by Honie Jar
Bijan continued, “Ervin pretends to be a royal up in Khora where the Shield reign.”
“It’s a tough job,” interjected Ervin. “I sometimes pay people to say they are my relatives. This whole charade is draining. I’d rather be like Ramin and just have the birth right of wealth.”
Ramin spoke up, “You have done a great work for us, brother. Khora would still be wanting to infiltrate Abastan if it was not for you and your cunning shrewdness.”
“Swaying the Shield not to invade Abastan was quite clever on my part,” mused Ervin.
“Let’s not get carried away,” admonished Bijan. Bijan turned to Asha and explained, “Part of what makes our Clan so successful is that we do not allow any assassin to go on any mission by themselves. We are always paired up so that not one assassin could take credit for the completed mission. Ervin was paid up with Donya Keshmiri, she’s around here I’m sure. Bijan took a moment to survey the rows of tables. “Well, I don’t see her now. Regardless, Donya’s cover is Ervin’s wife. She also masquerades as a royal. In Khora. She stabbed a ranking member of the Shield and played it off as though the Assembly of the Undead had murdered this clan member.”
Asha interrupted, “The Assembly of the Undead?” she asked.
“Yes. You’ve probably never heard of the Assembly of the Undead. Or if you have, you’ve heard that they are a myth. Well, they are real. They keep a very low profile and never come out among the public. But they had been executed by the King of Kazeveh unjustly. They entered the Underworld and returned to seek vengeance on the King.”
“I see,” replied Asha, entranced by the intricacies of the clans. The game she was accustomed to playing, Ascendancy of Unity, did not have this clan. Perhaps it would come out in future releases she mused to herself.
“The Shield despises the Assembly of the Undead because they were rotten enough to enter the Underworld. Even if they were wrongly executed, their merits still earned them a place in the underbelly of Jahannam. Asha recollected that that was where she was headed and instantly felt grateful that Ibrahim had pulled her soul out of that and she could experience this amazing new world where she had choices. They were few, given that she was not an initiated member in the Clan, but she relished the opportunity of being a sworn member and working her way up in the ranks.
The food being passed out by assassins whose job it was to work the kitchen during their off time interrupted Bijan. “Thank you, Remy,” he said to the young assassin who brought his plate and sat it in front of him. Bijan was served first at the table since he was the highest-ranking member there. Soon after, Yasamin was brought her food. Each one began eating, still politely chatting while the others sat and waited for their food to arrive. A few moments later, Ramin and Ervin were brought their food.
The last one who was served was Asha. She took a moment and observed the entire pheasant, with its feathers plucked and its skin charred so it was crisp on the outside. On the plate, a side of gravy and three charred scallions. Surely, these assassins were not only expert killers, but were expert chefs as well?
She cut into the pheasant that laid on its belly, piercing the warm and tender flesh that steamed when she cut the skin off of it. The slices revealed a warm, juicy, tender white meat that nearly fell off of her utensil as she pulled it way from the bone. Putting the bite into her mouth, she could not believe the seasoned meat that she had between her teeth. These assassins sure did know how to cook.
Asha had never tasted food as decadently prepared as this roasted pheasant. Aram was accustomed to making drive thru runs through Taco Shack, and before that she would have traditional Persian stews in her foster homes, but they were not prepared with this type of culinary expertise.
Eating her entire plate, the charred scallions and gravy were a wonderful compliment to the roasted pheasant, and Asha felt at home in the dining hall among a room full of strangers. They were strangers to her, but the secrets that they all shared bonded them.
The meal concluded, and young assassins came to clear the plates, clearing Bijan’s first and operating in order of rank at the table. “Wonderful dish!” Bijan exclaimed. “Please give Brother Afshin my compliments,” said Bijan to the server assassin bussing his plate.
“Mine too,” interjected Ramin. “I realize I could eat at my family’s palace, but this place has far better food.”
“I will let Brother Afshin know,” replied the server assassin with a nod of respect as he took the plates.
Bijan turned to Asha and whispered, “Now we will have our nightly update meeting before we go to bed.”
Asha nodded as from the corner of her eye and tall man rose from one of the tables on the other end of the dining room. We walked to the front of the room and as he walked, the room fell silent.
“Good evening brothers and sisters,” announced the man who wore a white tunic with a black cape over his shoulders. His hood was drawn over his head, revealing the strong jawline of this muscular man. His shoulders were broad, and he stood at least six and a half feet tall. His brown leather boots came up to his knees, and he wore beige pants. The leather armor he wore strapped to his chest and around his shoulders was worn but appeared to be in good shape and would protect him against a stab or piercing form a dagger.
This man was indiscernible among the other in the room. Ramin and Ervin both appeared to out rank this man because of the royal attire they both wore, however, from the reception of the room, Asha understood that this man commanded all of their respect and attention. Bijan whispered to Asha, “This is the High Justiciar. The High Justicar is regarded as a temperate and fair-minded leader.”
Asha nodded, her eyes never leaving the High Justiciar. He continued, “We have two females on a mission, the same who were out last night. Armin Kamali and Leila Iravani both successfully infiltrated the Qurinas. They subdued two members in that clan, taking their places. We received word of their successful placement this morning. They will continue to feed us information from the Kingdom.”
Applause, cheers and whistles erupted from the crowd. Some assassins took their gold chalices and beat the table with them. Bijan whispered to Asha, “This is the first successful infiltration into the Qurinas. All the other attempts had resulted in beheadings. So, this is a monumental moment for us.”
Asha had no idea that the other attempts resulted in failures and that these two woman did in fact gain access to the King’s army.
The High Justiciar continued, “We had a successful hit early this afternoon. One of our Councilors, Bijan Hakimi, successfully slain one of the King’s trusted advisors today at the souk.”
The tables once again applauded, cheered, whistled, and clanked their cups own the table. Asha looked toward Bijan with a smile. Bijan nodded his head at those who looked in his direction.
When he sat down, Asha asked, “But you were on that mission by yourself. I thought assassins always had to go in pairs?”
Bijan turned to Asha and said, “You were technically with me. You were my cover, that disarmed the royal counsel. This successful hit is part yours.”
The cheers stopped and the High Justiciar went on, “While he was there, he picked up his newest recruit, Asha Ayari. Tomorrow we will meet early in the morning for the ignition ceremony. Asha will begin her First Degree. Robed attire is mandatory.” The High Justiciar paused for a moment, and then announced, “Oh! And don’t be late. Meeting adjourned, see everyone in the underground meeting room in the morning.”
As the High Justiciar concluded the meeting, the assassins who sat at the tables got up from their seats and headed to their respective rooms. Asha stood up from her bench and waited for Bijan. Bijan reiterated, “So, tomorrow we will begin the initiation process. There are nine degrees you must pass before you become an apprentice. Once we begin the process, you will move from recruit to initiate. The degrees get more difficult as we progress through them.”
Asha nodded, both eager and anxious to start this process. Nervous that she would not be able to
complete the nine degrees, yet eager to become one of them.
Both Bijan and Asha headed out of the dining room and into the main room with the pool. “Now that we have had dinner, and you have had some time to rest, I am going to begin your training tonight,” started Bijan. He added, “This is a skill that you will need tomorrow…follow me.”
He led Asha outside, and through the courtyard of the mansion. Traveling down the streets of the slums, the entire town of Adar seemed to wreak of urine and other human wastes.
“Where are we going?” Asha decided to ask. She was not going to blindly trust anyone anymore. If that was on lesson she learned in her previous life, it was to start asking questions.
“Relax. You will learn to trust me,” shared Bijan. Asha’s anxiety was not quenched and she grew even more nervous by the evasion of the answer. Seemed like something Aram would say to her, and that put her on edge.
The structures became larger the farther they moved from the mansion and the surrounding slums. The buildings appeared to be as large as the ones in the capital city, Bakahisar as the pair had walked to the far east side of the mountain.
Asha confronted Bijan as the elusion of questions gnawed at her innards. “Where are we?” Asha said with a demanding tone. “Where did you take me?”
“We are in a small town called Nirim,” answered Bijan. “Adar does not have tall buildings, so we are not able to train on them,” added Bijan. Asha took a moment to look around. The buildings were taller than the ones in Adar since the mansion was the only high structure in the entire land over there.
“Why did you take me here?” Asha barked. Asha made the conscious decision not to be a victim anymore.
“Watch this!” Bijan shouted before darting to the gray building.
Asha watched as she witnessed Bijan not break one stride as he drew near to the building. She expected him to smack right into it, but instead he reached his arms high above his head while he leaped on top of barrels that were stacked at the base of the wall before propelling himself at the structure.
Both perplexed and in awe of what she was seeing, she nearly could not believe her eyes when she watched Bijan effortlessly scale the side of the building, moving quickly up the side, using the rough stones as grips and leveraging himself with windowsills. He arrived at the top of the building, crouching down and looking at Asha as she looked back at him with her jaw dropped.
He returned down the same manner, with cat-like precision, before dropping for several stories and landing on a pile of hay to break his impact.
Asha was still in shock when Bijan returned to her. “What in the world did you just do?” Asha asked.
“Wall Scaling,” answered Bijan. “It’s a tactic that is reserved for only those who are in the Clan of Bahram. The other assassin clans are unable to do such a maneuver.” Asha remembered that she had seen this in the gameplay that she watched, but she never thought she would actually see someone do it in real life.
“Now it’s your turn,” instructed Bijan.
“What? I can’t do that,” defended Asha. She doubted herself in nearly everything she tried before. That was the habits from her old life coming into her head.
“You don’t have an option,” responded Bijan. “This is a skill that I am going to need you to learn before we embark on our mission tomorrow.”
Not wanting to even entertain the notion of scaling up a building, Asha saw that she did not a choice in the matter. “It appears that I do not have a choice,” she muttered.
“I mean, you do have a choice,” retorted Bijan. “But the other option is that I behead you, here.”
Weighing the options, but not heavily considering the second one put before her, Asha asked, “So what do I exactly do again?”
“Good, we are on the same thought. Now, as you approach the wall, try and build your speed. Then, think of yourself light as a feather, floating upward as if you were caught in a gust of wind,” explained Bijan.
Asha looked at Bijan, disappointed and not believing it truly, “That’s all I do?”
“Yes, that’s all you do. The rest happens automatically.” Suspicious once again of what Bijan imparted to her, she looked at him and then took off in the direction of the building.
As Asha ran, the wall neared her as she approached it. She wanted to slow down, she wanted to stop, but she fought those conflicting feelings and increased the speed of her legs. As she watched Bijan, she leaped at the stack of barrels, using them as a spring board to launch herself to the wall.
She concentrated on the feeling of a being a languid feather caught up in a gust of wind, subjected to the whim and shifts of the air movement. As she thought about this, her body became lighter. When she used the stack of barrels as a starting point to take flight, her foot merely tapped the surface because her vertical propulsion was extremely strong.
The action became effortless for Asha that she did not have time to doubt her abilities as she grasped and leapt up the wall. Within moments, Asha landed at the top of the building, standing on the roof, crouching down as she saw Bijan do. Staring at him the same manner as he stared at her from the ten story view.
As she looked at Bijan, she saw writing come across her vision:
New skill attained: Wall Scaling
New skill attained: Aerial Arts
New skill attained: Acrobatics
*New skills attained resulted in an increase in the Attributes and Abilities.
Attributes and Abilities update: Increase in the Art of Combat.
Attributes:
Art of Contraption: 12 (1)
Art of Conspiracy: 11 (0)
Art of Combat: 18 (3)
Art of Covertness: 8 (-1)
Art of Craftiness: 10 (0)
Art of Conjuration: 11 (0)
Art of Control: 12 (1)
Abilities:
Accuracy- 13 (1)
Intelligence- 12 (1)
Strength- 15 (+2)
Agility- 21 (+5)
Evasion- 10 (0)
Defense- 7 (-2)
Stamina- 10 (0)
Attack- 10 (0)
*The Attributes are an average of the abilities listed below and rounded down:
Art of Contraption: Accuracy + Intelligence
Art of Conspiracy: Accuracy + Evasion
Art of Combat: Strength + Agility
Art of Covertness: Evasion + Defense
Art of Craftiness: Stamina + Attack
Art of Conjuration: Intelligence + Evasion
Art of Control: Stamina + Strength
Bijan ran at the wall, scaling it within a mere second, meeting Asha up on the roof top. “Bravo!” Bijan yelled while he clapped. “I did not expect you would take on this skill so quickly, you truly will be an asset to our Clan.”
Asha, amazed by her completing the task herself enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment. Pride over came her. This feeling was not typical for her, as she did not accomplish much in her previous life.
“We have to do the next bit of skill training,” announced Bijan.
“That’s not it?” Asha asked, assuming that would be the only thing she’d learn this evening.
“We can’t stop now, pay attention to what I do. You’ll also need to know how to do this as well,” said Bijan as he ran straight for the edge of the roof. Asha moved closer to the edge so she could follow him with her eye.
With mighty leap across the pitch black gap, to settle softly on the low roof of an enormous structure slightly below the height of the one he had plunged from. He ran a slightly way from where he landed and lingered, waiting for Asha.
“Your turn,” he said.
She retreated back to the other end of the roof to get a running start to build her speed. She ran as fast as she could, the edge drew near with every step. She wanted to stop, once again, but she didn’t. She marched on.
Asha should have noticed a flicker of fear as the ravine, revealing the street eight stories below loomed before her, but she recogni
zed that she would willingly die then hesitate in front of her mentor, and then gathering up her fortitude she took an enormous surge of faith as she shot across the large granite cobbles in the moonlight, her feet panicking as they flailed through the air. For a split second she doubted if she’d misjudged it appropriately as the steeper the silvery surface of the structure looked to advance to meet her, but then, somehow it descended below her and she was on the new house, slouching slightly. It wasn't perfect, but nevertheless on her feet, exhilarated, though hot and breathing heavy.
Bijan, with just as much ease as he had when he scaled he wall, jumped from roof top to roof top using a single leap between each. He traveled over four roofs before stopping, turning to look at Asha. Asha knew what that look meant.
She concentrated on being a light feather as she took another leap, a leap of faith to keep up with her mentor. She did not allow the contradictory voice in her head that whispered she could not do this. Instead, she hid that voice and buried deep with in her, not allowing it to surface.
Asha leaped across the four roof tops with acrobatic ease, performing the same maneuvers as Bijan. She caught up to him, landing on the final building while he clapped in delight of her accomplishment.
When she paused, she saw the writing once again come across her vision:
New skill attained: Building Leap
The wording she saw in her vision was the culmination that she was capable of doing what was required of her in this world. If only she had the same writing in her previous life. A confirmation that she was on the right path, but alas, that was not the case.
On that note, the training was complete for the night, and Bijan and Asha returned to the manor where the Clan of Bahram resided.
“So we will meet here before sunrise. Wear your cape attire and equip the weapons I left on the end table as after the ceremony we will get right to the first mission.” Bijan explained as the two stood in front of the reflecting pool.
“See you tomorrow,” replied Asha. Everyone had already retired for the night, and the manor was quiet without a stir.