Ascendant

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE CRACK IN THE GLASS

Inside, she could see and orange glow coming from the fireplace, warming the single room home. There were stacks of books on the shelves, along with some barrels and tools for farming a garden. Evaluating the weaponry available, she saw nothing but a woodcutter's axe and one old sword by the front door. He wouldn't be expecting anyone to try and kill him way out here. She would try to use that to her advantage.

Peeking around the door, she saw nothing that would hide her cover from him other than the table in the center of the open room with chairs around it. She needed to move fast.

As his back was still turned to her, she slipped inside, her steps completely silent like a cat.

But when he suddenly turned at the subtle sound of the back door closing, she ducked behind the table, hoping its round top would hide most of her form. And as she did this, she listened as attentively as she could, hearing no change in the man's demeanor to suggest she'd been found, as he slowly turned back around to continue writing.

Gripping her dagger harder, her head flashed right when she caught another sound. It was someone approaching the house, maybe fifteen steps away from the door.

She moved like lightning, getting up from her place to slide behind the seated man and without a notice from him, she jammed the sharp end of her blade into his throat, causing a choking sound to escape his mouth as his blood ran from the wound down to soak his tunic. She yanked the blade back out as he attempted to stay alive but of course it was folly. And she fled from the scene as fast as she could, this time not leaving anything behind. No one would know it was Tempus Mora who wanted him dead. And no one would know it was her that did it either.

She slung the crimson that coated her blade onto the grass outside and grabbed her cloak, just in time to hear the door open to the sound of a woman's laugh and a child's voice. The child sounded about nine years old. And as her back stuck to the stone wall, chilled by the northern air, she heard the horrible scream from the woman who discovered her husband's newly murdered body.

The sound pierced through Runa's ears and straight to her heart. Never had she heard such devastation in her life... especially not from something she herself had caused. Something inside of her twisted grimly. And there was a shock to her system that caused chills over her body like a ghost had passed through her. Looking down at the blade still in her hand, she continued to listen to the woman's frantic voice as she commanded her son to back away and cried her husband's name.

Runa tried to tune this out from her mind but when the child began to weep in fear and horror at what he was seeing, something inside Runa snapped. She shut her eyes but she couldn't move yet, because the woman and her son fled from the home and towards town with his sword in hand, fearing for their lives now as they shouted for help.

Runa put her cloak over her body again and took off into the woods and out of sight from the family.

As her feet ran over grass and dirt, her breathing became strained and she stumbled over a tree root, nearly falling on her face as she caught herself with her hands. The sounds of that child's crying stung her ears and something about it began to bring back painful memories for her. She slumped against the trunk of a large tree as she caught her breath, shutting her eyes for a moment as she tried to recover mentally from whatever she was feeling.

She had killed nearly fifty people since she was taken in my the Brotherhood three years ago. Why was this one so different?

It wasn't of course. And she had remind herself that, as well as to remain focused. Everything the Conqueror did had a good reason.

Everything.