The trees loomed ahead, the mire perfectly suiting his clammy personality. I stomped in, snarling, "Give me what you owe me, you slimy little-" "Hey, cool it, Cor." "Don't call me that!" I growled, "My name is Corinne, and next time you call me "Cor," I will cut out your heart and throw it to my wolves." "Okay, okay, here's your money." He pulled the stack of cash out of his backpack and slapped it into my hands. "Now would you please leave my... lovely establishment?" In one fluid move I pulled out my dagger and pressed it into his throat. "I don't take orders from the likes of you." "Who do you take orders from, sweetheart?" Mill's cocky voice setting me on my last nerve. "I'm nobody's sweetheart, and I don't take orders from anyone." I whirled around, walking away.
"Oh god, that took way too long," I said, slamming the car door behind me. "Meh, it was only five minutes." "Five minutes longer than I ever wanted to spend with him again." "Did you get the money, Cor?" "Of course I did, Mon, there was no way I would go into that dank pit and return empty handed."
Right, I forgot to introduce myself and my... Monique. We're assassins. We're powerful. We're best friends. Not like when you're eight years old and you exchange unicorn stickers and "Poof!" bonded for life, no "powers of friendship" crap. We met on the job five years ago.
There are five islands making up our realm. First, the Quagmire, a swampy, mucky place where a lot of the dirty lowlifes like Mill live. Then there's the Glaze, an icy, glacial place where it's always snowing and the Ice Mages live. The third island is called the Wilds, and it's one giant rainforest that's overrun with the Tree Clans, who are always fighting. The jaguars are their pets, and they kill nearly everyone who doesn't know how to avoid them. The fourth island is a blazing fiery desert named the Flare. The dry cracked ground is no good for plants, so it's where the Dust Mages stay. The last, center island, is simply called Luster. It's supposed to be where everyone unites and works together, but it's almost completely corrupt and the black market is taking over. Their leader, who they call the Slayer, is our boss. She had made a lot of enemies, so she started ruthlessly killing people until everyone respected her. She plans to take over one day, but she won't tell anyone her master plan. The Mages are supposed to be the leaders of the land, and there are four of them that supposedly lead, but really they just sit on their asses doing nothing but arguing all day long instead of actually helping their people. There are four kinds of mages, Ice, Dust, Slough, and Gale. The
