His strategy was probably a smart one, since Marco's seething anger only grew with every step he took, along with his uncertainty. Finally reaching the end of the tunnel, Marco opened it to reveal a dark, narrow corridor. Stepping outside, he drw his staff, checking both ways before beckoning to Oci.
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"Is this still unguarded, or no?" Oci whispered, following Marco into the corridor. His heart was starting to beat faster, mostly because he was so excited. And kind of nervous. But still, they were kinda, maybe in the castle, and the king was in there as well. He held his own staff at the ready, even though he still wasn't sure what it could do.
"Just stay close to me, and do as I do." he said softly, leading him along the dark corridors, and up some stairs, before reaching another wall, pressing his hand against a specific block, opening another passage. "This one leads to the throne room"
"Alright." Oci nodded and followed Marco through the corridors. He was quite glad that there wasn't a lot of light. It made his job of hiding them– if needed– that much easier. Luckily, that wasn't needed, at least not yet. Oci frowned slightly at Marco once again knowing a secret passage, but decided it was best to ask these sort of things when they weren't being assassins.
Marco ignored the other's frown, and simply led him through the passageway, stopping near the end of it, listening to someone speak on the other side. Marco took a deep breath. "You ready to do this?" he asked, half for himself than for the other.
"Yes." Oci nodded. "I'm going to try and see if I can manipulate anyone's mind with this thing. And if not, stabbing always works." He shrugged. "Anyways. Let's go."
Marco nodded, pushing in another stone to open the passageway. The room outside the passage was very bright, and simply furnished. Marco stepped through with a serious look on his face, staff in hand as a group of four men stared in shock. Two of the men were advisers. One was actually a page, and the fourth. Marco's eyes locked on him with a look of controlled fury. He confidently strode to the dias. "Boy, I suggest leaving here now before you lose your life. And do not speak of what you have seen, or it will be your life." his eyes met the page's, and the boy ran for the door, leaving the three older men to stare at Marco in shock.
(So, before we continue Imma give some outside context on Marco's backstory. Basically I'm translating what I've been working on for Marco's storyline, into our plotline. So in my books, Marco is actually nobility in a city ruled by several clans of nobility, the heads of each house ruling the city in a council. Marco's family was attacked by hunters, who like to exploit shifter's abilities by keeping them as slaves.
But the big thing is; is that Marco's family was only attacked, because someone orchestrated it while his older brother and sister were away on business.
In the attack, his parents were taken captive, and he was forced to run with his younger sister into the streets, but in the end, his sister got caught too, and he was the only survivor.
Overall what I've kinda got going here, is Marco's family were the king's personal guards/spies/assassins, but the king turned on them one night, and locked his father and mother away, and took his sister, leaving him to be the only one to escape.)
(Okay, thanks! That is a pretty interesting background.)
Oci walked in after Marco, his demeanor changing ever so slightly, growing colder. "Hello, there." Oci grinned at the three men, keeping just behind Marco. After all, it was Marco who had a personal stake in all of this, not him.
(Thanks! Been working on it for awhile!)
Marco watched as the king rose to his feet, glaring at Marco, "So a Zeret (pronounced Zair-ey)teamed up with a criminal?" he asked, sneering.
"It was mutual necessity. And last I checked you're the one who betrayed us, so I have no ties." his voice held anger and venom as he spoke to the king, his stance one of clear defiance.
"Are you calling me the criminal? If so, thank you." Oci glanced at Marco, then back at the king. "Sorry to get in the middle of this glaring match, but what is a Zeret?"
One of the other men laughed, "He didn't tell you?" he said, "The Zeret's used to be the King's most trusted people, a clan of Shifters dedicated to the king's service, his spies, his assassins, his guards."
"Until the king betrayed us!" growled Marco, "He sent our strongest away on missions and is holding the rest captive who knows where!" he was seething with barely checked fury.
"Ah, I see." Oci nodded, his expression betraying none of his feelings. Which were mostly confusion and anger at the king for being so terrible. "Well, Mr. King, you are a terrible person. But you probably already knew that." He shrugged, waiting for Marco to attack. Oci was not about to deny him his revenge.
The king was about to retort to Marco's accusations as Oci spoke, but he wasn't given the chance as Marco drew a blade from his boot and flung it, narrowly missing the king's neck, lodging it in his shoulder, leaving Marco cursing as he shifted into a lion, aiming for the royal, ready for blood.
"Ooh, you do knives too! Fun." Oci nodded in approval. "Well, call me if you need me. I'm going to take care of those guys." He turned towards the two advisors, staff at the ready.
Marco ignored him as the king tried to run, quickly forcing him into a corner, "Bet you thought I died that night, right?" he asked, "Though I bled out in an alleyway? Dying while hiding from your guards?" he pulled the knife out of his shoulder and stabbed the king's arm.
Oci stopped a few steps away from the advisors and looked them over. They were both looking between him and Marco with looks of fear and shock on their faces. Oci pointed the staff at the closest advisor. Time to see if he could manipulate their mind in any way.
Marco let the king get up with a sadistic grin, pretty much playing cat and mouse with the ruler.
Oci concentrated on the advisor, hoping to make him think that his fellow advisor was his enemy. The advisor stiffened, then turned towards the other advisor, a murderous look in his eyes. "Oh, yeah!" Oci grinned, then glanced over at Marco.
Marco was busy stalking the king into another corner, growling at the terrified man.
"He looks like he's having fun," Oci said to himself, turning back to the advisors. The one he'd charmed was attacking the other with surprising ferocity, and the uncharmed one was doing all that he could to stay alive.
Marco eventually got bored, and pinned the royal down with a low growl, before ripping out his throat with his claws, standing and shifting back, watching Oci, waiting for him to finish.
The charmed one eventually managed to kill the other advisor and stood up, looking confused. Oci grinned and released him from his spell, then drew one of his knives. The man blinked, staring at the dead advisor in horror, then looked at Oci. He charged at Oci, his eyes wild. Oci sighed and killed him quite quickly. "Heh. That was sloppy." He looked towards Marco, then grinned at the dead king. "Guess we didn't need this to kill him, after all!" Oci held up the staff.
(boop)
(SORRRYYYYY!!!!!)
(Oh, it's fine. I saw your username thingy change, so I decided to move it to the top. :)