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The fog drifted over the barren field, hiding the cloaked figure. Senku sat and waited in the meadow, watching the small house carefully. He was not here by mistake or chance, but on purpose. The purpose of recruiting, once more, another member into the society to which he belonged. A society of assassins. Darkness fell, hiding the lone figure better than any fog could. Senku crept toward the house silently, stopping every few feet to make sure he had not been heard. He hadn't.
Inside the tiny dwelling, a roaring fire had been lit, and someone was cooking a bird over it. Laughter could be heard emanating from the window. Senku grinned to himself, and crept in through a dark bedroom window, and walked carefully up to the cradle. It was empty. Senku swore inside his head, the job would be more difficult than he had thought. But he could handle it. He walked over to the bedroom door, looking like a shadow among shadows, and pressed his ear to the door. Two people were talking, and laughing. He almost hissed with excitement when he heard a baby coo. He opened the door slowly, and silently.
"...And then I...What was that?" the large man, Kero, said, glancing around the tiny kitchen. His red beard nearly catching fire when it swung close to the cooking fire.
"It was probably a raccoon." Kero's wife, Tana, said, laughing. She swung a ladle at Keros hair, and knocked it away from the fire. Her own white braids nearly fell in.
"Not a raccoon, but Little Lita!" Kero said with a laugh, and picked up his infant daughter. Lita gurgled and tried catching her fathers beard with her small hands. She missed, and cooed happily. But started whining when she caught sight of Senku. No one else noticed Senku.
"What's wrong, Lita?" Kero asked, and looked up sharply when Tana screamed. He had no time to react. Senkus dagger found his throat.
Senku grabbed the infant before she could hit the ground, or blood could hit her. He started walking towards the door, but stopped as he caught the knife that Tana was swinging at him. He twisted the knife out of her grasp, and threw it to the floor. He preferred using his own weapons. He pulled out his own dagger, and threw it at Tanas throat. Tana gurgled, and fell dead to the floor. The infant in Senkus arms started screaming as she saw both her parents killed in front of her.
"Hush, little one. You will come to know death better soon
enough." Senku said soothingly, and fed the infant a small bottle of
sleeping potion. Lita fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Senku walked into the dimly lit library through the large doors. He went over to the fireplace, and handed the infant Lita over to an old man. The old man, Treslin, took the child, and looked at her.
"She is very small, even for one her age." Treslin said after a while. "Are you sure that she is who you think she is?"
"Yes, Treslin." Senku said, bowing slightly.
"What did they call her?" Treslin asked, Lita slept on.
"They called her Lita." Senku said. Treslin starred at the small girl, his brow furrowed in concentration.
"Lita is too common of a name. And someone might take a guess at who she is. No, she is not Lita. She is Percy." Treslin said, and held the sleeping infant in his arm. The fire cast glittering shadows across her brow.
"Yes, Treslin." Senku said, and left the room.
Treslin looked down at the sleeping infant, and spoke softly to
both himself and her. "You might just be the one we are looking for,
Percy. You might just be the ultimate assassin. But only time can
tell." Treslin left the library, and walked down the old castles dank
and dark corridors. He entered a large room, occupied by three
bassinets. He put Percy in the only empty one. "Now sleep,
everyone." Treslin spoke quietly to the three sleeping babies. "You
have a hard life in front of you." Treslin left the room, and closed the
door firmly. "If you survive, that is."
The Society of Assassins was notorious across the world of
Era. They had split off from the three other nations, Air, Ice, and
Fire. They believed that growing into nations was repeating the past,
and should not be done. The Society would influence world politics
in the most convenient form available to them. Death. They would
do everything in their power to unite the world as one, and all people
who were trained in the art of assassin would know this basic rule.
And they would strike against even their own element, whether that
be Fire, Air, or Ice depended on the person. For the Society chose
not by element, ancestry, or wealth. But by talent. And, by all rules
ever set within the assassin cults two hundred year history, the child
could not join if over the age of six months. No exceptions to the
rule had yet been proven, or would ever be proven. And none of the
Society's members had ever turned and betrayed the group.
"Percy, what do you think you are doing!?" Asera yelled sharply out a small window. The sixteen year old Percy just stood on the steep wet roof, her arms stretched out. Her long red braid fluttered in front of her, carried by the strong wind. Percy ignored her friend Asera, and looked down. If she fell, she would plummet down five stories of castle, and twenty stories of cliff. And then she could either hit the cold ocean, and be eaten by the sharks, or hit the jagged rocks by the cliffs. Percy felt her padded feet begin to slip. She jumped up, and caught a hold of the window, and came inside.
"Man, Asera, you've got to try that!" Percy said, throwing her braid behind her back.
"I knew you were crazy, Percy, but I never thought you were insane!" Asera snapped, and looked back out the window. "But it does look pretty out there." Asera sighed heavily.
"Pretty? Don't you mean fun? What use is pretty to an assassin?" Percy joked, and leaned against a wall. Her black clothes making her seem to disappear into the castle itself. Only her face and hair were not hidden from sight.
"Percy, sometimes I think that you've killed the humanity right out of yourself." Asera said, her dark clothes clashing with the sunny scene. Percy rolled her eyes, but knew what Asera was talking about. They had both grown up together, and been trained as assassins together. But Percy had already been sent on twenty missions since her tenth year, while Asera and the rest had only been trusted on five. Percy was considered a suck up by some, and the best by others. Percy hated both opinions.
"Asera don't start on me, please. All I did was what I was told to. You know that." Percy pleaded with her best friend.
"Yeah, but at least you could cut off your hair." Asera giggled. Her own white hair was cropped to a boys length. She had been claiming that Percy had kept her hair long to annoy her ever since. Percy just laughed. Percy and Asera stopped talking, and hit in the shadows as they heard foot steps. Treslin walked passed them, and stopped.
"Percy, come with me." Treslin said softly, and Percy nodded, leaving Asera standing in the hall way.
Percy followed Treslin through long, dark, and musty corridors. Neither of them making a sound from years of practice. After what seemed to be hours of walking, Treslin came to a pair of giant metal doors. He opened on of them part way. Percy was a little unnerved when it didn't squeak, but put it to the back of her mind, and walked in. Treslin closed the doors behind Percy, and walked over to a large fire place, where an inferno was burning, swinging shadows across the room.
"You know that you have become the best assassin we have at our disposal, Percy." Treslin said, but he did not let Percy answer. "And you know that our group is dedicated to a uniteding place, and put his arm comfortingly around Percys shoulders. Percy made no move to kill him, she just looked up at the sun set.
"You should have come forward sooner, I knew you were there." Percy sobbed, dropping her knife on the ground. She started crying anew when she heard the cold metal hit the stone roof.
"There there. I know how it feels." Mizu said reassuringly. Percy looked up at him, a strange look crossed her face.
"How would you know what it's like to kill friends. Or watch them die?" Percy demanded, her tears seemed to burn her face with anger.
"Because, I had to do the same thing when I was a boy, over
twenty-five centuries ago..."
Flames? Comments? Contact me at denki@angelfire.com
