On The Edge of a Blade

Chapter 2.1

By the time Rose got home, it was dark. The moon overhead was obscured by heavy clouds, casting the slums under a black blanket. It was a night crafted by the Heavens above for all the scum in the kingdom of Gushénn, perfect for scheming and stealing in the shadowy streets. This was an ideal time to either lock doors and draw curtains, or else to stake a claim in the spoils of Night's war of the lawless.

Though this opportunity was catered for the likes of Rose, her mind was elsewhere. She glided through the maze like paths of the slums, more wraith than human. If it wasn't for the flickering of her eyes and the occasional body racking shiver, she appeared to be sleep walking.

Whatever pent up rage had been boiling within her was gone. In its wake was pensive preoccupation, which weighed Rose down like a heavy sack of sand. The only thing which propelled her onward was the promise of money in her pocket, a prospect which overcame all moral hesitation.

When Rose reached her apartment, she expected to finally have a chance to relax. 

Unfortunately, despite being so close to home, the opportunity of being able to rest was pushed off once more. No sooner had she scaled the stairs to the second floor when Liana appeared, full of wrath and disappointment. She sat just outside the door to the three room apartment they shared on a wooden chair, one leg crossed over the other, planted in Rose's way so that she couldn't progress.

Rose refrained from letting out a sigh. Having spent her entire life away from her own mother, Liana was as close to a parent as Rose truly had. Liana had taught her everything she knew, and had made all sorts of allowances in order to raise Rose as best she could. Because of that, Rose had come to love Liana, as much as an assassin was capable of love. And yet, despite the passage of many years, she was still uncertain if her teacher liked to reprimand her for the sake of listening to the sound of her own voice, or due to the fact that she too saw herself as Rose's surrogate mother. Whatever her true reasons were, it was impossible to gainsay that Liana was a long winded individual.

Hence the reason why Rose's spirits fell upon seeing a speech upon Liana's lips.

Putting in the first word, Rose said, "Look, I know you're going to yell at me for staying out too late, so you might as well save your breath. I'm old enough to function without you directing my every footstep." Too tired to be difficult, Rose lacked the normal fire which roosted in her voice.

"Don't even pretend with me, Rose." Liana crossed her arms over her chest, her tone somehow even harsher and more discontented than her visage suggested. "Do you think I'm daft? I already know what you did today."

That wasn't something that Rose had counted upon. Her heart stopped for a moment as the ramifications washed over her. When her heartbeat returned once more, it revived with greater intensity than before, pumping a coldness through her veins. Rarely could one feel so chilled in the desert, even at night.

If there was one thing which Liana wished to flaunt proudly, it was her hatred of the king. Secretly, however, beneath that bold statement, a more delicate and all consuming preoccupation was her growing trust in Prince James. In her eyes, the youngest prince was the kingdom's last hope. The current king was corrupt, and anyone with wit and intelligence could discern that his time on the throne was coming to an end; the crown prince, Anthony, wasn't a good option for ruling, either: he was too much like the king, mimicking his father's pretentious, pride, and unpleasant ideals. After years of plotting to assassinate the king, Liana was loathe to allow his mirror image of a son to compromise all of her hard work.

Liana had began by taking slow action, starting with raising a young Rose for the purpose of assassinating the king. But the amount of power she was stealing from Heaven must not have been enough; she yearned to meddle even more. It was when Rose was twelve, the twin princes eight, that she decided it wouldn't hurt to complicate things a little more and also have the elder prince assassinated. Plans change after all; one must be capable of adaptation in such a world.