Bruno

The lights weren’t on that night, there weren’t enough people around to tend to everything.

The injured took up an entire dorm room, and the remaining had to huddle in the other.

Earlier, Julius had gathered everyone in the entrance hall to tally up their numbers. There were ninety-five of them.

They had lost twenty-three.

Some were in the courtyard below white sheets, but many were buried beneath the rubble in Kingston.

No words could describe the dread that hung in the air.

The younger apprentices were allowed to rest while the seniors convened upstairs. Most of the older master apprentices sat idly in the entrance hall, exchanging nervous glances and quiet words.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Raina whispered to Bruno.

“I don’t know…” he replied, his eyes staring blankly out the windows.

Mintaka came over from the kitchen with steaming cups of tea for everyone, which they all accepted with small murmurs of thanks. Somehow, despite everything, she still managed a small smile when Bruno gave her a curt nod.

He wasn’t sure what the future held for Rose. Though there were still almost a hundred of them, losing more than a fifth of their manpower in a single night did not sing the most inviting prelude.

“When did we plan our next contract for, Raina?” Bruno asked, the mug grasped tightly in his hands slowly beginning to turn cold.

“I believe it was supposed to be in June…”

“Well, it’s May now,” whispered Bruno, finally taking a sip of the bitter tea. “There’s still a long time.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Raina asked softly, leaning a little close to Bruno. “We’ll have more time to recover, more time the prepare…”

Bruno gave her a sullen glance, she returned it. “The contract won’t be happening… There will be no more contracts.”

“Why?”

“They’re here to destroy us, Raina. They won’t give us the time until the next contract. They’ll be bringing the fight here, to our home…”

A door squeaked open above them.

“Here they come…” Whispered Bruno as the seniors, led by a pale-faced Julius, descended the stairs to the entrance hall.

Yelena, Izzy, and Leo were missing, leaving just Sandra and Juno alongside Julius.

“Attention,” spoke Julius, just loudly enough to be heard in the silent room. “Gather the apprentices.”

“Understood,” the master apprentices replied, rising to their feet and quickly rounding up the uneasy apprentices from the dormitories.

They limped into the entrance hall, the hurt with their arms over their comrades’ shoulders, and the gravely injured cradled in the arms of their close friends. Kana was being carried by Sasha, her tired eyes open just enough to reflect the moonlight. While the magic of their healers has saved them from death, it would take them time to recover, and many would likely deal with lasting disabilities.

Still, they wanted to hear their leader speak. They wanted some sort of comfort, someone to tell them that it would all be okay.

But Julius wasn’t there to give them comfort.

“Eve, Skyler, and Belle will replace Izzy, Yelena, and Leo on guard duty on the rooftop in six hours, then Bruno, Raina, and Lena will replace them in another six hours. We are, from now, on full alert for a large-scale attack upon our manor. Within our previous venue, we discovered documents locating the rough position of our manor, outlines for an attack, and the identity of several of our members,” said Julius, his voice catching in his throat on the last word.

There too was the name of a person he thought had been lost in history, buried away, never to haunt him again.

Looking at the solemn faces staring back at him, Julius cleared his throat, before continuing.

“Rose is no longer safe. The veil of anonymity which had protected us for centuries has been lifted. War has been declared, and we must be prepared. Patrols of our grounds will be organized, a garrison will be at the ready around the clock, and combat training will begin shortly after funeral processions at dawn. The age of assassins is coming to an end, but we shall make our last stand here. Get some rest, the seniors will take care of the rest,” Julius took in a deep breath, his eyes raised high to avoid the faces before him. If he met their eyes, he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to hold up his veil for much longer. “Dismissed…”

He turned and began toward the stairs, Sandra and Juno stood for a moment longer, before following Julius.

One by one, the apprentices stood up to return to their beds, barely awake enough to drag themselves along.

Raina turned to Bruno.

“The age of the assassins is coming to an end?” She asked emotionlessly, not in the spirits to raise her eyebrows.

“You were there in Kingston, you know what Sir Lapland and the Royal Guardian said. There’s been strange attacks all over the place, Julius must know about them, his network of intelligence covers every corner of the four kingdoms,” explained Bruno. “I don’t know the reason, but there’s a revolution, and we’re not the revolutionaries.”

“Huh…” Raina sighed.

The front doors blew open, the silhouettes of Thomas and Otto against the moonlight.

Echoes of the squeaking door reverberated through the now-silent room. Julius stood still with his back turned.

“Julius!” Thomas boomed.

All eyes were upon him.

“I’ve returned… There are things I must tell you, and things you must tell us.”

*****

Idris

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Andrei… What exactly happened… during the contract?” Idris couldn’t stop himself from asking.

Andrei sighed. “I guess it won’t do good if you’re in the dark forever…”

They had followed the trail of the man for a good long while, up north again, retracing their own steps for much of the way until they broke off further toward the east, meandering around the curvature of mountains, closer to the border with the Kingdom of Luneria. More snow covered the path the further they went, along with the constantly dropping temperature.

The two horses drawing their wagon were performing admirably, only resting at night, and still almost keeping pace with the man riding alone. Saya had taken a liking to letting the horses feed from her hand, and she sat with them for a long time every night. Perhaps it distracted her from their grim circumstances.

“Should I get Saya up here?” Asked Idris, pointing to the back of the wagon where Nina and Saya were resting.

“I don’t think she would want to hear…” Andrei replied. “Maybe it’s better for Nina to tell her.”

“Sure…”

“Where do I start?”

“From the start of the night… contract hour,” said Idris, giving the reins another flick to urge the horses on.

Andrei took in a deep breath. “The contract started off fine. The seniors, led by Julius, entered through the main entrance. A backup team then entered through the rear entrance as several others scaled the walls to stand guard outside the windows. Standard stuff.”

“Where did it go wrong?”

“As the time ticked down, we were preparing to extract from the location, when incredibly powerful telepathy was cast over the venue… I can’t describe it, Idris, it felt like my skull was going to split open.”

“Mind control?” Asked Idris, thinking back to the phantasmic realm he had encountered days prior. “What was it like?”

Andrei shook his head. “All I could do was prevent it from taking me. Bruno and I were watching from the surrounding rooftops, sparing us from the worst of it.”

“That’s different from what I encountered…” Idris muttered.

“Your phantasmic realm? Yeah… I’ve never been in one, but it’s different… Though, if what Aurora told you is true, then I wouldn’t be surprised at the sheer power of his magic. Aurora said he tried to rewrite history, didn’t he?” Andrei said quietly.

Idris nodded. Aurora didn’t seem proud about it, but rather terrified. He wondered how many of their own books and stories had been altered by Aurora, turned to lies in an attempt to keep them safe. “Saya told me something about this earlier. She thinks that in his attempt to alter history, however flawed it may have been, he inadvertently left cracks and fissures, ones which slowly grew over time until it all eventually came apart.”

“And that’s happening now?”

“I suppose so…”

Andrei pondered it for a while, but no solution came to mind. “Anyway… as soon as that happened, the building exploded in fire, the windows, the walls, the whole thing… It sent it crashing to the ground…”

Andrei had to stop. The memories of that night made him uneasy in his seat. The chilly wind on his face somehow reminded him of the scorching heat of the fire.

“Then…” He had to wet his dry throat. “Then…”

“How many did we lose?” Interrupted Idris.

“I don’t know… we lost many, maybe a dozen…”

Idris gnashed his teeth. “A dozen?”

“Maybe more…” Andrei could only manage a whisper. “I wasn’t there to witness the whole thing, and Nina said they didn’t attempt a head count in their rush to head home.”

“We’ve never lost this many… ever…” sighed Idris as Andrei’s description of the night ran like a film in his head.

Andrei didn’t reply, instead, he got up and clambered to the roof.

“The trail is weakening,” Andrei reported from up top. Though he had already checked barely an hour earlier, it provided a much-needed break in their painful conversation. “We’re still falling behind.”

“What even is there all the way out here?” Idris couldn’t help but blurt out. “Do you think he knows that we’re following him?”

Andrei shrugged as he slid down from the curved roof of the carriage. “Nina might know. She’s the up-and-coming bookworm.”

“I’ll go ask,” said Idris, handing Andrei the reins before opening the door to the interior, ducking to get through the small opening.

Saya was sleeping on the floor, her big spear hugged tightly to her chest. Nina sat across from her, staring at the ceiling idly.

“Nina,” greeted Idris as he sat down in front of her.

“Hey Idris, want me to take over from you?” Nina asked, even though she wanted to take a nap.

“Thanks, but it’s okay, I just wanted to ask if you knew whether anything interesting is in the direction we’re heading.”

Nina thought for a moment. “Well… the Kingdom of Luneria is that way, but that’s still quite a distance away. Crescent House is in that general direction, but this isn’t the route most would take to get there… I believe there is also a small castle close to the border, on our side, which belongs to a minor lord. We’re getting close to it actually, maybe another half day’s worth of traveling, if the maps are correct.”

“A minor lord?” Idris raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah… forgot his name… but I believe he does have a decent amount of wealth and power. He was once a member of Crescent House, but left after he got old, and began to collect books.”

“Books?”

Nina nodded with a murmur of agreement. “He’s a bookworm. People say he became a little strange as he got old, became obsessed with history or whatever…”

“Wait. How do you know all this?” Idris asked.

A small smile flashed across her face. “I’m also a bookworm.”

“Right… obsessed with history…” Idris muttered to himself with a hand to his chin. “Call it a hunch, but I think he might know some things we’ll find interesting.”

“Did he notice the cracks?” Said Nina, quickly picking up on Idris’ train of thought.

Idris shot her a side-eye. “Did Saya tell you about her theory?”

“She wouldn’t stop going on about it… But I think she’s right.”

“Me too.”

Outside, snow began to fall from the darkening sky. Fluffy white puffs of ice drifted down in the chilly air, quickly melting on the slightly warmer earth.

“Idris!” Andrei’s muffled voice came through the driver’s door, followed by several quick thumps. “Get up here!”

“Something’s up…” Idris said under his breath as he and Nina both rushed to the driver’s deck.

Andrei had brought the carriage to a standstill, and he stood at the edge of the deck, eyes transfixed on a dark mass at the side of the path.

“What is it?” Asked Nina.

“His trail… it suddenly got much stronger…” Andrei said as he slowly lowered himself to the ground. “That’s his horse.”

Then Idris noticed the dirty hooves and muddied legs, sticking out stiffly from the body. Its mouth was open, cloudy eyes staring at nothing.

Saya came out from the door too, rubbing her eyes and shivering in the cold.

“It’s dead…” Nina whispered.

“Yeah…” replied Andrei as he walked to the horse and knelt beside it. “It’s barely warm. Must have died many hours ago… We’re quite far behind.”

“What killed it?” Idris asked as he leaped to the ground and walked up to Andrei, the setting sun burning the horse’s jet-black hair a deep crimson. The color made him shiver.

Andrei inspected the horse a little further. “No wounds… not that I can tell anyway.”

“So…”

“He ran it to death,” said Andrei, getting to his feet. “He used his mind control and ran it to death. That’s why we were having such trouble following him.”

Without his horse, he must have gone the rest of the way on foot. Even for a skilled mage, without supplies and adequate clothing, lasting through the night this far into the mountains is impossible.

“He can’t have gone far,” Nina called out from behind them. “It must be the castle. It’s the only place that’s within reach. We can make it there before sunrise.”

“We’re riding through the night?” Andrei began. “These horses can’t go for much longer.”

“No. We’re going on foot,” Nina replied.

“In these mountains? It’s night and it’s snowing. We’d be lucky to make it to dawn,” Andrei shot back.

Nina shrugged. “What other options do we have?”