Excerpt: Hand of Sorrow (A Kyo Kara Maou! fanfic)

Yozak sprang out from his hiding place, knife flashing in his hand, pooling all his remaining strength into this one chance for life.

There was a flash of movement as a sword was drawn and sliced across his vision. White and brown blurred in his gaze; he heard the sharp clank of metal on metal, and the knife went flying from his hand. The next thing he knew he was pinned back against the wall, stones crumbling down beside his head and feet barely touching the ground, and a shockingly familiar pair of deep hazel-brown eyes stared into his. And a very well-polished blade held flat across under his chin; he could see the gleaming tip of it out of the corner of his eye.

"I knew," Conrart Weller said, "if there was a single survivor, it would be you, Yozak."

"Conr.... " the sword cut Yozak off before he could choke out the name.

"Lord Weller," the other man hissed in his face.

Yozak choked on his own breath, unable even to swallow, and stared back, hardly able to believe what the saw. He glanced down quickly at the uniform - Lord Weller of the Big Shimaron army, by the look of things. Last person he expected to see wearing the uniform of the Big Shimaron army, or of either army for that matter, but the one person he could never hope to overcome in a fight, fair or otherwise - a natural born swordsman and as quick as Yozak was strong, he'd seen that from the time they met as boys, and had seen it even more clearly the last time they met, not so many years ago. Well, at least it was some comfort to know that he hadn't been disarmed so easily by any common soldier.

Conrart's grip relaxed, only enough to allow him to breathe and to swallow without drawing blood.

"Here's a surprise," Yozak said, mockingly conversational, but keeping his voice low instinctively; the other two soldiers were still out of sight and just out of hearing, picking through the ruins at the far end of the village. "Your father said you'd be a great swordsman someday, he must be proud - "

His wind was cut off again, Conrart's clawed grip dug into his shoulder painfully, and his face drew even closer.

"My father," he said through clenched teeth, "told me to live, no matter what. His last words, after the mazoku army cut him down and left him to die in front of me..."

Through shock and pain, it took a couple of heartbeats for the words to sink in to Yozak's mind, but when they did the picture became horribly clear. It would have taken a lot of men to take Dan Hiri Weller down.

"Stoffel," he said, spitting out the name.

"On the orders of the Great One," Conrart added, his voice low and deadly.
...