The reception hall of the main building was filled to capacity and very, very bright. Every window was open to the early evening sunlight, and the staff had placed torches where they felt the windows weren't quite doing the job, systematically eliminating any shadows. Another harsh lesson learned early on by the Universities was that when you get the entire school's worth of students together in one place, many of whom don't particularly care for one another after years of spirited academic competition with very sharp objects, the last thing you want to do is give someone a place to hide.

Billicks and Elwhite stood on the stage in front of the throng of students, watching them mill about, trying not to accidentally murder anyone. As deans, their job was to oversee students' arrival and prevent full-scale riots until the orientation could begin, a duty for which they both received substantial bonuses at the end of the week. While neither of them was particularly new to these duties, both were quite a bit more nervous about them this year than ever before.

For one thing, Albanos, the principal and man in charge of the whole event, had not arrived yet. They knew he had gone off in search of Lillith, who was now seated in the back corner of the hall with a ring of empty seats around her, but she had been questioned already and insisted she had not killed him. Yet, at least.

For another, there was a good chance that Albanos would eventually arrive, which presented a whole new set of problems, like how they would keep the entire student body from rising in unison to attack him, and how would they have a school year afterward, with no students left to teach. The madding crowd seemed clueless about their new principal's identity for now. Elwhite considered this a minor miracle since teenagers generally seemed able to absorb rumors right out of the air, making the effort of keeping anything secret generally pointless. Billicks contested that the students' natural state was clueless, and they were loathe to change that.

"He's probably buggered off, you know," Billicks muttered, beginning to move his hands closer to his weapon belt as the students grew more and more restless, the minutes rolling by with no sign of Albanos. "Can't say as I blame him, really."

"Hush, he'll show up," chided Elwhite, silently resisting the urge to arm herself as well, just in case. “I think he's been genuinely enjoying himself these past few days. Besides, if he doesn't, he's back out into the wilds with every overly ambitious assassin in the world tracking him down again. I don't think he's fond of that prospect."

The dean of assassins said nothing, but Elwhite could tell by the look on his face that he was putting a lot of thought into something.

"You know, all Lillith said was that she didn't kill him, she didn't say anything about just seriously wounding--"

"He's here!" a junior faculty member stage whispered from the wing to their left. Elwhite turned to Billicks, patted him on the back, wished him luck, and scampered off stage before he had time to object.

The students, impatient to advance the proceedings to the Staggering Shadow before the evening got too far along, quieted down now that events were in motion on stage. They turned their attention as one to the stranded dean, who quietly made a note to ask for part of Elwhite's share of the bonus for abandoning him so quickly, even though, as senior dean, it was his job to bring out the principal. A little moral support would have been nice. After thirty seconds of polite coughing and throat clearing, and having to duck as a "helpful" student threw their water skin at him, he began.

"First off, I would like to welcome you all to what will hopefully be another fun and...exciting year of education at the Kelsai Academy. Most of you know the routine by now, but we ask that you be patient as we brief the first-year students on how things work here. Also, there has been one...minor change that will probably not affect your day-to-day lives very much at all, I’m certain, but we'd like to draw your attention to it anyway. Portnoy Hagglit is no longer with us, having left to pursue other ventures..."

He had to pause here to let the students finish cheering. Just off stage, Ms. Elwhite was reveling in the irony of it all, considering what was about to happen. When the cheering subsided, Billicks began again.

"His replacement is a graduate of this very academy, and is...in his own way...a very well-respected and prestigious addition to our faculty. Many of you may actually be familiar with his work...some of you moreso than others...and we are certain that together, we can...we should be able to...well...anyway, here he is. I present to you...Mr. Albanos K'hras."

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Many students began laughing, happy that the staff had decided to liven up the traditionally droll orientation with some humor, maybe even a comedy sketch about Albanos from what passed as the school's theater department. When the slim figure in the principal’s robes strode out on stage, a few more students joined in the laughter, sure that the object of so much legend and dread couldn’t be the nearly elderly gentleman wandering towards center stage. When he pulled the repeater crossbow out from under his robes and rapidly fired four bolts straight into the ceiling above him, the laughter abruptly ended.

"Good evening. I apologize for being late, but I had some business I had to take care of, and no, that did not involve killing any of you. I'm saving that until after mid-terms." The laughter did not return, but some muffled whimpers and one familiar yelp let Albanos know where Willam was sitting in the audience.

"I am indeed Albanos. Many of you have indeed been trained to kill me. And I have indeed made quite the hobby out of teaching the alumni of the Academies a thing or two about respecting their elders. This may have included some of your brothers, sisters, or friends, although, to my knowledge, I have never actually killed anyone connected to the people in this room. Some may walk funny now, but such is the price of mercy. The point is, by the very nature of this arrangement, we are already off on the wrong foot."

He paused a bit longer, then began to scowl. He'd worked hard on this speech, and he'd expected the students to demand, in a very physical and immediate way, to know why they shouldn't kill him where he stood. All he was getting from the audience were cold, glassy-eyed stares. They didn't make indignant teenagers like they used to. He started to think that back in his day, he'd have already been halfway to the stage with a knife, before stopping that train of thought and scolding himself. Those were old people’s thoughts, and he wasn't allowed to get old. Not yet. In hindsight, he decided, the crossbow may have just been a bit much.

Albanos put the weapon down and gingerly slid it away with his foot, then turned and came back to the front of the stage, sitting down so that his legs were dangling over the edge. The students in the front row watched his every move, at least when their eyes weren't darting from side to side, assessing possible escape routes. He pointed to the girl directly before him, who tried as hard as she could to push herself through the back of her chair.

"You...what's your name?"

"Em…Emily sir..."

"Very nice to meet you, Emily. What village are you from?"

The girl's eyes became wide as saucers.

"Please don't kill my family, sir! They haven't done anything!"

Albanos blinked, momentarily startled by the outburst, then pinched the bridge of his nose.

"No one's family is going to be killed. No one is getting killed. I just want to get to know you all better. Gods, this is getting us nowhere. Look, I've already been honest with a few people here, and I don't see any reason I shouldn't continue that trend with the rest of you.

“Portnoy Hagglit left because he smelled trouble from the capitol’s direction. There's a new king, and he's got ‘Big Plans,’ and we aren't sure what those plans are yet. I've got a sense that they are not in our best interests. I'm here, I'm your principal, I'm back on the registers, which puts me off limits, even to stray daggers or happy accidents, and I've got news for you.

"If the king wants to bring trouble, there will be trouble, and you all will be right in the middle. Now, the way I see it, if this school has spent the past fifteen years training everyone who comes through these doors to kill me, yet here I stand, then who better to train you against the coming storm? I am your best chance if this thing with the king goes south. You're going to need every trick in the book to survive. And I wrote the fucking book.”

Albanos leaped back up onto the stage and moved to retrieve his crossbow before turning to the audience again.

"If you've still got a problem with this, the door is behind you, but I don't need to remind you how strongly the Academies and their truancy officers frown on people who break their commitments after the school year starts.

"I'm going backstage to get some water and to give you all time to think. Five minutes, to be precise. When I return, anyone still in their seat is in this for the long haul. Anyone who is not, I bear you no ill will or hard feelings. Don't let the highly trained Academy truancy squads find you on the way home."

With that, he was gone, pushing past two stunned junior faculty members on his way to where the rest of the senior staff was waiting.