Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

"My Lady, it is as I said. There was an incident in the markets this morning and someone fought off one of those strange fanatics. They claimed to be \'Titan from Eroa\' and then left the scene before being questioned by the guards."

"Urgh…" Lady Voltara al Famyn grumbled. She looked through her pile of documents and pulled out a letter she had received regarding the participants in the tournament.

The day she received it, she tossed it aside as she had many more important matters. However, she opened it up now and saw on the list of names \'Titan, representative from Eroa\' written in plain font.

"Dammit…" She grumbled again.

"Auntie, is something the matter?"

"Elize, please come here darling."

A young woman who looked like the spitting image of a much younger Voltara stepped into the room. She was wearing thin nightclothes that made the spy nearly stop breathing when he saw how they gently draped over Elize\'s form.

"What can I do for you, Auntie?"

"My dear… I will be needing your assistance with something. A young man is attending this tournament and I need you to do one of two things for me." Voltara said sweetly.

"Of course, what can I do for you?"

"I need you to crush him with all the power you possess. Or, failing that seduce him and bring him to our side. You can do that for me, can\'t you darling?"

Elize thought for a moment. "I think it can be done. Though, I have to ask… is he handsome? Is he strong?"

"Handsome… I don\'t know. He always wears a mask." Voltara said truthfully.

"Why a mask?"

"He is a member of the King\'s Shadow. The order that serves the royal family directly. He is also the individual responsible for the capturing of the city of Alvora. Which means that he is personally responsible for the event that ended the war with Alorek."

Elize\'s eyes widened. She had heard what had happened in Alvora and had read many of the reports Voltara had. On top of that, her auntie had informed her of what she saw while signing the non-aggression pact.

Elize al Famyn\'s face became flush and her breathing slightly ragged. "He\'s that powerful is he… auntie, if I bring him to our side, or even if I beat him. Can I keep him… I would love to keep him."

Voltara smiled as she looked at her niece who appeared to be almost writing in pleasure at the thought of seducing a powerful warrior. "Calm yourself, my dear. We do not even know if you will be able to complete either of those tasks. Promise me to do your best and that will be enough to satisfy me, darling."

"I will give it my all, Auntie Volara," Elize said with a bow before exiting the room. As one last show, she winked at the spy who had been staring at her immodest dress the entire time.

"Lecherous fool." Voltara snapped at the spy. "Get back out there and find me anything and everything you can on Titan. I want you to look for everything. Get in contact with the teams in Eroa. If he\'s a member of the King\'s Shadow he must be a native.

"From our reports, he may be a half-blood of some kind, so look into any illicit relationships between powerful Eroan noble families with trysts and love children between other races. Go!" Explore stories at m,v l\'e-NovelBin.net

Her beliefs about his possible origins were simply a guess. There was no hard evidence to show that he was a native of Eroa or he was from some other country. One thing she did know is that all the other known members of King\'s Shadow were natural-born citizens of the country.

However, another thing to know about the order was that they prided themselves on recognizing the strong. Eroa was like that as a nation, for the most part. Which did not necessarily rule out other possibilities for Titan\'s origin. The only thing that was truly known was that he appeared suddenly on the battlefield about six months before the end of the war.

Each battle he participated in was a resounding success for Eroa.

Honestly, it was getting to the point that Voltara was wondering why she was so obsessed with the young man. Was it the fear of the devastation he wrought? Was it possibly the strength he had that made her want to possess him? Or was it something else she had yet to identify? It was hard to tell at times with so many different possibilities.

Voltara bit her thumb out of frustration. She was angry that her network had found nothing, but even angrier that she thought the tournament information to be useless, when in fact it gave her a massive clue as to Titan\'s location. Had she known, it would have been so much easier to look into him and set plans accordingly.

However, now those chances were ruined, all because of a simple oversight. "It\'s no matter," she stated. "I will likely learn what I need in due time. From what King Aleksander told me, the final four will address the crowd. I find it unlikely that Titan will not make it at least that far.

"If he does, I will be able to learn more about him. If he does not, then he is of no use or threat to me. I still have yet to determine the exact way that Titan was able to cause such destruction. All our sources have been very tight-lipped, though there are only a handful of ways to perform this task, and most of them make this Titan a scary person.

It is simply a matter of what to fear: his power, his intelligence, or both."