A long corridor stretched across a building, with walls to one end and windows to another. The window panes were carved from wood, which had decayed over time. Creepers growing along with the windows, finding their way into the corridor. The sunlight beamed in through the windows and lit the otherwise dark and gloomy corridor.

A man paced his way across this corridor straight to the other end, he looked worried with a sense of urgency. He ran across the entire length of the corridor till he reached the front of the huge door which was shut close. He stopped and arched his back, resting for a moment. Then without wasting a moment he pushed the doors ajar. On entering the room he stopped right at the entrance, bowing his head lightly to the man who was standing in front of him. The man in front of him was tall, olive-skinned. His fat face held harsh angles warmed only by deep grey eyes. He wore a brown casual outfit with a red armorial wheel crest at the shoulder.

The panting messenger who had run to the room bent in front of him, conscious of his posture. He knelt and watched his master who was covered in blood. A woman squalling under his thick boots. The woman's hands and legs were brutally damaged, her hair had been shaved off and her body was covered in cuts. But the most shocking feature about the woman was her face, it was completely burnt, even the eyes were scorched to such an extent that they had turned black.

"What is it Khudini?" the master asked calmly.

"Sire, there is a man here who wants to meet you, he hasn't disclosed his identity but he says he knows something about the deaths of the young masters."

Not once did this master of the messenger lose his calm, even when he tortured the woman under his feet, his eyes didn't falter. He went on about it as if it was just any other job. But on hearing the last few words from Khudini his eyes lit up. His calm eyes were now wavering with eagerness and curiosity. He stepped off the woman's face and commanded the servants in the room, "Hang the whore with the other prisoners, I'll get back to her once I'm done here."

Khudini walked with earnest steps behind his master, reaching the outer room where the guest was waiting for them. Right as their master entered the room, all the servants and other members of the household immediately bowed. They were not very fond of their master and neither did they respect him. But he was a first-tier, as members of the lower-tier they had now become accustomed to serving members of the community higher up in the tier system. Even the guest who had arrived bowed lightly and then again took his seat once the master of the house had taken his seat. Khudini gestured all the other servants to leave the room and took his place behind his master.

"Speak, what news you have for me." The master of the house spoke with hostility.

"It is an honour to meet you Wazir..."

"Just tell me what you know, don't bother with formalities", Wazir interrupts his guest.

The dark-skinned man, wearing a turban on his head giggles softly and then comments, "I can see you are quite desperate." He observes Wazir's clothes which were still covered in blood.

"Don't mistake my curiosity to be my weakness," Wazir warns his guest in a stern voice.

With a light scoff and rebellious eyes the guest continues, "I am Segmun and I bring a message from Aguero Francis, a name you must be aware of."

"The leader of the 'Senya'." Wazir softly remarks.

"Precisely, we believe the men who killed your sons at the bar and blew the face off the woman they were with are an acquaintance of ours. An acquaintance that we're not very fond of."

"Who? Who was it?"

"A man you must have heard stories of, Dev Zuluk."

"Dev Zuluk! Why would a Zuluk kill my children, the woman who was with them at the time pointed it was some dealer who they had invested in. They had an altercation and my sons nailed one of them to the wall but they were tricked. Which ultimately led to their death."

"Well it's a pity that your sons didn't know they were dealing with a Zuluk, but what I know now is that both you and I have a common enemy." Segmun adjusts his turban and gets up. Khudini immediately brings his hand closer to his dagger ready to attack in a flash. Segmun gently moves closer to Wazir, he then bends his knee and speaks softly, "As an old member of the society, you have considerable influence and power. But this is Dev Zuluk we are talking about, he and his siblings even destroyed the 'Prabal'. On top of that, you being in the Central marginalizes your power in the Independent. But together we can put an end to this, lend us your strength and together we can finish the Zuluk."

***

In an old underground basement-tunnel like structure. Charun and Dev along with the other boatmen and Rishu are seen storing the consignment in the basement.

Finishing their work all of them start heading out of the tunnel. After exiting from a makeshift sliding door, Rishu starts covering up their tracks. Being a kusokan he uses his super-speed to cover it up with bushes and remove all the footprints around the area. Completing his task in a matter of few seconds, he stops by where everyone had already gathered waiting for him.

Dev meanwhile hands over the boatmen their cut. After exchanging pleasantries the boatmen leave while Charun, Dev and Rishu wait.

Suddenly the air of professionalism each of them was carrying breaks.

"Don't tell Benisha that you were attacked by Echeneis. She'll lose her shit and won't let you head to work again." Dev breaks the silence with a sigh.

"I wasn't going to," Rishu replies with a pleasant smile.

Wrapping his arms around Rishu, Charun remarks, "So, little brother how was your first job?"

"You have no idea, how thrilling it was. The Echeneis were huge and tugging at our boats like trying to rip them apart. Then the canal we travelled through was filled with..."

"Calm down boys, the boatmen haven't cleared the forest yet. So let's try to keep his identity hidden for a little while longer." Dev interrupts Rishu's excited narration.

"You over-do things Dev!" Charun scoffs.

"Say's the man who needlessly killed two people in a bar fight." Dev promptly responds.

"You killed again!" Rishu exclaims with surprise. "Benisha is going to kick you out of the house."

"Who's going to tell her?" Charun shrugs, "And I did it for him." He points at Dev.

"Yeah right, as if he needs saving from local ruffians." Rishu giggles heartily.

"He was unnecessary downplaying it, for no good reason," Charun complains.

"Because we were not to attract attention, and don't get me started on it. Those two and the women with them came from money. We might have made new enemies by killing them." Dev admonishes Charun.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"They didn't know who we were and even if they did, let our enemies come to us. It'll be the end of them." Charun lashes out proudly.

"Your over-confidence scares me." Dev sighs, He turns his gaze to Rishu and bends down to his height, holding his shoulder with both his hands, he gazes deep into his eyes. "Rishu before we head home, I need to ask you this... did you have to kill?"

"No, the route you told us about didn't lead to a scenario like that."

"I'm glad it didn't." Dev smiles meekly.

Looking around the forest, and observing the area around them carefully Dev speaks, "It's clear, sound the whistle Charun."

Charun takes out a small steel whistle from his pocket and blows it loudly. After a few minutes a dark-tall man, well-built and with unkempt hair arrives with four horses in toe. He looked old, quite aged but in actuality, he was as young as Charun and Dev.

"Fine morning Leander." Dev greets the newcomer.

"Fuck off Dev, out of all the days, you had to pick today." Then turning his gaze to Rishu, "Oh our Lil hero is back, so how was it? Your sister was worried sick."

"Hey Leander, It went smoothly, fortunately," Rishu answers while scratching his head with a smile.

"Great then head out you guys. I'll take it from here." Leander takes charge.

"Also Charun, Dev there are some men asking after you. Not really great company to keep. Also, I hope you haven't covered the pitch too much, you guys go too far with your acting."

The three of them look at each other and smile wryly.

They get on their respective horses. Dev, Charun and Rishi head out leaving Leander behind as he gets to work.

***

After travelling on horseback for several hours, they reach an opening through the denser forest. In the opening, a huge encampment had been laid out with one prominent structure right at the back of the encampment.

"Feels good to be back home," Rishu remarks softly.

"It sure does." Dev readily agrees. The three of them slowly trot their horses to the large wooden and steel doors of the encampment. As they approach the gates, it opens and reveals the way into the encampment, stretched out around the entire encampment there are various tents and tin houses. With people bustling through the thin lanes. As soon as the people set their eyes on the three horse-riders they immediately seize whatever they're doing and stand respectfully. Dev leading the way rides on while Charun and Rishu follow closely behind, as they pass through the lanes surrounding the houses, people softly cheer and exchange pleasantries in a respectful manner.

Reaching towards the end of the encampment where there was another house, the largest of all the houses with the words, 'Zuluk' carved onto one of its pillars.

They reach near the door of this house and get off their horses, tying them to the horse stables constructed adjacent to the house. Right at that moment, a young woman comes out of the house before they could begin to approach it. She was young and tall with long brown hair, black eyes, her cheeks red and her face extremely fair. She quickens her pace and walks towards Rishu who was walking ahead of the others, she embraces him tightly.

"I missed you, little brother"

"I was gone for only two months sister," Rishu replies coyly.

She then looks at him and rubs his hair, "Felt like an eternity."

Behind the young woman, two small kids popped their heads out. A boy about twelve years of age and a girl around ten. Rishu's eyes light up when he sees them and hurridly embraces his younger brother and sister.

The young woman stands up and walks over to greet her other family members.

She hugs Dev, who gently accepts her hug. "If only the world could see this side of Benisha, The cruel." Dev then moves on inside with his younger sibling tugging on his long coat like crabs.

Benisha then goes to hug Charun.

"Oh no, I'm a big boy." He lifts his hands in resistance.

Benisha anyway heads in to hug him.

Helplessly putting his arms down, "You are super annoying Benisha."

"Stop cribbing as soon as you've come, Raheem's made dinner."

"Aha! Finally something I like to hear." A gallant smile appears on Charun's face.

They both then head in walking side by side.

***

The first room from the main door of the Zuluk residence is an enormous hall. A huge cushion like seat (Futon) is placed around the edges of the walls for guest to sit. An archaic and poorly constructed dining table placed right in the middle of the room with chairs around it. On the table, there are two huge pots. The entire room is lit up brightly with candles and a few solar charges. The youngest of siblings, Iqbal and Sameera are fondly listening to the stories of their elder brother who they haven't seen in over two months. All three of them are seated on the futon with plates in front of them as they dig in. Benisha is seated in a small tool next to the kids with a drink in hand. While Dev is serving food to everyone gathered in the room. Raheem, the eldest in the room, is playfully touching his long-white beard and narrating legends of the old. Charun is seated on a chair, directly opposite Benisha, with his plate in hand, gulping down the food hurriedly. Ensuring that everyone has been served, Dev keeps the serving platter on the table behind Charun and takes his seat on the empty chair next to Charun.

This hustle-bustle is brought to a sudden end with a loud explosion. The entire house begins to tremble with dust and small debris falling from the ceiling. The huge explosion is followed by pin-drop silence, each family member trying to contemplate the reason for the explosion. Their gazes meet each other, displaying the surprise in their eyes, just then they hear a thud at the main door causing the main door to come crashing down revealing a group of men standing outside in Ngyuyen Armor. One of the men confidently walks into the residence with a dagger in hand and speaks in a loud hostile voice.

"Out of you group of fools which one goes by the name of Dev?"

No immediate response follows an awkward silence envelops the room. The absolute silence is brought to an end with the screeching noise of the legs of the chair. Pushing his chair back, Charun gets up from his seat. He turns to keep his plate on the chair and then begins to walk towards the man standing at the entrance looking back at him with a confident smile.

"You're Dev...."

Before he could make any sense of the sentence, Charun squishes his face with his dirty hand, smearing the food all over the unwanted guest's face.

"Not in front of the young ones Charun!" Dev tries to stop him.

The men who had come with the attacker were standing outside, but the moment they saw Charun grabbing their leader's face they rushed in. The temperature of the room suddenly beginning to rise and warm winds begin to revolve around Charun and the attacker. The moment Charun grabbed hold of his face, the attacker's arms and legs began to shiver and he let the dagger fall to the ground as he let out a gut riddling cry. He fell to his knees, his whole face was melting. Blood pouring out from both his eyes and nose. His face changing shape to such an extent his cries became curdles.

"Charun let him go," Dev commands Charun again.

This time he complies, the man falls to the ground, blood flowing from his mouth, eyes and nose. The group of men who were following him stared at Charun in horror and surprise. They stood in fear unable to move based on how easily their leader was overpowered.

Easing their tensed faces, Dev speaks up, "I'm Dev, what news do you bring?"

***

Inside a dimly lit bedroom, Wazir sits on his lavish couch sipping on his ice-cold drink.

"You look worried sir?" Khudini curiously enquires.

"Yes Khudini, it worries me that the man who killed my son is a Zuluk and more importantly why would a Zuluk take money from my sons under disguise. The Zuluk family has many enemies sure but they also have many powerful friends. In fact there's a rumour that the great Malar has also shown interest in the Zuluk."

"How much money did my sons withdraw Khudini?"

"Seven million turs sire." (Approximately ninety-seven thousand US dollars)

"Idiots! Withdrawing that whopping sum behind my back and making an enemy of the Zuluk."

"Don't worry sir, I don't know much about the Zuluk family. But I am sure it's not something we can't handle." Khudini confidently announces.

"It's not that I don't have faith in your skills but what worries me Khudini is what did the Zuluk family exactly need that kind of money for, also you shouldn't underestimate them, especially Dev Zuluk."

"Leander, the benevolent.

Benisha, the cruel.

Charun, the fierce.

Geet, the trickster.

Rishu, the innocent

and Dev,

The reason why there's no adjective associated with his name is that the man has no consistent pattern of behaviour. Making him absolutely unpredictable and most lethal out of all of them. Plus defeating the Prabal, the second strongest regiment in the Central army is no joke."

"With all due respect, the Prabal is not as strong as it was in the old days, today the Atisi is considered a stronger faction than the Prabal. And my lord I mean no disrespect but Prabal is the third-strongest military regiment in the Central not the second." Khudini carefully paces his words.

Wazir burst into a short laugh, "You and your fantasies, still referring to the Irya as the strongest. It's a fantasy, an old legend. There are no Irya's left, they're all dead."

"No sire, I truly believe they're still out there. Waiting for the time, when their godly powers are needed again."

***

Migai stood at the top of the building, droplets of blood still dripping from his matte-black hexagonal sword. With a jolt of his wrist, the pendulic contracted and turned back into a baton. He calmly puts it back on his buckle, a feeling of uneasiness overwhelming him.

Story By: Four Eighty One

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