Faisal was walking through the nearby Matori village when someone decided to run past and grab his satchel bag. The hybrid let out a curse before turning on a heel to try and find whoever it was that had dared to steal from him. “Stop! Thief!” Determination made him dart forward until the thief twisted into the docks, his body disappearing between two fishing boats. Someone would consider the chase forfeit at that point but Faisal was desperate for his belongings. Even if it was just a few blank parchments, the man knew that it had his family’s crest printed on the back. The satchel could have easily been mistaken as something of value but anyone not knowing his noble house would just consider it to be pretty, but useless parchment. It was not food or money or anything that could be traded in the market for profit. Not only that but the marking of the swords crossed before a blazing sun would make it so much easier to track. Faisal would have no issues getting more parchment and he would surely have no issues tracking it down if the thief did try to trade it in the market. What worried him more was if the thief was just traveling along and was planning on going back to Sulburi or a bigger city where the markets were more crowded and there were far more eyes that would be interested to know where the parchment originated from. The family’s secret manor was tucked safely away in Matori, a vacation home for his grandmother whenever she had wanted to take his mother away from the Oban capital and from prying eyes. That had been crucial during the pre-war days when slavery was rampant and the idea of a noblewoman adopting an albino Matori as her daughter was scorned by so many who would wish Arima harm. Even Faisal had endured troubles since becoming heir, a hybrid boy who dared to step up amongst the noble ranks but he had never felt like his life was truly threatened. Unfortunately now the dangers were towards Faisal’s own family since Sariza’s grandfather had gained so many enemies who wanted nothing more than to end his family line irregardless of how that wretched man’s descendents truly lived. Sariza’s parents had wanted nothing to do with that bloodstained legacy but despite everything they could not wash away the shadow that had eventually taken their lives and orphaned their daughter, Faisal’s wife and now mother of his children. It didn’t matter if she had married a hybrid and entered a powerful family who had supported freeing the Matori during the war. Perhaps it mattered to some but there were still a few that would not let go of the evils that Sariza’s grandfather had inflicted upon the Matori and other Oban families who had opposed him during the Oban war. They were the dangers, the ones that Faisal’s family had gone into hiding from until everything was resolved. The last thing Faisal wanted was for those parchments to get into the wrong hands. Even if no one knew about his sons yet the risk to Sariza was great and it would only be a matter of time before someone found out about his children if they dared to track the parchments all the way back to this small Matori village.

Dammit.

He had to track down this thief before anything like that happened. That much Faisal was determined to do and so he lingered about the docks, trying to track down anyone who had seen someone with a dark leather satchel bag. They had darted away under the pier and like a puff of smoke had floated out of sight, but surely they had surfaced somewhere. Thankfully though Faisal eventually realized that their escape had cost them the fancy parchment, the papers stained and soggy from the oceanwater. A sigh of relief left his lips as he scooped the floating pieces out of the water, the tide washing most of the damaged parchment to shore. If the thief had thought his satchel was full of jewelry or the like then the dive into the ocean wouldn't have harmed it but something as fragile as parchment was a completely different story. “Thank the gods.” Faisal waded through the water to make certain all of the pieces had been collected before returning towards the pier. Nothing was salvageable but he could always have more delivered. I’ll have to be more careful in the future. Even if it was a stretch about how disastrous some lost parchment could be the man didn’t want to take any risks.

[775]