Lina etched closer to the warmth of the flame. The scorching embers raged in their prison of wood, sentenced to a life as short as it is brilliant. The beacon's heat the only bastion against the deathly cold desert night. Fierce winds whipped around the mouth of the cave that Lina and Luis had taken refuge inside.
"Is this really necessary?" Lina turned to ask Luis. "Shouldn't we be scouting or, or well anything? Surely it would be better for us to strike him now and take out their leadership before there is another battle?"
Luis extended a twig towards the blaze, softening a piece of cheese. "Our opportunity comes in three days. Friday, Darius will be holding a meeting. It would be much easier to strike him there as opposed to trying to make our way through an entire war camp."
"He has avoided the consequences of his actions for far too long. Friday is the day he dies, and not that day could not come any sooner."
"It's not a day that I look forward to."
"If you are apprehensive, I already said that you do not have to accompany me. Do you not trust I can get the job done on my own?"
"No, I don't," Luis said as he flexed the fingers of his left hand. "In fact, I'm unsure if we can take him on together. You know that the title of demon king is not one to be taken lightly. That moniker was earned by cruelty, yes, but efficacy as well. He has survived half a dozen attempts on his life thus far, and those are only the ones I know of."
Lina rose to her feet, extending her arms accusingly at Luis. "If you think it's so hopeless, then why didn't you speak up earlier! Does my father really hold that much sway over you? Are you not capable of making your own decisions?"
Luis gave no response. Lina sat back down and let out a sigh.
"Sorry for raising my voice. I merely wish that people would stop berating me for my decisions as if they had no semblance of thought put into them."
Luis removed his pointed hood and held it in his hands, testing the weight of the muted grey cloth as a butcher would a slice of meat. The roughness and cracked skin of his face betrayed a life long-lived.
"You are right. I'm afraid he does hold sway over me, sometimes more than I would like to admit to myself. He gave me my purpose, my title, my life. Saved me in a situation, not unlike this one."
He stripped off the glove that lay on his right hand to reveal a mechanical pinkie and ring finger. He adjusted a knob on the side of the set of fingers to extend them out and thrust his hands forward to warm them next to the flame.
Lina inspected the prosthetic. "But you're a legend. Undefeated, I had thought? Who could have gotten the better of you?"
"This was from back in my youth. Drunk off my prior successes, I sought to confront a particular mage, one Marcella Neve. She was relatively unknown at the time, so all I knew came from rumors. Rumors that her powers allowed her to create ice as cold as her own frozen heart. Found her at a guardhouse. She froze my hand straight to the bone. I was lucky I didn't receive worse."
"And my father, ahem, Alaric saved you then?"
"Distracted her. Led the witch off someplace else. Gave me time to warm my hand and check on those nearby. Found a few prisoners that had been caught in their holding cells. They never recovered, and I ended up taking things more seriously. Don't know if I could take her at my prime, and I heard that even she couldn't get Darius."
"So, just pack up and head home? Is that what you expect of me? The one person that beat you couldn't take out Darius, so we should just quit while we still can?"
"Fact of the matter is, you mess with a mage; someone is going to feel the consequences. You, their friends, your compatriots, or some poor soul caught in the crossfire, nothing is clear cut."
"And what if I still decide to go?"
"Better to confront the problem with company, maybe we can both make it out alive at least. Owe your father that much."
They sat in silence for a while as they began to prepare the site for an overnight stay. Luis unfurled a bedroll and started to beat it out.
"I've been asked to step down, and some folk wonder if I still have a place. This is the only life I have ever known. Will know. Can know. Yet, I fear that this is the last task I shall undertake."
Luis put his gloves back on and asked, "Why do you wish to confront this man? All tyrants are doomed by their nature, it's not your obligation to see his downfall personally. Can you not return to your province? Rule as your ancestors did?"
"Same reason as you, I suppose," Lina replied. "I've come too far to turn back now."
Luis pulled back from the fire, the dark recesses of the cave giving his face a different cloak. "Let's talk regicide then."
"What of the artifact?"
Luis dug around his coat and produced a small cage. "I had it examined. A trap only large enough to catch a minnow." Luis tapped at the bars of the cage. "Meant to catch the wayward souls of rulers of ages past. It's powerful to be sure, strong enough to still be functioning after Hegira, but it is ultimately useless. Unless you suspect Darius to be some manner of phantom or spirit, the best you could do is trap his soul after he has already died. Assuming you could find someone who knew how to work it."
"If that's a dead end..." Lina asked. "do you have a plan in mind?"
Luis laid down on the bedroll, draping an animal skin over himself. "Once he is isolated, we strike. Shouldn't be that much in the way of guards. Who knows? Maybe he will drink himself into a stupor."
"Doesn't seem like much of a plan," Lina said.
"As much as I resent the fact, sometimes we can not rely on carefully curated plans."
"Then what do we do?"
"Improvise."