His head!

The entire room is deathly silent as the crowd awaits your answer. The assorted guests have backed away, presumably after they saw the steam rising out of your ears. This vile mercenary captain, the killer of your mother, has just put you into a position where you will be seen by the surrounding audience as either foolish, weak, or reckless.

If you take the man’s bribe, you would be perceived by many as far too forgiving for allowing the men who did so much damage to your nation and family to just walk away. On the other hand if you didn’t, you would be depriving your army of a vital resources, one that is desperately needed to braking the main river gate, simply out of spite for the man.

As you clench your fists and glare into the man’s single eye, all you could think of is how much you want to rip it out and shove it up his ass. It is bad enough that you have to fight along side the man, but to be borderline blackmailed into removing your bounty on his head in front of the the delights of the United Armies. He was lucky you could see the long trail of armored men forming between you and him, ready to grab you just in case you broke loose from your sisters’ grasp. You had no doubt that you could fight your way past them, but the sheer carnage you would reek in the process of reaching the man would put the people you cared about in unnecessary danger.

Eventually you loosen your body and yanked both of your arms downwards, jerking them out of your guards grasp. They made no attempt to further restrain you but stood at the ready, just in case you tried to charge him again.

You turn back to Mutos, glaring at the man with such fury, that you could have burnt holes into his head. You then point at him sternly and growl, “The only vow I’m making is to separate your head from your shoulders.”

After you give your answer, all eyes fall on Mutos. You can hear the whispers in the room, and from what little you hear, the gathering clearly has mixed feeling about your decision to turn down his offer. A quick glance at the High Marshall reveals the concern on his face; he isn’t too fond of your decision either. You just hope he doesn’t try to **** the issue; now that you think about it, he might actually try to do exactly that. If you aren’t able to acquire what you needed to finish the ram-ship a timely manner, there could be some hard conversations with this general. You just hope that Mutos isn’t coming to the same conclusion.

Mutos' right eyebrow arches upward; he appears both intrigued and unsurprised by your decision. He also seemed unconcerned, which makes you worry about what else he might have planned. As he ponders theatrically, his good eye trails back to Ceno. He holds up a finger in the Lord Marshall’s general direction, signaling that he needed a moment. Then, much to your horror he makes his way towards Ceno like a jungle cat stalking a young goat.

You feel one of your guards placing a hand on your shoulder, possibly sensing the anger boiling up inside you as the man who had already killed one member of your family, makes his way towards the man you love.

Meanwhile, Ceno is not going to back down, his clear blue eyes lock with with Mutos' remaining dark eye in an attempt to stare him down. Others might be impressed, but you know him well enough to see the fear in the young man’s face. Mutos is at least a head taller than Ceno, far broader and it is his job to kill people without hesitation. The captain of the Silver Fangs looks like he could snap Ceno like a twig if he wanted to. The only small comfort you took as the mercenary stands over your lover was that he is clearly not stupid enough to try to hurt Ceno in front of so many people.

“Young Prince,” said Mutos in a smooth voice, “You are acting as the ambassador for your…kingdom,” he said almost mockingly, “Is that correct?”

Ceno gulps and clears his throat as he looks up at the man, “Yes, that is correct.”

Mutos smiles almost smugly as he continues, “I sent your father a message a while back, asking if he needed assistance, since your protectors are…In less than stellar shape.”

You noticed Ceno mouthing, “And who’s fault is that.” Thankfully, Mutos ether didn’t notice or he didn’t care.

Mutos stroked his chin as he continued his long winded questioning, “Now normally I would wait until your letter reaches my desk, but word has reached my ears that your people are being **** to gather behind your city walls because a few raiders have been spotted near your lands.”

“Yes,” Ceno said quickly, “But we have everything under control.”

Mutos chuckled at the young man’s attempt to block the question, “Pardon my lack of celerity, I don’t think I have made myself clear.” He then two steps towards Ceno forcing the prince to take a few steps back, “These raiders, I heard that they were on horseback.”

After he mentioned this tent came alive with concerned gasps and whispers. “The Riders of the East!?” you heard one man gasp, “Shirley they can’t be that close.”

You couldn’t help but feel a little worried yourself. You knew that Deni was dealing with some raiders, and was confident that they were taking every step possible to protect its people, but you didn’t know just what he was dealing with. The men of the east are said to be so skilled at archery that they could down a drake with a single shot.

“I trust you can now see my concern for your people’s safety,” he continued though it was hard to tell if Mutos was being honest or not about his “Concern.” “So young Prince, do you have a message for me?”

Ceno look over at Banni who gave him a slow nod.

“Well,” said Mutos with a smile, “Don’t be shy boy.”

Ceno, took in a deep breath before taking the scroll from Banni. Though just before he broke the seal Banni quickly added, “Prince Ceno, I highly recommend paraphrasing.”

Mutos and a few others laughed as Ceno gulped once more, opened the scroll and quickly started reading. “To Captain Aristidis Mutos, killer of queens, and lover of…” Ceno paused and faked a cough as he skipped ahead, “In response to your offer to protect our lands for the asking price of…” Ceno’s eyes went wide and looked up at Mutos with a look of pure disgust. You weren’t sure what the mercenary was asking for but giving how he was trying to take advantage of you and Ceno it must have been exceedingly high. Ceno quickly shook off the shock and went back to the scroll, “The King of Deni asks that the Captain of the Silver Fangs takes his army and uh…”

Ceno’s head jerked up once more when he realized that Mutos had bent down low enough to look him in the eye, and was just close enough for it to be uncomfortable. “Yes?” asked Mutos looking down at Ceno’s as a dog would a cat.

Ceno then took in a deep breath and gave the man probably the most defiant look you had ever seen his eyes. “March them up your ass,” he said trough clenched teeth.