As the earl’s life ebbed away before her eyes, Elyza couldn’t help but feel a mixture of emotions swirling within her. The memories of her mother’s radiant smiles contrasted sharply with the grim reality unfolding before her. She had dedicated herself to seeking revenge against the earl, meticulously planning, infiltrating, and positioning herself for this very moment – the moment when justice would finally be served.
However, now that it was done, Elyza couldn’t shake the emptiness that had settled within her. But a voice stopped these thoughts from turning inwards.
“Are you okay?” Alex’s voice carried a mixture of caution and concern as he cautiously approached Elyza.
Elyza looked over her shoulder at the man who had said nothing as she, frankly speaking, brutally murdered a man right in front of him. And just as she expected, Alex approached Elyza with a look of concern. Taking her silence as an affirmation, the look quickly switched to one of relief.
“Good, because I’m not about to lift this body on my own,” Alex said, pointing towards the Earl’s body, holding his other hand out to help her get up.
Elyza grabbed his hand, “We should leave.”
“Not yet,” Alex’s voice remained steady as he bent down and grabbed the Earl’s lifeless feet. He motioned Elyza to grab the other side.
Elyza hesitated, vocalising her confusion, “Why? He is dead. Was that not why you were hired?”
Alex let out a resigned sigh, releasing his hold on the Earl’s feet. He turned towards Elyza, weariness etched on his face. “Look, my plan’s a bit convoluted,” he admitted, striding towards a nearby desk and exerting effort to push it back into place. “I don’t want to waste time explaining it all right now.”
“Just follow my lead,” Alex added with a final pull, “And we’ll be out without anyone even knowing we were here.”
Right on cue, the room’s door burst open. Within milliseconds, Elyza was ready to lodge a knife in between the interrupter’s eyes. Yet, a firm grip on her wrist arrested her movement. Even more surprising was that the hand belonged to the Earl. The anger she had felt for the man has dissipated, replaced by a perplexing mix of astonishment and confusion at his unexpected survival.
The butler that had just entered seemed oblivious to the dead body on the floor behind them, as he panted out his words, “Sire, the fire… in the garden… has stopped burning,”
Elyza scanned the room, trying to figure out what was going on. The portrait of the Earl appeared unmarked, the tear vanished, and the bookshelf had returned to its original position. The room revealed no sign of anything that had happened mere moments ago.
Yet something seemed off. The edges seemed to be slightly blurry around everything. Everything except the person standing in front of her. Elyza looked down at the ground behind her, where the Earl’s lifeless body lay, the blood on his lips slowly drying.
“I would think it should have, since I told you to do so,” the earl commanded in the same voice that had screamed bloody murder a few moments ago.
“Well, sire, the fire actually stopped on its own, before we even reached the garden,” the butler replied.
“You should be glad that it did,” the earl responded, looking aimlessly at the documents on the desk, his mannerism perfectly encapsulating how the man laying below behaved.
“Of course we are, sire,” the butler responded with a bit of relief in his voice, his eyes moving towards Elyza, his mouth opening to ask a question.
“Do you have children?”
The butler was taken back from the earl’s question, “Yes, sire.”
“Then I suggest you forsake my company, and leave if you wish to see them again,” And with that the butler closed the door with a courteous bow.
As soon as the door closed, the room returned to what it was. But Elyza did not notice it at that moment, her focus on the initiator of the events that lead to her mother’s death. Before she could once again embed a knife in the earl, the earl’s form began to dissolve, transforming into mist and revealing Alex at its core.
Elyza must have looked baffled at his sudden reveal, as Alex insisted, “You know what? I think you’re right,” moving towards the door and locking it, “Let’s get out of here.”
Sheathing her knife, Elyza found herself grappling with the surreal nature of her day. As she opened the window, poised for escape, Alex posed an unexpected question, “Just a quick question, have you eaten anything in the past 6 hours?”
Elyza thought about the eccentric question, knowing not what to do with it, except answer honestly. She shook her head, “No.”
“Perfect, then this shouldn’t be too much of an issue,” Alex’s unsettling grin accompanied his response, as he snapped his fingers.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion, as shadows erupted from the floor, surrounding Elyza. Her attempt to draw her knife was thwarted by the tendrils that restricted her movements, compelling her downward. Panicked, trying to resist, darkness encompassed her, when suddenly the floor gave away, and into the shadows she went. Yet, a moment later, the shadows started to push her back up, the tendrils relaxing their hold, retreating back. The gloom surrounding Elyza gave way to moonlight, as she faced a brick wall, her hands reaching towards her knives.
A fleeting moment of tranquillity was shattered by the delayed impact of the events her body had undergone. She felt her stomach curl up, attempting to escape from her mouth. Thankfully, nothing came out, but it did take Elyza a minute or two to catch her breath.
“You alright?” Alex asked gingerly as he leant on the wall.
Elyza tried to stand straight, barely able to get her words out, “What happened?”
“Basically I teleported?” Before pausing as if in thought, “Yeah, teleported us outside the castle, through a dimension of shadows that I, in some manner, have control over, and in doing so, I had to pull you through it, temporarily transforming you into a shadow in the process” Alex responded swiftly, as if he had rehearsed this explanation.
“OK,” Elyza replied, still struggling to cope with the rapid change of position, “But why did you warn me beforehand?”
“Would you have believed me?” he replied, tossing a small bead at her, “Besides, I wasn’t going to risk a knife in my back.”
Elyza caught the bead, “What is this?” examining the sphere wrapped in paper.
“Medicine I made to help with the motion sickness,” Alex said moving towards the exit of the alley they had appeared in, “Pop it in your mouth and suck on it till it’s gone,” motioning to follow him.
While caution might have dictated a more careful approach, Elyza’s desire to escape the relentless nausea overrode her instincts. She unwrapped the green bead and placed it in her mouth without hesitation, a small voice in the back of her mind whispering a warning about poison.
As the bead touched her tongue, it released a burst of herbal flavours that distracted her mind and eased her queasiness. It tasted remarkably similar to the balm her mother used to make. The taste faded as she followed Alex out of the alleyway.
Even after sundown, the town was bustling, the moonlight with the help of the light poles illuminating the street. Elyza looked to the left to see Alex holding a door open, motioning her to enter first. There was a sign above him that read ‘The Flourished Pint’.
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She recognised the name. It was a famous tavern for travelling adventurers. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she stepped into the establishment. At the very least, they would be in a public place.
The aroma of freshly baked bread wafted through the air, mingling harmoniously with the scent of beer. Even at this early hour of the night, the tavern seemed abuzz. Alex squeezed past her, lightly tapping her shoulder to follow.
They walked towards a conspicuously empty table at the corner of the room. As Elyza settled into her seat, the sound of the drunken crowd seemed to drown out. Alex joined her, pushing back his hood to reveal his face, the first time she had seen her collaborator’s face.
Elyza’s gaze fixated on memorising every single detail about him, should the need arise. He looked tanned, and his jawline was at the same time soft and sharp. His shaggy black hair was slicked back just enough, so they didn’t fall on his black eyes, while his ears peeked from his hair, tapering slightly toward the top, just like hers. What looked like leather armour covered most of his white shirt. He looked like all the stuck up adventures Elyza had encountered during the year, except for his cloak. It was absolutely pitch black, attaching discreetly to his armour, its form almost elusive, rendering it nearly impossible to know what lay beneath.
“If you’re done, may we move on?” Alex quipped, arching an eyebrow, implying that her observation had not gone unnoticed. He placed both his hands on the table, a gesture that prompted Elyza to mirror his stance.
“Let’s start from the beginning,” Alex said grinning, “I’m Alex, an assassin for hire, among other things. I’m half-human, and I may or may not entertain the notion that I'm the most remarkable being to grace this world.”
Elyza sighed, she had made a promise to hear him out, “Elyza. Forest-elf.”
“Well Elyza,” He continued, “Why do you want to kill yourself.”
“Well -” she started before Alex cut her off, “After you achieved your revenge, after that brief moment of ecstasy at finally doing it, killing the person who caused you so much harm, you felt empty inside. It’s as if all the actions you took, all the sacrifices you made, all the people you cut off, in the end they were all meaningless. Some forms of revenge help you grow into someone new, be it better or worse. But revenge like ours, they just make us feel like everything would be better without us.”
His words resonated deeply within Elyza, capturing the essence of her emotions. Alex’s expression remained unchanged, yet something in his eyes told Elyza that she wasn’t the first to feel like this.
“And?” Her mind was already made.
“And I don’t want anyone to give into that hopelessness, that emotion is exclusively for me,” Alex replied with a touch of sarcasm, “So I want to provide you three options; I leave, leaving you to your course; you hang around with me for a day more, having the best time possible, before you off yourself;” pausing to stretch his back, “Or you could work with me, granted after some considerable training.”
Elyza wanted to laugh off the last option, but somehow, be it his words or his idiosyncrasies, he had wormed enough curiosity in her mind to at least hear him out.
“Why would I want to be an assassin? Killing anyone if given enough money to do so. Having absolutely no morals, the literal scum of the earth.” Vocalising her thoughts without any restraints.
“Harsh,” Alex looked surprised at her change of demeanour, “But warranted. Technically, being an ‘assassin’ is a generalisation of the work I do. It's better defined as, well, helping people by removing those that plot to harm them. A benevolent yet eccentric rogue.”
“Call it whatever you want, you know what you are,” Elyza rebutted.
“I’ll take that as a form of trust,” Alex replied, a chuckle tugging at his lips. “But the world isn’t that black and white, and…” closing his eyes to think, before letting out a huge sigh.
“And, it’s easier to show than explain,” Alex added, a smile returning to his lips. He gestured discreetly to someone behind Elyza. “How about you remain by my side for another day? Take the time to decide.” He trailed off as a barmaid approached their table.
Elyza knew that he was just trying to distract her, but considering the day she had gone through, she just wanted to drown herself in food and beer.
She turned towards the barmaid, letting a fake smile crawl across her face, “I want 5 pints of beer and whatever is causing this place to smell so good,” pointing towards Alex, “He’ll be paying.”
The barmaid quickly jotted down her order before turning towards Alex, “And for you?”
“Nothing for me, thanks,” Alex answered, reaching into his pocket, “Just a quick question? Is Kush still renting rooms?”
The barmaid nodded her assent as Alex to pull out a gold coin, “Great, here’s payment for my companion's food and lodgings,” placing it in the barmaids hand, “And here,” Alex added, revealing the other that he was palming, “Is the payment for saving me a table.” smiling as he gave it to her.
The barmaid happily accepted her payment, trying to stifle the smile that had appeared on her face as she walked away to get Elyza’s drinks.
“Well,” Alex said, his tone lighter than before, slouching back into his chair,“Questions?”
Elyza didn’t want to talk any more. But she understood that this would be the best opportunity to get the maximum amount of information out of him. There was something about him that was troubling her.
“Why did,” Elyza began, just as the barmaid arrived at the table with her drinks and pie. She placed them in front of Elyza, who paused briefly to acknowledge the service, before turning her attention back to Alex. “Why did he call you Nemo back there?”
Alex, seemingly anticipating the question, didn’t hesitate to respond, “Because that’s how he knows me. It is the name I work under. My actual name was problematic for various reasons, so I chose ‘Nemo’. Someone told me that it means ‘no one’, and I thought it would be fitting.”
“You worked for him,” Elyza grabbed a pint, downing it in one go, letting its bitter taste temper her mind from anger. She must’ve made a terrifying face, as Alex quickly contended, “Not in killing anyone, I just stole something for the family seven or so years ago.”
Elyza’s eyes narrowed as she probed further, “Is that why you saved me? Because you felt bad that you let him become a monster?” as she gulped down another pint of beer.
“Really?” Alex riposted, clearly annoyed at the accusation, “He was a middle-man. I was hired by his wife to steal back a painting. Met them for barely a minute,”
“As for why I helped you,” He continued, reaching towards her pie, picking up the knife next to it and starting to spin it between his fingers, “If they allow it, I prefer to not kill every single person I meet. Thankfully for you, it appeared that aligning myself with you would be the optimal way towards my goal. So, I decided to not knock you out. That, and the fact it would be too much work.”
Elyza was torn between her desire to learn more about Alex's past and her growing curiosity about the proposal he had mentioned earlier. Elyza reached for another glass, making Alex comment, “If you’re planning to drink yourself to death, I would appreciate it if you informed me beforehand. I’d like to save some coin on your accommodations” to which she responded by guzzling down the beer.
“Right,” Elyza began as she stifled a burp, “If I choose to work for you, what exactly would that entail?”
“We would technically be working under a guild, but primarily, you’ll be working with me on various assignments. Our clients may range from nobles, churches, kingdoms, and even the organisation itself. It’s not dissimilar to how adventurers choose tasks from request boards. You’ll be assigned a rank, and certain assignments will become available to you based on that rank. However, if you’re tagging along with me, you won’t have to worry about that. I have certain special privileges.”
Elyza probed further, “Such as?”
Alex shot her down instantly. “Can’t tell you until you accept.”
“Fine,” Elyza relented, downing her fourth pint. “If I am to be working for a guild, does that mean I have to worship the guild’s deity?”
“I beg your pardon?”
Elyza began to clarify, “You know, like how the Merchant’s Guild worships Hermes, or Njor…” before Alex’s finger was on her lips, silencing her. He had reached over the table to do so, his eyes darting around in panic before calmly returning to a seated position.
“What the fuck was that,” Elyza exclaimed.
Alex flashed a sheepish grin. “Ah, well, you see, for some strange reason, whenever any divine beings’ names are mentioned around me, they tend to take notice. And at the moment, I am not on speaking terms with many of them. So, I would appreciate it if you don’t mention any names.”
“You talk as if you’ve met them,” Elyza remarked with a stifled grin as she worked on finishing her last pint. She was able to ask a question between sips. “You’ve been mentioning this ‘training’ of yours for a while now. But you haven’t told me what kind of training I have to undergo.”
“I would love to answer that question,” Alex began, before pulling out his pocket watch. “But it seems like my presence is required elsewhere. I suggest you finish your pie, go upstairs, and get some rest. Tomorrow is set to be another eventful day.” And with that he dissipated into his own shadow.
Elyza eagerly dug into the savoury meat and potato pie, savouring every bite., ordering another five pints for dessert. As she downed her tenth glass, her senses became hazy, and the next thing she knew, she found herself standing before a luxurious, inviting bed. The mere sight of which, caused her exhausted body to collapse into the fluffy mattress. She didn’t dream of anything, instead getting a preview of the death she so yearned for.