《The Lost One》


 Prologue

    In Truald, a village just outside of the kingdom of Trace, there was a lone Inn that served as a tavern during the night. Mercenaries served as the guard in the town, but at night they all came to the tavern to drink enough ale to get the entire town drunk. The innkeeper shook his head at the drunkards, wondering who was standing guard at the gate. He turned his focus to a customer that was sitting at the bar and asked the man if he needed another round. Suddenly there was a loud crash, making the innkeeper jump, and the man at the bar turned toward the sound. Three tall, but slim, men stood in the door. The gear they wore shone, and looked like it cost more than the tavern in which they stood.


    The men made their way to an empty table in the corner, where no one else was seated nearby. The man in the lead wore black leather armor that glowed brightly. His helmet had a mask which covered most of his face, except for a few breathing holes and the some for his eyes. The other two walked shoulder to shoulder behind him. They wore gleaming full plated armor that shimmered silver. All three had long white hair that fell outside of their helmets onto their shoulders. The entire tavern was completely silent as the group sat, and everyone¡¯s eyes were upon them. Finally, after what felt like a half a mark had passed, the room went back to its normal setting.


    The three sat in silence like statues as if waiting for something. The only time one of them spoke was in a low whisper to each other, or to their waitress who had gotten them drinks and food. The innkeeper had begun to get nervous, thinking they were Kingsman, here to enact some form of punishment upon him. His worry was short lived though, as he heard the door creak open again. This time, standing in the archway, was a man in a black cloak that covered his being. You could see nothing of the person, whether it was a male or female, or even any of the features of its face. It appeared to be a wraith as it was, and as it walked the innkeeper heard no sound of boots hitting the floor. The new stranger made his way back to the group that had walked in earlier, and took a seat across from the apparent leader in black armor.


    With a flick of the strangers wrist a dome was placed around the table, keeping anyone other than the four present to hear them. The waitress attempted to walk over to the man, but the moment she was but a few feet away from the table she appeared to hit a wall. The innkeeper began to sweat, becoming more and more worried that he was going to have some sort of trouble from the group. He informed the waitress not to worry about approaching that table anymore, and sent her elsewhere, in hopes to avoid conflict.


    The stranger said, ¡°Have you taken care of the preparations? I would hate to have gone to all this effort and have your group not be ready for him.¡±


    The two in silver armor looked towards the man in the middle, the one in black leather, and the man said in kind, ¡°We have it covered. Just as intended we purchased land and built a fortress to keep him in. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡±


    The cloaked figure snorted at the man and said, ¡°Last time I heard you tell me not to worry we ended up surrounded by Orc in the mountains.¡±


    The men at the table smirked at that, and the man in the black armor then responded, ¡°Give me a break! It¡¯s been two decades since that mission, and you still haven¡¯t let it go! The damn things came out of nowhere.¡±


    The cloaked figure became serious once again, sitting up straighter, and handed the men across the table a bundle. The package moved slightly as it crossed the chasm of space between the men. Tiny arms could briefly be spotted coming out of the top of the cloth, before the other men reached across and hid the small child once again in their cloaks. The group nodded to each other, and separated immediately after, never to be seen in the village of Truald again.


    ************************************************************


    One day earlier:


    A small boy with white hair that fell to his shoulders sat at the foot of his bed in the early morning. As he was playing there was a light knocking upon his door, and he waved his hand toward it. The wind flowed in the direction of the door after he did so, and opened it for the visitor. His sister stood in the doorway with a bewildered face.


    ¡°Wyrran! You could have just said enter or come in! You know that you aren¡¯t supposed to use magic for every little thing!¡± She smiled mischievously and shouted, ¡°Mom! Wyrran is using magic to be lazy!¡±


    Wyrran¡¯s face immediately paled, and he sat up straighter on his bed the second he heard the next shout, ¡°Wyrran Liacyne! What have I been teaching you?¡±


    Wyrran¡¯s face turned red from embarrassment as his mother came into view in the doorway, and he looked down toward the floor when he mumbled, ¡°¡®Magic is a luxury. It should not be used for menial tasks such as chores or opening doors¡­¡¯¡±This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Wyrran¡¯s mother looked at him sternly, before smirking at Wynter and heading back to what she was doing before. After she left, Wyrran immediately reached back and grabbed a pillow, and once she turned around she was immediately assaulted by a pillow to the face. She immediately gasped, and threw the pillow right back at her little brother. Wyrran turned 82 within the last few months, while Wynnter turned 165. In terms of human age they appeared to be 8 and 16 respectively.


    After she threw the pillow back at Wyrran she jumped onto the bed and landed on top of him. He squirmed fiercely in an attempt to escape from underneath his heavy sister.


    ¡°Ger¡¯ ¡®ff me!¡± She heard from below her.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, what was that?¡± She shouted louder than necessary, ¡°I am afraid I couldn¡¯t understand that!¡±


    ¡°I said get off me you fatty!¡±, Wyrran yelled from below her, his smile apparent in his tone.


    After another exaggerated gasp Wynter began tickling Wyrran¡¯s sides, until he finally conceded in an attempt to get her to allow him to breath again. She released him, and Wyrran took advantage of the escape. The second she let go he was at the other end of the bed, and sprawled out to steady his breathing.


    Wynter giggled as she looked at her little brother and said, ¡°You really need to start taking your training seriously. If you are out of breath from just that you¡¯ll never be strong enough to protect your future wife!¡±


    ¡°But why do I even need it? Mom and Dad both said I have exceptional magical talent. What is even the point in learning to use the sword?¡± He retorted sourly.


    Wynter smiled kindly at her petulant little brother and said, ¡°Oh Wyn. I know that you¡¯re aware having better control over your breathing, and having a stronger body, will make longer stints of magic use possible. If you get breathless when you are casting a spell what are you going to do then? You¡¯re just being the lazy little brat you always are.¡±


    ¡°But-¡±, Wyrran started and was interrupted.


    ¡°Wynter, can you come out here please? I need some help.¡±, their mother called from inside of what they presumed would be the kitchen.


    Wynter rolled her eyes, knowing that her mother was once again going to force her to learn something that pertains to cooking.


    ¡°If I have to learn how to cook in order to be the perfect wife, I think you can suffer through sword practice.¡± , Wynter teased some more before she left the room.


    Wyrran sat in his room silently for a bit after his sister left. He knew that his sister actually enjoyed cooking. She just didn¡¯t like the fact that their mother only wants her to learn for her future husband, rather than how it relaxed her. Wyrran however never had any kind of delusion to make him enjoy swordplay. He didn¡¯t enjoy the sport, nor the idea of cutting someone apart.


    He turned around to go back to playing with his little figurines, but instead what faced him was a tall man covered in a black cloak with a mask over his face.


    Wyrran opened his mouth to shout out, but the man was upon him quickly and hissed, ¡°Keep your mouth shut, or this will get a lot more painful.¡±


    The voice seemed vaguely familiar to Wyrran, and he was going to shout out to his parents anyway, but before he could do so he felt something hit the back of his head hard. The next thing he knew, all he could see was black.


    ************************************************************


    Twenty minutes later¡­


    ¡°Go let your brother know that breakfast is ready.¡±, Aravae, Wynter and Wyrran¡¯s mother, said with a smile to her daughter.


    Wynter, after being dismissed, left and went back to Wyrran¡¯s room to collect him. His room was only a minute walk away from the kitchen, and she made it there quickly. As she entered, she knew that something was wrong. First, the window was opened and Wyrran generally liked to remain inside and read without any hindrance. Wind constantly blew his pages around, and he complained about it incessantly.


    Wynter looked everywhere in the room, but her brother was nowhere to be found. She went into the bathroom that was attached, and tore everything out of his closet. After finally confirming he wasn¡¯t in the here, Wynter left to talk to the guard posted down the hall.


    Wynter stopped in front of him and asked, ¡°Did you see Wyrran come this way any time recently guardsman?¡±


    The guard straightened after being addressed by who the guards referenced as the ¡°Ice Queen¡± to anyone except for Wyrran said, ¡°No Ma¡¯am. I¡¯ve been here all morning and I have not seen him step outside of his room. Is something wrong?¡±


    Wynter¡¯s frown worsened, and her brow furrowed when she said, ¡°Get a group of six of you and search the grounds for him immediately. I already searched his room, but did not find him in there.¡±


    The guard did not waste any time arguing with her and set out to gather more guards. They scoured the entire grounds for two hours before the guards finally returned to Wynter and informed her that they could not find him. By then, she had already went into the dining room and let her parents both know that she had sent a few guards to look for Wyrran. He had done this before, disappearing and hiding on the grounds some where, so they anticipated the guards returning with Wyrran struggling in their grasp. However, when they noticed the guards came back with nothing in hand the families expressions turned grim. Wyrran was gone, and even after using various different spells in an attempt to find him they returned with nothing.


    Wynter turned to her father, ¡°Let me go look for him! I¡¯ll take a few guards and I am sure I¡¯ll be able to find him in a couple hours at the most.¡±


    After her father nodded Wynter left immediately. They searched the grounds for hours, but still they couldn¡¯t find anything. Her little brother was gone.

 Chapter One *UPDATED*

    William felt the wind from a sword that was swung just over his head move his hair as it missed its target. He rolled his body backward immediately after, narrowly dodging the dagger that followed in a downward slash flowing with the momentum of the sword. He casually flicked his left wrist towards his adversary, which held a short sword, but the slash was blocked.


    Following his return attack William jumped backward to put some space between himself and his enemy. As he was falling back he deftly caught two throwing knives that flew at him from another person standing behind his original attacker. He threw the two blades at his pursuers, and both were blocked. However, while they did that William moved forward with incredible speed. While the man had his sword up to block the dagger he swung the man¡¯s legs out from under him.


    ¡°Dead!¡± a voice resounding from the small room shouted.


    Following this William flashed forward to confront his final adversary. The fight only took a few more moments before he was able to dispatch this one. He caught his enemy¡¯s dagger between two of his own, twisted his wrist hard and fast, and forced the dagger out of the hands of the armored man.


    ¡°Dead! Good work William. That¡¯s the fastest time yet.¡± the same voice said from the darkness in the room.


    After speaking out again the new man stepped into the light. He was tall, but not as tall as William. Black leather armor of exquisite quality was covering the man, and a mask hid his face. This was William¡¯s trainer and had been for as long as he could remember. He had been locked in the same fortress in training every day for the last hundred years. This was just yet another test that he had to face through his daily training, fighting multiple adversaries without suffering injury or leaving any sort of trace evidence behind.


    ¡°Yes, Master.¡± William said in his baritone voice with an expressionless face.


    He had learned over the years that showing any hint of pride or excitement over accomplishments only led to either more difficult tasks, or painful punishments. That was not something William wanted to encounter here though.


    ¡°It is time William. We have your first mission, from one of our contacts in the Kingdom of Trace, and you will be leaving the fortress. We have trained you for this, and you had better be ready.¡± The masked man said, ¡°Go back to your room and get a pack set for two days work. Then find me in the armory and we will brief you on the mission further while we outfit you with the proper weaponry.¡±


    William felt excitement bubble inside of his chest, but he killed it immediately and responded in an even tone, ¡°Yes Master.¡±


    William then left the room and headed down the narrow corridor in the direction he knew his room to be in. After spending such a long amount of time in the same place he knew all of the ins and outs of the fortress. Escape patterns, hidden entrances, and various weak points in the stronghold were all running through William¡¯s head as he traveled the long walk to his room.


    The fort was massive, but generally the lighting was kept fairly dim. This did not hinder William in the least, as he reached his destination without tripping over the various steps inside of the castle. He entered the room, and closed the door behind him. After that William walked to his bed and reached underneath it. He grabbed the bag that was there, and pulled it out to begin rifling through it.


    Inside was his own set of leather armor designed specifically for him, and an assortment of gleaming silver daggers which were perfectly weighted. He threw some extra clothes that he got out of a drawer inside of the pack, enough to last the specified amount of time by his trainer, and then quickly left the room. Leaving his Master waiting was never pleasant.


    William arrived at the armory shortly after leaving his room. This room was well lit, one of the only rooms in the entire fort that was. A silver glow flowed out of the room from the massive amount of swords, axes, great swords, and various other weapons that hung on racks in the middle of the space and covered the walls. All the weapons were made by master blacksmiths, and William had been trained with each and every one. He had even been taught to use some of the stranger weapons, such as the flail and another weapon called a Kusarigama. The Kusarigama was a small one handed scythe attached to a chain, which could be used in both medium and short range attacks. The masked man stood inside of the room facing one of the walls covered in weapons. After he heard William enter the room he turned around and faced his protege.


    ¡°The mission is in Stanford, which is only half a days ride from here. You have one day to complete it, and then return the next day. Take him alive, the pay is better.¡± the man said, handing William a slip of paper.


    Harold Anderson


    Age: 38


    5¡¯8, Shoulder length Black hair


    Green Eyes


    Always carries a massive greatsword on his back.


    Suspected leaders of a rebellion to form a coup against the King of Trace.


    Wanted dead or alive. 2000 gold dead, 5000 gold alive.


    ¡°Collect as many weapons as you deem necessary for this mission, William. I look forward to your return.¡±


    After issuing William¡¯s orders, the masked man immediately left the room. William watched as his master disappeared, and then turned his attention back to the room filled with weapons. He did not waste any time, as there was a long bit of travelling ahead. He already had a significant amount of throwing weapons that he had sheathed on his person after retrieving his pack, so now William had to grab his main hand weapons.


    He grabbed a set of dual wielding swords, one longsword and one shortsword, similar to the weapons he used earlier in the day for training. After grabbing them off the rack he reached down to a few drawers below the assortment, and pulled out the two sheaths for the blades. They were solid black, and could be secured to his back to be out of his way.


    Following which William immediately left the room and headed to the outside of the castle. He would need a horse for this kind of travel so William headed directly to the stables. He would need a quick horse for the travel that he was going to be making, so he took one of the Tracian breeds as they were bred to be fast and have significant endurance for longer lasting runs. The stable master watched as William expertly went through all the necessary tasks to tack the horse, and get the saddle set. He tied his packs to the horse as well, which had some gold he took from the armory for any sort of provisions he needed on his mission. After his pack was secure, he lifted himself onto the horse, and set out of the stable to perform his first mission.


    ************************************************************


    Half a day later...


    Harold Anderson was currently sitting inside a warehouse inside of Stanford. He stood up to look over the plans that he had placed on the table in front of him. His most trusted aids surrounded the table as well, as they talked about various plans they were working on to further their cause.


    Harold spoke to his advisor, ¡°What does our spy next to the tyrant say about the assassin they planned to hire to kill me?¡±


    His group had been planning the insurrection for the last several years, so it was no surprise they had a spy close to the King of Trace. The last report said that the King wanted to cut the head off of the snake, and that he had planned to hire an assassin to take care of the job. How the King was aware of the planned coup was another question, but for now Harold wanted to make plans to defend himself from whomever the King hires.


    The advisor responded, ¡°About that¡­¡±


    ¡°What is it?¡± Harold asked, suddenly looking up from the plans and giving his full attention to the man.


    ¡°That farce of a King has been keeping a closer eye on our spy on the inside. He feared he had been discovered, so he had begun making preparations to escape. The bastard got to him first.¡±


    Little did they know, the assassin was already near. William had been waiting outside for a few hours at this point. Though his Master had said the trip would take half a day he was able to use magic in order to enhance his horse¡¯s ability to continue running to increase his efficiency. When he reached the city of Stanford it was still dark, and his mark was inside of his home sleeping. Initially he wanted to make his move then, but found that the security there was a liability he did not want to cross. Various alarms and guards, William did not want to make it needlessly difficult.


    Instead he found himself sitting outside of what he perceived was the rebel forces headquarters in the middle of the night. Torches flickered in the wind, brushing lightly past his form where he was perched. The building that Harold was set up in was a two story warehouse. It looked similar to a barn in that the second story was displayed to the outside with a massive window. Inside appeared to be some sort of factory, where the everyday passerby would be able to see how their company created their products. None of this was important to William since his target was being hidden inside of the basement that the building contained, and that was where he needed to be.


    William muttered something under his breath, almost as if he was talking to himself, and if someone were paying close enough attention they would notice the massive man that had been standing in the shadows before disappear in the blink of an eye. He cast a spell on himself that made him completely invisible. It was one of the techniques he was required to master under his training regiment over the years, and he would put it to good use tonight. His footsteps would still be seen and heard if he wasn¡¯t careful though so William didn¡¯t rush himself. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.


    William didn¡¯t waste any more time as someone approached the front door to his target¡¯s building and prepared to enter behind them. He slipped in at the back of the apparent employee, and began to scour the first floor for some sort of secret entrance. When he entered he noticed that the first floor was nearly completely empty. The stone walls were lined with torches to light the area. The entry room was small, and there were several different hallways that he could go down.


    It took him nearly half an hour to find anything remotely suspicious, until he discovered several guards in the same hallway. Having security in this area of town wasn¡¯t exactly odd, but having seven guards within the same hallway would be considered overkill. William pressed himself tightly against the wall in the hallway, and slowly crept past them. He was nearly discovered as the guards switched posts, and one of them put themselves right against the wall to stand next to William.


    He held his breath, in order to avoid detection, and slid off the wall to pass directly in front of the man since he couldn¡¯t just phase through them.


    I wonder if there¡¯s a spell that makes you able to do that¡­ William thought off-handedly, as he finally passed all of the sentries.


    The door behind the guards opened silently, and William slipped inside stealthily. Inside of the door was a ladder, which lead down what looked like a hundred foot drop. William marveled for a moment at the amount of manpower it had to have cost in order to get this dug out. They could have had a mage do the digging, but that would have cost an exorbitant amount, as the necessary mana to clear out a hole this deep would have taken several earth mages.


    William started down the ladder, but he noticed something along the way. A few of the ladder¡¯s rungs had some form of adhesive placed on them. He could only assume this was meant to be a trap. Random intruders wouldn¡¯t know which rungs to skip, but someone who goes up and down the ladder every day would.


    After William made it all the way down he started moving through the pathway that was before him. There was only one direction to move, so he just followed the hole as deep as it went. Torches were scarcely placed along the walls, making most of the path hard to traverse since you were unable to see. Loose rocks and the uneven walk would also be something that could trip any sort of robber or assassin that hadn¡¯t been down here before. It was ineffectual in the end against William, but he had trained day in and out over the last several decades for this.


    There were several hallways that he could have taken along the way, but William continued down the main pathway toward where he knew his mark to be. He had placed a spell over the area that allowed him to see only the foot prints of his mark. Finally after what felt like hours he reached the door that Harold¡¯s footsteps led to. William stopped next to the door and listened intently. Inside of the door he could hear voices coming from inside of the room.


    ¡°I don¡¯t give a damn what it costs! Get it done, James. We have been working on this for the last five years, and I am not letting any amount of gold stand between us and our goal!¡± A voice shouted from inside the room, which William identified as Harolds.


    ¡°Harold, you¡¯re being rash. It¡¯s not just any amount of gold. It¡¯s thirty thousand gold! That¡¯s a fortune that we could use to fund something that is guaranteed instead of this ridiculous plan of yours!¡± Another voice shouted back at Harold, presumably this James character.


    William could hear Harold growl even through the door, and he roared, ¡°Just get the hell out of my office and get the damn gold!¡±


    Shortly after that last remark the door flew open, slamming into the wall on the opposite side of William. A well dressed man came out in a huff, red faced, and walked down the corridor with purpose. William used that moment to slip into the room before the door shut itself again.


    ¡°Bloody fool wouldn¡¯t know a guaranteed plan if it smashed into his huge nose.¡± Harold muttered under his breath, but William heard with his sensitive ears.


    There was another guard standing inside of the room with Harold and William who asked, ¡°Should I get anything for you sir?¡±


    Harold thought for a moment, both hands placed on the table as he stared at the plans on the desk and said, ¡°Yes. Get Dimitri for me. We need to go over this plan to make sure it works. I don¡¯t relish the idea of James having the chance to come back here and say ¡®I told you so¡¯ if it doesn¡¯t.¡±


    The guard immediately left the room, and slammed the door behind him. William listened for a few seconds, ensuring the guard wouldn¡¯t hear anything if the fight got out of hand, before he made his move. He circled around the table that was in the center of the room, the one Harold was currently eyeing like a fat man eyeing cake.


    William whispered a short spell under his breath, and felt his power resonate in the room. Just as he suspected, Harold was wearing some form of magic defensive amulet that detected negative magic being used against him. He wouldn¡¯t notice William¡¯s cursory search, as it wasn¡¯t an attack against him, but if William attempted to knock him out with a spell Harold would be informed. Soon enough he was directly behind Harold, and William grabbed him from behind in a headlock. Harold struggled of course, and William would expect no less from a former soldier, but he was not nearly strong enough to fight against William. Harold ripped and tore at his assailant¡¯s forearm that was currently choking him, and tried to stab at the man behind him with a dagger that had been sheathed at his side.


    William felt His prey grabbing around at his side before he heard the subtle sound of steel slipping from a sheath. He immediately released the man, and after Harold turned to face his attacker, William landed a solid punch square across his jaw.


    One minute. William thought, estimating the amount of time he had until the guard and this Dimitri fellow would come the room.


    Following the punch William evaded two separate swipes where Harold attempted to counter. When Harold¡¯s arm was reaching across his body, after he tried to slash at him, William grabbed the man''s arm, and after putting a significant amount of force against it he heard a snap. Harold began to scream out, and dropped the knife from his hand directly after William broke his arm. William caught the knife in the air, and muffled the man¡¯s scream by putting a hand over his mouth. Following which, William slammed the hilt of the dagger to the side of Harold¡¯s temple which knocked him out.


    All of this was done within a matter of thirty seconds, following which William quickly replaced the invisibility spell over himself and he also extended it so that it would cover Harold as well. Next William lifted his target over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and immediately left the room. The hallway was made to allow only two people to fit through the corridor at a time, so William made sure to keep his mark on the opposite side that the guard was patrolling. A few minutes later, if any of the guards looked outside of the gate to the city they would note a man riding a horse, with a large bundle tied to the back of it.


    ************************************************************


    Half a day later¡­


    The trip back to the fort took significantly longer. The horse was unable to run nearly as fast as it had before since it carried not only William, but also his target. When William tried to push it too far Harold¡¯s straps came untied and he nearly fell off the horse. That was when the mark woke, and began to attempt to get out of the bundle William had wrapped him in. This was quickly followed by a sharp yelp in pain, as William did not find it to be necessary to heal the man¡¯s broken arm. Who in their right mind would heal their captive so they have the ability to escape?


    Then came the begging. William had covered the man¡¯s eyes so that if, for whatever reason, the man was able to escape he would not be able to know his immediate location. That would keep him from running to get help, but it also made it so that if any help did come then Harold wouldn¡¯t know where the fort was.


    ¡°Please! I can give you money. Whatever that bastard paid you I can double it! Triple it!¡±


    His captor did not even respond, instead deciding to continue on at the same pace until they reached the destination. Trees passed by as they rode, and William kept a close eye on the brush. His Master had always insisted that he needed to always be on guard, and never be caught unawares. At any time it would not be unprecedented for a bandit group to attack, or even at this point for Harold¡¯s men to come and find them.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to say anything? Or are you just the King¡¯s dog, doing his bidding no matter what?¡±, Harold cried out through the pain of his broken arm, but to his dismay no response came.


    William instructed the horse to pull off to the side once they reached an area with thick bush surrounding them, and plenty of overhead coverage. He had been traveling over the last several hours, and needed to get some rest. According to what he found on the way to the job, this was the best location for it. William dismounted then, and began untying some of the rope which secured his target to the horse.


    Harold, believing that he had made a dent in his assassin''s cold demeanor said, ¡°Oh thank you. I guarantee you won¡¯t regret-¡±


    He was quickly cut off by a fist making swift contact with his face. William finished untying the man after having incapacitated him, and then proceeded to carry Harold to the nearest tree to where he planned to sleep. He dumped the man against the tree unceremoniously, and then tied the rope tightly around it. Following which he gagged the man to ensure he couldn¡¯t scream out to others who may pass by.


    The man walked around the area, and found several small logs he could use to make a fire to make dinner before he rested. William split the logs to ensure they were dry, to avoid making smoke and alert any who may be near. He grabbed a small spade out of his pack, and began digging a little fire pit, ensuring no grass or dead leaves were left in the area. After that, he began building the base and set the hardwood logs down with a few small kindling sticks to get the fire started. William then left to find a small meal in the vast woodland that teemed with life.


    After making dinner, and ensuring Harold remained sleeping with a simple spell William laid down to rest. For the first time in a long time, William dreamed.


    ************************************************************


    Eyes groggily opened and closed, attempting to peer into their surroundings. Blinking furiously, William saw vague figures moving around a small room. Two he recognized as the masters, but the other two he did not recognize from his memories.


    ¡°I am familiar with the risks Mage. I asked for results, not to be lectured on the dangers of soul magic.¡±, one of the figures spat in annoyance.


    ¡°Merely informing you of the danger to the boy sir. I meant no harm by it. He won¡¯t remember a thing once we¡¯re finished. He will need periodic revisits though, as I am sure you are aware. This sort of magic isn¡¯t permanent.¡±, an older man with a raspy aged voice responded in deference.


    ¡°Set up the appointments with these men, and they will ensure that the boy doesn¡¯t miss a single one of them. Now get this done, I have other issues to deal with on this day.¡±, The angry man responded in a rush.


    William could see the older man come closer now. He was bald, and wore a long silver robe that touched the ground. He could not see the faces of the others, as they were covered with masks. The grace with which they stood became ingrained in his mind. The bald mage began muttering words of power, and with a flash everything went white.


    ************************************************************


    Harold was moving next to William, attempting to reach next to him where his swords lay unstrapped from his back. The assassin had set a ward around himself to alarm him if anything came within his sphere, and the imbecile actually thought he laid there without protection.


    Standing up William went over to Harold. He quickly struck the man in the temple, and his consciousness faded. A sleep spell would have been simple, but William felt that people learned better to cooperate when pain was involved. He untied the man once again, strapped him to the horse, and they continued on their way to the fort.

 Chapter Two *UPDATED*

    Years had passed since William completed his first mission successfully, and many more followed. Not an idle moment throughout the last fifty years, as the masters sent him on various tasks from assassination to fighting in a war between two Human countries. Humans, in their far too short existences, constantly fight amongst themselves for land and ridiculous things like women.


    William had been under the impression that, since he was an elf, he would spend most of his time in Elven countries. However, contrary to William¡¯s assumption, he had never once stepped foot into any elven lands. Instead he disguised his ears to look more rounded in order to avoid anyone noticing that he was anything but Human. He was even required to slouch more when he wasn¡¯t in the presence of Human royalty, to make himself appear inconspicuous in a crowd. There were innumerable nuances that his masters had required that he became proficient in when it came to staying inside of Human towns or cities.


    William walked into his master¡¯s office carrying another sack on his back, containing his latest bounty mission¡¯s target, and sat down in the chair in front of the desk.


    His master looked up from the stack of reports that he had been examining and said, ¡°Any complications?¡±


    William looked at his Master for a second before replying, ¡°No Master. No one saw me.¡±


    ¡°Excellent. We received an urgent message from one of our contacts in Trace.¡± The Master said, ¡°The King of Trace apparently has a mission that he would like completed with utmost haste. You¡¯ll be leaving here shortly.¡±


    While he was still looking outside he said, ¡°You have ten minutes. If you are still here by then you know what will happen.¡±


    ************************************************************


    Two days later¡­


    A figure could be seen walking outside of a large encampment. Enroute to the capital, Aston, William was encroached upon by a group of twenty men. They thought the single man riding along the main path toward Aston would be an easy mark for their group, but they were unfortunate to encounter William along the way. After slaughtering all but one of the men, William interrogated the last. The survivor informed William that they were with a bandit group named the Dragon¡¯s Tooth, and William knew the name.


    He had not been given an order to attack them, but when he was doing various jobs in Trace, the group had quite a bit of notoriety. The kingdom of Trace placed a rather large bounty on them for anyone who was able to bring the Dragon¡¯s Tooths leader¡¯s head to the closest town hall, and William deduced that the Master would be pleased if he completed a side job along the way as long as it did not hinder his progress. Therefore, an hour later William was walking in the direction he left his horse, sack a little heavier with the groups leader¡¯s head, and began his journey once again. He passed through the city of Caelfall along the way, and dropped the head off at the town hall.


    After receiving his bounty and swiftly depositing it into the bank within the same city, William left once again without leaving a trace. Aston was another five days ride to the East, and he was certain the King did not like to be left waiting. Evidently, as his Master told him just before he left, the mark was confidential so the King did not want to leave word of who it was and would tell William once he arrived at the King¡¯s secret chambers.


    After riding for a few hours, he heard an ear splitting scream in the air. He turned his head in the direction where the woman¡¯s scream was coming from, and saw a large caravan under attack a few hundred yards ahead of him. Once again, William looked at the bandits and thought for a moment.


    Robbing this large of a caravan would require a much larger group than the last that I took care of. Also, looking at the bandits themselves it looks like they had traveled several days through the woods to reach this point. Too much time. William thought swiftly as he was approaching the group.


    After he was within a few yards he left the main road and began to go around the caravan, but a woman ran out from the rows of carts and latched onto his hanging leg that was in the stirrup. William stared at the woman questioningly.


    ¡°Please¡­¡± she nearly whispered, ¡°Help us! They came out of nowhere and started slaughtering everyone!¡±


    William¡¯s face didn¡¯t move an inch from the uninterested expression that he was holding. He had no quarrel with these men. If they had a large bounty on their heads and their camp was reasonably close then he would kill them. Not to help the caravan but to please the Master, but there was no way the bandit camp was even within a day¡¯s ride of here. William said nothing, instead he responded by kicking the woman in the face, forcing her to the ground.


    Two of the bandits watched the interaction between them, and ran over to grab the woman. They looked up at the menacing looking man that was sitting upon his horse. He was incredibly large, and from what they could tell under the man¡¯s armor appeared well built. This wasn¡¯t someone they intended to face themselves.


    After they grabbed the woman they dragged her back to the encirclement with the rest of the caravan people. All the men and children were dead, and only women remained. The two that grabbed the woman that latched onto William went over to their leader and whispered into his ear. The man perked up when they mentioned a large man that kicked her in the face, and quickly ran over to where William was.


    All they found though was the horses tracks in that position, but they could clearly still see William riding a little ways in the distance. Since he was walking around the main path to avoid all of the carts that anyone could be hiding within he was unable to put his horse at a trot without worrying about stray rocks tripping his horse and breaking a leg. The leader of the bandit group, and his two lieutenants, got horses and ran after the man.


    ¡°Hey! Stop!¡± William heard from behind him.


    William had just reached the end of the caravan where he could rejoin the main path, and after doing so he turned his horse around to look towards the people calling out to him. The leader of the group was a tall man. Not as tall as William, but only an inch or two shorter. All three of the group were wearing good quality armor, which spoke to their group¡¯s success in banditry. The leader looked at William intently, attempting to see under the dark hood that he wore.


    ¡°You think that you can jus¡¯ walk away after seein¡¯ what we did ¡®ere?¡±, The man spoke in an unintelligible accent speaking to his life of crime, and lack of education.


    William smiled devilishly under his hood, but chided himself for overconfidence. In this situation the only thing that would keep them from attacking and holding him up any more would be fear.


    ¡°I think that you couldn¡¯t stop me even if you wished.¡± William responded in a confident tone, ¡°What you¡¯ve done here has nothing to do with me.¡±


    The leader smirked and chuckled, followed by a couple dry laughs from his two companions, and said, ¡°An yer thinkin¡¯ thas¡¯ good ¡®nough eh?¡±


    William observed the man from under his hood and replied, ¡°I think you are misunderstanding me. I have no reason to worry about anything you are saying. Remove yourself from my path and you will be able to leave here with your spoils.¡±


    ¡°Oh? That right? Hear that boys? Guess we should just let ye be on yer way then eh?¡±, the leader asked condescendingly while rolling his eyes, and he looked back at his men before giving his men the signal to move forward.


    After that, the three men leapt off of their horses and started towards William. Rather than waiting for their advance, William took the chance to go on the offensive. He immediately leapt off his own horse and flung two daggers at the two surrounding their leader. This slowed them down, and separated the leader from them, allowing William to fight him unhindered.


    William met a strike aimed at his throat with his long sword that he drew from his back, and immediately followed it with a strike of his own. As the leader attempted to block his strike, William changed it¡¯s direction and the leader of the group took a good slash to his calf. The man screamed out in pain, and by that time the two other enemies had made their way to William already and began their own set of attacks.


    William rolled out from between the three, as he had ended up behind the leader after he had cut his achilles tendon, in order to get position behind the three men. A flurry of strikes coming from the three adversaries that William was forced to focus upon came next, and not a single strike reached him.


    As he was focusing on the current battle, William failed to notice that small green-skinned humanoids had made their way to the brawl, and were inching closer. By the time that he did take notice, it was too late. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    William was in the middle of blocking one strike from each of the two lieutenants when he felt a small tug at his waist, and noticed a goblin had cut off the coin purse located at his right hip. He growled in frustration, and began to attack the three even faster. Lest he lose the creatures William was forced to consider a recourse that the Master had forbidden, and after whispering only a few words of power, the leader of the group immediately fell. The two Lieutenants, seeing their leader fall, became less cautious and attacked William without abandon.


    After William had nearly hacked them both to pieces, their two large bodies fell to the ground lifeless. All of this had taken place in less than five minutes, but goblins were agile little creatures when it came to making an escape, and they had to be or their entire race would have been annihilated long ago. William bent down at the monsters tracks, and cast a tracking spell that would show him the direction they had taken.


    He followed the tracks for another five minutes before he came to a point where the footprints he followed, which appeared to him as a small light flowing in the wind, was literally going through the wall of a cliff face. William reached out, and nearly fell over when his hand went straight through it as well. He blinked a few times, and immediately the illusion disappeared. Before him was a massive cave entrance, one that appeared to be nearly three or four houses wide.


    William looked around for a moment, before he started to enter into the cave cautiously. He knew that he needed to continue his journey, but the pouch that those infernal creatures had stolen contained the key he needed to give the guard at the secret tunnel to the King¡¯s chambers. If he turned up there without it he would have to kill the guard, and William doubted the masters would be pleased.


    The tunnel itself was massive. An entire army would be able to file down this cave at least a hundred wide. He had already walked for half a mark before he could make out any sort of exit or light at the end of the pathway. It appeared to be some sort of torch light, as it was flickering in the nonexistent wind. William cast a spell to merge with the shadows, and the place where he was standing appeared to be vacated immediately.


    He followed the shadows, traveling within them, wherever the torches could not reach. This was a method that his masters took an entire decade to train him in, and he understood the technique inside and out. It allowed William to become one with the shadows so long as no light shone upon him. The reason it took so long to train in was because the dark magic used was incredibly complex, and bending along with the darkness required an immense amount of focus.


    William came to a gigantic opening, where he found a peculiar sight. It appeared to be nearly two hundred goblins sitting around a massive pillar that contained a single snow white stone. The stone seemed to shine upon the pedestal, and the light it gave covered the entire room that was nearly a mile wide.


    William watched from the corner of the room while the fiend that stole his purse was walking toward an older one with a staff. William could only assume this was the goblin shaman, or chief of sorts, and that the creature was bringing William¡¯s coins to share with the group. However, the second that the thief gave the shaman the small bag William witnessed as he put William¡¯s purse up onto the pillar with the stone. It appeared to William that the monsters were using his coins as some sort of offering, but they would not find him to be willing to let go of that pouch so easily.


    He waited for hours, and the gremlins went about their day as usual. The goblin shaman seemed to be the one that enjoyed most of the females, where some of the male warriors also got that right. The weaklings of the group did menial tasks such as mining further down the room, or setting up new tents for the children who grew old enough to have their own. Goblins reproduce faster, and their young mature relatively quickly, considering their average intelligence, other than the Chief, is low.


    After six hours had passed all of them were sleeping, save a few guards that stood around the perimeter of their camp. They were William¡¯s first target. The look outs were space out in order to cover more area in groups of two, and they had eight different groups. William came upon the first one rather quickly, and easily dispatched both in a second with precise cuts to their throats. The two attempted to cry out, but William whispered under his breath, and a silencing ward appeared around him as he went about his business.


    The slaughter that followed was swift and merciless. William killed all of the guards without any trouble, and began making his way through the camp. Each of the goblin males that were too weak to impress any of the females stayed in tents of ten. This made killing them silently significantly more difficult, but not impossible. He had already killed 16 of the 200 or so that were in the cave, and they would not be the last.


    In order to be sure no sound would leak out William laid another silencing spell upon the entire area of the tent, allowing no sound to escape through the entrance. Once inside he instantly cut the head off of the creature that was sleeping right inside of the door. The monsters, since they were the weak ones of the bunch they had no beds or nice amenities. Instead they all slept upon the ground closely in order to remain warm. The sleeping form next to the one William had killed first felt a spray of blood hit his face, but before he was able to even open his eyes William had already pierced his heart with a dagger he had hidden on his person. The tent was small, so William was unable to wield the swords on his back, but he always kept various weapons hidden on his person at all times.


    After the first two monsters died the other eight awoke and realized what was happening. They all began screeching, and speaking in goblin tongue, but William could not understand any of it. The next second three of them rushed at William, while two of them attempted to rush towards the opening to the tent. The three attempting to attack William were easily dispatched, as they didn¡¯t have any weapons inside of the tent, and the two heading toward the door followed as well. William moved like lightning, zipping between each and every one of the gremlins. Each of them fell on the floor dead the second that he left them.


    After a few seconds the entire tent went eerily silent, and William made his way to the others. This process went on until William had already killed 150 of the insignificant ones, and the warriors were not much more of a challenge. Goblins¡¯ only advantage was their numbers, but William isolated each group before entering their tent. He killed goblin after goblin until he finally reached the Chief¡¯s tent.


    The Chief¡¯s tent was significantly larger than the rest. Inside a foul smell wafted out, and William nearly turned around. After a second of deliberating William opened the fold and Noticed several human females chained to the walls. A few had evident bumps forming on the bellies of a some of them. The Chieftain must have heard the tent open, for it¡¯s eyes opened immediately after William stepped inside. He stood, throwing all the females off of him in his wake, and William found the disgusting creature was completely naked. The chieftain did not appear to care, as it grabbed a war axe that was laying on a small table, and let out a battle cry.


    William unsheathed the longsword from his back, and used the hand and a half grip to block the war axe with both arms. For such a small creature, the goblin was stronger than anticipated. William pushed back with the flat of the blade, forcing the monster to leave open his left side, and easily scored a slash across the creature¡¯s hip.


    Blood oozed out of the wound as the goblin screeched, and the female ran out of the tent. William heard them scream out again as they witnessed the bloody seen outside, but the Chief could not take his focus away from William as their battle was still on going. The Chief glared at William madly and immediately tried a downward strike to William¡¯s right side, and he deftly dodged it before it even came close. He wasted no further time and slipped behind the chief and slammed his pommel against the creature¡¯s temple. He heard an audible crack as the Chief¡¯s skull split. The Chief was stunned by the strike, and this gave William all the opportunity he needed to remove his head.


    Most of the females were already so out of it they didn¡¯t make a sound, only staring forward blankly. A few had the mind to ask for help, but most only desired for their pain to end. William ended their lives swiftly and without pain, although it was less out of mercy and more out of necessity. He wasn¡¯t wearing a mask when he came in, so any of the women conscious enough to ask for help would have been able to provide a description of him. He left after finishing with his task and left the tent.


    William could feel some sort of power wading from the stone even from several yards away, and he immediately focused within himself to shield any of his thoughts from permeating. Mages who focused on the soul could sometimes read their enemy¡¯s mind, so William¡¯s Master diligently trained him in the ability to shield his mind from outside interference. After confirming that the stone could not influence his mind in any way William made his way toward it. As he got closer he felt its power grow stronger and stronger, and without William even noticing the stone was easily able to invade his mind, but nothing negative appeared to happen.


    He approached the stone slowly, and it took a few seconds to reach it. The pedestal it sat upon was about to William¡¯s chest, which made it a little taller than all the goblins other than the Chief. William reached his hand out, feeling an almost imperceptible feeling of excitement as he looked upon the glowing orb, and the second that his hand laid upon it the power filling the cavern immediately died down. It was as if the stone was attempting to protect itself from William, but clearly rocks were not able to do things so intelligent. William deduced that it was most likely that once someone held the stone, the power was no longer able to be released from it.


    He lifted it, and it felt quite heavy for a simple rock. It seemed to be nearly sixty pounds, but that was no significant amount to an elf. He brought it closer to his eyes in order to gaze upon it, and peered into the endless light that continued to shine from the stone. It appeared to be some sort of expensive gem to William¡¯s discerning eyes, but he could not make out what kind. He had never seen its equal.


    After a few more moments of peering at the crystal¡¯s surface William decided to take it with him. Perhaps someone in Aston will have some sort of idea what kind of it was. He placed it into his sack, and placed a small spell upon the bag in order to keep the glowing from the stone to be seen outside of it. After that he immediately grabbed his coin purse, which was the only other thing placed upon the pedestal, and left the cave.


    It took him only a moment to find his horse. Tracian horses were bred to do well in battle. Though they did not directly interact or fight in the battles, they would never run away from their owner if ridden into it.


    His horse was grazing only a little ways away from the bodies of the three bandits that William had ended. The horse looked up at William, and he could swear he saw the horse make a face saying ¡®what took you so long?¡¯.


    ¡°Alright alright. I¡¯m all set, let¡¯s go.¡± William muttered to the ornery beast.


    The ride the rest of the way to Aston was relatively uneventful. Banditry was not taken seriously in this kingdom, and so bandits ran amok throughout the entire country. He came across several different groups as he traveled, but as long as none disrupted his journey he let them be. He was already behind schedule, and the Master would not be pleased if he was even more late because he decided to kill a few bandits.


    Midway through the seventh day of travel, when he should have arrived that morning, William finally spotted the city¡¯s walls. He spurred his horse, and prepared himself to meet the King.

 Chapter Three *UPDATED*

    The walls of the capital city were massive. Hundreds of feet tall, and built with solid stone, one could tell that it was completely functional and not some aesthetically pleasing piece of work. William made his way into the city by entering through the front gate with falsified credentials that the Master fabricated for him. These allowed him to use different names each time he entered different cities. If he went everywhere using his own name, someone would be able to see that his name was the only one in common in each place that his assassinations occurred.


    William waited in the long line for normal commoners to enter the city, the guards at the gate verified each person matched the credentials, and asked for their place of origin. He dismounted, since most of the people around him did the same unless they were in a cart, and stood on high alert. Although he doubted any of the people surrounding him now had the necessary skills to defeat him, emulating confidence could be his downfall. The Master had trained him to always assume danger was right around the corner.


    Once William was second in line he looked at a group a little ways behind him. There were two boys and one girl with their parents. The children sat on the cart while the parents were standing on the ground waiting to reach the front of the line. As William watched them, his vision went white¡­


    William found himself standing on a wood platform. As he looked at his surroundings he noticed it was a cart, similar to the one he saw the children on earlier. There were also two other people inside of the cart with him. One was a small boy, he had white hair and near white eyes. He appeared to be somewhere around four years old in human years, but this boy was an elf looking at his ears.


    The other was a girl that appeared to be near the age of fifteen. Her hair was a platinum white, similar to William''s own, but she had brown eyes. She looked at William after staring at the floor for a while.


    ¡°Hey! What are you doing Wyrran? Are you excited to get back home?¡± the girl said as she stared into his eyes.


    William was confused who ¡®Wyrran¡¯ was, but then he heard his own voice saying, ¡°Of course! We¡¯ve been on this cart for weeks!¡±


    The small boy next to William asked, ¡°How much longer do you think it will take us sis?¡±


    After the smaller boy spoke William came back to reality. The vision ended, and a guard was standing extremely close to him, but he hadn¡¯t noticed the man approach.


    ¡°Hey, did you hear me? Name and Country of origin?¡± the guard spoke in an exasperated tone.


    William blinked in surprise and then replied, ¡°Jason Orion, Trace.¡±


    ¡°Papers?¡± the guard asked immediately after, making it clear he really wasn¡¯t interested.


    William retrieved his identification out of his sack, and handed them over to the guards. The two men gave him another cursory glance, comparing his magically compiled illustration to the one before them, and they seemed satisfied. The ID cards were made by the Mage Guild, and used magic to create a picture they can identify each person with. If the traveler was coming from another country they were required to use a temporary ID card, which would only last ten days. But, if they decided to stay then they must have a permanent card made. The cards used a very specific set of magic runes to avoid counterfeit pieces and only Mage Guild employees were able to create them. However, the Master had no issue creating his counterfeit ID in order to enter the city. He paid off one of the Mage Guild members, and had several created.


    William walked through the smaller side door, as they only really utilized the large gate for emergencies, and was finally inside of the capital. He walked mundanely for an hour or so, in case someone from the gate was told to follow him, but after that amount of time no trace of Jason Orion could be found. First thing for him to complete was to meet with the King. He was already several hours later than he should have been, and waiting at the gate did not help. The entrance to the secret tunnel that led to the palace was in a small bath house on the other side of the city. It was a bath house for commoners, and appeared to be a normal establishment from the outside.


    The bath house was located directly next to a brothel, and on the other side was a seedy looking place that the common thieves received their work. The King decided to put the tunnel here, because he doubted anyone would anticipate this being the area that he would use for a tunnel to his private chambers, and he was correct. As William entered he glanced around the room. This was not the first time that William had entered this bath house, as he had done several jobs for the king before, but he had never entered during the middle of the day.


    The entire building was full with occupants. It was a communal bath house so both men and women, in their respective rooms, were present. William walked to the third shower on the right, which was out of order, and after looking around to ensure no one was paying close attention to him he entered. Inside, the ¡®¡°shower¡± was significantly larger than it should have been. It appeared to be some sort of guard house, as there was a sentry sitting behind a desk directly in front of a solid wall.


    After William¡¯s presence was noted the guard¡¯s eyes lit up, and he spoke, ¡°The King has been waiting for you. Hold still while we do the scan.¡±


    Every guard that was placed at this location was required to be a mage, as they scanned the person entering before allowing them past. This magic scanned the subject for any sort of tracing spells, and also had the ability to identify any hidden weapons on the person of the man in question. Knowing this beforehand, William placed his own spell upon the daggers hidden on his person to withstand the scan. He refused to go anywhere completely unarmed if he could help it, and entering into this King¡¯s private chamber in a palace surrounded by guards was no different.


    The guard nodded once and stated, ¡°Leave the swords here and those two daggers at your waist. You will be leaving from the same location so you do not have to worry about losing them. They will remain here for you to retrieve. Give me the key.¡±


    William complied with his demands, as he left two of his daggers out of his masking spell to divert suspicion from his hidden ones, and removed the weapons specified. He then pulled the key out of his coin purse and handed it to the guard. The two sheathes came off his back, which was an odd feeling for William as he hardly ever removed them, even to sleep, and proceeded to put the daggers beside them. The guard pressed the key to some sort of magical construct below the desk and it activated the door behind him. The solid wall moved backward, and slid into the wall. It was an ingenious piece of magic, even William could appreciate that.


    The guard motioned for William to move around the desk once the door was finished opening. The cave was expansive, as he had to cross nearly the entire city in order to make it to the palace. It took another hour to reach the end of the tunnel, and by this point night had descended upon Aston. Once he neared the other side of the secret passageway, he noticed a door at the other side. It was a massive archway made of some sort of iron in order to keep people from entering without explicit permission from the king, just in case the pathway was found.


    When he reached the door William rapped on it in an intricate code, which was followed shortly with a loud clank, as the lock was being lifted from the other side. The door swung open for William, only to reveal another guardsman standing behind it. The man scanned William once, to ensure he wasn¡¯t carrying any visible weapons, and allowed him to enter. Once he turned into the room the first thing he noted was the older man sitting behind a massive desk adorned in a ridiculous amount of silk and frills.


    The man himself was disgustingly rotund, as he most likely spent most of his life sitting on his throne issuing orders to others. William doubted the man had ever wanted for anything. The King, Valerion Trace, looked to be in his seventies, and his life of filling himself with pleasure instead of maintaining his body showed. The way that his breathing appeared ragged, just from walking to the front of the desk.


    ¡°You are late.¡± Valerion huffed once he got to the other end of the desk, ¡°I waited here for hours this morning between meetings.¡±


    William looked down at the man, as he stood a solid six inches taller, and replied, ¡°I apologize, but I had a little complication on the trip. Who is the mark?¡±


    Valerion snorted in disdain, as he remembered he was basically talking to a wild animal rather than a human and stated, ¡°Just make sure it doesn¡¯t happen next time. I am a very busy man, Specter. This needs to be handled as soon as possible. This Elven woman came into my country and began making demands.¡±


    The King began to pace as he was monologuing, ¡°Of me! She made demands of me in my Kingdom! Can you believe that? She wants me to release all Elven slaves that we have in our kingdom, and she has been gathering support in my court in order to try to force me. I want her taken care of quickly.¡±


    Completing his rant the King snapped his finger, and one of the servants that had been hiding in the corner came up to William carrying a scroll. William took it from the man¡¯s hands, and after checking it for any sort of traps, he unrolled it. There was a description of the mark written on the scroll.


    Aella Dafiel


    Age: Unknown


    Race: Elf


    Description: Approximately 5¡¯8, Long raven black hair that falls below the middle of her back. Sharp features popular with the elves, and light blue eyes. She is an Elven diplomat, and is usually accompanied by a group of Elven guards. Numbers vary.


    Location: She has purchased a manor in the Noble¡¯s district. It is the third noble house from the trade district, and has a fair amount of land.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    William put the list down, and found a map was on the next page. It showed the many rooms that the manor consisted of, including the first and second floors. On the map of the second floor it showed descriptions of the rooms in which the target slept, and her study where he assumed she spent most of her time. After studying the map for a few more seconds William put the map down, for he had already memorized it.


    Valerion, seeing William finish looking, said, ¡°Burn the scroll. I need this done quickly and discreetly. Make it look like an accident or something, I don¡¯t care. Just get it done.¡±


    After he said this, Valerion waved his hand in a clear sign of dismissal. William took the chance and turned to leave, but whispered a few words under his breath. The scroll burst into flames, and quickly burned to ash. The King jumped back in fright, and scowled at William when the fire went out. He began yelling at his servants, venting his frustrations at the audacious assassin.


    William left the same way he came. He went out the tunnel and collected his weapons and the key from the guard at the other end. Since it was the middle of the night no one was inside of the bath house. He sauntered out of the bath house and went back to the trade district The Dragon¡¯s Head was a popular inn, not too expensive, but also not cheap. William entered the inn, and went directly to the counter at the bar.


    William placed a single silver coin onto the bar and simply said, ¡°Three nights.¡±


    The barkeep just nodded. He knew better than to ask questions. Though the Dragon¡¯s Head appeared normal on the outside it was the center of where the underworld was out of. Assassins, thieves and the like that need to lay low, and even black market vendors stayed in this hotel to handle their business. They accepted all customers, and would never even ask a customer¡¯s name. William was informed of this inn from the Master, and every city that he was sent to had one.


    After paying for his stay, William walked directly to his usual room, pulling another key from the same coin pouch. The Dragon¡¯s Head kept his room vacated in case he stayed there, but once he entered one of the rooms the other cities were contacted to inform them that room could be sold. After entering William scanned the entire room for traps and poison, but found nothing of note. He decided to put a hold on showing the stone to any of the merchants until completion of this mission, considering how urgent the King made it out to be. After confirming that he laid his sack next to the bed, and laid down to sleep.


    ************************************************************


    Aella


    Morning is the most infernal creation of the gods above. Aella rolled around in her bed, attempting to get her overactive mind to go back to sleep. Five AM certainly is not the time she wished to wake up, but when she got up in the morning she couldn¡¯t get back to sleep. Groggily, Aella sat up from her bed and rubbed her eyes.


    Meeting with Cecilia Trace, the first princess, meeting with Councilor Perisus an hour later, and then I have lunch with the Dwarven Ambassador. All this has been is meetings and more meetings since Wynter asked me to come here. Aella thought.


    She got dressed after she washed herself in the basin that was in her room, and immediately went to the study. It was still early around six in the morning at this point, but she had a few things that she needed to take care of before meeting with the Princess. Cecilia, unlike her father, detested slavery and would be among her greatest supporters if she wasn¡¯t being pressured by her father.


    Aella opened the door to her study and sat down behind the desk in the middle of the room, with an extensive library surrounding it. After she had sat down she observed all of the various notes that she had made the last few days.


    These humans are so two dimensional. They say one thing in public, but completely disregard it when they scamper off on their own. Aella thought with obvious frustration.


    The King of the Elves, Ilthuryn Liacyne, sent Aella to this human Kingdom in hopes of retrieving the Elven slaves the slavers had captured. Though the Elven Kingdom denounced slavery, that did not mean that slave traders did not make their way into their country. In fact, Elven slaves were far more popular that Humans considering all Elves are able to use magic, unlike the humans, and the fact that they are far more powerful physically as well. One elf would be worth as many as ten to twenty humans.


    ¡°Aria!¡± she called, ¡°Get in here.¡± Following which a young elf opened up the door to the study, ¡°I need you to send out this letter to Ilthuryn.¡±


    ¡°You mean His Majesty, My Lady. Your father directed me to keep you from calling the King by his name no matter what relationship you had with that boy. He is still the King.¡± Aria replied stiffly.


    Aella scowled after Aria scolded her and said, ¡°Just get it done, Aria. You don¡¯t work for my father now. You work under me.¡±


    Aria had the good sense not to reply, and she left hastily. Aella hated the fact that her father had to put that woman onto her staff, and any time she had a meeting with someone she did not want Aria to know about she sent the woman out on some other task. After Aria departed, Aella began to write the real letter for the King. The one with the information he would actually want to know. She knew that Ilthuryn would understand why he was receiving two letters.


    She finished writing, and then called, ¡°Zera! Come in here please.¡±


    Zera had been Aella¡¯s hand picked secretary, before her father had interjected. Now, Aella had to bring her as a maid to allow her to come along. Zera entered the room much the same as Aria had, but you could tell from their entire demeanor that she thought more of Aella. She stood as straight as possible in her presence, and any time she would speak it would be proper with no sense of disrespect.


    ¡°Yes Mistress?¡± Zera said softly.


    Aella smiled at the girl, who was only a few decades younger than herself, and said, ¡°I told you Zera. Just call me Aella when it is just us. I need you to take this letter and have it delivered to Wynter. She¡¯ll know who to get it to.¡±


    Zera bowed slightly, before she left just as swiftly as Aria had. Aella sat back in her chair, and released a deep breath. These last few months were not pleasant, as she was forced to meet with various different leaders of different races. Why Wynter had insisted that she take this job she had no idea. Well, in all reality, she did have an idea. She remembered what Wynter told her like it was yesterday.


    ¡°Listen, we need a diplomat to leave the country and meet with the Human King of Trace. The ¡°on paper¡± reason for your mission in Trace will be to deman that the King releases all of the Elven slaves in his Kingdom. However, I don¡¯t care about all that. The rease why I want you to take the job is entirely different. I want you to look for him!¡± Wynter had said desperately.


    Aella stared at her dumbly and said, ¡°Wynter it¡¯s been 150 years since he was taken. Do you seriously expect me to make any more headway than all of the professional trackers and operatives your father sent out?¡±


    Wynter scowled at Aella then and spat out, ¡°They aren¡¯t you! You know what I mean Aella. I always knew how you felt, there was no hiding it from his elder sister! You¡¯ll look harder than any of those imbeciles. The blasted fools only cared about the gold coming into their coffers. For all we know they could have accepted someone else¡¯s gold as well!¡±


    Aella looked back at Wynter darkly and said, ¡°And if I don¡¯t want to go? It¡¯s been so long Wynter. What if I don¡¯t want to dredge those thoughts up again?


    Wynter smiled sweetly at her, ¡°You know you would be lying to yourself. I want my brother back, Aella. I want to know who could take him out from under our noses and tear them apart!¡±


    Aella hesitated after Wynter spoke, so Wynter pleaded, ¡°Please. Aella Please. I want my baby brother back.¡±


    Aella sighed again. Nothing. She had been at it for months, talked to nearly every race¡¯s diplomats, but none of them had heard any word of the missing Prince. At least, none of them were telling her that they had heard anything. None of it made any sense. Why would they take the Prince of all Elves, and how did they manage to bypass all of their wards?


    The clock on the wall read seven in the morning when Aella looked at it now, and her meeting with the Princess of Trace would be in an hour. It would take her about that long to get ready and then arrive. Aella left her study, locked the door, and made her way back to the bedroom to pamper herself up for court.


    ************************************************************


    The meetings had not gone as planned. It seemed as if someone had gotten to the Dwarven Ambassador, and the Councilor was nowhere to be seen. Aella knew exactly who spoke to the Princess, but how in the hells had he gotten to the others as well? She returned to her estate in a huff, frustrated in the lack of progress.


    King Valerion was required to accept votes on his council from the other races. Aella was counting on the Dwarven Ambassador¡¯s vote as well, but now he completely blew her off any time she mentioned the situation at all. He would deflect the question!


    Once Aella entered her house she knew something was wrong. Unbeknownst to her, the shadow in the corner of the room straightened slightly as she entered. She removed her sandals at the door, and prepared to move up the stairs to her room. Following her inside of the manor were her six Elven guards, along with Zera and Aria.


    ¡°Thanks for coming with me. Aria, be ready in the morning. We are going to have to write a few more letters in order to get the councilors on our side.¡± Aella said, and Aria then went to her room.


    Zera came up to Aella after Aria had left and asked, ¡°Is there anything I can help you with Mistress? Are you going to be in your study? I could bring you some tea.¡±


    Aella smiled genuinely at her and said, ¡°That would be great Zera. Please bring it up.¡±


    After their brief conversation both of them went in opposite directions, Aella up the stairs and Zera into the kitchen. The guards that had entered behind Aella spread out throughout the estate. Two stayed in front of the door, one moved right up the stairs. The other two spread out on the first floor evenly to cover any secondary entrances. The guard upstairs would stand outside the study when Aella was in there, and then stand in front of her bedroom door when she went to bed.


    Aella stepped into her study alone, or so she thought, but the same shadow from before flowing into the room and lingered in the corner beside the door. The study was sound proof, to ensure there wasn¡¯t any eavesdropping on any of the confidential conversations she had inside. William, having heard that Zera would be returning, did not move immediately, but bided his time.


    Zera entered the room half a mark after Aella entered. She was carrying a small tray containing a teapot, and a single small cup. She carefully placed the tray down on the desk, and began pouring tea into the cup. The tea steam carried across the room, and Aella¡¯s eyes flashed for a moment imperceptibly.


    ¡°Thank you Zera.¡± Aella said.


    Zera bowed slightly deferentially and said, ¡°Is there anything else that I can do for you Mistress?¡±


    Aella bit her tongue, as she almost snapped at her to stop calling her Mistress, and said, ¡°No Zera. That will be all. Sleep well and I will call for you in the morning.¡±


    Aella sat back in her chair once again before she raised her eyes to the ceiling. She sat like that for a few moments, enjoying the smell that came from the tea.


    She straightened then, placing her elbows on the desk and called out, ¡°So, are you just going to sit there all night, or are you finally going to come out?¡±

 Chapter Four

    William


    William woke early in the morning, as was his usual. He got out of bed swiftly and dressed. William had only gotten four hours of sleep, but that was normal for his routine. The Master would wake him at random hours during the night for various exercises. When he first began his training it was difficult, as if his body was fighting against the training for some reason, but after a couple of months of conditioning he was able to function with fewer hours of rest.


    The first task to be completed was to scout the area that the manor was located. He figured that he could arrive anywhere in the morning before nine and this coddled little princess would still be in bed. Diplomats from other countries were almost always of Noble birth, so waking in the early morning hours was beneath them. This would make his job easier, so that he could monitor the way the sentries moved in the morning and witness their patrols.


    Leaving the Dragon¡¯s Nest behind, he walked onto the main thoroughfare. Though it was still early, close to five, William noted there were still a fair amount of people in the streets. Commoners moving about getting their stalls ready, or wives getting food from neighbors to make for their children. The Noble¡¯s district wasn¡¯t too far from his Inn, only a good half mark¡¯s walk so William made it there in good time. The grounds were surrounded by a large spiked fence, nearly ten feet tall, and even from where he was standing William could tell the gate was well guarded. Two sentinels stood on either side of the archway, one to check William while he was still outside, and the other to run to the house to warn the owner of any impending attack.


    However, William had no intention of making it onto the grounds by using the gate. He circled around the property, being careful to escape the notice of anyone in his surrounding area, and began climbing the fence. He used the space between the spikes to raise his feet up, and his upper body strength to heave himself over it. After he flipped over to the other side, William crept across the grass. There wasn¡¯t any cover between his current place and the house so he attempted to use a simple invisibility spell, but it flickered out of existence before he had a chance to disappear. He furrowed his brows for a moment, and as he glanced back at the gate he realized there were magic runes inscribed on its surface, forming an anti-magic ward that prevented simplified magic from being used without the express permission of the creator.


    I suppose this Noble isn¡¯t as much of an overindulged waste as I imagined. At least she is prepared for normal intruders. William thought in silent respect.


    He whispered a longer incantation this time. It was a much more complex spell, one he created himself, to be used only in such situations. Otherwise, it was a waste of time considering the chant took at least a minute to complete compared to the single second incantation of the weaker version. After completing it William flashed out of existence once again. He scouted the entire inside of the gate, scanning the garden, the guardsman post, and the front entryway. Then, after he accomplished that William made his way to the side of the manor. He inspected one of the ground level windows of the manor, and noted that it was covered by a simple ward, designed to alarm the caster should anyone enter that way.


    William nearly rolled his eyes as he thought of the mage that placed this ward. Nobles and mages alike were too reliant on the undefeatable security they believed wards provided. Instead, they should¡¯ve placed some other sort of physical alarm on the window as well. Such as tucking the tip of a long handled dagger under the sill so that anyone who entered would cause it to fall and clatter on the floor. No doubt the target was assured of her security, all the while anyone could have gotten in here with the right skills. William focused, willing the ward to open, and tucked the tip of a small knife he grabbed from his waist beneath the window. Popping it open silently, he slid inside just before he released the ward and let it fall back in place.


    The inside of the manor was barren, which seemed odd for a Noble, but he assumed the woman had not intended to stay so long. The walls were devoid of any paintings, and the furniture appeared to be haphazardly purchased at various stores in the trade district in a rushed attempt to make the home livable. They certainly did not belong in a Noble¡¯s house, as their homes always contained furniture from Klesandra¡¯s, one of the higher end furniture stores in the trading district, in order to make the decor match.


    William flew through the building silent as a ghost, and scoured the halls. Although he had memorized the map that Valerion had given him, he still needed to observe where and when each patrol would be throughout the night. There were six guards inside of the Manor. Two stood in front of the front door, two were spread out through the bottom level, and the final two stood on the second floor where the study and the target¡¯s room should be. He broke into a few of the rooms downstairs, including the one to the basement, but found nothing of interest inside.


    After he had searched the entire bottom level he climbed the stairwell to the second. The study was directly across from the stairs so the sentry standing guard there had a clear view of the bottom level. He appeared to see something and stiffened for a moment, but relaxed when nothing came from the stairs. William considered for a second how he would be able to get the elves away from their respective doors, but ultimately failed to come up with a method. Helpless, all William could do was wait until the mark woke up and left her room.


    After another hour had passed, and it was past six in the morning, Aella finally exited. She was quite attractive, he supposed, at least he thought most other people would find her to their liking. Her hips swayed as she strolled toward the study. The sentinel at her door bowed slightly and stepped away after she opened it, and the one at the study did the same. The second he opened the door for the objective William slipped inside.


    William listened intently as the woman conversed with her servants. He deemed that one of them didn¡¯t think so highly of her, Aria was her name. She may be a possible weak link for him to exploit. However, the disdain seemed to come from the fact that she wasn¡¯t able to work for the girl¡¯s father because of this trip, and Aria did not have a natural hate for Aella so that most likely wouldn¡¯t pan out. He noticed that Aella didn¡¯t eat anything that Zera hadn¡¯t prepared personally so poison was unlikely to succeed.


    All of these things ran through William¡¯s mind as Aella went about her morning schedule. Zera had made her breakfast, which she ate before she left, and after that they left for a meeting. From the direction they were moving the only place that she could be going was the palace, and William was intimately familiar with each room in there. Aella never left the purview of her guards the entire trip, and seemed to listen to them well when the commander adjusted the course randomly.


    The group reached their destination later than they would if they took the main road, but if they were followed by anyone other than William it was unlikely someone would have been able to keep tabs on them. When the girl entered the palace she was only able to take her handmaidens and a single guard inside. The commander remained outside while one of their stronger mages followed the other three.


    Once William noted the palace in the background his vision immediately went white once again.


    William looked ahead and another palace stood in front of him. Unlike the palace in Trace, which had five large towers this one only had three. It also was made completely out of wood. The wall surrounding the palace was also created using wood, but when William observed both of the constructions they had magic circles written onto them, similar to the ones on Aella¡¯s estate. However, they appeared much larger and had a stronger presence than the other wards.


    William awoke once again. Aella and her entourage had already disappeared from sight, so he was forced to hurry. These visions, whatever they were, could become a problem. The first time it happened a guard was able to enter close proximity with him before he even noticed. The second nearly made him lost his mark. Luckily though, he was able to find them as he had been in the palace multiple times. He could feel a headache starting to come on, but his healing magic wasn¡¯t able to take it away. Finally he got behind Aella and he guards just as they walked into Cecilia¡¯s room.


    The youngest princess was in complete contrast to her father. She was a pretty little girl, around the age of 16. Most commoners were married by the age of 14, but since the princess would be married to another Noble in a political arrangement she had a few years yet. However, Humans were considered an adult at the age of 14 in this Kingdom, and were able to find work as early as 8. The princess had the long blonde hair of her father, and the same forest green eyes that her mother and eldest brother also had.


    William kept himself close to his mark, to ensure he didn¡¯t lose her, and this also allowed him to find out what exactly the King put his hit out on her for. The princess smiled at Aella, and motioned for her to take a seat across from her. She appeared to be knitting something, William knew nothing of the subject and couldn¡¯t tell what it was, but she appeared intensely focused.


    After she had reached a spot she could stop at, Cecilia looked up at Aella and said, ¡°Good morning Miss Dafiel. I trust you slept well?¡±


    It could have been William¡¯s imagination, but the princess appeared to smile wider when Aella slightly flinched at the sound of her last name, and Aella replied, ¡°Your Highness I thought I asked you to please just call me Aella. I slept just fine, thank you for asking. Have you enjoyed your knitting since we last spoke?¡±


    This time the princess¡¯ smile did get brighter as she exclaimed, ¡°Oh yes! The wool that you bring me is always much smoother and so comfortable to wear in whatever clothes I make out of them. My sisters beg me to make them new dresses whenever you come by Trace.¡±


    Aella smirked as she subtly pointed out, ¡°I am certain our King would be happy to give you even more if you considered releasing the slaves and prisoners you are holding in your kingdom.¡±


    Cecilia sighed and leaned back, ¡°Aella you know I would love to release them. However, I am sure that you also know that my father would never release thousands of hard working elves for the benefit of my knitting.¡±


    Aella watched the princess carefully as she countered, ¡°Have you tried asking your father to release them, Your Highness?¡±


    Cecilia scowled at her and stared back coldly, ¡°I resent that accusation! Of course I¡¯ve asked that he release them. I¡¯ve requested numerous times that we stop building our Kingdom¡¯s wealth on the backs of slaves, Human or Elves, but my father won¡¯t budge.¡±


    It was Aella¡¯s turn to sigh as she slumped back into her chair. The King of Trace had outright denied her whenever she brought anything to the table. New products for trade, extra manpower in trouble, or even gold. Hells, Valerion didn¡¯t even blink when she mentioned that their King may consider military action! Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    Cecilia¡¯s eyes softened at the defeated look on Aella¡¯s face, but she did not take back her words. Aella understood now though. My father will not change his mind. That was new. Valerion must have spoken with her recently, and not kindly.


    William watched from the sidelines, paying close attention to anything that Aella mentioned. The woman was conniving and intelligent. Everything she said prodded the princess for answers in body language the woman didn¡¯t want to give in words. She was very skilled at playing the political game, and William gave credit where credit was due. If she wasn¡¯t asking for such an essential thing for the economy of Trace he was certain she would get her way.


    Aella remained in the palace for another mark speaking with the princess. They did not mention the slaves again, but he was confident that it would not be the last time she approached Cecilia about it. Once they concluded their conversation Aella requested to leave, and the two said their goodbyes. Aria had been conversing with the princess¡¯ head handmaiden the entire time, while Zera kept to herself. Gossip didn¡¯t seem to interest the girl, and she only continued to keep her eyes on her Mistress.


    They left the castle quickly in a seemingly random direction. William was not able to retrieve any of the plans for his target¡¯s day, but the way she was always speaking of work he assumed they wouldn¡¯t be going out for a drink. Their next stop was the Dwarven Ambassador, as they repeated the process from the last time. The Ambassador stayed in an estate much like Aellas, though the layout was slightly different. Only one of her guards and Aella¡¯s two servants followed while the rest remained outside once again. William stalked behind them once again, curious as to what this meeting had in store for him.


    Dwarves were smaller than humans and elves. The average dwarf stood at four feet tall, but they were also five times stronger physically than the typical human. Their most powerful warriors could easily overpower some elves as well. The ambassador was about average himself, standing close to four feet tall. His long brunette beard and braided hair hung low over his stomach. The dwarf appeared to be fit in a miner¡¯s fashion, with large burley arms. He smiled once he saw Aella in the entrance hall, but it never reached his eyes.


    ¡°Aella!¡± the man roared, ¡°Welcome! I had nearly forgotten ¡®bout our meeting. If Elric hadn¡¯t reminded me when I woke I fear I may have had to cancel.¡±


    Jeshrom Bothringer had been the ambassador for the Dwarven people for many years. Dwarves had long lives, though not as long as elves, they would easily last ten human¡¯s lifetimes. At the age of a thousand they would become more frail and hardly leave their homes until the day they passed on. The two of them rarely agreed with each other, but to Aella¡¯s dismay this was one moment where their opinions did not differ. Jeshrom had actually been sent here on the same mission as she, save for the release of Dwarves.


    ¡°Well I for one am glad that you did not. We have much we need to discuss Jeshrom. I had a meeting with the prin-¡± Aella started, but was interrupted.


    ¡°Now now Aella. Ya¡¯ know a dwarf doesn¡¯t start a conversation until he has had some mead in his gut.¡± the dwarf said chortling while patting his stomach.


    Aella took a couple of deep breaths, but ultimately held her tongue. Jeshrom lead them through the manor and into the study. After entering, he went behind his desk and sat down while Aella took a seat in front. William watched as her two servants sat outside of the study rather than joining them inside.


    In order to preserve his magic William discontinued the invisibility spell whenever they left and traveled outside. Moving stealthily and unnoticed inside of a city bustling with people was no challenge to him. However, he was not able to stand in the corner of a room and not go noticed unless he used magic. He had activated it just before entering the grounds of the palace, and now the manor of the ambassador. William stood in the corner of the room behind Aella in order to have a good view of the dwarf, and to be closest to the exit should he need to escape.


    The dwarf poured some alcohol that was on his desk, in its usual perch, and said, ¡°Any for ya¡¯ this time Aella?¡±


    ¡°You know I don¡¯t drink Jeshrom. Can we talk business now?¡±


    The dwarf sighed audibly, ¡°We can talk about anything but! How is yer¡¯ friend, Princess Wynter?¡±


    Aella eyed him sideways, confused about the change of subject and said, ¡°Wynter is fine. I haven¡¯t really gotten to speak to her over the last couple of months save a few letters, but I doubt anything has changed since I left.¡±


    ¡°I remember tha¡¯ girl when she was but a youngun¡¯, before her brother disappeared ya¡¯ know. Adorable little thing. Her smile would light up the entire room, and she laughed often. Now though I can¡¯t remember the last time I saw it.¡± the dwarf remembered sadly.


    Aella¡¯s face twitched at the mention of the disappearance and she replied shortly, ¡°She¡¯s over it.¡±


    Jeshrom chuckled at that and replied, ¡°I doubt that! It¡¯s been two centuries since the boy disappeared, but I still see her network scouring the land for him. That girl never forgave herself for it. Mighty Galrom help whoever took him once she gets her hands on ¡®em.¡±


    Aella laughed for a second with Jeshrom after that thought, but quickly remembered her reason for being here, ¡°Jeshrom I need to speak with you about Cecilia. She all but publically pulled her support now. I think her father pressured her to drop it.¡±


    Jeshrom looked at Aella for a few moments dumbly before speaking, ¡°What about the other boy? Wyn was it? How did he take it?¡±


    Aella¡¯s brow furrowed at yet another deflection of her question and said, ¡°Jeshrom, I am being serious. We need to talk!¡±


    Jeshrom¡¯s expression soured and he replied, ¡°I heard what ye¡¯ said. I asked ye¡¯ a question too little lady. I¡¯m thinkin¡¯ you need to learn how to speak to your elders!¡±


    The conversation continued much the same way through the rest of the morning. William observed as every time that Aella tried to but in with anything about Cecilia or the slaves Jeshrom¡¯s whole demeanor seemed to tense and become hostile. It seemed Cecilia wasn¡¯t the only one that the Valerion had gotten to.


    Aella left the Ambassador¡¯s estate fuming. Setback after setback had been thrown at her, but she usually managed to pick it back up afterwards. However, this time the Valerion had gotten to everyone at once without even giving her a chance. Whatever he had said to Jeshrom had clearly changed the man¡¯s mind. Taking care of Cecilia was child¡¯s play considering she was his daughter. There was only one more person that she knew the King couldn¡¯t just bribe or blackmail.


    William watched from a distance as Aella whispered quietly with the commander of her group about her next destination. After they had spoke, all of them immediately left with haste. They took turn after turn, sometimes making a complete square, and then returning to the same road but heading in a different direction. The target most likely believed it was someone who had followed her before to see who she had meetings with had done the work. This next person must be more important than the rest considering the amount of care she took to avoid being tailed.


    They arrived at a massive manor, at least twice the size of the last building they visited. The gate and walls surrounding the land were at least twenty feet high, and William got a sense of foreboding when he thought about sneaking into the it. He shook his head, releasing himself from the mind compulsion spell that someone had placed onto the walls. It was an exceptional piece of magic, and whomever the mage that created it must¡¯ve been quite powerful. However, using the technique the Master taught him, William focused on his intent to follow Aella and it completely negated the ward.


    When the group reached the gate though, something was amiss. The opening itself was slightly open and blood covered the floor of the guard station. Aella had her guards follow her as they pushed the massive gate open and entered the grounds. Inside was even worse. It appeared some sort of battle had taken place inside of the estate, but no one was aware of its existence. Guard¡¯s bodies littered the ground throughout, and even the commander was found lying dead with a stab wound through his heart.


    While Aella and the rest peered at the seemingly endless array of bodies William made a cursory sweep of the entire grounds and found no living beings within. If the owner of this manor was who the girl was searching for she would not find him here, or if she did, they would not be alive.


    ¡°Spread out! Three of us will remain with Lady Aella. The rest of you scan the grounds and see if you can find any survivors. I¡¯m sorry My Lady, but I must insist that you remain here until we finish searching to see if the person who did this remains.¡±


    Aella looked at him sternly and nodded. Five of the guards, including the commander, left her near the entrance while they searched the remainder of the grounds. It was half a mark before they returned, and the commander shook his head solemnly.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry Ma¡¯am. Councilor Persius was nowhere to be found. Not even his body was left behind. He either escaped, or he was taken. For what reason we can only guess.¡± the Commander stated.


    ¡°Commander I want two of your men to comb the city. I realize it is a long shot, but I want to see if they can find him. He is essential to our mission to retrieve our brethren. Aria, I need you to send a message to the King again and inform him of this. I may need some extra guards, looking at this scene.¡± Aella demanded.


    The others left to follow her orders. The commander sent a duo out of his group that were proficient in tracking, and told them to survey the city. They agreed to meet back at the palace in a hour before heading back to the manor. Aria left hurriedly as well since she did not feel the city was safe. She had considered requesting Aella send a guard with her, but knew the woman did not really care for her well being.


    An hour later the two guards and Aria met them back at the palace. The men found no trace of the councilor anywhere in the city even with the help of tracing magic. Aria was slightly later than the guards, but she succeeded in sending out the message using the local mage messaging center.


    ¡°Those mongrels at the messaging center nearly didn¡¯t let me in, since it was so close to closing time, but once I told them who the message was for they had no issue with it. His Majesty Ilthuryn replied almost immediately and said he would send another 15 soldiers. They will be here in a week, as he is sending them on the Iltharty.¡± Aria said quietly to Aella.


    ¡°That was quick. The estate will be more secure with that many additional forces. Whoever attacked the Councilor must have been either a large group or exceptionally skilled. However, they will not find it nearly as easy to defeat a company of elves.¡± Aella responded confidently.


    William¡¯s brows rose at the mention of Iltharty. He had read many different bestiaries for the various Kingdoms, and those were specific to the Elves. Named after the current King, as Ilthuryn had found the very first Iltharty himself, it was a breed of horse that had six legs rather than four. This allowed them to have an incredible amount of endurance, and run faster than other breeds. If the guardsmen were coming from the capital of the Elven Kingdom, Ilva Thalas, it would take a normal horse three weeks of travel.


    Aella seemed more at ease now, but didn¡¯t let her guard down completely when her mind wandered back to the Councilor. Their party began their travel back to her estate. They reached it quickly as the commander didn¡¯t waste any time and took a direct route.


    Once they reached the residence they unlocked the ward that was placed over it. Two of the guards remained at the gate as usual, while the other six followed Aella, Aria and Zera. As expected, once inside William followed the four guards that patrolled the bottom floor cleared downstairs, while the other two cleared the second.


    After the estate was confirmed to be clear of any intruders, save William of course, three stayed at the door this time. This was where they expected the assault would most likely begin so the Commander changed the way they patrolled. Two split out across the bottom floor, three stayed at the door this time, and then one covered whatever room Aella was in. After briefly speaking with her servants William surveyed from the door as she went up the stairs with a guard close behind. Aria went into her room on the first floor while Zera went into the kitchen.


    William trailed behind Aella once again, and went into the study directly behind her. The guard closed the door, but a few moments later opened it again as Zera came in with the tea. William kept a close eye on Aella¡¯s posture, and discerned that the woman appeared extremely tired and tense. She thanked her servent, and visibly deflated into the chair after she left. The next moment surprised William immensely.


    Aella sat up in her chair with her elbows on the table and questioned, ¡°So, are you going to sit there all night, or are you going to come out?¡±

 Chapter Five

    Alerius Otravion sat behind his desk as he had most days over the last two centuries. William left the fortress a week ago, so he had a reprieve from wearing the mask on his face. This ¡°Master¡± business had become tiring, but had also proved undeniably lucrative over the time he spent here. The other three that had travelled with him to pick up the boy worked as guards at the gate, as they were not suited to teach and only to fight. They only trained William in his various weapons, such as with swords and the like.


    Now, he just laid back to relax. The paperwork was not part of the deal that he thought he was signing. The stranger that had given William to them with instructions to train him had only said that they would become wealthy enough to retire quickly. Alerius highly doubted he would ever get to retire so long as William was alive. He and the other two were loose ends now if they left, and they were just people who could reveal the entire project.


    He was focusing on his next task when there came a knock on his door. A slim man wearing scouts armor entered into the room alone. He saluted Alerius, as he was the commander of this fort, and stood at attention.


    ¡°What is it?¡± Alerius asked impatiently, as the man was intruding on his relaxation time.


    ¡°There is a man at the gate asking to see the Master.¡± The scout replied immediately.


    Alerius¡¯ eyes snapped to the scout he second said this, so he replaced his mask over his face, and he said, ¡°Send him in.¡±


    It was only a few moments before the man entered the room. Alerius relaxed visibly, as it was not the stranger who gave him William to train. Instead this was the Soul Mage that the stranger assigned to them.


    William was taken when he was eighty years old so he still retained memories of his childhood as Wyrran. However, the stranger that gave William to them assigned this soul mage to attend to them every decade to replace a ward onto William¡¯s soul that forced his memories of his first eighty years to be repressed.


    There¡¯s only one reason this man could be here¡­ Alerius thought shakily.


    He had not checked the date once he received the missive from Valerion. A rush job like that would charge a king¡¯s ransom easily, and Alerius had already begun counting the gold the second the messenger bird had brought it to him. Never in his wildest dreams would he have expected that it would be during the same time that William¡¯s soul mark needed to be replaced. If that was the case, William most likely began having his memories return over the last week.


    Shit! He cursed inwardly.


    The soul mage, unaware of Alerius¡¯ inward struggle said, ¡°Well, it is nice to see the Master again. It is time for the Specter to renew his soul mark. Where is he?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s out on a mission¡± Alerius said dejectedly, ¡°He should be back within another week.¡±


    The soul mage¡¯s face revealed obvious shock as he said, ¡°If that mark is not placed today then he will almost certainly receive all of his memories at once. This is an incredibly dangerous thing to allow to happen, for if he is in the middle of his mission, he will without a doubt collapse from the pain. It will feel like his skull had been punctured and almost as if another person¡¯s memories had been injected into his mind. I¡¯m going to have to inform your¡­ acquaintance of that I wasn¡¯t able to do the job today as he wasn¡¯t here. I don¡¯t want your friend thinking that I failed.¡±


    Alerius nodded absentmindedly, ¡°Yes. He cannot know that I failed.¡±


    The soul mage stood there for a second, replaying his words and said, ¡°No. That¡¯s not what I said. I said that he-¡°


    Suddenly Alerius was behind him, and snapped his neck within the same second when he said darkly, ¡°Yes. He cannot know that I failed.¡±


    After discarding the soul mage¡¯s body, Alerius sat at his desk once again and pulled out a piece of parchment. He did not know where the stranger was located, but the man gave him a bird that could take any message to him within a short amount of time. The bird would only leave if this specific piece of parchment was tied to its leg however, to prevent Alerius from sending the man messages with the intent to follow it. He wrote into the letter that today was the date the soul mage should have arrive, but never did. After investigating they found the man in the forest a short ride from the fortress with his neck snapped, and questions how they should proceed.


    Once he completed the letter he rolled the parchment, and took it out to the bird that they had caged and never used over the last two centuries. Alerius was uncertain what race the bird was, but it did not age or wither away. Yet there it remained after all this time. He tied the letter to its tiny leg, and released it into the air. Then prayed that the stranger would never uncover the truth.


    **********************************************************


    William sat silently for a few moments, considering his next course of action. How she had noticed him while he was using his invisibility technique he did not know, but he assumed she must have some sort of item which granted her such an ability to scan the surroundings for people doing exactly that. Aella stared straight into his eyes, as though she could see him.


    ¡°Well?¡± Aella said confidently, ¡°Are you planning to wait until I go to sleep?¡±


    He sighed, and unveiled his invisibility spell. This woman was much more cunning than he had assumed. William supposed he should have watched her longer before getting anywhere near her, but he had been in the room alone with her numerous times. Was it a new item that she only wore today, or had he been just outside of its range earlier?


    William stared at the strange woman curiously and asked, ¡°How exactly did you notice me?¡±


    Aella smiled and in the same tone replied, ¡°I don¡¯t think you have the right to be the one asking the questions here, assassin. That¡¯s why you¡¯re here is it not? Did King Valerion pay you to kill me?¡±


    A smirk formed by itself on William¡¯s face from the woman¡¯s foresight and he responded, ¡°I have a feeling you wouldn¡¯t believe me no matter what I said.¡±


    Aella¡¯s smile fell and her eyes went cold when she said, ¡°No, you-¡°


    William didn¡¯t wait for her to finish. He assailed her as quickly as possible. She appeared to be supremely confident that she had nothing to fear against him, and William found the reason why the second he reached her. He hit a wall the moment he was only a few feet away, a subtle defense measure that she must have activated when she first called out to him after her maid departed. Aella couldn¡¯t believe how quickly the assassin moved when she was speaking, and couldn¡¯t only rely on the ward. She flinched when he hit the wall, unsure if it would completely stop him from coming to her.


    Aella smiled once again and said, ¡°It¡¯s a defensive ward that doesn¡¯t allow anything to pass through it. No weapons or people, not even an insect would be permitted to enter. You shoul-¡°


    Aella watched in horror as William raised his hand, and physically grabbed onto the ward. He put his two hands together, and tore a hole large enough for his entire body to fit through, and jumped in before releasing it. Two weeks ago when they first arrived her and all of her entourage had poured every ounce of mana into that ward to make it exceptionally powerful. They had been bedridden for two entire days, and this thing had just ripped directly through it. She tried to see under the dark hood the man wore, because he certainly was a man after hearing his voice. Then, after stepping the entire way through the ward without an issue, William smiled slyly. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    Aella shook out of her stupor, and began reciting another spell. She created a defensive spell around herself to protect her against mage attacks, for this man was certainly a mage if he could somehow tear through wards. Then she unsheathed a sword that was sitting under her desk, and did not hesitate to strike at her assailant.


    William, having already known that the sword was there from his cursory search that morning, had no issue deflecting her onslaught. The second her sword struck his, William heard her whispering another incantation which sent a spell in his direction. Their proximity was close so the spell hit him nearly immediately without having the chance to dodge it.


    The spell seemed to attack the soul, as there was no physical manifestation of any kind of element. So William focused on his will to fight, as the Master had instructed him to do, but something went wrong. The second that he attempted to focus it was as if a damn burst open, and William dropped his dagger and pressed his hand against the side of his skull to relieve some of the pressure.


    Aella watched as the man fell to one knee and pressed one of his hands to his head, dropping the dagger he held, and attempted to take advantage of the mishap. She believed her spell, which was meant to knock the man out, had somehow only given him a headache. Her sword arched downwards to take off his head, but William blocked it relatively easily with his hand. Aella, deciding her magic was the easiest way to take him out, released her spell. Once again the proximity was troubling for him, but he had expected it this time. He jumped backwards, hitting his back against the ward which still stood, but that made the spell miss its target. His head smashed into the wall unexpectedly as he had forgotten about the ward because of the pain, and once again the pain surfaced. This time however it was worse, the dam seemed to completely open, and it felt as though the woman before him had skewered him through the eye with her sword. William fell over immediately, unconscious.


    Aella was completely bewildered. She knew without a doubt the second spell missed. The fact that he had been able to still defend himself at all once he was hit with her first one was amazing. She released the ward that was keeping her from crossing to the door and opened it. Outside was the guard, still standing directly in front of it, and he stepped aside once the door opened. Looking inside and noting some of the things that were on the floor, appeared like there was a struggle, the man was confused.


    She immediately said, ¡°A man attacked me in my office. Get three others and have them help you take him down into the basement, and then set up a magic array around him. He seems to be able to walk through wards so have the other two help you set up a makeshift cage as well. I do not want him to escape, understand?¡±


    The guard straightened once he heard this and said, ¡°Yes, My Lady.¡±


    He left and then returned with the other four guards as he was instructed while Aella watched the assailant. She didn¡¯t want the man out of sight, even unconscious. The sentries picked up the would-be assassin and took him directly down the stairs. They dumped him onto the floor once they reached their destination, and started setting up the cage for the unconscious man.


    Aella only watched for a few moments before she said, ¡°Let me know when he wakes.¡±


    ************************************************************


    William had a dream, although it was strange considering he was extremely young in all of it. In all of them there was a small girl who spent quite a bit of time with him. One memory in particular stood out.


    William was swinging a sword a little too large for him at a wooden post. After his 20th strike against the post he heard a loud voice shout, ¡°Stop!¡±


    He looked over and noted it was a large elf, at least three times his own size at this point. The man was extremely well built, most likely some kind of blacksmith from what he could tell.


    ¡°Not you Wyrran. I¡¯m talking to Aella.¡± the trainer said.


    Aella? William thought. What did he call me?


    ¡°Aella. Your strikes are too light. The sword may be too large for you now, but you will grow into it. Adjust to the situation you are faced with! At some point you may be required to pick up an enemy¡¯s sword and use that instead of the one that you¡¯re used to. Choke up on the handle and keep your swings under control.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir.¡± a quiet voice sounded from next to William, and he turned to look at the girl.


    She was small, just like William, but she looked fairly familiar. She appeared to be about 7 years old in human standards, had raven black hair, and light blue eyes. Her name was Aella too, that name seemed to strike something in him. William returned to striking the post, and the girl did as well. This went on for another twenty minutes before the man once again called a stop. This time however, it seemed this training was over.


    What is the point of hitting wooden posts? William thought. Like targets are much better training. At least, that¡¯s what the Master had me doing when I was this age.


    The two of them, William and Aella, turned the practice swords in to the trainer. After that, they began running in the direction of a massive palace. William remember this palace, it was the one from his previous memory when he entered Valerion¡¯s castle. They appeared to be racing, but William couldn¡¯t really tell. He had no control over his own body.. A forest was before them after a minute or two of running. Most of the area surrounding them was forest in fact, but they followed a road that was in the direction of the palace standing in the distance.


    Aella called from behind him, ¡°Wyrran hang on! I need to stop for a moment.¡±


    There¡¯s that name again. Why are they calling me Wyrran? William thought.


    He heard his own voice respond, ¡°Fine.¡±


    They stopped in a clearing with a small creek running through it. William wasn¡¯t tired at this point, but when he looked at Aella was doubled over, hands resting on shaking knees as she tried to steady her breaths. Once again he was confused. Why was she so tired? Was it possible she had just begun training?


    After a few moments William once again heard his voice ask, ¡°Are you ready yet? My mother and sister are waiting back at the castle.¡±


    Aella, through deep breaths said, ¡°I only need a few more seconds. Give me a break! We just practiced for four hours. How aren¡¯t you tired?¡±


    William felt a smile creep onto his face and responded, ¡°I use magic to enhance my muscles and keep me from overworking them.¡±


    William himself was just as surprised as Aella appeared when she heard that. Though that is an efficient way to use magic in a battle, it is not efficient to use it at all for training. In fact, it would negatively affect his own training by preventing him from building the proper muscles so that he could fight without the magic.


    Aella responded angrily, ¡°Wyrran! You know that you aren¡¯t supposed to do that. If Leon found out about it he would seal your magic for weeks to ensure you did your training correctly! How didn¡¯t he notice your magic?¡±


    William, smiling smugly and with a proud tone responded, ¡°I created a method to use it with a masking technique. It prevents detection from others more than three feet away from me, so as long as they don¡¯t hear the incantation I whisper they won¡¯t notice my use of magic at all.¡±


    Brilliant. Why do I sound so proud though? William thought. It¡¯s as though I believe I am the only one to do that. Also, has the Master not taught me to cripple my pride?


    Aella¡¯s eyes grew to the size of saucers as she said, ¡°That¡¯s amazing! Can you teach it to me?¡±


    William¡¯s eyes rolled and he said, ¡°You know I will. I teach you everything. I¡¯m not sure if you¡¯ll be able to do it since you don¡¯t specialize in this kind of magic and usually only use soul magic. Let¡¯s get back to the palace. My mother and sister won¡¯t wait much longer.¡±


    After this was said, William¡¯s sight went white, and then he was surrounded by darkness.


    Aella stood in her study, pacing as she thought of what she was going to do about the King. Suddenly, the door to her study opened to one of the guards that carried William to the basement.


    ¡°He¡¯s waking up My Lady.¡±


    ¡°Finally.¡± Aella said impatiently.


    She started down the stairs to the first floor, and then went to the door to the basement. She took a deep breath, considering how she was going to handle questioning this unknown man, and opened the door. She reached the bottom and found William sitting there waiting for her.


    She stared at the man for a few seconds before gaining her confidence and saying, ¡°Who are-¡±


    William interrupted her immediately and asked, ¡°Who is Wyrran?¡±


    Aella stared at him dumbfounded, and then after gripping the bars to his cage hard asked icily, ¡°Where the hells did you hear that name?¡±

 Update... (AGAIN)

    Hey guys! Hope all of you have been well. For those of you who saw my previous update that I posted about a month ago I wanted to start off by apologizing for not posting the chapters promised. I had the sixth chapter written and edited, but I would be lying if I said I was even remotely satisfied with the chapter iteself. Therefore, I couldn''t bare to post it. This also leads me to explain that with my current work schedule posting three chapters a week was far to ambitious. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Instead, I have decided that unless I get into a rhythm and push out multiple chapters at once, I only intend to post one chapter a week on Saturdays. As to what time on Saturdays that may depend, varying based on when I get my good friends to help me edit it. Most of the rewrite of Chapter Six is written already, so I will be putting one out this week as well.


    Thanks for your patience, and I hope you enjoy!

 Chapter Six

    Aella¡¯s POV


    A crack could be heard as the bars began to give way underneath the intense pressure Aella placed upon them. Her knuckles turned white, and a fire could be seen ablaze inside of her eyes. What was she supposed to say back to that? Before her was an assassin that attempted to take her life, and while she tried to interrogate him the man had the audacity to question her. Even worse, the prisoner asked about something that had been eating at her for so long, but no one outside of the Kingdom should know about it.


    ¡°I asked you a question.¡± Aella said through gritted teeth, ¡°And I expect an answer. Who told you that name? Did whoever sent you tell you to ask me that?¡±


    I suppose that means she is the Aella from the visions I keep seeing. William thought, completely ignoring her.


    She pounded on the bars, causing a ring to reverberate through the space in the basement, and yelled, ¡°Answer me damn it! Where the fuck did you hear that name?¡±


    Her monstrous roar brought William out of his thoughts, the wind from it blowing his hair out of his face, and he replied sarcastically, ¡°You do realize I am merely five or six feet away from you right? Do you really find it necessary to shout?¡±


    Aella¡¯s face reddened, though whether from anger or embarrassment William was not sure. This woman clearly reacted to situations based upon her emotions rather than rationally thinking through it and considering whether or not he was goading her on purpose. William chuckled to himself thinking, These people wouldn¡¯t make it a day in the training that the Master put me through.


    William came to the realization shortly after that chuckling in front of an irate elf, considering they have a heightened sense of hearing, after being obviously sarcastic before them was a bad idea when Aella practically whispered, ¡°You think this is funny?¡±


    Aella¡¯s entire body was shaking with rage, and there was only one way that she could release this pent up fury. She stepped forward, fully intent on beating this infuriating man to a pulp, before the two guards that stood at the bottom of the stairs seized her arms.


    ¡°My Lady you must not let him bait you into breaking him out. You already told us how skilled he was before, and we cannot count on whatever happened last time to happen again.¡± One of the guards spoke out, explaining himself before Aella could take her frustration out on them.


    Though you could practically see the steam rising off her skin, Aella stopped advancing toward William¡¯s makeshift prison. He smiled coyly at her and winked, which only fed the flames. Aella turned around and made her way back up the stairs. That damned assassin wouldn¡¯t be smiling for long.


    Aella went into her study and pulled out a spare piece of parchment from her desk. After writing a message onto the paper she said a small incantation, and a bright white dove materialized before her. This was the Dove Messenger spell that only specific elves were allowed to learn. Besides herself, the royal family were the only ones given access. This was one way for the other side to recognize the validity of the note.


    Wasting no time, Aella rolled the message into a tight scroll, and tied it to the little dove¡¯s right leg. After doing so, she opened the window to her study and the small bird left without hesitation. The Dove Messenger spell was convenient because the sender did not even need to know exactly where the receiver was, and the message would still make it. Merely picture the person you intend to send the message to and it will fly directly to them. She watched it from her window as it flew away, and then sat back down behind her desk. There was still much to be done.


    ************************************************************The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    Wynter¡¯s POV¡­


    Hooves pounded against the hard stone road that was paved between the Elven Kingdom and Trace. Trade was made significantly easier after roads were installed, so even though Ilthuryn refused to make a road directly to any of the Elven cities, the roads did go all the way to the edge of their great forest. As the horses made their way directly to the Kingdom of Trace, a woman could be seen at the middle of the formation. White hair cascaded from underneath the metal helmet she wore. Her face was uncovered, and according to human standards, she would be considered extremely beautiful. Her pale blue eyes were surrounded by the sharp facial features that are common among Elves.


    Wynter Liacyne had read the letter that Aella had sent to the King through her servant a few days ago. After she had asked Aella to go in her place Wynter constantly worried for her friend. However, Aella was the only one that she could trust with such a mission. Everyone from the common Elves in the capital to her Father had decided that Wyrran had to be dead at this point, but Wynter never gave up on her little brother. He was the light that had filled her days when they were young, helping her endure the boring lectures and various skills her mother forced her to learn.


    After her Father was finished reading the letter, Wynter begged him to let her go under the guise of it being a challenge the human king. Sending a diplomat to request the Kingdom of Trace to release their slaves was one thing, but sending the Princess of the Elven Kingdom with two hundred elite warriors said something completely different. Valerion would realize that, although their kingdoms may be separated by a month¡¯s ride when you use normal horses, Ilthuryn had ways to make that travel more manageable.


    If you looked closely at the group as they ran down the road one would note that their speed was significantly faster than any horse should be able to run. The casual observer wouldn¡¯t take note of it, but the horses also had another peculiarity. These magnificent steeds had six legs instead of four, which was the reason for their incredible speed. These mounts were called Iltharty. According to their current speed they would make it to Aston in a week rather than a month.


    The Iltharty had great speed and stamina, but that did not mean that Wynter wanted to run them ragged. They had already ran for nearly forty-eight hours straight. She made the command to have them stop at the next clearing in order to rest themselves and their steeds. The clearing they were looking for only took a half an hour to find, and the group dismounted. The horses were left to graze while all of the soldiers began setting up camp. The first tent to be assembled was of course Wynter¡¯s, and the soldiers would not let her aid them even if she desired to.


    Night fell quickly after that, which ended the third day of their travels.


    ************************************************************


    William¡¯s POV


    The magic formation that trapped him inside of the basement of the manor was made well, and even after searching every inch of the thing William had yet to find a single flaw to exploit. He had seen such spells before, but usually the mages that cast it made mistakes in some area.


    The woman who had spoken to him before came back down at various times. Each time she seemed to leave more furious than the last. It seemed childish, purposefully getting on her nerve, but the Master instructed that it was the easiest way to deal with female interrogators. Females, from William¡¯s experience, tended to be the more emotionally driven of the two sexes. This allowed him to pull her strings in a way that he could receive what little information she had on this ¡°Wyrran¡± fellow without giving any in return.


    From what he had deduced based upon the memories that seemed to be spilling out from behind that ward that had been placed upon his mind, William figured that Aella had been interested in Wyrran in a romantic fashion. They spent much of their childhood together as well, seeing as how all of the flashes included Aella and some other woman with white hair that had been a little older than the both of them. The only thing Aella had given up that William had not already known was that apparently Wyrran had been kidnapped when he was young and stolen from his family castle.


    It was odd, having memories that felt like someone else¡¯s. Every time he had one of his visions it seemed like he was looking at the world from someone else¡¯s eyes. He was unable to move or even say anything that he wanted to, and all that he could do was watch. After he got hit by whatever soul magic Aella had hit him with William¡¯s mind block cracked and caused more memories to fall out from behind. The pain from the experience made him pass out, which ultimatelylead to his current predicament.


    William scanned around the small basement again; Two guards stood at the foot of the wooden stairwell, small mage lights kept the room lit, as to make sure that the Elven guards would be able to see William at all times without worry. The crest on the guards left breast seems oddly familiar to William, he thought that one of his freshly received memories may have had the same symbol in it somewhere.


    The door slammed open, breaking him out of his reverie. Here comes another round of ¡®Aella asks William questions and, after receiving infuriating answers, she stomps right back upstairs¡¯. The smirk that had formed on his face fell when he saw another figure coming down stairs instead. It was another woman, someone that he thought that he had seen before...

 Chapter Seven

    William paid close attention as she slowly meandered down the stairs- each step resounded in the silence of the basement, and as she passed the two guards knelt. The stranger looked familiar to William, and he knew instantly where he had seen her before. She had appeared a few times within the memories. Prominently the one on the cart, where she briefly spoke with the one named ¡°Wyrran¡±.


    She stopped once she was five feet away from the makeshift cage that was created to contain him. She had heard from Aella how dangerous the assassin was, and did not intend to give him any chance to grab her from within the prison.


    ¡°My name is Wynter Liacyne.¡± the woman stated with a blank face, and went silent for a moment.


    Still in the thought that perhaps making this woman emotional would provide him with more information, William responded sarcastically, ¡°Is this where I am supposed to introduce myself?¡±


    Wynter smiled slightly at the comment and replied, ¡°You¡¯re welcome to. I doubt you would be inclined to do so however. Aella told me that you asked who ¡®Wyrran¡¯ is, and I would like to know where you heard that name?¡±


    William narrowed his eyes at the woman, who clearly had more control over her faculties than the last, and said, ¡°If you answer my question then perhaps I will answer yours.¡±


    A sigh escaped her lips as Wynter heard his answer, and she replied, ¡°I could just look into your mind and figure it out. I am a master soul mage.¡±


    William¡¯s face returned to its usual emotionless mask, after realizing Wynter would not be dissuaded with his provocation, and he confidently replied, ¡°You are certainly welcome to try. I am certain that you heard about my skills from your friend, and I assure you that I am no less proficient in all kinds of magic as I am in armaments.¡±


    Wynter¡¯s eyebrows furrowed at his tone. It was clear that he had no intention of giving the information willingly without receiving something in return, but she had thought that after finding out she was a master soul mage he would buckle. Although soul mages were not entirely uncommon, masters were extremely rare. Being able to look into someone¡¯s soul and finding information that they needed was something that many would pay handsomely for, and usually the masters were feared throughout the continent. Seeing this man not even have his facial expression change at the mention of her being one was unsettling and lead to her believing his statement wholeheartedly.


    This just became increasingly more difficult. Wynter thought briefly.


    ¡°What exactly do you want to know?¡±she asked.


    ¡°For now information on Wyrran.¡± William asked again, ¡°I asked your friend, but she refused to respond and merely shouted in my face requesting I answer her question instead.¡±


    Wynter stared into his eyes, looking to see if she could find deceit in his words. Perhaps he wanted to goad her into letting him know more information on Wyrran so that he could use it against the King. However, the men who took Wyrran had extensive information on the interior of the castle, so she doubted they lacked information on the child himself. What would he need he to tell him that would make Wyrran more useful to them?


    As she stared she became increasingly aware that the man looked familiar. She had hardly left the Elven Kingdom, but this man appeared to be someone she had seen before. His white hair and bright blue eyes weren¡¯t very common, but she held a belief she had seen them before. His ears were rounded, like a human, and that made it less likely that they had come across each other before, but she couldn¡¯t shake the feeling.


    ¡°If I tell you some information on Wyrran then you¡¯ll tell me what you know, and why you are asking?¡±, Wynter asked warily.


    William thought about her question for a second and, seeing as he wouldn¡¯t lose anything in telling her information she probably already knew about the man, responded, ¡°Yes.¡±


    ¡°I want you to take a mage oath.¡± Wynter replied as she raised her hand, began calling on her mana and a white ball of light formed beside her when she said, ¡°I swear to tell this man before me some information on the one named Wyrran so long as he provides his own information.¡±


    William rolled his eyes and said in kind while doing the same with his mana, ¡°I swear to tell Wynter the information she requested on Wyrran after she provides me what she promised.¡±


    Wynter nodded acceptance and asked, ¡°What exactly do you want to know?¡±


    ¡°Who exactly is Wyrran and what is he to you? Why do you appeared to be looking for him, and what made that woman react the way she did when I asked the question?¡±


    She sighed heavily, and looked back up toward the door that lead to the manor. Aella had always been more emotional than she, and Wynter alway knew it would affect how she handled certain situations. Perhaps if she had not reacted that way in the first place then the man before her wouldn¡¯t request to know. However, he appeared to know Aella already so perhaps that was wishful thinking.


    She reluctantly said, ¡°Wyrran was my little brother. We are looking for him because he was taken from my home when he was only 80 years old, and we have heard nothing since. It has been nearly two centuries since he was kidnapped. As to why Aella was so upset that is a complicated answer. They were childhood friends before he was taken, and also while she came here to negotiate with the human king, I also had her come here to seek information on Wyrran if she could. Is that enough information?¡±


    William¡¯s head tilted slightly as he heard her response and he asked, ¡°Is this Wyrran someone important to the elves?¡±


    ¡°He is important to me.¡± she replied diplomatically and kept an impassive face.


    William had deflected questions many times on the various jobs that he received, some of which required him to allow himself to be captured first and tortured for ¡®information¡¯, so he knew that she was doing the same. However, seeing that she had already satisfied most of his curiosity of who Wyrran is he figured it would be fine. He nodded, signaling her to start her questions.


    ¡°Why did you ask about Wyrran?¡± Wynter questioned. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    William explained the odd flashes that he had begun seeing, and the wards that he had placed on his mind. He didn¡¯t speak of the one who had placed it there, as that would be information that could lead to the Master, however mentioning the creation of it wouldn¡¯t hurt anything. He also told her of his placement in the memories, where he was watching from Wyrran¡¯s eyes, which seemed to surprise her. Although he was proficient in soul magic that did not mean that he knew all information regarding it. He was taught enough to be considered a master, and to be able to source information he may need from his targets, and then was moved onto other more important matters. This woman, since she focuses on soul magic alone, may be able to unravel what was happening.


    Wynter was stunned after the man, who never gave his name and she mentally hit herself for not putting that as a requirement in the deal. The amount of energy it would require to create the ward inside of his mind, which he described but she had not seen, would require a powerful soul mage. There were only a few that could do that on this continent, and most were elves because of their large mana sources. Silence pervaded the space after he was finished explaining, and she just continued to stare at the man. As time went on, her feeling that the assassin looked familiar continued getting stronger. She was certain that they had met before.


    The ears. That is the only thing that doesn¡¯t fit for me. She thought.


    William noted that she was staring, but couldn¡¯t tell what she was looking at when he asked, ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Your ears. Are they actually rounded like that?¡±, she asked.


    He stared at her blankley. That was what she got out of that entire conversation? He just talked about soul magic, which he had believed she would be interested in, but she asked him about his ears instead? He looked at her askance for a second, before he dropped the enchantment on his ears and facial features, allowing her to see that he was an elf. Perhaps that had some sort of significance to her helping him with the ward?


    Wynter looked at him for another second before she froze on the spot. To William¡¯s surprise she immediately began crying without warning. He gave her a bewildered look as the tears flowed unabated. What she said next wasn¡¯t exactly what he expected.


    ¡°Wyn?¡±


    ************************************************************


    Alerius Otravion (The Master) POV:


    The wind whipped back his hair as Alerius Otravion continued pushing his horse as hard as it could go. The mustang¡¯s ribs expanded and shrank with great speed as it tried its hardest to meet Alerius¡¯ harsh demands. The stranger that had given William to him had asked him to head to a desolate area inside of the forest for a meeting. They had several of these in the last century, but this was by far the most alarming. He couldn¡¯t help but think back to how he had snapped the neck of that mind mage to keep him from speaking against him.


    He had it coming. Alerius thought without any remorse.


    If there was one thing that he had mastered it was the separation of his emotions from times like these. It was work, and the man had been in his way. This was not to say that he was a sociopath like William, but being able to compartmentalize his feelings was an effective way to continue living a without feeling guilty for his actions. Alerius and his two brothers had lived most of their own lives as assassins. The group was first rate and had never gone without completing a mission, though their tasks had not been nearly as difficult as some of the projects they sent William to.


    The trees moved by in a blur while Alerius continued focusing on the current situation. The man had not given any hint as to what their plan would be, but losing memories as an adult was much more dangerous than as a small child. If the ward was placed over and over, even after William had reached the thousands of years, it would be no issue. However, after the memories escaped it would be much more difficult to contain them without forcing William to lose all of his current memories. This would mean that Alerius and his brothers would have to retrain the bastard right back to where he was, which would put their profits back by another hundred years or so.


    As he was lost in thought, Alerius broke through a clearing amongst the many trees that had been surrounding him. The sun in the sky hit Alerius in the face and broke him from his reverie. This clearing was the place that the stranger had instructed him to meet, and he dismounted immediately. After doing so the horse fell flat on its side heaving deep breath from the rough run.


    A few words of power left his lips, helping the horse breath so that it would not die before his trip back to the fortress. After doing so he took a seat on a small rock near him, and pulled a sword from the sheathe at his back. As a former mercenary, cleaning and sharpening his sword would ease his troubled thoughts. After pulling his whetstone from his bag Alerius began to run it alongside the blade, honing it.


    Alerius was not sure how much time had passed since he began his sword maintenance, but another being walked from the forest at this moment. He wore a long dark cloak that covered his entire being. Not a identifying feature could be seen on the being before him, which had always been unnerving to Alerius and his companions. They could not have even known if it was a man or woman if the stranger hadn¡¯t spoke.


    He bowed deeply in respect, in an attempt to appease the man in case he was angry with Alerius. Though he was not certain what sort of martial prowess the stranger held, Alerius was not keen to test it out. All he cared about was that his gold was real, and it seemed to be in endless supply.


    ¡°Did you bring the body?¡± the stranger¡¯s grave voice resounded in the empty clearing.


    Alerius did not hesitate, responding with a nod, and untied the stirrups which tied the mage¡¯s limp body to his saddle. It was the body of the soul mage, his head completely turned in the wrong direction. The stranger walked up to the corpse and inspected it.


    As if looking at it had confirmed something, the man nodded and said, ¡°Do you know who killed him? Is it possible they know of William?¡±


    Alerius¡¯ beating heart continued pounding within his chest as he nervously shook his head and said, ¡°N-No. We f-found him that way within the forest. Not another being within sight, and it did not appear like the mage had defended himself. No magic residue was within the vicinity.¡±


    The man, underneath his hood so Alerius could not actually see his eyes, looked in the direction of Alerius and nodded.


    ¡°Tell me.¡± the man stated concisely.


    ¡°William left fourteen days ago now, and he went to the capital of Trace, Aston.¡± Alerius said, and without thinking continued, ¡°The mind mage said that if it was not administered within the same day he would undoubtedly receive all his¡­¡±


    Alerius¡¯ face became pale, and sweat began to fall from his forehead, as he realized what he had just said. Had the man not even believed Alerius¡¯ story that the mage died in the forest for a second? He turned around and made an attempt to run the moment that he caught on to what was happening, but was stopped short.


    In a familiar fashion of way the stranger appeared directly before Alerius, and lifted the man from the ground. Alerius was not nearly as large as William, but his tight muscles put quite a bit of weight onto his body the same as the boy. Alerius choked as the hand on his throat tightened dangerously, and the stranger put the hood of his cloak down.


    Onyx black hair fell long behind the man¡¯s back, and his forehead showed prominently. Light blue eyes shone in contrast with the dark hair, and his features struck out to a point. The man was slender, but athletic in appearance. The only issue was Alerius recognized this man.


    ¡°Elyon Dafiel.¡± Alerius choked out in surprise.


    The closest advisor to the King of the Elves was ElyonDafiel. He was known as a quiet man that spoke to only a select few people, the King included in these. He had been serving the Liacyne family for generations, but had never moved from his post as advisor. What in the hells was this man doing here?


    Otravion smiled at Alerius darkly and said, ¡°We need to have a serious chat Alerius.¡±

 Update

    So, guys here is what is going on! I was laid off for the COVID-19 situation over the last few weeks, and I have finally been able to get my motivation to continue this book! However, there was something I wanted to do first. After rereading some of the original chapters, I realized I wanted to make some edits. I have already put up an updated form of the first chapter, and will hopefully be able to finish the others today as well. Not everything in them will change! I just hope to be able to make some edits that I realized would make my writing come out a little better compared to when I wrote it originally.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I hope all of you are keeping safe and staying indoors, and I hope that you enjoy my story!