The first test was going smoothly, at least the first day had gone by with no incidents. Astrid was moving towards her goal; this helped him feel at ease as he travelled south.

As soon as he arrived to the location his grandfather had selected, he was ordered back into the ship with a letter to be opened as he left port.

“Assassin leader,” This was his father’s handwriting.

“We have lost contact with our allies throughout the kingdom of Ria. Due to the political instability of the free cities, we need you to find Garlin vex, the master of the assassin’s guild in southern Atrix and aid him in any way needed to re-establish communication. Normally we would send Cadem as he is a local, however, he is needed in the test we are administering for the new members of the assassins. I don’t have to tell you the importance of our operation in Ria and the communication route this area provides. We will be expecting results within a fortnight.”

Signed by “First finger BG”

Eigil threw the letter into the fire as it was custom to destroy it and walked to his bed. Without changing his travel cloths, he let himself fall into the rough mattress.

His father was as impatient as always.

To Arrive in Atrix he needed to either cross the whole empire or navigate eight hundred kilometres before crossing the narrow path and continuing on a different ship. If the wind favoured his journey, it would take a week to arrive at his destination; leaving him less than five days to accomplish something so that he could send a hawk. This was close to impossible.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

The ‘kingdom’ of Ria had his last king around three centuries back. He had let himself be controlled by frivolities and ended up birthing more than fifty princes and princesses; and as it was to be expected a grand civil war began when the king left no will of any kind.

A large part of their territory was taken by the empire taking advantage of the conflict before the remaining heirs formed a pact.

The territory was divided into twelve different sections, each surrounding one of the “free cities”. All cities are independent of each other and only work together when there is an external threat.

This complicates any organized operation throughout the territories but aids some of the activities of the organization as there is no centralized government to enforce the law equally.

Anyway, this was going to be an annoying mission and he had wanted to see the competition to its completion.

“Got to do, what I got to do” Eigil said to himself before closing his eyes and going to sleep.