The Assassin's Ghosts

Chapter 12: New Plan

 Everyone sat around, plagued by a cruel kind of anticipation to hear Kyros' new plan. It was the kind of anticipation where they weren't sure if they really wanted to know what he was planning to do, but they knew it would be far worse to be uninformed. Rae herself was surprised to find that she harboured a strange sense of curiosity for what Kyros had in store. She sensed that everyone else felt the same way; Kyros had never had to suffer such a loss in their entire career, so his retaliation would have to be something big to wash away the sting.

Kyros sat in an armchair, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. His vibrant eyes were fixated on the coffee table, but Rae could tell his mind was working at a million miles per hour. He was like that a lot. His face and body would seem calm– maybe even unfocused– but if you knew him well enough, you would know that his mind was racing.

Thankfully, Kyros didn't force them all to wait for too long.

"We've been going about this all wrong," he started, his eyes still on the table and his hands folded neatly on his lap. "I realise that I may have been impulsive in my attempts to catch my enemy, which led to me overlooking the flaws of my plans. After our last... failure, I have re-examined my difficulties and evaluated our collective capabilities. Instead of going after her in her own domain, we should have been letting her come to us, in a place where we have the advantage. I was being sloppy and I put you all at risk. That was never my intention."

"That's about the closest thing to a 'I'm sorry' we are ever going to get, so thank you Kyros," Rae smiled. Kyros gave her a dry glance, but nodded calmly. Everyone else took a turn at saying thank you for his somewhat-apology. Even Adira, Rae noticed, seemed satisfied with his words.

"I have decided to give us all a reasonable amount of time to rest before we try to finish the mission," Kyros continued.

"Whoo!" Neo hollered, pumping a fist in the air. In truth, the rest of them hadn't been hurt too badly. They each had their wounds from the fights they'd been in, but Kyros had the worst injuries. Rae supposed Kyros had to rebuild his pride somehow, so even though he had been beaten severely, he was still determined to win. Of course, Kyros was typically a very calculated person, so he knew that he would need time to rest, heal, and eventually, win.

"Right," Kyros muttered, casting Neo an unamused look before continuing. "We need to perfect it, but I have a plan to lure the girl to us once we've recovered. Now, I think I managed to flush out the people who have been working against us, so we just need to use them to our own advantage."

"So how do we do that," Rae interjected.

"Feeding them the exact information that we need them to bring back to Whitlock."

"And what information would that be, exactly?" Adira asked, leaning forward.

"I'm not sure yet. It would have to be something that is doable, but just a little crazy. We should make it seem like we are still desperate to win, even more so than before. Whatever we say, it has to be reckless, but sensitive enough to strike a nerve and make her want to stop us. It should probably have something to do with her father," Kyros explained, looking around the room in hope of someone having an idea. Everyone was silent for a long time, unsure of what could have that effect. Then, Neo, who had gotten up to start pacing across the room, spoke up.

"We should start asking around about her father, gathering up information about him, even getting our hands on one of his personal belongings. To bring her to us, we should feed her information about us planning to visit a local necromancer, planning to raise her father from the dead and forcing his soul to turn on her," he suggested, still pacing. His eyes watched the ground as he walked, and he seemed to be thinking so nonchalantly, despite it being a deep thought. Kyros stared off into the distance, and Rae could practically see the gears in his mind turning efficiently. Everyone was admittedly quite surprised at his idea. For one, it was a little bit insane, and for two, he had come up with that in a matter of seconds. Rae pursed her lips, considering his idea carefully.