The sun is bright and calming against the cold breeze. The last warm of autumn I suppose.

Noise below, and countless roofs as far as I can see. In the distance, a tall castle towers over everything else, and distant mountains cover the horizon on my right, along with a large forest, for everything around us that isn't the city, is harvested farms. I kneel and adjust my footing on the slippery conical roofs beneath my feet.

"How do I know when I see him? How do I know where to go?" I whisper.

"This is part of your test, figure it out for yourself. Now don't take long, we are running on borrowed time here" Anaid replies with some annoyance.

I stand up and get a good look around me. Garront from Goldfield. A large person with golden hair that likes to dress in yellow...Looking down at the streets below I see a dozen people sharing that description. This is in only one road of likely hundreds. I need to think of a better plan other than jumping around and looking at every avenue.

Gathering my thoughts I put things in order. First, I must find one of the merchants, someone who seems wealthy enough and isn't too protected. If this Garront is well known in this city, the other merchants must know about it. With a more concrete plan, I begin to move.

From roof to roof I move. Doing my best to stay out of sight, and not slip and fall, many times having to hold on to anything to avoid that. This would be much easier if I weren't so tall.

"Try to land on your tip-toes first, and let yourself slide but put your weight on your hands when you hold on to the roof. If you keep fighting gravity you will get nowhere. Also, watch for the spell on your wrist, if you hit it too hard it will be undone and I won't see you or hear you anymore"

"Is doing this in the middle of the day part of my test? If I don't want to be seen the night would be a better time."

"What? Are you a coward? The inner cities are dead during the night, anything you do would be easily heard by the Forged, right now you have the advantage of noise"

"What is a Forged?" I ask with controlled annoyance.

"...So you aren't a human" What? Is that so common knowledge? "Or you are a savage from beyond the embrace, I do not know what is worst. Listen, the Forged are the tall humans wearing chainmail helmets and keeping everyone a few feet away everywhere they go" I peek at the street below and see those intimidating guards once more "The Forged are humans altered with Starblood to fit a certain need. The guards are called the Garder, men who are absolutely obedient, inhumanly strong, and need neither sleep nor rest"

"Inhumans, then"

"Ah, I didn't think you came from the Tsardom, you have no accent. Yes, they are the Inhumans, now keep moving"

In time I reach a more wealthy part of the city and notice the larger amount of guards. As well as their masters. Gone are the tents in the middle of the streets and instead, entire buildings are dedicated to purchasing and selling goods. I'm deeper inside the city, about to reach its center. The people dress in elegant clothes with exquisitely decorated leather for their belts and jackets.

"Hide you fucking idiot!" I lay low after she yells "Take a quick glance and don't stand still in the middle of the roof...someone saw you" My heart begins to beat faster. A drop of sweat fell down my brow"The house on your right, the one with a large collection of flowers on the window, you know what to do"

"Should I?..." A woman asks herself as she puts down a vase with water she poured onto the flowers outside. I quickly reached her roof "No...I can't speak to those things" She moves a chair and sits down.

"Must I? She won't alert the guards"

"You must. It was bad luck she wanted to water her flowers now, usually, everyone keeps their windows closed and curtains blocking sight"

I take a deep breath and quickly maneuver my way down to her open window, carefully stepping inside as she sits, apparently writing on a book, the window in front of her with the curtains open letting the light shine in. She is a grown woman, fairly well dressed, but in a more comfortable dress than the almost flamboyant costumes people wear in this place of the city.

My step is slow and steady, little by little closing the distance a thousand thoughts rush to my mind. This feels wrong, she is neither a menace nor risks ruining my objective...this is wrong. But then again, will that stop me? I feel the weight in my chest increase as I rest my hand on the handle of my shortsword.

"Don't, the sword is a last resource. If you cut and she bleeds too much, the Garder will smell it. Use your hands"

Shutting my eyes hard I hold my breath, I'm standing a meter away from her, so close that I can smell the faint scent of perfume on her. But I don't dwell on this anymore. Opening my eyes I reach for her neck and quickly drag her to the ground and away from the window, she gasps and trashes around as I choke her with my arm around her neck, covering her mouth so she can't scream.

"Don't break her neck! You will make her bleed"

I ease my strength as the passing seconds feel like an eternity, and the more time passes the worse I feel, and the more I think about what I'm doing. My will weakens and I allow my eyes to look down from the window, meeting the glassy eyes of the desperate woman, her face red, then a darker red after the tears fall.

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Finally, she goes limp but I keep squeezing, fixated on her half-open lifeless eyes. I let her go and she lays on the wooden floor, her hair a mess, an almost purple line around her neck from the strength of my grip. Without the sight of blood, there is no rush, the adrenaline quickly dies out and I'm left alone with my thoughts.

No nameless voice mocking me, no sense of joy or excitement after a kill. Only the deafening silence...and the light of the sun proudly presented my handiwork through the window. In all of its twisted glory, almost telling me This is you, this is what you are, what you bring to this world...this is real violence. Cold, silent, calm.

"Get out of there already" Anaid snaps me back into reality, her words stern, but with weight behind them "And don't slip again, or you will have to do this many more times"

After I get out of the house I continue my search, my thoughts now numb, my movements mechanic as I look around for a suitable target until I find it. A wealthy man walking inside a house, a child next to him. They smile at each other, seems like the kid got something he wanted, a father and son. I make my way to their roof and with my shortsword forcefully open the window, quickly closing it and hiding under a nearby bed.

The door opens and the kid rushes inside, dropping whatever his father bought onto the bed. The thought of the kid looking at my face terrifies me, and my sweat turns cold.

"Don't dare to slip up, Nakor, do not let that child see you" Anaid thinking like me. I calm down and wait.

Eventually, the child lays on the bed and I make my move, quickly getting out of the bed, making sure to hide my face I drag him to the ground, with one hand grabbing the blanket from his bed and covering his eyes and mouth.

"Silence, do not scream or I will-" the words choke on my throat "I will kill you, do you understand?" I whisper as the kid quickly stops fighting, and nods.

With the children subdued I tied his hands and feet. He is young, maybe nine, or ten. I glance to the side and see the small sword laying on the ground, brand new, his father's gift. My hands are shaky, after making a barely functioning knot I raise from the floor and tie his hands to the beam of the leg of the bed. Then get out of the room.

"Son? Is everything-" As the nearby door opens I tackle the man to the ground, his eyes widen as the jewelry clinks clashing with each other. Many necklaces around his neck. I look to the side, don't let him see my face.

"You will answer my questions, and nothing more. If I think you are about to scream I will kill you, and your son" He lays still "I will move my hand from your mouth" I kneel on top of him and release him, resting my hand on the handle of the sword I make sure to keep his eyes in sight, without letting more than my lips be seen past the hood of my cloak "Garrot from Goldfield, where is he?"

"H-he- He is in the Jollydrinker street, near the inn. A white-No! A green house, the biggest of them all, you can't miss it"

"Where is that street? And keep your voice down"

"S-Sorry. It's the one to the right from the bakery, next to the baron's state. A large building with a big garden in the middle of the city. Please, I don't know more, don't harm my boy"

"Well done, now kill him, and let's finish this"

"No, I won't kill him. He hasn't seen my face"

"W-what?" The man whispers, starting to get anxious.

"Kill him, Nakor. You can't guarantee he won't break free if you try to tie him up"

"Did he see my face?"

"No, but you have to-"

"Then I don't have to do anything"

"You, you are speaking with a witch, right?" The man says, and I make the mistake of turning toward him.

"There! Now kill this man and get on with it!" Anaid shouts and I have enough of this. I smash the snake on the wooden floor next to the man's head, almost breaking through the floor as the snake is engulfed by flames and vanishes "No! You-" The man screams.

"What do you know about witches? Tell me everything right now!" I say drawing my blade and pointing it at his throat.

"Garret hired them then, I k-knew that bastard was working with the Betrayer!"

"Answer me!" I press the edge of the blade against his neck, he tries to make distance with no avail. His chest quickly went up and down.

"The witches are worshippers of sin! They have been around for as long as that monster has been alive, Scarlett the betrayer! They kill and torture for joy, fuck demons, and give birth to the creatures that torment us!"

"Then why do you allow them to live with you? Why is the kingdom not hunting them down?" I hear a banging on the door downstairs.

"They helped against the evil emperor! The story says that! The witches also keep most of the monsters away, making devils watch over the roads and bridges out of the embrace!" More banging on the door.

"What story?!"

"After the spilling! How we came, and who we were before the terrible spilling, every child knows that, haven't you-" His eyes look behind me, the guards!

My blade cuts his throat as I turn around, my eyes catching only the shine of the blade as I jump at the men behind me plunging my sword deep into his chest, and forcing him to fall against the wall of the corridor-

This is no man.

The boy I thought had been tied near the bed lets his sword fall, blood spills out from his mouth as his red eyes look at me, he had been crying. I take a step back and a pool of blood paints the wooden floor and white carpet in a dark crimson. The boy drops to the floor, sitting down as he opens his mouth to say something but only blood comes out.

I hear the man on the ground wanting to scream, his open throat preventing him from making coherent sentences, I look at both of them raise their hands, reaching out for each other. The boy goes limp first. And the sound of a door getting kicked open forces me to run away, not knowing if the other man lost his life too.

After escaping what follows is like a dream. I'm no longer myself. Just a shadow moving from roof to roof as I repeat in my head the directions I was given. But I'm not alone.

"You really fucked up that one, you piece of shit" I know "Like a rabid dog, biting first, thinking later. You are a piece of shit, mindless, idiot, fucker!"

I know.

The nameless voice berates me, sometimes alone, others as if there were a dozen more of itself constantly speaking, calling me all sorts of things that I couldn't deny nor fight against. Once again my temper had failed me, my anger lead my hand, and now...I killed a child.

I find the man I was supposed to kill, laying in bed with a happy smile. I cut his head off with a single swing, then make my way back to the house I originally came from. Seeing how the word of my murders spread like wildfire, and the streets soon grew deserted, guards rushing from one place to the other as they knew I was around, but failed to catch sight of me.

Once inside the house, Anaid hit me on the stomach, making me stumble backward as I drop the cut head of Garret on the floor.

"Let's get out of here" She kicks the head away and we enter the basement.

I hear the door being kicked open by the Garders as Anaid opens another scroll, and we return to the brothel.