Lost Memories : Together With You

Chapter One •• A contract at Midnight

Nineteen Years After.

Late at night... The town of Zelton

K's Pub... The sign stood gallantly before one of the most popular pub in the city of Zelton. At night, its inside was bustling with business.

Beautiful ladies moved about to attend the needs of influential customers, come hither smiles playing by their lips as they served.

Mistress Kate, the owner of the pub, stood by a customer's table, laughing with one of their most wealthy customer, seeing to his orders herself.

A young beautiful lady, dressed in an exotic gown, approached Mistress Kate. Nightingale was Mistress Kate's niece and only family remaining and had been her second in command for many years.

Nightingale moved in to whisper to Mistress Kate, ''You have a visitor."

"I'll be there shortly."

Nightingale walked away then.

Mistress Kate smiled her way through the pub, engaging shortly with customers before going through the back door where Nightingale was waiting.

The moment the doors shut behind her, Mistress Kate's facial expression turned serious, the smile gone in an instant. "Who is looking to meet me?" She asked of Nightingale.

"I'm not sure myself as he insisted on speaking with you directly. Said it was something important. But he seemed like a influential one so I had him waiting in your inner office."

"You did well. I shall meet with him then."

The doors to her inner office slid open, and Mistress Kate entered, Nightingale in trail.

Mistress Kate plastered a smile on her face as she walked in to meet the man who was sitting already adjacent to her desk.

"My apologies for keeping you waiting," She took her seat before the man "May I ask why you so earnestly seek for an audience with me, my Lord."

Lord Frederic, one of the top three authority in his state - Nolver, to be precise - leant forward eagerly towards the mistress. "Very well. I shall keep my words short and get straight to my point. I have heard of the services you offer and must confess that I am interested."

Mistress Kate smile broadened, "If indeed, a wealthy man like you, Mi'lord, has heard of our services, I consider myself very lucky. And what services might you have heard about, Mi'lord? For we offer a variety of services here. Alcohol, Ladies, name whatever it is you wish, Mi'lord."

"No, not those sort of service..." The man took in a breath, unsure of how to put it, "I heard, from a close associate of mine who speaks really highly of you, that... you could make anyone I wish to fall off the surface of the earth. Of course, with the right amount of payment."

Mistress Kate only smiled the more, "Ah... That. If that is what you've heard, then I cannot bring myself to deny, as you've heard right, Mi'lord. If you would give me their names? I would make your wish come true, Mi'lord."

Minutes later, Lord Frederic walked out of the office with a contented smile.

As the doors shut behind him, Mistress Kate smile dissolved once again. Her eyes calculating, she turned to regard Nightingale who had stood right behind her the whole conversation, guarding her back.

"Dig up everything you can find about Lord Edric Houlden. His movements, his family, capabilities, anything you can get on him, and report back to me. Also, send words to Devyne to meet with me early as tomorrow. You heard him... He wants our very best."

---

The next dawn...

She walked the streets before the sun began to rise. Even before people started spilling out the roads for their daily businesses.

And she didn't stop till she reached K's Pub.

Sword in hand, she mounted the steps and went in.

Few ladies were up and about, cleaning after the activities from the previous night.

She walked past them all, hardly sparing anyone of them a glance. They also knew well than to bother with greetings.

For she was not one for greetings. Not one for conversations. Not one for people.

Devyne preferred herself and herself again.

She continued till she reached the inner office. The doors slid open and Devyne entered.

Sword in her left hand, her hair pulled up at the middle of her head in a tight ponytail, the rest of its length swinging slightly as she moved. Her attire, top and trousers, were a dark brown, the same colour of her eyes. Eyes that held no expression as she crossed the room with steady strides towards Mistress Kate.

Mistress Kate was already standing by her favorite spot, a place with transparent windows where one could see what was happening streets away, and Nightingale, ever present beside her, stood by the table, arranging the files she'd gotten on Houlden.

"I'm here."

Devyne spoke, voice devoid of any tone. She was not one to convey emotions in her voice. Hell, she had not even grown up feeling any emotions. She'd grown up learning the hard way that feelings and emotions were for the weak.

In her field of work, one where she was paid to lead people to hell, 'feeling' itself was a crime. Something non existent.

Mistress Kate turned to face Devyne.

"We got a contract late at night yesterday. Client demanded our best..." Nightingale moved to slide the parchment across the table towards Devyne "...Made immediate payment. Wishes a political rival dead. Clean and smooth... Fill her in on the target's information."

The last statement was directed at Nightingale.

"Lord Edric Houlden. Very wealthy, heads his home estate in Nolver. Top authority in the state. Father of two, daughter went missing years ago, never found, wife died of panic attack. His only son, the only family alive and breathing is rumored to be a great swordsman, but he lives here, two towns away. Won't be a problem. Lord Edric would be attending a banquet late tonight, likely to head back home late. Twould be a perfect opportunity to take him off the road then, for the man travels with limited guards, confident in his skin. The rest are in the parchment." Nightingale supplied with the ease of one who'd done it too many times.

Mistress Kate turned back to face Devyne. "So, what do you say? Would you do it?"

There was that question again. The only question in the Shroud that wasn't an order.

Out of everyone who worked for the Shroud, Devyne was the only one with a benefit of choice.

Nightingale could barely hold herself from glaring openly at Devyne.

Mistress Kate was a hard woman, from her days when she used to be the one taking lives herself, she'd never been one to show compassion, but she'd changed the very night she'd met Devyne. Always favoring her above others, even now, when she headed the Shroud, she was a ruthless leader, but she would not bother hiding the smile that would play on her lips at the sight of Devyne.

Nightingale had always found it infuriating. Even now, she still did.

Devyne moved. Her sleeves exposed her right wrist as she picked the parchment off the table, baring the crystal blue bracelet against her wrist.

Her movements were swift, and controlled. Like she measured even every breath she took. The equivalent of a breathing mercenary.

The crystals caught the light for a brief second before her sleeves covered them again.

But that second was enough. The sight of those diamond crystals stirred up a wave of an emotion in Mistress Kate as she studied Devyne.

Something illegal in the Shroud. Something called feeling.

A frown drew her brows as she checked the information in the parchment.

Mistress Kate almost could not believe it.

But Devyne standing right now before her, breathing and living, was a proof that she did it. She actually saved her.

The little princess who desperately pleaded "Save me" that night, nineteen years ago. She had saved her in her own way. And raised her so she would not have to beg anyone ever again for her life.

She made sure it quite was the opposite instead. The girl who begged "saved me" now made grown men beg "spare me".

Devyne raised her head up and Mistress Kate averted her eyes before she could get caught staring.

"I'll take it." Devyne decided, her tone short and clipped.

As she made to leave, Mistress Kate called, "Devyne."

She halted and looked back.

"Take care. Finish it fast and come back, I'll have your favorite dish prepared by the time you return by tonight."

Devyne nodded, the tip of her lip lifting slightly, softening her expression, if only a bit. "I'll be back soon."

Just like she was the only one who could make the mistress smile in the absence of customers, Mistress Kate was also the only person who was capable of making Devyne's features soften at all. The affection went both ways.

Minutes later, after the doors had slid close behind Devyne, Mistress Kate still continued to stare after her trail. And every second she stared longer, Nightingale felt her own blood start to boil.

Even being the only remaining family of Mistress Kate, the only one who had stood right by her side as she established both the Shroud and K's Pub, the mistress had never looked upon her with such level of open affection.

"If you keep expressing your affection openly for her before others, it'll only earn her more enemies than she has already, Aunt Katin."

"I am aware that not many in the Shroud favor her. It's why I try very hard to fill the void so she would not notice much."

"She was never one to notice nor care about what others think of her, you know." Nightingale countered, arranging the Houlden file in the cabinet that contained all information about their clients.

"I'm aware of that too. A nonchalant one she is, but I just cannot bring myself to stop caring for her."

Then as an afterthought to herself, "She is like the daughter I never had."

Nightingale's hand stilled over the cabinet.

A sharp pang spread from the center of her chest to her whole self.

Daughter.

She ground her teeth hard. She'd been by the mistress's side since her days as Katin, a solo assassin. Long before Katin arrived home that day with a scared-to-death girl. Before she'd created the Shroud. And through all that, she had only been "Night" or "Niece'' to Mistress Kate.

But the girl who had suddenly came to them from nowhere, the girl Aunt Katin was supposed to kill but 'saved'. Had now became the daughter that never was.

While she still remained ''Niece".

The irony of it made Nightingale itch to break something. Anything. Including the so called daughter.

---

Miles away....

Lord Bryan Houlden got the invitation early that morning. A servant came rushing to meet him as he prepared to set out for work, bearing a letter sealed with wax he knew too well.

Lord Harrison. Influential. Unavoidable.

An invitation he could not refuse. To his home town.

Bryan’s jaw locked. And like that, his already laid plans for the day fell right through.

Bryan still felt uncomfortable visiting his home town. He doubt he never would be after the great loss he'd suffered there.

But Lord Harrison wanted to talk business in Nolver tonight. Business Bryan really needed. So he changed his plans and spent the day travelling down to Nolver.

His father, Lord Edric Houlden, was a top politician in the city. But Edric hardly mixed with men in Harrison’s field.

Bryan told himself the chance of meeting him was slim.

The town of Nolver...

Bryan could not be more wrong.

Lord Edric Houlden was the esteemed guest of honor at the banquet.

The moment Bryan's arrival was announced, it felt like everyone had been waiting for him. Every head turned. Lord Edric was no exception.

Bryan knew then that escaping his father's attention tonight, was impossible.