The younger guard continued to cajole, trying to get Amuné to acknowledge him somehow. Finally she scowled at him. “I’m not talking to you, so go away!” Kirk’s head snapped back as if he’d been slapped. Cain adding his cold voice to the girl’s only made the guard feel worse. He started to protest again, but his brother touched his shoulder and shook his head. With a sigh, the shunned guard got to his feet. “See ye later, then.” He glanced at Amuné, who was once more avoiding his eyes, and then Cain. “...I am sorry.” With that he walked off.

Fitz watched him head toward the dining hall doors before turning to Amuné. “You cannae refuse to speak ta him forever, lass,” he told her gently. “An’ well you know, I think, that ye hurt his feelings.” She squirmed under his gaze until he looked at Cain. “They were nae kidding, were they? You really do have much to learn.” If the former assassin tried to protest he held up a hand to forestall it, and spoke instead to the child beside them. “Lass, the truth now. What you said -- did ye mean it? Did you wish him to leave?”

She dropped her gaze, suddenly becoming very focused on a piece of turkey she pushed around her plate. Her reply was mumbled too softly to be intelligible. “Again, lass, so we can hear you.”
“I didn’t really mean it....” Her eyes flicked sideways to Cain for a moment, though her head stayed down.
“Aye.” Fitz addressed Cain again. “Ye cannae be listening too closely to a child throwing a tantrum.”
“I was not throwing a tantrum!”
“Mm, mayhap not. But the silent treatment, lass? ‘Twould hardly call that mature.”
Amuné glared at the guard, but only for a moment before her shoulders slumped. “...I’m sorry.”
“Isnae me you should be telling.
“....Tomorrow.”

@TheMinorFall

@shylarahCain cocked his head at a slight angle. None of this seemed to fit together. She wished the man gone, yet she did not. She said something she didn't mean, and for what? What was the sought outcome? He wondered this as he turned to study the look on Amune's face. This was a mix of emotions he couldn't process. The guardsman looked displeased with her too. Cain eyed him, studying him up and down before leaning his head to one side. His neck popped audibly and he returned his head to an upright position.

"Approximately twenty-six percent of this makes logical sense, and yet you understand it further. You have additional data that I do not, or I would have to learn nothing. The difference between us is merely a matter of information. You understand emotions much like the way I understand how to kill. It is obvious and simple to you when one should listen to such words and when to chastise them, much like it is obvious and simple to me that even in a sitting position, you could never move fast enough to prevent death by my hand." Cain stood, "However, it is such a connection to your emotions that caused your counterpart to inflict unnecessary damage in a sparring session. It is this connection to emotion that has caused you dismay and Amune to be in the state she is now. By this data, I have determined there is greater efficiency in my current state. Nothing is pertinent for me to learn, currently." Cain was as emotionless as ever, but here was some hint of desire in his words. Why had he determined the need to say any of them. The only purpose was to combat the guardsman's earlier comment. This serves no real purpose. So why?

He took his tray to the dish window and left it there, returning to his seat, but before he could sit down, there was a loud sound from outside, like something very heavy colliding into something solid. The floor shook with the impact.

****

Eric scowled at the carriage-sized chunk of rock he had just cast at the men guarding the gate of the academy. He couldn't see it. He couldn't see anything, but the downward triangular runes under his eyes gave him the ability to "see" with earth magic. He could "see" with vibrations. He could "see" the smears of blood that had once been people. He smirked from behind long, white dreadlocks that had fallen in front of his face. "Now, where is this kid?"

@TheMinorFall

“Less efficient? Aye, mayhap. But ‘tis necessary, if you wish to understand others. And in truth, without sadness there can be no joy.” Fitz nodded at the girl, who was poking at her food and look incredibly guilty. “If you wish to understand her, you’ll need to know them,” he added, a shade softer. The guard was no fool, and he’d picked up on the connection between the two, though it seemed far stronger on Amuné’s end.

As Cain left to return his plate, the guardsman engaged the girl with some inane line of conversation. She’d said she’d patch things up with his brother tomorrow, and that was good enough. If she needed a little time to process, she could have it. After several carefully guided questions, he had her talking willingly once more, distracting her from the tension having so many people around brought.

And then came a thud and a boom, shaking the very ground. Moments later the alarm bell began to ring. Children fell silent, then started chattering in hushed excitement, others panicking. Guards and teachers got to their feet, going to their posts or working to maintain order.

Amuné turned pale as a sheet. “Kirk,” she whispered, leaping up and dashing off. She hadn’t apologized, she hadn’t apologized and something bad was happening, and if he died while they were fighting she’d never forgive herself. She slipped between the tables, dodging most of the students though she came close to colliding with a few. She had to find Kirk. She had to.

“Lass! Amuné!” Fitz rose as well, and made to follow her, but there were too many people for him to move nearly as fast as she. He cursed. “She’d going to get herself hurt!”

@shylarahAmuné had taken off, as did the guardsman, although he didn't get far. Cain caught up with the man, gripping him by the shoulder and turning him to lock eyes. "She will find Kirk, and he will help her. If you want to help her, go get my weapon." Wig that he released the man and made three hand signs; "u", "tora", "tatsu" then incantated, "Shadow Style: Instant transfer."

Cain melted into the shadow under the table only to rise from the shadow of night near the gate. It blew open as a huge boulder flew through it. Cain quickly made the earth handsign, taking the armor from his body and making diagonal pillars of obsidian steel that stopped the boulder just before it obliterated a group of young girls. He retracted the metal back to his body, allowing the boulder to fall safely to the ground with a shuddering thump. His tracking curse on Amuné showed she was near, which meant Kirk was probably headed toward the danger.

"So," the enemy said, "the mythical Metal Dragon is here. But where are your scales?"

@TheMinorFall

Fitz made to chase after the girl, but a hand on his shoulder brought him up short. By then Amuné was almost to the doors. The man was right, chasing her would do no good, and he wasn’t going to be quick enough anyhow. “She dinnae know where he is,” he told Cain, “and I doubt she’d think of it. Nor can I be haring off after her, wish to though I might. I cannae ignore my post for a single child, howe’er fond I be. Nay, ‘tis you as must protect her. Oi!” Fitz lifted his voice, calling to a guard heading for the hall. “Reggie, get this man his blade from the Colonel’s office. Quickly, now!” He clapped the assassin on the shoulder as the other guard nodded and continued on his way. “Godspeed, man.” With that Fitz turned in a different direction, angling toward a side door that likely lead to servants’ stairs.

---

Amuné wove through the other people, darting through gaps that closed instants after she left them. Her breath was short by the time she made it out of the crowd, but still she pressed on. The noise, it had come from the gate. Something bad, something awful -- the alarm bell rang out its warning overhead, and the emotions around her pulsed and swirled. Her head hurt, but she had to find Kirk, had to apologize. He was a guard, so he’d be fighting the bad guys. Past the library, and on through the cluster of tiny cottages and apartments that housed the majority of the staff she raced, but as she went, the pressure in her head grew worse. Now there was fear, anger, and so much pain. The girl stumbled, fell, and picked herself up again. It hurt, it made her want to cry and run away and throw up all at the same time. But she had to keep going. Had to find him. She pushed herself onward, each step harder than the last. Five more houses before the gate. Then four. She collided with the wall of the third, went down hard, tried to get up. A few more staggered steps and then she collapsed. She couldn’t, it was too much. Sobbing quietly, Amuné dragged herself to a bush by the cottage wall and curled into a ball, praying her friends would be alright.

---

The guards at the gate were doing what they could, but they were not able to do much against giant boulders. Still, they did not flee. Any who might already had, and those who had been assigned emergency duty as the first defense were experienced, and would not run. Arrows hissed at the intruder with the matted white hair, and those who hadn’t been crushed by the attack destroying the gate had their pikes or swords and shields ready.

It took Reggie considerably longer to reach the gatehouse and retrieve Cain’s weapon, but as soon as he had it the older man sought the assassin out. He didn’t say anything, giving only a brisk nod before joining up with another team. It was clear from his face that this was not the usual sort of thing the academy had to deal with, but it wasn’t his job to wonder why, merely to defend.

@shylarahIt was unreal. The stories did no justic the Legendary Obsidian Dragon. Even with his magically enhanced sense for vibration, Eric couldn't "see" a heartbeat, nor breath. If not for the pounding of armor and footsteps around the assassin, Eric wouldn't have been able to "see" him at all. He decided not to give the man a reprieve. That is, if he was even a man anymore. He took magical control of his boulder again and shirked it to the side. He slammed it into where he could tell his opponent was. But then he was gone. Frantically, he turned his ears in all directions. There had to be breath or footfalls. No one was beyond the sound of movement. Then an armored arm was locked around the earth-elemental's neck. He could barely breathe, but that was not his concern. He was chilled to the bone by a cold, sinister, lifeless voice from behind.

****
Cain melted into shadow just before the boulder could hit him. He passed through the darkness until he was behind the assailant and had him in his grip. The boulder smashed into the ground where Cain had been, but went no further.

"You have killed with no cause, nor worthy outcome. Innocent lives, not deserving of an early end." Cain analyzed, "I have deemed you deserving of an early end. You are worthy of death." He said, forming the wrist weapon into a one-handed longsword as he spoke. The obsidian steel shimmered with the luster of glass in the light of the torches around them. He slowly inserted the blade into the blind man's Abdominal Aorta below his diaphragm, but just above where it would split into the iliac arteries. He wanted maximum blood loss for a relatively slow, yet irrevocable death. He would bleed out in less than a minute.

He withdrew the blade and released the man who was shrieking in pain, only increasing the pressure on his blood vessels as his heart began to race due to massive hemorrhage. It had been a long time since Cain had made a man bleed so much. Nearly all of his blood gushed out by the time he had taken three steps. He crumpled pathetically to the ground with merely an airy whimper.

Cain directed his attention to the older guardsman, whipping his weapon through the air. Blood splattered to the ground from his now clean blade as the killer stepped over the body and up to the guardsman. He carefully handed the weapon back to its deliverer and said one more word.

"Amuné."

The looked at Cain as if he had suddenly sprouted an extra head, though none of them backed away. Neither did any of them venture forward, and as he approached, those still serving as defenders instead of going to aid the injured watched him warily. Hands tightened on weapons. None of them were sure what to make of the assassin. Reggie was clearly reluctant to step close enough to take the blade from the dark-clad man, and could only answer Cain’s question with a shrug.

“Reserve, stand down.” The rough lines of guards parted to let a tall man through. He was clean-shaven, his dark hair touched with gray, and his uniform had the markings of a colonel. He spoke with the calm authority of one used to command. “ Those currently on duty, I want teams to run a full sweep. The first reserve division is to remain on standby. Everyone else, see to your secondary assignments, but keep your blades nearby until the bells say otherwise. Go.” As the guards split up and moved off, the colonel turned to look at Cain. “Impressive. I understand why they speak of the Obsidian Dragon as they do.” His dark eyes glittered. The assassin was there on royal writ, but things were rarely as simple as they appeared. “Interesting that they sent you here. I wonder if the Crown expected trouble.” She a sudden shift in his manner the businesslike soldier turned into a man that seemed like he’d be more at home in a bar than on the field. “Colonel Charlie Reese. You’re looking for Amuné? You mean the slip of a girl that likes to hang around the Connor boys? I know her. Heard she kept checking on you over the past few days. I guess they chose the right man for the job.” Charlie didn’t know many details, but he’d heard enough that he’d made a few guesses as to what was going on. However the only answer he had to offer Cain would know was incorrect. “She should be at the main hall, what with dinner not being over yet. In emergencies, they split between dining hall and auditorium. You’ll have to ask staff which dorm is hers and where they’re assigned, but that’s who she’ll be with.” He gave a brisk nod and turned to deal with an approaching guard.