Havoc

8: Moonlight

Okay okay so this one is from Vaughan's POV again but I promise that the next part will be from Maya's.

The sound of someone rapping on my door draws me from my deep sleep. I glance over at the clock and see the time, 12:05. Why the fuck is someone waking me up at midnight. 

A grunt escapes my lips as I climb out of bed, I wince a little too. Lifting up my shirt I find a heavy bruise forming along my rib cage, I guess I have Maya to thank for that. The knocking on my door continues and grows more urgent as I stumble towards the door.

The face of one of the sentries greets me as I open the door. He looks anxious. 

"Sir y-you told us to keep eyes on M-miss Rae and alert y-you if she does anything st-strange," he stammers. "Well about five minutes ago she left her room and started dragging a rather large trunk about. She was headed to the western grass field when I left to come and get you."

"Shit," I say as I begin to jog that way. I honestly don't even know what she could be doing. Especially at this hour.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time I reach the field I'm breathing heavy. I look out and see her sitting upon a blanket on the grass. The trunk sits to her left and a flash of light catches my eye. The type of flash that comes from a blade gleaming in the light. What the fuck is she doing?

As I walk toward her I begin to realize what's in the trunk that would make her struggle to carry it. A shit ton of blades, great.

"Good evening, Vaughan," Maya calls sweetly. How she knew I was approaching I do not know. I've been making sure to stay silent.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" She waits for me to reply but gets the message that she should go on. "Some of my nicer daggers got dirty in the move so I'm cleaning them. It's easier to see all of the damage in the moonlight." I eye her suspiciously but I have no reason not to believe her seeing as she's wiping a dagger down with polish right now.

"Quite the collection you've got here." I say as I eye the trunk full of finely crafted, luxurious blades. "Mind if I take a look," I ask. She must not like being up at this hour either because she just gives my a shrug of approval. 

I take a seat on the other side of the trunk and pick up a blade from what I assume to be the 'already cleaned' pile. The first one I grab has a simple silver handle and sheath but it is the emerald in the middle of the handle that makes it so nice. I recognize the silver and steel immediately, it's from Doranelle. I wonder how she came into possession of a blade like this. Naturally I find it to be as sharp as possible, she must take good care of these blades.

The next one I grab is made of some black metal, most likely just a colored steel. I pull it out of the sheath to reveal a staggered blade. It looks like a staircase when you view it from the side, I'm sure I could make some people scream with a dagger like this. 

As I pick up the third blade I notice her eye me suspiciously, must just be a special one. The sheath on this one is made of jade and looks like a scale pattern. On the handle there is a pink chrysanthemum flower embellishment. Interesting how that flower seems so relevant to her. I suppose it isn't any of my business but it may be one day. As in unsheathe the dagger I find a message carved into the steel with gold, 'Our little secret. -C'. Unable to control my urge I ask, "who's C and what's the secret?"

"C is a demon and the secret doesn't matter," she replies harshly, clearly putting effort into not making eye contact with me as she cleans another dagger. I guess I hit a nerve, I should stop now but my distrust of her causes me to keep going.

"A secret love maybe? Also, what's the obsession with chrysanthemum flowers about?" I visibly saw her flinch when I said the word chrysanthemum.

"Pftt, I've never been in love and I just like the way the flower looks, that's all." When she finally looks to me I see that her eyes are a lighter blue now, not that her eyes matter. I simply raise a brow at her, taunting her further as she is clearly getting very upset. She seems to get the message that I'm wondering why this particular dagger means so much. "This was the first dagger I ever got, I made my first kill with it. That's why it's sentimental. C is my former master Carhmel Rookling, he gave it to me. The secret referred to is the fact that I was a four year old who infiltrated courts and assassinated people, generally those in power. Is that a good enough answer for you?" I simply turn back towards the sky and put the dagger back where I found it. 

She's lying about something, what though I do not know. I believe for the most part she was telling the truth but she's definitely hiding something. I'm no longer in the mood to interrogate her anymore so I stand up and say, "see you at six," before leaving.

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The next three weeks passed quickly and I've begun to trust Maya more and more. When we walk to the training room or spar she always tries to make conversation. Maya always ends up doing most of the talking, I just comment when necessary. I'm afraid that she's beginning to think we are friends and whilst I wouldn't say its a very far stretch, I would prefer to call her more of an acquaintance.

This afternoon the Queen had called for my presence, she informed me that she had her first assignment for Maya and that I am to give it to her. All I know is that she will be dispatching the target after the Autumn ball in two weeks and to my dismay I also learned that Maya is to attend this ball.

As I knock on Maya's door I hear a faint, "come in," sound from her room. Usually she just opens the door and never invites me in. I pause for a second confused as to why she would do this. Could I have interrupted her dinner? It is eight pm so I guess it's a possibility. A quiet, "hello?" comes from behind the door so I muster up some courage and open it, a wave of surprise rolls over me as I see why she was unable to open the door herself.