That was pretty much how the rest of her day went. Interacting with various former minions of the Head and making it plain that they wouldn't be getting the same treatment they'd had under the previous administration. There were two or three that she that she took more extreme measures with. In particular there had been a bastard who'd used his position with the Head to take liberties with women in exchange for supposed safety from exile, often discarding them as soon as he'd grown bored. She'd considered making a larger deal out of the matter, making it a grand public display that the whole city could witness. Instead she allowed her darkest impulses to take hold of her just this once.
"You may have bested the Head, little girl," Matus Harkhelm sneered. "But how long do you really think you can hold onto power. we control the city. We have the connections, you can't do anything to us."
"I'm sorry," she said without emotion. "You're under the impression that this is some sort of negotiation. That you have something, anything at all, to offer me."
"What's that supposed to mean? Of course I have something to offer. You'll need me on your side if you want even the faintest of chances of holding this city together. The secrets I have on the other families, they could be yours for the right price. I won't even ask for money."
The leer he shot her way made her skin crawl. She'd seen that look before on other men with power and knew that he'd had plenty of practice using it. What he didn't understand was just how drastically his circumstances had changed with her arrival.
"Oh, I'm sure that you have any number of things up your sleeve. Truths that could devastate entire bloodlines that I could hold over their heads for years to come. It'd probably come in real handy to have you in my corner."
His smile widened as he heard the words she was saying while missing where she was going with them.
"Thing is, I don't need any of that. You really don't get it, what it means to have the bedrock of your existence shaken. You built a life on a foundation that I kicked out from under you without breaking a sweat. All those things you thought you had to count on? They're gone. Everyone else already understands that. They'll fall in line under my authority on their own. They'll resent it, sure, but they'll kneel because they want to survive. I'm the only chance they have of that. It'll be long, it'll probably be a bit bloody, and I won't be making friends, but I'll get along just fine without you."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means, dear Matus, that I know more than enough about what you've done. I know *your* secrets, the things you were happy to do because you knew you could get away with it. You didn't even try all that hard to hide them. Your friends have done plenty of things that they'll never be clean of but you? You're the worst of the lot and the only way you can be useful to me is as a message to the others."
She nodded and a woman melted from the shadows brandishing a wicked scimitar. Matus barely had time to yell out once before she’d run him through.
"Get rid of the body," Len told Taylor when she was finished. "Don't let anyone see it, I want his to be one of those little mysteries that everyone talks about, but no one can actually prove what happened."
"I didn't think you'd let me have him," the assassin said bluntly.
"I almost didn't," Len admitted. "It's not the sort of thing I want to get used to. In a lot of ways I hate the idea that I CAN just have someone erased from existence. That's not the sort of thing a person should be able to decide on their own. Still, I don't have time to stand around ignoring reality. He was a monster and letting the rest know that I'm capable of this will help keep them in line while I do the rest of what needs to be done. More trouble is going to be coming our way, Taylor, and I can't afford to be bogged down with this petty crap. It won't be that long before Claymar's back to try something and We need to be ready."
"You're spending a lot of words justifying yourself to someone who approves of what you did," the assassin pointed out.
"Yeah, maybe don't do that? I thought you wanted to be done with this assassination crap, anyway."
"I do, but that doesn't mean I'm going to start having a problem with killing scumbags who deserve it. You know what he did to me and others like me. Don't waste your guilt on him."
"You're probably right," Len said, but she didn't believe it.
For all that she had acclimated to her new life, some things were just incompatible with her way of thinking. Just because she had to accept that it was a thing that could be done here didn't mean that she'd let herself get comfortable with it. Still, the part of her that had always lived here remained an influence no matter how much she wanted to pretend otherwise. There was the dead body of a man she'd allowed to be snuffed out in front of her and she felt... nothing. She'd only seen a few bodies in her previous life, all at relatively peaceful funerals. Sure, she'd seen plenty of unjust violence and horror but most of that death had been on television or in newspapers, just removed enough that she could usually put it aside to get through her day. It gnawed at her that she didn't feel anything over this, but she supposed she could live with it. Lord knew she had enough on her plate besides that.
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Taylor had the decency not to press the matter and just removed the body along with the now thoroughly stained carpet. Len didn't particularly care to know what she'd do with it from there. She didn't want the secrecy of his removal for any protection of her reputation. Quite the opposite, she didn't want anyone to know exactly how she did it specifically because it would let their fears run rampant. The more this became a mythical moment the better. If they couldn't figure out what she had up her sleeve, they'd be all the more hesitant to make a move against her. She only had so much real power. Sure, there was the immediate threat of force, but that could only get her so far and there were plenty who'd look to take advantage if they got the chance. She'd have to resort to any number of dark tactics to keep them in line for now. With luck she'd be able to dilute their power as she brought the exiled people back into the fold but for the moment there was a lot of power held by the remaining lackeys of the former Head and she wanted them scared.
"I think I'm done for the day," she said to no one in particular.
"So soon?" Cammie crooned in her ear. "Surely there's one or two more of those guys that we can take out. You didn't even let me help."
"Don't pout," Len snapped. "You already know that I'm not going to let you have free reign, stop wasting both our times putting on this act."
"Yowch. Catty much? Keep that up and you might even hurt my feelings."
"Oh whatever," Len sighed. "You're right, sorry, sure you're an otherworldly shadow abomination but that doesn't mean I should be treating you like shit just because I feel bad over having a rapist killed."
"Why even waste your time on it?"
"Because if I let myself get accustomed to it, I really might start to like it."
"And what would be so bad about that? You've got the power to exercise your will and shape the world around you as you see fit. Why shouldn't you take advantage of it?"
"Because that's the way people fuck up. Start believing that you've got all the answers and you miss the obvious detail that you can't know anything. Taking a life should be the hardest thing in the world. You're permanently removing any chance for that person to contribute to the world around them and you're getting rid of any possibility of using them to your benefit."
"You really think you could've used a guy like that? There isn't a chance in hell and you know it. Even an otherworldly shadow abomination can tell that much. Dude was monstrous to his core, would've turned on you the very instant he had an opportunity, and you know exactly the sort of other things he'd have done. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that your world is better without him in it and you should stop wasting your time feeling guilty about it."
"That's the problem, I'm NOT bothered by it."
"And that's a bad thing?"
"You're damn right it is. You might not get this but I'm not used to the idea of killing people, it wasn't something I had to deal with, it wasn't a part of my life at all. Even since coming to this place I've only killed one other person and that didn't bother me either. What kind of person doesn't feel anything when they take a life?"
Cammie missed the detail about her coming here, or just assumed it had something to do with the trek to the city. She just stared at Len looking almost adorably confused. Len stifled a giggle and turned it into another sigh.
"I feel like I'm losing sight of who I am."
"I still don't see how that's some terrible thing," Cammie shrugged. "Everything changes. It's natural that who you used to be isn't who you are today. You need to be a different person to deal with what's going on right now and who you were then couldn't handle it. You're overthinking matters. Sure, it's not all that useful to hear it from me, I'd have happily wiped out this city and anyone else who annoyed me, but that's not who you are and it never will be. Stop wasting energy imagining all the horrible things you might become and just live, I'd rather not spend the rest of my existence shackled to someone who's just gonna mope all the time."
"So sorry that you're worried about being bored."
"As well you should be. The least you could do is provide some proper entertainment while you use me to get what you want. Look, if it bothers you that much, just make sure not to use that same solution next time no matter how horrible the guy is. You're the one with the unbridled authority over this place. You say this Claymar guy is going to be a problem, spend more time worrying about that. You don't actually expect to be able to handle him without bloodshed, do you?"
"No, but there's a fundamental difference between killing someone in open combat and killing someone who's already been defeated."
"Sure, one's a lot easier. Look, you'll deal with Claymar however you want when the time comes. Letting me or anyone else tell you how to do it is just wasting everyone's time, it's obvious that you're gonna do whatever you feel is right. Just don't expect me to pat you on the head and tell you that everything's going to be okay. You're the one who has to make your own decisions and frankly this conversation is getting boring. Do what you want, don't drag me into it, stop moping or don't. Live your damn life, Len and stop expecting others to make you feel less guilty about it.”