The Master's Assassin

The Final Choice

Veldergrath and his men left Farthenwood some time later. Sage had found my mask and made me put it back on as we hid. we had been sitting together at the bottom of the tunnel entrance for what felt like forever. Sage had barely spoken to me and it appeared that his mind was entirely captivated by the fact that he had killed a man.

my mind had not yet wandered from the immense pain in my shoulder. it was still in quite a lot of pain from the way i was sitting in the tunnel that forced it to be pressed into a wall but i did not tell Sage that it was hurting because he already looked distressed and i did not want to bother him with my troubles. the large man that had attacked us seemed to have re-bruised my shoulder somehow. it had not even finished healing when it got injured again.

Sage began shifting around and i looked up at him only to see him nod at me. there were thunderous footsteps through the house that were clearly coming from outside the tunnels. i memorized the footsteps of my father and his men long ago and Sage must have known they were coming too.

"That one is my father," i said after we heard short fast stomps. "Cregan is behind him. And Mott sounds like his shoes are full of lead but he's there too."

"you memorized their footsteps?" he asked with a judgmental look on his face.

"I've memorized your footsteps too." i replied.

"that's not at all creepy." he said with a suspicious look.

"and you spy on people in the tunnels while they're sleeping." i said. Sage took his loss and i nodded at him as if i was silently telling him 'that's right. i won'.

a few silent minutes later Mott led My father and Cregan into the room where the incident had occurred and Sage and i both tensed as the secret door swung open revealing my father hovering over us.

my father snatched Sage's arm and pulled him out of the tunnel harshly. once Sage had been thrown aside my father gently helped me out of the tunnel and i walked carefully out of the room seeing that whatever mess of blood and the body had been cleaned up and all that was left was a spot where there had clearly been something scrubbed up.

Sage sat on his bed and looked up at me and i slowly moved to sit next to him on the edge of the mattress. there was a small distance between us but compared to the proximity we had been sharing in the tunnels, my father was not concerned by the fact that i had chosen to sit next to him.

i looked at the others and Mott looked quite pale and had wrapped his arm in a bandage lazily. he, of course, did not have much time between the incident and Veldergrath's departure to dress it properly but hopefully the blade did not have any infection worthy diseases on it. Cregan looked smug as always but he stayed back because, as usual, he was lazy and would rather not be a part of this chaos.

Tobias and Roden were standing in the doorway and my father assured them in before taking a sharp intake of breath and beginning to speak. "May i assume that you were in the tunnels because you were somehow involved in the death of that man?" the question was directed entirely at me but my father must have been trying to mask my identity and get answers out of the others.

"yes." i said quickly and quietly.

"It was my fault," Sage intervened. "I thought i struck him low enough to avoid any major damage."

"it was for good reason," Mott said. "we all know what would've happened if you hadn't acted, not only to Conner's assassin but to you boys as well."

"But why were you out of the tunnels in the first place?" my father asked Sage and i was right in assuming this conversation was not meant for me to be a part of it.