Original X-roads-2003

    Three strange men ported into the Throne Room just as Daemon, Casandra, and Sertoff returned.
    The first man had dark skin and eyes, his hair was long and white. He was clean shaven and physically fit. The second man was so pale he looked as if he was albino, he was bald and clean shaven. His eyes looked as if they had bad cataracts, but he saw without trouble. The third man had a light tan, his eyes were a solid black. His hair was black and cut close to his head, he was the younger of the three and wore a close cut beard.
    The first man spoke, “The Mission is as of now, over.”
    Cas screwed up her face a little for a second. “Is this about Emperor Kilji?”
    The man continued, “Sertoff Raje, we are to accompany you to Demald.”
    Sertoff narrowed his eyes, “Yes, Sir.”
    The third man attached a breathing device on Sertoff and the four teleported out of sight.
    Daemon looked at Casandra. “What do you think the Commity wanted with Sertoff?”
    “Well they teleported to Jonothan’s home world.” Cas shrugged. “Im guessing it has everything to do with Jas.”
    “This isn’t going to end well.” Daemon looked away. “Why is he so infatuated with her? This is Lilah all over again.” he turned back to Cas. “Our mission was jeopardized and failed due to his inability to control his emotions.”
    “The mission’s not a failure, it was scrapped.” Cas retorted. “We have no orders now, so we return to Threshold?”
    Daemon shook his head slowly. “I’ll go. You stay here and babysit the others.”
    “What do you mean?” Cas questioned.
    “If you’re right, and whatever this is has to do with Jasylin. Sertoff is going to snap. Never mind the fact that the almighty Sertoff didn’t get his way, and has to throw a temper tantrum. Or the fact that he isn’t in control of everything…” Daemon shook his head, trying to clear the rampant thoughts and scenarios of what might occur. “He wont come back here after shooting Kilji in the face. He didn’t kill him and their friendship may go back decades, but I doubt it’s strong enough to forgive this so soon.”
    “I thought Kilji was dead. Sertoff is Emperor.”
    “Yeah, he’s about as dead as Jonothan was. That’s not how you kill an immortal.” Daemon replied.
    Cas was shocked, “But he was Emperor, you can’t seat an immortal on the throne.”
    “The laws were changed.”
    “Changed when!”
    Daemon turned to face Cas, “I think the Commity has been corrupted somehow. Slowly changes have been taking effect for decades. The Tribilician Army itself was almost disbanded, you know this. How long had it been since we received a mission? You will say it was peacetime, but I know. The Commity has a hand in this upcoming war, we were never slated to do anything but FAIL this mission. Why would they recruit civilians with no military backgrounds for such a high profile case? Think Casandra. They wanted us to fail.”
    Cas sighed a troubled sigh, she didn’t want any of this to be true.