Entertain my jealousy

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Eidor grinned and finally let Tiaf loose. Never were she able to catch up to the other horse, but she definitely hit her personal record. Luckily it was so early in the morning, few people were outside, or else they might have just ended up running into someone. That would not have ended well for either party.

They arrived at the outskirt of town much sooner than he had thought, lucky the man hadn't come five years later, neither Eidor nor Tiaf would probably be as agile then as they were now. The years were catching up to them, but they weren't ready to give up to age just yet. "You've got quite the steed. Never have I seen anything that fast before." Eidor complimented the other man as they were side by side. His own horse was not very happy with being so close to the other man, and just seemed to be waiting for them to go faster so she either could get passed them or behind them. Being so close to a demon was far too dangerous, her instincts told her.
 
Kevin chuckled. "Careful breeding and friends in high places." He replied cheerfully. "I've been tending to his line for longer than my sons have been alive." Sometimes, if that person was lucky enough to be in the know, they would think that Xerxes bred demon horses but no. His horses were completely non-magical, just bred carefully to be the best Knight's steeds possible. That being said, some of Kevin's demonicness may have rubbed off on Cerus because the horse was just a little bit more of everything than his relatives who had not spent as much time in close contact with Kevin.
 
"Quite impressive." Eidor remarked, which didn't sit well with Tiaf. She protested quite violently. While she didn't understand much of that language, she did understand her owners emotional state very well. And knowing he gave compliments to someone else, possibly to another horse, was very disturbing to her. "Stchiko, stchiko mamire." Eidor said, as he tried to calm her. Roughly translated it meant stay calm, stay calm girl. "Weird, she usually doesn't like strangers, but this is the first time she's continued to act up even hours after the first meeting." He mumbled, quite perplexed over her behavior. Too bad he didn't speak the language of horse. That would certainly have helped in the mystery.
 
"I have that effect sometimes." Kevin chuckled softly at Tiaf, amused but almost missing the days when animals were not so wary of him. It took a lot of convincing to get them past his demonic aura to the man within.

Cerus was prancing a bit again, pleased at the praise and whinied at the other horse, essentially telling Tiaf in a playful way that she was being silly.

"What is that language you speak to her?" Kevin finally asked, giving into his curiosity once again
 
Tiaf did not respond well to the other horse, childishly she turned her head away not wanting to look at the enemy. Not only did he get praise from her master, but his master was a demon. She didn't trust them, and if she could she would run away with Eidor right then and there. But she knew he would just give her temporarily to someone he trusted and borrow a more willing horse if she disobeyed too much.

"It's my native language. Scohl. It comes from Teriaf. We had two languages, scohl and terif. Most people from the lower class only learned terif, but after meeting Tiaf I had to learn some scohl to be able to communicate with her, as that's the only language she knows. Her former master had gotten too old to take care of her properly, and since he didn't have any family members to give her to, he simply gave her to the first person he was certain would take good care of her." Eidor explained as he patted Tiaf to calm her a bit.

She had still been young when he got her, her mother and father had been given away to other people before Eidor had even met the man. In the beginning she had been very opposed to Eidor, but with time they become close. Now he considered her his family.

"Teriaf was on the edge of being taken over by Scalith so many times during the war, so the upper class decided to learn Scohl just in case our country would belong to them in the future. In the end it didn't happen. But Scohl still became the second language of the country because it had become so widespread."
 
"Ahh." Kevin tilted his head. So Eidor was from a fair distance away, on the opposite side of this country from where Kevin had been born and raised. The picture of Eidor's early life was starting to come together. He almost felt bad that he was learning so much more about Eidor than Eidor was about him. He knew that if the man was still with him when he found his son though that would all change rather quickly though.

Kevin fell into a musing silence then that lasted until they stopped briefly for the night, at which point he curled up in his cloak and fell asleep almost instantly.

In the morning he seemed more possessed, almost imaging he could feel his son from the town they were nearing and drove the horses hard. Even Cerus was starting to look a bit worn by the time they trotted into the small town to it's residences curious gazes. Far from the cheerful man he had been before he was obviously a man on the hunt and seemed to be straining his senses for a sign of what he was looking for. Luckily, it was such a small town that there was only one inn to check out and visitors were sparse enough to be remembered. "Shall we split up and talk with the people then?" Kevin managed a ghost of his previous smiles that never reached his eyes, which were constantly scanning the crowd.
 
They continued in silence for some time until they finally rested for the night. The next day was harder than the other. Kevin seemed to be eager on getting forward, and he wouldn't stop for anything. It did not bother Eidor at all, when he were working he became exactly the same. They finally arrived in the small town. Once they were there, it was certain that if the boy was there, they would find him fast. No one could hide in such a small place for very long. Maybe he could if he knew the two men were there searching for him, but such young people were usually very un-careful.

"Let's do that." Eidor agreed as he stepped down from his horse. He patted her and let her know that she should rest while she could, which was highly appreciated as Tiaf almost collapsed of exhaustion when she heard the words.

Eidor spent the following hours talking with people, both those who lived in town and those who had been there for just a few days. Of course he didn't expect much for those just passing by, but sometimes they were the ones noticing smaller things slightly better than the people living there. But this time, most of the information he got came from the people that owned shops in the area. After hours of investigation, he returned to meet Kevin.
 
As before, Tal was much like a ghost in the town. Only a few people remembered seeing him, though his master had obviously been here. The consensus was that his master had rode out of town this morning but it looked like he was going to be back because he hadn't taken much with him, which had seemed so odd and memorable.

Kevin found much the same information. This town was too small to have much in the way of things that would interest Tal. Tal didn't do street walkers generally and probably would have charmed someone's attractive child if he felt the need to get it on in such a town. Thus it was only whispers, but just as Eidor was returning to share his information, Kevin felt a familiar aura moving into town. He stiffened and couldn't help but glance quickly in the direction of the road though he had to restrain himself from making any more obvious moves. "Sorry, thought I heard something." He finally acknowledged Eidor with a nod and listened to his news but seemed very distracted. He was glad that he had kept his aura hidden this whole time or Tal might have bolted.

As Tal's aura neared, Kevin realized Tal must be sneaking around the back way and joining his master in his room via a window or something. He cracked a half smile and nodded to the man who must be the master trotting down the road. "I leave him to you, as you two got along so well before." With no more explanation than that, he stalked off in the direction of the alleyway next to the building.
 
Eidor started to tell Kevin about what he had figured out. Nothing of it was news to the other man though, and even if it had been, he clearly didn't hear much. Something was distracting him. In the end Eidor only spoke so that they wouldn't seem suspicious standing there saying nothing to each other. He already understood that Kevin had heard or seen something and now was searching after it. Since he didn't know what, he could only wait until the man found whatever it was.

Then suddenly he left after having pointed Eidor in the direction of a very familiar man. That was weird. Why not come with him when the man could lead them to that boy? Oh well, it was just to play along and see where it got him. In best case scenario he would end up with another drink and tell stories about their apprentices.

He walked up to the man with a bright smile. "Yo, remember me?" Eidor asked with the biggest, most unforgettable grin possible.
 
The man was obviously rather tired. He looked like he had been doing some sort of hard work that made him quite sweaty at least. It took him a few moments to work past both that and the somewhat drunken haze from the night they had met. Once he did though an equally bright grin flashed over his face. "Aha! Fancy meeting you here, did you get jealous of my stories and dump your own student to try and steal mine?" As he spoke he slipped off his horse and had a stableboy take care of her while he headed for the door, assuming Eidor was going to follow him since the other man had come all this way and greeted him.

On the other side of the building, Tal was climbing into the window to his masters room. Once in there, he came to an abrupt stop still with one leg outside the window. "Well, that was fast, Father." He obviously was not thrilled to see the other man and half turned to pull his other leg in and shut the window. "I'm surprised you managed to drag yourself away from your precious job. You wasted your time though. As I said I am doing just fine for myself out here."

"As an assassin?" Break said, ever so quietly. "I did not raise you to be a man who goes around killing for money."

"Well, in the end you can't deny nature then I guess." Tal flashed a sly smile at the other man, using words obviously intended to hurt.
 
Eidor laughed loudly. "It was a mistake not to bring mine with me. A duel would have been the perfect way of testing whom of us should be most jealous." He replied, gladly following the other man. Where did Kevin run off too? Had he found Taliesin already? Or was he following them to find him? Either way, if he stuck to the man he would probably meet the boy, and whichever was true he would soon find out. The man didn't seem to have any problem showing Eidor, a man he barely knew, into the place he was staying. There weren't many places he could be staying at though, so as fast as he had been seen, it was pretty clear where in town he was sleeping at night, if he was sleeping at all that is.
 
"Ah, you keep leaving your student behind, is he really that poor?" Carl laughed and grinned at the other man teasingly. "I would love to drink more tonight but I am afraid I am in dire need of some bathing." He tilted his head ever so slightly and for a second those friendly eyes went quite sharp and seemed to be looking Eidor over for something, before he grinned again. "How about you come up and we can chat some more while I 'freshen up'." He used the more feminine term with a snicker as he lead the other man up the stairs to his room.

Break had been expecting this kind of attack but that didn't make the blow any less painful. "That is a lie and you know it." His voice was harsher than he intended and he quickly pulled in back into something more calm. "I know your brother says some hurtful things but he is your brother, it's what siblings do. He's just jealous, it's no reason to run away and do something like this!" He couldn't help his tone from rising once again.

"I'm not like you, father." Tal said flatly. "You never understood that! As much as you try to compare us our circumstances are completely different so stop trying to say you know anything!" Tal voice was starting to raise too.

While the exact words may be a bit hard to make out, the two masters nearing the room should be more than able to tell there were two men in the room. Carl frowned and glanced back at Eidor once again. "As I thought, that man with you was his father." Carl moved closer to the door, but didn't seem inclined to open it yet. "Doesn't sound like it's going well does it?" Naturally, Carl was quite pleased with this. He didn't want to loss his apprentice.
 
Eidor always found the best kind of people. "I might get assassinated if I return now. He has his hands full with his princess at the moment. I'm just nice enough to give him a honeymoon." He laughed, simplifying and changing the truth greatly. He were about to comment on the other things the man said, but they both became slightly distracted by the sounds from the other side of the door.

"Father..." Eidor said after having listened in on them together with the other man. "Now I'm feeling old. I can't even tell when someone's lying to me." He sulked silently. Well, it was probably more because of Kevin's great skills that he hadn't known what had been lies and truth. But it still hurt his pride a little bit.

"There's two things we could do about this. Let them fight it out by themselves while we leave for some hours and take some drinks, and hopefully your student won't be gone when we return." Clearly he had noticed the slightly bad mood in his drinking buddy. It was a quite natural reaction, no one wanted to loose their apprentice if they were really good at what they did. To be the teacher that taught the best of the best was every assassins dream, if they didn't become the best of the best themselves of course. "Or we could jump in there and force them to join us over a drink. It will probably end exactly the same. Either the father wins or the son wins. But at the very least they will be shouting at each other with a drink in their hands."

Of course there was nothing the two men could do about the situation, if they didn't decide to kill one of the two people in the room. So the best they could do would be to entertain themselves until their father son quarrel was over.
 
The two men in the room had no problem hearing the two in the hall. They had been quite aware of their approach and the room went silent as a silent battle of wills raged. Now that Xerxes had found the true culprit who was training his son into this life, Xerxes very much wanted to just open that door and stick his sword in that man. At the same time, Tal was very aware of what his father wanted to do and was telling him without words that he would do everything in his power to stop Xerxes.

The aura in the room for quite scary with two demons essentially fighting it out via aura and Carl turned slightly pale, not sure what he was feeling but not really wanting to stick around either. "Yeah...I'm starting to think drinks is the right way to go with this." He muttered backing away from the door.

Eventually, the fact that Xerxes was a proper knight and did not kill people out of whim won over and the glowing red eyes faded back to their usual dull color. "That doesn't change the fact that you have chosen to take the worst possible path to deal with your situation."

"To you." Tal gritted out. "But as I said it's working out quite well for me. I will become the best and make my own path."

Xerxes was silent for several moments after that before passing a hand over his face with a tired sigh. There was something in Tal's aura. Some flaring ribbon of the honor he had tried to pound into the boy that made him wonder just how Tal intended to bring that into his new profession, though it seemed he somehow did. Xerxes didn't think it would last though. This conversation was reaching much the stall he expected it would. Tal had no intention of backing down, and he really didn't want to bring the boy back by force. "Tch." He finally muttered, turning and opening the door to the two men in the hallway. "I think those drinks are a great idea as well." He said with that bright smile that Tal at least knew was his fake cheerful smile. "By the way, Eidor." Xerxes almost looked apologetic. "The trick is to lie by telling the truth~" He pranced past the two masters to go downstairs for the strongest drink he could find.

Tal only emerged from the room once Xerxes reached the top of the stairs, still looking quite angry. "You need not worry Master, I have no intention of returning home."

"As a relief as that is, I think lots of alcohol is still in order." Carl frowned after Xerxes and looked at Tal, wondering just what that thing he had felt was.

Tal picked up on his wariness and suddenly smiled devilishly, looking quite like his father when Xerxes was being scary for a moment. "Trust me Master, you don't want to know." Looking much more cheerful he also strolled past the two men.
 
The weird and threatening aura coming from the room almost made Eidor want to walk in there. It was more fun to see such interesting conflicts with ones own eyes instead of just hearing it through a door. But as fate had it, they neither got to walk away or interrupt it before the door opened.

Out came Kevin, in a far too good mood for the situation. Now he was certain the man was putting up a show with that smile. Whatever. As long as he got to drink, then he wouldn't complain. The next to come out was the son, Taliesin. Eidor wasn't sure what he had expected, but the boy looked so normal it almost made him question if it was the right guy. He definitely had his fathers smile though, and that in itself testified how un-normal he was.

Walking down with the master of Taliesin, they sat down with Kevin. "Don't get too drunk tonight Kevin. Since we found our target I will demand that we have that match we talked about." Eidor grinned. "Wouldn't want to do that with a hangover."
 
"Oh don't you worry." Xerxes grinned darkly at Eidor. "It would take more alcohol than they have in this place to hamper me in tomorrows spar."

"Kevin?" Tal turned his head from the regard of the bar to raise an eyebrow from Eidor to Xerxes. "Oh I see. Very nice father." There was still a noticeable underlying tension between father and son. "I would not have expected such a thing."

"That was the point." Xerxes said flatly, giving up the attempt at being cheerful. "Perhaps we should go a round as well." It was not particularly a suggestion.

"Ah, but you wouldn't want to scare your new friend away would you?" Tal smiled serenely, seeming to come out of yet another exchange of wills much better than his father.

"We could do ours afterwards." Xerxes replied, not to be deterred. It was probably a bit offensive that Xerxes just let the implication that Eidor wouldn't want to fight him if he saw the two fight first remain, but he probably considered it somewhat true as well.

"Now that's a way to solve your problems." Carl grinned. "Nothing like a little sparing to-" He fell silent as he picked up on a decidedly frosty look from Tal and looked between his student and Xerxes in something between bafflement and amazement. "Surely not..." He murmured to himself and took a long swig of ale as a maid dropped mugs in front of everyone but Tal.

"Wine, please." Tal said as he stopped the maids attempt to put a mug in front of him. She nodded and hurried off.
 
Eidor's student would have been more than entertained by the situation. Eidor on the other hand had the brain to take even minor things seriously if needed. There was something about the father and son that felt strange. Not their behavior towards each other, he had seen far worse relationships between family members. But something in the boy's aura was odd. They were hiding something. Something besides Kevin's real name, which his son gave away pretty easily.

"I guess we won't get any time to brag this time around." Eidor joked to his fellow assassin. If the other two would be downers the whole evening, at the very least he could try to get his third companion in a better mood. Bragging about their students was certainly not something that should be done in the presence of Kevin, as he already had showed a dislike for their work. And you should never boost a students ego by bragging in front of them. That could get him into a bad situation in the future.

"Hey Kevin. What about making tomorrows match a bit more interesting?" He then turned to the albino. "The winner gets the truthful answer to any question they desire being answered. Or to spice it up a bit. The winner can demand anything, be it an answer or an action. Games are more fun if there's something at stake after all."
 
Carl was pulled out of his amazed thoughts by Eidor's words and managed a grin. "Yeah, couldn't have that. There's already enough hot air in this room." He appreciated what Eidor was doing and was doing his best to keep that up.

"Ah?" Xerxes blinked away from the glaring contest with his son to raise an eyebrow at Eidor. He regarded the other man silently for a few moments before grinning widely. "As ever you are a man after my own heart." It was exactly the sort of suggestion he would make, if their situations were reversed. "Well, how can I turn down such a fun game?" He was pretty confident of the outcome, but even if it didn't go his way well...he could always kill Eidor.

Tal took the wine as the maid returned, taking a sip before staring down the glass with an irritated sigh. He hadn't had some really nice wine since the last big town they had passed through and this cheap stuff really did not do it for him. Even worse, there was no one in the town that caught his eye. He couldn't wait to leave. And not with his father.
 
Either the man was incredibly confident in winning, or he were simply just as wicked as Eidor when it came to competitiveness. Either way, the old man was happy that he weren't turned down, though he hadn't expected to be. He would make sure not to loose. Both because he were too proud to let himself loose too easily, and because he was very curious over the man's name. It was a small thing. He hadn't even tried to make Kevin tell him about his real name now when he knew about his fake one. But he wanted to earn the right to know about it. That was just how he was.

"Well then. Let's enjoy ourselves now and drink to the brink of hell. Then tomorrow we'll have our after party." He said before drinking his glass in one big clunk before telling the waitress to bring more. The evening went as expected. The boy, Taliesin glared many times at his father. At times it felt as if they would get into a fight again, but that never happened. Almost a pity in Eidor's opinion. He had wanted to see it. Every time he got Tal's master somewhere a bit away from the other two, they started to talk about the usual. Mainly they kept bragging about their students. The old man couldn't help but flirt around too when he started to become really drunk. At some point he might even have suggested a sixsome between Tal, his father, his master, Eidor and a girl that had flirted a bit with him, probably for money, and a person that looked like very much like a girl in the shadowy inn, but in clear daylight would have seemed much more masculine. If that person were a girl or a guy, no one really knew.

Of course his brilliant idea didn't happen.
 
Come the next morning, Xerxes was bouncing around as if he hadn't even looked at alcohol the previous night. Strangely enough, so was Tal in his more understated manner. There was still an obvious amount of tension between the two but the anticipation of seeing Xerxes fight someone other than Tal seemed to have brought them together for the moment.

As the moment approached father and son stood a distance away from the other men and spoke at almost subsonic levels to either. "Just what are you planning to do father?" Tal murmured without looking away from Eidor.

"My plan?" Xerxes raised an eyebrow abd grinned. "You'll have to be more specific Tally."

Tal wasn't quite able to hide his irritation at the return of his least favorite nickname. "I've heard stories about him, he could give you a run for your money if you try to hold back. And then your silly honor-bound self could be left answering an awkward question."

Xerxes shrugged with a compete lack of concern. "I'm looking forward to it." He spoke then loud enough that the other men could hear him without problem.
 
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