Chapter Text
Ch. 1
Keith Kogane had never enjoyed being a thief. To him, it was a necessity, a job, and at that point in his life, it was the only way to survive.
He was out scouting his next location and his nerves were on edge. He and his brother, Shiro, had had a fight before he’d left, and if anything unnerved him, it was being at odds with the only person in the world he could trust.
Shiro didn’t like him being a thief, but he understood the reasoning. They were starving, their neighbors were starving, their people… and the royal family living high in their castle were doing just fine. They had been waging war for years and years, trying to eradicate things they didn’t like or didn’t understand. In the process, Keith’s village had been on the outskirts of many battles, and their ground was left barren and unable to till or sew seeds. Their livestock was skinny from hunger, just like them. Shiro and the other strongest of the townspeople were doing all they could, but it seemed futile.
Keith and Shiro both knew they could be doing more, but under threat of death from the castle, they were afraid to do too much and draw suspicion. Keith, with his penchant for taking things that didn’t belong to him and Shiro… he was blessed, or cursed, with magic.
The royals were afraid of what they didn’t know or more commonly believed, afraid of what they could’t control. When the royals started using items from other lands and their offshoots polluted the lands and water, the magic people rose up to stop it, and the royals were scared. Their strength wasn’t enough to stand up to the magic people and so they decreed them illegal, evil, and monstrous. All magic people were issued ‘terminated’ and were hunted by the guards and armies. Keith hadn’t been born yet, but Shiro was a baby, and they knew he already had magic; he had shown strong power from the moment he was born and their parents knew he’d be a target. They built a hideaway under their house, so well disguised, Keith didn’t know about it until he was a teenager. The day he found out what the day his parents had been killed. Someone, and they didn’t know who, had seen Shiro using his magic and had reported them all. Keith hated them, whoever it was, though he understood; they had probably been paid well for the information. As soon as the news spread and the army made their way to them, Keith and Shiro had been shoved into the hideaway and had sat in the dark, waiting while their parents tried to explain everything away, but in the end, had been cut down.
Keith and Shiro had come out, days later, afraid they were still being watched and took on the grim task of burying their parents. They took them to the hideaway and created a special cemetery, just for them, to keep them close. Keith couldn’t come to going down there, only on the anniversary of their death, but lately Shiro had been spending a lot of time down there, and he knew he was conversing with them. He loved to just tell them his ideas, just to get them out. He said it was cathartic, but Keith was too angry for cathartics. He needed revenge.
And that was why he was on the wall outside the castle tonight, watching the window at the farthest corner, on the most dimly lit tower. He knew that’s where the High Prince stayed. Rumor had it that he, too, had been killed warring with the magic people. Keith knew better. He’d seen him walking, pacing, standing like a shadow in that dark tower. By now, he knew his schedule, he knew where he would be and when. But that’s all he knew about him. He also knew there was another man that would visit him before all the lights went out, but he wasn’t sure who it was. It wasn’t the king, and it wasn’t a brother, as he was the only son. There was a High Princess, but she never visited either. For some reason, he was locked away. So the more Keith knew about his schedule, the better off he would be at thieving.
He had been approached by a man who apparently had good money, he’d shown him the bag of coins and even a few jewels. All he wanted in return was a piece of the royal family. Keith was adamantly against murder, and the man was fine with that, he just wanted a crown. He would trade gold for gold. He didn’t care which one either, just a gold crown with jewels. Keith didn’t know or care what the man wanted with it, because he knew that gold could buy not only food for he and Shiro for a long time, but for many in their village.
Soon- soon he would make the trek up the tower wall and grab his prize.