His First Kill

Washing his face with water did not work either way. He was definitely not asleep, and the marks also refused to wash out. Still, Kaido scrubbed at his skin raw. The physical pain could not compare to the anguish he felt. 

How was this even possible? 

Skarred people always had someone in their ancestry with the curse. Even if it skipped a generation or two, there was always some grandparent or great-uncle who had Skarred skin. But none of the royal or noble houses had anyone like that. All the houses that did were killed during Bethor's Purge.  So who in his family had this curse and was selfish enough to breed?

The prince paced up and down his room. There had to be a way to remove the orange marks. He looked around the room and noticed the bastard sword in the corner. His eyes immediately turned to the fireplace on the opposite wall. 

It took half an hour for the blade to turn red hot. Kaido held the blade inches over his bare arm. He could feel the heat even without the contact. His jaw tightened in anticipation of the pain. But it had to be done. He would rather be a burned mess than have to live as a Skarred, not that they would be allowed to anyway. 

"It's just pain. It's only pain."

The prince shut his eyes and pressed the sword against one of the glowing symbols on his skin. He grimaced at the prospect of pain, but there was none. No smell of burning flesh. When he finally opened them, his eyes all confirmed what his other senses had told him. 

The heat did not affect him. 

Blade still felt warm, of course, but that was all there was. He did not even feel the need to recoil from his touch. Kaido's curiosity led him to put his fingers in the fireplace. Still no pain. Not even so much as a tan. It was exactly like it had in his dream. The flame felt like it was a part of him. He even cut off a bit of his hair with the same sword and tossed it into the fire. Even that would not burn. It just brightened like the steel on the sword. 

He still needed a way to get rid of the marks on his skin, which glowed brighter now after he put his hand in the fire. There was only one thing hotter than flame: edged-light. He put the steel sword back where he found it and picked up the edged-light sword handle. He willed the blade to come out, and it did. Pure red spurted from the handle, stopping at five feet. 

Edged-light cut through stone and steel like it was water. It was an instrument, created by the Church of Mystics, to fight the Cantus Blades that Skarred sorcerers used. When training him on how to use it, Captain Horros had promised Kaido that he would be the bane of all Skarred people. Kaido could never have imagined that he would be one of them. 

Before he used the sword against himself, Kaido heard a gasp come from behind him. At the door was the matron of the castle's maid staff, Serra. This woman, in her middle years with sunken eyes and greying black hair, had never betrayed any emotion in the fifteen years Kaido had known her. This morning, shock widened her visible orifices. They both stood frozen in shock, staring at one another.      

Suddenly, Serra turned to close the doors behind her and proceeded to close all the open curtains in the room. When she finally turned her attention back to him, she saw that the blade that Kaido had originally been holding against his forearm was now extended in her direction. 

"My Prince," Serra said calmly, "I mean you no harm. In fact, I mean to help you."

Kaido maintained his defensive stance, but his panicked expression became confused. 

"How do you intend to do that?"

"I can get you out of here," Serra said. "To get you somewhere safe."

"Why? Do you see what I am? They'll execute you if we are caught. And where is this safe place? Why should I trust you, Serra?"

"Because I'm the one who has been keeping you alive. Half the attempts on your life by your father were thwarted by my associates and me. And I was told that if the day came when your Skarrs activated, I should get you to Scoria... My Prince, I don't have time to explain everything. But we need to get moving. The other maids will be here soon to change your sheets. If a single one sees you, you will share the fate of the man your half-brother brought to the dungeons."

She was right. He needed to get out of the castle. How to get rid of the Skarrs was a question for another day. He would not give his father an excuse to execute him. Kaido willed the edged-light sword to retract.  

Serra helped Kaido change into common-born clothing. Leather trousers, brown shirt, boots, and a black hooded cloak. She snuck him through a secret passageway that he did not know existed. As they walked through the secret passageway, Serra explained how he was meant to escape the city.  

The passageway ended in the buttery. From there, Kaido would have to walk through the stables and then into the wine cellar where the person meant to smuggle him out of the city gates would be waiting for him. She promised to send Thunder after him once he arrived at Scoria.

"Remember, my Prince," Serra said before Kaido exited the passageway. "There are people watching out for you. She will be pleased to finally meet you."

Before Kaido could ask who this "she" was, Serra closed the door to the passageway.  Kaido sighed and made his way to the stables. The sun had yet to rise, typical of this time in the winter. When he arrived at the stables, he was not as alone as he had expected. There was a shirtless man seated in the middle of the area, drinking wine and sobbing softly. Even without the snow crowning his head, Kaido would have recognised the Imperatus. 

If Kaido had not woken up to the end of his life as he knew it, he would have remembered that today was the anniversary of his mother's death. It was here in the stables where she was found, burnt to death just after Yarrick had escaped the dungeons. He was glad to know that his father still grieved for his mother, but he had no intention of letting himself be the next member of House Challus to be mourned. 

Kaido walked in haste along the edge of the walls with his hood down, hoping Zerre would be too absorbed by his drink to notice him. He was not. He called for Kaido to come to him, thinking him a servant. Kaido pretended not to hear him and continued. The thrown knife that almost took his nose finally caused him to pause and instinctively turn to where the knife came from. 

Zerre, at a distance, must have noticed the orange markings on Kaido's face and ran after him. The edged-light sword handle Zerre had at his side spurted a murderous red edge.

"Did you come here to mock me, Yarrick?" yelled Zerre, swinging at Kaido's head, who narrowly dodged. 

The wooden wall behind Kaido was cut right through. The horses in the stable began to panic. The pegasi, however, remained as calm as Kaido. He barely managed to avoid the next three swings. It was becoming clear that even in his drunken state, the Imperatus was still too quick to escape unarmed. Kaido activated his own edged-light sword and blocked the fourth swing. The strength in Zerre's swings was enough to shake the hood off Kaido's head. Zerre's expression went from recognition to shock, then anger.    

 "So, you were his child this entire time?" the Imperatus snarled. "I should have known!"

Zerre's swings became wilder, but Kaido was equal to all of them. But he could not keep this up any longer. Not without the buzz of two edged-light swords eventually drawing the attention of some guards.  He had to find a way to end this quickly. 

"Do you have nothing to say, bastard!" said Zerre with a thrust. "Maybe after I kill you, I'll end your bastard brother as well!"

An anger the intensity of which Kaido had never before experienced overcame him. With a roar, Kaido parried away Zerre's next swing and buried his sword into his father's stomach. The sizzle of burning flesh that he had expected earlier finally came. Kaido willed the edged-light blade back into the handle. 

The impaled Imperatus touched the part of his stomach that Kaido had grievously wounded before collapsing to the floor.