Assassin's Revenge

Chapter 4

(Wari)

Sitting near the crown prince, around the rectangle long table full of authorized nobilities, Wari has to fight the urge of wanting to stab him with the multiple daggers- plus the long sword she strapped on her hip, hidden by the skirts and the crinoline of her dress. She glared at him with burning hatred in her eyes, which technically any individual could sense from afar but fortunately mistake it from how her usual expression looks.

“Your Highness, did you hear what happened to Baron
Bartholomew of house Donovan yesterday?” asked Archduchess Fiona of house Tartal, twisting her platinum blonde hair that is tied in a low lazy ponytail resting on her turquoise dress, around her finger flirtatiously. Ever since the masquerade ball was announced, all the high ranking and low-ranking women have tried catching Prince Arden’s attention, in order to get a chance to dance with him.

“What happened?” Prince Arden asked. Ever so ignorant, living in the fortified Castle not caring about people outside of the royal capital.

“They found 44 boys and 29 girls freed from his house just before his mansion was burned to ashes.”

“I do not follow.”

“Baron Bartholomew was responsible for human trafficking, someone freed 73 kids from his clutches before burning the house to ashes. The baron and his wife, died.”

“What about the servants and the guards?”

“their bodies were not found, they may have escaped, or the fires burned their trace.”

“Lord Alfred, may you send guards to inspect who did that and what happened to the servants and guards?”

“Your highness, I’m sorry to interrupt but the Baron is dead, the kids are free, and the house is burned to ashes. Why would it matter who killed a criminal and freed poor kids?” Wari interrupts.

“Such murder is a crime, Lady Darlene.” Prince Arden replies.

“So is human trafficking, your highness.”

“The criminal that kept those kids is dead, but the murderer is not.”

“There are far more important things we should focus on, rather than ashes of dead servants and guards.”

“Like what?”

“Like stopping poverty and famine in the lower classes. Like stopping the order of sending boys aged 12 to the military, to separate them from their family and prepare them for war, most of them die and never return. Like actually focusing on commoner’s lives like focusing on the dead baron’s murderer.” Is what Wari would like to say but it would  make her assassin identity blow, so she keeps her head down, her eyes glowing with rage, her thoughts filling with images of the crown prince’s body bloody and bruised- begging for mercy at her feet , her lips lift up at the promise of vengeance and she says, “Forgive me for my incompetence, your highness.”

Prince Arden chuckles and says, “It is all right, I don't mind hearing your opinions,” the black-haired man takes a sip of his tea, “Now back to Lady Beatrice’s suggestion…”

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After finishing the meeting, Wari heads back to the Corvus manor, as the Corvus manor is very close to the training fields of the royal castle. Isabella, her younger sister, sits on the stairs of the manor watching the crown prince dueling with his brother, the second prince.

“Reginald always wins their matches, despite being the youngest. Why is that Darly?” Isabella asks, not moving her eyes away from the clashing princes.

“Prince Reginald has more speed, gained from making his guards run after him when he escapes the Castle. Prince Arden has more experience, since he’s older, but his mind is occupied with a million things to do-“

“Especially with the upcoming ball.”

“Yes th-“

“Oh, Darly look! It’s an eagle, isn’t it cute?” Isabella interrupts her as she points to an eagle coming from far, she narrows her eyes to get a better view at the bird. Siren’s eagle.

Wari leaves her sister and rushes to her room. Arch, the eagle, is trained to come straight at her, if she were to be with her sister and  an eagle approaches her with a letter, her cover would be blown.
Wari opens the window to let Arch in. She unties the letter from the eagle’s legs and starts to read it. Morse code. She reads the hyphens and periods and translates it in her mind. Come now. The only words Siren seems to know in morse code. 

Arch is trained to leave as soon as the letter is received that Wari doesn’t get time to give him the snacks she keeps for Hemlock, her raven. She runs down the stairs to the front door, Isabella is still sitting there watching the duelling princes.

“You’re back,” the brunette says as she smiles at Wari, “I wanted to ask a favour of you.”

“Later please, I’m going shopping.”

“It’s night.”

“Just don’t tell father, I’ll get you anything you want.”

“I don’t want anything Darly, but alright. Off you go.”

Wari nods at her and takes her horse from the stables and rides it to the hideout.

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“Where’s M?” Wari asks as she enters the planning room, “don’t we have a mission?”

“Not technically, it’s about the ball.” Siren says as she sets down the dagger, she was picking her nails with, seconds ago.

“Siren, we’re killing no one at the ball.”

“The plan is to make ye marry the pretty prince.”

“Of course, then why am I here?”

“I want to go with ye’.”

Wari couldn’t contain herself and bursts into a laughter, Siren folds her arms waiting for her to finish laughing, “What part of the plan involves you, a daughter of a pirate, coming to a masquerade ball for the crown prince’s eighteenth birth-“

“who are ye kidding? I know it’s a ball for the prince to find a bride, in secret.”

“fine, a ball to find a bride. You’re fourteen. Of course, that’s excluding that you do not have any status behind your name and don’t even have an invitation.”

Siren sighs, “I don’t have any intention of marrying the crown prince but it’s a ball, Wari. There is dancing and pretty dresses. And I’ll be masked so no one would recognise me. I just want to have fun, it’s pretty boring sitting here all the time just planning.”

“And picking your already clean nails with that dagger.”

“Exactly.”

“If you’re bored, why don’t you go back to your father’s ship?”

“Wari. I want an invitation.”

“No.”

“Ye’ll make a horrible queen.”

“Thank you.”

Siren grabs her dagger and throws it at Wari, “Aaaaargh.”

Wari holds the skirts of her puffy violet dress as she dodges, but wasn’t fast enough, the dagger slashes her cheek before hitting the wall behind her.

“Are you trying to kill me?!”

“I don’t know, am I?”

Wari pulls her longsword from under her dress, ”You dir-“

“What is this?” A booming voice says from the door. Siren gasps and Wari turns to see the person with the voice.

“Master.” Siren and Wari both say in unison as they bow their heads.

“What is all this noise? Wari, why is your cheek bleeding and why are you holding your longsword?”

Wari clears her throat, “Siren almost killed me with her dagger if I hadn’t dodged.”

Master turns his head towards Siren, whose eyes are, shockingly, not able to meet his eyes. “Siren, explain.”

“Wari was annoying me.”

“Annoying you?!” Master yells, “What is this, a nursery?”

“I just wanted to go to the ball.”

Master picks the dagger Siren threw at Wari minutes ago and walks towards the red-headed girl, she takes a step back but finds her back to the wall, she looks at master in horror as he reaches for her neck and pulls her collar down exposing the scar on her collarbone, the scar responsible for identifying her as a member of the organization, Wari has a matching scar on her shoulder blade, and M has one on his collar bone too. 

Master holds the dagger to the scar and pushes the dagger in, opening the wound again. Siren’s screams echo in the room as Master wraps his hand around her throat and whispers something in her ear, too soft for Wari to hear.

He leaves Siren on the floor and turns to Wari, “you have a job to do tomorrow, don’t fail me.”

“Yes, master.” She nods.

Master heads for the door, Siren sits broken on the floor burying her face in her hands, while Wari searches for tissues to clean the blood off of siren’s wounds. 

“What the frick happened here.” A familiar voice says from the door, Wari turns her head towards the door.

“M, help me find tissues.” Wari says as she looks at Siren, who lifted her head to look at M.

“Why is it that every time I come, you’re bloodied up.” He says as he gets out a napkin from his suit’s pocket and hands it to her to wipe her tears.

Siren takes the napkin from him and lets out a dark laugh, “Guess ye’re not destined to see me happy anymore.”

“Wait, what do you mean every time?” Wari interrupts their cute little talk.

“Yesterday, I had a mission so when I came back- her cheeks were bruised, and her right arm was cut.”

“Was it master too?”

“It’s not fair, ye know,” Siren starts as she wipes her tear-stained cheeks, “M’s mission was to murder the baron but instead he murdered him and his wife and burned down their house and let out the kids but wasn’t punished. And I slash Wari’s cheek with me’ dagger and get this.” She gestures to herself.

“Wait, what?” Wari says in shock, “Do you mean Baron
Bartholomew, by any chance?”

“Aye,” Siren confirms as she gets up from the floor and straightens the wrinkles on her teal knee-length skirt.

“Why did you burn his house?”

“Ah, that was an unintentional mistake, all I meant to do was free the kids.” M admits.

“What about the servants and guards?”

“Finn sent them out of the kingdom.” Siren says as she reapplies kohl on her eyes while looking at the reflecting surface of her dagger.

“Who is Finn?” Wari asks.

“Me’ brother, he’s got a friend who’s a sailor, sneaked them on a ship of cargo going to the neighbouring kingdom.”

“How did you do that in one night?”

“Easy. I didn’t trust M to just kill the baron without causing a scene, especially when the crime isn’t as major as murder and will be dealt lightly with after the baron is dead, no one would take punishment. So, I followed him and when I realized what he intended to do, I sent Arch to Finn and told him to prepare a ship for the servants and guards to flee the kingdom.”

“Wait, that means that the fire wasn’t a mistake?” M asks.

“Nothing I do is a mistake, M.” 

“Siren, you are an absolute genius.”

Siren holds her skirts and mocks a curtsy, “Thank ye’.”

Wari leaves M with Siren and walks back home to the Corvus Manor, then suddenly changes her destination to the Royal Castle, seeking the crown prince.

“Darlene, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?” Prince Arden says as he stops his nightly walk around the castle grounds. 

“I-“ she hesitates before making up her mind, “I lost my invitation to the ball, do you have an extra one?”

“But Darlene,” he smiles, “You don’t even need an invitation. You’re the crown prince’s assistant.”

“Forgive me, your highness, but I do not like just attending the ball for my status, I would like to have an invitation please.”

“Very well- wait here.”

The tall heir to the throne returns about four minutes later with a stamped and sealed invitation letter, “Here you go.”

“Thank you very much your hus- highness”

Prince Arden smiles as he says, “Good night, Darlene.”

“Good night!” 

When she gets away from the prince’s sight, she whistles for Hemlock to come, she ties the new invitation around his leg and whispers to it, “Take it to Siren.”

*Chapter edited by bbashii don't forget to give her a follow*