Sin: Path of Poison

Chapter 16 Part 1

It was well after dark when the girls returned from the banquet, full of giggles and gossip. They wouldn't check on me tonight. Gossip spread fast, they already heard a little of what happened. The girls assumed I was hiding, saving some face. I quietly changed into the patrol robes and fixed my hair like a boy, it was the best I could do. I didn't have a full disguise lined up, it would have been nice to have the proper shoes, weapons, and a mask but this would work fine. I resembled a younger boy with delicate features, fresh in the ranks.

Picking up a random empty scroll container near my bed, I held it in my hand and shadow stepped to the window and left without anyone noticing. These young soldiers were often sent as messengers for the military. It wouldn't seem out of place for me to walk alone, breaking the carefully scheduled and heavily reinforced protocols of the patrol routes.

I approached the Crown Prince's rooms and shadow stepped to a wall near a tree. Using my energy, I channeled myself to blend better with the shadows that were cast from the nearby lanterns. The patrols walked past me, unnoticed. I removed the second set of patrol robes and tucked them into the darkest shadow. The night robes were hidden inside.

Blake and Nomi walked by, escorting the Crown Prince back. There was a slim chance Blake would notice me, I emptied any lingering thoughts in my head and slowed my heartbeat. I channeled my energy ever so slightly, believing I didn't currently exist in this world. The image of my body blurred. While I hadn't mastered the ghost image, it was still very good. The Crown Prince asked Nomi to go check on me, despite my asking her not to. Obviously someone, if not her, told him about the incident.

"She's doing this for your sake. It will waste the efforts she put in so far. The Empress has asked to see her tomorrow, there's something going on. We should wait until we have more information. If it was bad, she wouldn't have been allowed to leave tonight." Nomi rationalized.

"I don't know why the sudden interest." Crown Prince said.

"She's a woman that went from no experience in the palace to someone that follows you daily. Of course they want to know who she is. It's just fortunate she's smart enough to look so.. " Blake couldn't finish his train of thought.

"Natural at blending in?" Nomi asked.

"Yes." He agreed, deep in thought, he continued, "For someone so beautiful she can somehow manage not to stand out." He realized his mistake when a sudden unhappy sound came from the Crown Prince. Perhaps Blake wasn't the Monk I thought he was, I held back a laugh at his comment.

I stood my ground as Blake walked them to the Crown Prince's room. They were greeted by the two guards in the hall. After a few quick words he went further down the hall to inspect two more guards. Down the steps and towards the exit, he inspected the final four guards. Finally the Crown Prince and Nomi were alone.

Gathering my energy and channeling, I opened up my senses. A patrol of four guards was coming from the pathway beside me while another group of four were patrolling from an almost opposite side. Based on my observations over the past few days these guards should pass each other at a crossroad, break into four groups of two for a circular round of the courtyard then come back again to gather in two groups of four and move onto the next courtyard. The entire patrol of this courtyard should take eight minutes before moving onto the next section.

As each group intersected they stayed together and changed direction, heading instead towards the Crown Princes' entryway. They rushed inside while tying masks to their faces, it was apparent they were not the normal patrols. I shadow stepped towards the door. The two in back turned and threw poison towards my eyes. While the powder did irritate my eyes, the effects of the poison were useless, my body easily burned through it. As my eyes adjusted I listened to their movements, which were surprisingly quiet compared to a moment ago.

Gathering my energy and channeling it, I quickly lunged forward, striking with my palm towards their chest. They pulled out a dagger and tried to stab me. My hands were faster as I twisted his wrist until it snapped it with a loud crack. The dagger would make too much noise if it hit the ground so I stretched my foot out to catch it, then tossed it back up in the air and easily grabbed it. Lunging forward once again, I pushed it hard into the throat of the second guard who was trying to come at me from the side. Before his body even slumped to the ground I got close enough to grab the other assassin and snap his neck.

I ran over the bodies of the four dead guards as I rushed up the stairs. Without slowing, I pulled out a dagger left in the body of one of them. I channeled my energy to move faster, easily catching up to the next two assassins. I slit their throats without stopping, my goal was still ahead.

The four remaining assassins were in the Crown Prince's chambers; they'd knocked out and killed all the guards up to this point. The group first sent poison inside the Crown Prince's room to disorientate the inhabitants. They stood not two meters away from the Crown Prince and Nomi.

The Crown Prince desperately tried to remain conscious, even holding himself up by a sword. Nomi had already passed out slightly behind him. In the end, his efforts were wasted. The Crown Prince slowly slid down towards the floor, unable to injure a single assassin. His eyes flickered once as he looked in my direction, his vision was blurred. He probably didn't know who's side I was on.

I unleashed more energy, channeling enough to make my appearance known before I even got close to the assassins. I twisted and turned, like a dance between the four. They collapsed to the ground as I pressed their acupoints. Unable to move but fully aware of what was going on, I walked over to one of them. His eyes widened as I grabbed him by the collar. I pulled him up to look into his eyes.

"Who hired you?" I asked in a hostile voice.

"Just kill me." He said. I laughed, the twinkling sound of joy rang through the air like fairy bells.

"Oh? You think I'm a nice person?" I asked. I removed the male hair clasp and pin. My hair fell down around my face. "Do you want to guess again?"

Carefully reaching down, I stuck my finger in his mouth to dislodge both a tooth and capsule of poison hidden within. Common for suicide. I slammed my foot into his side, with a disturbing crack his rib broke. He moaned in response but didn't talk. I looked at the others who suddenly realized they should be a bit more scared. I walked towards the next assassin and bent back each of his fingers until they broke. For each crack I lifted my head as if listening to a beautiful melody.

"I don't mind if you don't tell me, I'll find out eventually anyways. Half the night until they wake up, I'll just enjoy the time we have together first." I trailed off as I walked to the next victim. I stood over him and stomped down hard on his knee, breaking it. "You see, I've been good for so long now, it's really against my nature. You understand? Right?" I asked while looking at the fourth assassin. He cried out suddenly.

"Stop! All we know is it's an official! We don't know anything else! The contract was made with someone else. We're just a side hired team! His name, I don't know his name, he was like a ghost, from a different guild." He pleaded. "Just don't." He trailed off.

"Don't what?" I asked with a curious look on my face. I dragged my finger across my lips as if in anticipation. Not wanting to give me any suggestions, he remained quiet. Without ceremony I picked up another dagger and walked around slitting their wrists. They'd bleed out slower this way, they would feel the life run out of their bodies.

I hit an acupoint in each of their throats to silence the noise they started to make. During the slaughter and torture I wasn't careful enough. Blood covered the patrol robes and saturated my hair. The blood splatter showered me when I killed the assassins downstairs. With the Crown Prince and Nomi still asleep, I looked around the Crown Prince's room. It was the first time I'd ever been inside. I walked to the windows and opened two of them to create a crosswind, alleviating the poisons in the air.