Aquilon

           Gryphon surveyed the situation. He and Pit were, as always, were sitting up in the Eagle’s Nest, the highest tower in the Imperial palace. They were beginning to spend all their time up there. A few months back, whispers of resistance in the East triggered the Emperor’s current whirlpool of paranoia. He had the two of them up here most of the day and all through the night to watch the skies and slopes around the palace. To anyone else it would seem that they did nothing all day. And that’s exactly what their visitor thought.

                    “I guess they were right. All you ever do is just lounge up here. Just toting that rifle around earns you the highest pay in the army. You’re nothing but the Emperor’s lapdog.” Their verbal assailant was a messenger. One the pair had never even seen before. A clear testament to her importance, Gryphon scoffed to himself. She came in just moments ago, to deliver a message he presumed. But she hadn’t gotten to it yet. The second she entered and saw the pair sitting against the wall she went off on them.

                    “And who happened to tell you that? I guess the whispers were right. It seems the guards might be jealous eh! I’ll have you know missy that we actually earn nothing. Yeah you heard right. The Emperor doesn’t pay us. We work for free. And this “rifle” is a Jackson-Miller Model 3 Sniper Rifle. There only happens to be one. Hand crafted for me. A well-aimed bullet could take even a military air base out of the sky. Granted only I could pull that off. And that is why we are who we are.” Pit seemed to spit the last part out. Gryphon knew he hated the Emperor’s guard. He called them all “self-entitled assholes who think they run the palace”.  He’s even said it to their faces before. Pit was right, to an extent. The real work fell on he and Pit’s shoulders. Keeping the Emperor safe was their job and they were the best there is. Gryphon leaned back against the window to watch the encounter unfold. He wasn’t one to intervene but Pit could get ahead of himself sometimes so Gryphon stood at the ready.

                    “So who the hell are you? Sauntering in and slinging acquisitions around like you’re the equally useless Guard Captain.” Pit brandished his trademark smile. A smile he wore when he was dangerously angry. The rifle was too far for him to get to it but Gryphon noticed that Pit had a knife at his side. This could get ugly. Fast. He quickly stepped up in front of Pit and addressed the girl.

                    “What my partner means is that it’s disrespectful to enter someone’s post and accuse them of such things. You wouldn’t know a rat’s ass about what we do nor about our compensation so don’t speak as if you do. Now I can tell by the crest on your hat that you’re a messenger. The blue stripe means you are fairly high ranking. And that red badge on your uniform tells me that you’re also a soldier.” All she could do was nod. “So why are you here”. Gryphon preferred to be the silent observer rather than directly engage a situation but when he did so people were always stunned. Perhaps just hearing him speak out of nowhere came as a shock. Or maybe it was his sheer awareness of everything. Gryphon couldn’t care less. What others thought of him was of little concern. It took the girl a few moments before responding.

                    “My name is Tristessa Walker. I work in the Palace correspondence department. You’re also right about me being a soldier. I have background as a sharpshooter in the Imperial army though that was brief. I much prefer this job. Anyway I am here to deliver an order, a direct one, from the Emperor himself. He has a special job for the two of you and needs you to meet him in “a location that they will know” at 6:00 AM tomorrow morning. Sounds important.” By now most of her animosity had waned. She was smiling as she finished her reply to Gryphon. Meanwhile Pit was scowling at them from behind. Gryphon took the moment to examine her. He took in everything from how many strands of hair were out of place to a dark stain on the shoulder of her uniform. Anything that could possibly be of use, he noticed it first. All right a messenger. Chestnut brown hair, pointed features… most likely from the Illian highlands? So an Imperial native. Doesn’t really matter her ethnicity now does it. She’s from the Department of Correspondence and wears the telltale uniform. If the old Emperor sent her then he must trust her. Blue rank, that’s the second highest tier. Why does that make me wary? And she’s a soldier on top of it all. Seems about seventeen years old. Just like me… Fairly well accomplished. Nowhere near my level though. But I wouldn’t call what I’ve done “accomplishments”. Gryphon went through his thought process before his heart could even beat twice: that’s what made him special. He frowned, narrowed his eyes and tucked his findings away into the recesses of his mind, returning to the scene quick enough to see what Pit did next.

                    “Ok so now we know why you’re here. If you’re sorry for what you pulled earlier I’d like to show you something.” He turned back towards the cabinet by the window and she followed warily.

                    “I was warned before coming up here. If anything happens you’ll be in trou-“ Before she could finish he shoved a rifle into her hands. She looked at it. A Harrison 750. Just what she used in the army.

                    “You said you were a sharpshooter? Show me what you can do.” She nodded and grasped the rifle, going through the motions to load it. When it was ready she looked back at him.

                    “This is no firing range. How can I demonstrate my skill?” Her visible confusion mixed with distrust made Pit laugh and point to the window.

                    “See out there? About 250 yards out, there’s a few targets down on the road.” She looked. As he said, there in road stood four humanoid targets. “ I use them to practice. Someone comes and replaces them every night. Go ahead. See if you can hit them.”

                    Gryphon had once again slipped from the situation and was observing from the edge. His efforts to remain on the side were dashed however as Tristessa addressed him.

                    “Are you sure this is allowed? I’m don’t I trust Pit?” Gryphon nodded without breaking his silence while Pit laughed cunningly once more as he brushed his spiky dirty-blonde hair from his eyes. “All right then. Oh and you can call me Tessa by the way.” Her smile caught Gryphon off guard. He didn’t see too many of those and he didn’t like them too much. Smiles are as good as lies here in the Palace.

                    Tessa held up the rifle to steady and looked down its scope. Tightening up, her upper body muscles stood out as she took a good minute to aim. Then she finally shot. The bullet sliced through the air, whistling as it barely scraped the edge of the target. She turned back to Pit toting a look of accomplishment but was deflated by his unfazed frown.

                    “For all that aiming, the shot was mediocre at best. In the time it took you to ready you could have been seen, or worse caught. Then the actual shot. Oh my. You couldn’t even hit the target. And to think I was excited at seeing another marksman for a minute. Hah. That was laughable”

                    Tessa shot him a glare, which seemed deadlier than his rifle, before walking back to door, anger flaring. “Well you have your orders now. That’s all I came for.” She slammed the door behind her. Gryphon shook his head and glanced back over to Pit who was putting the rifle back in the closet.

                    “You’re always the charmer aren’t you? Anyways, stay here. I have things to attend to.” Pit just shrugged. He knew now to question Gryphon after working together for so long. “I’ll be back in a few hours.” Pulling his hood over his head he set off through.

                    Gryphon caught up pretty quickly and began walking beside her. She didn’t even notice the silent hooded figure before he spoke.

                    “So where are you off to now?”

                    Alarmed, she nearly tripped before turning on him and then recognizing the voice. “Oh It’s you. You scared me creeping up like that! Wait, I don’t even know your name!”

                    This surprised Gryphon, as he wasn’t accustomed to meeting new people and therefore was unaccustomed to introducing himself.  “Oh? That’s right, I never told you. Well I thought you might be aware of it. Well my name’s Gryphon. I’m a special operative under charge of the emperor. Does that suffice for an introduction?” She could only nod again.

                    “Well then Gryphon, I’m going to eat now. Dinner will be served soon in my office. Would you care to join me?”

                    He had no reason to agree. He left the room to go to the library. A guard had requested him to research a topic, something the guard was too lazy to do himself, and Gryphon took the assignment. He could care less. It’s not like he had work at the moment aside from his obligatory training session with Pit in four hours. Gryphon wasn’t one to miss things. But somehow he couldn’t refuse her request. He shot the floor a signature scowl before replying. “Why not. Should I just follow you there now?”

                    She smiled again. “Sure. Now about earlier… is Pit always that sharp?”

                    Gryphon sighed. Pit was his closest friend and partner for three years now. They knew each other better than anyone else. “Well yes and no. He can come across fairly rough. He isn’t always like that. It’s just that we’ve haven’t had a job in a few weeks and he’s getting itchy for something to do. If you can get on his good side, which is an accomplishment in itself, he isn’t too cross. But if you anger him? Well then good luck. Also, I hope you’re not too dejected over what he said about your shooting.” Her smile sunk into an irritated frown quickly.

                    “He’s the expert. He is far more skilled than you could aspire to be.” Gryphon sighed again. “He’s the best the empire has. That’s why he has that job. Not just anyone get’s to where he is. He could bring down an Airfortress from five hundred meters with one shot. Don’t try to compare to him yet. Even he misses the target sometimes though.” What am I doing? Why am I doing this! I have work to see too! I can’t be wasting my time dining with a downtrodden messenger. With that visible cheering her up they arrived at the messenger’s kitchen.

                    “Here you can sit down at this table. I’ll be back shortly with some food.” He pulled his hood back over his silvery hair, letting it fall down past his nose, and lit a cigarette. After letting it sit in his mouth for a moment he took a deep breath of smoke. This is more than I’ve talked in weeks… I have half a mind to leave now and head to the training ground. That wouldn’t be too considerate though. I guess I’ll appease her for a little while but I’ll be off tomorrow. Who knows what the Emperor has in mind. Espionage, robbery, assassination, the list goes on. It could be anything. The fat old bird might just want us to stand behind him and physically watch his back. Before he could take another breath of the cigarette he caught sight of Tessa coming around carrying a food-laden tray. But that’s tomorrow.