Sin: Path of Poison

Chapter 26 Part 1

Before the sun came up I changed locations, I would stick out easily lying on the rooftop in black clothing. I made my way back to the servant room and slid in through the window to change, there was nowhere to store my night robe so I stuffed in my uniform. I also grabbed an extra maid outfit before making my way back to the Crown Prince's room. Quietly light stepping up to open the window, I climbed inside. He'd fallen asleep, propped up facing the window, probably seeing if I'd return. I walked over to his wardrobe and set my clothes on one of the shelves, thinking they'd be better off here than in my servant room where everyone had access to my things.

I sat on the bed quietly, not far from him and waited for him to wake up. With my senses extended out I could feel Nomi sleeping uneasily in her room. She probably wasn't taking any of this well. Suddenly the Crown Prince's hand twitched, startling him awake. His eyes moved towards me, looking confused. I put my finger to my lips and pointed towards Nomi's room.

"Meet me outside?" He whispered. I nodded in agreement before jumping out the window to wait below.

Jin changed into high quality dark blue robes embroidered with gold then met me outside. I smiled as he came around, the smile matched Ryn's character. He walked towards the gardens and I followed. As we moved further from people, deep into the gardens we stopped on a beautifully crafted bridge that went over a pond.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" He asked. Implying I shouldn't have lied.

"I didn't know how you'd act around me if I told you, your reactions had to be natural. I wasn't sure if Blake.. or Pierce.. or even Nomi were conspiring against you. Sorry." I added. "I didn't mean for that to happen yesterday, I tried avoiding the route.. but.." I trailed off. "It's my fault you were all hurt. I should have handled it to begin with, but I thought it might complicate things."

"That thing you do, when you jump like that." He referred to light step and shadow step. I nodded in understanding. "How do you do that?" He seemed curious.

"It's a skill that takes practice, it takes energy. I don't see any channels open inside of you, it's not possible for you to do without first experiencing some, well, it's probably not possible." I tried to explain.

"Blake?" He asked.

"Mm." I nodded. "Blake has a few channels open, he could learn the basics. Lei as well, probably from training under General Bai. The General has many channels open, he just uses them differently, like shouting out commands for the whole army to hear. His energy focuses on charging up an army, I use mine to focus on the darker skills. He's in the light and I'm in the dark." I oversimplified the explanation.

"Can you use his techniques?" He asked.

"Mm." I nodded "But it's not useful in my line of work." I smiled. The pond was calm, nobody was around. It was strange talking like this. I wasn't being myself, but I wasn't hiding either. The Crown Prince sat on the stone railing of the bridge uncharacteristically. I smiled, and climbed up to sit next to him.

"The song you sang the other day.." He trailed off momentarily. "Was it really taught to you?"

"Mm. A teacher taught it to me, I don't remember their name. I had a lot of different teachers." I replied honestly. He nodded in response.

There had been one other thing I'd grabbed from my hideout the night before, it was a badge. I only had one and had never given it to anyone before. If presented to anyone in my guild, it would act as was a free ticket. The person holding it would be brought to me immediately unharmed, even Angst and Silver would accommodate. We'd agreed to these terms a long time ago, each of us carried one.

"Here." I pulled it out of my uniform and handed it to him. It was beautifully crafted, a brilliant blood red jade token. On it was carved a red lotus flower in full bloom, designs spread around it. In a way it reminded me of the image that had appeared on my hand, ironic since I chose the design.