo sat down on the couch beside Petra and allowed her to run her hand around his scars. He winced with pain a few times but allowed her to continue.
“You weren’t kidding, these are crazy....” she was in awe of the amount and length of some of them. She traced them onto his back, and one went completely around his torso.
Kairo sat there for a bit letting her feel them, but after a few minutes she settled back into the couch and let out a long breathe. “Well that....was an experience I suppose. I’m sorry that it happened.” She took a breathe between her words as she’s at a loss for them.
Kairo stood up and hobbled over to the kitchen to grab a couple bottles of drink, “You want anything in particular?” he asked her. She thought for a moment before walking over to him, “I don’t know what do I have there?” He looked back and started listing, “Theres a single bottle of vodka left, some Northern wine, a....” he was stopped mid-sentence. Petra took a hold of his face and kissed him.
The King walked swiftly through the halls, making his way about the capitol building looking for something. “Where in this bloody building did I leave those papers?” he spoke to himself quietly as he wandered the halls.
A moment later he pushed open a set of large oaken doors, gripping the lions head handle crafted from the most unique red bronze the sculptor could find.
He walked in on a group of seven or so people. They were stationed around a table, with a large map spread over it. Multiple carved soldiers seem to have been carefully placed, marking the positions of some kind of armies.

The men in the room looked towards him as he entered before continuing to talk. The Kings stepped over to the table and set his hands down on it in frustration, “I’m just going to assume things are going well, yes?” The others in the room nodded before pushing a rust colored red soldier onto an island.
“Now what if we try to secure this island? Is there any defence we could expect, because we could really use the sulfur...” the man looked up and shrugged, “Just a possibility I suppose.” The other men stood staring at the map, the sweat from one of them rolled of their brow, falling onto the table during the deliberation, “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
The King furrowed his brow and swiped his hand towards the other men, “No no, I’m only looking for those arrest warrants...for the.....hm,” he placed his hand back on the table and drummed his fingers, “Those hooligans that have been running amuck killing those people.”
“Hm....last I saw them they were sitting in your office, but still, if you please?” the taller man in the room spoke, motioning for the King to take his leave from the room. The King suspected something was wrong, with all of them wanting him to leave the room. Why would they have anything to hide about the campaigns from him, it’s not like they were losing, were we?
Kairo stood there shocked, partly with a happiness that he was loved in a way he never thought possible, all because she just kissed him.
Petra took a second before ending the kiss, and stepped back, “I think I’m fine with some cider if theres enough.” She turned and walked back toward the couch and proceeded to lie down.
“I guess?” Kairo said, he picked up a bottle of cider and walked back to the main room, placing it on the mahogany table, “PUT YOUR DAMN CLOTHES BACK ON!” he yelled shielding his eyes.
“Why?”
He turned his back to her, “I have morals, and standards ok?”
“Really now” she took a step towards him.
“Yes. Quite.” he didn’t notice.
“And you’re sure about this?” she took another step, practically an inch away from his back.
“Stop this.” he said monotonically,
“Why are you being so harsh now, what if I’m just too hot or something?” Petra backed off a bit, and grabbed a blanket.
“Your drunk, and enamoured. This isn’t the right thing to do. Not to mention I’m still injured, among....other things.” Kairo walked off into the room he stayed in when he arrived in Petra’s home.
Petra redressed and sat back down on the couch with a tear in her eye, “I’m so dumb....”

A letter embossed in gold flake lay on the bed as Kairo entered. Picking it up he felt the weight of the letter contained within. He proceeded to cut the envelope open, and pull the letter out.
Petra appeared at the doorway, in silence she stood there watching him read the letter. With each second passing she could see the lines of sorrow and anger form on Kairo’s face.
Kairo threw the letter in the trash and picked up all of his belongings.
Petra moved in and sat on the bed, “What’s wrong, I’m sorry if it was me, or anything I did. I just don’t know how to stop sometimes.” She was of course worried for him, but something just didn’t feel right.
“I have to leave. The Court declared war on the East, the King requested I lead the main force in conquest.” Kairo picked up his two swords and handed one to Petra, “If I don’t come back, at least you’ll have this for the troubles I cost you.” It was the white and silver dragon, he kept the black sword for himself.
With those last words he left Petra’s home for the Palace. Petra didn’t even say goodbye, she waited for him to leave, and when he did, she wept over the sword.
    Kairo entered the Palace and with that, was given his plans and standards and sent out to war.

I wasn't lying, why did you continue, its over, you loose, maybe later come, i dunno, your choice bud.