It was a cruel and loathsome night. The queue of carriages stretched out from the taverns and shops of White Raven upwards towards the giant looming grey walls of the city border. Amaya waited patiently on her black palfrey, the hooves barely trotting an inch with every hour that passed. It would be morning by the time she would actually be leaving the city gates and being free of this stupid town forever. Let it burn, she thought bitterly. If Hideo won’t listen to reason, then perhaps his hometown deserves to be torn asunder. It began to rain, and she slowly felt her patience dwindle. She pulled a green hood over her head. It wasn’t as comfortable or waterproof as her assassin hood, but needs must. Word had got out of a blue-hooded archer protecting those pompous nobles at the New Jade Library. For her reward, she had learned that Arrowcat was now wanted for vigilantism. I didn’t even want to protect them. They just got in the damn way. Instead, she opted to escape through the border dressed as some everyday commoner. She felt her blood flare as she noticed a bald merchant at the gates arguing with two watchmen, thus delaying everyone else with his own incompetency.
“Hello there, my lady.” Amaya looked down from her horse to see a Watchman looking up at her from the muddy ground. Under his kettle hat, he had a crooked nose and piercing narrow eyes. “Those are quite some scars you have. How did you acquire them, if I may ask?”
Damn him. She would never be able to seamlessly blend in again thanks to Hideo’s rampage at Star Snow. Now her scars would stand out everywhere she went. “I accidentally cut myself shaving.”
The Watchman chuckled heartily. “Ah, you’re still very much a woman, My Lady. Even with the nasty face wounds.” He tugged on the leather satchel that was hanging from the side of her palfrey. It rattled. “What’s in the bag?”
“Food and medical supplies,” she lied.
The Watchman’s amiable face creased and morphed into an askance look. He frowned and his piercing eyes glinted. “You won’t mind if I search them, then?”
“I would, actually,” she answered matter-of-factly. “The cargo is sensitive. I don’t want any of my glass-goods to shatter.”
“Oh, I’ll be most gentle.” His crooked nose appeared to twitch. His eyes narrowed deeper as he studied her face intently. “You look familiar. There’s an all-points bulletin for someone matching your description. Regarding an assault at The Forrester’s Tankard.”
Who else in this city could look remotely like me? She had assaulted several people since arriving in New Jade, but she knew nothing of this one and had never set foot in that tavern. I don’t like this one bit. “I think this is a case of mistaken identity.”
The Watchman’s suspicious look eased back into a jovial and rosy-cheeked grin again. “I’d feel safer if you came with me to answer some questions, anyway. Just to tell my uppers that I’ve done some questioning into the case!” He chuckled lightly and leaned forward, patting the back of her palfrey. “In return after I’ll have you let out the city straight away and with none of this queueing bollocks.”
Amaya scanned around her. It was the city's border. There were watchmen around every corner, patrolling around the carriages and questioning other transients. There were carriages in front, behind, and around her, with hundreds of witnesses. Causing a scene would ensue the whole city’s wrath upon her. She reluctantly dismounted.
“Take the satchel with you,” the Watchman ordered. “Wouldn’t want your goods to get stolen now, would we?”
She was escorted to a nearby barracks beside the city gates. Within, Amaya and the Watchman descended into a darkened stairway. They walked past rows of holding cells that housed cutthroats, thieves, and other reprobates.
There were others that seemed not quite so deserving, the beggars and the drunkards. She was taken into a windowless and empty room with a lone table erected in the centre. The Watchman sat her down and took the chair opposite the table, scratching his crooked nose and studying her with his piercing pale eyes. Another watchman with a thin face and stained armour entered and locked the door behind, twirling the loose array of keys around his finger.
“What is your name, My Lady?” the one with the crooked nose asked.
“Neoma Wade,” she lied, thinking of the first name that came into her head.
The Watchman sat back in his chair and laughed heartily. He learned forward. His cheeriness thoroughly vanished in an instant. The way he switched from happy watchman to stern inquisitor so seamlessly impressed her. “There was a woman sighted at the New Jade City Library the night it was destroyed, in a blue hood, with scars and war-paint across her face.”
“Surely a coincidence, Sir. I’m a merchant transporting goods to-” The watchman behind her grabbed her satchel from the back of the chair and upended its contents across the table. A sapphire bow, zaffre hood and cloak, and a quiver full of arrows scattered onto the wooden surface. The Watchman sat opposite her, had a triumphant look of glee upon him.
“Oh no, I’ve been framed,” Amaya said, not putting in the effort to make it sound remotely convincing.
The Watchman giggled in amusement and pushed himself away from the table. He stood and loomed over her like a soot-black shadow. He removed his kettle-hat and ruffled his gloved hand through his greasy and unkempt hair. “Where’s your friend then? The other blue ninja?”
Amaya gave him an especially venomous smile. “We’re not on speaking terms right now.”
“Aww, a most great and cumbersome shame,” he said, placing a hand over his breastplate in feigned solidarity. Amaya could hear the lightest whisper of a small blade being unsheathed from a belt behind her. The other watchman had tried to be silent and discreet whilst the inquisitive one was babbling. His pal eyes narrowed and flickered wildly. He appeared unsettlingly eager, as if he were frothing at the mouth. “The Velociraptor mainly wants his head, but I’m sure we’ll still get a good pay-out settling for yours instead.”
When she heard the air being cut through by the small dagger, she snapped her arm behind her and latched onto the attacker’s wrist with a python’s grip. She twisted and heard a gravelly scream behind her. She turned and kicked the chair into him, and the thin-headed watchman staggered back and into the wall.
Amaya then grabbed her sapphire bow and thwacked it around the inquisitor’s forehead. She kicked the table into him, and steel arrows went floating and flying around them. She then heard a war cry as the thin-headed watchman charged into her and wrapped his arms around her waist. Amaya slammed the brunt of her bow into his back repeatedly as they slammed into the other stone wall. She felt a flash of heated pain across her back as she kept hitting her bow down upon him like a hammer to a nail. When his grip did not relent, she thrust her knee upwards. The attacker flung back with a bloody mouth. She punched him into the table that had been knocked onto its side. Her scarred hands grabbed around the top edges of the table’s side as she kicked him into the hardwood. She stomped on his head and heard a sloshy crunch as his neck snapped.
She then turned her attention to the man who brought her to this hellhole. The inquisitive Watchman was just getting to his feet, steadying himself against the stone wall as she pounced on him. She pinned him with her arm and her scarred hand latched around his jaw. “How about we wipe that smug little grin from your face?” She felt her hands burn like hot irons as her charge pulsated through her fingers. Wild blue sparks flared around and across the Watchman’s mouth. His pale eyes grew wide in alarm. Amaya used her flaring hand to cover his mouth as he screamed uncontrollably. Sparks and small flickers of lightning bolts burned away at his entire jaw. When she removed her hand, he made some disturbingly inhuman gargling noises as his bottom jaw had been charred red and black. He slid down the wall dribbling.
Not wanting to spend any more time in this city, Arrowcat retrieved her bow, arrows, and quiver and donned her assassin apparel. She grabbed the array of keys from the dead watchman’s belt. It took an infuriating amount of time to find the right key for the lock. It was better that than kicking down the door and attracting more watchmen and Inferno informants.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Arrowcat passed by long rows of holding cells, ignoring the shouts, pleads for release, whistling, and curses as she approached the iron door to freedom. It felt a mile away, stretching further away the closer she paced towards it.
She became somewhat disheartened when the door swung open with a bash before she could reach, and three more watchmen burst through, raising crossbows at her. Arrowcat withdrew an arrow from her quiver and nocked it in two swift movements, raising the sapphire arrowhead at the middle watchman’s sweaty forehead. Corrupt or seeing this out of context? To be sure, this could have been a fun game to play when dealing with the New Jade City Watch during the Inferno’s insurrection. She felt the string of her bow screech as she pulled it back further. If Hideo finds out I killed innocent watchmen – No, why am I still giving a shit?
“Drop your weapon!” the watchman in the middle ordered.
“Are you Inferno too?” she asked with a smirk.
“What are you talking about?” the one on the left asked in confusion. “We heard screaming downstairs and came rushing!”
His dismay sounded genuine. But anyone could act. They all appeared confused and unsure, but the Inferno’s seemingly bottomless pockets could turn even the laziest watchman into a thespian. “I won’t loosen my string if you allow me to explain-”
The centred watchman fired his crossbow, and the steel bolt went hurtling. Arrowcat deflected it with her sapphire bow, her own arrow letting off into the dank ceiling and causing a small shower of dust and grime to float around her. The second bolt from the left-sided watchman flew, followed by the third from the right. She dodged the left bolt, jumping to the side, but her luck ran out with the third bolt. It embedded into her left upper arm, and she fell into the grimy ground. Fiery pain stretched across her arm and shoulder. She grunted, trying to suppress the agony with her own stubbornness. This is what I get for showing mercy. She could hear the clanking of crossbows being reloaded, the steel bolts stretching against the string as their footsteps drew closer. “How much is the Velociraptor paying you?” she asked through clenched teeth.
The centre watchman stood over her, aiming the glinting point of the spiked bolt a mere metre over her scarred face. Under his kettle-hat, his face was masked by a black scarf. “Enough to retire out of the city.”
Arrowcat nodded, the fiery pain throbbing through her upper arm and shoulder. The bolt was still embedded, the steel end of the bolt sticking out proudly. She crushed her eyes closed as she heard the clank of the bolt stretching back. She began to notice how long it was taking to get killed when she felt herself get splashed with something wet and sticky, followed by the sounds of gargles and screams. When Arrowcat hesitantly opened her eyes, she saw an arrowhead sticking out of the watchman’s scarfed face. His armoured body crushed down on top of her. It pressed and moved the steel bolt sticking out of her arm and she winced at the fiery throbs and stings from within her arm.
Looking over the dead watchman’s shoulder and his irksomely large kettle-hat, she saw the other two turning and dropping their crossbows as if in surrender. Another arrow burst through the forehead of the right-standing watchman. He fell backwards. Arrowcat tried heaving the body, crushing her to the right to see over the other shoulder. The left-standing watchman attempted running, but two arrows launched into him, one in the back, and one in the back of his head. She pried the heavily armoured body away from her and it rolled to her side with rattles and clanks.
Arrowcat saw a face that she did not expect to ever see in this forsaken city again. Neoma was standing by the doorway holding an empty ruby red bow in her red-wrapped hands. She dashed over to the fallen Archer and lifted her arm over her shoulder. Neoma smelt of ash and lavender, that strange scent that she had remembered so fondly. There was another throb of tearing pain that pulsated through her arm and shoulder as they moved to the stairs and away from the holding cells.
Instead of up, Neoma took her downwards, into the darker depths. Arrowcat was in too much pain to protest. Every step downwards that they took sent another wave of heated agony pulsing through her flesh. They encountered no other watchmen as Neoma kicked down a dusty and neglected backdoor. The cold night swept her by surprise as she saw illuminated fields and countryside on the horizon. Neoma helped to lift Amaya onto the back of her white and black mare. As the sisterhood assassin kicked her stirrups and they hurtled away, Amaya turned back to see the looming and towering border walls from behind. She was free of this city. Free of the Inferno Clan, and free of Hideo and his irksome morals.
They set up camp at the outer edges of a nearby forest, not many miles from the city. New Jade City’s towering lights could still be seen under the night sky. Neoma laid her against the thick stump of a fallen oak tree. “Bite into this,” the sister assassin said curtly as she shoved a square piece of leather into her mouth. Without warning, Neoma grasped the steel shaft of the bolt and yanked it upward from her flesh. Arrowcat sunk her teeth into the leather and muffled a scream. Blood spurted in front of her eyes, and they grew wide at the sight of it. She was not used to seeing her own blood. Neoma pressed a bandage against the leaking wound.
As the pain slightly subsided, Arrowcat spat out the leather and turned to look at the bloody bolt that landed in a small thorn bush. If that watchman had even been just a moderately good crossbowman, then that bolt might have ended up in her heart. “I thought you left the city days ago?” Arrowcat asked her saviour, still hissing the words through her clenched jaw.
Neoma scoffed as she focused on applying more bandaging. “Like I’m going to take orders from a Night Fang.” She spat into the thorn bush and cut away at the wrapped bandage as it was fastened to Arrowcat’s arm. Neoma discreetly lacked the painted red arrows around her eyes, yet she still wore her red headband under her straw hair. “How could you do this to me, Amaya? How could you trade your red for blue?” She lifted one of Amaya’s scarred hands and shook it. “So that you could disfigure your hands as they did to your face?”
“It’s complicated.”
Neoma slapped her hard around the cheek. “I didn’t travel back to New Jade for your aloofness.”
“Then why did you come back?” Arrowcat asked. “You said that you didn’t want to see my scarred mug ever again.”
“The fire was on me at the time.” Neoma sighed in frustration as she offered her a wineskin. Amaya popped it open and started to glug. The pain became numbed, and her head felt light. The wine’s waters were warm and soothing. Neoma tilted her head. She feels sorry for me, Amaya thought in anger. The nerve of her. She drank deeper to numb her rage until Neoma snatched the skin straight out of her mouth. “Will you be returning to the Fraternity?” she then asked.
Amaya laughed, almost to the brink of hysterically. “The Empress will have me executed for deserting Darkfall without her consent. It was very much the final straw.” She felt the scars on her face crunch up as she scowled at Neoma. “I did that for you. I abandoned another clan and another home for you, and in return, you spat at my cut-up face.”
Neoma slapped her hard around the cheek again. “I did not ask you to rescue me!” She leaned back and sat on a nearby log, scratching her arm. She brushed her hand through her straw-lake hair, appearing uncomfortable. “I came back to make an offer. If you can’t return to the Night Fangs, then you could come back with me instead. You could perhaps join the sisterhood again.”
Arrowcat laughed incredulously. “Would Queen Quiver’s means of execution be less excruciatingly painful than what the Empress will have done to me? Is that what you’re implying?”
“I’ve written to her. I told her that you rescued me from Haytham Cutter.” She frowned. “I also mentioned that your Night Fang friend refused me his death and that it was stolen by the Inferno. Regardless, I think I can convince her to accept you back in without torture or death.”
A chance to re-join the Sisterhood of Bows. Arrowcat thought her chances of growing wings were higher than ever being made that offer. She wasn’t frightened of many people, but Queen Quiver was one of the few. At least the Empress executed marks and turncoat fangs quickly. She always taught every fang in Darkfall to show respect and make a death swift, not to make it more painful than it had to be. Queen Quiver, on the other hand…
“You could have a new start,” Neoma said, cutting Arrowcat away from her musings and back to reality. Thanks to the wine, the throbbing in her arm was now mild and meek. “You could regain your honour.”
Honour. The word had a spiteful taste in Arrowcat’s mouth as she tried to say it. “I have a habit of running away from commitments. I have a blood debt with the other Night Fang that rescued you back at Haytham’s castle. I ran away from that too.”
“Am I the reason for you being in that debt?”
When Arrowcat did not answer, Neoma scoffed and began to load her mare with saddlebags and camping equipment. She brushed the side of the beast’s mane with her nimble fingers. “Pay off your debts, Amaya. I have no love for the Night Fangs, but if you can’t commit to even helping your friend, why am I trusting you to prove yourself to the sisterhood again?” She mounted her horse and kicked at the stirrups. “Then come home.” She rode off into the night.
Arrowcat remained rested against the large oak stump. She watched the moon glow over the city in the distance. It looked pretty from afar. She knew of the darkness within. She was free from it. She could leave. Damn the Night Fangs, damn the Sisterhood, and damn New Jade City. She could be rid of them all. Travel to Dunia or Crimsonaria to start anew. She decided to rest a little longer and admire the towering lights. So many people struggling to live their lives amongst the architecture. It would be a shame for their home to fall into ruin. At least with my involvement, the fruitless attempt to stop the destruction would be more fun.