"He what?"

The sound echoed through the empty throne room, bounced from walls and landed back at his mother's empty place, as if to laughing remind him she is wasn't there. Robin held back a wince, kept his gaze trained on King Eudes.

"He got away."

"He 'got away.'" Eudes smirked, though it held only murderous rage. "He got away from both you and Captain Andragoras."

A small sliver of dread worked its way up in Robin's chest. "He stole one of our faster horses, and by the time we caught up, he'd abandoned it."

"Yet you still managed to throw your knife."

Almost instinctively, Robin reached for his waist where the weapon always waited. It was empty, as he knew it to be, the lack of weight strange.

He raised his chin. "I told you, he took the fastest horse we have."

If Eudes knew anything about the horses, his lie would come unraveling in an instant.

The king nodded, shoulders went lower. To anyone else, he could have been relaxed.

"Captain Andragoras tells me the Kallan messenger was killed by the same men who attacked you, and this boy was one of them."

"Yes."

"Who you spared and brought here because he claimed to have a message for my wife."

Eudes' wife, his mother. Robin's fingers twitched like they would go into a fist.

"Yes."

That time, he couldn't stop the venom from etching into his words.

Eudes noticed it as well, and stood from his seat. With the height from the steps and his gait, Robin held no more presence than a mouse. He came closer, stopped at the distance a friend may.

"We've had hundreds of prisoners come through these walls." Eudes gestured around the room. "Hundreds, all caught by you and the captain. Some have tried to kill. Some have tried to escape. Every time, you solve the problem."

He lowered his voice. "A hired, half-trained, failure." The quiet held more force than a scream. "That is the one the Exodus Crow and his Knight let slip away."

Blood drained from Robin's cheeks, left his head spinning with cold. Against his wish, he shuffled back, away from the mouth that uttered those names.

People screamed, raised their weapons. Behind the mass, a fire sparked at a building. Somewhere, far beyond the shout, a woman cried for her children.

No.

Robin grit his teeth so hard they threatened to break.

"I don't appreciate those names, Father."

That caused Eudes to laugh, loud. Harsh. "You and I both know you are no son of mine. It's only for appearances." He frowned, suddenly icy. "Don't use it for me unless we are keeping up appearances."

Appearances. As if the majority of the kingdom had no clue.

Robin curled his hands to a fist and rammed it against his legs to try and slow the quaking. His heart thundered, blood roared in his skull, pumped adrenaline his veins.

Don't fight. Don't fight.

Words left his lips before he could stop them.

"I suggest, sir, that before you call me anything to do with a crow, you remember where those names came stared." Eyes burning, he locked his gaze with Eudes. "Unless you're likening yourself to the common blood you came from, you'll do well to remember that."

Red seeped onto the king's face, shot through his eyes and cheeks in a firey anger. He backed away, slowly, stalking the one who dared to insult him.

Every part of Robin's soul screamed he should not have said that.

Every inch of Robin's mind laughed in the face of Eudes' rage.

The king took a breath and held it. Eyes shut, his shoulders slowly lowered in a false relaxation.

"You are dismissed." The words held a force akin to a scream, though all came calm. "Send in Captain Andragoras as you leave."

"I am no servant, Eudes."

"No." The king's lips twitched to a scowl. "You are a bastard prince whom I have allowed to live as royalty for far too long, as you have proven over again." He tilted his head to the side, the calm completely gone, in its place a seething displeasure. "You are a guard who brought an armed prisoner to the exact point he wished to be without a question as to the truth this man told you. You, boy, are an unruly child masquerading as a man with reason, only doing so because I allow it and you get results. Do not have me treat you as you should be."

He was still going when Robin turned his back to him and walked away. Any more and he'd manage to be stuck on a trivial duty for the next month. The ringing in his ears barely died down enough to hear an indignant "I am not finished!" before he slammed the door behind himself so hard it felt as if the hallway rattled.

He didn't want to think about the lectures he'd receive after the council's meeting that evening, if he even got to go. Most of the time, he was the early party trick.

He set his gaze to the floor and stomped away from the doors before they had a chance to open again. It wasn't truly an Eudes 'thing' to come after him, but it had happened before.

He still had the scar to prove it.

The ringing in Robin's ears dulled down as he stormed away. Words faintly rung in the background, like someone had called his name, but he didn't turn. Wherever they were, he held the excuse of not hearing them and planned to use it.

What if it's Ed?

If it was Ed, he knew where to find him.

The hall darkened, led to an area where the cold stone walls surrounded everything. Ends of dark curtains trailed the floor, their purpose solely decoration. It was his mother's idea to put them up-- she hated the dank, dungeon-y feel to the windowless hallway and desperately tried to make a light shine. Tiny, stained-glass lanterns hung from the ceiling, each giving flickering colors to the floor below.

Robin stopped about mid-way down the hallway and reached behind a curtain, palm landing on a wooden door frame. As he did, he pulled a small brass key out of his breast pocket and shoved it in its hole as hard as he could.

Nothing broke and the door swung open.

As he slipped between the wood and the stone, Robin placed a hand against the knob to be sure nothing would slam. When it didn't, he shut his eyes a moment and leaned against the frame.

Silence.

Even better. Home.

Grains of sand scraped against his fingertips as brushed against the stone. The mountain of stairs ahead of him kept spiraling toward the sky, the air dusty from two weeks with no visitors.

Good. No one unwelcome to mess with his stuff.

There was a scrape as he got to the top step and shifted to face the closed window before him. Robin slid his foot over the top of the gray stone once more. It went too easily.

Well, if he didn't want to break his neck tripping down the stairs, that needed to be swept.

Ah yes. The gravestone could read 'Death by Stupidity'.

He started to hold back the grin, but let it go. Who could catch him laughing at dumb jokes here? Certainly not Eudes. And if he couldn't, who cared? Robin reached for the window and pulled it open, let the shutter give way to warm sunlight across his face, though the day grew dim. He crossed his arms, placing them against the wooden beam, and leaned forward.

A rustle came beside him, not enough to make him jump but enough he felt his neck pop in the slightest as he turned. Overgrown tree branches scraped the stone walls, tangled in the messy vines wrapped around loose rocks and flag poles. From there, the culprit of the sound broke through, cackling a mocking laughter while it flew away.

A long, black feather floated onto the windowsill as the bird left, almost like it was leaving Robin a present on purpose. He twirled it in his fingers a moment before closing the shutter once more.

Evidently, he was wrong. Here, even the crows laughed at his moments of peace.

Feather still in his hand, he sighed and sank to the ground, back catching every rough spot on the stones as he went down. Home sweet home -- no longer hunted by assassins of questionable origin, but torn into by the king and mocked by crows.

As was his life.

He cupped his head in his hands and shut his eyes, finally free to let the nagging buildup of thoughts and doubts out to explode. To think, in peace, of his actions and other's. What they meant. What was wrong. What little pieces he could find to fit the ever-growing puzzle of threats and conspiracies.

Why someone wished Erakis and Kallas at war.

If someone wanted him dead for it.

Krativ.

No. Not Krativ. Not now.

They would be the most likely to wish violence on the kingdoms. They belonged to neither. To both. If it was an organization or uprising, they were the most likely to be behind it. Hell, even one of the failed assassins admitted he was from there.

If that was the case, he had to give Tobias more credit. The boy nearly convinced him of higher involvement instead of the Krativ underbelly. He held a lie and never strayed from it.

The blood spat from his mouth, Tobias' hands reaching to cover the place his tongue used to be. Eudes crowded over him, the knife in his hands. A knife Tobias never had.

He and Andragoras stood over Tobias, Robin closer. Looking. Didn't kill innocents -- well, he certainly wasn't one. The boy was wrapped up in a plot and tried to kill. But innocent in what matter? Was he threatened?

He let him go.

Andragoras would have found that knife. His trust in the captain surpassed any disbelief Eudes would shut the boy up.

So why. Why would the king need the silence of a disgraced guard?

The only answer was one Robin didn't like. Eudes had something to do with it, whether it was simply the knowledge or it was being in command of the whole operation. He knew of it and needed nothing but blood spilled.

If that was the case, the king couldn't be so foolish to believe the guards would kill him and Andragoras. He knew what they did. He knew who they were.

"Exodus Crow."

The words rang out, sliced through crackles of fire and flames. Snaked over soiled dirt and stone to crawl up his blood soaked arm, outstretched to the one who spoke below him.

Blood. Too much of it. Over him. Over the houses. The grey slabs of rock beneath his feet. Some was dried, other parts slick as ice, all of it painting a picture of the past fighting. Trails branched off the masses, other parts met together to make a larger path, all of it ended the same. Bodies of friends. Foes. Those who were neither. Executions -- some of those cuts were his. Those bodied mangled beyond recognition -- his doing. The blood coating his face, his armor, his clothes, hands, mouth--

"It's what we called you."

The world buckled beneath him, tore him down to see the woman at his feet. Her hands pressed against a slice in her gut with no effect, the liquid she tried to stop still trickled from her body.

The same red stained his sword. Was it her or another's?

Did it matter?

"You were supposed to save us. Get us out." The lady scowled. How old was she? Twenties? Thirties?

The sword tipped upward. Closer to her neck. "I tried," Robin said. Words didn't want to come. Emotion didn't want to calm. What was it, anyway? Anger or sadness, he couldn't place it. "I tried and you attacked."

Her eyes fixed on his sword. "We attacked. How did we attack when you drew first blood. You knights, you rescuers. And you." Blood bubbled around the corners of her mouth, only to be spat out towards his feet. "You are the crow who stinks of death and ties up his father's loose ends like the loyal servant you are. You are nothing more than a bastard child kept on its leash. You hide in the shadows and hide their faults like you aren't one yourself." Her eyes held a fire he'd seen in only few. A hatred. "You are no knight. You are a crow, sent to forever quiet loose ends--"

Robin screamed and plunged the sword down. Her neck.

Loose ends.

They were loose ends --

A shift changed in the air around him, a presence of another near his body--

His dagger was clenched in his hand before he ever looked up, his arm outstretched in the direction of the person, feet planted to stand.

"Watch it!"

He knew that voice. Missed it, while he and the captain were gone.

The dagger he held clattered to the floor as he still followed through with the motion, his now empty hand brushing against the shirt of the man who just shouted.

Robin stood as soon as he was done, bounding to his feet. The boy... no. No longer a boy glared at him, arms crossed over his slight chest. He was smaller than Robin in every way but height, where he now stood barely over eye level. His hair was longer, lighter -- nearly shoulder length and colored a yellowish silver like their mother's.

His brother.

Edwin frowned. The mere downturn of his lips pulled every ounce of Eudes he held in him out. "First you stomp away and now you try to kill me, Robin. What kind of greeting is that?"

So it was him in the hallway.

Heat flared at Robin's cheeks and for a moment he couldn't look his brother in the eyes. "Sorry, Ed."

Before the words ever left his mouth, the frown disappeared into the world, replaced by a childlike smile that brightened the sun. Edwin wrapped his arms around Robin before the older brother could protest. After a moment, he did the same.

Safe.

Home.

"Understandable really. You spoke to my father before you had any time to breathe from whatever fresh hell you discovered on your trip." He pulled away, smile gone but eyes still shining like an excited puppy. "And from what I heard, it went about how your usual conversations go."

"Not quite." The smallest of grins peered out from Robin's blank expression. "I insulted his bloodline this time."

That wasn't something to laugh about.

Edwin's mouth dropped open and out flew a flurry of chuckles. "You didn't."

Robin just raised an eyebrow.

The smile came back, slow and infectious. "You did," he breathed. "What adventure did you have that brought you back in such a defiant mood, Robin?"

Adventures. How he wished it was adventures and not just finding dead messengers and plots of war. He debated on how much to tell Ed. All of it would be out when Ed met with the council anyway--

The council.

"Shit!" Robin scrambled for his blade and shoved it in it's sheath. He had to meet with the council this time-- it was his meeting. His formal debrief. Always at sundown.

Always at sundown and he had no earthly idea of what time it was. The woman taunting him was no daydream or invading thought, it was a dream. One he knew too well, but a dream nonetheless.

Andragoras. He needed to speak with Andragoras to get every ounce of information straight before the confusion of a dozen men blasted him in the face.

His mother as well. Whatever excuse Eudes gave for her not being there he didn't believe. Hell, anything Eudes claimed about his mother he didn't believe. He needed her guidance as to how much to say. If there truly was a plot or if he'd finally reached the place of paranoia everyone already believed him to be at.

And if he was late to another council meeting... he'd never hear the end of it.

"Robin!"

The prince paused, every rampaging thought in his mind standing still. Ed's hands were raised slightly, palms up. Traces of a smile still lingered, but were mostly replaced with worry.

Ed raised his eyebrows. "First of all, take a moment to breathe for God's sake. Secondly: what is 'shit'?"

Breathe.

He was a prince here, bastard or not. He could do that.

Robin lowered his hand to his side and did as his brother said. Balls of nerves he didn't realize he held untangled immediately.

He met Edwin's gaze and held it for a moment, trying to come up with a good answer that didn't involve the full trip's story.

"The council," he finally managed. "I have to meet with them this time and have no concept of time right now."

It was an answer Ed accepted. He nodded. "You've about an hour before it starts."

An hour he could deal with.

Ed tried to say something again, but Robin was already marching toward the stairs. "Come with me."

"Where are you going?"

"I need to speak with Andragoras to get my mind straight." He placed his feet on the stairs. "You may want to hear the reasons before the meeting."

Reasons like attempted assassinations and possibly treason.

"About that--"

Robin cut in. "Then I need to talk to Mother. Eudes told me some bullshit story when I asked and she needs to hear this too before the council knows of it."

He reached the door and placed his hand on the knob, only to stop frozen by Ed's next words.

"Robin, please wait a minute."

Whatever it was, Robin couldn't place it. Maybe it was the sorrow Ed held in his voice. Maybe it was the asking. Anything.

His blood ran cold. Something was wrong.

Ed took in a deep breath, straightening as he did. For those moments, he appeared as a crown prince, not as the kid Robin knew him as. "Things changed while you were gone. There was an overhaul of the council."

Wrong.

"Did Mother call for it?"

He already knew that answer. She had no reason to. The only one who would was Eudes.

Ed gave him a sad smile. The look alone was enough to confirm Robin's question.

He still needed to hear the words.

"Robin, Mother's sick."

Robin dropped his hand from the doorknob, heart in his knees.

"That is these second time I've heard that today. What do you mean, 'sick'? What kind of sick?"

A hint of frustration tinged his voice.

The council was changed. It'd only be changed if they knew. If it was something drastic, something to change rulers.

"We don't know." Edwin's false calm was betrayed by a crack. "It started not long after you left and has only gotten worse."

Something was wrong. What, he wouldn't be able to prove until later. But still, the deep dread he felt hovered around the tip of his tongue, the back of his brain. There were too many coincidences piled around each other. Something  was wrong.

If he was paranoid, Andragoras would know.

Robin forced himself to remain calm. Composed, on the outside. He twisted the door handle with a pointed look at his brother.

"I'm going to speak with Andragoras. He likely doesn't know that information and you need to hear of our journey as well."

Ed's eyebrows wrinkled together. "The captain will find out during the meeting --"

"No."

Ed froze, stopped by Robin's command. Robin took a breath. Rarely, did that force make itself heard around Ed.

"You need some information before the meeting as well, Ed. Just come with me." He sighed. "Please."

The moment his brother nodded, Robin left the Nest.