“Sir? Should I continue working so you can come back later when you’ve remembered whatever you are thinking so hard about? I wouldn’t want to interrupt your thought processes or distract you,” the boy cut in.
The elder glared at him. “You want a break, eh? Well I’m not so old and feeble yet. You will stand there and listen obediently until I’m finished giving you your orders.”
The boy paled. “Sir! I certainly didn’t mean that. I would never intend anything so disrespectful to your or any of my honored elders.” He bowed deeply and elegantly despite the mop he still awkwardly clutched.
The elder could not be so easily comforted, however, and launched into a long lecture on the idleness of youth, the uselessness of apologies, the disturbing nature of the whims of the weather, the disgusting tendency for water to be served with lemons when he was sure it was flavored with tastier morsels like ginger in his day, and the related disturbingly poor quality of modern glass goods. He got so thoroughly absorbed in the pleasure of a good rant he almost forgot about his audience. He finally looked over at the boy still holding his mop and seemed to snap back to the subject at hand again.
“Well, you have no proper respect, but I suppose your teachers already know how useless you are or they would have long since given you a rank of some sort. Heck, you wouldn’t be doing the cleaning unless you were really hopeless. But that’s not why we need you for this task.” The elder stopped talking and let his flapping jowls still before he talked again. “We have already sent a much higher ranked individual than you to see to this particular person. They have done their task well. Unfortunately, they were so successful that there seems to be a great risk the target will soon relocate to another location in maybe just a year or two, and we fear this relocation will put her within the purview of the crown prince’s spies. We cannot risk him getting all he wants.” The elder sighed again. “Unfortunately, to some extent it could be said this last mission was not as great of a success as it could have been. We cannot risk a full failure, as the council agrees that would bring the wrath of the royals and perhaps even unify the brothers against a common enemy, which would give them the clarity and peace to prevent our efforts and that is the last thing anyone wants.”
The boy nodded along and tried to look like he understood everything that was being said, but it was clear from his face that he wasn’t quite understanding everything going on.
The elder sighed again. “This time we only have a mission of surveillance. We need someone to follow this target. If the suspicions our great minds have agreed on as likely come true, which is quite likely as anything we think will likely happen almost always does happen due to our vast skill and intelligence, then it’s nearly certain that the crown prince will also soon be in the area. We’d need surveillance of his deeds as well.”
The elder paused and looked at him meaningfully. They both waited for the other to speak.
“So,” the boy ventured to say. “What exactly do you need from me?”
The elder just shook his head at him. “Tut tut, and this is why you are still unranked. You just don’t understand these things like one would expect of our superior citizens, Dillon.”
“My name is Darien, actually.”
The elder waved it away. “The names of those without skill or merit are unimportant. Feel pleased that I even briefly thought of addressing you at all and leave it at that.” Darien suspected the old man had simply forgotten his name but stayed silent instead of risking the unwise move of telling those who think highly of themselves that they are not perfect.
“What all of this means, boy, is that we need someone to go to the mundane’s human world.” He paused. Darien still looked confused so he continued. “We are sending you on this mission of surveillance.”
In the present Darien groaned. He had to succeed at this, had to bring back satisfactory results to the leaders of his people so he could gain a position of higher rank and the lodgings and authority of a respected and successful apprentice. He only wished his role didn’t feel so deceitful, his relationship to Alyss now poisoned by the knowledge that he knew things he couldn’t tell her. He knew she was the goal of the leader of the entire Shadeworld as well as the leaders of his own people. He only hoped his efforts to keep her safe from both of them while maintaining the respect of his elders would turn out well in the end, but now that the prince had become involved he wasn’t sure any of them would be safe.
CHAPTER SIX
Courtyard
She walked back to the courtyard, and started to run when she saw that her brother was walking away from it. “Wait!” she called. He turned around, and smiled when he caught sight of her. “Are you alright,” she fretted.
“Perfect now that I’ve seen the best person around,” he laughed and caught her up in a tight hug.
Jackie groaned at the sight, knowing her master would be happier if the girl spent as little time as possible with her adoptive brother. More importantly, she knew her own life would be smoother if her prince wasn’t constantly being enraged by the sight of another guy hanging out with the girl he was convinced was his own. She torpedoed into the courtyard and tugged the girl aside as she began yammering about how worried she was over the latest heartbreak an acquaintance had suffered and the latest news about the celebratory bonfire coming up in honor of the boy`s lacrosse victory. “More importantly,” she confided, “One of the guys from
