Leaving behind the blond fop of a boy with an ego several sizes too large,(He's probably compensating for something. ;) I ran at a light jog to my place of employ.
I say, "Employ," but really it's more of a place I go to do odd jobs.
Passing the cobblers, I wave to the old gnarled man who sat outside stitching a patch onto his favorite coat. He merely nodded and turned back to his work. Likewise I passed the bakers' shop, pausing to leave a pretty stone at the front step. Running away on swift feet, I heard the door swing open and soft footsteps retreat back into the house.
After running for seven blocks, I turned left at the corner of the inn and passed into a shop with such a low roof I had to stoop. I was immediately grateful I was wearing the scarf, as it saved me from inhaling a mouthful of smoke. Sitting behind the low counter was a short man pulling long and hard on an exquisite pipe, quite out of place in such a dumpy structure. One might even say the pipe was the only reason he got any business, but they would be wrong.
In this sort of place, being able to keep your mouth shut was valued far more than anything else. It just so happened me and the midget shared this trait, even if our reasons were different.
At my entrance the smoker didn't even look up, but coughed out, "You're late, I have a job for you."
I nodded, then approached the counter and held out my hand. "Who's my target?"
The smoker reached into his ratty shirt with one hand and pulled out an envelope with the other. "District 7, fourth floor of the Reven family keep."
I whistled softly. "Seriously, gramps? Who the hell asked for this one?"
The old man grunted, then waved the letter emphatically. "You of all people know I don't ask questions. Shut up and move, the client wants it delivered ASAP."
I shrugged, then took the letter and pushed it into one of the many folds of my cloak, and turned to the door. "Whatever you say, gramps. I hope you're getting paid well for this, Reven guards are hard to deal with."
The smoker chuckled while refiling his pipe, "Are you admitting that you can't handle it?"
I smiled, then turned my head to look at him one last time. "Hah! Not a problem. I'll be back before you can sa-!"
"I wonder why the doorway is sideways?"
Then my head hurt a lot, and I could practically hear the silent laughter from the old man. I got up hurriedly and ducked my head while running out the door, only to slip and crack my head on the doorstep as I fell. I could almost taste the pity from the old man.
Fuck! I had been so cool until then too! FUUUUUCK!
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-District 14, Gramps' Shop of Dubious Business-
"What am I going to do with that child...?"
I took a long pull, then exhaled all at once. From the shadow of the doorway leading to the backroom, The Client stepped forward and looked concerned. "Will he really be able to do it? He seemed kind of...accident prone..."
I coughed out some more smoke, and let myself laugh a little. "Ha! Trust me, it'll get done. Also, "he" is a "she" and is very sensitive. I would suggest wearing a meat-coat and kicking a sleeping lion before referring to her as anything masculine."
The client widened his eyes, tugging at his fine cravat. "But there are three walls between here and there, and h-she has to climb four floors, all while avoiding dozens of guards!"
I tapped out the burnt leaf in frustration. "Pft, walls? The fourth floor? HAH! Find me a sheer cliff, then we can talk."
"B-but the guards-!"
I took out my special bag, then measured out a sizable portion of the leaf. Nothing quite like Shevian brand from the west border of the empire to celebrate a fat paycheck. "Guards? To one such as her, they might as well be drunk farm-boys for all the good they'll do."
The client seemed mollified, and I smiled and told him to come back in an hour for the good news. After he left and called a carriage, I leaned back and closed my eyes.
"Wait...I forgot to tell her which window...shit.
Nothing too bad will happen, right...?
I swore softly, and cracked my eyes open, thinking that maybe I can still catch her-
A shadow covered the doorway.
----------------------------------------
District 13, Foot of the Second Wall-
I whistled softly as my gaze traveled along the pristine-surface of the wall. It wasn't often I had an excuse to climb it.
I grinned, then flexed my gloved fingers and took a running jump at the wall. Nine feet up, there was a thin crack just wide enough for my long, thin, yet strong fingers to latch into. I set my foot in a slight outcrop, then used my bent leg like a spring to launch myself two feet up and three to the right, just catching crevice with two of the fingers of my left hand. I let myself hang by two fingers, feeling the burning wires in my hand, and the chest-tightening feeling of falling.
Then I breathed in, and flexed those two fingers to make the fire seem to rip from my hand and whip the length of my arm. I pulled and propelled myself up a foot to catch a shallow ledge with my right hand and replace my left hand with my left foot. It was times like these when wearing shoes would make this impossible, as I wouldn't be able to grip the wall with my toes.
I felt the sweat slide across my skin, and shivered with pleasure. Looking up...
I had made it about one-third of the way up. I smiled.
"Well, this will be fun."
...
Three minutes of breath-takingly fun climbing later, I finally grasped the lip of the battlements. I let the steel-shod boots of the soldier pass before pulling myself up with ease. I turned around to look once more at the ground thirty feet below, and grinned, turning back around and stepping onto the walls' walkway-
"Huh, since when was my face closer to the ground than my feet?
...
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
----------------------------------------
-Gramps Shop of Dubious Business-
I looked at the shadow, then shot my hand into my pocket at the same time the shadow closed the five-foot distance in a second. I felt the air whistle-
-And held my two-inch flip-blade against his jugular, while his dagger froze, its' tip making an indent in the skin covering my kidney. For a solid minute, we stood stock-still, neither moving an inch. As the shadow seemed unwilling to start, I spoke first.
I whispered into his ear, "What about that client can interest the Emperors' own police?"
I felt the slight twitch of his ear, and knew that he was struggling to think of how I knew his employer. At his moment of distraction, I grabbed his wrist and twisted it, making him drop the dagger and cry out in pain as I pushed him down to a kneeling position, my flip-blade held against his throat from behind. He took a second to catch his breathe, before speaking in a calm, even voice. "If you know who I work for, then you know the consequences of killing me."
I thought about it, the flipped my blade back into my pocket and let him go. He seemed slightly surprised at my decisiveness, as he stayed lying on the ground for a second more than necessary. Then he got up, and with all the dignity of a gentleman he brushed himself off and straightened his hat, making certain it covered his eyes. I then picked up my pipe from where it had fallen, and poured some leaves into the bowl.
I leaned against the counter, taking on my business tone, "So, tell me how I can help."
He seemed unsure about this, "What? You're just going to help like that? Aren't you known for never breathing a word of your clients to anyone?" At the same time, he pulled out a pipe of his own.
I set a light into my bowl, and let the smoke rush into my throat. "Exactly. However, I have that reputation because I'm alive. Can you guess why?"
He reached into a pocket, then another, then patted a couple more. "No. To know of the secret police...who are you?"
I dumped out the ashes, then refilled my bowl, and handed over the mans sack of leaves. "Here in this section of town, everyone knows."
He reached out and took his sack, not quite sure how I'd gotten them. "Knows what?"
I looked straight into his eyes, and conveyed my sincerity.
"You do not, under any circumstance, EVER fuck with the Emperor."
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-District 11, South side of the third wall-
I looked up the completely white wall, and sighed. If only I had the ability to walk vertically, I would stride up and over the wall. Sadly, climbing this wall was impossible, even for me. Forty-feet tall, without any blemishes whatsoever, not even a mousehole.
Good thing I know the trick for getting through.
I stopped by a brewers' shop a couple feet from the southern gate, and leaned against an iron door. From a slit, two items were shoved through. I took both, tucked them into my cloak, and walked through the shadows to the gate, where one guard was asleep, and the other didn't even look at me. He did, however, smile faintly as I slipped a cask of beer into his hands.
The army was really strict, especially because this was the capital. No drinking, no whoring, always be in uniform, always salute superior officers and nobles, treat all citizens with respect unless they are breaking the law, and under no circumstance can they receive letters from family members.
As I passed through into the high-class section of the districts, I passed by the barracks of the ninth district, and left a nondescript box without marking on a stool outside. As I walked into the eighth district, I took out the thank-you note from the old woman who ran the brewery, and smiled faintly, before tucking it into a safe pocket. I took one last look behind to see a young man, barely eighteen, dressed in shiny plate and the Emperors' purple walk by the box and make it disappear into the billowing purple cape that only the finest and highest ranking of soldiers wore.
I turned away, and stepped up to the final objective of my job. The Reven family keep. Just like the third wall, this block of stone standing in my way was impossible to climb.
Time to kick it up a notch!
I flipped my cloak inside-out, revealing a red-and-yellow checkered outside. I then pulled from one of its' deepest pockets a silver mask, the right a mirror, and the left with a single hole in the middle and a silly smile. I took of my eye-patch, putting it over my right eye. I then took off my gloves and turned them inside out, the left hand being a solid red while the right was a bright yellow.
When you can't accomplish something via stealth, just walk through the fucking front gate!
I stepped out from between two buildings and took two giant leaping strides to arrive next to the guards. One was so shocked he dropped his pike, while the other stumbled over his own feet and let his slightly too-large helmet cover his eyes. I smiled under the mask, knowing it would give my voice a cheerful feel, and made sure to drop my tone a few octaves, while composing my mouth to speak with elongated vowels and random pauses to give my voice a far-off and mysterious sound.
"Geeetiingss my, friiendss hoow, haas thee liight, treeaateed yoouu, thiiss daay?"
The guard who dropped his pike hurriedly drew his sword, while the other awkwardly tried to straighten his helmet wile still holding onto an eight-foot spear. The first guard held out his sword, and spoke harshly. "Halt! You, stranger, what is your business here?"
Like a leaf, I slid around his sword to his back, and covered his face with my left hand. I whispered into his ear, "Foor, yoouu haavee, seeen bloood, Alvin."
The guard collapsed, my left hand trailing along his face, letting him slip to the ground. By this time, the second guard had somehow gotten his helmet straight, and held out his pike. It would have been threatening, had he not been shaking. Like an eel, I twisted my back under the pike, around, then twisted over it, bending my body in a way that would severely injure most other people. I arrived a few inches from his chest, and placed my yellow-gloved hand over his eyes, and giggled in his ear.
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In an extremely hilarious fashion, he leaped two feet into the air and did a 180 spin, before running as far away as possible. I took a bow, and walked through the front gate feeling amazing, especially with all of the passersby keeping their eyes glued on my every move.
Yes! I did it! That was so co-!"
"Huh, there are murder holes in the top of the gate.
Why am I looking at the roof of the gate?
SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-!!!!
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-District 13, outskirts-
"That damn old man..."
I had to give that gramps credit, He was fast with a knife-maybe faster than me. Skill like that comes only with decades of practice, and when I think about his flip-blade cold against my neck...
...I get shivers. Nonetheless, I had business to be about.
I had tracked the doomed noble by his carriage tracks, but even with my exceptional abilities, he had given me quite the chase. He had led me for miles through the city, doubling back and setting decoys, and I often had to take calculated risks to gain back lost ground.
All of that ended now.
I had cornered the target-John Treshard, the second son of a minor noble family-and he would now pay for his crimes against the Emperor.
I waited silently, my long-rimmed hat pulled low to hide my eyes, and watched as a carriage that looked tattered and broken, quite unlike the one John had first taken, pulled up to a warehouse so far out of the capital I doubted even our network sent agents here during normal circumstances.
However, John was doomed. It wasn't that he was unlucky-he had a great amount of fortune to have made it this far. It wasn't that he'd miscalculated-it was just that he had fucked up. Big time.
He had committed one of the worst crimes possible in the Empire, a crime that only a dozen men had payed the price for, because only the incredibly daring and the even more incredibly stupid would ever even consider it, much less do it.
I walked up behind the coach, then leapt up on silent feet behind the coachman. He wore cloths even more ragged that the carriage, and had a scar running down the back of his neck.
With the same movement that I would use to slice an apple, I slit his throat, and bled him like a rabbit. Then, I moved into the warehouse unseen.
Inside, the noble was sitting in a chair and breathing heavily. A dozen guards stood at the perimeter, keeping watch for anything suspicious. Two other men were taking care of the horses that had drawn the carriage. It's now or never.
I used my Quirk.
In less than a second, I stood in front of the noble, John, and looked down at him. Then I grabbed him by the throat and lifted him a foot above the ground, and sliced a line across his stomach, then dropped the knife and tore out his intestines, and looped them around his throat.
Then I used my Quirk again.
Like that, I stood on the roof beam of the warehouse, and tied a knot with the fleshy rope onto the beam. Then I dropped to the ground, and picked up my dagger. Behind me, John swung slowly, his neck broken, and his stomach spewing all kinds of fluids. I turned toward the first guard.
I used my Quirk. Then I held him by the hair until all the blood drained from his throat, and repeated the process thirty times.
I walked out of the warehouse carrying the reins of two horses, and with a completely clean coat and hat.
John had committed a crime that was punished only by death, and only in the most brutal way possible. John had done what no living man had ever done, and survived for two days after.
He had flirted with the Emperors' sister.
----------------------------------------
-District 7, Reven family keep-
I let the ringing in my ears subside, and the bright lights stop flashing before I attempted to stand up. When I stood, I looked around to find that everyone was laughing, and I took a few bows to hide my embarrassment.
"I've never been so grateful for this mask..."
The guards had gotten up, and were also laughing nervously. They made no more effort to stop me.
Once inside the building, having gotten through the doorway guards the same way, I stepped into an empty room(a broom closet)and reversed my disguise. Once again, I stepped out looking like a beggar during winter. Then I opened the nearest shutters, and took to the walls.
I would brag about my climbing ability...but all of the windows and ledges on the keep made it so easy to climb it would have been slower to walk. I take no satisfaction from that. In no time at all, I arrived at the fourth floor and opened the nearest door.
Too late, I noticed it was fancier than all the others.
I stepped into the room to be greeted by seven large, armored, bearded and excited men, all surrounding a table. For a second we just looked at each other.
I raised my hand slowly,"...Sorry, I'm lost. Do you gentlemen know where I might find the lavatory?"
With a single roar they all charged at me, and only by leaping over them, grabbing and swinging from a chandelier, and kicking open the door did I escape being chucked out the window.
"Goddammit, Gramps! I knew you'd forgotten something! This always fucking happens, and it's always your fault!"
I ran from door to door, paying no heed to the finery, except the occasional shiny thing that just begged me to slip it off its' stand and disappear into my pockets. Hey, they begged me! I have a hard time saying no, especially when they're shiny and clear...
Finally, I arrived at a door that, when busted open, showed a group of chattering peacocks grouped around a table full of tea, and biscuits, and other weird, peacock food. I shoved my way to the head of the table, then pulled out the letter gramps had given me. "Which one of you is currently conversing with a suspicious man who likes to skulk in the shadows?"
The peacock at the head of the table raised her hand, and cleared her throat. "That would be me. May I ask your name?"
I pushed the letter into her hands, the looked back at the door in time to see the sweaty, muscly, bearded, and very intimidating men round the door and come to a halt at seeing the chief peacock. But, they wouldn't be stopped for long.
I kicked open the shutters, looked back at the head peacock, and decided to screw around with her just a bit. Looking deep into her eyes, I said in my most exotic and deep, sultry voice, "You may call me Li, my lady."
Then I turned and-
"Huh, the sky is really pretty today. The clouds are so fluff-
CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-!"
----------------------------------------
-District 14, Gramps Shop of Dubious Business-
I puffed on my pipe extra-deep, letting the smoke enter my every part. Today had been a good day, and in no small way because of my visitor from the Emperor.
I caressed the purple-silk purse that the shadow had left behind, knowing from experience that these purses held only the very purest White gold, and that I could buy the Reven family keep with this much gold. It had been in exchange for all the information I knew about the client, and also to help me keep my mouth closed regarding the Emperors task force.
All in all, today had been a good day. Of course, when the girl comes back she's going to be pissed. I'd better stay away from the sunlight for a day or two, until she's had the chance to let out some steam on large, muscly men who could take a beating.
Then I disappeared into a tunnel, and locked the door.
Tomorrow was going to be dark, but at least I wouldn't be spending it in a hospital bed.
----------------------------------------
-District 14, Uncles' house-
I swore as viciously as I ever had, putting my cloak away and marking another successful mission on my board. Thirty-two to two. Quite a good record, if I do say so myself.
I rubbed the massive bruise on my stomach, feeling quite thankful to Lord Reven-he was quite portly-for breaking my fall. It was times like those that I was grateful for nobles' excess. As I was getting ready to collapse onto my bed, not bothering to take my eye-patch off-
"This is a surprise. Who knew someone like you was here?"
I bolted upright, looking at the shadowy figure standing in my doorway. Uncle wasn't due back for hours-this man also stank of blood.
Lots of it.
The man chuckled, and took a seat at the bottom of my bed. "Don't be alarmed, I'm not here to finish the previous Emperors work-I do only the current masters' will. So, I guess I'll have to admit that we failed in our mission-disgraceful. Oh well, I need to say something. Will you listen?"
I looked into the face of the silently stepping man, and nodded.
He grinned. "Wonderful. You see, word has reached the ears of some...influential people, of your ability. So, they pulled a few strings, whispered in a couple ears, and boom-you've got a job."
I tried to speak up, "Wait, what? I-"
He put a finger to my lips and silenced me, saying, "I meant very, influential people, the kinds that can have you tortured until you kill your own family and bring their still beating hearts to them on a silver platter." Then he smiled. "Oh wait, I guess that wouldn't work on you. Your entire family's already dead, so I guess a threat like that won't work. Still, It's something to think about. I'll come in the morning so you can start, sleep tight~"
Then he was gone. I shivered, and held myself. I curled into as tight a ball as I could, and blocked out the sounds. No, no, no, no.
For the first time in ten years, I cried myself to sleep.
----------------------------------------
-Distict 13, outskirts, warehouse-
I breathed in, deeply.
I stepped onto a floor that was coated entirely with a thin coat of dried blood, and smiled at the ring of drained bodies. My grin grew as I saw the solitary hanging figure in the middle of the room, so covered in blood it was hard to make out that he was hung with his own intestines.
I sighed in happiness and satisfaction.
I-Emperor Xelcrix the III, Glorious Golden Emperor of the Aselin Empire, who had doubled the size of the Empire in just two years of rule-am in a good mood. I called over the shadow on the wall, and said, "Give Jax a suitable reward. He deserves it."
The shadow bent 170 degrees into a bow, and said in a voice so humble a priest would be shamed, "This one is honored to carry out your orders, and feels awe-struck by Your Excellency's generosity."
I just smiled and stepped forward, making a small cut into the hanging bodies' throat. I dipped my finger into it, and inspected the luke-warm blood.
I tasted the metallic flavor, and smiled in memory of the one who taught me all I know. I sighed again, and opened my mouth once again. "Nix, when is he coming back?"
Nix bowed 175 degrees this time, and said in a voice smooth as velvet, "The General is currently in the north, subjugating the barbarians who have threatened your people."
I sighed once more, and turned on my heel, stepping out of the warehouse and looking up at the stars.
Before I was the Golden Emperor, I was the Child Emperor.
Using everything and everyone at my disposal, I became known as the Bloody Emperor.
Now, however, I'm tired of the name "Golden" and want something a bit more...exotic.
Well, I'm bored. Might as well invade another country.
"Nix! Which country borders us and hasn't sworn allegiance?"
"Argos, my lord."
I grinned. "Send word to the general! I'm sending him reinforcements, and he is to use them to subjugate the ar-whatevers. Understood?"
Nix bowed 185 degrees this time, and spoke softly,
"Perfectly."
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AN: Maybe I should've broken it up into two chapters...