Lilly entered the bar and made her way to the corner where she had agreed to meet her client. Thanks to the numerous spells she had engraved in her black leather outfit no one even spared her a glance. Since she had arrived early out of precaution, she had to wait for almost an hour, but she didn’t order anything. Unlike her rowdy, and often short lived colleagues, she took her job seriously. After a long and boring wait, made only slightly bearable by it’s necessity, a dark clad figure entered the bar. The figure made it’s way over to Lilly’s corner and sat down.

“Coin.” Lilly said, magically altering her voice to that of a man.

The stranger didn’t answer and just produced a leather pouch from within their coat and showed it’s contents to her.

“Target.” Lilly more demanded than asked.

“The royal family.” Came the answer in a feminine voice. “And make it quick, preferably during their travel to Anmarak”

“I’ll need some extra for the inconvenience” She didn’t like traveling.

The stranger hesitated a little but pulled out a second, smaller pouch and handed both to Lilly.

“I expect results”

“I always deliver”

“That’s the sad part.” The stranger muttered before she stood up and left the bar.

•••

Lilly was crouching behind a bush, observing her targets and waiting for them to go to bed. As expected, the royal family traveled in a grandiose manner and had numerous guards. But what did guards matter to Lilly when she could practically turn invisible. A skilled warrior, or even just a good tracker, could sniff out her movements from the sounds or disturbances in the environment. But the royal family was stupid, they cared more for appearances than for their own safety as evidenced by their often untimely demise.

One such case was about to happen. The family of three; the king, queen and their daughter, had just entered a large carriage intended for sleeping. Lilly had been observing them for several days and knew that once they entered, they didn’t leave until the following morning. This was the perfect time to strike, she wove a complicated spell that made people dismiss her presence. Her armor had the same effect but the leather simply couldn’t hold enough mana to make it strong enough. People would still notice her if they tried, like a guard, but most would not remember her if asked.

The spell took effect and she started creeping her way towards the carriage. Halfway there a guard looked in her direction and she froze. The royal family may be stupid, but the people guarding them weren’t. The royal guard had people on constant standby with horses in case they needed to send for reinforcements. Lilly wouldn’t get away with her life if she was discovered, she knew that. But that’s why she was good at this job, she was never noticed.

The guard looked away, dismissing his hunch as fatigue. Lilly started moving towards her target again and soon reached the carriage. She cast a convenient little spell on the door to stop it form making any noise and readied a different, more complex spell, for when she entered. She opened the door and snuck inside quickly. The guards, focusing outwards for threats, didn’t notice the door behind them seemingly open and close on its own.

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Once Lilly had closed the door behind her she released her readied spell, isolating the carriage from the outside world. The spell would stop any noise, light or even heat from exiting the room it was cast in. She made her way to the double bed where the king and queen slept soundly. Deciding to kill the king first as he might offer resistance if he were to wake up, Lilly quietly walked over and unsheathed a small curved knife from under her bracer. She didn’t hesitate as she sliced open the kings throat and quickly followed with the queens. After wiping her blade on the sheets she put it away, intending to give the young and innocent princess a decent death. Her face didn’t divulge any emotion as she made her way over to the young girl, but as she looked down on her sleeping face she couldn’t help but think; why should this young girl suffer for her parents mistakes?

Lilly just stood there for several minutes. Despite her reputation as a ruthless Assassin who never let a target survive, she had never killed a child. It simply hadn’t been requested of her. Most in her line of work, or even just some thug on the street, wouldn’t think twice about murdering an entire orphanage for the right coin. But Lilly wasn’t a monster, and she didn’t want to be, so she had set rules for herself from the very start. The question of whether to kill a child was one she hadn’t asked herself, it just seemed so unreasonable.

Eventually she decided that that killing kids was a line she wouldn’t cross. However, she had already accepted the request to kill the royal family, so was she going to kill the princess and say; no more? She couldn’t, instead she decided to fake failure. It was risky and could likely get her killed. She would have to alert the guards to her presence and then make a run for it through the woods.

She dispelled [Isolate], the spell keeping all sounds inside the room and looked around for something to break. She had to make it look like an accident or she would loose her reputation for purposely butchering a job. She found a tea set made of porcelain on a cupboard besides the princess bed, perfect for making a racket. She knocked it over and it shattered on the floor. Almost immediately a guard came rushing through the door.

Lilly pounced on him and slit his throat with a dagger she drew from her back. She continued onward, dashing past several guards and running into the forest.

“Assassin!” The guards were yelling and waking up their resting comrades. “Ready the horses!”

“Fuck, the horses, I need to hide.” Lilly muttered as she sprinted through the forest trying to put some distance between her and the guards before they got the horses ready. She couldn’t outrun them, even in the forest, so she started weaving [Overlook] and found a tree to hide in. Only a few moments after she hid herself in the tree did the guards catch up to her but they simply kept riding. Now she only had to wait out the imminent search, hopefully [Overlook] would hide her presence well enough.