The Assassin's Tale; Like a Piece of Meat

Credits; Krell, Rea, Courtney, Petra,

Krell heard another popping noise and saw another woman enter the room.  She was armored and had her sword drawn.  She sheathed her sword and took her gloves off. 
"Courtney, I thought I didn't have to be here until Wedensday?"
"You don't, but now I don't have to be there at all."  Replied their host, who Rea had referred to as the Courtney Yellsdana, countess of Stormguard. 
Rea nudged him and pointed to the newcomer.  "That's Petra."
"No title?"
"Professor Petra Zinksfeld if you insist, but she prefers to just be called Petra, even by her students."
"Then her mother was?"
Rea nodded.  It was all the answer any Nielda would have needed.  Krell had heard a lot about Zink in history.  It was the only time when the imperial line had ever been dissrupted.  She had usurped the throne from her mother, because her immortality had made her inelligible.  Her successor had been a cousin on her father's side, because she had killed all of her immedeate family and their children.  Legally speaking the current line was still part of the same family, but they weren't blood and to some historians it made them a different line altogether.  But besides that, Zink was responsible for one of only three times the palace had ever fallen.  The war she'd conducted against the rest of the empire had caused more deaths than would be seen again in the empire until the Shade Invasion.  But none of the historians had mentioned a daughter. 
Not until the shade invasion anyways.  It had seemed a bit contradictory when the books had mentioned the death of Petra 'Zink' Laerdsfeld in the Battle of Anatolia, and then later mentioned Petra as being the hero of the battles of Tara and Corun, but if this Petra was the daughter of Zink, then it all made sense. 
And if what Arcania had said was true than this was the most powerful of all the immortals.  He had it by the same account that Rea was the second most powerful, but there seemed to be no resemblance between the two.  Petra was young, as immortals are, but she seemed more thoughtful than Rea, and more stable as well.  She was no more attractive, but he couldn't detect most of the effort that Rea always put into her appearnce, no make up and her garb was chosen for practicallity rather than aesthetics.  And in what Krell couldn't help but notice, she kept her armor polished and clean, something Rea never made any effort to do. 

"Then they finaly did it.  It is such a shame to see Tala's work so corrupted.  Thank you for calling me, can I go back to my fight?  There's a shade running amuck in one of the monastaries of Himal, and he has done a lot of damage because you couldn't wait."
"My apologies Professor, happy hunting."  She snapped and Petra vanished.  Courtney turned back to Rea and continued.  "Very sorry about the interruption, I called you here so I could get a better idea what's going on."
"In private maybe, but I want all of us here before I discuss anything."  Rea glanced at Krell.  She was still keeping secrets, from the sounds of it he was never going to be in the know about even half of what she did.
"Then I'm afraid it will have to wait until Wednesday.  Petra won't want to be interrupted twice in one week.  Arcania should be here soon though. 
"Tell your scryers to check the aqueous planes; she and ZeeGee will be there.  And tell them to leave a message, no one likes it when they just get called away from things so you can panic about other things."
Courtney smiled.  It was sort of a wide smile, the sort that was just to wide to be natural. 
"Of course, so this is your friend then?"
"Krell has been my companion for several months now."  Rea seemed agitated again.  Krell remembered Arcania asking much the same question when first they'd met.  He was starting to feel like he was a piece of meat being fought over with lying smiles and sharp words. 
"Oh, The Krell Casat?"  Courtney glided down the stairs to them.  He noticed her cloak dragged a bit, but the dress was just short enough that it never touched the ground, yet hid any trace of her feet.  Though, as there were no footsteps, perhaps she had none.  "I was quite saddened to hear of what happened.  It brings me much distress to hear when any being's soul is stolen away."
Krell summoned up his best courtly manners and managed a quick bow before replying.  "A situation that has been taken care of.  I do appreciate your concern."
"I sent orders to have you watched but I have no reports, on your travels have you encountered one of my nieces, Vionelle?"
He had, back when Kelvin had first dragged him out of his church.  Vionelle was the name of the ambassador to Gasca.  She'd directed them to hunt down members of a cult, which she had mislead Kelvin into believing was responsible for the plague.  He'd never met her before that day, nor had he met her since.  "I have, but only once and rather briefly."
"I shall have to have a word with her.  She's a very good ambassador Vionelle, but I'm afraid she isn't much of a spy."
"You should transfer her, she seemed to be having problems with a local."
"Now that you are safe and sound, there is little reason to have one of my own there anyways.  Your advice will be taken into consideration."  She leaned in and whispered.  "Between you and me, the position on Tara has just opened up, and Vionelle has been quite hoping for it."
He wondered who the secret was being kept from and glanced around the room.  Other than an increasingly annoyed Rea, he couldn't see anyone.  Perhaps Courtney was just being dramatic, or maybe it was just to annoy Rea. 
"Well she has my vote.  Never once heard anything bad about Stormguard my whole life.  And the aid you sent right after the plague was greatly appreciated."
Courtney curtsied almost to a kneel before Rea came over and pulled her away.  He wasn't perfectly certain what it was that was bothering her.  Maybe there was some sort of old joke at Rea's expense that he was being used in. 
"Well."  She said more harshly than he'd ever heard her when she wasn't killing something.  "If we're not needed until Wednesday, I think I'll take Krell on a tour of the city.  Have Arcania get ahold of me when she gets here will you?"  She didn't actually let go of Courtney until she'd manuevered fully in between them.  No sooner had she let go of the Countess than had she taken hold of Krell's hand and begun leading him to the door.  He didn't strugle, he knew that he was outmatched by anyone in this room.