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M Y R A âŗ G R E Y S O N
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"The guards of the city aren't so inept that they need my eye on them every waking moment. They shall be fine."
A small smile spread onto Myra's lips, she had been easing her boredom of late by studying the King guard, she knew exactly how they worked, when they changed shifts, where the less guarded parts of the castle were, if she wanted to she could easily escape without anyone seeing her. Not that she would do that, if she did she would be running for the rest of her life, if she won this competition she would serve the King for seven years doing nothing worse than what Cyrus would have had her do, then she was free.
"I'm well aware of that. But there's no real harm in checking on you, is there? Well, it is not as if you're unique -- I visit the rest that remain, but I do admit I find myself in your chambers a lot more often than anybody else."
Myra's eyes flickered up from her book to look at the Darius, she found that intriguing, to say the least, but didn't show it.
"It's probably because you seem to be the most dangerous. You may consider that a compliment to your ability, if you so wish."
Myra crossed her legs once more chuckling slightly at the comment, she didn't need compliments on her abilities she was very aware of what she was capable of and how just the whisper of her name struck fear into even the strongest people. Cyrus had made sure she ended up that way, talented, dangerous, and feared.
"I am the most dangerous." Myra responded, it was the simple truth. The others were decent, she may have even gone as far as to call some of them good, but she was by far the most dangerous. "Your father seems to think this is a competition, yet he specifically sought me out. Sent his own son to come and fetch me. I think he just likes a good dog fight, he knows who's going to win."
Most would have called Myra cocky, though everyone knew she was the best trained. She stood closing her book setting it on the table shrugging her shawl off, turning Myra draped it over her chair, forgetting that the strapless, low back dress would show the top half of the scars from the whippings she had received in the salt mines. Every single one was for a good cause, though no one would believe that. She was labeled an assassin a murdered, someone who could never have a good intention.
Myra walked over to the closet pulling out a pair of black pants and a black shirt making quick work of the corset on the back of her dress; not exactly caring that Darius was in the room. As she walked into an anti-chamber to change. She emerged again a few minutes later looking less like a princess and more like herself. Standing in front of the mirror she quickly braided her hair back before turning back to Darius.
"We have a challenge today." She explained like Darius needed an explanation she assumed he knew when the challenges were and where they would take place. "I'm assuming I will see you there." Myra smiled gently at him before moving out of the room disappearing down the hallway.
~*~
"As you can see, there are five cups in front of you. Once of them is water, the other five contain different poisons including Nightlock." Myra felt her stomach twist at the name, she herself never used it, it was the most dangerous poison on the continent if not the world, and was a horrible way to go. She glanced over at where Darius was standing by the King for a moment before looking back at the man who was speaking to them. "You will move them in order from least deadly to most deadly, you will drink the one you deem least deadly. You can begin."
Myra quickly identified the first three poisons quickly ranking them, all poisons she had used before, all that was left was the water and the Nightlock which look, and smell exactly the same. Myra however, had a trick to identify the Nightlock. She pulled a strand of her hair out placing it in one of the cups, it sizzled. That was the Nightlock, she quickly moved it to the end of the row of cups putting her hands behind her back-stepping away from the table to signal that she was done.
One by one they all sipped the cup they deemed least deadly, Myra had gone first, she took a sip from the cup; water. The rest soon followed, a few had ingested the lesser poisons that could easily be treated with a herb and some rest luckily for them they were doing this challenge in the infirmary. The last one, was a man perhaps a year younger than Myra herself, she had noticed him the first day, silently wondered what he had done to end up here. He had placed the Nightlock first, dropping almost instantly after ingesting it.
Myra rushed over to the man rolling him onto his back. "Someone needs to help him." The King smirked at her. "Oh, he will be helped, once he learns his lesson."
She knew the King wouldn't leave enough time to save the man, she got up quickly moving around the infirmary picking up herbs here and there as she went, she knew how to make the antidote, and did so with little to no time to spare. Myra held his head steady with one of her hands, he had passed out from the pain but his body still shook. She carefully poured the freshly made liquid into his mouth making sure he didn't choke, the shaking stopped soon after. She looked up at the King pushing stray hair from her face.
"That is no way to teach a lesson." Myra stood when the women healer and the physician started to move the body to the bed, she looked at the King one more time before leaving the room, she had won that challenge, she was free to go.