Kill Your Darlings (Jaskier x Assassin!Reader)

Chapter 2

It didn't take long for you to make it to the city; the paths were sparse and you happened to only run into one group of Nekkers and a couple of bandits on the way there. Soon, you found yourself standing in the middle of Hierarch Square, scanning the notice board for any sign of your target.

It was late at night, but the torches in the streets lit the city up just enough for you. The square was far from empty despite the time of night; drunks stumbled along and beggars huddled under whatever they could to get some sleep. You supposed cities were meant to always be lively — but this liveliness was far from happy. It was a dark and dreary place, especially at night, when the only thing to guide you was the dim glow of the torches and the sound of whispers in the darkness.

Your eyes glazed over the notice board. It was littered with pleas for killing monsters, finding lost persons — you would keep those in mind for later. For now, your eyes only yearned for something, anything, that would lead you to your target.

Luckily, tucked in the top left corner of the notice board was a particularly bright flier. You reached up and pulled it out from underneath a missing person's poster — your skin itched to pick that up as well, but you shook off the feeling. Rauf would want you to finish your assignment as soon as possible, no matter what.

The flier was a mess of colors and advertisement material that you didn't care about. The first thing you saw was 'Jaskier' in big giant letters; then, a sketch of what you assumed to be him. You snorted at the smolder your target bore — perhaps he posed like that to make himself feel more handsome, more important. Your eyes focused on the bottom of the page. It had the date of the performance, the time, but most importantly, the place.

Kingfisher Inn. You folded up the paper and placed it in your pocket — it didn't matter when the bard performed, only where he did it. Bards tended to stick around their venues for a while, in hopes the innkeeper would ask them to perform another night. They also tended to mooch off of their free stay there, for as long as they could.

You stepped away from the notice board and headed in the direction of the Inn. You had only been to Novigrad a couple times before, but you had to become pretty familiar with the streets. As an assassin, knowing the ins and outs of different cities was almost mandatory. Tracking a target and losing them just because you didn't know where the hell you were was more embarrassing than it was a setback.

Thankfully, you didn't have to wander around the streets of Novigrad too long, since the Kingfisher Inn was relatively close. You rounded a corner and just missed tripping over a passed out man — you were close to the inn, alright. And soon, the sound of unrestrained cheers echoed from the large building in front of you.

The first step of securing your target was to scope the building out. You first noted the lack of guards as you stepped into the inn, then the vastness of the space. It had a good crowd, with around twenty people sitting just on the main floor. You had seen crowds like this before, but what really struck you was the quality of the inn. It was probably one of the nicest taverns you had ever gone into; there was a proper stage where bards would perform, along with a separate somewhat higher section with even more tables. The ceilings were taller than you had ever seen, with balconies that looked over on other floors. The stage itself had large red curtains draping along the outside, with candelabras lit on both corners.

The crowd looked like they were anticipating a performance, so you tried to make your way to the second level of the inn as quickly as possible. You walked up the stairs to the somewhat higher floor and found a table in perfect view of both the stage and the rest of the tavern. As you sat down, a poster on the wall next to you caught your eye. It was the same one crumpled up in your pocket, only bigger.