Deviance and Destiny

Chapter 1

"It's raining again," she thought to herself. "It always rains." Staring out into the dark grey sky that carries her hopes and dreams, was Rue. The bakery was almost closed and all she had left to do was to tidy up the shop and store the pastries and delicacies that weren't sold.
"It's that part of the month again but where the hell is Cain?" Rue asked in annoyance as she packed and sealed the goods in paper bag and chucked it in a sachet.
"He's behind schedule, which is quite peculiar of him." Lori, who was sweeping the floor in the kitchen, pondered.
"It could be that something happened." The possibility made Rue sigh in disbelief as she considered many scenarios in her head which led to the abrupt delay of Cain.
"The traders are also scheduled today, might as well go out and buy more goods." She finished up sweeping and went to clean the dishes in the counter.
"Good idea. I might also find that slacker on the way." Lori just laughed and nodded as Rue slid the sachet on her shoulders and went out the shop.
The road was sopping from the oozing rain earlier. It was good that it stopped but the chilly environment was soothing to Rue, she had always liked cold environments. The path from the bakery shop stretched and revealed an intersection, turning right leads to the gates of the city, left would lead to the castle. It was a long way to the caravan traders because they camp outside the walls of Regalia - capital city of Regalius.
The gates were guarded by the soldiers; a helm covered the sides of their head and revealed the face through an opening that curved and met at the eyebrow space, the lower ranking soldiers had bronze-plated armor and silver for the higher ones but all of them had an insignia at the right chest of two snakes twirling around a golden torch. As soon as they saw her, she can see their assessing eyes dart from her head to toe. The one standing at her far right nodded as she passed - an apron atop of her green dress laced with red woven cloth meeting at her chest forming a knot, hair tied in a bun and a light blue headdress to keep hair away from her face and boots protecting her feet from the damped ground.
Outside of the city, caravans of sellers and traders were packed with people wanting to get better deals for different goods, almost like a mini festival. The noise was barely bearable and Rue ushered her way, scanning every corner for any sight of Cain but at the same time looking for good deals she can get and chucked the ones she bought into the sachet. The sellers were getting on her nerves, they were persistent in convincing everyone that their deals were the
best amongst the others, some even tried flirting with her but instead faced a blunt and complete rejection.
She turned around in the path that was less crowded, conspicuously a man was trailing her footsteps, her instincts were to grab the knife she hid in her dress, however that would create a scene and attention wasn't really her thing. She halted in her tracks and slowly turned, facing the man who followed her, she tried to act surprised and kept her sweetheart of an attitude.
"Is something the matter, s-sir?" She purposely stuttered in her words, making anyone think that she's vulnerable.
"Pretty little lady," He swallowed his words like there was something in his throat. "want to have some fun?"
His words made her skin crawl, just the sight of him already made her want to vomit; hideous face smudged with whatever he was eating, his clothes were rugged and tattered, he looked homeless. Instead of showing her disgust, she replied, "I'm sorry, but I seem to be busy at the moment."
"Come on, only a little?" He grabbed her wrist but she yanked it away.
"I'm sorry, but no." Her tone was a warning, she started backing away and slowly took the knife out hidden in her dress, her blood was pulsing with rage as she tried to bit back the urge to decapitate him.
"Playing tough here, are you?" His eyes were bloodshot with lust.
She backed away further to avoid the crowd as he ascend further on her but her back hit against a bulk of muscle, she turned her head and -
"Sorry to interrupt your fun but this lady over here, has business with me tonight." A low and a familiar male voice, spoke.
She still had her act up and pretended that she was grateful for being saved. The suspicious man just snorted and walked away as soon as he saw and heard Cain.
"I know what you were going to do." He teased and chuckled.
"You are late." Rue spit the words out emphasizing each with an aggravated tone.
"Woah, no need to be pissed. You know you're scary when you do that, geez." He waved his hands in front of him in resignation while cuing that they needed to go.
"Okay, lead the way." She sighed and searched for the goods stored in her sachet.
"What are you doing?" He looked over her shoulder trying to see what she was looking for.
"Here!" She tossed the paper bag full of goods into his arms. "I'm pretty sure you're hungry."
"Amen to that!" Just after he said those words he devoured a medium sized bun into his mouth.
"You're a beast." She snorted in a joking way and he replied with a wink and purr of a cat.
Cain led their way away from the caravans just enough so that nobody could hear them talk. Their steps were quiet that the only sound that can be heard was from the distant caravans and animals present in the area. Cain halted and turned around to face Rue, his mouth slightly full of the food she had given him.
"I'm sorry but I can't go in the city, not when I'm leaving so soon." His tone from being enthusiastic changed into seriousness.
"Clearly, you weren't late, you were waiting here along with the caravans. And what might be the reason?" Rue asked Cain with eyes full of curiosity.
"I have a message from the high council the requires immediate attention and a prompt to reply."
"Let me hear this."
Cain ate an apple in two bites and threw the remains on the ground before he started conveying the message to Rue.
"This may be your opportunity to gain a position in our beloved High Council of Assassins." He paused as if he was reading a letter.
"A squad of assassins, the one led by Mondes has disappeared. They've been gone for four days, their delivery of a high value artifact was prospected to finish in 2 days." Rue sighed in disbelief when she heard the news.
"Seeing as they are a squad of 8, it is unlikely of them to fall behind. You are one of only two assassins chosen to investigate this." The significance of this task impressed Rue.
"We await your reply regarding your load out, and squad members for this task, that is all." Cain saw that Rue was taken over by her determination to get that position.
"Zion, head of the High Council." He faked a cough after finishing he message.
"Well, that was unexpected. I might as well work on this task right now." She couldn't hide the excitement in her voice.
"Congratulations, Rue! You're soon going to be part of the high council." Cain playfully punched her arm. "I wonder who's going to be your competitor- "
"Hold on. Cain, look at that, it's a person." Amidst the slightly dense shrubbery and grass lay a silhouette thing on it, before he could say anything, she started walking towards the person and was halted by him.
The stranger had a bizarre appearance he was wearing a black blindfold, his hair was grey at the tips and black at the roots and his skin was pale as snow.
"Stay back, I'll check him." Cain went up to the body and bent down on one knee beside it to check his pulse. "Yeah, much still alive. He probably passed out from hunger and exhaustion. His bruises indicate that he's been beaten up by a whole lot of people."
"We should bring him to the shop." Rue looked at Cain with concerned eyes.
"You know I won't be able to say no, right?" He sighed in resignation. "Fine, I'll help you carry him."
"Thank you, Cain." She chuckled and tapped him on the shoulder.
"You know for an aggressive skill you have, you're pretty soft." He smirked and started lifting the body up on his shoulder.
"Shut up." Her cheeks went red and he can tell that she was embarrassed, he chuckled in response.
They waited for the moon to be high in the sky, when the guards were almost changing shifts and approached the gates. The city crept on with its business with foreign traders making their way around the city, Rue instructed Cain to fall behind at least three feet away and as expected the sole guard near the eastern outpost has become exhausted.
"I can't be possibly doing this..." She thought to herself and cringed. She looked over her shoulder and gave Cain a twisted smile but he only rose his eyebrow in question.
She went up to the exhausted and slightly drunken guard, "Hey there, big boy." She tried to muster every effort to sound seductive. "Do you still have enough juice to keep a young woman like me busy?" She cutely smiled at him while she put her hands behind and signaled Cain to silently enter the eastern gates.
Cain cast a spell on him and the body that he was carrying to be unnoticeable as he crept his way through the city gates.
"I'd give up anything in the world to have my way with a woman like you." He slowly reached out to stroke her hair enough not to make it messy.
She slightly untied the knot on her dress making an opening and revealing her cleavage. "Tell me big boy, is there anything in particular you want to do?"
"C-can I touch?" His words stumbled and tried to reach out to touch her chest but she slapped his hand away.
She saw at the corner of her eyes that Cain made it inside and was already in hiding, watching her with an unreadable expression.
"Nu-uh, not tonight big boy, I have business tonight and maybe one of those nights, it will be you." She winked at him before she turned away and hastened her walk while tying the knot to conceal her chest.
Her thoughts were going rampant, she was flushed from head to toe, she couldn't believe what she tried to do. That disgusting and fowl smelling man almost wanted to touch her, what a pitiful sight that would be. She made her way up stairs and saw that Cain had laid the man on her bed, Lori was tending on his wounds and kept glancing between Rue and Cain, demanding for an explanation.
"Rue." Cain said.
"What?" Rue cleared her throat.
"I didn't know you can handle yourself like that." He didn't look at her but she can hear him chuckle.
"Shut up, you saw nothing." Was her only reply.