» Tue May 17, 2011 4:16 am
D. Foxy has graciously agreed to co-write this chapter, employing his character Damien "Foxy" Reynard to assist Maxical. D.Foxy has written all the parts for Damien Reynard and his cutout. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have writing it.
Chapter 20: The Assassin
Vicente knew he was sending Maxical into a contract too early. She was not ready, but he must have time. He had acted out of desperation to remove her while he regained his powers. She must not see him again until he got his strength back, and then he would get her under his spell once more. This time there would be no mistakes.
A thought occurred to Vicente, he remembered from the adventures of long ago the name of a man that may help him with this situation. Acting quickly, Vicente scribbled a note and called Antoinetta Marie to him. Antoinetta's loyalty to him was such that she questioned no task he sent her on. He sealed the note and handed it to her.
"Get this to the Tiber Septim with great haste. When you get there deliver it into the hands of the man living in the first room at the top of the back stairwell. Do not speak to anyone but him, and then return to me."
"She will not escape me twice." Vicente said under his breath as he watched Antoinetta run to the well exit.
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He stood at the window, watching the girl cross the street.
Pretty, a quick and lithe mover, but utterly unaware of either surveillance or counter-surveillance. She had not looked back once or doubled back to check if she was being followed. If she had been one of his operatives, in the old days, punishment would have come that very evening...
Damien sighed, and even gave the ghost of a smile. The 'old days' were gone, now. Although perhaps the saying that 'assassins never die of old age' might yet still be true in his case - certainly the news that all was not well with the Emperor had stirred the old blood in him, and made him send out a tentacle in that direction...perhaps the complications from that would make the rumors of his death come true. Ironic, if Damien 'Foxy' Reynard would die from his own curiosity in his retirement!
But that was another case in another dimension - right now the problem was that which was in the letter contained in his hand, the letter which had been carefully slid under his door by the Hotel Owner. Money and a certain reputation had brought him certain privileges at the Tiber Septim hotel, one of which was the privilege of never seeing anyone who had not been cleared beforehand to see him. The girl's letter had been quietly but firmly taken in hand by the owner, and sent up to him. She had not seen his face or heard his voice.
Shadows are where the Assassin lives, and sunlight is where he dies. Damien's mind flashed back to the training mantras of his youth. Yes, it was best to always be in shadow...not unlike the author of the letter he was holding in his hand.
"You have forgotten, Vicente, that I know you too well" Damien whispered to the room as he slowly walked to the chair at his writing desk and sat down, pulling a quill out of the inkpot and reaching for a parchment.
He began to write to one of his cut-outs. As a single drop in ink smudged the end of a sentence, he looked at it in irritation.
A sudden thought struck him. His lips twisted.
Better a drop of Assassin's ink than one of vampire's blood, he thought, as he finished and sealed his missive.
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I was still feeling tired when I awoke that evening. The sun was almost gone; its rays leaving a horizontal pattern across the bridge I could see from where I lay. I struggled to rise from the mat I had usurped, the weakness was making me clumsy. What was wrong with me? Was I ill?
As I got up I saw a man winding his way toward the mat, it must be his.
"I'm sorry, I borrowed your mat. I hope you don't mind," I hailed to him when he drew near.
"Do you have a coin for an old beggar?" he whined.
"Sure, let me find one. Heard any good news lately?" I asked, just trying to be polite while I searched for my purse.
"They's caught a spy in the Imperial Palace! He was skulkin' round 'ta Emperor's quarters! They's hauled him down to 'ta prison for question'n!"
"What? Really?" I wasn't doubting him. These beggars knew a lot of things before anyone else.
I thanked him and gave him several Septims for the use of his bed and the conversation. Before it got dark I wanted to leave Cheydinhal. I grabbed my pack and headed down the road, using invisibility as a cloak. I did not want to be seen, not with what I was going there to do. Was I really going to assassinate someone? What was I doing with my life now?
As I made my way down the road those thoughts kept surfacing until my mind ached from it. Somehow it seemed as if this was the first time I had thought about what I was doing since that first day I entered that sanctuary. All that time training for what I was doing right now, I do not remember once really thinking about it. Suddenly it was all I could think of.
An Imperial Legionnaire was riding up the road toward me at a leisurely pace, so I cut off into the woods to avoid him. The trees were not dense, but provided well enough cover. When the Legionnaire had passed I started to make my way back to the roads when I noticed the shape of a cabin in the woods. Surprised, I went over to inspect it. It was obviously not in use, but not abandoned either.
On the spur of the moment I made a decision to break in. I needed time to think, I needed a bath and a bed. The lock was relatively easy to pick, even though I really did not know what I was doing.
The cabin was clean and charming, it reminded me of home.
"Home." I whispered aloud, wondering if I would ever see mine again. I know Alix would not stop loving me even if I was an assassin. But how would it make him feel to know it? Would he cry?
"S'Jirra would ground me if she found out." I said aloud, and then laughed. Then I cried.
"How is it that this is the first time I have thought of any of these things? Did Vicente's spell over me have something to do with it? Or was that just a product of my own mind as well?" I was trying to think but exhaustion was taking over, even though I had slept all day. I drew a bath and just let myself soak in it for a long time before soaping up and rinsing off. I had almost gone to sleep in the tub.
The bed felt glorious, not like the flat mats I had been sleeping on for so long. I stretched out and pulled the fluffy pillow up under my head.
"A pillow! I forgot how good it feels to sleep with a pillow!" I cried out, punching it into an even fluffier state. It was like heaven to sleep in that bed.
The next day I set back out again toward the Waterfront. I cut over between that old Ayeleid ruin Vilverin and Ft. Urasek and swam across the channel to the grounds around the Imperial Prison.
Thinking about what I was about to do was beginning to make me feel scared, thinking "What if I am caught?"
I was jumping at every bush thinking it may be a guard, and felt like I was being watched even though I had used an invisibility spell. I was supposed to be a 'trained assassin' but couldn't remember a single lesson I was supposed to have gotten from Vicente. How does an assassin act?
"Maybe I should be more sneaky or peer around or something," I thought.
I cut up to the prison itself and pressed myself against the wall of it, creeping from alcove to alcove with my back to the wall. Acting sneaky must have been correct, because I found myself getting scared and jumpy, my nerves all on edge.
"This must be how assassins do it I guess." It was giving me the creeps.
Suddenly I saw a shadowy figure move against the sidewall of the prison! I screamed! A man in a dark cloak stepped out just a hair from the alcove along the prison wall.
"Sshhh! Come here! I got what you need. You need something?special? Check out my wares, you won't find this stuff in your local general store, that's for damn sure."
"You almost scared me to death!" I said, my heart almost jumping from my chest.
I looked at his wares, he had mostly poisons and lock picks, but I noticed he was wearing a nice hood.
"I could use a nice hood like that one you are wearing," I said, thinking how helpful it would be to have a hood that obscured my face like that.
He would not sell it. I bought several lock picks from him though, and sold him the extra armors I was still toting around. That would lighten my load a lot. His name was "Shady Sam" but other than the hood and the fact he was creeping around popping out of alcoves in the wall, he seemed nice.
"Come and see me anytime friend." Shady Sam said as I was leaving.
"Next time I'll bring some health potion along, or a change of clothes." I thought. He had scared me so badly that I had almost wet myself when he popped out of that wall.
I worked my way around a large rock and could see the stables on my left. There would be guards there, so I cut down the hill to the shore and crept along it toward the Waterfront. I swam across to it and pressed myself against the end of the building.
"What am I supposed to do now?" I wondered. If Vicente taught me anything about how to assassinate someone I couldn't remember it.
Keeping my back to the wall I edged over toward the dock area. I leaned my head out and peered around the corner. I could see the boat, and there were pirates walking around the dock area in front of it. Was I supposed to kill everyone on this end of the dock to cover all my tracks? Vicente didn't tell me anything about what to do if there were others around.
My legs were trembling and my heart was racing. My hands were shaking against my armor and with the gauntlets on it was making a lot of noise! I backed away and ran around the other corner of the building and kept running till I reached the abandoned shack I had stayed in before. I was terrified about what I was about to do, and I needed time to think.
I was barely across the room in the shack when the door opened and a man followed me in. I screamed!
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My hand went instantly to my sword hilt and I was lining up spells when he spoke.
"Are you Maxical?" The man asked.
He knew my name? I was still shaken from the sudden shock of the man's appearance in the shack, but now I was wary. Who was this man?
He was standing in a straight, rigid posture; his hands folded over each other on his belly.
He was surely not here to kill me, he was making no moves to attack me. Was he hiding a weapon beneath his hands? I saw no sword at his side, and he was not in an attack stance, but I knew well that could change quickly.
Keeping my hand on my sword hilt, and in the best commanding voice I could muster while shaking inside I said, "State your business!" A good offense is the best defense when you don't know what is going on.
"I come as an agent for a friend. I am to deliver this letter only to Maxical. Are you she?" the man said.
"Who? What friend? Identify yourself and this friend!" I demanded. The thought suddenly came that this man was sent by Vicente.
I had come to a realization in that little cabin about Vicente. He had used some form of magic to brainwash me and make me ill. I had escaped, had he now sent this man to bring me back into his clutches?
"Who was your sponsor into the Academy of Magic?" The man asked.
My mind reeled, was he sent by Fathis? Fathis was sending me a message? Oh, is it possible he is no longer angry with me? I felt a weight begin to lift off my heart.
"Is Fathis the one who sent you? Fathis has a letter for me? Please, let me have it!" My hands were trembling now from excitement. Fathis had contacted me!
The man stared at me, impassively, then slowly nodded. With slow-motion movements he withdrew a letter written on a parchment from his blouse pocket, and a small bottle from his trouser pocket. He lay the letter on the table and spread it out.
"What trickery is this, it is nothing but a merchants invoice!" I said getting angry.
Then he carefully smeared the oil from the bottle onto it evenly, then took out a candle, stuck it onto the table, and lit it.
I was ready to burn him with that candle if he did not hurry up and produce Fathis letter!
"Why did you pour oil on that invoice? Where is Fathis letter!" I demanded. I was ready to snatch every hair from his head in a second if he did not produce it!
He ignored me and held the letter near the flame.
Then suddenly I noticed words beginning to appear on the parchment that had not been there before. I watched in fascination as more emerged between the lines of the Merchant's invoice. It was as if the words were conjured there! I was straining to read it even before the messenger gave the letter to me.
"Only Fathis would know such magic, this is a sign it is he!" I thought, feeling animation come to my heart that had lay dormant for so long. "Imagine him disguising his letter, he was always one to make something interesting out of the ordinary!"
"This letter has been sent by a friend who wishes to warn you of one who wishes to bring harm to you. The one who wishes you harm is Vicente. He plans to turn you into a vampire. While you slept he fed on you, that is how you were able to escape his spell. His powers were weakened by feeding. But now he is again starving himself to regain his powers of mental domination. Do not return lest he once again cast his spell over you. "
I gasped when I read that, my skin felt like it crawled and I almost vomited at the thought. But I continued reading.
"You may trust the agent I have sent this letter with to escort you to me. I will meet you at the Tiber Septim. If you are with my agent, he will give a sign that will allow you access. D."
I looked up at the man and he took the letter from me and burned it in the candles flame. It instantly incinerated into a puff of smoke
"Oh Fathis, this is a sign it is you." I thought smiling, trying to figure out in my mind what the 'D' stood for.
"Danger? Dire? Has he been made a Duke?" I mused. Although I always just signed my letters to him 'M,' Fathis always signed his letters with his full name; a large flourished 'F' at the beginning. This 'D' was rigid, did that mean he had not forgiven me yet?
"Please, will you take me to him?" I asked. I could hear the excitement in my own voice.
"I will make him forgive me!" I thought to myself.
Without a word he turned, and I hurriedly followed him to the Tiber Septim Hotel. When we arrived the man gave no discernable signals that I noticed, but he was waived to proceed upstairs.
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*** The little cabin in the woods:
http://www.uesp.net/w/images/images.new/6/61/OB-Roland_Jenseric%27s_Cabin.jpg
