***
The Emperor turned on his side; his sleep was uneasy; in fact the only thing preventing him from waking was the fatigue he felt. Little did he realise the true peril he was in, as a clandestine form appeared on the balcony. Looking through the drapes the figure spied the crest of the Emperor, turned and gave out three shallow haunting whistles. They were answered from beneath and above; the figure brushed the drape aside, and moved into the room. He crept over to the bed and stopped a moment as he thought he heard something outside, the door remained closed. In complete secrecy he moved closer to the bed until he stood over it. He raised his sword, as he did so the Emperor woke wide eyed in shock; the man stood there a moment, dagger raised above his head and fell back. Arzealous had arrived and not a moment too soon. His sword had brought the would be killer down. Suddenly there was a cry from outside and another intent on slaying the Emperor rushed into the room. Seeing the Sword leaning up against the chair Arzealous literally kicked it like a ball. In one swoop the Emperor caught it and unsheathed it so fast that he thrust the blade deep into the enemy just as he had leapt forward to strike. The two that were still on the veranda were quickly joined by another two; one took down his bow and aimed an arrow at the Emperor but was struck in the face by a candle holder hurled by Arzealous. The Two Guards that had been waiting outside on hearing the commotion rushed in, they cried out in horror, and charged the enemy; they were swiftly felled by the elite warriors that had been sent against them, one struck by an arrow was dead before he fell to the floor, more guards entered the room and the fighting took on a vicious frantic assault. Being sorely outnumbered the enemy were driven back onto the terrace where they were finally dispatched, one rather than be taken alive threw himself from the balcony.
There was silence in the room everyone seemed astonished, and no one could quite believe what had just occurred.
Arzealous knelt over one of the dead bodies and unmasked the conspirator, “So what have we here,” he removed the man’s blade it was symbolically encrusted, “Ah, I recognise these markings, a Stegion from the east, indeed from Persia. This is a whole new kind of bad.”
One of the Scholae took the blade from him, “I thought Heraclius destroyed that sect of butchers at the battle of Nineveh.”
“Obviously he missed a few of them,” said Arzealous.
“But what are they doing here, unless of course this is what the Siren meant by 'we are legion and we are everywhere,' the thing is the Saracens hate such secret sects more than we do, and they certainly wouldn't ally themselves to them,” replied the Emperor.
Another Scholae stepped back from the balcony, “Could it be revenge for what we did all those years ago. I would have thought the Stegions smarter than that.”
“You know, I don’t believe the Stegions are working with the Saracens but maybe they are working for The Rageon,” said Arzealous slowly.
The Emperor scratched his head and leant over one of the prostrate figures, “You could be right, one thing's for sure the Stegions are not stupid and this was not about revenge, it’s about something we’ve got that they want; I believe killing me would have been a smoke screen; I think they were here to steal something of great value from us, something that Heraclius brought back from the east which they think we have; let’s see, the Saracens may know what it is, the likelihood is they don’t. The Sirens, the Rageon, the Wraith, Charon, and the Stegions on the other hand, certainly do. Which means gentlemen, it appears that everyone else knows what the true nature of this business is about, but us; so how is it that we who are the inheritors of the wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes, Heron, and many, many others, cannot work out what’s going on. I think it’s about time we learnt what the mystery is.”
They all stood silent as each racked his brains as to what it could be.
One Scholae shrugged resignedly, “Well looking on the bright side, the situations not as bad as it could be.”
The Viglator raised an eyebrow at that suggestion, “I see, we’re surrounded by enemies, some of which are completely unnatural, all of which want us dead, we all try to avoid the Bishop lest he drag us off to church and make us repent our many sins, or give us the usual dressing down like school children, because of course, this war is all our fault; the long dead Stegions are very much alive and have made an appearance, and you think things aren’t so bad. Where did you grow up, in an orphanage or something?”
The Emperor painfully just shook his head, “Would someone please send for Callinicus, he might be able to shed some light on all this.”
Arzealous looked up, “After leaving the hospital he would probably have gone to the library or apothecary; after all he's still trying to put the final touches to that device he spoke of earlier, which he believes will be able to shoot out something called Roman Fire. It acts apparently on the same principle as a Water Spout. I just hope he’s managed to get that formula we retrieved from the realm of the Rageon to work, otherwise the machines will be for naught.”
“Let us assume he can get those contraptions to work,” said the Emperor,” perhaps then we'll have some good news. I think we could all use some wine about now. This may not be the right time to drink heavily, but it is the right time to drink.”
A Scholae left the room as two very shocked courtiers entered the Emperors chamber and eyed the dead bodies in complete amazement. The Emperor saw the looks on their faces and burst into laughter, as did his Elite guard and Arzealous.