The Discovery of an Assassin

by Brian Keller

  Treanna was now satisfied that Cooper had accomplished building all the personas he’d need for Etiquette class, “Unless they add a new culture that I don’t know about… and then we can work on creating that one together!”. She gave him a wink and a nudge. Treanna always managed to be playful without being flirtatious. This was one of the reasons why Cooper felt comfortable with her. He just didn’t understand how to deal with that kind of interaction. He knew what sex was, he’d seen enough from the brothels, and from leaving the area when he saw or heard rapes taking place in Batter’s Field alleyways. He also knew that many rapists weren’t too particular whether they were victimizing a woman or a boy, so he’d learned to recognize ‘the type’ and avoid them as well as avoid locations where he might be trapped by one of them. It left him uncertain about the whole subject of sex since his only knowledge of it involved either commerce or a predator/victim interaction. He didn’t dwell on that kind of thing. He figured he’d understand it better when he was older. He had enough to be concerned about currently without letting something like that throw matters into complete confusion.

  The following morning he privately asked a question of Master Darius, “Sir, the boys that failed the lockpicking test… what do they do now?”. Master Darius’ mouth tightened up slightly, “You shouldn’t concern yourself with them, Mister Cooper. But they’ll be put to work as something other than Thieves. A student can’t become a Thief if they can’t pick a lock!”. This last bit was spoken loudly enough for several in the class to hear it. His classmates paused for a moment but when it became apparent that the outburst was done they returned to their projects. Cooper remained curious and pressed on, “But sir, surely there are plenty of scribes and such already…?”. His teacher shook his head, “This class is not for learning Guild structure and operations. If you continue to be interested, I suggest you find someone to educate you OUTSIDE OF MY CLASS.”. Cooper ducked his head and quickly returned to his table. He realized that Master Darius had struck on a topic that he’d been curious about for quite some time. When he’d first arrived, Birt had explained a little about some of the jobs in the Guild, but he didn’t feel like he knew much about the Guild. He was attending class and training so that he could become a benefit to the Guild, but he was learning that he knew very little about the organization. He found himself shaking his head. A few months ago his only concern was getting food to put in his belly and enough coin to pay his House dues. Things had certainly changed. This seemed like a question for Master Worthan. He had always taken the time to help him understand. Perhaps he could catch him during lunch and get a few of his questions answered.

  Cooper turned his attention back to the project on his desk. He needed to set three traps that were all hooked to a single spring-release trigger. It seemed like overkill until Cooper read a few paragraphs in his text. This same principle was used to create a devastating effect in a historical battle. Cooper saw how scaling everything down in size could allow him to discourage or even kill enemies that might pursue him. If he’d known anything about this, he could’ve taken out all three Dregs boys all at once. “Ah yes, Egil. I haven’t forgotten about you…”.

  Master Darius had lost track of the hour, again. This wouldn’t be a problem except that it took several minutes to get from his classroom to the Etiquette classroom. Even walking at a very brisk pace, by the time he and his classmates from Locks and Traps made it to class, they had already started assigning roles to play. This meant that they’d also already explained the scenario as well. The boys had no alternative but to accept whatever role fell to them and wait to be informed of the scenario. This morning, Mister Ysel was telling each student the role they would play, and as he did so he was handing each student a single card from a deck he was carrying. As he reached Cooper he told him, “Mister Cooper, you’ll be one of our honored guests. You’ll be a precious metal merchant from neighboring Temidan. Once all the roles and cards are handed out, we’ll describe the event again.”. He handed Cooper a card from the top of the deck. The card was blank. Only two cards in the deck weren’t blank. One card had a bold, black “X” on it, and one had a black dagger. The person getting the “X” became “The Mark” and would be the person to be robbed, struck, or killed. The person receiving the dagger would be the one performing the deed. Once the other cards had been passed out, Miss Eiler voice came up from somewhere further back in the room, “Now let’s repeat our earlier instructions to get everyone caught up, shall we?”. Mister Ysel nodded, “Our first scenario today should be fairly brief. It takes place in a Lukasi market and my pouch is the target.”. Lukasi was an archipelago nation to the northeast, known for its fishing and sea trade. It was also well known for its slave trading.

  Cooper knew that Rhychevel officially and publicly condemned Lukasi for its trading of slaves, but it didn’t prevent the two nations from trading with one another, except for trading in humans. In Rhychevel, trading in slaves was a punishable offense and owning a slave would result in a trip to the work camps. Cooper sometimes wondered at the irony of this practice. The way he saw it, the punishment for owning a slave was becoming a slave yourself. Essentially, slavery was condemned in all ways, but practiced by royalty. Meanwhile, serfs and indentured servitude was the order of the day. He found some grim humor in the differences. If you owned a slave, you were expected to house and feed him and the owner had to shoulder the expenses and risk of whatever endeavor the slaves were applied against. Usually it was either agriculture or construction. If the crop was bad that year, the owner would still have to feed and house his slaves. A serf or indentured servant was expected to feed and house himself and he did the work and the merchant purchased the product. The serf or servant now assumed the risk. If the crop was bad, the merchant could simply purchase from elsewhere since he had nothing invested. From that standpoint, slavery didn’t make good financial sense. Rhychevel merchants prevailed again.

  Cooper was thinking through his Temidan persona. Temidan was neutral on slavery. They didn’t condemn it, but neither did they practice it. Essentially it was like Rhychevel, except without the official stance. So, if he was a gold or silver merchant in Lukasi, he wouldn’t be offended by the slave market, but that wasn’t why he was there. Lukasi mined some base metal ores: iron, tin, copper and they did some smelting of bronze and steel. They were better known for their bronze than for the quality of their steel which had many inclusions and impurities. Some speculated that the sea air didn’t allow the smelting fires to provide the optimal conditions. They did have some very skilled silversmiths and there was considerable market everywhere for Lukasi jewelry. So that was his purpose. He was bringing in raw silver to sell and would take a significant amount of crafted jewelry in trade. Little actual money would change hands for his silver, just enough to ensure he could pay his crew and debtors (if any) and the balance he would take in jewelry to sell upon his return to Temidan. Still an extremely profitable transaction, especially since this was a trip he would only make once a year after he’d already sold all the silver he could closer to home. He felt he had the personality and motivations fixed in his mind. ‘Yes,’, Cooper thought, ‘that should do nicely’.

  The next few minutes seemed to prove the adage “No plan survives reality”. The scenario involved a slave trader, a string of slaves and several merchants. Mister Ysel had done an amazing job on his disguise. He looked a convincing fifty to sixty pounds heavier and three inches shorter. He had a multi-colored turban and a bushy dark grey beard that reached halfway down his chest. He had to have smeared rancid meat somewhere on himself or his clothing and as a result he had a five or six foot radius all to himself. He hawked and spat several times over the first few minutes as the slave trader recounted the value of his slaves and all the tasks they could perform and the delights that could be expected from the exotic females that he had in chains. It took Cooper a moment to realize that the slave trader was Miss Eiler in disguise.

  As the first slave was brought u
p onto the platform Cooper felt his breathing stop for a moment. It was Treanna, but not as he’d ever seen her. She had her hair pulled back, face made up to look like she was from Caldori. The collar around her neck only seemed to accentuate her exotic appearance. The students always wore baggy tunics and pants. This allowed for better freedom of movement in combat class. Now Treanna was dressed only in a scanty bra and panties. She appeared quite demure, as was expected from a woman of Caldori, as well as from a female slave, but there were still brief flashes of defiance which said that she hadn’t been a slave for long and she likely had some middle or upper class background. She even had a few stripes of makeup across her back to make it look like she’d been whipped a few times in the past. Mister Ysel started off the bidding at three gold. Cooper found himself raising his hand and calling out, “Four!”, in Lukasi language. Treanna both saw and heard him and she couldn’t help blushing and smiling just a little bit before getting back into character. Cooper found the entire situation a bit surreal and very disconcerting. Eventually the bidding went up to eight gold and six silver with Mister Ysel winning the bid. Cooper had stopped bidding after he saw Kolrem slip past and relieve Mister Ysel of his pouch. He thought it was a fair ‘pull’, but was certain he could’ve done better. Once the bidding stopped and Mister Ysel clapped a few times and rubbed his hands together in celebration of his winning bid he reached for his pouch to pay and discovered it was gone. His hands almost formed claws as he began calling out, “Thief! Thief!”, his eyes searched the crowd as if to identify the guilty person and he settled on Cooper, “You! It was you, wasn’t it!?”. Cooper held up his hands, palms out, “Not I, sir. I have been standing right here the entire time that I was bidding against you.”. He had to refrain from adding, “Besides, I don’t believe I could stand much closer to you without gagging from your stench.”, since in Lukasi that would be an insult that would demand a violent response. As the scenario was closing down, Miss Eiler called Cooper to the platform as the ‘second highest bidder’ to claim his purchase. Cooper handed over a pouch filled with pebbles and helped Treanna down from the block. He held out his hand to Miss Eiler, “Key, if you please.” and once he had it he made a grand gesture of unlocking her collar and announcing with a short bow and a huge smirk, “You are free, milady.”. Treanna let out a short squeal, put a hand on each side of Cooper’s face to hold him still as she planted a huge, wet kiss on his lips. Cooper was dumbstruck and it took him a couple seconds to gain his senses enough to return the kiss. He felt like his stomach was filled with butterflies and an odd stirring sensation. It made him feel empowered and disarmed at the same time. At this point, half the class was looking on in amazed silence while the other half was laughing uproariously. Mister Ysel was part of the latter group. In fact he was laughing so hard he had plunked himself down unceremoniously on the floor. There even appeared to be a few tears in his eyes and soon he was gasping for breath. He started stripping off his fat man suit so he could breathe better but his laughter abated only slightly. Miss Eiler was watching Mister Ysel and called out, “Come on now. Funny, yes. But not that funny.”. Mister Ysel managed to gasp out, “You’re only saying that because you couldn’t see the look on Cooper’s face when she kissed him!”. And he broke into fresh peals of laughter as he pictured it again. Treanna finally released Cooper as Miss Eiler attempted to regain control of the class. As Treanna turned to step away Cooper made an observation that drained the entire mix of emotions from him in the span of one breath.

  Chapter 31

  There had been two more scenarios before class had ended and Cooper barely managed to even develop a character for either of them. Thankfully, he kept getting dealt blank cards. The last scenario had required him to change into stable hand livery and after it was over and he had changed back into his own clothes, he found Treanna waiting for him at the door. He was at a loss as to how he should react. Trea hooked her arm in his and announced to an almost empty room, “I think that now it’s time for my hero to take me to lunch!”. She had a pleasant, wide smile on her face. He ducked his head a little but smiled in return. Once they’d entered the hallway, he turned his head to look up at her and said,” Trea, I had thought that Miss Eiler had done some tremendous cosmetic work on your slave disguise…”. He trailed off momentarily but continued again before Trea could respond, “But then I realized that the marks on your back weren’t cosmetic. Someone whipped you…”. Treanna took a deep breath, “Cooper, you sure do know how to change the mood.”. He frowned, “I’m sorry.”, then he brightened slightly, “That was quite a smootch, by the way.”, then the cheer in his voice abruptly disappeared, “But I already have plans to bring some vengeance to someone outside that dearly deserves it. If it would help, tell me who did that to you and maybe I could visit them someday as well….?”. Trea stopped and turned to face him, “What are we talking about here? Are you planning on killing someone?!”. He shrugged, “That depends. The person that I have in mind is a dead man walking. Who do you have in mind?”. She was shaking her head, “I don’t even know. My mother had so many different men coming into our rooms at all hours that I couldn’t possibly keep track. I don’t know if I’d even recognize him.”. He suspected she was lying to him. He was pretty sure that if someone whipped him bad enough to leave scars, he’d never forget the person holding the whip. Still, it would probably be painful for her if he continued to press further. Instead he managed to blurt out, “I’d offer to kiss it and make it all better, but I’m afraid that might send the wrong message.”. She stuck her tongue out at him, turned and started walking again. He had to start walking as well, since she’d never unhooked her arm from his. Out of the corner of his eye he could see that at least she’d started smiling again.

  Cooper finished lunch and hurried to Master Worthan’s classroom. He found the old Master at his desk with a couple rolls of parchment spread out with the curled corners held in place using whatever items were readily at hand. The old man looked up as Cooper entered the room, “Ah, Mister Cooper! It’s always so good to see you. Especially when you’re not appearing as a result of being summoned.”. He was smiling but the arch of one of his eyebrows looked suspiciously like a reproach.

  Cooper spoke, “Sir, I was wondering if you’d have some time to spare to explain a little about how the Guild is structured…?”. Master Worthan looked a little surprised, “Anything in particular?”. Cooper shook his head. “No, sir. It’s just that I don’t really understand how the Guild is organized. The jobs and functions that members have… how it fits together... I guess I’m also trying to figure out where I’ll fit in.”. At this last comment, Master Worthan’s eyes lit up. “As for that little tidbit, I think we all have some certain expectations.”, He paused in thought for a second then continued, “I should have some time around dinner time tonight when we can discuss this further. Right now, I need to return my attention to these manuscripts while the supporting material is still fresh in my mind. And I believe Miss Camilla will be expecting you in her classroom shortly unless I’m mistaken, hmm?”. Cooper nodded, “Yes, sir. I’ll come back later then. Thank you.”. He turned and left the room.

  He spent his hour in Apothecary class assembling several distillers. These would be used by Miss Camilla and the more senior students for condensing and refining the concoctions they were currently working on. He didn’t know what the substances were, but from the way a few of the Apprentices and Journeymen were dressed and the care exhibited while they handled the containers left him feeling better when class was complete and he could leave to go fight in the Training Room.

  Mister Skran kept the boys paired as they had been in yesterday’s class. Today he was pushing the boys to move faster. As he walked around the room, he explained that he expected the boys would soon be moving fast enough that he’d start to become worried that if something went wrong, it would happen too fast or too far away for him to prevent it. He encouraged the boys to exercise care and avoid hurting one another, “After fiv
e or so injuries, I will be expected to issue leather armor for knife fighting. These leathers, like these that I wear every day, are a little bit heavy, very hot and quite restrictive. If that somehow sounds appealing to you, let me know rather than injuring your partner. Most of us would choose to delay having to wear armor for as long as possible.”. He had to ask, “Why do you always wear armor, sir?”. Mister Skran faced him to answer, “Because any occasion when students decide that they wish to hurt one another, I end up moving between them. And I have enough scars without accepting any new ones from beginners.”. Everyone thought he was done speaking, but then he continued, “Developing fighters for the Guild brings me great satisfaction, and sometimes even joy. But even so, the best part of my day is at the end, when I can remove my armor in the privacy of my own chambers.”. Birt blurted out, “Sir, you have a room all to yourself?!”. Mister Skran nodded, “Yes, Mister Birt. Most Adepts do, and ALL instructors certainly do. Now… enough chatter. Begin.”.

  Sparring with Kolrem always posed a bit of a challenge. They could push each other enough that he always had to consciously resist succumbing to the temptation to Flow. He didn’t expect to Manifest for a couple more years, but Kolrem was already firmly in the grip of puberty, meaning his Manifestation was due at any time. Cooper wondered what would happen to those boys that would be Manifesting soon. Birt was certainly a member of that group. Birt’s voice had developed a mind of its own. It was becoming difficult to even understand what Birt was saying anymore. He communicated now using as few words as possible, which was quite a feat for the boy whose philosophy seemed to be, ‘Why use only three words when you could use five?’.