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Brill, Danil, and Eloise walked in single file along the gloomy brawlers tunnel, looking glumly at their boots. They had been walking for almost an hour, but had still not come to the end, and it didn't make it any better that no one was talking. Bovem was taking the death of his assistant very harshly.
'When do you think we'll reach the end?' Eloise asked in a hushed tone. She was in between Brill and Danil in their line and took comfort from them around her.
'Hard to say' Brill said from the front. 'I never knew the brawlers had these tunnels; at least, we were never told about them. It takes a lot to hide something this useful from the Thieves guild.' As they'd been walking they'd spotted multiple branches coming off from the tunnel, presumably to other taverns around the city and who knew where else.
Danil made an annoyed sound from behind.
'If we'd known about them sooner it might have saved a lot of lives. Especially if they stretch as far as the Thieves guild. Elspeth wouldn't have been captured'
They stopped talking when a pinprick of light from in front caught in Brills eye.
'Looks like that's it' he said quietly
It took them another half hour for the small dot of light to grow into an entrance. They found themselves in a basement, with a solitary torch burning in a bracket on the wall in front of them. The light it cast glittered on various blades and pieces of armour littered around the room, along with an anvil and finer objects like screws and small chains. A blacksmiths property by the looks of it, Danil deduced.
'Wait here' Bovem grunted.
He trudged up the well built wooden steps towards a large door and disappeared into it, softly closing it behind him.
'What now?' Eloise asked
'Depends' Brill considered; 'I guess Bovem will want to give us the rundown, then we better continue on our way'
'The Assassin's guild?' she had been thinking about who they should contact next. They were the obvious choice. They had some of the best trained men in all of Temeria, rivalling even the Thieves' abilities. 'I'm not too comfortable with that...' she continued.
'Neither am I' Danil agreed 'They're dangerous. Unpredictable.'
'I don't particularly like it either' Brill went on, 'But we need anyone we can get right now, and they follow a code. They won't kill us before they've heard us out'
'Touching...' Eloise said with a grimace. 'But we don't know that. Everyone in the city is under stress right now. They might have orders to kill those who get too close.'
They all grimaced. The door at the top of the stairs creaked and Bovem appeared again. 'Get up here, all of you'. He pulled the Thieves aside as they walked by, leaving the rest of the Brawlers to go on ahead.
'The owner isn't happy about us being here. Apparently the city watch was on high alert even before the raid on the tavern. Two Thieves escaped the city in broad daylight today, the keeper is furious.'
He raised an eyebrow. 'Wouldn't happen to know anything about that would you?'
They grinned. 'We can guess' Danil said.
'Two thieves?' Eloise said worriedly. 'There were meant to be three'
'Oh, yeah' Bovem said scratching his chin. 'Well I did here something about a... Faceless demon was it? Red eyes, steamy breath, the whole shebang, slaughtered three men from twenty feet away and disappeared in the blink of an eye... It was quite the tale. My more reliable sources say she managed to escape across the rooftops before they managed to send any scouts after her.'
'I'll bet' said Brill. 'That sounds like Vita alright. She used to be able to throw her knives three times the distance I could manage. Never did get her to finish teaching me.'
'Yeah, well...' Bovem went on 'She thoroughly pissed off the entirety of the guard, and the icing on the cake is that now there's a bounty on your heads'
'How much?' Brill grunted
'Ten-thousand pieces, each'
Danil whistled in awe; 'Not bad, ten thousand silver'
'Gold' corrected Bovem
'Holy--' exclaimed Danil, almost choking on his shock and breaking down into a fit of coughing. Eloise smacked him on the back and he rasped his breath back.
'Ten thousand gold...' He repeated. 'Looks like the keeper is pretty desperate. We're going to have our work cut out. Bounty hunters will be all over this.'
'Nothing you can't handle I'm sure' Bovem said. He regarded them.
'You know, you guys have some pretty good moves for your age. Don't waste it and get yourselves killed'
'We'll try' Eloise voiced, and they nodded.
'Alright. We're going to leave in groups so we don't have a crowd of fugitives walking out of the owners front door. You guys can go first. Take this'
He pulled out a hefty coin purse and handed it to Danil.
'Thanks' Danil said, as he tucked it in to his cloak. Where are you going?'
'Gonna lay low for a while' Bovem said 'Wait for this to die down a bit. Rest assured you'll have the brawlers guild waiting for you when you need us. If you ever need to contact me, go into any tavern and ask if they have any Ox mead in stock. They'll know what you mean'
'We'll be seeing you' said Danil. They walked to the front door and opened it a crack to check no one was nearby. Then they gathered their cloaks around themselves and ghosted out in to the night.
----
Each of them knew the stories of how to find the Assassins guild, mostly from the stories of the higher ups of the Thieves when they'd been little. The Assassins were used as a fable to scare young children into behaving. There was even a rhyme;
A smear of blood upon your hand
The message received, a packet of sand
A whisper of shadow, a chill of wind
Then one shall know how you have sinned
Dramatic, thought Danil, but the method was correct. A person seeking to enter 'a contract signed in blood' with the Assassins would prick their thumb and smear a streak across the back of the left hand, then head out for business as usual. When they got home a message would be sitting at their bedside. An envelope full of crimson sand. This meant they could be sure the Assassins had received their message, and someone would be in contact shortly.
The three of them knew how it work, but they couldn't contact the assassins.
'Here's where we stand' Brill explained, as they stood together in a cramped alley next to the main city square. They had slept rough on a flat rooftop for the remainder of the early morning and all of them were groggy.
'We need to find the Assassins, and the only way to do that is to enter into a blood contract, with the sand, et cetera. But that's not going to work for us. Any of the Assassins observants - their network that look for new contracts, would spot a thief a mile off, from the way we carry ourselves, our body shape, our cloaks, our hands--'
'Hands?' Eloise raised an eyebrow, and then looked down at hers. On every surface there were cuts, scrapes, and callouses from both climbing and combat.
'Nevermind, point taken'
Brill cleared his throat 'As I was saying, they'd spot us--'
'Hang on a second' Danil stroked his stubble ponderously. 'Body shape?'
Brill sighed. 'We're not overly muscular, so we don't look like field workers or farmers, but we're not weak or old either, so we can't be traders or some such. Happy?'
'Very' Danil replied with a smirk
Brill eyed them both slowly. 'Now as I was saying, they'd recognise we were Thieves and probably assume we were going to try any kidnap them or something. We'd never be contacted, never meet an actual Assassin, and they might kill us for good measure. We need to play this right.'
'So you have a plan?' Danil asked
Brill broke a rare mischievous smile.
'Yeah.'
----
Danil saw his chance and snatched at the hands of a passing nobleman in a carriage.
'Please sir, spare a coin, look at these hands, you've never 'ad to work a day of your life, just one, please sir
The man whipped his hands away and opened the carriage door. As his guards rushed over.
'Blast you, disgusting vagrant!'
Danil's dirt smeared face was kicked savagely, and he fell hard into the muddy refuse by the carriageway. The man who's hand he had just grabbed for stepped off his carriage and kicked Danil in the face again, hard.
'Don't you ever touch me, filthy, irrelevant little swine'
The man motioned for his bodyguards to go to work and Danil was attacked from all directions with small iron truncheons. They targeted his knuckles and shins with glee, laughing as he thrashed around in the puddle, and finished with more kicks. One of them spat in his hair. 'Filth' he said venomously.
The carriage trundled away as Danil lay groaning on the ground, unable to move without his whole body throbbing and the world spinning in front of his eyes.
'Oh my Gods!' said Eloise as she pushed out from the market crowds, now stopping to notice and laugh at Danil, and helped him sit up. She brushed off his shoulders and hoisted him up onto a nearby barrel. They were at one of the busiest parts of the huge square, the eastern side, with every spare piece of ground taken up by a different stall, selling all number of things. The smell of freshly fried onions and exotic spices surrounded them, as did the clanging, banging and knocking that accompanied the selling and handing over of goods. All around them were the shouting voices of sellers, all vying for the customers' attention. It was a battleground of commerce. Around the square were large buildings; cafes, taverns, and more specialised shops, including a blacksmith and a seamstress.
'I had no idea they'd give you such a beating. If I had I would've gone in your place.' Eloise, like Danil, had taken off her cloak and armour and streaked herself with grime in order to fit the role of a street beggar.
'Don't worry about it' wheezed Danil, massaging his injuries. He'll get what's coming to him eventually'
He looked down at the blood smeared on his forefingers and smiled.
'I got him. Don't think he noticed.'
'In that case, Brill is probably already on the lookout.' Eloise smiled, and helped him up back into the stream of people gathered for the market.
----
Brill observed the whole thing from a nearby rooftop. Saw the moment Danils' bloody fingers had traced a cross on the back of the noblemans hand. Now it was time to wait, and observe. He had followed the carriage through the cobbled streets, crouching behind the chimneys of the large houses that populated the North of the city - the trader district. Only the higher up merchants of the city that had done exceedingly well for themselves could afford to live here. Most would do anything to further their careers, regardless of who had to take the fall.
The man he was tracking had his hand hanging out of the carriage window, clearly visible to anyone looking for it. It was better than Brill could have hoped for. It took thirty minutes for the carriage to twist it's way through the maze of wide streets for the man to get back to his gated mansion, long enough for any 'observant' to mark him out . The houses in this part of the city were further apart from each other, detached, owing to their size. His was one of the biggest. His servants helped him down as he approached from the street, and he disappeared inside the large oak front door after a long walk down the front path and the flowerbeds surrounding it.
A half hour later, a decidedly dejected Danil and a concerned faced Eloise found him sitting on a rooftop a few streets away from the house on a personal clocktower. High up enough to still be within line of sight.
'That's it?' Eloise asked, following Danils gaze to the mansion.
'That's it.'
They settled down, the falling sun illuminating the city around them orange and reflecting off the large windows of the merchant houses. Water from the many fountains in their surroundings gurgled and the distant sound of stray dogs could be heard. It was calm, and the three of them found themselves remembering a time before the attack, when they, Ryker, Lux and Jack had snuck off from the guild across the rooftops of the city, to play stupid games or have a picnic at sunset, or just for the hell of it. They were easier times.
It wasn't until dusk had completely fallen and their eyes had become heavier that they saw him.
If it hadn't been three thieves watching the man would have gone unnoticed; but they had been taught to seek out movement with their peripheral vision and distinguish body shapes from the shadows surrounding them. The man flitted over the rooftops a street away from them, not bothering to check if anyone was watching him.
'He's arrogant' Danil commented quietly. They had their cowls pulled up over their faces and watched without moving.
'Idiot' murmured Eloise.
'Remember, these guys are good' Brill said 'But I don't fancy his chances three on one. Let's go'
They set off in pursuit, their padded boots catlike on the roof tiles beneath their feet. They traversed the rooftops separately, so their bodies wouldn't line up and create a bigger silhouette. The Assassin stayed in front of them, slipping across the rooftops almost as well as a Thief. He came to a halt at the edge of the building facing the Merchants house and slid down the drainpipe swiftly. He ducked quickly across the street, this time checking his surroundings, and looking up.
Brill saw the mans head turn and stopped, immediately putting his closed fist up behind him to signal the others. He slid behind a nearby chimney, and Eloise dived to the floor silently, but Danil was caught out in the open at the edge of the roof. A moment of panic seized him, and he froze. The Assassin would spot him at any moment...
Danil looked below him and spotted a small window ledge edge jutting out, three feet under the edge of the roof. Quick as lightning he turned and hopped off the roof backwards, grabbing it with both hands as he fell. With a superhuman effort he propelled himself onto the ledge, pulling his cloak tight around him and flattening himself against the mass of the building, making his human shape indistinguishable. The Assassin scanned the rooftops where they had been a second before. His eyes lingered for a long time at the window where Danil crouched, holding his breath. Eventually the man turned around and vaulted over the gate surrounding the mansion.
'Holy shit' groaned Danil quietly from below. 'Too close.'
The three of them descended from the rooftop to the pavement below, using more window ledges and drainpipes to descend along the sides of the huge houses. They followed the mans path and jumped the gate, landing with soft thuds in the shrubbery below.
The man had stopped at the front door, and pulled out two long, slender pieces of metal. He wore black trousers and boots, with a thin undershirt and waistcoat and a long black overcoat. A mask covered his face, a haunting apparition of a smiling face; part of the reason the assassins were so feared. He inserted the metal into the lock and started twisting. From this distance they could see a white envelope in his inside pocket, marked with a red seal. The sand of the Assassins guild.
'We'll go on three.' Brill whispered.
'One...'
He pulled the curved hilted knife from the sheath at the small of his back
'Two...'
He flipped the knife so he was holding it blade in hand and raised his arm
'Three!'
He drew back and threw his arm forward, snapping his wrist in a powerful movement which sent the knife flying end over end through the air. The Assassin heard the faint whistle and his head snapped towards them as the knife thudded into the cloth at his wrist and impaled it in the door, a millimetre from his hand. The three of them sprinted towards him, Eloise and Danil drawing their own knives as they closed in.
The Assassin reached to his thigh and a stiletto blade leaped into his hand. In one smooth motion he cut the cloth at his wrist and then sent the knife hurtling towards Brill's face, who narrowly avoided death by twisting his torso to the left. Two more knives appeared in the mans hands from his waistcoat and he flipped them expertly as he faced off against the three of them.
'What's this?' He sneered. 'Lost pups? You Thief brats better get out of here before you experience real pain'
'Yeah yeah' Danil replied.
He slashed at the assassin but the man parried his blade with his right hand and gave him a long cut across the forearm with the other, after which he stamp kicked him back, all the power of his leg and gravity flinging Danil to the ground.
Eloise attacked with Brill, each of them going for a different angle of attack. The Assassin stepped in towards Brill, grabbing his wrist, throwing him across his hip to the floor, and kicking him in the face. He spun round in a pirouette and stabbed at Eloise, who quickly sidestepped, dropping to the ground and sweeping the mans legs out from under him. The Assassin yelped and landed hard; throwing his knife wildly and sending a long gash along Eloise' cheek. She ignored it and kept coming, stamping on the mans wrist with her heel and then crouching down to hit the pressure point at the arm pit. She slashed a long , horizontal curved line across the mans chest, knocked him out cold with a backhand to the temple, and then slashed two more crosses above the first cut.
Danil picked himself up and looked at their unconscious adversary, who now had a dead smiley face slashed into his chest.
'Really?' he moaned, massaging his back where he landed.
Brill also stood up and looked at her admiringly. 'That was close' he said, his face swollen from the kick to the face. 'We were lucky'.
'Lucky?' laughed Danil 'It was all Eloise. I'll try not to get on your bad side again' he said to her
Eloise put her hand up to her cheek and held it there.
'He deserved it.' She said. 'This is definitely going to scar'
Brill picked up the man and slung him over his shoulders. 'C'mon' he said. 'We don't want to be here when this guy wakes up. Us and him need to have a chat'