Astrid sat on top of Fort Evenstar’s wall overwhelmed with boredom. It had been almost two weeks since Commander Rusl sent her out on a job. What could he possibly be holding me back for. She thought frustrated. She kicked at the dangling pieces of moss that hung delicately to the old stone wall. Astrid was without a doubt one of the most capable mercenaries employed by Rusl Evenstar. She was the daughter of Danté Vega, leader of the infamous assassin cult; The Silencers. Throughout her childhood, she had endured her father’s cruel intense training, and had quite possibly been formed into the deadliest woman on the continent of Tenebras. Although this was not something she was proud of; Astrid hated Danté. The bitter irony was that she looked exactly like him, with his beady black eyes and jet black hair; not to mention the same cold-hearted personality.
Astrid sat down on the hot stone surface of the wall, she could feel beads of sweat drip down her forehead. It was an unusually hot summer day, Probably doesn’t help that I am wearing all black. She thought to herself as she pulled down her black hooded cowl. Although she was thankful that the tight leather armor she wore, which was lined with an elven silk; keeping her skin feeling refreshed. Astrid ran her fingers across the countless number of daggers and knives which she had strapped to her body. This included her personal favorite; a pair of Tonfa blades which her father had invented.
Astrid stretched her arms up into the air and laid onto her back, she could feel the moss cling to her hair. She quickly shot up and brushed the green plants out of her hair. Fort Evenstar was quite old, and wasn’t exactly kept in the best condition. She glanced out at the land in front of her. Baldoa, one of the five kingdoms in the land of Tenebras, was where the Evenstar Mercenaries called home. While Baldoa was a beautiful place, littered with dense oak forests, and quaint rivers, she struggled to call it home. The kingdom was run by power hungry nobles. Cruel men who stepped on the backs of the common folk without hesitation. While this caste system was practiced in just about every country around the world, Baldoa’s system had fallen into a state of disarray. Knights were only used to protect the fat rich noble’s private estate’s, as well as the capital city, Castle Carthan. Villages and towns were constantly being raided by bandit’s and lived in constat fear; Hence the prevalent existence of mercenaries here. I guess I shouldn’t be too sore about it. Without bandit’s what else would I kill for a living.
Astrid looked out at the forest treeline before her. Fort Evenstar sat atop a small hill, below that was Evenstar Forest, a dense thicket of oak trees. “I’m going to give you the thrashing this time old man.” A familiar voice sounded from just outside Fort Evenstar. Astrid looked down to see Kylan and his Uncle, Commander Rusl, walking out of the Fort’s broken gate.
“Is that so? I’m shaking in my boots.” Rusl replied sarcastically to his nephew. “Hey Astrid! Want to come watch me kick Rusl’s ass?” Kylan shouted up at her.
Kylan was the twenty-year old nephew of Rusl Evenstar, he had light brown hair and emerald green eyes. A very attractive man, he had received the best features of both his late parents. Commander Rusl was also a good looking man, although he was much older, pushing somewhere into his mid-forties. This was apparent by the daily increase in gray hairs which had begun to spread throughout his hair.
“Not exactly. I’ve already seen you get beaten to a pulp enough times to last a lifetime.” Astrid replied jokingly. Her and Kylan were dear friends, in fact, he was her only friend. Kylan’s face scrunched up with anger, but his uncle replied before he could. “Amazing. I thought you to be a mute Astrid, that might be the first time I’ve heard you speak in nearly three months.” Astrid rolled her eyes, she knew the history the Evenstar family had with her father, but Rusl’s continued wariness of her was obnoxious.
“Enough stalling boy. Let’s get on with it.” Rusl gripped Kylan’s shoulder, and stuck his foot out from under him with a swift kick. The boy toppled over, and began his long tumble down the hill. “You… Son… Of a…” Kylan’s voice was cut off when he finally stopped rolling, a wad of green grass hung out of his mouth. Rusl strolled past Kylan who was desperately attempting to clean out his mouth. “Oh you’re in for it now Uncle.” he jeered, then took off running after Rusl into the forest.
Astrid admired the oak forest, the place that had been her redemption. The place where she had met Kylan and Rusl nearly five years ago. It’s been quite awhile since I’ve thought of that. Astrid laid back down on the wall, this time ignoring the moss, closed her eyes and reflected on her past:
Being raised by a psychopath was something no child ever came into the world hoping for, but it was the situation Astrid was given. Danté was a cold hearted shell of a man, even to his own children. Astrid had never known her mother, she was most likely one of his devoted acolytes, or Danté had killed her. Astrid had always hoped that it was the later, she couldn’t bare the thought that both her parents were insane.
When she was only four years old, Danté had Astrid and five of her siblings thrown into a lake. While she had heard of this tactic being used before, most father’s would jump in after the child if they went under. Not hers. She could remember Danté’s laugh as they all struggled to stay afloat, the youngest being two and the oldest being four. “If you want to survive, you have to be willing to do whatever's necessary!” He shouted in his distinct hoarse voice.
That day though, Astrid didn’t hate him. She wanted to impress her father, she would be damned not to make him proud. That day she climbed over two of her siblings, she dragged the two youngest down, pushing up on them to stay afloat. By the time she had gotten the hang of floating, and reached land; both children had been drowned. Her younger brother, Arlin, had done something similar. They were the only two who emerged from the lake alive. “Good. Now I know which of you little bastards are capable of carrying on the Vega name.”
For years Astrid and Arlin were brutally trained by their father. They were only allowed to sleep three hours a day, the other 21 were spent training. He had them spar with each other, or one of the other Silencer’s. Her least favorite had always been Kross, Danté’s right hand man. Kross was a harsh man, everyone on the continent of Tenebras feared his name. With Danté’s permission he would beat Astrid and Arlin senseless on a daily basis. For most people this wouldn’t sound like the worst thing in the world, with Arcane Healing Magic, almost any wound could be healed instantly. Unfortunately, the art of healing magic could only be harnessed by those whose heart and actions were pure. To no surprise, none amongst The Silencer’s was capable of harnessing these powers. Astrid would be healed overtime by using ancient ointment’s, but she was never permitted bed rest.
While Astrid had always hoped that suffering through this torment would have brought her and Arlin closer, that was far from the truth. Everything was a competition in Danté’s eyes, and the loser always payed a price. Mostly through painful lashings; Kross had invented a whip linned with jagged pieces of metal and glass, which the Vega children grew quite familiar with. Your first failure earned you a single lashing, but as your failures increased so did your lashings. After just one, Astrid knew that she never wanted another. She trained her ass off each day, and by the end of eight-years of training she had only worked up to 7 lashings. Arlin on the other hand, well that was something she didn’t have the stomach to think about again.
She also remembered the elaborate painting on the wall in Danté’s private quarters. It was a colorful mural of the Evenstar Family Tree. The Evenstar’s were an important bloodline not just in Baldoa, but throughout the world. A bloodline blessed by the goddess Curiia. For some reason the Vega family had always been at odds with them. The painting was full of portraits of the Evenstar men and women, although most of them were crossed out with large X’s. A black X meant that they were dead, but a red X meant that they had been slain by a Vega. While there were far more black X’s than red, Astrid remembered most the ones that were left unscathed. Rusl Evenstar was written under the detailed portrait of a handsome young knight. The other two had no portrait, only names; Kylan & Lily Evenstar.
Danté would often bring Astrid in to look at the mural painting and vent over his failure to slay an Evenstar. “Your Grandfather and I missed out on his other two brothers, Kiran and Malachus. I do not intend to make the same mistake with Rusl, someday, I will end his wretched life.” After this, Danté would trace his finger across the painting to Kylan & Lily Evenstar, “And these two, these two will be yours to kill Astrid. Someday you will be ready to help me irradicate the Evenstar’s forever.” Astrid remembered how uncharacteristically excited Danté’s voice would get when saying this.
Finally, at the tender age of 15, Danté ended her and Arlin’s insufferable training. At 15-years old, most kids still had some sense of innocence left, but not Astrid. Her’s had been snuffed out at the tender age of four. Danté took the two out on an assassination with him, while Astrid had accidentally killed several assassins before during training, she had never killed another person outside of the Silencer’s hidden sanctuary. Astrid could remember how relieved she had been. Finally years of brutal training coming to an end.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
The three Vega’s snuck into the Baldoan Lord Brentwood’s manor with ease. She could remember the rush she felt from her first kill. Arlin had accidentally stumbled from the rafters they had been scaling through, and two guards descended upon him. Without hesitation Astrid leapt from the rafters and slit the throat of the first guard. Then tackled the second guard to the ground, while the knight was twice her size, she easily slipped several knives through his armor. The strong man threw her off him, and stood up slowly. He attempted to slash his sword at her, but she already had her tonfa blades drawn. She hooked the sword with the left one, and stabbed through his armor with the right. The strong knight crumpled to his death with a look of utter disbelief. Probably that his demise had come from a young frail looking girl.
“Good daughter. You’re everything I could have hoped for in a predecessor.” Her father had said as less of a compliment to her, and more of spite towards Arlin. Eventually the three snuck and killed their way to the Lord’s bedroom. Inside the large room, the Lord and Lady were fast asleep. Danté said that he was going to the next room over to snuff out their two children, but Astrid and Arlin were to kill the parents. Astrid swiftly approached the side of the bed and looked down. The Lord Brentwood was young for a father, and quite handsome. His wife was beautiful, she had dark blonde hair, and the face of a goddess. Astrid silently unsheathed one of her small daggers, but couldn’t bring herself to lift it. Unlike knights who chose to fight, these people were innocent. Undeserving of a blade. This was probably the last thing they had been expecting when they went to bed.
Suddenly, Astrid could hear the dying scream of one of the children from the other room. Lady Brentwood shot up like an arrow, and screamed at the sight of Astrid and Arlin. The Lord awoke and instinctively reached for his dagger, but Astrid was petrified. She couldn’t bring herself to kill an innocent person. A person whose face shown with terror at a fate they did not deserve. Before Lord Brentwood could use his dagger, Arlin jumped on top of him, and began to brutally stab him. Lady Brentwood continued to scream and jumped out of bed. She called for guards, and ran for the bedroom door. Astrid watched as Arlin jumped backwards off the bed, Lord Brentwood lay dead in a pool of his own blood. Her brother lunged at the Lady, and pinned her against the wall. Astrid looked up to see a group of guards sprint past the bedroom door, but they didn’t interfere. Instead one of them had been carrying a young boy who was crying. Quickly after, she saw Danté give chase.
“Such a shame to kill something so beautiful.” She heard Arlin laugh at Lady Brentwood, who continued to scream in desperation. Then without thought, Astrid ran forward, and plunged her blade into her brother’s hip. Arlin wailed in pain as he fell to the ground, and Astrid kicked the blade out of his hand. “Quickly come with me.” Astrid told the Lady, took her by the hand and ran down the manor hallways. She could remember the confused thoughts that flew through her mind. What am I doing? Why in goddesses name am I doing this?
Eventually Lady Brentwood got ahold of herself, and directed Astrid through a secret way back out of the manor. They eventually exited out to the lovely courtyard out in the front of the manor. Astrid watched as Danté made quick work of a handful of guards who had stood their ground. Her father was faster than lightning, and twice as deadly. Although the knight who had the child in tow, had safely reached the stables, and were riding out of the courtyard with the boy. “Thank the goddesses. Please keep Jacob safe.” Lady Brentwood said to herself, relieved at the sight.
Astrid quickly lead the woman over to the stables, she knew that the guards who had stopped to confront Danté were almost spent. She mounted the closest horse bareback, and helped the Lady up. “Why are you helping me?” The noblewoman asked confused. Astrid simply spurred the horse and road out of the stables. She had no answer to give Lady Brentwood, all she knew was that the life Danté had trained her for, wasn’t for her. Astrid listened to her father scream after her in confusion, his voice grew faint as she got a good distance away from the manor. She refused to look back.
When Astrid reached the closest town, Lyndis, she left Lady Brentwood at the Inn. From there she was unsure of what to do, without a doubt her father would attempt to find her. As she road out of the town, she could think of only one person that could protect her from the wrath of Danté. Rusl Evenstar. At another town she acquired the location of Fort Evenstar, the base of Rusl’s mercenary company.
After a little over two day’s travel, Astrid wandered into Evenstar forest. She was unaware of those that followed her though. Once she worked halfway into the forest, her horse collapsed dead. An arrow had found its way into the steeds eye. Before she could react, Danté appeared from behind one of the oak trees. He held a woman by his side with a bag over her head. “You certainly fucked up daughter. Of all the disappointing features that came with your brother, at least being a traitorous whore wasn’t one of them!” he yelled. Suddenly Kross appeared, a bow at his feet, a crude looking knife in hand. “Just let me go father, I don’t want this. Please let me go and you will never hear from me again.”
“Even if I wanted to let you go I couldn’t. You know too much.” Danté grumbled. Then he gripped the bag over the woman’s head, and ripped it off. It was Lady Brentwood, although she seemed unafraid. “Because of you the eldest son got away! I had to waste my time tracking down this one. Do you see what your treason has done? Nothing! This woman, who you stabbed poor Arlin over is going to die anyways. When the Silencer’s are paid to do a job, we do it to perfection. We are inevitable, but you have managed to tarnish that record.”
Lady Brentwood turned her head slightly to make eye contact with Danté, “You hold no fear over me you monster. My son has survived, and you failed.” Danté looked back at her, a sick grin on his face. “Whose to say I don’t know where he is? It took less than five hours to track you down. Who knows, most likely one of my assassins have him now.”
Tears began to form in Lady Brentwood’s eyes, “No. No you don’t know where my Jacob is do you? Please, just leave him alone, you already killed my husband. Whoever wanted our estate has it.” Danté forced the woman to face forward again. “Imagine how I will make the young Lord Brentwood suffer for inconveniencing me. Dying uncertain of the wellbeing of your child, you have my pity.” Danté said coldly. Lady Brentwood burst into tears, and began to scream frantically, but her voice was cut off by his knife. She fell to the ground gripping her bleeding neck.
Astrid watched in horror, she was frozen in place. “You’re pure evil.” Astrid whispered. “No daughter. I am simply, an agent of chaos.” Her father began to clean his knife and turned towards Kross, “Gut her. Make it long and painful.” Kross grinned, the assassin’s face had a deep cut which Astrid had inflicted long ago while training. “With great pleasure.” He said as he approached Astrid carefully. Running would be no good as both men were faster than her, then Astrid looked down at her assortment of knives. She considered killing herself, in fact she went to grab the blade with that very intent.
Suddenly a brilliant golden bright light shone from behind where her father stood. “Get away from her!” Shouted a young boy, who literally flew at Kross. The boy knocked Kross over and landed on top of him. simply touching the gold boy seemed to burn Kross’s back. The infamous assassin wailed in pain, then the boy began to stab Kross in the back. He eventually quit struggling, and lay motionless on the ground dead.
“What the fuck. It’s not possible!” Danté yelled. The young boy stood up from Kross’s body, and immediately stopped glowing. He looked around thoroughly confused, and appeared as though he were about to pass out. “I’ll kill you.” Danté charged in their direction. The boy clumsily threw himself onto Astrid, as if to protect her, then his eyes closed unconscious. She closed her eyes too, confused and afraid, but death never came.
Astrid opened her eyes to see that Danté had been knocked over by a familiar looking man. She instantly recognized the man from the portrait on her father’s mural as Rusl Evenstar. The tall strong warrior stood his ground against her father like no other, twin swords drawn valiantly. “How dare you go after my nephew you wretch. Kylan doesn’t hold the blessing, Curiia left us long ago.” Astrid watched as her father stood up and backed away. “Rusl, Rusl you filthy little liar. I know what I just saw.” Rusl’s jaw was clenched in anger, but his gaze looked over uncertainly at Kylan.
“Have fun hiding the little Hero away from the world.” Danté then turned to Astrid, “I will see you again someday daughter. Count on it.” Then her father quickly turned and ran out of sight…
Astrid awoke, and opened her eyes. She felt as though she had only been reflecting for a short time, but the sun had moved out from directly over her. I must have been out for a few hours. She thought to herself. She slowly sat up, and realized that her heart rate was much higher than it should have been. That was five-years ago. No reason to still let it hold fear over me. Astrid thought back to her brother, I wonder if Arlin is still alive. She hadn’t fatally stabbed him, although her father had never exactly mentioned whether or not he had lived.
“Ouch Kylan what the hell.” Astrid looked back out to Evenstar forest to see Brom, one of Rusl’s less competent mercenaries plopped on the ground. It looked as though Kylan had bested him in a sparring duel. “About time.” Astrid muttered to herself. Brom was always making fun of Kylan, it was about time he had established himself.
Rusl had yet to take his nephew out on a mercenary job, and had definitely never told Kylan the truth of who he really was. Back when the pair had rescued her, Kylan had exhausted himself from unwittingly using his true powers. When they returned to the fort, Rusl took Astrid in, under the condition that she never mention to Kylan what or who he truly was. He had even made her swear under a blood oath; which was unbreakable. I suppose its for the best. Astrid thought. She loved Kylan, but being the protector of the world seemed a tad above him.