Lillith brought sword and dagger around in a pincer motion set to converge on Albanos right around the neck region, looking like a sinister set of hedge clippers. Albanos parried with his two daggers and went to bring a knee up hard into her stomach when she spun out of the way and swept his other leg out from under him, sending him to the ground. He instinctively rolled out of the way just as her sword was shoved several inches into the earth, precisely where his shoulder had been a second before. His boot lashed out at the flat of the blade to break it, but the topsoil was nothing but dust here, the ground incapable of holding onto the weapon's point firmly enough for the kick to do any damage. The blow at least jarred it loose from Lillith's hand, sending it sailing a few feet away. This was a short-lived victory. She had another sword out before Albanos had finished scrambling to his feet.

As he came up, Albanos slipped two throwing daggers from his belt, letting one fly in the same motion as he stood, hoping to catch Lillith off guard. The new sword in her right hand became a blur as she slapped the projectile away, but in that instant, she left the other half of her body open, and the second dagger flew. Lillith barely saw it coming in time and was forced to take an off-balance leap out of the way. Albanos moved to press the attack while she was poorly positioned. He didn't get the chance.

The second both her feet were on the ground again, off balance or not, she dropped both weapons and began blindly pulling and flinging a volley of her own throwing knives to keep him at bay while she recovered. The throws weren't accurate, but they were enough of a suppressing barrage to force Albanos behind a pillar until she could get settled into a fighting stance again.

He momentarily paused to catch his breath, listening to the sounds of metal on stone as knives bounced off his cover. It was relaxing, in a particularly vicious brand of rain kind of way. He seemed to remember these fights not taking so much out of him in the past, but in all fairness, it had been several months since he'd fought anything more vicious than a well-done steak. At least he knew she wasn't having an easy go of it either.

"You've been opening your eyes from time to time, dear," he called out from the safety of his pillar. "Not quite so confident in your abilities this time out? Perhaps you find me more difficult a foe than a bunch of D students in the academy courtyard?"

"I just enjoy the expressions you make every time I damn near kill you," came her reply. He smiled and rolled to his left before springing up in the opposite direction and charging headlong at her, throwing a couple more knives ahead for good measure.

Lillith defended as best she could, but the sudden onslaught came with far greater speed than she figured the old man could produce any longer. While she avoided letting the projectiles cut her, they kept her busy until he arrived. He hit her with a vicious shoulder block and let his momentum carry them both to the ground, where he pinned her shoulders down.

Once he had her prone, Albanos had planned on giving her the tiniest of cuts on her face, just enough to draw a trickle of blood and satisfy the terms of their duel in the most insulting way possible. He felt her arm twitch in an unusual way beneath his shoulder, saw her fingers curl around something, and one of the tiny voices in his head that had helped keep him alive screamed, "rip cord!" Albanos was already rolling off when her arm straightened suddenly, yanking a thin wire wrapped around one finger. Two metal spikes shot straight out from her body, emerging from hidden slits on her belt located at both hips. He tried very hard not to think about what they would have pierced had he been there a second longer.

It was now Lillith's turn to try and pin Albanos to the ground before he could come out of his roll, but again, she underestimated the agility he had left in him and mistimed her pounce. His foot came up and flipped her straight over him. She twisted in mid-air with feline grace and landed in a three-point stance a few feet from Albanos, who was now up in a half-crouch of his own. They sat there staring at each other for several moments.

"Have you figured out whatever it was you needed to know?" Albanos asked, hoping to stall long enough for the cramp forming in his left leg to go away.

"Are either of us bleeding?" Lillith replied, trying to resist the urge to rub her left shoulder, which would have some beautiful bruises on it tomorrow from all the times she'd landed on it.

Albanos feigned checking his arms and legs. "Not that I’m aware of."

"Then no, not yet." She charged at him with everything she had left, drawing two more daggers and swinging them both at slightly different speeds to make him react to each one separately. Albanos parried them both again, though he quickly discovered that he'd overcompensated on the slower-moving weapon. As it came zipping past his face and his arm flailed to try and deflect it, he reflexively flicked his wrist, sending one of the crossbow bolts he kept stored in the one-shot tubes flying out as he spun away from Lillith's attack.

And then they were past each other, looking back at their opponent.

They both simultaneously let out triumphant shouts and sheathed their weapons with a flourish.

Then they both looked at each other in confusion, wondering what the other was so happy about.

Willam let out an inordinately high-pitched squeal. Lodged in Lillith's left shoulder was a crossbow bolt, the ensuing wound from which was, indeed, bleeding. As Albanos raised his right hand to point this out, he couldn't help but notice that it was covered in blood, oozing out of a sizable gash on his forearm and dripping into the dust below.

"Ok..." he managed after a few moments. "Now we're both bleeding. What does this do for you?"

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"I would say it frustrates the shit out of me if I didn't think it would give you too much satisfaction," she said, her voice strained and muffled through clenched teeth as she yanked the bolt out with an audible, sickening pop. Lillith wrapped a makeshift bandage fashioned from cloth she pulled from her cloak around the wound, fished something else out of her pocket, and began walking towards Albanos, who was tending to his own cut while warily eyeballing her and the tube she proffered.

"The fight's over. You can put whatever that is away. Knowing you, I'm certain it’s either going to stab me, explode in my hand, or both for good measure."

"It's the answer to your question about what my 'problem' is, but if you don't want it, I can just put it back in my–"

"No, no, that's alright,” he amended hurriedly, tying off his dressing and snatching the object from her outstretched hand before she could change her mind. “Curiosity's always done a better job of killing me than anyone else I've run into, and you've got me curious now. I’ve already paid a blood price for it. I’m damn sure going to find out what it is."

It turned out to be nothing more than a parchment case. Carefully opening one end, ensuring it remained pointed away from himself and all innocent bystanders, he pulled out and unrolled a heavily creased sheet of paper. The wear and tear around the edges suggested it had been read and re-read several times. He immediately recognized the seal at the top—he'd seen it many times in his life. It was a boilerplate contract of the special assassin variety bearing the emblem of the academy council.

It is hereby declared and documented within the records and histories of the assassin archives that the bearer of this contract, Lillith, has been charged with the elimination of a disgraced member of the guilds, Albanos K'hras, for which they will suffer no penalty under the laws of any kingdom in which said assassination may happen to take place, as recognized by the applicable treaties and proclamations. This job is to be completed at the assassin's own pace with all due caution. Upon proof of success, the aforementioned bearer of this contract will return to the guild hall of their choice, where they will receive compensation for their services in the amount of 500,000 gold pieces, to be paid immediately.

He read over it a few more times to be certain he registered all of the zeroes correctly, then looked back up into Lillith's still emotionless face. “When did you…?”

She leaned in close enough to speak without being heard by the rest of the class, who were wholly unsure of what they were witnessing.

“They gave it to me two weeks before you arrived. I spent the time between then and that day in the Shadowgroves preparing and using my sources to try and track you down, with absolutely no luck because it never even occurred to me that you would be heading back here. I would have been the next person in the endless parade of young assassins trying to take you down, but I would have been the last.

"You still have sympathizers in the shadows of high places, Mr. K'hras, but even they felt that your time had come. Instead of seeing you bleed out like a stray dog from some disrespectful, cocky young gun’s lucky shot, only in it for the money and glory, they wanted to make sure you were retired respectfully. My past is irrelevant; all you need to know is that I've always found what you've done fascinating. I've already been a student of yours for a long time if you will, which made me exceptionally qualified to be the one to end you.

“So they came to me, told me the truth about a good many things, and set me loose. But then Portnoy had his brilliant idea, and your pals saw a way out that didn't end up with you in a shallow grave somewhere. Which I would have dug tastefully, might I add. Now, here you are, and you're back on the registries, and I've lost my chance to fulfill my life’s singular purpose to give you a good, honorable death, and go down in the books as the one who'd done it. Who needs your records when I've got your head? And I won't lie, the money would have been nice, too."

She pulled away and began collecting her knives from the places they'd landed around the clearing, limping as her muscles stiffened. Albanos could only stand and stare, processing everything he'd just heard and trying to fill in the gaps.

"That is my problem with you, sir," she resumed, fitting the last of her knives back into its sheath and fastening her cloak’s clasp. "And that is what tonight was all about. To see if I'd have even stood a chance.

"And you know something?" she added as she walked past him, headed for the hills between them and the school.

"I think I might have. I'll see you in class. Sir."

Then she was gone, her clothing comprised of night’s true colors lost in the shadows the moment she left the firelight.

Albanos turned to the others, who were intently inspecting their shoes, the rocks, the stars, the moon, their notes (in the case of Michael at least), or anything else that was not, at that moment, Albanos.

"I think we've had enough excitement for one night,” he mused to no one in particular. “Come along, I'll take you all back now. Tomorrow night, we meet in the courtyard."

He began gathering his belongings and strewn weapons, finally coming to the dagger he'd placed in front of the pillar he'd carved his and Meliana's initials into a lifetime ago. He brushed the stone with his fingers, looked down once more at the contract still clutched in his hand, and at the bandage already bleeding through in places. Without another word, he turned and set off for home, elite class silently in tow.