The Conviction

Chapter 6 - Jessy Chevalier

"It's deserted." Alex's disbelieving declaration echoed loudly in the empty, falling to pieces clock tower. His gaze fell upon his mentor, who had jumped up and seized the creaking wooden support beams just barely holding the fragile tower together. The stairs had been demolished, and it was a miracle that there weren't corpses littering the floor inside from body dumps or muggings gone wrong.

She grunted, though otherwise, made her airborne back flip seem effortless, landing with two feet on the beam that creaked and whined in protest. Sashaying along towards the center of the tower, she jumped up, snatching an even higher beam with two hands locked into a death grip. "Dorian, it's deserted. There's nobody here."

As though she hadn't heard him, his master continued her ascent, but made his heart stop as she miscalculated a jump and barely managed to clasp one hand far above her head, looking down at him, a few stories off the ground. "It's not safe! You could get hurt, or worse, killed!"

Pulling herself up and crouching as she looked down at him, her eyes glowed in the darkness of the shadows that night. Two golden orbs in place of her normally human eyes fixated on him, and she giggled. "I thought you'd be more observant, Alexander. Especially with someone like Frederick as your brother."

In a swift motion, blurred and quicker than he found himself able to process, she was up even higher, standing up and walking across the wooden board, one foot in front of the other, moving like a cat would. "Nothing is true, Apprentice. There is wisdom in these words that not even you understand yet. This appearance of being abandoned deceives you easily." Scoffing as she turned and motioned for him to follow, she continued. "Too easily. That is why you have come to learn. Everyone in the world can teach you something or another; you just need to know where and how to look for it."

He looked for the misshapen stones she had used to scale the wall, finding them with ease, surprisingly. He began to climb, distributing his weight, looking for the same route his mentor had taken, and analyzing every possible scenario. As soon as he was close enough to her, she ran at the wall, lunging for a large brick ledge, jutting out of the masonry and barely moving at her additional weight being added.

"That is only half of our creed, Master Dorian. What wisdom can be found in the rest of it that I'm not already aware of?" He demanded, hoisting himself up cautiously.

She laughed, looking up at the sealed hatch above her head and at the few beams between her and said destination.

Frustrated, he jumped up and seized the ledge, grunting as he strained his muscles to hoist himself. "What's so funny?"

"When was the last time you did a lot of climbing?" She asked, looking down at his struggling, squirming form.

He scoffed. "I don't remember. I've been trying to learn how to better my unarmed combat skills because I was told you enjoyed beating on others rather than going right for the sword."

She shrugged. "That's true, but an Assassin doesn't need to fight if they're able to maintain the cover of darkness and escape both swiftly, and silently." Alex grunted again, feeling his muscles burning in protest as he futilely attempted to lift himself up. "Need a hand?" She asked slyly, reaching down to offer hers to him.

Embarrassed, he still accepted her help, and with a surprising amount of strength, she pulled him back, only taking a few unbalanced steps behind her. He didn't even have time to thank her before she jumped, and landed with both feet on a faraway beam.

Speed walking to gain momentum, her last few steps were a sprint before she jumped again, this time using the metal rod to swing up and across the tower, reaching a platform just below the door in the ceiling.