Journeyman Assassin

by Brian Keller

  The announcement came during breakfast. Master Loril entered the dining hall flanked by Mister Skran, Miss Camilla and several other Masters and Adept instructors. The room immediately fell silent. Master Loril swept his gaze across the room before he spoke, “As you all know, there have been increasingly frequent attacks on Guild members. Starting today, and continuing until further notice, your current curriculum is suspended. Your new schedules are being posted as I speak. The ranks of Journeyman and Apprentice are also suspended and these two bodies of students will become combined under the title of Interim. Additionally Scribe and Enforcer students will also be combined. Some rivalries are inevitable, but fighting amongst students will be dealt with swiftly and severely. The reasons for these changes should be readily apparent, but if any questions about this remain after today I encourage you to ask any of your instructors. Finish your breakfast, review your schedules and write them down if needed. Ignorance of your schedule will not be accepted as an excuse for tardiness.” As Master Loril and most of the instructors accompanying him turned to leave, several teachers began placing scrolls on the tables as well as gluing some to the walls of the dining hall as if they were wallpaper. Miss Eiler wheeled in a cart loaded down with scraps of paper, quills and inkpots. Her bright voice cut cleanly through the chatter of the students, “Here are some supplies for making your own copy of your schedule. Don’t dally. Classes start in twenty minutes.” She turned and hustled out of the dining hall before the rush of students surrounded her. Cooper and Kolrem took a few seconds to confirm their schedules were still valid and then resumed eating.

  Miss Camilla’s Anatomy class was held in a room across the hall from her Apothecary classroom. Cooper realized that her day must be almost completely filled with teaching and wondered if her schedule had always been this way. All around the room there were images of men and women painted on sheets of canvas. A few of them looked normal, but most of the paintings appeared grotesque with aspects of the person’s body opened up or skin having been peeled back. Miss Camilla took charge of the room, “Don’t just stand and gawk. Select a seat and occupy it.” As Cooper sat, he continued to look at the paintings. It didn’t sicken him to look at them, but they were certainly unsettling. Once everyone had seated themselves Miss Camilla began teaching. She began by explaining common terms and establishing anatomical points of reference. She directed their attention to a painting depicting a standing man. He was facing them with his arms at his sides but with his palms facing them. She explained that most of her instruction would be presented with this position being the baseline. As the coursework became more involved, other positions would be specified and included. She then revealed a human skeleton that was held upright on a stand. The bones clattered as it was wheeled out for all to see and the perpetually grinning skull was unnerving. Miss Camilla told the class, “This is a human skeleton. It is literally the framework around which the rest of the body is formed. Think of it as the frame of a building which then holds up the roof and supports the walls and protects many of the objects inside. Your learning will start here and as you learn we will add the next layer and describe what we know about its function. We will have finished Basic Anatomy once we have added the final layer, the skin. Once Basic Anatomy is complete we will begin discussing the systems; each organ and the systems it belongs to, the circulatory system, the respiratory system and so forth. Before this semester is complete you will understand all of this as well as how the systems work together to keep a person alive. Next semester we will teach you the most efficient ways to interrupt these systems and how those interferences affect the body.” For the next two hours Cooper listened with a reserved enthusiasm. He was interested in everything Miss Camilla was teaching, but he also realized that in the hour or two since he’d entered the room, his learning curve suddenly went vertical. Cooper thought, “So this is how I’ll be starting my day for the next year?! I may need to start waking up a little earlier…”

  Advanced Combat gave Cooper a chance to expend some of the energy that threatened to boil over after being seated for two hours filling his mind with anatomical references. Mister Skran arranged students and selected bows to fit them. This process went remarkably quickly since Mister Skran already had the bows sorted by length and he’d divided students into short and tall groups. Cooper assisted the short group, while Kolrem assisted the tall group. Once he’d spent ten minutes or so describing the parts of a bow and an arrow, Mister Skran had Cooper and Kolrem demonstrate proper stance, aim and release. They repeated these movements, releasing ten arrows each into one of the straw dummies. With each repetition Mister Skran described a different aspect of their technique as a teaching point. Thirty minutes after class started, the rest of the students were lined up and they began sending arrows across the room. Mister Skran managed the overall instruction and fixed problems as they presented themselves. It seemed the boys were primarily there to demonstrate, provide technique adjustments and encourage consistency. Mister Skran insisted that, initially, accuracy was secondary to consistency. Once a student became consistent, accuracy simply became a matter of adjusting their point of aim. Cooper and Kolrem found no errors in his logic.

  During lunch, it appeared that nearly one-third of the students in the dining hall had attended an archery class. They were jostling around the dining hall trying to learn how to navigate through the crowded space without snagging their bows on everything within reach. Cooper and Kolrem shared a knowing look, grateful again for the education they’d received in the forest.

  After lunch, as they entered the Smithy, Master Loril’s voice rang through the space, “Leave your bows and cloaks somewhere along the walls. Those articles have no place near the forge. Once the students had complied, the large smith pointed to a heap of gloves that were piled on a table, “Find a pair that fit and keep them. You won’t want to do anything in this class without them. Not unless you have affinities like I do, that is.” It was nearly five minutes of chaos but once the flurry of movement was over the gloved students surrounded the forge again. Master Loril explained, “In this class you will learn how to work the forge and how to form metal into the shape of a blade. Many of you might even learn to make a serviceable blade by the time we’re finished. This class shouldn’t take an entire semester for any of you. Those that are here longer than a semester are here for one of two reasons: you’re on the verge of failing and you’re in remedial classes, or you’ve excelled to the point that I want to keep you here to assist me. If you’re excelling in your other classes, I’ll have no choice but to let you go, but if not… well, I am always looking for capable assistants.”

  Master Loril and his assistant demonstrated how to use heat and hammering to stretch, fold and re-form metal into beginnings of a blade. Once the rough shape had been formed, Master Loril turned the metal over to the assistant and he addressed the class again, “That demonstrates the broad strokes of the process, and how you will start learning.” He walked towards a table where a few sheathed blades had been laid out. As he picked one up and unsheathed it, he spoke again, “By repeating the process you’ve just seen several times, then shaping, polishing and sharpening, you should expect to end up with a blade like this.” He held up the blade. It was sharp, simple but deadly. Master Loril spoke again, “For a few of you that show real ability here…” he held out his hand towards Cooper and asked, “The dagger you got from me, if you please. I’ll give it right back.” Cooper drew the blade and presented it, pommel first. Master Loril rested it on a couple fingers of each hand so the class could see it, “those few may expect to be shown how to blend metals and produce a blade like this one.” He looked pointedly at Cooper, “Or a replacement for this one’s sister.” Master Loril might have been the only one in the room to notice how Dailen stared at the dagger. His eyes fairly seemed to glitter.

  Master Loril swept an arm gesturing across the Smithy, There were a dozen anvils surrounding a single forge filled with red coals. “You’ll work in g
roups of three, at first. As you can see, there is only one forge. There is plenty of room to share around it for heating your project, just be aware when you step away and move about while holding heated metal. Once you’ve got your metal hot enough, you’ll take it to your anvil and shape it with your partners until it requires heat again.

  Dailen asked, “Sir, the buckets of water near the anvils?” Master Loril smiled, “Yes, thank you for reminding me. It takes more than heat to make a good blade. It also takes cold. The quenching is critical. If the metal is made too hard, it becomes difficult to put an edge on it. Worse still, a hard blade is inflexible. Inflexible is brittle. Strike it against something with enough force and it will shatter. Conversely, too soft, and the metal won’t hold an edge. If you strike something hard, it will bend. So, what is the solution?” He paused to see if there was anyone willing to answer. The room was silent as he continued, “As in Life, sometimes the only solution is compromise. A blade must be hard enough to take an edge and keep it, yet soft enough to hold its shape and not shatter.”. The swordsmith moved over to the forge. He gestured for his assistant to join him and for the students to gather around, “Come. Let us show you how we do this.”

  Two hours later, Cooper’s ears were still ringing from the repeated banging of metal on metal as he walked down the halls towards Etiquette class. As soon as the thought entered his mind, he corrected himself, thinking, “It’s now Scenarios class. I guess that means we’re past the point of identifying which fork to use with our salad.”

  As he entered the room, it appeared that nothing had changed except the students were different. There were many students quite a bit bigger and older than he’d seen before. Several of them he’d seen in the dining hall, but some of them he had never seen at all. One boy stood up and walked towards him. Cooper felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up as he recognized the boy. Boyd. As Boyd drew nearer, he smiled. Only this time it appeared that the smile was genuine, not the malicious, malevolent leering smile Cooper had come to associate with the bully. Boyd held his hand out to Cooper, “I never got a chance to say “Thanks”.” Cooper tentatively accepted Boyd’s extended hand and his voice was filled with uncertainty, “Um, you’re welcome? What are you thanking me for?” Boyd’s smile grew wider, and remained genuine, “Teaching me a lesson. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I deserved it. Becoming an Enforcer student taught me that. I got to witness what I’d become first hand and decided I didn’t like what I saw.” He reached his hand up to touch the side of his head, “That person is still there, but he only gets to come out when he has work to do.” Cooper had to wonder, “Just how many people he can fit in there?” He also wondered how the Enforcer curriculum had turned a young sadist into the cheerful young man that had just shaken his hand.

  Mister Ysel and Miss Eiler were seated in the reception area of the room. Once all the students had arrived they began to explain how the class would work. Miss Eiler started things off, “Etiquette still matters. Several of the students here have the benefit of attending Etiquette classes previously, some of you have not. For many of you, this may be difficult at first but be patient and pay attention to what you see and hear and you will quickly learn. Mister Ysel and I will rarely participate in the Scenarios, we will manage them and guide them. Pretend we are invisible as we move around, except for those occasion when we are making corrections or providing instruction.” Mister Ysel stood, held up a deck of cards and began speaking, “These are the same cards we have used before. For those of you who are new here, all but two of these cards are blank. One card has an ‘X’ and one card has a dagger.” He displayed these two cards as he named them. “For every scenario, each of you will receive a card and a role to play. If you draw a blank card, then playing that role is your only responsibility during the scenario. If you draw the dagger card you will still play your assigned role, but you are also the Assassin or Killer. If you draw the X card, you will play your role until someone announces that you have been “killed” or until time has run out. That announcement may come from us, from circumstances as they unfold, or it may come from the Assassin whispering it to you.” Mister Ysel began shuffling the cards and Miss Eiler began speaking, “The Mark is the only person to reveal their card to the class. The Assassin is to have devised and implemented a method of fulfilling their contract before the end of the scenario. Some scenarios might only last a few minutes, some could last for most of the class period. Each Assassin must assess the time they believe is available to them and act accordingly. Finesse and anonymity is encouraged. Ideally, the identity of the Assassin remains unknown until all reveal their cards at the end of the scenario. If The Mark remains alive at the end of the scenario, the Assassin fails that event. Three failures will result in that student failing this class. Perhaps Assassination is not for them.” As some of the students groaned in response to this, Mister Ysel held up a hand, “Not all of you are eligible to draw the dagger card. Many of you are not slated to become Assassins or Killers. The rest of you will play your roles and attempt to pilfer and steal as many items as you can secrete upon your person during the course of the scenario. Pouches and anything not nailed down is fair game. Assassins or Killers, keep this in mind. If you plan to slip a vial of “poison”, which will be either be sugar syrup or lemon juice, into the Mark’s drink or food, and some thief steals the vial… Well, you’ll need to either adjust accordingly or manage to steal it back.”

  One of the older Enforcer students raised a hand and Mister Ysel pointed at him, “Yes?” The student asked, “You keep talking about scenarios, sir. What kind of scenes can we expect?” Mister Ysel smiled, “An excellent question. They might range from formal dinners, costume parties, fish markets, and tavern common rooms, in other words, the imagination is the limit. However, some of the setups are less convincing than others. For those scenarios that are limited, or completely lacking, in props we’ll ask that you simply play along.” Several of the Enforcer students nodded, accepting this explanation. Miss Eiler smiled, “Don’t worry. We’ll be gentle, at first.” Cooper raised a hand and Mister Ysel acknowledged him, “Ah, Cooper. Welcome back. You have a question?” Cooper nodded, “Sir, within the scenarios, does the mark know he’s the mark? In other words, if I’m the mark and someone brings me something to drink, should I drink it? Or be suspicious?” Miss Eiler smiled. It was her sweet smile that Cooper had learned was entirely fake, even though all the signs said it was genuine. She replied, “If it seems natural that someone should give you a drink, if the scenario supports it; a party for instance, then drink.” Mister Ysel saw Cooper’s frustrated expression, “I think Cooper was merely using the beverage question to express a state of mind. Is the mark aware, or unaware, that someone is trying to kill him?” Cooper nodded, satisfied that he’d been understood. Mister Ysel continued, “For the purpose of the classes, let’s assume the mark is unaware of the immediate threat, but would be an unwilling accomplice in their own murder. In other words, if the attempt is clumsy and unmistakable, then it should fail.”

  For the first scenario, Cooper drew a blank card. Miss Eiler must have selected the scenario. The dinner party was her favorite. The setting was easy since there were already many dining room settings within the classroom, and costumes were minimal. An apron signified a cook or a server, the male staff simply needed to don a house coat. Cooper was given the role of guard, which fit closely with Salder Varen’s persona. It also allowed him to observe the room. As everyone was seated, he observed an enforcer student in a house man’s coat straightening the serving table and pouring the wine. Once the meal was served and everyone had started eating and drinking the house man spoke quietly to Mister Ysel and stepped away. Mister Ysel had a concerned look on his face. He called for everyone’s attention, “Alright everyone, the scenario is complete and there is obviously a need for clarification. Everyone at the table has been killed.” Miss Eiler looked horrified while Mister Ysel continued, “While, in the broadest sense, this sati
sfies the criteria for the scenario, the mark is dead, after all; it leads us to an important point. We are hired to kill a specific person. We are seldom hired to commit murder on a wholesale basis.” Mister Ysel directed his attention to the house man, “In fact, it’s quite likely that you’ve killed the client as well. This is never a good policy as it is exceedingly difficult to collect our fee from a deceased client.” Mister Ysel was shaking his head, “Before we move on, explain how the murder was done.” Cooper interrupted before the student could explain, “He poisoned all the wine glasses.” The enforcer student gave Cooper an irritated glare, “Yes. That’s right.” Miss Eiler turned to Cooper and asked, “How did you know?” Cooper shrugged, “A house man had no business arranging anything at the serving table, and certainly not pouring the wine. A house man would’ve directed one of the servers to do that.” The enforcer student appeared slightly flustered, “Well, I was just helping out..!” Cooper appeared disinterested, “I only noticed it because it didn’t look right. After dinner in the lounge, maybe then it wouldn’t have seemed so unnatural. But only because the rest of the staff would then be engaged with clearing everything up following the meal. At that time, it might not even stand out if he poisoned a single glass and hand-delivered it to the mark.” The enforcer student complained, “There was no way in knowing whether the scenario would last that long.” Cooper didn’t reply. Miss Eiler spoke to fill the silence, “Very well. We must allow this to be considered a success, since the criteria of killing the mark was satisfied. However, I sincerely hope that we can all agree why mass murder won’t be an acceptable result for any future scenarios?” Birt walked over to whisper at Cooper, “I guess this highlights the difference between Killers and Assassins…?” Cooper nodded in agreement.