The Light in Darkness

Ch 9. Sidestory 1 - All That Remains

[AN] First things first: I'm not dead yet. I sort of hit that crisis where I realize how ridiculous the entire plot sounds, not to mention some of the names. A lot of them were supposed to be more of a placeholder that stuck, since the initial inspiration is Deltora Quest, which, for all intents and purposes, is a children's book. So I'm thinking of maybe changing some around.

Secondly, this is actually sort of an experimental side story. I didn't intend to make this long, but... that just happened. It's different in tone and doesn't exactly advance the main plot, but I quite like how it turned out (relatively). I wrote this mostly to get a better grasp at the character here. Also for catharsis. Speaking of which...

[Warning] Plenty needless violence here, though hopefully not that graphic (or maybe it is). I tried to make it more psychological than graphical.

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Silent watched the game from his table in a corner away from both the crowd and light. The game was getting more heated as the stakes grew with each turn, and he could sense a fight coming soon. It would not be much of a fight however, -- some rough words and name calling before they get subdued by others. There was a curfew in effect after all, so all these people were essentially trapped inside this building until sunrise. An all-out fight in such a confined space would be disastrous, if the patrolling guards did not come to apprehend everyone first.

Which would have been perfectly fine for him. Silent would have gladly found a good perch to hide and watch as the crowd tears itself into bloody pieces. He cared nothing of the people in Darrener. The only person living here who could hold his attention for any length of time was Peira, and she had apparently left the town a couple days ago. There were no signs of struggle and the neighbors did not recall anything unusual, claiming that she was there one night and gone the next day.

This, he grumbled to himself, had Esters' paw prints all over. Peira would never leave her beloved home unless it had something to do with her sister and that Resistance or whatever it was that they called themselves.

It irked him to no end. He had come here, -- after taking a quick detour to throw off potential pursuits, -- hoping to put some distance between that infernal organization and himself, only to find that he was already surrounded by them. Everything that he did now seemed to be associated with the Resistance in the eyes of the uneducated mass, even when it really was just a hair's breadth away from obliterating their plans. Of course, he could actually undermine them instead of tip-toeing the line, but for what? It was simply not worth the consequences. Despite their differences, he was fairly amicable with the Resistance members and even enjoyed working with them. They were, for the most part, good people and he had no reason to wish them ill. He just never had a good relationship with authorities, be it legitimate or one for some hidden organization.

The assassin sighed deeply, rubbing his face, wondering not for the first time how he had allowed himself to become so invested like this. The answer came to him immediately, as it always did, and he resisted the urge to go break something. Too much thinking had never been good for his psyche. What he needed was a distraction. A nice challenge, a little exercise, some decent bloodshed...

"What's wrong, handsome? Food not good?"

Silent looked up to see a young lady sitting on what used to be an empty seat across him. By the looks of it, she had been deeply involved in the party herself and quite drunk already. Silent straightened himself with an easy, almost angelic smile that should not be able to come from someone plotting bloody murder in the dead of the night.

"Food's alright," he said. "Just not hungry so much."

"But you are still thirsty, I hope?" she asked, pointing to the half-filled bottle on the table.