"What do you mean?" Tenedos said to the hooded man. He tightened his hold on the daggers, readying himself for a fight if so required.

The portal behind the cloaked enigma died away with a whimper. Outside, heavy, cumbersome rainclouds had rolled in from the north and before long raindrops heavily rang a thousand staccato beats across the Tylmerande architecture. Damascus shuffled uncomfortably as the sound of an arcane hum grew ever louder, and Tenedos bounced on his heels as the vibrations of unknown magics started to manifest all around him. It was power, raw power, stemming from their employer. The hooded figure momentarily closed his eyes, shut out the empty pit in his stomach and focused on the pair in front of him, enough that when he spoke, it came out with a straight, unwavering voice.

"Shinsou Vaan Osiris is still alive."

"He can’t be," spoke Tenedos, wide eyed with both shock and desperation, “I shot him right in the chest; In the heart. There was no time for Storm to deflect the bullet, and Shin-“

"Nevertheless," the man interrupted, willing himself to stare sidelong at the man he had hired, "He lives all the same, and now Storm comes for you. You have made this very difficult for me, Tenedos."

"What more could I have done?!" Tenedos asked, incredulous and bemused in the same breath. "There isn’t a man amongst us who could have made that shot with Storm around, and it was impossible to get close to them. If we had, we’d be dead. You weren’t by his side then, but I saw them in action at Radasanth. I watched two men do things mortals should simply not be able to do. This was the only way to hit him, and we did." he declared. The tone behind the words shook Damascus right to his core; their employer had proven in the past he was not one to be argued with, and his partner, for all of his bravery, was doubtless walking on thin ice.

The cloaked figure smiled pityingly. "Yes, you did." He held up his hand, and a silver ring with a Brotherhood crest shimmered on his finger. It was red and black, just like the ones worn by the upper echelons of the Castigar hierarchy. "I suppose you did everything that could be expected of a pair of sewer rats from Radasanth. But it isn’t enough to stop the rot. Sadly, I only have one more use for you both now; corpses, for the coroner.”

"What?" Damascus asked in genuine disbelief.

"Shut your goddamned mouth, Arius!" Said the spunkier Tenedos, who had clearly now heard enough. He knew what was coming from the moment their boss had warped into the building, and he was damned if he was going to let this arrogant son of a bitch make the first strike. The mercenary stuck out the daggers, flipped them over and closed his eyes.

I don’t know if this is going to work, but I have to try.

“Senkai: Arashi no Ikari”

There was a long pause before Tenedos realised that nothing was happening. Frustrated and desperate, the mercenary helplessly opted for wide swing of the blades and met a wall of violet-blue feathers that billowed into place before it, negating the attack completely. With a simple wave of his hand, the hooded man slammed Tenedos sickeningly into the westernmost wall. By then, Damascus was already spinning through to a counterattack; a battering ram in the form of a clenched fist. It was dodged easily, and as the heavy set man blew by him the cloaked figure unleashed a stream of lightning that struck Damascus violently and threw him into the other wall.

The hooded man smiled as lightning from the window outside caught his spectacles, and thunder rumbled its agreement. Finally, a pair of smooth hands slipped from under his robes and folded the hood back, revealing the naked head of Arius Mephisto.

Shinsou’s trusted advisor turned to face to a writhing, groggy Tenedos and paced to him, pulling him up by his hair.

“So, when did you steal them from me?” Arius asked, an underlying anger present in his voice as his free hand summoned magnesium-white whorls of flame. “those daggers were created by Shinsou for Storm Veritas. They won’t work for just anyone.”

"Our second meeting in Radasanth. It was too easy, really. You have a habit of underestimating us, just a pair of sewer rats. Does that make you angry?" Tenedos asked him with a sneer on his face and hatred in his eyes. He spat a clot of blood at Arius’s feet.

Suddenly, a wounded but enraged Damascus burst from the ground, rotten floorboards ripping up in his wake. He closed in with another punch and Arius turned just in time to meet him in kind with a hard swing of the flame immolated hand. The tall mercenary slammed down a few feet away, rolled and came to rest at the broken window. His head lulled to one side and eyes rolled back into his head as the final vestiges of life ebbed away from his body.

“Damascus…” Tenedos, through bloodied lips, uttered his friend’s name as he witnessed his demise. Arius took off his cloak, revealing a white greatcoat tied about the waist with a black sash. It seemed to be in mockery of his leader, or perhaps a self-proclaimed symbol of his standing. Slowly, he walked back over to the muddled sellsword, and pulled his bloody, mottled hair back so that Tenedos’s eyes met his own. Gasping for breath, the mercenary glared through wincing eyes at his oppressor.

“What…do you…hope to gain…by betraying them?” The words were pursed, drawn out and spoken with every ounce of energy left in his body, but met only with a cold sneer by the Brotherhood second in command. Without warning, another magnesium-white flare burst into existence from Arius’s free hand and the resulting blast took off the right side of Tenedos Torr’s head, tearing away part of his neck and shoulder in the process. He collapsed to the floor in a bloodied, crumpled heap, the leftover momentum dragging him down on one side. Arius watched him on the way down, staring at the lifeless corpse.

Things hadn’t transpired the way he had planned, but Mephisto knew that events would lead to where he wanted them to go. And with another sneer, Arius deigned not to linger over it. He left the bodies where they fell and didn't bother watching as his arcane flames enveloped them, quickly disintegrating them into thin air.

The distant thunder once again pounded Tylmerande, and lightning struck again.