The Blood Order

XIV

"No killing, outsmarting." I mutter all of the anger that had fueled me before leaving me all at once.

"What do you mean outsmarting? The Tazi have been trying outsmart the bastard for a century." Myrina remarks and crosses her arms releasing the tight grip on my shoulders.

"Raphael thinks that I am going to submit to him. So why don't I do just that?" Myrina takes a deep breath and lowers her head trying to figure out what she wanted to say in response to my very vague plan.

"I am going to be honest, you had me there in the beginning. How would you doing exactly what he wants help the Tazi stop the Blood Order?" Myrina seems genuinely confused and I smirk a little continuing with my plan.

"I could be the inside man, learn his weakness so we can take him down." The connections can be seen on Myrina's face as she nods her head slowly.

"I like the idea, but here's the problem, you'rehis weakness. The moment he has you in his grasp you will not be able to get out of it. I am sorry but that is too risky." The old woman starts to walk to the kitchen, and I follow her quickly trying to make sure she isn't about to rip out her sink or something for another weapon. Instead she surprises me by putting the sais back behind the fridge and calmly sliding it back into place.

"Too risky, you are telling me not to do something because it is too risky. What exactly do Tazi warriors do if it's not to take risks?" I seem to have hit a nerve as she turns around and I jump back from the red eyes that greet me.

"You want to talk about taking risks? Of course, we have, we have tried spies, inside jobs, and the good old give it all we got. We have no idea how to defeat Raphael! We continue to rebel and try to win back our home, but at the end of the day we aren't strong enough to be taking unnecessary, unplanned risks. My job is to keep you alive and away from Jamal or Dahn. It is not to send you into the belly of the demon." Her chest rises and falls and slowly her tattoos start to form on her skin and the scars that look healed normally become mangled.

"Myrina, I need you to calm down, you are morphing into whatever that is..." I try to seem calm but the woman standing in front of me is freaking me out as she straightens her back standing confidently in front of me.

"If this scares you Sultana then how can you possibly think you are ready to face the King? This is me in my natural form, this feels comfortable for me to stand in front of you like this. If Raphael is successful in taking you then you have to realize that people like me will surround you at all times. Do you really think that you could be an inside man and accept people like me around you at all times? Sultana, we are monsters." Myrina fully morphs into her person and stands an inch or two taller while also looking thirty years younger.

Could I? Will my broken heart be able to stand next to Raphael and pretend that I find any of this okay, that I accept these people in ways that he would expect?

"I honestly... I need time to think about this. This is so much information at once and I just... I thought I could..." Myrina nods once and I turn away from her walking out of the house with the note in my hand gripped tightly.

The cold air of my house greets me and brings a sense of calm over me as I stand in my empty living room. Setting the note nicely in the chair right next to me I move to my bedroom the sense of calm shifting into one of alarm as I see a large figure in the corner of my room, the whites of their teeth reflecting from moonlight streaming in.

"Who-who are you?" I stutter out gripping my bedroom doorway trying to keep myself rooted in place even though every cell in my body was telling me to run.

"You don't recognize me Princess Sultana? I am most offended." The familiar voice of Jamal moves through the room and I almost sigh in relief. At least he is a known evil.

My voice is caught in my throat and Jamal doesn't even care moving away from the old chair and towards me, "Now Princess I know that this is a lot to accept but I can't help but notice that you have spending a decent amount of time with Ms. Myrina, lovely warrior back in the day but not someone the King would want you around. Do you get what I am saying Princess?"