Sin: Path of Poison

Chapter 1 Part 1

A dark stone wall five meters high loomed in the distance. Only two guards, easily spotted, patrolled the top with torches in their hands. This time of day, right before dusk, there should have been more guards stationed along the wall. Now wasn't the time to think about such inconsistencies. The sun was quickly setting and traveling in the dark of night wasn't a possibility with the amount of injuries inflicted on my body.

Gathering energy and gritting my teeth through the piercing pain I was able to light step over the wall and land, not all too gracefully but mostly unharmed, on the other side. Fortunately the guards were unaware of this minor intrusion. In the dimming light I made my way haphazardly to a nearby hill, which was becoming blurred between present time and distant memories of the past. With my last bit of consciousness I crawled to a nearby fallen tree and fumbled around until my medicine bag opened. Choking down a single medicine ball without water, my mind faltered, darkness would overcome me soon.

Not far away was a group of five men, all heavily armed, chasing me down like a wild injured beast. While I could only expect the wall and guards to delay them momentarily, I was confident the darkness would at least spare me the time to regain my awareness. Typically these hired killers wouldn't be a problem, but the last few days had been troublesome. My vision tunneled and quickly darkened as I embraced for a momentary retreat.

Everything had seemed relatively normal. I'd been traveling under several different disguises doing various odd jobs for the past few weeks. Unwilling to return to my ranks among Demon's Peak, sometimes referred to as Assassin City, I traveled alone. While passing through a small town I recognized a teenage boy, one of the many illegitimate kids that ended up in our ranks. He'd been among us for several years and only recently came of an age to leave the training grounds. He eagerly eyed any beautiful woman dressed in extravagantly long flowing dresses made of brocade in search of someone familiar.

He was here to find me, likely under the instruction of Angst, the current leader and number one master assassin among our guild of demons. While it wasn't completely unheard of to appear in front of underlings dressed as a commoner I did try to avoid it when possible. Not because I was ashamed of my disguise but rather I preferred hiding my working life from the duties of the master Demoness ranking second in our guild. Remaining a mystery was also in part who I was.

The day only had a few hours remaining, it was best to return later after I freshened up. At the small room I rented for the night, I ate a light dinner and dressed in my notorious fashion. Black hair that trailed well below my waist was pulled into a high ponytail with two eye catching red jeweled combs and a blood jade hair stick. I brushed a smokey shade of shadow heavily over my eyelids, making my eyes appear more feline than human. My pupils were so dark they appeared to swallow the whites of my eyes and absorb the light around me. I painted my lips blood red. Just this alone would make me stand out among the crowd, but my name wouldn't be complete if I didn't dress the part.

The blood red dress fit snugly around my torso with a few straps covering barely an inch of my shoulders. The dress came down below mid thigh in the front and barely below the knee in the back. Over the dress I wore a completely transparent black robe decorated with small red gems around the collar. It buttoned under the neck and hung open in front, dropping to my hips to match the length of the red dress. The sleeves were loose and flowed gently with every movement. Slowly pulling the soft black boots to mid calf, I was ready to find my messenger.

He wasn't hard to spot, sitting near a group of open food stalls with his neck stretched out as far as possible. His head bobbed this way and that, taking in all the new sights. The two newly released teens that were assigned to his team sat nearby, seemingly uninterested in the daily life of the town. While they obviously didn't belong to the town they blended in much better than my dress, which was causing more than a few gasps, trips, dropped purchases, and rubbernecking in general. As I swayed towards my targets the voices of the later two teens grew louder in my ears.