Apprentice

by Nicholas Hale

Gale and Renal each chose three men. The job was paying extremely well, and reports said that Gilligan would be traveling alone. Renal had recruited two of the meanest-looking fighters from the pits, and an old mage named Kugan who was quickly rising in power.

  Gale, on the other hand, saw it as opportunity to pay off some favors owed to his fellow guild members, and had very foolishly recruited two of his former acquaintances and a raw recruit who was the nephew of a lesser merchant noble in Archon.

  The merchant noble had been hounding Gale for days to try and provide an opportunity for his nephew who would be sure to shine, the noble had said, if simply given the chance. The boy had jumped at the task with glee. He seemed thrilled to be going on a mission with Renal more than anything else. The spoiled brat had purchased the best crossbow that gold could buy.

  Good, thought Gale as he saw him arrive with the other two that Gale had picked. A crossbow means that he would be a good distance away from any danger. If there was any.

  "Is this lot the best you could do?" asked Renal, looking at Gale with complete disgust as they made their way to the docks.

  Those were the only words Renal had spoken that night to Gale.

  Gale did feel a little uncomfortable, especially after assessing the quality of Renal's men.

  And something had been troubling his mind the entire day. He had not yet learned to trust that feeling back then. He thought Renal was simply being over cautious because this was an order from the Ravenlord himself.

  But then, the question popped up in Gale's mind—Why would two of the most promising thieves in the Black Ravens in the last ten years be chosen for a job like this? Gale had second thoughts, but it was too late to recruit other men.

  And how Gale had regretted not trusting his instincts that night. It was that night that had sent him into a downward spiral that finally ended with him leaving the Black Ravens.

  Gilligan had already boarded the Teardrop, a merchant ship that would depart any moment. So, the assassins would have to confront him in the hold of the Teardrop.

  He had been as old as Gale thought he would be.

  What he couldn't have foreseen were the man's inhuman combat abilities.

  "Boy...I know how well trained you are. But do you honestly think you can beat me?" asked Gilligan, addressing Renal with an air of confidence that Gale would not have expected from one man standing alone against eight.

  Renal's response had simply been to drop into a combat stance and draw both his long swords. All the men, Gale included, did the same.

  What followed was madness.

  The three men that Gale had brought along were the first to go. Gale could only watch in horror as two of the men were cut down in a single instant. The young thief had both wet and soiled his pants before following suit.

  Gale barely managed to block a violent strike that had broken his wrist bone and sent him crashing into the wall of the ship.

  Renal's men fared slightly better. The pit fighters were at least able to defend themselves, though Gale could swear they were as surprised as he was by the tenacity of the attacks. Gilligan was using an incredibly large two-handed warblade that he pulled out of nowhere. The flat side was wide enough to function as a makeshift shield if he simply turned it around.

  More surprising than the size of the weapon was the speed with which Gilligan was able swing it. And the precision. Gale wasn't sure, but it seemed at the time that he was blocking Kugan's spells.

  The only reason all of them weren't dead was Renal.

  Even he was pressed, but he seemed to have more of a chance against Gilligan than any of the others. Gale could have sworn the methods being used by the two men were similar.

  He knew Renal was a talented swordsman, but this was beyond anything Gale had seen. Renal's arms seemed to be moving in angles that were not possible for the human body.

  A few feet to his side, Gale could see the crossbow that the young thief had dropped. A freshly forged and strung crossbow that had never been fired. It was cocked and still had the bolt in its groove.

  Gale reached for it, pulling it to himself. He would have to use his left hand to fire the crossbow. All the right hand was good for now was a stump to support the weapon as he held it.

  The two thieves' battle had reached a crescendo, sending wooden splinters flying in all directions. It only looked as if Renal was pressed, but though his blades looked thin and flimsy compared to Gilligan's massive warblade, they seemed well capable of blocking it.

  It was hard to use the heavy crossbow with only one hand, but Gale somehow accomplished it. He had to be careful not to hit Renal. If Renal died, Gale would soon follow.

  Gilligan did die in the end. In part, due to Gale's efforts. The bolts he fired were simply struck aside and were a mere distraction to their opponent. But distraction enough that Renal could get the slightest upper hand and drive both his blades into Gilligan's chest. The massive warblade disappeared as soon as Gilligan keeled over and fell.

  "Be grateful. A clean death is more than a traitor deserves," Renal had whispered into the dying man's ears.

  Gale heard the words clearly that day. He then remembered Renal searching the body and pocketing what seemed like an amulet. Gale had never seen it before. It looked like a moon and a star inside a circle.

  Only three of the eight assassins had survived. Gale, Renal and the mage Kugan.

  For all intents, this had been a successful mission, but Gale knew the truth. It was Renal who had come out on top. Sirius, the guild-master had rewarded both the men handsomely. It had thus far been the highest-paying job in the Ravens for him. With all three of his companions dead, Gale received their share as well.

  It was two weeks after Gilligan that Gale's troubles had started. The merchant noble whose nephew had died demanded restitution. Gale would have gladly compensated the man with the dead nephew's share, had he bothered asking nicely.

  After hearing one threat too many, Gale replied back in kind. Things did not go well with the guild-master when the merchant started putting forward his own theories of how Gale had the rest of the men killed to appropriate their share.

  Ludicrous, but the merchant was in good enough standing with the Ravens that the guild-master had to hear all sides of the story. After doing so, the guild-master ruled in Gale's favor but did ask that he pay at least a small portion of the gold to the merchant noble. Things would have been well enough had Gale decided to leave the matter there, but hearing himself narrate the events of the night raised many more questions in Gale's own head.

  Who exactly was Gilligan? Why had Renal called him a traitor? Moreover, how did Renal even know him? They weren't even in the same guild-hall.

  And the amulet. Renal seemed to have thought it important. It started as simple curiosity, but Gale knew it was more than that. In his own mind, the mission had been a terrible failure, and Gale had to find out why.

  He started by researching the amulet's symbol. What the Ravens lacked in books, they made up for in a network of information. They didn't have a library, but they had in their employ merchants, scribes and several mages who did.

  And for the first time, that information network had failed him. None of them knew anything about the symbol.

  Against better judgment, and more to appease his curiosity than anything else, he finally made a trip to Ithaca, the capital city of Aegis, and purchased the use of a noble's vast personal library. The man was a historian and a collector rumored to have books about everything that happened in the isles. Purchasing entry into such a hallowed place was difficult for a man like Gale, a thief in the Black Ravens with no familial ties to nobility.

  Fortunately, the collector himself had to deal with several black-market traders to obtain books and Gale paid off the right people connected to him. It was expensive, but fruitful.

  Gale had never read so much in his life. He made multiple trips to the man's library and pored over several facets of the Aegean Empire's history.

&nbs
p; Finally, he found references in some obscure books to the existence of a secretive sect known as the Twilight Circle. Little was mentioned about them other than that they were involved in a very violent clash in Archon forty years ago, during the formative years of the Aegean Empire.

  Some of the islands had fought tooth and nail against Emperor Thyurin's idea of a unified Aegean Empire, but Archon was not one of them. Lacking a strong government, the island of Archon barely even noticed when soldiers bearing the banner of Aegis stepped into the port.

  The figurehead leader of Archon was a pirate king known only as Sliver—a brutal but rational man who knew he would last but a few minutes against the might of Thyurin's navy. Leaders met, and treaties were signed. The pirate king would 'relinquish' his self-proclaimed throne and title while an Aegean magistrate would be placed in control. Word was given that the magistrate would not interfere with the workings of Archon—which included the thieves' guilds.

  They could all go about their business as usual with the exception of a single guild. A small and obscure one by the name of the Twilight Circle.

  No reason was given as to why the Aegean military wanted the Twilight Circle dead, but the message had been clear. Known members were rounded up, tortured for information and silently executed. As were people aware of the organization's existence. Before the circle could even rally together, they had already lost a great portion of their strength. Guilds, both allies and rivals, eager to please the new powers betrayed the circle, some going as far as to carry out the assassinations themselves.

  Gale saw a single drawing of the Twilight Circle's symbol in the book.

  Apparently, the circle had no intentions of dying out silently. Assassination being their forte, they targeted the key commanders of the naval detachment surrounding Archon.

  Three out of the seven commanders were killed in a single night. An act of defiance and an affront to Emperor Thyurin himself. The act had to be answered in kind and the Council of Three stepped in.

  Only one member really intervened, the book said —Fabian Matel. Little detail was provided except for the fact that Fabian singlehandedly destroyed the circle.

  Gale felt uneasy as he read about them. The lack of detail only served to heighten his discomfort. The entire organization had been swiftly dealt with in a matter of days. And Fabian. All the councilmembers were notorious in their own way, but Fabian was one of the original three members. A renowned warrior, he participated in both the unification of the isles as well as the Rygan invasion.

  The final few lines on the page had said that the organization had been wiped out entirely. Beyond this, Gale couldn't find any information about them in any of the remaining books. Several of the books didn't even mention the death of the three commanders—some even said that the three commanders had died in wars on other islands. It was almost as if there was a deliberate attempt to wipe out any information about the Twilight Circle.

  They Clearly weren't extinct, because Gale had seen the symbol very recently. Was Gilligan a member? Perhaps the Black Ravens had a rivalry with the Twilight Circle…

  Having only found more questions, Gale continued to spend more time investigating Gilligan's life. There were several anomalies in the man's life. None of which Gale could resolve. Any attempts to dig in deeper led to dead ends.

  Gale found out that Gilligan had kept a mistress. Not some whore in a brothel, but a woman he was truly intimate with. He could have found out something useful from her...had she lived—she turned up dead the day before Gale was supposed to meet her.

  Some known associates of Gilligan's, both inside and outside the guild, met similar fates.

  Gale himself had some strange accidents—ones he was very fortunate to avoid. He had initially dismissed them as a coincidence, but finding a venomous snake among his belongings had been the last straw. Since then, Gale took exceptional care in whom he met, what he ate and where he went. He also found, strangely, that his guild-master began sending him on increasingly dangerous jobs. Ones that would get him killed sooner or later.

  Gale didn't have Renal's uncanny skill when it came to weapons, but he was definitely one of the better swordsmen in the guild. It was only owing to that that he had escaped from an ambush with his life. His fellow comrades had deserted him halfway through a job, leaving him to fend for himself. Against the odds, Gale managed to kill his assailants and make his way back to the guild.

  His first instincts had been to find his underlings. Find them and make them pay.

  With Gilligan's death, both Renal and Gale had been made lieutenants, so he certainly was in a position to do that. Betraying a lieutenant was grounds for death in the Ravens.

  However, his anger having died down, Gale had time to think and piece together recent events. The men Gale had chosen were certainly good men. Whatever else they were, they weren't stupid. They had to know that betraying a lieutenant in the middle of a job would mean their deaths. They would never jeopardize their position in the guild doing something like that unless it was someone above Gale who ordered it.

  Gale found out later that they had simply been called off. They were under the impression that Gale had not been at the arranged place. The source of this message had been Sirius, his guild-master—someone whose word they would never doubt.

  This incident, and the increasing risk of the jobs he was given, made one thing clear. His guild-master wanted him dead.

  But why? And moreover, why the elaborate ruse? Why not have him killed outright instead of arranging for some accident?

  Perhaps it was because he was a lieutenant. You couldn't simply go about killing your own men, especially those of rank, without raising concerns from the rest of the guild. After all, they were a brotherhood. Nobody wanted to think that they were ever at risk from inside the guild. Nobody wanted to watch their backs in the company of guild members. Accidents weren't that hard to arrange. Especially for a man with the resources and power of a guild-master.

  Why have him killed at all? Gale spent hours trying to answer that question and the only answer he could come up with was Gilligan. And the Twilight Circle. Did someone think that he knew something he wasn't supposed to?

  In any case, if a guild-master wanted him dead, he would soon be, no matter how fortunate he was. His luck was bound to run out soon.

  Keeping that in mind, Gale had decided to seek out opportunities elsewhere. Garvin had been a man of high standing with the guild. Being his right-hand man would be sure to protect him at least for some time. His obsession simply wasn't worth his life. With that, Gale decided to put Gilligan, the Twilight Circle, and the Black Ravens behind him.

  *

  He didn't know back then that it was Renal who had saved his life. Garvin was indeed in high standing, but not enough to protect Gale from the wrath of the Black Ravens. If Renal was indeed a member of Twilight Circle, perhaps he had enough influence to save his life. But why? He could have just let Gale die. This was probably something he needed to ask Renal.

  "How long has Renal been a member?" asked Gale.

  He had been truly mistaken in thinking that Renal had called Gilligan a traitor because he had betrayed the Black Ravens. It was the Twilight Circle that Gilligan had betrayed. And it was the Twilight Circle that Renal was working for.

  "Gale, you're better off not knowing. I'm serious when I say this. I'm going to have to kill you if you ask me anything more."

  Gale had to laugh. Renal would surely find this funny. He wondered if Renal knew that their guild-master wanted him dead.

  "You find this funny?" asked Ceívar.

  "More than you can imagine."

  It wasn't as funny as it was ironic thought Gale. Although he was glad to work for Garvin, there were times when he wondered about the Twilight Circle and Gilligan.

  There were times when he walked into Garvin's own library with the intention of picking up books and searching through them for information about the circle. But he refrained from doing so.


  Ten years, and finally he was face to face again with his old obsession. Perhaps when this whole mess with Darius was done, if they were still alive, he could ask Renal to share a drink and ask him about Gilligan's story.

  The Twilight Circle. Incredible.

  Knocks on the door.

  "We're leaving now. Is the mage ready?" came a voice.

  Marcus. It seemed the troops were assembling. Well, at least if he died now, he could die with the satisfaction that he solved a mystery that had plagued him for years.

  Chapter 72

  Riven watched as files of shadowy figures made their way through Archon's alleys under the cover of night.

  Somehow it was exciting.

  He already knew their destination and should have taken the sewers there, but this time he decided to follow them above ground.

  It was a truly spectacular sight. The thieves themselves were all armed to the teeth with new shiny weapons, but they were very well hidden as they made their way.

  A small contingent of thieves and what looked like mages were making their way slowly through a separate route. Their destination was not the main guild-hall itself, but one of the houses containing a secret path into the basement of the guild-hall.

  A frontal assault would be stupid, and Riven was glad they didn't do it. He needed them to succeed. Or at least buy him some time.

  It looked very well planned. They didn't go in all together, but made their way there in pairs. The mages accompanied by their assigned bodyguards were the last ones to arrive. Riven could see Gale there as well. And Ceívar! Riven was glad to see the man alive.

  It was then that he saw the mage. A young man who couldn't have been more than twenty years old. There was something wrong with him. Riven could hear a voice coming from within the mage.

  It was like his voice. Except it was louder. Much louder.

  Did that mage have a voice inside his head too? Riven was curious enough to keep his eyes fixed on the mage.

  His own voice told him that the mage was formidable. That Riven should stay away from him at all costs.