I didn’t sleep that night. I just stayed up, watching the world through the window of my room in the Citadel. Even nearly a week after Duke Graden had been deposed, there had still been celebrations running all night long. I know that large parts of the Uprising army had been really enjoying them. Still, they’d been finally dying down.

With the news of Graden’s assassination leaking, those parties looked to have been kicked back into high gear. All night long, I was able to see indistinct forms frolicking in the streets and gathering around bonfires. Looked to be a fun time. I wouldn’t be surprised if Azarus and Renauld were down there.

Meanwhile, I was holed up in my room, idly petting Fade.

And brooding.

I’ll admit it, that’s what I was doing. I was full-on brooding.

Because my training as an assassin started tomorrow.

Grey had wanted me introduced to the Nocturne Division in the scant few days before the army set out for Elderwyck. Before we’d broken up for the night, he told me he would arrange things with the mentor he had in mind. The apparent leader of the Nocturne Agents.

When I asked who that was, all Grey told me was that they were a dwarf who would seek me out and arrange a meeting. He’d told me to expect my contact message sometime overnight.

And so I was still awake, waiting for the moment some spooky mysterious assassin would arrange a meeting with me.

Somehow.

And while I was waiting, I was brooding. Mainly about what my parents would think of me now.

Probably disappointed.

Heh.

The level of violence that I was capable of now, and was intending to learn more of would be alien to them. Dad had been a simple social worker before his life had fallen apart in that accident. He’d dedicated himself to helping people navigate the banalities of the governmental system, and had honestly seemed happy for it. He was ultimately a simple man. Not stupid, and not slow. Just…simple. He’d had it all figured out, and many people would have thought he’d won at life. A wife and son, little debt, and a home of his own. From what I remember of the before times, he was…content.

Mom was…

Mom was the heart and soul of our little family. A simple artist of little renown, she had taught classes at the local community college. It didn’t bring in much money, but I think it had been the experience of teaching art that had really been the draw for her. But it was at home that she had really shined. Mom’s outgoing, frankly quirky nature had been what was needed to draw out the two men in her life. Dad and I were…a bit reserved and had needed her energy to draw us out of our shells.

And then the accident happened.

We’d been returning from a holiday trip visiting family when a truck had veered into our lane, knocking our shitty little car into a ditch. Mom hadn’t been wearing her seatbelt at the time and had been thrown from the car.

When she hit the ground, the coroner told us that she died nearly instantly. As for Dad, he was either lucky or unlucky, depending on how you looked at it. He survived, but at a cost. The airbag in our ancient little beater of a vehicle failed as the car rolled, and the axle of the steering wheel violently thrust through it and into his abdomen.

It paralyzed him from the waist down. That wasn’t the extent of his injuries of course, but it was the largest one. There had been plenty of other complications from that accident that made his life a living hell and which he never fully recovered from.

Probably the greatest being losing the light of his life.

He was never the same.

And from then on…

I sighed, running my hands over Fade’s horns. They had fully come in not long ago and looked suitably fearsome, for a wolf pup. Actually, I took a closer look at Fade. He’d grown a bit bigger. He was far from being an adult, but I’d put him at…maybe the wolf equivalent of a pre-teen, now. The formerly scrawny young wolf had put on a bit of mass and wasn’t quite as dangerously cute as he had been.

Now he was starting to look dangerous in general.

Fade looked up from his position lying on my lap. He whined at me, curious as to why I’d stopped with the pets. I smiled down at him and got back to work.

I was thankful for him being here. He didn’t always return to my room to rest anymore, but he had tonight. Maybe he’d just sensed that I was feeling a bit maudlin and come running. Who knew?

I sure as hell didn’t put it past the mysterious powers of a Spirit Wolf.

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Said Spirit Wolf raised his head again suddenly, nearly skewering my arm with his surprisingly pointy horns. He wasn’t looking at me this time, though.

No, he was looking at the door of our room.

I followed his gaze just in time to watch a small piece of parchment slide under my door. I felt my blood pressure spike.

That must be the contact from the Nocturne Division.

Carefully standing up from my position seated on my bed, I cautiously approached the door. I don’t know what I was expecting from a simple note, nor why I was acting like this. It’s not like the parchment was going to be laced with poison or something.

Still, I was hesitant as I picked up the note and opened it.

Inside was a small map of the city of Helstein, with a circled location on it and one word.

Daybreak.

I see.

Pretty clear what they wanted. I was a bit surprised that they wanted to meet me in the light of day. I would have expected a group of assassins to meet in the dead of night in some den of iniquity, and not in…

I took a closer look at the map.

Was that a park?

I shook my head. Well, whatever. I had my instructions now.

Daybreak was still a few hours away, and I knew how I was going to spend them.

Doing my best to relax with my furry not-so-little anymore companion.

I turned around and made for the bed once more.

I’d get ready in a bit. Just…a bit more time with Fade was all I needed.

…………………………………………………………

I left the Citadel just before the sun was about to crest the horizon. I made sure that I was kitted out for combat, just in case. I was carrying along most of my normal battle kit these days, and was dressed in my old leathers instead of my flashy Order uniform. My new daggers were strapped to either side of my waist, while I had my pouch containing various potions and my ever-present Breaker on the small of my back.

I’d ended up studying the map enough that I was fairly sure about where I was supposed to go, and it didn’t take me long to get there. I arrived at the small plot belonging to a city garden just as the green period of the morning was starting, casting the lush trees and bushes in further verdancy.

Looking around, I could see that I was alone in this small stretch of greenery. There was nobody out here, certainly not a mysterious dwarven assassin.

Well, except for Fade. He had decided to follow me this morning and was currently looking around curiously himself.

I scratched my head, puzzled. Did this guy expect me to find him or something? Was this a test of some kind, perhaps about my tracking skills? I didn’t think I was too bad at tracking, especially when I had Fade here to help me along. I opened my mouth to speak to him, only to be cut off.

Violently.

Out of nowhere, I felt my foot catch on something in an oddly familiar way. Before I could even process what was happening, I was violently yanked off of my feet and flung into the air in an eye blink. In seconds I found myself upside down in the middle of the garden clearing.

Directly below me, Fade had tilted his head up to look at me in a quizzical manner, as if to question what I was doing. I blinked at him, and he blinked back.

Feeling blood start to rush to my head, I looked up from the position I was hanging, already starting to dread what I was going to find. Sure enough, there was a complex arrangement of rope snaking its way down from the branch of a tree above me. It was attached to a noose that had been clinched tightly around my right foot that I was dangling from.

I groaned aloud, extra blood rushing to my cheeks in embarrassment.

I had fallen for one of these things again?

Sylvia could never know about this.

“I’m going to be honest,” I heard a deep, gravelly voice say from the tree line, tinted faintly with amusement. “I didn’t actually expect that to get you. That’s kind of…bad, kid.”

Twisting my head to follow it, I was just in time to watch as a figure stepped out of the shadows. Fade followed my gaze and jumped slightly at the sight of them, seemingly surprised. I’m guessing he hadn’t noticed the presence of this person at all.

Like Grey had mentioned, the apparent assassin I was here to meet was a dwarf. Not quite as tall as Azarus, but certainly taller than some of the other dwarves I’d met. I couldn’t see much of him, though. His entire body was shrouded in a thick, dark grey cloak with a hood. Underneath the hood, I could see a strange mask covering his face, hiding it from view, but allowing a long steel-grey beard to trail out of. It almost reminded me of the animal masks I had seen most Elves wear to conceal their nature. Where the savage elves that had enslaved me wore wolven masks, and the elves of Sancthaven wore deer masks, this guys was different.

It almost looked avian in nature.

The dwarf looked me up and down from my hanging position for a moment before sighing behind his mask. “Well, at the very least, you’re not running around in full armor. You’ve got that going for you.”

As I twisted back and forth, dangling by one foot, I felt an eyebrow twitch. “I’m not a complete moron, you know.”

“Just oblivious then? Don’t answer that,” He said before I could finish opening my mouth. The dwarf shook his head, and then drew a small throwing knife from underneath his cloak. “Here, let me get you down.”

I only had moments to brace myself before the dwarf threw the knife at the rope holding me in midair. It sliced straight through the fibers, sending me crashing down to the grass below, only inches away from Fade.

I groaned, although it was muffled by the fact I was face-first in the dirt.

Fade leaned in and licked my face, almost consolingly.

When I pushed myself up, I had to spit out a blade of grass. Looking up, I found the dwarf had moved to stand above me, a hand held out in my direction. I took it gratefully, allowing the person who had set the trap in the first place to leverage me to my feet.

Once free of the foliage, I saw that the dwarf had titled their masked face to look at up me in an assessing way.

I spoke first. “I’m guessing you’re the assassin Grey mentioned,” I said tiredly, as Fade sat down at my feet.

The dwarf nodded. “Yes, yes. I am the ‘assassin’,” He sounded oddly amused at the label, for some reason. “That Greycton arranged to take you on. But I haven’t actually made up my mind about that, just yet. You haven’t exactly made the greatest first impression, kid.”

Yeah, that was…fair. That was the second time now that I’d walked straight into one of those rope traps.

“But, I’ll give you a chance to change my mind,” The dwarf continued, turning back around to face the small forest in this city garden. “C’mon, I’ve set up a testing ground for you farther in.”

I scrambled to catch up as he strode back into the treeline. “Wait,” I said, once I had. “What do I call you? I’m guessing you already know my name.”

The dwarf snorted, but didn’t turn to face me or stop walking. “Of course I know you, Nathan Hart. I don’t make a habit of spreading around my identity, though. For now, you can just use my codename.”

“Call me Hook.”