FINALLY THINGS GET INTERESTING! IT TOOK ME WHAT, TWO WEEKS?

"Miryanna, I think you're just fine just with what you after doing," Andarin tried to convince her.

nobody cares andarin

"No, I want to do no more," She stated firmly.

Andarin sighed, "Tell you what. I'll take you to the leaders and they can tell you if there's anything that needs to be done."

Miryanna smiled, "sounds good to me,"

And so the following day, Miryanna managed to get away for the day and go see the leaders. When she told them her desire, they looked surprised.

Alarick's brows rose and he appeared deep in thought. "Well, Miryanna, I don't really know what to tell you. You're doing marvelous work for s already."

"I know, but is there anything else I could do?" She asked, eager to do her best.

"Your position in the court of the king is valuable. We can't just send another agent in there to pick up your work where you leave off."

you really could actually

Miryanna's gaze drifted to the floor, I guess you're right." Her gaze went up and met Alarick's eyes again, "But if there's anything I can do besides that, just say the word."

Alarick smiled, "I'll do that. It's a pleasure to have such an eager young woman to work with us."

Miryanna also smiled, "And a pleasure to work for the right cause."

After she was back at the castle, she sunk down on the chair in front of her vanity to start getting ready for the evening meal.

She'd just taken off her hair ornaments and was then brushing her hair when she saw a shadow pass behind her in the mirror. She gasped and looked behind her, but saw nothing. She frowned, but returned to her hair. Then she saw it again. An unmistakable shadow in the shape of a man right behind her. She clutched her vanity in terror when the shadow loomed up behind her and she saw that where it's eyes would be, there were glowing red orbs.

ooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh

oh whoops i said orbs. sorry everyone

She tried to scream, but a hand clamped over her mouth. She tried to rip the hand away, but it was too strong. It yanked her up out of the chair and restrained her hands, tying some rope around them. She wondered at it's strength, for the was struggling as hard as the could, but to no avail. As soon as her hands were bound, it reached a hand out to grab some of the rouge she used for her lips and wrote on the mirror. It was the growling lion and the sneering serpent. Never fall asunder.

i drew out a few ideas for what the icon looked like and it was not something you could do a quick doodle on a mirror while holding a struggling captive

Her eyes widened as she was dragged by the shadow, kicking and trying to scream, to the window. It took the time to bind her legs and tie a gag around her mouth before grabbing a rope and dropping down the the ground beneath. On the ground, another shadowy figure approached.

"I see your hunting was successful, my lord," It said to the shadow holding Miryanna.

"Get the carriage and we'll make all haste back to headquarters." The shadow holding Miryanna said. His voice was low and smooth and pleasant to listen to. In spite of herself, Miryanna found herself wanting him to speak again.

A carriage rattled up and the shadow shoved Miryanna inside before leaping up himself. As soon as they were both in, the other shadow started the horses.

Once inside, the shadow in the carriage yanked down the drapes over each window before lighting a lantern. He pulled down his hood and Miryanna saw his face.

He had glossy black hair with faint red streaks that hung down thing that marred his otherwise attractive appearance were two scars that ran from his temple to his jawline. They were perfectly vertical and ran over his left eye. He was cloaked in black and his eyes, though no longer glowing, were a bright gemstone red. They reminded her of blood.

the scars were added purely because i thought scars were cool. heck, i don't even know how he got them. I don't even include them in my mental image of him anymore

"Now, promise you'll not scream and I'll take the gag off," He said.

She glared at him as hard as she could to show her disdain, but gave a short nod.

He smirked and untied the gag.

As soon as it was off, she blurted out, "I know who you are,"

His brows raised, "Oh, do you?"

"You're Karayan Batal. Leader of the Vanags."

He chuckled, a sound that was also pleasant to Miryanna's ears, "Is that what that fool Alarick told you?"

Her eyes blazed at the leader of the Erglis being called a fool, "Yes, that's what he told me. He said that you had red eyes that glowed when you were excited."

Karayan chuckled again, "He is correct, fool though he be." And the eyes glowed slightly again.

oh whatever dude

Miryanna snorted, "He's not the fool, you are," she said defiantly.

"Am I? You must tell me more about myself," he chuckled again.

stole that line straight out of the *googles* 1938 errol flynn robin hood

She scowled, "You're very charming, but I still think you foolish,"

"And why is that?" He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

"Because you are against the greatest kingdom there ever was. You will fail epically in you attempt to thwart us," She declared.

greatest kingdom that ever was? now that sounds like terinnian propaganda

He put a hand over her mouth again and his countenance was stern, "Keep your voice down," He removed his hand from her mouth and returned to his relaxed and almost cheery attitude. "You say, but you do not believe." At her confused look, he continued. "You've been told your whole life that Terinnia is the greatest kingdom in the known world, and mayhap that was once true. But open your eyes, Miryanna, Terinnia is no longer the great realm it once was."

it never was, honestly, the terrinians were jerks for a lot of their history

He reached down to untie her legs and as soon as she was free, she took the opportunity to kick him in the face with her knee. He recoiled and clutched his face, cursing. "You're a feisty one, aren't you," He asked rhetorically.

She lifted her chin, "Only to people like you," She said scornfully.

He laughed, "And what kind of person am I?"

"A rebel against the crown," She stated. "In another time or place, I might condone your actions, were the king cruel. But the king is not cruel. He's just and kind, and so I cannot condone your little revolt."

"But I'm not a rebel," He said.

"If you're not a rebel, then what do you call someone who tries to supplant their rightful king?"

"I'm not trying to supplant my rightful king. I am loyal to my rightful king."

Miryanna was confused, "Then why are you against him?"

He cursed again, "Foolish girl, I'm not Terinnian!" His hand left his face "Look closer."

Miryanna studied his face closer, not entirely sure what she was looking for.

When he saw that she wasn't seeing what he meant her to see, he stated, "I'm from the Empire of Amani"

plot twist

This surprised her. "If that's so, then why are you attacking Terinnia?"

"I was commissioned by my Emperor to go cause disarray in Terinnia and Fasik to ready them for him to come in and conquer." he told her. "As you probably know, the emperor is currently at war with the realm of Soniriya. If he wins, and he probably will, Terinnia and Fasik will be open for Amani to conquer and if those two countries are already at war, his job is made easy." He finished.

you had to do it, karayan. you had to reveal your plan to the protagonist. and after all the hype. OH that's another thing. Karayan needed a lot more hype before introducing him like he just gets talked about once or twice as oohh scary bad guy, but we needed solid stuff like idk, burning down a village. just something to let the audience know that this guy is business but he's also really cool (and hot)

Miryanna just sat there, taking in all that had just transpired. Her mind raced through the events of the last... half hour? Or was it just fifteen minutes? Soniriya was a thin land between Terinnia and Fasik, and the Empire of Amani. If it were taken by Amani, Terinnia and Fasik would be exposed to the bloodthirsty armies of the Empire. While Fasiks were considered to be barbarians by the Terinnians, those of Amani were considered barbarians by Terinnian and Fasik alike.

I did a lot more development on the cultures before i started the second draft. amani was lit

Her mind went to when she was first kidnapped. Karayan had left the symbol of the Erglis on her mirror. That meant that her father and everyone else would blame the Erglis!

"You set up the Erglis for being blamed!" She cried.

One of Karayan's dark eyebrows rose, "Just caught onto that?"

"You are incorrigible!" She fumed. "Why are you kidnapping me? Ransom?"

Karayan just snickered, "Why you've been kidnapped is none of your concern." He stated flatly.

"None of my concern? I'm the one being kidnapped!" She yelled, unable to contain her anger and frustration.

Karayan immediately clapped a hand over her mouth, "Curse you, girl, do you want the gag back on?" He hissed.

bruh, if you didn't to compromise that, you could have left the gag on till you were out of the city. i really did not think before i made stuff happen. nature of seat of the pants writing, i guess

She yanked his hand away from her face and screamed loud as she could, hoping to attract some attention.

Her cry was cut short when Karayan slapped her.

She'd never been struck by another person in her life before and it stunned her. He took the opportunity to retie the gag around her mouth.

"never been struck before" trope

"That's better. Try a stunt like that again and you won't find me so merciful," He threatened.

Miryanna glared at him through the tears in her eyes. "I hate you," she tried to say, but the gag muffled it considerably.

Karayan put a hand to his ear, "What's that? I afraid I can't hear you," then he laughed.

what a jerk that is cheap stereotypical villain behavior and i expected better from you

Miryanna tried to keep from crying, but she couldn't help herself. She'd never been treated in such a manner in her whole life. Tears flowed freely down her face and she sniffled. She was mad at him for kidnapping her, mad at herself for letting him get under her skin so easily, and just mad in general. What incensed her the most though, was the way she was responding to it all.

relatable

They rode in silence for a while, Miryanna getting more and more miserable by the minute.

"My lord, we're out of the city," A voice came from the front of the carriage.

"Excellent," Karayan said and reached over to ungag Miryanna.

Miryanna again took the opportunity and bit Karayan's hand as soon as her mouth was free. He wrenched his hand away and swung his hand around to strike her again, but she ducked bust in time, so instead of her face, he hit the top of her head. It still hurt, but it didn't sting like the strike to her face had.

He muttered a curse again and Miryanna wished she had something to cover her ears, but her hands were still bound and she couldn't very well cover both ears at a time in that predicament.

that's true you really can't

"What do you want?" She demanded.

"You! Why else would I have kidnapped you?" He answered angrily.

"Why did you kidnap me?" She demanded again.

"To keep you from doing your job and set the world of royals in more of an uproar than it already is."

"Why are you blaming the Erglis for it all?"

"The blame has to go to someone, why not them?"

"Because they didn't do it!" She was still angry and hurt and one more minute with this Karayan and she would jump out of the carriage if she had to.

"Why should that keep me from laying the blame on them?"

"Because it's wrong. Haven't you ever heard of a thing called fairness?"

Karayan chuckled low and evil. The sound was no longer pleasing to Miryanna. "I have indeed heard of fairness, and find this perfectly fair."

oh yeah, you conniving conniver?

Miryanna cocked her head, "How is blaming someone who didn't do it fair?"

"It's fair because the Erglis have blamed the Vanags for some things that they didn't do." He stated.

listen, i really did the bare minimum for relationships between erglis and vanags. like, there's no consitency. i never sat down and figured out how the clandestine groups work. i was just snatchin bits of "secret agent group does this in that movie an secret agent group does that in this movie" and there's like no consistancy. I will probably voice many woes on the atrocious lack of detail given to the two key groups in this novel

"If they did blame you for something you didn't do, I'm sure it was because they thought it was you who did it. You know that it wasn't the Erglis who kidnapped me, yet you're blaming them all the same." She retorted.

He snorted, "They blame us because they don't care to go into detail. We're your scapegoat."

"How do you know? By all appearances, we're your scapegoat."

He was silent for a bit, "Well, it's true, you are rather a scapegoat to me, but I go into better detail when investigating instead of just labeling as the Vanags fault."

a round of applause for going into better detail when investigating instead of just labeling as the Vanags fault

"We don't just label it as the Vanags fault," She argued.

you have no way of knowing that. did i mention she's too trusting?

"No? Do you have any proof against this?"

"Well, no, but I haven't been a member for very long. It's not like I pay in-depth attention to every single working." She was still determined to win this argument.

He sighed exasperatedly, "Will you not shut your mouth?"

you're the one who needs to shut your mouth

"You're the one who keeps egging me on,"

He glared at her and she glared at him. She noticed that his eyes were glowing again, and this time they really did look like blood. She shivered.

see, they almost had some good chemistry here, and as the story went on, i realized that's the kind of dynamic i wanted this protagonist and antagonist to have. they hate each other sure, but they have chemistry. they'd make a fantastic team if they worked together. in another time and place, they would be the ultimate power couple (platonic power couple maybe the distinction wasn't needed but eh). that's the kind of protagonist-antagonist action i do like to see

"Where are we going?" She asked suddenly.

Karayan clearly wasn't expecting this and blinked a few times. She silently congratulated herself on surprising him so.

a round of applause for surprising him so

"Somewhere far away where your father or anyone else who seeks you won't find you.

Her brows raised, "You're not going to kill me or anything?"

He lifted a section of his black cloak to reveal two wicked looking knives on his belt, "I can edit your fate if you wish," He said menacingly.

Her face paled, "No," she said weakly, "I'm content right now,"

it was just sloppy writing at first, but i love how they can change from "I hate you and everything you stand for and will dance on your grave" to "where are we going" it's like they already know each other. gah they'd be such a duo

SO here's our antagonist. As I mentioned, something I like to see is the antagonist not being the villain. Karayan clearly is the villain here, but still they have something going. They can bounce off each other and keep each other going. They're each other's foils.

also since the gang's all here now here is my best yet artistic rendering of them. Miryanna and Karayan are pretty spot on, Andarin's okay i guess, and Nynesi's features need to be a bit slimmer. and i forgot roric. but hey the protag and antag are good and that's what matters :]