by Riley Tune
Before I could finish my words, the air in the living room shimmered out of focus for a second. My mother didn’t notice it, but I had more experience with what was happening than she did.
In an instant, a man popped into existence, and began to remove his black cloak.
Luka and Kula stopped their fighting and ran to the man in the living room. “Ember!” they shouted as they got closer to him.
He said nothing, but the grimace on his face was enough.
“Room. Now,” my mom said as she stood from the table and pointed to the back portion of the house.
“Get that look off of your face. They’re just kids,” I said to the man.
He folded his cloak evenly over his arm, then placed it on a chair in the living room. The same cloak he had been wearing that day we'd first met, two years ago, near my mother’s grow shelter job. Ember was scary to the core, and I’m not just saying that because of the way he acted.
He was a tall man with dark skin. He was in his mid-forties, but he still had considerable muscle tone and an inhumanly muscular chest. Likely a result of the line of work we were in.
His scruffy beard and black hair were of a woolen texture, and he had tattoos from the base of his neck down his upper body that were barely visible. Yes, he was an imposing man; and even after all this time, he still sometimes scared me as much as he had that first day.
“Ember,” my mother said with a fake smile as she slid her plate towards him. “You may as well eat before you take my son away from me again.”
“Thank you,” Ember said as he vanished into thin air and reappeared beside the table. My mother jumped a little. I rolled my eyes and sipped my water.
“Would you stop? You warped all of five feet,” I said, looking at him with a grin as he sat down.
“Remember who the teacher is here, boy,” he replied as he began to eat.
My mom stood from the table as she removed the twin’s plates. She didn’t mind Ember, but she could only tolerate him in small doses. I’m not sure if it was because of what he was, or if it’s because of what he did.
I should say it was because of what we were. Ember, for all his rugged glory, was just like me. We were both born with this same curse. The curse that had frightened me when I was fifteen to the point that I couldn’t bear to tell my own mother.
We were both killers. We were both Warpers. The rarest of Warpers. People able to move long distances in the span of a heartbeat. I could be standing here one moment, and in the twins' room the next. As long as our destination was in our line of site, we could warp there.
There were other Warpers out there. Not many were inward Warpers, like Ember and I, but there were a good amount of outward Warpers. People able to warp objects to and from them, but not to warp themselves.
This wasn’t the curse, though. The curse was what inward Warpers were: assassins. Ember, who for the last two years had served as my teacher, says that, since the dawn of time, Warpers were blessed by the Keeper. Blessed to be able to move like we do, blessed to mold history with a slash of our blades, and blessed to take life.
That was our curse. Did I honestly believe that Warpers had been doing this from the dawn of time? Not even a little. I knew we were forced to take lives even when we didn’t want to. To keep the balance. My saving grace was that the curse didn’t take effect until you actually fulfilled your first contract.
If you never kill a person, then you can continue to warp without consequence. But once you take a life, it starts. From that moment on, you are destined to continue killing in some form or fashion. If we didn’t, then our ability to warp would fade. Could I simply stop now? Yes. I would remain a Warper and keep all of my abilities. The thought of this sat fine with me, but I had to consider my family. This was the only source of income my family had, and assassination paid pretty well.
“Do you two need anything for the road? There is a little food left,” Mom said, as she moved around the kitchen cleaning.
“No, I think we’re good,” I said, as I stood from the table. A small bag hit me in the chest. I caught it and looked at Ember, who was standing and checking his throwing knives.
“For Beckton and Venzor,” he said casually as he began to adjust the leather greaves on his lower leg.
I opened the small bag and looked inside. There were two gold yolars, and a handful of silver yolars. The small coins in this bag could support my family for a month. Knowing my mother, she’d buy food for a week or two and then give the rest to people she owed money to in Thera.
It was a good payday for very little work done on my part. Actually, no work had been done on my part. Not yet. Between the two of us, Ember was the master. Some believed him to be one of the most dangerous men in all the Prime Sovereignty.
As a Warper, you were eventually drawn to another Warper as their powers developed. This was how Ember had found me on the street that day. As I learned from him, I'd get small paydays like this, until I was ready to carry out assassinations of my own. Luckily, that day was far off. I wasn’t ready to take a life yet, and Ember knew it. Demanding as he was, I was thankful for the patience he had with me.
I removed three of the silver yolars and gave the rest of the bag to my mom. She looked inside the bag and then at me. Once she would have fought taking the bag. She hated what we did to make our money, but she had the twins to think about. Food was running out, and we didn’t know when our next contract would come.
“Lox,” she said with a sigh as she placed the bag on the table and gave me a hug, “you are more a man that your father ever was.” Her arms tightened around me once more, and then relaxed. “Be safe out there.” She handed me a large bag.
It was my bag. The bag I always used when I came home. It was time to go.
I opened the bag slowly and found the tools of my craft. She kept it hidden from the twins when I came home to visit. She didn’t want them to know my secret just yet. They knew what I could do, but not why.
I removed my greaves first and I dropped down to place them on my lower leg. They were made of a strong leather that offered protection and still allowed us to move with ease. Next came my bracers. They were just like the bracers worn by Ember, who was now leaning on the wall, breathing heavy. He rolled his eyes and allowed his finger to drum against his leg.
I clasped my bracers to my arms. After that I put on my belt. It was a belt we had to have made specially so that it could hold our weapons. Ember and I both carried similar knives. His knives were better, of course. We both had three throwing knives that were solid black steel.
They were double sided and had a small hole in the handle. The hole allowed it to keep perfect balance as it was thrown. I ran my finger along the edge of the little knife gently. It truly was a work of art.
Knives were my thing. Something about them, the way they felt in my hand, the way they looked, always fascinated me. These were my main knives, but I had recently decided to start a collection of my own, like Ember had.
In his time, Ember had collected everything from rare swords wielded by kings to daggers used by warriors of legend. He kept them as reminders of his kills, but I would keep them for their beauty.
Naturally Ember was better with his blades than I was with mine, but I was learning.
“Would you hurry up?” Ember bellowed at me. I paid him no attention. For the most part he was all show. Even if he did want to hurt me, which I’m almost positive he didn’t, he likely wouldn’t. Inward Warpers were too rare. Before me, it had been a decade since he'd met another new one.
As his arms crossed I could see his dagger on his belt. The dagger we used was much larger than our throwing knives. Made of mostly steel, with a black leather handle, it was the go-to weapon for a Warper. Unlike Ember, who had two daggers, I only had the one. I wasn’t skilled enough to wield two yet.
I finally put on my cloak. “I’m ready,” I said to him as he began to open the front door. Instantly the sound of the falling rain poured into the r
oom.
“Shorn. As always, it's been a pleasure,” he said as he looked at my mom.
“Keep him safe, Ember,” she said to him.
He didn’t reply, but he gave a half-smile and a nod. He put up his hood, took a step, letting his foot pass over the entrance to the house, and then vanished.
“I’ll be fine, Mom,” I said as I approached the door.
The twins came running back in the room. Clearly they couldn’t stand being left out anymore, and they both embraced my mother around her legs. Those three were my world. I was the man of the house, and I had to provide.
Everything—no, everyone—depended on me.
I put my hood up and turned from them and looked out the door. The rain was coming down hard, but the torch runner had already come, so even with the added darkness, it was still easy to see. Ember was standing on top of a building across the street, waiting for me.
I took a deep breath and reached inside of myself. Touching that unknown yet unmistakable energy. It was harmony. It was power. And it was mine. The sound from the rain falling down around me faded, and for a moment all was quiet. I let my breath go and I warped.
2
Reappearing beside Ember on top of the building, I had to reposition my cloak hood to keep the rain from splattering against my face. I turned slightly to look over my shoulder and glanced at my house once more.
“I miss them already,” I said as a flickering light from the small house went out.
“Nonsense,” Ember said, smacking me on the upper part of my back, a little too hard. “You will be back in no time.”
I nodded. “Let's hope the week goes by fast, then,” I said.
Ember turned away from me quickly. Was this by chance, or was he avoiding eye contact? “Everything okay?” I asked him. He snorted in reply.
“Depends on how you see things,” he finally said.
“I trust you know where the first statue of the Emperor is?” He had to yell a little to be heard over the rain.
“Who doesn’t know where that is?” I replied.
“Good. Meet me there.”
I turned my face up as I watched him turn in the general direction of the main statue. In seconds he had warped, and left me standing there alone on the roof top.
This wasn’t at all how our training sessions started. Usually we spent time either going over hand to hand combat, knife defense or offense, or warping without being seen. It had always been this way for most of the two years I had been learning from him. It only changed when we had a contract or had to scout.
“A contract,” I said out loud in surprise. That must have been why we weren’t training. Odd for us to land one so quickly after the last.
Even more curious was that Ember hadn’t told me about it yet. Murder must have been booming right now in the Kingdom. People always assumed that brothels and sex were the Prime Sovereignty’s oldest profession, but I knew better. Murder. That was it.
If this was a contract, I knew I had better get moving and catch up to Ember to learn as much as I could. He already had a considerable lead over me. Finding him wasn’t going to be an issue, though. That was how our Warper Bond worked. When an older, more experienced Warper was suddenly drawn to a new Warper, the bond was created.
We didn’t know why it worked this way, but Ember thought it was to ensure that skills were always passed down from teacher to student. To ensure no lines were crossed. Like assassinating a King, or somebody important for no reason.
So even though Ember was gone, if I focused, I could kind of feel where his general presence was. It was weird, but it worked. After I'd learned what I was, I'd pretty much stopped questioning the weird and simply believed in what I saw or felt.
I focused for a moment, and in an instant, I could feel something inside me pulling towards a certain direction. I turned and looked out on the endless rows of buildings and houses. Setting my eyes on the highest one I could see, I ran and warped to it.
Warping is a unique sensation. You can literally feel it inside you. A brief, short tingle of sorts, right before it happens. After that, for a moment, there is complete silence, and you vanish from one spot and reappear into another.
I used to actually wonder where we went for that second in which we disappeared. We had to go someplace before we popped into another. That was one of the few question I'd asked that Ember didn’t have an answer for. He was one of the oldest Warpers alive, and even he didn’t know. So I just let it go. If he didn’t know, I assumed it really didn’t matter.
Standing on this building now, I could see so much of Thera. Even in the pouring rain, it was truly a beautiful city. Of all the kingdoms, this was the nicest in the Prime Sovereignty by far, but this was likely due to the fact that the Emperor himself ruled over Thera personally. Many of the buildings, like my home, were small and built without a lot of thought. Just some rooms to sleep in, a kitchen, and a wash room. Other buildings, however, were marvels. Some, like the one I was standing on now, had as many as three levels, and were built to last.
As you got closer to the palace, buildings changed drastically. The closer to the palace you got, the closer you got to nobility and the wealthy.
The homes there were made out of iron and stone, not wood and clay. They grew as high as four floors, and very few of the lower classes actually got a chance to see inside of them.
I took in the view of the city through the rain once more and kept moving. Ember was surely fuming at me now for being late.
I warped a few more times in the same direction until the main statue of the Emperor came into view. It was tall and looked identical to the Emperor in all of his glory.
There were many statues of the Emperor, and his descendants, throughout the Prime Sovereignty, but this one was different. This statue was called the first one because it was made completely out of bronze, making the statue itself worth a fortune. Its location had become something of legend for many and a holy spot for others.
Lord of Thera and all kingdoms of the Prime Sovereignty, Emperor Anavor Nal, had declared this spot to be the location of this statue, and ordered that this statue be different from the rest because this very spot was the first place that he had died. It was also where the world had learned that Emperor Nal could rise from the dead. It took time, but he did indeed come back.
Since then, he had died numerous times in one way or another, and he had always returned. The Emperor, much like Ember and myself, seemed to be able to do something that other people could not. Death would try to claim him, and in a day's time he would always return.
“Hey!” A voice came from the shadows and caused me to jump slightly.
I turned and saw Ember standing behind me. “What took you so long? I thought somebody'd finally come along and killed you. I thought I was free of this damn bond for a moment.”
I said nothing. He caught his breath as he looked at me, waiting for me to laugh.
“You didn’t think that was funny? I thought it was funny.”
Since the day we'd met, I'd known Ember was a unique individual. He spent most of his time alone, and other times, he was taking the life of another. Needless to say, he was a grim person. I'd told him he needed to relax some. Learn to laugh and joke like a normal person.
The problem was that Ember just didn’t get how jokes worked, for some reason. Even when he was trying to joke, it always came out wrong, and was usually laced with violence.
“It wasn’t funny, but at least you’re trying,” I said as I looked around. “Why are we here?”
He gathered himself and put on his normal passive face again. “New contract,” he said as he walked over and jumped off the building. I rolled my eyes and followed.
I glanced over the edge of the building and saw him standing three floors below. I jumped and warped slightly in the air to the ground—otherwise the jump would have likely left me with broken legs. The ground was softer from the rain, but not soft enough to help in a fall.
�
�What new contract?” I asked.
Ember said nothing, but he did smile. This scared me more than anything.
“Ember?” I asked. “What’s going on?”
“Tonight is your night,” he said calmly.
“My night for what?”
“This contract is yours,” he said as he moved from the building and began walking. I froze for a second. Surely he didn’t mean mine. This wasn’t how it worked. I learned, I observed, I didn’t do contracts. Not yet. I couldn’t.
I didn’t know which scared me more. The thought of having to kill, or knowing that, because of this curse, once I started, I wouldn't be able to stop.
“Ember!” I said as I began to move. “What are you talking about?” I ran to catch up to him, splashing through puddles of rainwater that were in my way. He kept walking, seemingly oblivious to me. “Ember!”
He stopped walking instantly. I had shouted at him. I'd shouted at him as if he was a child running through the city streets unattended. I swallowed down the lump in my throat. He turned and looked at me. He was taller than me, and from this angle his eyes seemed to blaze from under his hood. I realized that yelling at him may not have been the best idea. As the rain fell down around us, the streets seemed oddly quiet. I avoided his gaze.
“Sorry,” I said finally. The tension in his body relaxed some as he continued to walk, at a slower pace.
“Follow me,” he said gruffly as he moved. I did. We turned from the side street and found ourselves walking on one of the main streets in Thera. This street was considerably more busy.
Many people, not just Ember and I, were walking tonight, despite the heavy rain. It was evident that we were in a nicer, more upper-class portion of the city. Everything from the buildings to the clothes people wore shouted wealth. Most of the people on the street had special clothing on that repelled the rain. Nobody I knew could ever afford such an article of clothing. While many walked, there were some that rode what was being called a bicycle.
This bicycle invention was an oddity. It was said to be an invention by a man in the Walden kingdom. It was made with an iron frame and had large wheels on each end. They were different from what was usually seen on carriages. They were smaller, and made out of something other than wood. This was the closest I’d ever been to one.