Cris wasn’t quite clear on the actions going on. For him Alessandro has been the lone guard who had decided to abandon his post and escort his mother across miles of wilderness with an accompanying caravan until they had reached the kingdom of Nurburg.

According to the stories told to him by his mother and Alessandro only in passing conversation, she had been protected by the old man from various threats along the way.

Even dealing with those trained guards inside the caravan who had either coveted his young mother, barely out of her teens, or the wealth that carried as an ex-noble from her homeland city state.

When Cris has asked the old man, he had just replied that he had two things, training and will. The eyes of some people revealed if they truly wanted to fight or wanted to run.

All he really knew about Alessandro was that he had been banished from the same home city his mother hailed from due to a duel gone wrong, he had been responsible for the death of one of the leading young nobleman who belonged to an important family.

The rest of his past he had always refused to answer. Whether he had been married once or had a family, Cris knew nothing about it. So, for him to turn out to be an assassin of some kind was shaping out his day to be an even more unusual turn of events. He half expected his life to be a lie by this point, as though those in power had decided to shape how he lived and what he chose.

All he could respond with was a single word when he was told by his butler, the Head Servant of his minor, obscure noble house who presently had a broken arrow shaft sticking out of his shoulder and had just wiped a trickle of blood from his mouth.

The soldiers lying behind him clutching a part of their bodies and the swords they had dropped on the floor was another consideration, so was the now old faced woman who was casually leaning against her seat in the carriage without a care in the world. Her entire posture and body movement showed the flexibility of a younger woman. She gave him a toothy smile with older teeth with a touch of decay.

‘Young Master Cifesboren. Meet Alessandro Malipierro, a former assassin of quite some renown in your mother’s homeland before he...vanished one day. A shame really, he was in high demand. The fact they never found a corpse made his legend grow even further. I would say that he’s aged like fine wine.’ said Lady Joanne.

Alessandro ignored the woman as he reached out an outstretched hand to Cris gesturing for him to take it.

The moans of the soldiers in the area beyond echoed in the courtyard, there was a large stone building, plain but strong with a single set of large wooden doors. It looked no different than any other structure aside from a flag indicating the presence of the Queen’s Guard hanging on a flagpole on the roof.

The horses in front of the carriage and kicked their hooves on the smooth paving which made up the flooring of the courtyard. There was the sound of sudden footsteps as a young voice of a teenage girl called out to the carriage.

‘Ma’am, is the training session finished with? The horses will need to be watered and taken to the stables. Me and Hubert are meant to take them to the stables and give them water and a brush down. They’re trained Ma’am but the noise of the guards still bothers them a little.’

Cris took the outstretched hand of Alessandro which gripped hold of his forearm before pulling him out of the carriage and behind him shielding his body.

He saw a young girl with short cropped cut brown hair and eyes wearing a plain light brown tunic, leggings and matching brown shoes. Next to her was a boy of almost similar age and outfit except for the fact that he had darker hair and a pair of reddish boots with scuff marks.

The girl was tall for her age, close to the height of Cris but thinner while the boy was stouter and thicker but not fat. One was holding a bucket and the other a horse brush attached to one hand.

Holding both hands up in a gesture of peace he turned towards Cris and flicked his eyes towards the open door of the carriage before be turned and gave a polite bow to the two young horse grooms.

‘Child, this is a dangerous place. You and your friend need to leave, but first tell me, do you have any fresh horses in your stables? You seem like you both love horses. They are lovely animals.’ said Alessandro.

His demeanour had changed and although his posture was alert he had changed his tone of voice to his more formal one of a Head Servant and Butler of a noble. His back was straight and if it wasn’t for the fact that he was armed, dressed in an unusual outfit with an arrow shaft sticking out of his shoulder Cris would have placed him as an acting manservant.

‘Ma’am? Are you still in the carriage? We want to take the horses to the stable. Do you work for the Lady misters? She’s a good person. Sometimes people think she’d bad but she’d a good person. She saved us. Hubert, you go and take one of the horses to the stable. I’m thinking we can go ahead and do it. The training session isn’t finished yet, we’ll be in the way. Excuse us Misters.’ said the young girl as she pulled on the boy’s sleeve and moved to the front of the carriage to attend to the horses.

The door to the carriage on the side of Lady Joanne swung open and she took a small careful step out, holding onto the frame as though to steady herself. Ignoring the look that Alessandro and Cris both gave her she walked to the front with small steady steps and spoke to the two young horse grooms.

‘Ah, Herbert and Gisela. How are my two favourite horse grooms today? I’m afraid that the training session is still ongoing for a little bit longer. If you could both please take the horses back to the stables, feed and water them and brush them down I’d much appreciate that. I’ve left a few baskets of uneaten food and drink fresh from the merchants inside the carriage if you’d like to finish them up or share it with your friends. I’d advise giving a basket to the Stable Master but if make sure that you tell them that it was my decision to share them. I’ll be checking, off with both of you then. You can leave the carriage where it is for now. I’ll ask inside for it to be moved later. Go on then, off with both of you.’ said Lady Joanne.

With a shooing gesture and a wink the two teenage horse grooms, went to the horses at the front of the carriage, unharnessed them and led both horses off to stables on a separate side to the large building.

Alessandro kept a careful eye on the movements of the two as he grabbed Cris under his arm and pulled him close whispering in his ear.

‘Cristiano, do not trust this woman. We can leave right now and I’m sure you have questions, you always did, but believe me don’t trust her. If you choose to stay I will respect your choice. I scouted briefly, others are inside the building. Dangerous types. I have my own methods of detection.’

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Lady Joanne with her old face and white hair devoid of colour straightened her back and strolled back to the outside of the carriage shrugging her shoulders before she pointed at the entry gate consisting of two towers and a portcullis, there was a single guard on duty holding a crossbow at the ready but he hadn’t made any further movement in their direction. Cris was certain that he saw a glint of metal in the sun of the morning in one of the towers but when he tried looking again it was gone.

‘As you can see, we have additional support in case of any...unwelcome attention.’ said Lady Joanne.

She held up a hand and made a gesture similar to the ones that Cris had seen Agnes make earlier, similar but different as though messier. The distinction was harder to make out in his mind. Despite his physical and spiritual exhaustion his aura senses activated as he was trained as he was able to make out a number of hidden soldiers in the towers. It would explain how his Head Servant Alessandro ended up with an arrow bolt in his arm.

Despite the time spent, the old man showed little or no discomfort with it. His face showed no signs of pain and he moved his body fluidly.

Likely, the strange coloured outfit had given him better protection than would Cris’s old, worn and frankly smelly noble clothing. He’d been wearing the same outfit since last night but nobody had yet to tell him that he’d smelled bad.

One of the benefits of Light and Purity Magic, shame it doesn’t clean them. He thought to himself.

‘Done. I’m assuming my guards are simply incapacitated and not at serious risk of death. I wouldn’t expect much less from your past reputation. I did a little research even if it did take me a few months to get a reply. Don’t fret you mature man, I always keep an eye out for the truly dangerous ones and given the necessity of protecting our Queen I need to observe any and all possible threats to her safety or that of the King Consort.’

Neither Alessandro or Cris made a sound but the older man did put one covered hand on the arrow shaft on his shoulder and tightened his teeth as he pulled it out and dropped in on the floor. Cris noticed that the wound was fairly clean and no blood ran out which surprised him. The broken arrow shaft had been deep enough in his arm but lying on the floor the tip of it was wrapped with pieces of material and barely any flesh or blood. The old man seeing that Cris was paying attention to him simply patted him on the shoulder and gave him a light squeeze before he smiled.

His creased features showed more than enough emotion. Despite his earlier demand and then warning, Cris hadn’t seen any reason to leave the vicinity of this courtyard. In case they were going to be rushed by a large group of soldiers who happened to be hidden in the building or the direction of the stables, he flared out his light aura and immediately wished he hadn’t as a blankness covered his eyes for the barest second as he experienced feedback.

The gifts of the Goddess Aliza were powerful but nothing magical had ever been used for free. He blinked his eyes and noted that he had detected no other hidden soldiers but there had been two marks of semi-deep corruption in the direction that the horses had been led in.

Animals in general withstood any forces of corruption or light and purity magic but could be harmed through it, as they lacked sentient souls they had little to fear.

Those two. They were corrupted, far worse than they seem. They need to be taken to the Asylum or see a priest but even that could be too late. Not long until they begin to change.

‘Gentleman, I’ve done nothing wrong. Alessandro, I even rescued your adopted grandson from a group of well-hidden cultists late last night and early this morning. The Queen’s Guard assisted of course, as did a few...agents and guest of mine but he did remarkably well holding out in a bad situation. Not that he was in any physical confrontation, you did a decent job in training him, however subtle that it was. He does tend to want to know the answers to a great number of questions. All of which I’m happy to...happy...Master Cifesboren. Your face remains an open book to all who see it and your emotions are worn as freely as that particular leather bracer with the blades on your arm. I know. The rest of my guards remain corruption free but those two young ones are not. I want to give them a sense of normalcy until they need to make the trip to the Asylum. I work for and follow the decrees of both our Queen and the Goddess alike. I promise they will attend there but not yet, not just yet. I think I’ve given enough, why don’t the both of you come with me, eat, drink have a change of clothes, have that wound seen to and I can explain the situation. I promise no threats or danger are waiting inside unless you choose to visit violence upon myself, my agents or my guests. Well?’ said Lady Joanne as she folded her arms and straightened her own posture.

She gave the impression of a strict teacher talking down to her students and reminded Cris of his time in the Academy, even a week ago he’d been occasionally given a dressing down for being late or chatting in his classes.

The hand of old man Alessandro holding onto his shoulder gave him another squeeze as he shook his head from side to side.

‘No, you don’t get to decide for me. Believe me Alessandro, I will have words with you later about this. Grandfather. Tell me, does everyone in the household know? The maids, the cook? You have no idea what I’ve gone through. I’m exhausted and want to simply rest, but at least this woman gave me a choice earlier. You may not trust her but I’m armed now and she’d done nothing to threaten me personally. I left the Academy behind, what else have I got in this city? Don’t pretend my mother takes any interest in me. Lady Joanne, thank you for your offer and my...Head Servant and I will take you up on it. Please, lead the way inside. I need a change of clothes and a quick wash first.’ said Cris as he shook the old man’s hand on his shoulder off and began to walk towards the lone single building in the centre of the courtyard.

He ignored the cries of pain from the guards lying on the floor and stepped over one of the swords dropped on the floor as he made his way to the twin wood door entrance. When he arrived at both doors, he pushed them open with a creak to be greeted with a familiar face.

The construct Ren was wearing an expensive embroidered golden robe with dragon patterns and patterns of lines in strange orders. The clothing was baggy enough to disguise its physical appearance although the face remained the same. Then it clasped two baggy sleeves together and gave a small bow to Cris before speaking and standing completely straight.

[Well done Young Master, you have won me a bet with Disease Master. He told me you would fight your way through the guards and I said you would use intelligence. Ah, welcome to your grandfather and the Catcher of Spies. Your hospitality has been deeply appreciated by this humble envoy from the Celestial Kingdom. Your map room and records of history in this region has made interesting reading. Your Dark Lord though was a little lacking in my opinion. He should have fought harder. A shame. Come Young Master, let me accompany you to the wash rooms. I have mapped this entire structure in my memory.]

Cris considered how best to respond for a moment before he bowed as best as he could in return. The lessons of nobility and how he needed to behave in the presence of a higher noble had been embedded in his memory deeply from both Alessandro and the various tutors he had when he was younger.

His actions appeared to please the construct who simply nodded and smiled.

Before he was able to introduce Alessandro he had bowed deeper than Cris but showed no sign of surprise at the sight of the construct before he titled his head and spoke several words in the same lyrical language which Cris had heard Lady Joanne, Maxton Ge and Ren talk together.

There was a meaning to the language, Cris identified several words which he had heard previously.

A type of greeting obviously but why does Alessandro know them?

Pausing the construct gave a sharp look at Lady Joanne before it shook its head and pointed at her and then at Alessandro before clasping hands together.

The Spymistress simply shrugged her shoulders and took the arm of Alessandro as she made a motion for Cris and Ren to move forward while she pulled the older man back with a smile and quick words and gestures.