“No guards, seriously? What kind of amateur-hour mobster is this?” Kaizu was both disappointed by the situation and disappointed that she’d gotten her hopes up.
“Well, perhaps he simply never expected anyone to find him,” Gatrim suggested. “This is a great place to vanish, after all. He probably never expected that we had someone who could give us an address from the omnipotent deity living in their brain. Phon could make a killing if she started a business dealing exclusively with missing persons. Actually scrap that… my sisters would totally use it to find me.”
The two Lesser Fiends had made their way to one of the small islands to the southeast of the continent. Unlike the northwestern islands that were bustling with trade and industry, the southeast islands were favored by those seeking a simpler life.
There wasn’t much in the way of work besides those needed just to keep the communities running, and money itself was still more of a suggestion than a necessity in the digital era. It was a place favored by retirees and those who wanted to get off the grid.
The island they were on had a population of less than a thousand. It was the kind of place where everybody knew everybody, and anyone who wasn’t one of them was a stranger. Visitors were an oddity, and rumors of their arrival had surely spread to half the island by now. They hadn’t stopped anywhere or talked to anyone, but perhaps that made them even more suspicious.
“Should we just… go in?” Gatrim suggested.
“Yeah, you go ahead and do that…” Kaizu’s words were full of condescension. “I’ll sneak around the back and see if I can slip in another way.” Before Gatrim could agree or attempt to strategize further, she had already vanished from sight.
He pushed open the weather-worn wooden gate in front of him. It wasn’t even locked, but even if it was, the fence was only waist-high and could be easily vaulted over. Kaizu had been right when she said the security was lacking.
Gatrim gently twisted the handle of the front door—not dumb enough to knock and announce his arrival. He was expecting to have to break it with his rapier but found it unlocked to his surprise. Either this mobster had lost his touch, believed he was untouchable, or just didn’t care anymore.
Before he could barge inside, Gatrim heard barking from the back yard, followed by what he had to assume was a yelp from Kaizu. He had never actually heard her in pain, since she wasn’t one to let herself get into a situation where she could even be attacked to begin with.
When he rushed around the house, he was expecting to see a rabid dog. There had been a few ‘beware’ signs around, but it seemed Kaizu had ignored them. The scene before him he never could have predicted in a million years. Kaizu had her leg in the air, waving it madly, trying to shake off the Chihuawolf who had sunk its teeth into her and was dangling cartoonishly.
Gatrim rushed over and helped pry the vicious beast’s jaw open so that they could get it off of her. Once it was on the ground, it didn’t try to attack again, but it yapped endlessly and was hurting their ears. Hopefully, it wouldn’t alert anyone, but he had the feeling anyone who kept a loud thing like this as a pet was used to it. Even though they were low on the danger list, keeping a monster as a pet was a bit impressive, especially since it still had some wolven instincts.
Unfortunately, neither of them had any food or treats to satiate it, but they just needed it out of the way. Gatrim picked it up and quickly performed a dash back to the front yard. He dropped it on the ground, and the small thing was so discombobulated by the change in scenery that they were able to sneak into the also unlocked back door without incident.
Once they were inside, they tiptoed along the atrium and found their target within seconds. Gatrim motioned for Kaizu not to take any action, even though she could almost certainly kill him with his guard down at the moment. He was on the couch, playing a simple game of cards by himself.
This was a chance that couldn’t be dismissed. Gatrim had hoped to confront the man properly—give a whole spiel about who he was and the vengeance he was taking—but this was just too perfect. The two of them were well hidden enough by some standing shelves, but there was a gap between the books that they could see through, and his rapier would have no problems fitting.
The issue was lining up the angle. He needed a straight line from the vantage to the man’s head. One shot, no mistakes. It had to be precise. Quick and clean. Just pull the trigger. Dammit! Why did the person he’d killed in his family's dungeon suddenly flash before his eyes?
He had never actually seen that man’s face, but now in his memory, this mobster’s visage was plastered over it. Gatrim had never actually killed since, and he thought he had a stronger will than this. He was such a fool, believing he could jump into cold-blooded murder without working his way up.
Kaizu only stared at him as if she was nudging him along with her eyes when he glanced over to her. Could he really ask her to do it for him? Maybe that was why he’d grown so bold. He’d watched her kill so many people that it made it look simple. How wrong he’d been.
His aiming-hand had started to shake, but he put his other on top of it to steady his grip. No, he could do this. He had all the reason in the world to see this man dead. It was no longer just about revenge. He was now an obstacle in Gatrim’s way, preventing him from growing. The only way forward was to kill him, and he had to do it now.
Gatrim squeezed the trigger and the tip of his rapier shot forward. The metal spindled out of the hilt creating a long needle that pierced through the room. It was a perfect kill, right through the brain… or it should have been.
At the last second, his rapier was deflected, forcing him to retract it immediately. “Come out!” a woman yelled! They couldn’t actually see her from their angle, but could see the spatula she’d used as a weapon.
Gatrim and Kaizu walked out from behind the standing shelves. He made sure not to loosen his grip on his rapier while Kaizu slipped her daggers into her hands. But the moment he entered the living room, Gatrim forgot to be on guard entirely. His eyes went ghastly, like he’d seen a spirit from beyond. “Lillow?!”
The woman gasped. “Gatri?! Is that you?!” she was just as surprised to see him and lowered her guard for just a moment, only to raise it again the next second. Her spatula was now pointing at them aggressively. “Why did you just try to kill my husband?!”
“We thought you were dead!” he objected, “And that he killed you!” Gatrim wildly flung his arms in the man’s direction. “And… and did you say husband?!”
“Oh… yeah… I guess that is what everyone would think. Oopsie! Teehee!” Lillow jokingly clonked the end of the spatula to her head. “But you know that revenge is forbidden in our family, Gatri! So you’re breaking one of the core covenants by being here.”
“Yeah?! Well you’re one to talk! From what I can tell, you’ve broken every rule and value that our family has!”
“So I am…” Lillow slumped down into the couch and wrapped her arm around her husband and then gave him a kiss on the cheek. “And I don’t regret it one bit.” Her husband in question didn’t seem to be perturbed by this incident at all and sat calmly with a big smile on his face.
“Please forgive him for not greeting you,” she apologized on his behalf. “He lost his voice drinking some poison that was intended for me. But enough about me. It’s so great to see you, Gatri! And you got a master! She looks feisty!”
“Huh, you mean Kaizu?” Gatrim pointed at her in confusion. “You seriously think this psychopath is worthy of being my master?!” he almost started laughing in her face.
“Then who is she?” Gatrim’s sister was genuinely curious.
“Uhh… she’s… my confidant! …and my friend.” He found himself unable to lie about their relationship. Friends were unheard of in the Foilepe family, so it was quite possible he was the first to ever have one. “I don’t actually have a master yet. Been on my journey of self-discovery for about half-a-year now.”
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“Surprised the rest of our family let you do that,” Lillow thought back for a moment. “Last I heard, they were planning on making you the heir and never letting you see danger.”
“Yes, well, that is still their intention as far as I’m aware,” Gatrim shivered at the thought. “Please don’t tell them that you saw me.”
“Same, little brother!” Lillow insisted. “I am quite happy with my life here and have no intention of giving it up, even if you or anyone else in our family tries to force me.”
“Trust me, I have no reason to do so,” Gatrim vowed. “But let’s get back to your situation. What the mawhg?! You were assigned to kill him, and now he’s your husband?! So twisted and intriguing. What happened to your master, and how did this come to be?!”
“Well, I won’t bore you with the details.” It was obvious she didn’t really want to get into it. “When I came to kill him, he was expecting me. But he didn’t treat me like an enemy. No, he sat me down for an earnest conversation, and he proved to me that my master wasn’t what I thought of her. He showed me the truth behind her lies and how foolish I’d been to follow her.”
“My master found out about our betrayal and sent more assassins. That was when he lost his voice. But she believes we’re both dead, so it worked out and we fled here. We’ve been living a peaceful life ever since.”
“Touching, touching, and disgustingly sweet,” Kaizu interrupted with a grimace on her face. “So it seems there isn’t anyone worth killing here after all. What a waste of a trip. I should have just worked through my prison sentence.”
“Well, if you want someone to kill, might I suggest my old master,” Gatrim’s eyes darted back to his sister in surprise. Going against one’s master was the biggest taboo in their family. If it was any of his other siblings here, they’d kill her on the spot.
“Of course, I’ve always wanted revenge for what she did,” Lillow continued. “But my Foilepe blood is too strong. Every time I’ve thought about going after her, my body froze up and I started to panic. No matter what, I can’t escape our family’s promise. But you could, Gatrim… You could set me free.” She grabbed his hands and stared into his eyes. For the first time in his life, he saw one of his sisters not as flesh-turned-weapon, but as a real human, begging with every essence of her soul.
“We’ll do it,” slipped out of Gatrim’s lips. “Don’t worry sister. Such a foe will be nothing in the face of my splendor! We will rid the world of this evil. Won’t we, Kaizu?”
“Now you’re speaking my language!” the serial killer perked up with a smirk, her eyes boiling with bloodlust. “I’ll go secure our ride out of here. Meet me down at the docks when you’ve wrapped things up with your sister.”
“Oh thank you so much!” Lillow leapt up and hugged Gatrim around his neck. Her husband stood up his well and gave him a pat on the back. He signed something to Gatrim that the boy clearly didn’t understand, so Lillow translated. “He says ‘Thank you, my brother.’”
The two siblings talked for a while longer until Gatrim remembered that someone was waiting for him and got up to leave in a hurry. “You’re always welcome back here, Gatri! You and your friend, and any of the other… uhhh, you called them Fiends For Hire? I’ll cook dinner for you all!”
“One of my sisters learned to cook?” He huffed with an uncertain grin. “Guess I’d have to try it myself to believe it.”
◆◆◆
“Bit heavily guarded for a standard politician, isn’t she?!” Kaizu sneered after the two of them had been surrounded by guards at the target’s manor. They had been doing well at the start, perfect silent infiltration. But they’d acted too hastily, not fully restraining and hiding the guards they’d already subdued, so one activated an alarm.
“Yeah well, they’re nothing for us together!” Gatrim was brimming with more confidence than she’d ever seen since the two had met. “Now, like we practiced!” He held out her hand for her to grab, and he looked at her straight in the eyes. His face had nothing but unbridled trust in her, so she couldn’t let him down. She grabbed his hand with a firm grip, only letting herself show trust in him in return.
The two vanished from sight of the guards. Gatrim had used his family’s quickstep flash to move both himself and Kaizu—something that would have been impossible at his level when he first joined the Fiends For Hire. He’d worked his ass off to improve. While he was mostly all talk and narcissism, his drive to grow was unmatched.
Fluster grew across the guards’ faces as they only ever spotted a blur zooming around all of them. “Now, Kaizu!” Gatrim panted, out of breath from using his ability too many times in a row. He let go of her and then dashed away one more time to the other side of the room and out of the way.
“I’ve caught you all!” Kaizu’s devilish smile must have really looked fiendish when she reappeared in front of the guards. Before they could do anything, Kaizu pulled her daggers back with all of her might, tightening the chain that had been sprawled on the floor around the room.
Like flies trapped in a web, they were now at her mercy—each guard ensnared by her unbreakable chain. What’s more, when she pulled it as tight as she possibly could, it forced all the guards to bunch up into a perfectly straight line.
Gatrim poked the tip of his rapier against the stomach of one of the guards, through a link of the chain. He hoped that the chain wouldn’t get in the way further down the line, but he had confidence that Kaizu had done it correctly, and he had confidence that Nathym’s tech wouldn’t fail. Most importantly, he had confidence in himself to pull it off perfectly.
He pulled the trigger on his rapier and it extended once again. Through each of the guards’ stomachs, the rapier punctured. Thankfully, Kaizu had wrapped the chain perfectly to guide the rapier through each of them at a spot that wouldn’t be a lethal wound, assuming none of them bled out to death before they could treat themselves.
“Cutting it a bit close, aren’t you?!” Kaizu hollered through gritted teeth. The metal tip of death was only a few inches away from piercing her as well. She couldn’t even attempt to move or dodge away at all or the whole thing would have devolved into a catastrophe, but her unwavering faith carried her through.
After a quick apology from Gatrim, and once Kaizu broke and reconnected her chain to retrieve it, the two pressed forward. They found the ominous and cliche door that must lead to where their prey was hiding, probably in some villain-like office. Kaizu nodded to a vent nearby and split off from him.
He made sure to give her a moment to let her figure out her barings and plan of attack, but his hesitation was more so that he could compose himself and gather his thoughts. After one final calming breath, Gatrim placed the tip of his rapier into the door’s lock and punctured through.
The door swung open with a light push, and Gatrim found himself facing two more guards who were both pointing guns at him as one would expect. The politician, Lillow’s former master, was sitting behind a desk with her elbows resting on top and her fingers laced. A classic villain, and now Gatrim would prove that he was the hero he always pictured himself as.
His mind briefly drifted back to the early days of the Fiends For Hire. Apparently, Drim had killed a woman in a very similar setting as this. It bothered him a bit that he wouldn’t be the first to pioneer such a story, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him from achieving his own glory.
Gatrim expected a bit more banter before things kicked off, but Kaizu didn’t give them the chance. She dropped from the ceiling above, landing behind the distracted guards. She threw a dagger at each of them, stabbing their gun-toting hands so that they were forced to drop their weapons. A swift blow to the back of their heads followed and both of them were now unconscious on the floor.
“The Stained Street Sweeper and the prodigal son of the Foilepe family!” The monologue began. She was well informed if she knew who they both were, but monitoring news of the Fiends For Hire was practically a requirement for being a politician these days.
“You’re both quite capable! More capable than your traitorous sister. You must have learned the truth behind her death, or you wouldn’t be here. So why don’t you both join me?! Your talents are wasted where you are. I know you’re both fighting for a better world and to be the best you can be! So let me put you in an environment where you can thrive! Where you’re respected!”
Gatrim didn’t answer. He only had one thought on his mind. If he was more used to this, if he was the person he pictured and boasted himself as, he’d have a witty and valiant retort right now that could break her with just her words. But he was still too weak. So he did all he could do, he walked forward with his rapier in his hands.
The woman called out to them a few more times, but once she realized she wasn’t getting through to them, she got up to flee. Before she could finish opening the secret escape hatch behind a painting, Kaizu had caught her in her chain and dragged her in front of Gatrim until she was prostrating in front of him.
Gatrim placed the tip of his rapier onto the very top of the woman’s skull and pulled the trigger. “For my sister.”
◆◆◆
“Sorry I stole your Curse Mark, Kaizu,” Gatrim murmured quietly when she finally came to join him. He’d headed outside and was sitting on the front steps while she was doing whatever looting she wanted. Up until that point he’d been lost in thought, but now he raised his rapier to clean off the blood so that they could go home.
“Eh, it’s fine,” she glanced over to Gatrim’s new and only second-ever Curse Mark. It was directly below his wrist of his rapier-wielding arm where the pommel met his skin. Fate wasn’t kind in this one’s depiction, a perfect replication of the act he’d just committed—a rapier stabbing through a skull. “It’s a puny one anyways. Would just be a blemish on my skin.”
“Looks good on you, though. We should get you a lot more. Hey… why don’t I become your master? And I’ll show you what it means to really be on top.”
He didn’t know if she was serious or not, but it got a smile out of him and broke his funk. “You’re joking, right?”
“Of course I am,” she smiled back at him. “Who would want an underling like you? Always having to bail you out of trouble when your hand shakes at the thought of killing someone. Plus, it’s obvious that your intel gathering sucks. Come back in ten years when you have more experience, and maybe I’ll consider it. For now, I guess I’ll just have to settle for being your friend.”