2The man stood to the side of Sigue's desk, his indigo eyes watching Sigue scratch out an order to one of his men. Overall, the man was a patient man but today, he had no time to waste as Sigue issued execution orders to people he had meant to kill along. Tilting his head slightly, the man noticed with slight bemusement that the lord had taken to writing with one of the bronze pens notorious for leaking.
"What do you want?" Sigue asked finally when he carefully placed the pen down and removed an ink-stain towel from inside a desk drawer. The paper had been ruined by the unexpected leakage of his pen. Of course, Sigue should have known not to dawdle on his calligraphy with someone as important as this particular man in his presence.
"You do not have the crystal in your possession," the man said as he carefully adjusted the folds of his gold-trimmed, white sleeves. Someone once mentioned that someone with as much evil as him should wear black, not white, but if the man had known anything, he should have realized that while black absorbs all light, white reflects it.
"Sure I do," Sigue said sarcastically as he produced a small but powerful green crystal from his pocket. The man merely gave him a warning glare as he stopped fussing with his robes. Sigue laughed slightly as he pushed the stacks of thick paper off the desk with one sweep of his left arm. "You have my undivided attention, now speak," Sigue said coldly in an attempt to show his displeasure. It was actually quite useless in this case for the man did not care what Sigue felt just as long as he proved to be successful.
"I am worried about the method you have chosen to retrieve the crystal," the man said as he nudged a piece of paper with his foot. It would appear that Sigue had written several drafts of an order to kill this special person. "Even after I gave you the exact location."
"Oh all-knowing master," Sigue hissed mockingly as he closed his eyes. This man, he was indeed was skilled when it came to foretelling the future. Sigue was positive that not even his previously employed seer could not have picked up with the delicate plan his personal hunter had created to retrieve the crystal.
"This girl… Jeanna is her name? What makes you think she will not betray you like some of your other retainers seem to be doing?"
"She is a teenager, a teenager who thinks she has found love," Sigue laughed as he stood up and walked over to a tall bookcase. The bookcase itself was almost bare except for the top shelf, which held several thick volumes consisting on various translations and versions of ancient legends.
"No, she is a dangerous teenager who is willing to betray a friend of hers for the chance at power," the man corrected as he quickly stepped over to the bookcase. He did not like the look in Sigue's eyes when he started searching the volumes. Had he learned exactly what the man was?
"She will prove to be a valuable asset later on," Sigue said as his fingers slowly ran over the bindings of the books as if he was trying to find a perfect read for a cold winter night by the fire. Yet, it was summer and none of those books contained stories that led to good dreams. "A very good adept," he added as he removed his hand from the books and decided to keep the man trapped in fear for a little while longer. An adept, someone skilled only in the neutral magic but with common powers like telekinesis, could be just as deadly as any crystal user.
"Or she could go power hungry and kill half your army," the man said as he wrung his hands angrily. Sigue, he just laughed as if the man's predictions were nothing! Maybe he does deserve to die slowly from lack of oxygen to the brain when the girl stops his heart, the man thought as his mind instantly sought out strains of time with that ending to Sigue's life. Surprisingly, he found quite a few of them but not enough to consider it probable.
"Now," Sigue said with a mock bow, "I have to arrange an execution. How angry do you think the citizens will be when they find out that Akantha was shot accidentally up at that little mountain retreat her family has been keeping?" He produced a piece of paper folded twice into a square from one of his breast pockets.
"Enough to overthrow you," the man said honestly as his mind automatically showed him glimpses of the future. Sigue once again laughed as he left the man alone in the study. Staring up at the books, the man reached out for one in a desire to know what knowledge the authors could have had about his kind and more specifically, whatever information there was about his previous aliases in history.