BRETVER 28TH YEAR 552 ASMERIAN CALENDAR.
Jackson watched out the window as a thunderstorm approached from the south. The amount of rain was impressive even from afar. The lightning lit up the sky and as the storm moved closer the booming of thunder also filled the air. Yumi entered the room, it was a guest room that was being prepared for the special visitor that Lord Daniels told everyone about. "Master Scottkey?" He asked as he stepped next to him. "What are we going to do about the visitor? I mean you said it yourself, he might take you away or even Ruby."
"I know, I know, I've been thinking it over and I have a plan, you just need to be ready to do as I tell you."
"I will be master, what about Io?" Yumi seemed on edge and was fidgeting his hands.
"What goes for you goes for your sister as well Yumi, Io is a brilliant girl." He said as he headed towards the door. "Just remember, when Carter comes for you, don't hesitate or you'll regret it."
"Of course, master." Yumi said as Jackson left the room. He turned and went about his duties, dusting and cleaning the windows.
Jackson continued down the hall making his way upstairs to the Lord's chambers, there was a guard outside resting against the wall, once the guard saw him, he snapped to attention. "Who goes there?" The man asked.
"A humble servant, Scottkey, at your service master." Jackson said as he bowed his head. He had been practicing that for days as Lord Daniels had called him to his quarters twice before.
"You shall pass, my lord is present in the chambers." The guard swung open the door and Jackson entered. Lord Daniels was sitting at his desk with a pile of papers and letters stacked up on either side. The room was larger and had two doors leading to a private bath and closet on the left side entering the room. And between the doors was a large bed with a chest placed at the foot of the bed.
The door slammed shut and Lord Daniels jolted and swept the tip of his pen across the sheet of paper he was so diligently working on. He snapped the pen with rage and threw all of the papers off of the desk.
"Fucking shit, what the actual fuck is fucking wrong with you people!" He snapped. "Scottkey, bring that moron in here right the fuck now!" Lord Daniels was furious as he stood up, his chair flew backward tipping over as he went to the closet.
"As you wish my lord." Jackson said as he fetched the guard. The guard who was terrified stood in the center of the room shaking like a wet mut.
"The seventh fucking time today, that gives enough reason for me to call you a spy of Gregoria!" Lord Daniels barked as he emerged with an all too familiar sword in his hands. It was a black as the night sky and pure peiron. He raised the sword as if to stab the guard through the chest and as he thrusted forward the sword disappeared from his hands. "What? Where'd it go?" He asked, confused.
"You're all too quick to call other's traitors when you're the only one in sight. Stop blaming others for your own wrong doings." Jackson said as he held his sword up to the light and examined it from top to bottom. Jackson held it firmly in his hands and gripped it tightly. "Now, here's one of two where's my father's sword at?" He asked as he checked his reflection in the blade. It was pitch black then he held at an angle to where the guard would be reflected into it and his reflection was clear as day. "Still got it." He muttered to himself.
"Your father's sword? I melted that down long ago and sold the steel off to a passing merchant now, give me that sword, I'll melt it down as well!" Daniels ordered but as he reached out for the sword Jackson took a single step back and in one swift movement Lord Daniels arms fell to the floor. Before he could even let out a whimper his head fell to the floor and rolled underneath the bed. The sound of his body crashing against the chest at the foot of his bed caught Zena's attention.
"Is everythin…" She came out of the private bath completely nude and still brushing her hair. Jackson leapt over the corpse and bed straight to her. She turned and slammed the door shut as she screamed. Jackson stabbed the peiron sword through the door and as he pulled the sword out from the door blood leaked from the hole in the door. He slowly opened the door and peeked inside. The tip of the sword pierced her heart and blood was spewing out from the open wound. As she was passing, she turned her head to look Jackson in the eyes and all he could do was smile. "Don't worry, your child won't pay for your sins." He said as he knelt next to her. Her eyes turned purple and faded in color.
He stood up and glared at the guard. "So, what are you going to do now? You were almost executed for the simple mistake of shutting a door harshly. I don't think that would sit well with me if I were in your boots."
"No, no it doesn't, Scottkey, what are you going to do?" The man asked, "It's not like you can escape with your life should you get captured again; you're eighteen now."
"Well, it depends, I'm the son of Connor Scottkey after all, I'm well educated in the art of deception."
"Even still, you slaughtered a nobleman of Asmeria."
"And you were almost slaughtered by a nobleman of Asmeria." He readied himself to fight the guard but to his surprise the guard knelt and bowed his head. "What's your name man? If you're with me, I'll have to call you something."
"Keller, Anton Keller." The man said. Jackson backed down and lowered his sword.
"Any relation to Mattis Keller who worked for my father?" He asked, he was suspicious of the man.
"Yes, yes sir, he was my uncle." He replied surprised.
"Tell me everything you know about him, now." Jackson asked as he sat down on the chest that laid at the foot of the bed.
"He ran a store in Greendale for a few years until your father bought it from him and hired him as a manager. This was just after Lord Daniels took control of power in Greendale. I know he had two slaves he treated as his own but I never learned their names, so I came here. I've been looking for them ever since and I've found a lead or two."
"Oh, what would you do if I were to tell you I knew who and where they were?"'
"I would be even more in your debt; my uncle was a very important man to me."
"Very well, first things first, you stand guard at the door. I need to make a thing or two. Do not leave my sight or I will not hesitate to lop your head off." Jackson said as he opened the drawer of the desk. He rummaged around but found nothing. He turned to the bookshelf and threw all the books to the floor still he could not find what he was looking for. Then he turned to the chest. He rolled the corpse aside and opened the chest wide open and in the bottom was exactly what he was looking for. A nobleman's seal, if was a death sentence to be caught with one, however, it was also a death sentence to murder a noble.
He turned to the desk and found another pen and a clear piece of parchment. "The Daniels do have a child, right? I heard something about him having a child, but I have never seen it."
"Yeah, they have a girl from what I understand, but I don't think she's here." Anton said as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "May I ask why you want to know?"
"Well, it's good to know if I'll have some brat coming after my head in a decade or so. And besides, might as well ask. I mean, I did kill her parents." He finished writing on the parchment and folded it up then stamped it. "But I'm not about to kill a child I've never met yet. So, don't worry about it Anton, now take this and present it to any guard we come across."
He shoved the parchment into his pants and looked back in the chest. There was a large sheet of brown fabric inside that he noticed when searching for the stamp. He took the fabric and wrapped his sword in it. "Alright, when does the guard change?" He asked as he headed back to the desk to see if there was anything he could use there.
"In an hour or so."
"Well, now we wait, go stand guard outside and wait there for the guard to come up. When they get here do, they speak with him or not?" He said as he pointed to the corpse.
"No, no we hardly ever speak to Lord Daniels unless he calls on us or when he leaves or enters the chambers." Anton said as he straightened out his uniform. "You know, I never thought I'd meet you in person while being here. The other day when I saw you for the first time, I was kind of shocked to say the least."
"Thank you, but I'm nothing special, I just rely on everyone who supports me. They even support me when I have nothing to give back." He started work on yet another letter and opened a letter that Lord Daniels wrote. It even had his signature on it. "Perfect, now all I need to do is make the best forgery this country has ever seen."
"I'll be right outside Scottkey, I trust you have a plan for everything?"
"Not everything, just what I expect to come, now when the next guard comes knock twice then three times on the door and I'll come out." Jackson said as he turned his attention to the corpse.
Anton shut the door behind him and rested against the wall. It was boring being a guardsman in the castle, there was nothing more to do other than pace around aimlessly. Anton was relieved that Jackson was there, and the lord and his wife were dead. He rolled up his sleeve and looked at the branding on his arm. It was enforced that all commoners serving the lord were branded and tattooed as servants of the lord. Not just for the northern territory that Lord Daniels ruled. He took out his pocketknife and scratched around the edge of the brand as if to cut it out from his arm when the relieving guard came up the stairs and down the hall. He was a fat man standing only five and a half feet tall. His name was Ramz, and he was rather slow mentally.
"Good afternoon Ramz," Anton said, welcoming him. "you're my replacement, right?"
"Yeah, Smith was asleep, so Sir Fjord made me come up here. They like to push everything on me because I'm dumb."
"You're not dumb Ramz, you're just a little different, Lord Daniels is busy right now, so I have to notify him by knocking." Anton knocked on the door twice and then gave a small pause then knocked three more times. "Alright Ramz, I'm going to leave it to you now, if you need anything you know who to contact."
"Yeah, I'll see ya later Anton." Ramz stood next to the door as it creaked open and Jackson whose hands were covered with the black mist emerged from the lord's chambers. "What the hell?" Ramz said before he lost consciousness. Jackson held out his hand and the mist forced its way into his body through his nose. "No one was inside, and the Lord is not to be disturbed." Jackson whispered into his ear. "You will wake up slowly with a slight headache and resume your keep duty."
Jackson jumped up and started running down the hall and Anton followed. "What was that?" Anton asked as he followed Jackson down the stairs.
"A simple use of magic, he won't remember a thing and he'll hold his post and ward off any visitors that might enter the chambers now." Jackson stopped running as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "Here this one is for you, meet us at the southern gate. You will finally be able to free Yumi and Io if you do. Don't lose that and do not break the seal I made it as a ledger to match mine. Also take my sword, you'll give it to the guard with me at the gate, his name is Carter Evans."
"Okay, when will I join you at the gate?"
"Just keep your eye on it and join us when you see us there." Jackson slowed his breathing and held his hand against his chest to check his heart rate.
"What about the bodies? Won't they be discovered?"
"I doubt it, when I told the guard not to let him be disturbed it was with the pretext that he'd be executed if anyone entered during his shift."
"That's twisted, so he'll defend the chambers with his life… that would also make him look guilty."
"Yeah, well, we can only hope that he's put to blame. Remember what I told you, expect to be leaving in less than an hour." He said as he walked away.
He made it outside of the keep and to his dorm, where Carter was waiting on the porch. He also noticed Yumi looking out of the window, the front door was cracked, and smoke was pouring out from the flame lit inside.
"You ready?" Carter asked standing up straight.
"Yeah, everything's set, we have someone else coming with us. Lord Daniels almost took his head, so I trust him. Did you fetch everyone's cloaks and bags?"
"Yes, they're inside waiting for you."
"Good, let me see what you got." He opened the door and looked around, there were five cloaks hanging from the clothes line along with satchels and food. Ruby was standing next to and tending the fire, she had a long steel pike to move the logs around as the fire consumed them.
"Welcome back, did you do it?"
"Yeah, we're leaving." Jackson said as he pulled the folded piece of parchment from his pants. "Yumi, Io, grab your things and remember, don't say a word unless you're asked to by another guard or Carter. Ruby, are you ready?"
"Of course, please, get us out of here." Ruby said as she wielded the steel pike.
"Hopefully you won't have to use that, but you never know. Alright, Anton will meet us at the gate, he has a set of orders that will help validate ours. Carter, we're going to go down in history for this." Jackson now grinning from ear to ear laughed. "You know, I've never thought that I'd be able to do it."
"Do what Jackson?" Ruby asked.
"Give you true freedom."