An Unlikely Match

LadyHarpy

Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread
Original poster
LURKER MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
Posting Speed
  1. 1-3 posts per day
  2. One post per day
  3. 1-3 posts per week
  4. One post per week
Writing Levels
  1. Intermediate
  2. Adept
  3. Advanced
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Female
  3. Primarily Prefer Female
Genres
I enjoy Fantasy, Scifi, Romance, Magical, Modern and much more. I probably can't list them all! If there is something you want to try and it isn't listed here, just ask. I rarely say no!


Somewhere in the vast city of Daeth, in the highest tower of the castle, a maiden most fair was sitting at a lavish vanity and combing her long golden hair. To most it would seem to be the start of a wonderful fairy tale, but in truth it was just the beginning to a usual evening for "Princess" Hinonia. She wasn't really a princess, though her family certainly held enough power for her to be called one. No, she was just a lovely girl lucky enough to be born as the legitimate child of Lord Ravordel and his wife. She had other siblings of course, all brothers who were fighting for her father's position, but she was truely lucky for she was the only daughter and there for her future was settled as she would be married off to someone of equal, if not greater, status.

She set down her comb gently, as her hair was now silky and smooth, and looked upon herself in the mirror before her. Though she was lovely, far lovelier than most, she had yet meet a suitor of any kind. None came to the door asking her father for her hand, no man threw her a flower sweetly during the citys holiday parades, no general or king seemed to take interest at the balls that her family held. It was very strange to her, not that she was narsacisstic, she just couldn't help but wonder what was wrong with her. When one held so much power and beauty that usually attracted people, at least it did in the stories she read before bed. Maybe she just wasn't social enough, maybe she was to quiet and shy to make powerful men notice her...Or maybe she just wasn't their type. Whatever the case was it only brought lonely sighs from Hinonia and forced the girl to berate herself more in the mirror.

Finally, after growing tired of her reflection and having finished with her usual cleansing routine, she got up from her vanity and walked over to her large bed, the silk and satin sheets a bright white. Her nightgown crawled up annoyingly as she climbed the side of the tall bed, it being more of a mountain than a place to sleep. She flopped into the bed, unladylike to say the least, and let out one more sigh before slipping under her covers and turning to the candles closest to her bed to blow them out, leaving only one or two still burning to allow her to see if she needed to later that night. Yes, it was just another usual night for the sweet "Princess" of Daeth, but fate had other plans for the sleeping girl...
 
It was raining, and it was midnight. Under the cover of the darkness that came with unvarying cloud cover and the patter of precipitation, Elus scaled the far wall of Daeth’s single palace. It was easy, almost too easy. He thanked the gods when things were simple, but was constantly suspicious of such situations nonetheless. More often than not, nothing was anything less than complicated in his line of work: recruiting was difficult, training was rigorous, deducing plans for missions was complex, staying below the radar was tough, and the rewards were few and far between. For one to be satisfied with being an assassin, one had to look at the big picture; in Elus’s case, it was saving the world from destruction, and that was enough to keep him going, even when people didn’t see him in that light—it was a rare occurrence when they did.

His followers, for the most part, were with him because of the money. A few didn’t care about being paid, but most did— and threatened him when the pay was late. Not that this bothered him much. He could easily be gone with them if they attempted at carrying out their threats, and they knew this, so they stayed mere threats.

Some minions became frustrated with him as he often stayed at headquarters and planned, rather than going into the field and doing the work for them. When he did go out, it was special. Like that night, in the rain: he was kidnapping the local ‘Princess’. Possibly killing her, even, and he did not trust anyone else to do the job correctly. They would mess up some way or another—this was also why he conducted the training of his private army personally instead of letting someone else take over the job. It kept his body in shape, as well. He was on the tall side, with toned but not extremely noticeable muscles. He had various scars that littered his arms, legs, and even chest. His face was relatively free of blemishes, other than an old mark in the shape of something resembling an X from his life-long nemesis. Said person had put it there to remind him never to cross them again. Elus had yet to forget that lesson.

His dark hair helped him stay hidden in the night; it was curly, and because of this, he kept it cut short, for if he let it grow even a few centimeters, it fell into his grey-green eyes in a way that many described as angelic, a word he never wished to hear applied to himself unless the word ‘not’ was in the same sentence. He had an image to maintain, after all. The one thing that bothered him most about himself was his skin. It nearly glowed in the moonlight, being exceedingly pale. He wore a mask when he could because of it, and it often scared his victims more than necessary. A man is coming in through your window or door, and you’re only scared because he’s wearing a mask? It made little sense to him.

He’d reached the tower in which the girl lived, and watched silently from the windowsill as she blew out the candles nearest to herself and crawled into bed. He slipped a knife from between his shoulder blades—one of many—and crept closer to her, not wanting to wake her and trying to come up with a plan. He had thought the security would be tighter, and hadn’t entirely thought the plan out. Honestly, he hadn’t thought he’d get this far at all. Now what? he thought, reaching her side. She probably wasn’t going to come quietly. He could drug her… An unconscious girl would be much easier to kidnap than an aware one. But he hadn’t brought any semblance of sleeping powder with him, much less something to give it to her in. He could bind and gag her. Deciding on this, he cut pieces of cloth from the sheets, wincing at each sound.
 
Hinonia was a very deep sleeper, far to deep for her to be without a guard. However, her parents saw no point in giving her protection when the ones being targeted were her brothers. In the end she was usually alone, going about her day how she liked, never being bothered to do much of anything save for smiling and wave to the crowd while her father made speeches. If only they had taken the proper precautions before then their dear daughter wouldn't have a stranger entering her room, not that she noticed at all. She turned about in her sleep as he cut her sheets apart, her light snoring being more than enough to keep her from hearing the sound of tearing.

However, as he continued on with his cutting not even her snoring could cover it up and she began to awaken. She grumbled a bit as she made a move to sit up, her hair covering her face and blocking her sight. In the dim light she could not see much and for a moment she almost just went back to sleep, however, as she set her hand down she felt the fraying edges of the cut fabric and looked in that direction. There, she locked eyes with the stranger by her bed, his knife in one hand and the pieces of fabric in another. She felt her eyes widen and for a moment she was stunned silent, unable to move at all. The moment didn't last long however and before she could stop her she began to scream, and scream loudly. She was certain that even the people in the kitchen could hear her she was so loud. She turned to try and get away from him, planning on running out the door for help, but certainly she was not as quick footed with her long night gown and the heavy blankets, if he did not get her there then he would most likely get her once she stood.
 
Elus cursed himself, once again, for being idiotic. How could he be so careless as to think she wouldn’t wake up? Before she could untangle herself from the sheets, he grabbed her by the arm, holding the tip of his knife to her back. “In just a few moments,” he whispered, “someone will be here to see why you screamed. If you give them any reason to believe something is amiss, they will not live to tell the tale. Do I make myselfclear?” he finished in a growl, pressing the blade harshly against her, almost breaking the skin. He wasn’t surprised that they didn’t have her wards closely guarded;after all, she wasn’t the heir to the throne. But she was their only daughter,and that made her vulnerable. If she was killed, the family would have to grieve, but wouldn’t have to worry about having no one in their line to take over.<o:p></o:p>
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So, while cutting the sheets, Elus had made up his mind. If Hinonia was kidnapped, it would provide a distraction, for they’d have to make up some kind of semblance of looking for her. They may or may not have to carry it out, necessarily, but as long as she was possibly alive, the public would be upset if they didn’t at least put on a show, making it look as though they were worried sick. In all actuality, the ‘King’ and ‘Queen’ probably did not care much for their daughter, a fact shown by their inconsistent search for a suitor. Her disappearance would mean chaos to their image.
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He ducked under the bed just a few seconds later, hoping beyond luck that she wouldn’t give him up. If she did, he’d be sure to carry out his threat, but he really did try not to kill when the victims didn’t know why he was doing it.
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(I keep forgetting to add this to my alerts. Fingers crossed I do this time)
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Hinonia tried to fight him off but as soon as the knife was to her back she froze. She could feel her throat swelling as he spoke, her fear taking over as he gave his threat. She could never live it down if someone was hurt because of her and slowly nodded her head silently, giving in to his demand. When he pulled back she took in a deep breath, not having been able to muster any air into her lung from all her fright. She could hear the footsteps of approaching soldiers and calmed herself a bit before the burst open the door.

"Lady Hinonia, we heard screaming. Is everything alright?" One of them asked as they looked around slowly, all on guard for anything to happen.

"I am fine...I just had a bad dream. I am sorry to have bothered you all." She said kindly as she smiled at them, all of the men nodded in understanding before slowly drifting from the room.

"Pardon us then Lady Hinonia, we shall return to our posts." The guard said to her before closing the door.

Hinonia felt her heart sink into her stomach as she realized that she was now alone with the stranger currently hiding under her bed. She wondered what he could possibly want with her but she knew that what ever it was it couldn't be good. She stayed still on the bed as she waited for the strangers to get out from under the bed once more and deal with her. She just hoped that he didn't kill her, she could never bare it if she died such a sad death and left her parents and brothers to grieve.