The Nameless Assassins

Lesson Plans

No sooner had I set foot in the railcar, than I regretted it – because Faith pounced.

"Ishaaaaa," she pleaded, "can I have a faaavor? Can you acquire a copy of the demon's holy book, pleeeeease?"

I eyeballed her, ready to lose my temper if she were making another Ixis joke. (The Prince of Shadows would never be so direct as to have his own holy book.) "Which demon's holy book?"

She widened her own eyes, shocked that I had to ask. "Setarra!"

"How am I supposed to acquire a copy of Setarra's holy book?" I demanded. Without robbing and murdering one or more of her cultists, that was – which, come to think of it, wouldn't be such a bad idea. At the very least, it would stop them from sacrificing any more children.

Unconcerned by such petty details, Faith shrugged. "I don't know," she replied carelessly. "I thought you were good at this sort of thing."

Oh, wait. She'd assigned her pet acolyte, Arilyn, to infiltrate the cult, which meant that she must have long-term plans for it. Since I didn't actually want to spoil any of her projects, revenge would have to wait. In fact, playing along with her plans might count as revenge in and of itself.

So I dressed up as a would-be cultist (in the dark, hooded robes we'd worn for our fake demonic cult) and headed to the Docks. After haunting the same shady taverns that Faith had suggested to Arilyn, I managed to get an interview with one of the recruiters. My air of determination, immorality, and pure rage convinced him to give me a copy of Setarra's writings, which I promptly handed over to Faith.

As thanks, she flung her arms around me and squeezed the breath out of me. "Thank you, Isha! You're the best! There must be some way I can repay you. I have these interesting documents on the invasion of Iruvia – "

Breaking free, I glared at her. "No you don't."

"Oh!" she cried, pretending to remember all of a sudden. "I burned them! Aww, well, I'll find some other way."

The look she slanted at me showed she was expecting a flat refusal, so I said instead, "That would be better."

The expression on her face was all repayment I needed.

At their next afternoon tea, which I monitored as usual, Faith coached Arilyn on how to rise in the cult of Setarra until she got close enough to the leader to assassinate him. "Without the adept, the entire cult will fall apart," she explained to the wide-eyed acolyte. "Then there will be no more human sacrifice."

After staring into her empty teacup for a moment, Arilyn lifted her chin, met Faith's eyes, and stated grimly: "So we will be exchanging the death of one demonic cultist for the peace and safety of all the residents of Crow's Foot."

"Exactly."

Faith nodded her approval but waited until their next meeting, when Arilyn had already begun to impress the other cultists with her zeal, to elaborate on this plan: "If you can get close to the adept, then I can provide poison for his tea. All that's required of you is to rise very quickly through the ranks," she instructed, implying that the faster Arilyn achieved this, the fewer innocents would die. At the young woman's determined nod, Faith laid Setarra's holy book next to the teapot. "It may be helpful to identify which acolytes are doing well, figure out what they are doing, and adopt their ways," she counseled. "I'll send Cricket to watch over you."