[WP] You've managed to persuade a world-class master assassin to teach you their ways. When your parents are asleep, you sneak out of the house to meet them for the first time. However, as you reach the agreed location, your sister greets you. "Hello, apprentice," she says.

[WP] by u/ImpreciseChaos

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It wasn't easy finding them. I dug through the countless cases bit by bit, even the ones the Royal Guards didn't notice - but I did. All of them executed perfectly. They handled their assignments beautifully and adjusted the act of the kill perfectly to the requirement of the job. Some, meant to be loud, some, not so much. Many have been led to believe it was suicide, but it wasn't - they reinforced depression into their targets, they were the silent voice that killed their own will to live. I don't know how yet, I'm not even certain I know them all, but many resulted in a turn within the Council. It must've been them.

One time, I managed to get to the crime scene before anyone else. I knew they were planning it, I figured where it would be best. In the alley behind the bar. John Tremount. The target. He had been having an affair with one of the Council Head's daughter, more enough for a motive for him to hire an assassin to kill a civilian - breaking a rule that bounds all - "No civilian must be hurt for one's benefit or whim". With John dead, he'd be placed in temporary confinement until he's proven guilty, and his first-born, Hue Mystgardim, would be placed in his chair. Hue clearly understands how to hold power within the Council; he won't let his father leave his cage after he will replace him.

When I got there, there was blood, a lot of blood. It wasn't like anything else before. It was... loud. John was butchered here and there, not for torture, but for display. His arteries were sliced, all of them. He bled within seconds. His organs were littered around his empty corpse. His blood was splattered all across the cobblestone and the back wall of the bar. That's where I found the note. It was nailed to the only dry part of the wall with one of their knives. A date and a place.

The show wasn't for the job. Making it a display made no sense, no message was meant to be sent across, not to the public... But to me. They wanted me to see what the job involves. What mastery and hard work it will take to be able to slice and cut so precisely that there isn't even a sign of struggle. John might as well have just been laying on down on a table ready to be sliced open.

I trained hard for the past three years. I knew I wouldn't be able to master the art of assassination, but I could be physically ready when the time came. Now, now was the time.

I arrived at the Bridge of Yotenheim that was deep in the forest. It connected the two lands separated by a crack in the ground that span more than 50 meters across. The bridge was old. It was built nearly a century ago, no-one can guarantee it's stability anymore. The wooden path was made of wooden planks spaced evenly. Two large towers on either end of the bridge, cast a spider-web of ropes that held the bridge in place. More ropes span out from the towers into the forest, holding it in position. The wood was dark and moldy, hammered together by rotting nails and hinges. The planks that made up the path were no better, they looked like they would span under any weight put on them. The ropes that were meant to be rigid, tied to the surrounding trees to hold the tower from falling into the chasm, were now just hung loosely. Stretched by the merciless weather and unavoidable age, overgrown by the green life of the forest.

I stepped onto the wood plank. It creaked beneath my weight, but it didn't break. I shifted my whole body forward, holding onto the fragile rope that was meant to be a hand-rail for my dear life. It creaked again, more than before. Then, the wood cracked beneath my feet. For a moment, I was free-falling. My hand that clung onto the rope didn't fail me. The years of climbing rocks and trees didn't go in vain. I pulled myself up back onto the soil.

I looked again at the bridge, I had to be in the middle of it. That's what the note said. I had less than 5 minutes. I need to make it.

The ropes... As old as they were, they didn't fail. They were all around the bridge. The planks that made up the path were tied together at their ends by the ropes. The wooden towers had ropes that were tied up with the base of the path at equal intervals. Then, an idea sparked in my mind. Without a second of reconsideration, I jolted to the top of the tower. I had no time to think of anything else.

The tower was not as tall as it seemed, 15 meters at most. I searched through the bundle of ropes that were tied to the top, and selected the one that spans to the middle. I took off my belt, wrapped it around the rope and jumped. I made big progress in very little time. The belt held on pretty well, but the rope didn't like the friction as much.

The ropes were old nonetheless. As I slid down the rope, the rope began to tear. The sudden strain from my weight, the heat from the friction... It was simply too much.

What was I thinking?!

The rope snapped and I was free-falling once again.

I could see falling towards the bridge, how it was quickly getting bigger the closer I got, and then how I flew past it. As I flew past the bridge, my hands desperately tried to grab on to it, to anything.

They did.

I was past the bridge, too low to be able to hold onto any ropes or wood. The leather I grasped was pulsing with faint warmth. It held onto my forearm. It was an arm wearing gauntlets.

I looked up to see my savior. I couldn't believe it. The eyes of my mother gazed at me cheerfully, so pristine black I could see my own reflection. Black curly hair, same as mine, cut short to her shoulders. Lips with which my father never used to smile, were now cheerfully stretching from ear to ear.

"Well, hello apprentice!" my meant-to-be-dead sister said.

Submitted July 31, 2019 at 12:53AM by Silent237 https://ift.tt/2SQjM20