by Brian Keller
He’d only just laid down when he remembered he’d promised to have information for Camilla in the morning. He rolled off the bed. Did a few minutes of calisthenics to shake off the drowsiness and sat back at the table to think.
The reasons for using poison were many, but he usually used it only if the victim or his guard could pose a threat to him, or if he expected that he wouldn’t be able to get close enough to kill ‘by hand’. This killing occurred in the street. The victim was unguarded, and perhaps drunk. By all accounts, any killer might expect to be able to get close, strike unexpectedly and get away safely. So either the killer is very weak, an untrained fighter, or they were testing the poison. They weren’t too worried about anonymity since they’d approached the dead or dying victim to remove the arrow, and presumably to confirm the kill as well. Either that, or they knew that they were stealthy enough that they could remain unseen while checking the corpse and collecting the weapon. Too much left unknown…. What about the poison? The external application of a poison meant for ingestion. Was there something significant here? Does the poison itself mean something? It had been modified so it could be used externally. Why? Having a sample to work with would probably make all the difference.
The realization came in a flash of clarity, he might not be right, but the idea certainly had potential. He quickly scribbled down some notes and a few more questions for Camilla to consider, but he felt confident that he was approaching at least a couple of the answers that she was seeking. He blotted the sheet and placed his inkwell on one corner to make sure the page wouldn’t get moved casually and went back to his bed. He drifted off to sleep with a satisfied expression.
Chapter 3
That morning, in Master Darius’ class, Cooper had been required to write up a detailed materials list for his trap. The Master was busy devising the arming and triggering mechanisms. His teacher had given him the impression that completing this trap would satisfy his course requirements, “How better to assess your grasp of the material than in practical application? If you can accomplish this then you’ll have learned everything this class has to offer, with my assistance and guidance, of course.” Master Darius even appeared a little smug.
Cooper was also learning the value of managing his time. He now had a few projects he was working on outside of classes. At least he felt he had caught up in Etiquette Class. He no longer needed to devote extra time to studying family trees and cultural implications of each nation. This left him more time to think about Miss Camilla’s problem, and make a little progress on copying her book, and now helping Master Darius devise and design ‘his’ trap. Consider all that, along with the fact that Master Brais would be taking him outside two or three nights a week… He had been hoping to find some chance to go visit Chesim, his friend who lived in the Waterfront District, but he’d had to accept that was unlikely to happen any time soon.
The only recent adjustments in Etiquette Class was that they were allotted a little more time to craft their character, selecting clothing and makeup to complete the effect. Over the last few lessons a couple of the students had been called upon to re-visit earlier characters and develop them further. With assistance from Mister Ysel and Miss Eiler, Cooper had been asked to further develop his silver merchant from Temidan. At first this caused some small embarrassment for him since his classmates teased him about adopting that guise again. The first and only occasion for using this persona, he’d received a languorous kiss from Treanna, a girl in his class that seemed to have an attraction to him. An attraction that he couldn’t help but share. His classmates were saying that by developing this persona he must be seeking another kiss. The teasing soon ceased since each student had their own characters to work on.
They had also been recently introduced to the hierarchy of the kingdom to the north, the coastal nation of Kalistos. This nation had been introduced after the others simply because the customs were no different than that of their own country, Rhychevel. In fact, the primary difference between the countries was who ruled them. History indicated that a few hundred years ago they were part of one larger kingdom, and that country was divided between that king’s sons to form the kingdoms that exist now. At present, Rhychevel and Kalistos conduct trade freely with one another but were neither rivals nor allies, though they would likely form an alliance if threatened by another.
To the northwest of Rhychevel, and west of Kalistos, across a mountain range, were the Broken Lands. This land was said to be mostly rocks and scrub brush. Mister Ysel said it was because it was tucked between two mountain ranges and it got very little moisture. In this land there was no single or primary leader but a collection of warlords. Families had joined to form tribes. The Elders of each family formed a Tribal Council and the Council would decide the actions of the tribe. The warlord of each tribe had the power to break deadlocked decisions and would assume command of his tribe in times of war. According to all texts, there had never been a time when all the tribes had ever been united, though there had been many times when a few tribes had joined toward a common goal. This was usually for the purpose of sending out raiding parties into Temidan, and sometimes into Kalistos, though this was rare since it required crossing the mountains. Cooper learned that in the last hundred years or so, the severity and tenacity of Temidan’s armed response to these raids had effectively discouraged the tribes of the Broken Lands from continuing this practice.
Over the next few weeks, Cooper drew mostly blank cards but any time he drew the dagger he managed to hand over a pouch within a few minutes without being discovered, though once as he was giving the pouch to Mister Ysel, the teacher leaned in closer to say, “Nicely done. I almost didn’t see you do it. I am learning to recognize your tactics.”.
Cooper was looking forward to Apothecary class. Hurrying through lunch would not bring it about any sooner, but Cooper had been giving more thought about circumstances surrounding the poison Miss Camilla was studying. While it is certainly possible that the House Father from Batter’s Field could be a random victim, simply selected by chance to test a poison, he couldn’t look past the fact that Batter’s Field had been experiencing more than its usual share of violence in the past year. He couldn’t see how these events could be connected, but as the number of deaths and disappearances grew it seemed that there might be some common threads. He wondered if Miss Camilla would agree.
Unbeknownst to Cooper, Miss Camilla was waiting for class to start as well. She’d woken that morning to find a sheet of paper folded into an origami lotus flower on her bedside table. It seemed a shame to unfold it but written on the sheet were Garoth’s thoughts and analysis. It was written in a tight, neat hand. The lines were ruler straight. It read,
“I agree that this poison has been modified so that it can be used in a variety of ways, instead of just one or two, as most poisons would be. Even with the changes made to it, this Talgrit-based poison is still likely to be most effective if ingested. I suspect that creating it requires considerable safeguards. Either that, or the apothecary is likely to die while crafting it. Personally, I would find this poison rather handy, only needing to carry a single vial rather than maintaining a miniature apothecary shop in my pockets. The problem is that it allows anyone who can follow simple instructions to become an assassin. The only warning they’d need is “don’t get any on you”.
Several questions remain for me, but the one I am most curious to learn is whether a powdered form of this poison would also be fatal if inhaled? I suspect it would be.
G.”
Camilla smiled, she had teased Garoth about his handwriting yesterday. When he’d originally come to the Guild he couldn’t read or write at all. Ever since his first eight months, all his penmanship reflected his pride in having learned to write.
When class started, Cooper sat at his workstation and got started on his daily task. Camilla brought the wrinkled sheet of paper over to his table and placed it in front of him. Cooper picked it up and asked, “Did you fall asleep with
this in your pocket?”. Camilla smiled and replied, “No, this is the result from your recommendation. “Get an Assassin’s perspective”, you advised me.” After he read the note he looked up and said, “This takes us a little further along with what we were already thinking. It still doesn’t answer whether the House Father was an intended target, or random. What it does tell us is that we can certainly expect to see more killing. If someone has developed this poison…” Camilla had been nodding as he spoke but she stopped as he trailed off, “What else?” she asked. As he told her of his concerns about the increasing violent events in Batter’s Field, Camilla’s expression darkened. She thought about it as he spoke and when he was done she spoke again, “This gives us a place to start. I will suggest to Master Brais and the other stealth instructors that they hold more of their training in Batter’s Field. Assassination isn’t unique to the Guild, but if an Assassin from a different Guild has an assignment in this province, they are expected to contact us first to make sure there are no ‘incidences’. The use of this poison needs to be brought to the attention of the Master’s Council. I was hoping to wait until I had a sufficient sample to present to them, but with these suspicions of Garoth’s and ours, I feel the Guild needs to be informed of what we know up to this point.”.
Miss Camilla stepped away from his workstation and stopped to check on Aden’s progress before returning to the front of the classroom. Aden was still trying to work through a sequencing problem on creating a compound with luminous qualities. Once Camilla had returned to the podium at the front she announced, “Fifteen more minutes and we’ll continue our review for this week’s test. You can either clean up your stations before the review or after, but before you leave today your station will be clean and orderly.” He’d thought that Miss Camilla had been pretty thorough with yesterday’s review. Today was more of the same. Cooper wondered if it would be possible for him to just take the test and avoid the continued review. He knew better than to ask.
When he got to the Training Room, Cooper was glad to see that Master Loril was there speaking with Mister Skran. Master Loril was a huge bear of a man. He had once been the Combat Instructor but he’d passed that role along to Mister Skran. He was now the Guild Swordsmith but he was probably still one of the foremost fighters in the Guild. Once the class had assembled, Mister Skran announced that Master Loril was there to help Kolrem with training after his recent Manifestation. Mister Skran had the remaining students pair up and continue working their sequences with their blunted blades. He had been paired with Rukle, as usual. Cooper was able to glance over and check on Kolrem’s progress from time to time and under Master Loril’s tutelage he seemed to be increasing his grasp on accessing his speed and maintaining it.
After about thirty minutes of drills, Mister Skran told the students to begin sparring, “Slowly and carefully, if you please.” Two hours later found Rukle sweating and frustrated. Fighting with a blade in each hand still proved taxing for him. “Still too much to keep up with.” he complained. Class ended with Cooper a bit frustrated as well, every time Rukle faltered it interrupted the training.
Upon arriving at the Arena, Master Brais informed both Cooper and Rukle that for the next week or so their stealth training would be overseen by Evan. They wouldn’t be required to present themselves in the Arena until further notice. Rukle had gone outside only once so far, just as he had. They were instructed to meet Evan in an hour, at the same place as before and take further instructions from him. As the boys left the Arena Rukle looked at Cooper, “Looks like we have an hour to ourselves. I’m not sure what to do with it, but I know that we don’t need to rush through dinner now for a week or so.” Cooper let out a single chuckle. “I suppose I could spend an hour working on the book for Miss Camilla… unless you’d rather go to the Training Room?” Rukle grinned, “I thought you’d never ask. I need to practice a lot more on dual handed technique. An extra hour each night with just you and me could make a big difference, if you’ll coach me.” Cooper shrugged. For him, fighting with a blade in each hand felt like the most natural thing in the world. In fact, it didn’t feel right fighting with only a single blade.
After a few minutes of drills Cooper asked, “Ready?” Rukle nodded. They began to spar. They started off slowly for several minutes, then Cooper began to increase the pace. Every minute or two after that he’d speed up just a bit until reaching a pace when Rukle’s movements started to become irregular. At that point, Cooper slowed significantly, allowing Rukle to regain his rhythm and then resumed a faster speed that his partner could maintain. Cooper had been teaching himself to divide his focus. Trying to allow himself to pay attention to what was happening in front of him while keeping an unconnected stream of thought. This allowed him to coach Rukle without interrupting his own rhythm. “For the moment, don’t try to predict what’s going to happen. Just pay attention to what’s right in front of you. Keep your vision slightly out of focus. Don’t think of it as attacker-defender. Two blades allow both of us to assume each role at the same time. Perhaps that’s what has your mind at odds with what your body knows. Either hand can be used to attack or defend, whichever is needed at the moment.” As they were sparring he could see Rukle reacting to his words and his movements became slightly disjointed again. Cooper slowed the pace and Rukle’s movements smoothed out. Instead of increasing speed, he now began to alternate the role of his blades, he would continue to defend with whichever hand was in position to do so, but he adjusted his footwork to allow him to attack effectively from a defensive posture, attacking with the blade that would normally be thought of as being in his blocking hand. This caught Rukle unexpectedly for a moment but he adjusted almost immediately. Cooper maintained a speed that Rukle would benefit from, but continued to change his fighting style every few strikes, forcing Rukle to adjust. At one point, the look of frustrated concentration on Rukle’s face began to relax and his movements became more confident. Cooper resisted the urge to increase speed again. Rukle would learn more from five minutes sparring at the edge of his comfort zone than he would from three hours of struggling to keep up. At least, that’s how Cooper had it figured.
After ten minutes of continuous sparring Rukle started to breathe a little harder and there was a gleam of perspiration on his forehead. Cooper stepped back and lowered his hands. Rukle looked irritated, “Why’d you stop?”. Cooper shrugged, “You’re looking comfortable at that speed. Let’s get our heart rates back to normal and then start right back in at that speed. Real fighting doesn’t include a ‘warm-up’.” Rukle nodded and performed a few lunges to loosen up. He kept watching Cooper from the corner of his eye. He just couldn’t seem to get a lead on Cooper. On the one hand, he was generous with his time and knowledge, but on the other, he seemed to almost give nothing up. Rukle figured that at some point there would be only a few students that would be selected for the highest echelons of training. That meant that they were already competing against each other, yet here was Cooper, taking time to help him as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
Cooper had shifted the blades to be sheathed behind his back, almost horizontal with the grips just above each hip. He had seen Mister Skran wear blades this way and he wanted to try it out. It felt pretty good and when he drew the blades he only had to bend his elbows and he was in an effective reverse grip fighting stance. While Rukle cooled down, Cooper practiced quickly drawing the blades and snapping into a stance.
Rukle walked to stand in front of Cooper and drew his blades and smiled. Cooper sheathed his blades and stood straight, regarding Rukle as he let his arms casually hang loosely at his sides. Rukle advanced and started his attack. Cooper snatched his blades from their sheaths and met Rukle’s attack and pressed in close for an immediate counter attack. The speed and ferocity caught Rukle off guard and he was unable to hold his defense against Cooper’s advance. Cooper withdrew and adopted a defensive position. Rukle looked puzzled, “Why didn’t you finish your attack?” Cooper shrugged, “I know it, and you k
now it. There was no reason to finish it. C’mon. We’ve got less than twenty minutes before it’ll be time to go meet with Evan.” By the time fifteen minutes had elapsed Rukle was ready to stop and go meet Evan. Rukle was thinking about how he enjoyed fighting and sparring, he always had, but Cooper seemed to thrive on it. He didn’t know how it could be possible but Cooper appeared more energized now than when they’d started.
Evan was already waiting for them on the rooftop. As they came close enough for conversation, Evan told them that he’d been instructed to take them into Batter’s Field and begin patrolling. They would follow anyone that seemed suspicious but their main efforts were to remain unseen. Evan would stay behind them and try and keep track of each of the boys’ locations. Once they got into Batter’s Field they’d assign a location to meet up in case they became separated or if there was trouble. Evan warned, “There may be an unaffiliated Assassin, or more than one, at work in Batter’s Field. We must be on our guard.” Cooper was nodding, it seemed he had more information than Evan so he added, “There’s a poisoner in town. The weapon is unknown but the poison can be used in more than one way. Knowing as little as we do, I wouldn’t recommend confronting anyone.” Evan confirmed, “We’re going out to observe only. Approach no one. Fight only to defend and escape.” Evan paused to see both boys acknowledge his instructions, then continued, “Follow me for now. Once we get set in Batter’s Field, I’ll follow and watch your backs.”