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Genie looked at the picture, then back at Hang; “This man most likely wasn’t a real assassin, at least not in our sense of the word. He was probably a soldier that got accepted into the shinobi program, and subsequently washed out.”

“How can you tell?” he asked.

Genie held up the picture; “Aside from the fact that he was missing important details about his target? ..No professional would bring a personal item with him on a job, especially a picture of their child.”

“Is there any other significance other than that?” Hang asked ask Genie gently folded the picture, and held it out.

“Not that I can tell now. But I suppose we’ll know more when we find the girl,” Genie replied before turning away, and facing the empty courtyard; “Start with her clothes. They looked to be made of expensive materials. If you find the maker, you might find the girl..”

Out of nowhere, a shinobi came walking over from around the fountain. They grabbed the picture, nodded to Genie, then walked away without a word. Hang had seen it many times, but he realized then that he would never get used to it, no matter how many times he saw it.

“Come,” Genie stated after the ninja had disappeared; “My brother must be worried since we all ran out without warning. He can handle the rest of the meeting, if you want to go check on your daughter?”

Hang flashed a dismal expression for a split second before going back to his usual placid face; “Not now.. I’ll visit them later, before her bedtime. I’m sure that my Father-in-Law is sorely missing us, despite what you say.”

Understanding his avoidance, Genie grinned; “Alright, we’ll go back. I just don’t care for politics.. By the way, how did you know to follow after Tidas and I?”

.....

As he and Genie headed for the entryway, Hang replied matter-of-factly; “Because I saw Tidas run out first. If he’s running off after all the efforts he put into helping us, then I knew that it had to do with Skye. And she was with Mei and Rukia, so..”

Genie smirked; “Follow trouble and you’ll find trouble, as it were.”

Hang nodded as they left the courtyard, and went into Mei’s quarters. A worker sighed with relief, and turned to go back to work at a more leisurely pace when something in the corner of the courtyard caught his eye. He froze with fear as an eerie, man-shaped shadow appeared at the far end of the courtyard, then disappeared over the wall.

He rubbed at his eyes a moment, then turned back to his work. Writing off what he’d seen as an illusion, or a hallucination..

************

Tidas didn’t take long to find his wife, who was currently in the middle of playing with Rukia. They’d all been worried about how she would handle the attack, but she seemed fine at the moment. The one who seemed most upset was Mei.

It wasn’t the attempt on her life that had her shaking, but the fact that Rukia was included in the order as well. Hana made some tea with a bit of a special herb in it, which seemed to help, but Mei was still nearly frantic with worry for her daughter.

Tidas and Skye both tried to assure her that they would help protect her, but Mei snapped at them a bit..

“Are you two forgetting who my Uncle is? I know Exactly how easy it is for a trained shinobi to accomplish their goal. While I doubt most will even take the job because of who my Uncle is, someone with a grudge against him or my family could involve themselves..”

“My Uncle was very good at his job, for a long time. He has many enemies that would love to see him suffer, and causing the death of his family members is a very easy way to accomplish that.”

“But your uncle would Never allow that,” Hana interjected; “He has some of the best shinobi he has ever trained protecting this building. Only a person wishing for death would attack the family members of Jin Laos.”

“Or a desperate one,” Tidas commented absentmindedly; “I think the man that Skye fought in your courtyard was such.. Enough knowledge to accept the job and act, but not enough to survive. Based on my knowledge alone, I know that the man was in over his head, and I wasn’t even there.”

“In what way?” Mei asked.

“In every way,” Tidas replied after sipping his cup of regular tea; “If you think about it, no matter what the outcome was: that ninja wasn’t escaping. Genie’s guards monitor the outer perimeter, and basically everyone else’s guards monitor the rest. Hell, even ours have been taking shifts.”

Mei looked at him flatly; “If it’s so secure, then how did he get in, in the first place?”

Tidas sighed then went to reply, but Skye beat him to it; “That was probably Ahriman’s doin’.. I thought about that while I was playin’ wit Rukia, and it makes the most sense..”

“No one really kens Dark Magic’s capabilities, or limitations. Who’s ta say cloaking isna one of’em? It would also explain why we havena been able ta find the bastard yet,” Skye sat down next to her husband as she finished speaking.

Rukia had gone off to eat some fruit, and play with her dolls. She wanted to brush their hair, which only took one person to do. But Skye did promise to resume playing after she was done ‘making them pretty again’.

The feisty bairn was more or less reenacting her aunt’s fight scene with happy gusto, but she didn’t like the disheveled appearance of her dolls afterwards. Skye had told her that fighting was messy business, so Rukia decided that her dolls were done with all of that.

The conversation had brought a smile to her face, which had been sorely needed. The picture of the assassin’s child had hit her hard, and it was weighing heavily on her. While she would never regret saving Mei and the others, the thought of a man leaving behind a young child had her questioning why she hadn’t tried harder to come up with a way to beat him, but not kill him.

Tidas knew that his wife was suffering from misplaced guilt, and was trying to hurry their visit along, but he also knew that reassurances needed to come from others first..

“Ahriman can’t do anything with us around. Between our abilities and Genie in general: nothing is going to happen to anyone on our watch. Just like how Skye handled it in the courtyard earlier.”

Both Mei and Hana’s eyes lit up as Mei spoke first; “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe that I haven’t even thanked you for protecting us before!”

Mei reached out, and grabbed ahold of Skye’s hand; “I can never express how grateful I am to you-”

“Na, Nope! No, no, no,” Skye stammered as she slowly pulled her hand back; “Ya dinna need ta thank me. What was I supposed ta do? Let him kill ya?”

Hana leaned forward in her seat; “No, you could’ve left it to me, which would’ve gotten them killed..”

Clenching her jaw, Hana added; “The shame I feel for not being the one to have ended that monster..”

Skye snapped her head up; “Why would ya say that? Do ya think that Mei and Rukia would still be here, had ya not been there then? The only reason I was able ta fight off that guy was because you were there. Otherwise, he woulda been solely focused on killin’em. Whether ya acknowledge it or not, they be alive now cause you were their shield.”

Hana visibly relaxed a bit after that, but Skye was still a ball of intensity by the time they’d left. Rukia wound up falling asleep after her snack, so the two Alconian royals excused themselves. They’re been through quite an ordeal, and needed the time to recollect themselves.

Tidas walked beside his wife as they headed for their room. At first, everything seemed normal. Until Skye had picked up her pace, and appeared to become annoyed when Tidas had caught up to her. Before she started to practically jog the rest of the way to their room, Skye stopped and snapped a bit at her husband.

“Don’t ya got somewhere else ta be?! I dinna need a babysitter..”

Tidas quirked an eyebrow at her; “If you really want to be alone, then I’ll go. I understand if you want some space after what happened.”

Skye scoffed; “I do want ta be alone, but tis nothin’ ta do wit what happened.”

“...Okay. If that’s your wish-”

“Why would I be bothered, anyway? Killin’ that assassin was nae different from killing a soldier on the battlefield. So why?! Why would I be upset by that?!”

Tidas stared at his wife with a slightly pained expression; “Because you’re a good-hearted person. And even though you know that you were defending innocents, you still took a life of a loving father..”

Tidas wrapped an arm around his wife’s waist as he spoke with a gentle voice; “Killing on a battlefield for a cause and fighting an opponent to the death one-on-one are two different beasts. Watching red wash over a sea of faces is far different from actively fighting someone in single-combat..”

“There’s no time to check for personal effects, no time to relate to the soldier you’ve killed. To see that the only real difference between you two is that one was unwittingly rooting for the losing side. We’re all just people trying to live the best we can..”

“....How often do ya think about this stuff?” Skye asked with a contemplative expression.

“Everyday,” Tidas replied without skipping a beat; “Don’t forget that my body count is much higher than yours. I question myself every day. Am I making the best choices? How many others will benefit from my decisions? It’s my duty because of the lives I carry, and will have to answer for one day.”

Skye grew silent and started walking again. She understood how kindhearted her husband was, and yet he had killed hundreds by now, if not thousands. He was called everything from a saint, to a monster, depending on where you were. Yet he was still able to remain the same gentle man that would put a moth outside instead of killing it.

“To be honest, every time I take a life, it feels like a tiny piece of me is lost..”

Tidas nodded; “Honestly? I used to believe that, too. It was like a hollow was forming in my chest, and the only time the empty feeling disappeared was when I was in battle, making it bigger. It was a never-ending, vicious cycle...Until I focused on Why I was doing what I was doing in the first place..”

When he saw the curious confusion on his beloved wife’s face, Tidas grinned and said; “Us.. Everything I do, or have ever done: was for us and our future children. I know that sounds selfish-I should’ve wanted to stop slavery and help the less-fortunate because it’s the right thing to do. But that’s not why I did it..”

“I did it for you, Skye,” he added as their door came into view; “To be blunt, I honestly don’t care about most outside of my family. But I knew that seeing slaves would make you angry on their behalf. I knew that if you saw people wasting away in the street from hunger, or dying of treatable illnesses, it would break your heart..”

“I don’t ever want to see any amount of pain on your face, so I’ll do anything I can to make you happy. If I have to save this entire bloody planet to ease your heart, I will.”