Caidan sheathed her bone hilted sword, the blade clicking into place. Senka’s former lover, who had apparently received a last message from the now-dead assassin, tucked her hands into her robes. She didn’t seem like she would attack them, but Ghost knew better than to trust anyone like her, anyone who once was close with Senka.
Still in Alistair’s body, Ghost kept his sword at the ready, the assassin poised to strike. “No tricks.”
Instead of saying anything to him, Caidan turned to Kanda. “You can keep your weapon drawn if you want. I will know if you cast anything,” she told the Skyward girl, who stood near Ghost. “You have been warned.”
“You don’t scare me,” Kanda said with the usual defiance in her voice.
“If that’s the case, then you have a lot to learn about what I’m capable of, and the capabilities of the people you have associated yourself with.” She jutted her chin toward Ghost. “Like him. What is your reason, Ghost? Why did Senka have to die? I will not ask a final time.”
“She was my lover as well.”
“What? She never—”
“When did Senka ever speak?”
“She spoke to me often,” Caidan said. “Through letters. She spoke to me through letters and gestures. She never mentioned you.”
Ghost went with the first thought that came to his mind, even if it made him feel bitter: “Perhaps she was seeing both of us.”
Alistair: You mean an assassin love triangle?
Ghost: Quiet. I need to be ready for anything.
“She wouldn’t betray me,” Caidan said. “I would have known if she was seeing someone else. She would have said something.”
“Again, unless we are speaking of a different assassin, Senka never spoke. I only heard her voice at the very end,” Ghost told Caiden, his voice trailing off. He would never say anything to Alistair about it, he would never say anything to anyone, but hearing Senka’s voice, finally knowing what she sounded like, and then having to kill her was something that would always sit with him. “Just at the end.”
Sadness fell across Caidan’s face, visible even if much of her features were obscured by black paint. “I never heard her voice. What did it sound like?”
“Like that of a spirit,” Ghost told her. “I don’t really know how to describe it, but it haunts me still. It is something I can never forget. And in case you thought I was completely heartless, I know what it feels like to lose someone like that. I know what it feels like to lose someone by the blade of your own sword.”
Caidan’s eyes filled with pain. “Then I ask you again, why? Why did you do it?”
“Because Senka killed me first. She teamed with four other assassins, one of whom I have already handled, and they betrayed me. They did so for a man named Professor Dreadwell, who, like me, was reborn into another person’s body. This body is in the Dracolich Empire. Even worse. Dreadwell is working with Kang, the leader of the Unknown Souls, which Senka was once part of.”
“I’m aware of the Unknown Souls,” Caidan said. “Senka spoke of them often, mostly in code.”
“It was Kang and his mother, the shadow leader of my former guild, that called for my execution. I have dealt with her as well, although she wasn’t originally on my hit list. I suppose I should amend my list to include Dreadwell. But he will be reborn.”
“You are certain of this?”
“Through the same card that led to my rebirth, which I am going to assume Kang took after murdering me and returned to its creator. What I’m saying here is Dreadwell invented the card. And I believe there was only one. I got the Card of Rebirth by killing him—”
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“You killed this Dreadwell?”
Ghost smiled at Caidan. “I did, years ago. Although, at the time, I had no idea why I had been assigned his assassination. I wasn’t one to ask. I handled him, and the card appeared. I touched it, and as I have seen Battledeck Mages do in the past, I slotted the card into my chest. Ten years later, they killed me. I awoke in this boy’s puny body.” He showed her his arms.
Alistair: You know what—
Ghost: Even if you are getting stronger, I would still describe you as puny. While you are starting to develop some strength, your core needs a lot of work. Also, as you can see, your biceps have grown to some degree, but since you rarely work on your triceps—a fault of mine, if we’re being honest—your arms look a little lumpy. Not super lumpy, but your show muscles could use some work is what I’m trying to say. We want your arms to look less like diarrhea and more like turds.
Alistair: I hate you.
Ghost: The feeling isn’t quite mutual, but it’s not far off.
Caidan leaned back a bit, as if she was taking all of this in and trying to make sense of it. “So your guild murdered you for this card, and they did so to give to Dreadwell, whom you killed a decade ago, and who you claim is in the Dracolich Empire.”
“Correct.”
“And how do you know that?”
“We have a lich mask, for one. But this information has been confirmed to us.”
Caidan’s eyes widened. “You have a mask?”
“We do, yes.”
“And you are aware that you can use the mask to find the other lich mask?”
Ghost shook his head. “Not exactly, but I figured something like that would be the case. I don’t know how that would work, and I don’t know if it would alert Dreadwell to our presence, but that was my plan. Cross the border next weekend and go for it. Cut the snake off at the head. Because there is more. Dreadwell and the Unknown Souls are looking to wreak havoc in the Dawncrest Kingdom. Felix Bancroft, her shit-ass uncle,” Ghost said, motioning to Kanda, “has been preparing to attack the capitol from within.”
“It’s true,” Kanda told Caidan. “And Ghost and I have been able to stop him from getting weapons to the city.”
“They would make an attempt on Solaria?”
“Yes, Ghost said, “aAnd they would bring the magitech that my kingdom has developed to yours, growing their power and changing the course of our world. If you are like me, you may see this as a bad thing. I don’t know. You may see it as a way to create a new world, one in which an assassin’s guild holds a kind of power once thought impossible. You might not like the prospects of this. I certainly don’t.”
“Establishing a new world order is something that shouldn’t be left to assassins,” Caidan told Ghost.
“Yes, but I would also argue that anyone with the power to do something like that is an assassin in their own right. That said, it’s not something I want for Solaria or the Dawncrest Kingdom. Our two empires have been at war for far too long. This would only lead to a bloodshed this world has never known. It would be chaos.”
“Chaos that we must prevent.”
“So you see it as I see it?” Ghost asked her. “You see it as Senka may have seen it had she not betrayed me?”
“We should not put thoughts into a corpse.”
“That’s so fucking grim,” Kanda said after hearing Caidan’s statement.
“Then what are you suggesting?” he asked the woman, the assassin not at all bothered what Caidan had said.
“Do you feel comfortable with me helping you?” she asked after a brief spell of silence.
“I have already given you an ultimatum, so yes, yes, I do. If Senka saw something in you, then I see it as well. I didn’t want to, you know, but a code is a code. And I was raised to believe that if one ever crossed you with a sword, you best not give them a chance to do so again. This is what I meant when I said she had to die. It’s also why I tell you now that I didn’t want to kill her.”
“You are more like her than you know.”
“I’m much more talkative.”
“And angrier,” Caidan said, “But I see why she liked you, a man blinded by his own code, not able to understand nuance. A man who sees the world in black and white.”
“Black and white and red.”
“Three colors to rule them all. It seems so you.” Caidan finally drew her hands out of her robes, and brought them together in front of her body. “It seems so her. As to your ultimatum, yes, I’ll help you. But you’re going to have to do something for me first.”
“Oh?”
“And, you’re going to need to give me something.”
Ghost didn’t skip a beat. “Name your price.”
“I’m going to need you to kill someone,” she said carefully.
“That’s all? You should have opened with that.”
“No, there’s more. Here’s what I need…”