Assassin's Fall

Stalker

“What? No!”

Tamaia laughed. She genuinely found pleasure in humiliating Dale. Here, she had all the power against him. And the more she exploited him, the more she discovered he had a more human nature that he kept hidden under the assassin’s mask. His failure to complete the mission had proved that much.

“Small price to pay for saving you. Need I remind you that you owe me?”

Dale did not know how to react. The norms of his life consisted of the affection for his family and fealty to the guild. With the latter no longer relevant, his entire existence was in conflict. While he remained obligated to protect his family, he did not know how to deal with the unknown variables that existed between him and that duty. Maybe he needed to learn how to exist, like a normal person.

“You can either help me out, or I can call Mariele to come and join us. She’ll feel compelled to scrub both our backs and she will not stop until every last inch of our skin is clean.”

“Were you always this improper?” Dale asked, feeling cornered. It only made Tamaia laugh all the more.

“Don’t worry about the first time, your hands will be tense. You’ll get better with plenty of practice.”

“I agreed on your terms without arguing. Why are you doing this?”

Tamaia swam closer, handing a sponge and a cube of soap to Dale.

“It’s going to be a long journey,” Tamaia said, smiling. “This is the fastest way to get acquainted.”

“I’ll forgo this part if it is not mandatory,” Dale muttered.

“Do you want me to scrub you first? It’ll be easier for you to relax.”

Dale closed his eyes, wondering if it had been unwise to spare his family just to face this.

Arxes stormed into the Guild Master’s office. The old man sat comfortably in his seat, authorizing pending assassination requests. His calm demeanor only aggravated the instructor’s irritation.

“You miscalculated,” Arxes spoke. “On top of losing my students, your blunder cost us everything. What’s more, your lapdog is off the leash now. He’ll come back to bite you.”

“Your anger will not solve problems, Arxes,” Zay said. “It will only cloud your judgement. Do take a seat and tell me what troubles you.”

“I will tell you myself,” a deep female voice said. Liandra walked in, her expression grim.

“Please sit,” Zay urged.

Arxes and Liandra sat before the Guild Master. Liandra presented a poisoned needle.

“Does it look familiar?” she asked.

Zay took it and observed it closely.

“This belongs to Tamaia, head of the watchers,” he said. “She’s the only assassin who uses sedating projectiles.”

“She betrayed the guild. She must have wanted something from Dale. The rest of the assassins were killed, and all but one survived.”

“A watcher’s report confirmed the survivor is a novice executioner named Celia,” Arxes informed. “She must have escaped the affray when the other assassins engaged. Rest assured she will be caught in short order. We will punish her accordingly.”

“And Dale escaped, along with the targets and the traitor,” Liandra said, not in the least pleased by the fact. “I could have eliminated them all had your watcher not interfered.”

“Is that your excuse for failure, Liandra?” Zay questioned, settling his gaze on the striker.

“Don’t give me that,” Liandra blustered. “This is all your fault. You sent us off with insufficient information knowing fully well that I’d be forced to fight Dale. Did you wish me dead also, old man?”

“To be frank, I am surprised you came back unscathed,” Zay said. “Do you care to explain how that came to be?”

Liandra briefed the entire incident, careful not to leave any details. She would be subjected to inquisitors to find out the truth, and if she withheld any thoughts, severe measures would be used to extract all the information.

“If I did not know any better, I’d say you helped him escape,” Zay commented. “But I believe your account. Our strategy did not take into consideration the possibility of Tamaia’s betrayal.”

“Even if you had known, the fodder you sent could still have died. They were crushed like bugs, and most of them were attempting to flee.”

“I see,” Zay said calmly, stroking his salt and pepper beard. “I assume you did not come here for an idle chat?”

“I came to tell you that I will be going after Dale. I shall return with five heads.”

“There is no need,” Zay said. “I need you on another mission. I have summoned a reaper to go after Dale.”

“Reaper?” Liandra asked.

“We only have two of them in this guild,” Zay elaborated. “They possess the combined skills of watching, weaving spells, striking, and executing. We don’t use them often, but our situation is dire.”

“Why am I hearing of this now?” Liandra grumbled. “And you are the one who encourages transparency.”

“They do not practically exist,” Arxes answered. “They are the ghosts of the guild. Speak of them outside these walls and you forfeit your life.”

“I wouldn’t care less about your ghosts. I am going after Dale. I’ll kill you if you try to stop me.”

Liandra stood and turned to leave. A tall being clad in a black cloak blocked her way.

“My, aren’t you vivacious?” the being spoke with a voice that sounded neither feminine nor masculine. “I like this one.”

The being pulled back its cowl. Its head was bald, its skin an ashen grey. Its oval face was humanoid, with an ethereal beauty that made it impossible to identify its gender. It had huge black eyes that looked terrifying and mesmerizing. It smiled broadly, revealing a couple of thin upper fangs.

“Are you the reaper?” Liandra asked.

“Call me Ebel,” the being said. It dragged its thin purple tongue across its upper lip, eyeing Liandra with an emotion that she did not understand. “It will be my pleasure to make your acquaintance on this mission. After all, two swords are indeed better than one.”

“I don’t…”

“I’ll save you the trouble of locating Tammy,” Ebel interjected. “I can say I have a…taste for her presence. Now that she is no longer of use to the guild, I’d like to formally introduce myself to her. It’ll be a little…family reunion.”

***

Three days had passed since leaving the mountains. The terrain was still fair, but the weather was getting uglier with each day. A storm was a tough enemy of progress, and it would give the assassins time to catch up.

After weighing the few options they had, Danette had decided to leave the country. Staying with the woodland folk could have been preferable, but their presence could expose innocent people to danger. Being lovers of peace, the woodland folk would be easily exterminated by the guild. In the end, Danette chose to leave for Tauria with her family. Once their goals aligned, Tamaia secured five horses. Danette would ride with Ducibella, Crestien with Timmy, and Mariele would guide them. Dale and Tamaia would follow a good distance behind, ensuring no threat reached the leading company.

Dale and Tamaia rested in the undergrowth of a valley and took their rations. It felt strange, running from the guild. Dale had known it was only a matter of time before it happened, one way or the other.

“You lied, four days ago,” Tamaia started. “I asked you if you could kill innocent people, or did that not include your family when you said yes?”

“There would be no reason for me to exist if they died,” Dale replied.

“For some reason, I still find it hard to believe that the concept of emotions applies to you. Don’t tell me it’s your love for them that keeps you kicking.”

“On the contrary, it is.”

“Enlighten me,” Tamaia requested.

“The guild rejected me when I applied to become an assassin. I wandered across the country, searching for a trainer. I found a crazy old man who was feared by everyone. He was a master of shadows. At that time, I just wanted strength, and I was hungry for it. The old man took me as his apprentice and taught me everything he knew.

“He used to kill as a way of sustaining his own life through the primordial… it’s the source of this power of shadows. One day, a young girl got lost in the woods near where we lived. The old man saw her, and he wanted to devour her. I couldn’t let that happen, and we ended up fighting. I killed him, and when I did, something changed within me. My consciousness was dragged into the rift. I lost control, and when I regained myself, I noticed that I had killed the girl that I meant to protect.

“I went back home, convinced that I was possessed. My father assured me that I wasn’t, said it’d require constant positive emotion to keep that strength on the leash. Duci was born, and my father discovered she possessed a strength contrary to my own. Where I have an affinity for shadow, her power attracts light. Whenever she touches me, she cleanses me of the residuals from the primordial rift. I guess I owe her my sanity up to this point.”

“That explains a lot,” Tamaia said. “Why did you go back to the guild though?”

“You ask too many questions,” Dale replied.

“I suppose that’s fair. We’re going to take a lodge in a small village due west of here tonight. It’s known to provide refuge for all types of outlaws, so keep your eyes open.”

“Did you notice that we’re being followed?” Dale asked, standing up and drawing a dagger. “I felt it a day ago, but the presence kept slipping out of my grasp.”

“My spy raven did not see anything, and it takes a lot of cunning to escape its eye.”

“It’s close,” Dale said. He blended his senses with the shadows and traced his way back the way they had come. He heard a pulse. Then some quiet breathing. It was hard to register the being’s thermal signature in the afternoon heat, but he had enough information to pin on its location.

Dale followed the network of shadows using shadow motion and materialized under a large almond tree that had exposed, gnarled roots. Just in front of him, a petite woman in dirty executioner’s gear peered through the trees, seemingly spying on Tamaia. The woman had her rusty brown hair trimmed down into a pixie cut. She might have been in her mid-twenties or younger—a neophyte assassin. She was too sloppy to be a messenger of the guild, too noisome to be a watcher.

The small assassin must have felt the gaze on her back, for she turned. Her body tensed the instant she saw Dale. Her hand went to the hilt of her sword.

“Do I know you from somewhere?” Dale asked.