Return to Inheritance

Chapter VII

"We only tried to help," said Kris on a sad tone, speaking with Cinder.

"I'll go talk some sense into her a bit later. Right now she needs time..." and the rest of the conversation was inaudible as Jade was already too far away to hear.

She was walking down the last hall, the narrowest and longest altogether. The spiral staircase was in sight. When she reached it and climbed up to the trapdoor she saw the mechanism herself and had no trouble figuring out how to get past. She already knew that there would be some metal pieces she would have to get out of the way.

Jade was back at the training grounds and made her way towards the armoury. She meant to practice some more with the dagger.

As she walked, she noticed that most of the assassins she had seen earlier that day were back, training at their own will. No master assassin was in sight. It was easy to distinguish a trainee from a master from the clothes alone. Masters wore something fancier.

The more time she spent thinking about it, the more conscious Jade grew of herself and how she stood out in the crowd of assassins. She was still wearing the same clothes ever since Willy Buns killed her crew and took her hostage. No wonder Benjamin kept calling her 'pirate girl'. To make matters worse, after the last few days' excitement, her clothes were growing filthy. Also, as much as she loved her pirate outfit, she had a feeling that it was time for a change. It was best if she could blend in with the other assassins, especially since now she was in the Brotherhood.

Focusing back on the present, she started looking for the dagger she had used earlier, but settled with a similar one when she figured she would probably not find it anymore. There were simply far too many weapons to search through! This one was slightly narrower, which also made the handle smaller, so easier to hold, and the blade was longer. As an overall, this dagger looked a little more elegant. Then, with the weapon in hand, she made her way towards the training dummies. Most of them were already in use but that was not a problem since any would do.

The other assassins that were, like her, training with the dummies used all sorts of weapons such as spears, swords, crossbows and even shuriken. Still, there was one particular person that caught her attention, an older woman who was practicing with a dagger.

Wow, she's amazing, thought Jade as she tried her best not to stare. After watching the woman for a minute she tried to imitate her, although her own moves were far from gracious or quick.

The first thing she noticed was that the woman sometimes held her dagger with the point facing the sky, until later when it was suddenly facing the ground. It was hard to keep track of the transition, and so much harder to follow the movements themselves. All strikes seemed to flow one after another in a never-ending deadly dance.

Jade decided she didn't want to put up a fight with that woman. Not when it came to close combat at least.

After watching for a while, Jade finally turned back to her own training dummy and repeated the same awkward moves over and over, convincing herself she was growing more gracious with practice. Her moves, however, grew slower with fatigue.

Soon enough, she looked away from her hay target and noticed that the woman had disappeared. Wondering whether she might still be around, Jade turned her head and noticed her walking towards the armoury, feet pacing like a predator's. Midway, the woman halted and faced Jade, aware of her looking. She was smiling.

"You must be Beatrice, also known as Jade," the woman said as soon as they made eye contact. "I'm Vex, nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you too," answered the girl, shaking her hand. From up close, Jade noticed some things about her aspect: Vex was a tall woman with good build and golden curls held in a ponytail which gave her a teeny allure, but the wrinkles showing at her eyes every time she smiled gave it all away; she had to be at least double Jade's age.