C5 Chapter 5

The new year had begun and it was almost March, but still, the murders continued. The masked figure had worked tirelessly, fighting against countless Zanszprët. He was sad and exhausted after so many battles and ongoing efforts. Enrique was still the only survivor of a Zanszprët attack. Sean, for his part, was not fighting but rather managing the Blue Hawks unit. The huge amount of bureaucracy made it a very frustrating task, not to mention that it was very different to his work in the Kiltish Navy, where he had worked in the intelligence department.

If he did not fulfill the wishes of the Albionese crown, which were outlined in official documents sealed with the country’s coat of arms which he received with relative frequency, the Principality’s reputation could be put in danger. It was also a dangerous situation for Sean, as he risked losing the support of Jorkast Kolamzi and all the benefits that went along with being friends with the president of the World Magic Council. Sean Thiel saw Kolamzi as nothing more than a temporary ally, a tool to be used to gain status and power. That was why he focused on doing his job well but no more than that. He did not want to reveal more than a fraction of his true potential.

"We would do the same if we came across someone who, for example, could enter and leave the World Apart," said Sean Thiel, unmasked, sitting in one of the armchairs in front of the masked figure who was standing. They were in the meeting chamber at the Blue Hawks’ headquarters. The existence of the World Apart was a secret guarded by the emissaries. It was the unusual name they had given to the space in reality which was suctioned and used as a battlefield by the Zanszprët. It was a kind of alternate world, where the only thing that existed was a piece of land, suspended in the void. Anybody without the use of an artifact to nullify its effect was rendered powerless, unable to move and at the mercy of the creature.

"Impossible," thought the hooded figure. Enrique, that innocent boy who he always saw floating ethereally observing his missions, had exactly the ability that Sean had just described in an almost lighthearted manner. He controlled any outward sign of surprise so as not to arouse any suspicion. But his prolonged silence seemed to reveal something nevertheless.

They had been discussing how to proceed with individuals who were considered ’problematic’ by the Principality. The emissaries were not only responsible for capturing these individuals, but also for killing them, if necessary. The masked figure had not known about the latter part of the mission, believing that his job ended once he had captured someone.

The lieutenant stood up and looked at him more seriously than usual. He paused and walked past him. Upon approaching the windows the light from the garden reflected onto his clothes. He observed the expressionless white mask suspiciously for a few seconds.

"Have you got a problem with that?" asked Sean, turning toward the garden. "All the same, orders are orders. If we are ordered to kill, we must do as we are told."

"It’s not possible," replied the hooded figure in his distorted voice.

Sean Thiel turned back with an icy stare. The masked figure did not know that the true purpose of their mission was exactly what Sean was now describing to him. The lieutenant continued speaking.

"If the Council wants us to do something, we do not have a choice." He hated Sean’s arrogant tone when he gave orders. He immediately added with a certain malice, "We have to demonstrate to the Council that we are very good at our jobs."

Silence. The person behind the white mask did not react. The lieutenant walked over to him, looking at him out of the corner of his eye. He then went over to the large table, where he picked up some papers before walking back toward the masked figure.

"Do you think the procedure for aggressive offenders is some kind of a joke? Is that why you don’t want to fulfill your mission?"

"I won’t do it. I am not going to get involved —" said the hooded figure after a short pause and then taking a step forward. Sean regarded him with contempt.

"That is not the attitude of an emissary."

More silence followed. Sean Thiel moved directly in front of the masked figure. He leaned toward him and placed his index finger in the center of his mask, tapping it firmly twice, all the while staring through the eye slits with a very serious expression on his face. He spoke.

"The Council gives orders. We must obey them and do our duty. That’s all they want from us." The lieutenant moved ever closer to the masked figure. "And that’s all we should give them. If you don’t like it, go back to Kilto."

A sense of abandonment came over the masked figure. He took a step back and adopted a firm stance before speaking. He would need to be much more cautious with his superior.

"Yes, sir."

His distorted voice made these two words sound ghostly. Usually this wouldn’t bother Sean, however the tone of his subordinate’s voice and his posture, made him suspect that he was yet to yield to the Council’s will. That cold and flat tone reflected some sort of internal battle. The masked figure walked toward the door and pushed it open with both hands. He paused for a moment before quickly continuing down the hall, his back turned away from Sean as he took off the mask without looking back. The lieutenant stayed where he was, eyes fixed on the open door.

Behind that mask lay the ideals and dreams of someone who only wanted to enjoy life and do their very best at their job, in the name of their family, country and friends. However, those ideals seemed to fade when confronted by Sean because following that path seemed to have been a mistake. But he would not stay quiet. The masked figure was in a strong position: he had access to confidential information. He would do everything he could to bring to light the truth about the fatesmiths and the Emissary Corps.

However, one thing that the masked figure didn’t know was that, as designated by the King and the Albionese parliament as a way of making the Kiltish state ’pay’ for allowing direct interference, one of the other functions of the Blue Hawks was to make political enemies disappear. Only one other person in Albion, the Albionese Minister of Foreign Affairs - a co-founder of the Blue Hawks unit and the chief negotiator between the two countries - along with Sean Thiel and Jad Flightrod, the police general, knew about the existence of the magic and that the reason the Kiltish had accepted the mission was because their powers made it quite simple to carry out.

The disappearances were overseen by the lieutenant, along with a few select members of the army and others from the parliament. The government had seemingly grown tired of the opposition, and as they had the overwhelming majority, nobody questioned the decision. Sean Thiel hated the fact that the chain of command ended with him. He loathed all the bureaucracy that came with his position. He was sick of signing papers and finding assassins because the masked figure was not the right person to fulfill the second objective of his mission. Eventually he realized that he would be better off choosing his own subordinate and he went back to revising the profiles of potential new candidates. Jorkast was skillful, but to give Sean the responsibility of convincing the masked figure to work on the mission seemed absurd to the lieutenant. It would have been much easier to simply find someone who had the right character for the job.

As for the fatesmiths, the lieutenant had been personally - and secretly - taking responsibility for their elimination since the start of the new year. There were not many fatesmiths in Albion - who in and of themselves were very rare - and he had been able to eliminate several of them located in the capital as well as one in a neighboring city. They had offered no resistance nor did he leave any clues. The use of ’clean up’ crews - one of the functions of the Blue Hawks - was unnecessary. All of the victims had been targeted using dark magic spells that had given them mortal diseases, annihilating them in seconds and leaving only evidence of vital organ failure. The whole process was handled with such mastery by Sean that not even the Blue Hawks had any idea of what he was up to.

It was while the masked figure was checking the lieutenant’s correspondence that he had a strange suspicion. Sean was up to something behind their backs. It had been a long time since his superior had asked for a report on the individuals marked for capture and yet the letters said that the mission was going according to plan. The hooded figure did not entirely understand what was happening. However, with everything revolving around the Blue Hawks, and with a basic outline of the facts, he realized that looking for information on his own would be very dangerous. Despite the risks involved, he used any opportunity he had to check the lieutenant’s highly confidential correspondence and papers. As time went by he was able to reveal the true work of the Blue Hawks. His Kiltish pride, along with his pride of being an emissary, were shattered.