The Apprentice Assassin (Complete but editing) MxM

Journal Entry #1

Dear reader, if you have found my journal, then that means I have failed... I'm sorry that I've failed you. Now a dark, harrowing mission has been forced upon. If you have this book in your possession, then the Flara are probably already on their way to kill you. Then they can just take the journal. Contained in these pages are my life, and I guess my death, I write this is a future tense, that way should I live I can laugh at myself for thinking I would have died after such a simple mission.

Now I know this is going to sound crazy, but I need your help. I am an assassin, and I worked for the legendary order known in certain circles as the Mantine. You like gold right, well I have a big bag of it with your name on it if you to take this journal to my masters in castle Letane. I have a collections bag for my death, and that should have almost a thousand gold pieces by now.

The gold is held inside a double-locked case that requires two keys to open successfully. If not turned at the exact same time, the box will release a bag of acid consuming the contents of the box. If Letane still holds true, then my masters will be there. I implore you to give them the book so they can protect it. They will give you the first key, only if you ask for it, and then you must find my second key. I hid it inside my room in a hollowed rock in the wall. If you are willing to go on this deathly mission, then the collections bag will be yours.

Before I go jumping to conclusions about you helping me, I should probably explain a little bit about who I am, that way you have some information as to why you should go. My name is Paul, I'm an American from the newly founded colony's. Now I have no idea where you found this journal since I have been all over the world, but I am going to assume you found it near my corpse.

Thomas pauses as he looks over a scratched over space. It hides a large portion of the next pages, but the sides were annotated by the owner, and it pointed towards the end. Carefully turning to the end of the book, the words continue, but in a frantic scribble.

He's dead! My master, I'm so sorry. We were ordered a simple job. We couldn't even perform a simple assassination. The Flara high priest has dawned the mask as head priest. We fell into his trap like mice. We were expecting little, to no resistance when we got there. This was all a setup, there were just too many at the back gate. I watched the men fire long row of guns, and I knew there was nothing I could do. My master... A man with a heart of gold saved me once again, for the last time. Not only did he teach me how to be an assassin, but how to be a man. He was my best friend, and I watched him shove me out of the way as he was riddled with bullets. There was nothing I could do but flee. I had to escape, for him...

The section ended, leaving Thomas only more confused, so he flipped back to the first few pages, and began reading after the scratched out page.

My life as an assassin started on a cold winter morning. I was running from a group of Flara recruiters I had just tried to steal from. As a poor man's son, money was always tight, and when he got sick, I knew I needed to make money somehow. Once they spotted me trying to lift a blade from the armory table, the whole group started to chase me. I was sure I could escape, I grew up in the town, I knew all the roads. I weaved in and out of the crowded, packed earth roads, as I dashed away trying to get away with my life.

Lady Luck, however, was not on my side that day. I happened to make a wrong turn and ran into the only alleyway that didn't open on the other side. Turning around, I saw the Flara recruiters. There were seven of them blocking my escape, and slowly drawing nearer. They all started laughing among themselves as they drew closer, brandishing their freshly sharpened weapons. I knew I was to die, they had caught up to me, and nobody in town would dare resist the Flara. The leader glared at me with a devilish gleam in his eye before he pulled a serrated blade from his sheath and waved it around like a toddler does a toy.