Chapter 46: Boiling Over

In a pool of shadow formed between two street lights across the paved path leading to the Shunul residence, I stood still. Not because I was patient but rather because I was in deep combat with myself. The simmering anger boiling inside of me that for so long had been hurt pushed me to storm in, to go in and kick down their door, finding them one by one, slaughtering them until there was nothing left. The anger made me feel powerful, but at the same time, I knew it didn't actually increase my combat ability. It made me want to do rash things—maybe push a little harder, fight a little harder, but fight stupidly. It didn't actually increase my power.

No, I needed to put that aside for now. Whether or not I could survive a frontal head-on assault, I knew it was a bad idea. There were too many things that could go wrong. There was a lower chance of success, and future me would have problems to deal with because of it, no matter how satisfying it would be.

Instead, I reached out with the shadows, all the dark corners of the building. I felt where they were. I could see through them in an abstract sort of way. Thousands of eyes nearly overwhelmed my mind, but I quickly counted the vague shapes and impressions I got through the shadows. They were all there except for the one on the roof who hadn't yet noticed me. They were all there, and they were slightly wary but dressing down, clearly having just finished something violent. Many were cleaning their blades. Of the baker's dozen, only two were alert: the one on the roof and the one inside the door.

Turning, I walked down the street until I was just out of sight, where I made my way up onto the rooftops. I pulled the shadows around me and made a couple of quick hops until I was standing behind the supposed lookout on the roof of their pavilion. I put my hand around his shoulders and clasped it as if I was a friend. A small needle barely pricked his skin in a way that he didn't even notice as he turned to me.

"It's my turn on watch," I said. He nodded once before looking confused.

"Col--," he started to say my name before he dropped dead on the floor. Slowly, he began a rhythmic twitching as his mouth foamed. I relieved him of his keyring before opening the roof hatch and dropping in. It was a simple matter to get into the building, but I'd have to move faster now.

Heading downstairs, I memorized the layout and quickly ducked into three rooms in quick succession, silently killing one member in each of them. One was in a bath, another was taking a nap, and the third had a shirt pulled over his head as he changed clothes. Not one of them made a sound, but ever since I killed the first lookout, I knew the timer was ticking before they would realize something was wrong, and I wanted to get as many of them as I possibly could.

With the top floor cleared out, I went down to the second one and was only able to eliminate one more assassin alone before I had to start moving on to groups. Five were already down, and eight remained. Two people I recognized from the meetings were having a conversation over a writing desk. A half-formed letter sat between them as they argued over what to say. The other five were on the ground floor—four sitting around a table, eating, while a fifth kept watch at the door.

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Pulling out a pair of throwing darts, I poked my head into the room where the two held a conversation. They seemed to be the leaders. I rapped a couple of times on the door frame to get their attention, and they looked up in surprise. The instinctive reaction allowed me to open the door the rest of the way before they realized who I was. I had already thrown one dart and had the other in my hand to throw. A half-second later, the eye of their leader was pierced by the first dart, but the second dart was deflected.

I stepped forward and reached with the shadows of the room to jam them into the lady's mouth before she could scream a warning. Two strides closer brought me near enough to bury my stiletto deep into her throat. A stomp of my heel collapsed the wheezing windpipe of the gasping leader, though it was unnecessary as the long needle to the eye had already guaranteed his fate. But even the faint noise might be too much. Slowly, I eased the body down off my blade and wiped it on her coat before closing the door behind me.

A slight bit of noise had caused some concern, and someone was making their way up the stairs. Three people were still eating, and one person was at the door. It seemed stealth and surprise had finally failed. In the narrow hall, I pulled my blade over my shoulder and lunged forward, taking the surprised assassin as she made it to the top of the stairs. The blade struck right between her eyes and punched into her brain. With a thud, she tumbled down the stairs. Before she had finally sprawled, I was already past her, having leaped and rolled and came up, slashing.

The three assassins at the table reacted almost instantly, shoving the table out of the way as they reached for weapons. But my long blade bashed aside the first pair of daggers before they could form a proper block, slashing deep into the chest. With a spin, I kicked the one on the other side away and lunged for the middleman, who was the only one to properly prepare himself. An overhand slash of my blade was met by a pair of crossed daggers, stopping it dead. But I had expected that. As I tilted the blade up, I forced him to raise his hands to block, where I kicked him squarely in the solar plexus, breaking a little bit of bone and lodging it in his lungs. It might not kill him right away, but without medical attention, he would be in for a rough time.

I spun, cutting down the stumbling assassin I'd kicked first, and plunged my sword deep into the wounded opponent before standing up and walking over to the wheezing man on the floor, clutching his chest and slowly slitting his throat. The door swung closed at the center, and he dashed out. As quick as I could, I sprinted the few steps to the door, pulling out a throwing knife and flinging it into his fleeing back before he was all the way down the path to the main street. A few people stopped and stared as I walked out, my face wreathed in shadow. I threw the man over my shoulder and carried him back inside before closing the door.

A quick search through the building found several code books and other packets of information and dossiers. I quickly scanned through the one on my team and laughed at its inaccuracy. It had graded four and five as minimal threats and one only as an arm piece. How little did they know? I stuffed it all into a bag, slung it over my shoulder, and proceeded to go up the stairs, checking on my original documents. I oriented myself to where Six should be and started running along the rooftops. With any luck, I'd get there well before she even began.