The Discovery of an Assassin

by Brian Keller

  Later that night, as Treanna was helping him develop his next persona, Loryn came into the sleeping bay. He hopped up to greet her and saw that she was a bit out of breath. She gave him a brief hug and told him that Master Worthan had sent her to “fetch him”. She started over to Aden and looked back at Cooper, “He’s in his classroom.”. He looked back at Treanna, who smirked at him, “A summons from Master Worthan is not to be ignored… We can pick this up later tonight, or tomorrow for that matter.”. Cooper nodded and left for the classroom.

  “Good evening, Mister Cooper.”. Cooper took the seat that Master Worthan indicated, “Good evening, sir. You sent for me?”. Master Worthan’s expression was troubled, “Yes, I did. Master Brais has brought a matter to my attention. I asked you here because I wanted to know why you have chosen to ignore my instructions…?”. Cooper was so shocked that without thinking he’d exclaimed, “Sir! I have never ignored your instructions!”, then regained control of himself, “Sir, what is it that I have done?”. Master Worthan had been scrutinizing his reaction and appeared satisfied, “Yes, that is what I thought.”. He nodded to himself as he continued, “Master Brais came to me less than an hour ago. He was quite alarmed. He said that during stealth training today, you had completely disappeared for several minutes.”. The old man paused. He was waiting for some kind of reply. Cooper felt confused, “Sir, um, I don’t mean to sound clever, but isn’t that the point of stealth training?”. Master Worthan nodded, “Yes. It is. To strive to conceal yourself visibly and audibly. Indeed. Please describe to me what you were thinking and feeling at the start of your exercise.”. Cooper dropped his chin, “I’ve done it again without knowing it, haven’t I, sir?”. Master Worthan’s voice had a disciplinarian’s tone with a touch of concern, “I believe so. You were asked to relate what you felt and did at the beginning of your exercise…?”. Cooper nodded and answered Master Worthan as best he could. The old Master was listening intently, and when Cooper finished he said, “When you are reaching into the shadow, to absorb it and be absorbed by it, that is Channeling… again. I am not certain what energy that you are drawing to conceal yourself, as this one is not an ability that we share.”. Master Worthan stopped speaking for almost a minute. He appeared to be considering whether to say more. He took a breath and continued, “I had hoped to delay this conversation for several months, but since you have demonstrated abilities that I had not anticipated, I feel we must discuss this now. As before, I’ll ask you not to interrupt as I speak. We’ve already discussed Channeling and the fact that there are some who wish to destroy those of us with the ability to Channel. I have discovered at least one likely reason for this which I will explain to you momentarily. Just as there are differences in how Talent manifests in people, there are similar differences amongst those who can Channel. The differences are not as profound in most cases but still, differences exist. The fact that you can manipulate shadows and I cannot is evidence of that. We have discussed that Channeling is drawing energy from a source outside yourself. What I have discovered, and what concerns me, is that other people could potentially be a source of power. I have found some references of a mad wizard from long ago that had manipulated the powers of nature to prolong his life, and left devastation behind him by draining the life essence from the populations of entire villages. The reference is unclear but I believe that repeatedly absorbing the energy of others is what drove him mad. I have found a record that a group of mages and warriors went out to battle with the wizard. I am still searching but have found no records as to what happened afterward. It is unknown to me how to draw someone else’s life essence but I must impress upon you the dangers of playing with forces that you do not understand. You did not realize that you were Channeling, you were just doing what felt right… natural. By whatever method or state of mind with which you reach out to merge with shadows, never direct that towards another person.”. Cooper thought about how to ask his next question and finally it became clear. “Sir, you had mentioned before how persons who can Channel can often recognize one another?”. The old man nodded and Cooper continued, “Do you believe that you could sense such a person from across a street?”. The old master gave that some thought and turned his gaze to Cooper with a faint but knowing smile, “I think you may have struck upon something there.”. Cooper felt some relief, he knew that Master Worthan would at least be receptive to his next statement. “Sir, during the stealth training exercise, I knew where Master Brais had concealed himself.”. He paused to try to judge the old man’s reaction, but he appeared to merely be waiting to hear more, Cooper continued, “I somehow “reached out” and felt him. At the time, I wasn’t sure if I was right, and it crossed my mind that maybe he was there simply because that’s where I’d have been, but it felt more certain than that. Can you do that?”. Master Worthan’s expression became grave, “No, Cooper. I cannot, and I must caution you against ever doing that again.”. Cooper thought about that, considered what that meant and replied with trepidation, “Sir, this is going to sound disobedient, but that’s not how I mean it… I don’t know how “not to do that”. When I did it before, all I was doing was reaching out with my senses. Essentially all I did was listen intently and try to see through the shadows. Isn’t that what anyone would do? I just came away from it with more answers than others would have. If I don’t attempt to try to detect a threat in the darkness, how will I ever know when it’s safe to proceed or not?”. Master Worthan considered Cooper’s question for almost a minute and formed his reply, “Look and listen, but don’t reach. I cannot “reach” as you describe, so I cannot be certain how to advise you. That is the best I can do.”. The old man paused and then continued, “Are there any other instances that you feel you should mention to me?”. Cooper replied immediately, “No sir, but I would like to attempt something, and I suspect that you won’t approve.”. Master Worthan raised an eyebrow, “Well, ask and we’ll know for sure.”. Cooper knew that he’d need to phrase this carefully, and the idea had been forming for a few minutes so he didn’t have to think about it much, “Sir, I cannot be sure that I actually detected Master Brais, or if it was simply coincidence. But if we repeated the process with me trying to locate you in a darkened room, if it is Channeling, wouldn’t you sense it was being done?”. Master Worthan’s expression was blank when he said, “You are correct. I do not approve. This discussion has given me much to think about, however. And I now have some specific questions to guide my research. Once I have answered some questions, we might revisit your experiment, but at this moment neither of us has enough information to safely attempt it.”. Cooper nodded. He didn’t see the harm but Master Worthan knew more about this than he did. He’d simply need to accept his decision.

  When he returned to the sleeping bay, Treanna looked up with a questioning expression. He shook his head, “We’re going to have to postpone until tomorrow night. I’m just not going to be able to build a new character tonight.”. She nodded and went back to her bed. Loryn and Aden were enjoying a quiet chat, catching up on events of the last few weeks. It was nice to see Loryn but he didn’t feel like intruding on them. Cooper sprawled out on his bed to think about what Master Worthan had told him.

  Chapter 30

  The following morning, Cooper’s classmates were collected outside Master Darius’s classroom. The door was closed, as was usual. What was unusual was that no one was attempting the door. Cooper looked across his peers, “What are we all doing out here?”. Kolrem answered, “Well, we all started thinking… when he was teaching us about locks, the door was always locked and we had to pick our way in. Now he’s going to teach us about traps…”. He raised his eyebrows as he let his voice trail off meaningfully. Cooper couldn’t help thinking, ‘Surely not, he hasn’t taught us anything about traps yet’, but he made no move to open the door. Instead he began a close inspection around the edges of the door and the handle. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he closely inspected the keyway. After picking that lock every morning for a few weeks he
felt he’d recognize anything different. There was nothing new, except for the fact that it appeared unlocked. Thoughts were coursing through his mind in quick succession, ‘I don’t see anything unusual, and as much as I doubt that Master Darius has laid a trap in the door I have to consider it to be a possibility. Still, he hasn’t taught any of us how to disarm traps. Even then, the trap would only work one time on whoever opened it first, right? Could it be that he has devised a trap that resets itself?’. He turned to face his classmates, “Does anyone have any string?”.

  Everyone heard the latch on the door and then the door opened to reveal Master Darius standing in the doorway. He stood with his hands on his hips as he said, “String? Why on earth would you need string?”, he winked then continued, “All of you come in, there is so much you need to learn!”

  Over the weeks to come, they’d learn how to use poisons on needle traps, how to use pressure or taut wires to trigger mechanical traps, use acid to activate a delayed release on a trap and how to rig a wire or lever to hold a trap in position until the person building the trap released it at the desired time. They would learn that trap placement could be just as important as the trap mechanism. Since people became comfortable with habitual patterns, time release traps could be used to great advantage. This could allow an assassin to be somewhere else completely and still accomplish the fulfillment of their contract.

  Cooper had begun to more fully understand the implications of what Master Darius had said a few weeks earlier. “Anything could be a trap. The only things limiting the assassin are time, imagination, and the materials or funds to have the trap made-to-order.”. On a separate occasion, Master Darius has also said, “Traps need not be lethal to be effective. In fact, sometimes a trap need not even be triggered to be effective. It all depends on whatever outcome is desired”’. Cooper had wondered at that but had come to realize that the threat of a trap, or the discovery of a trap might be used to create a desired effect.

  As he learned and advanced in his other classes, Cooper started to feel like he began to understand how he could combine and blend the knowledge and apply it. He just knew that he didn’t have all the pieces yet, but it was close enough that he was beginning to get a sense of it.

  Etiquette class remained a mixed bag of randomness, but with Treanna’s tutoring and family tree diagrams as a reference, he had a firmer foundation in the supporting information. Soon he found it a simple matter to adjust to whatever was called for during each day’s lesson. As the days passed, he came to realize that was part of the point. Etiquette class wasn’t like Apothecary class, dealing with a set of constants with predictable outcomes. It was about adjusting to constantly changing sets of variables, but based within almost constant cultural contexts. With this realization, he understood the brilliance of it. How better to teach an assassin or thief to be almost infinitely adaptable than to require them to adopt new roles and adjust to different cultures each day and change their roles a half dozen times within the span of a couple hours?

  Apothecary class was not without challenges of its own. They still hadn’t solved the sequencing challenge for the lighting compound. Even weeks later, the only formula that produced light was the one that required heating as the final step. All other combinations resulted in failure and several of them also resulted in an extremely foul odor. On more than one occasion such an attempt resulted in the entire class vacating the room while Miss Camilla and a couple older students took turns entering to open windows and vents to help clear the stench from the room so that class could resume. These events prompted Aden to develop a mixture that when heated would become aerosol and waft around the room on ambient air currents and cleanse the air of noxious odors.

  After several weeks of excelling with a blade in the Training Room, Mister Skran eventually relented and began to work with the class on dual handed fighting. Each student put away their sharp weapons and everyone grasped a blunted blade in each hand. Mister Skran paired the students and taught them to practice a specific sequence of strikes and blocks. This was designed to help them become accustomed to using both weapons for both striking and blocking. Mister Skran stated that, “Without practicing in this way, your tendencies will be to favor one weapon for striking and one for blocking. This completely defeats the purpose of using a weapon in each hand. The other lesson I would have you learn up front is to expand your focus. Do not focus your attention on what your opponent is doing with their left hand, or you will ignore what they are doing with their right, as well as lose the ability to notice how they have shifted their feet and adjusted their stance. Without this information you will impair your ability to predict their next movements. You will eventually fall so far behind that you will become a victim rather than a victor. Dual handed fighting is only suitable for those fighters that can expand their focus. If you are not such a fighter, it will become apparent to you in due course.”. He paused to make sure all students had been paying attention and then simply said, “Begin.”.

  Cooper opened his awareness but remained conscious that he didn’t ‘reach out’ to try to draw in additional information. He also had to resist Flowing, which was a challenge since he was almost giddy with excitement. Somehow he just ‘knew’ that fighting with a blade in each hand was how it was meant to be for him. He had been paired with Rukle, which had become a usual occurrence, and the boys began working through the series of movements. It only took a few repetitions and it was already feeling natural. His left and right arms working independently yet each supporting the other in the overall tactic. Rukle didn’t seem to share Cooper’s enthusiasm, and was uncomfortably jerking through his half of the sequence. Mister Skran observed all of this and knew that Rukle was forcing himself to shift his focus from his left to his right and back again. He’d seen it so many times before it had become unmistakably recognizable. He observed Aden, who was paired with Birt, doing the same thing. Birt was going through the motions as per his usual. He seemed to be adjusting well enough, but wasn’t really dedicating himself to improvement. Kolrem was adjusting very well and completely dominating Habbon, who appeared to have regressed. He seemed to be sacrificing technique in an attempt to equalize his left and right sides, and not exactly achieving that goal either. This meant that Habbon needed more time learning the basics, since he apparently still needed to concentrate on technique. Mister Skran called out, “Stop. Change partners. Kolrem and Cooper. Aden and Rukle. Birt and Habbon. All of you practice to improve yourselves and each other. Rukle and Aden, left and right sides aren’t separate, they should work together. Habbon, don’t neglect your technique. Birt, stop being lazy. Cooper and Kolrem, practice your sequence for a few repetitions and then increase your speed.”. The next two hours of practice passed much faster for some than it did for others.

  That night in Movement Class, he felt Master Brais’ eyes on him from the very start of class. Cooper understood his teacher’s curiosity and wished he had more answers as well. Not that he could share any of that information with his teacher. Cooper felt certain that Master Worthan had explained all he wished known to Master Brais already. He focused on his balance and on keeping his movements smooth. He had discovered, painfully, that sudden, unplanned movements were usually his downfall. Out in the world, if things went wrong he might not always have time to plan his movements, he knew this and had voiced this concern to Master Brais. His instructor had assured him that, “While you are correct in your assumption, you’ll have a much better chance of maintaining your balance and speed if you build a firm foundation here. Much like with your Combat training… have you practiced fighting while waist deep in water? I expect not. But might you someday be called upon to fight while partially submerged?... certainly. You will have to adjust to it but having built the foundation in Mister Skran’s class will certainly give you an advantage over any opponent.”.

  Cooper found an opportunity to speak quietly with Master Brais and asked him if he would work with him for about thirty minutes or so on the T
rap. Master Brais looked at Cooper with a raised eyebrow, “You want to work on the Trap?”. He nodded, “I remember watching you moving around the Trap on out first day. I have given it some thought and I know that moving around the Trap is not only a matter of balance and agility, it is also a matter of timing. If I can manage to step onto each beam as it’s coming up, then I should be able to easily circle the Trap. I’m asking for your experience and advice to guide my movement.”. As near as Cooper could tell, being able to see only his teachers eyes, Master Brais appeared amused. Whether this was because he was proud that Cooper had thought of a solution or if it was because he was anticipating watching Cooper fall repeatedly for the next thirty minutes was uncertain. Both of them climbed up onto the Trap and Master Brais stood at the center and Cooper started beside him. He stepped onto the next beam which caused the anticipated rocking motion which transferred to the neighboring beams and within two steps half the Trap was rocking like ocean waves. He worked on maintaining his balance while he timed his steps onto the next beam as it bottomed out and was starting to rise. It didn’t quell the rocking but it changed the rhythm to enough that it became easier to predict and place his next step. He’d made a quarter of a circuit when he got the ‘reflected wave’ and completely messed up the predictability. He held position for a few seconds while the new rhythm established itself and he resumed his movement. He noticed that as he progressed, the ‘wave’ he created went away from him in both directions and met on the other side before the rebounding and returning. Master Brais showed him how to compensate as the ‘reflected’ energy returned. Within the first twenty minutes Cooper had fallen three times but after that he was able to effectively ‘read’ the movements and made several circuits without falling. At the end of the thirty minutes he’d even started changing his step to deliberately create more of a wave than he had initially. Now that he’d learned to manage the movement of the beams, the Trap no longer held a sense of dread for him. Master Brais had maintained his position at the center. He was standing with his arms crossed and he was nodding his head in approval. As he stepped to the outside of the netting and climbed down he spoke again, “You must realize that the Trap will react differently, more violently, now that I am no longer standing at the center. Twice around should be enough to make the difference apparent to you.”. He was right.