𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℍ𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥 𝕆𝕗 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕃𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕤 ¦ 𝔽𝕖𝕟𝕣𝕪𝕤 𝕄𝕠𝕠𝕟𝕓𝕖𝕒𝕞

𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙿𝚛𝚒𝚍𝚎

☽ - Assassin's Blade Years - ☾

Celeana Sardothien owned her reputation to Arobynn Hamel, but she sure as shit hated him for some of the punishments he ruled out to her. Though sitting in a warm room eating hot food and talking with Ansel Briarcliff meant it wasn't all bad.

The night was warm and sky dark in the Red Desert. The air quiet in the den of Silent Assassins, well until Ansel leaned back and laughed, Celeana also giggling behind her hand at the table which they sat. Comparing stories was always a good way to make friends, finding things in common.

"So, you've stabbed another Assassin from your guild before?" Ansel asked, her voice weak from laughter. 

Celeana nodded, "If one is to survive in the Guild in Rifthold you need to let them know not to mess with you, unfortunately for me, or well them, being Arobynn's prodigy apparently wasn't enough to get me left alone"

"We get punished if we harm one another, jobs like ours don't work without trust" Ansel suggested turning back to fork around the food in her bowl. "Can't have us accidently killing each other, won't do good for or numbers, especially after the last few months"

Celeana frowned when she spooned some food into her mouth, Ansel swallowed quickly and began to explain.

"About a week before you showed up, we had some...visitors, they were coming to escort some of our people away so they could live in Wendlyn" Ansel shrugged and went back to eating.

Celeana froze, her hand suspended in the air the spoon held up. Something about the situation seemed familiar, thinking back Celeana thought of Ilan from the Guild. 

"Were these visitors Fae?"

Ansel's mahogany eyes snapped up to meet her own. Her mouth slowly dropped open and her cutlery clanked back down onto her plate.

"How did you..."

"Because the same thing happened to someone I knew." Ilan had been at the guild as long as Celeana had, they often trained together, a vague familiarity in the way his instinct kicked in from his Fae nature.

"Three strangers, all Fae came to the guild, I helped them get past our master"

Ansel was smiling, a knowing smile spreading across her face, "Good riddance, some Assassins here say they are better off"

Celeana placed her spoon down gently, crossing her hands against the table, head tilted slightly. It was a strange occurrence how swapping stories often meant the come about of similarities.

"The word is that they are now under the Protection of the Pride" Ansel stabbed the food in the bowl, "No safer place if you ask me"

"The Pride?"

Ansel froze, her red hair falling from its messy braid which she had pulled tight at the back of her head. Eyes narrowing in slight shock, growing up she heard whispers of the Pride, the name coming to the surface of society in the years after Terrasen fell.

"Ghosts, shadows in the mist, original protectors for the folk of Terrasen after it fell, apparently for years they have been getting Fae and Magic wielders out of Erilea, offering them an escape and putting them under their protection"

Celeana's fist clamped tight rested atop her thigh hidden beneath the cover of the table, "Who are they?"

Ansel shrugged, "Beats me, heard some of them broke out a bunch of slaves from the salt mines a couple years ago— for fun. Whoever they are I would certainly want them with me, they have never been caught"