We Are: Waking The Fallen

5: The Boy With White Eyes (2) --The Silver Assassin--

Xavian smirked and raised the bow he carried to eye level. Before him stood a monstrosity of a girl. Her eyes were pits of black, and she had little regard for her hygiene. Her long blonde hair was thick with who knows what, and her face was covered in dirt and symbols with no origin. She faced him, but could not see him. No one could. Even if they had eyes, they would simply over look him.

It was an old art, Stealth, where wards or power were drawn on skin or on clothing, and made the bearer of the wards hard to detect, but not impossible, if they knew the right ways. 

Not many people did.

Kagé looked at Xavian expectantly as he took his aim. The young man sighed and aimed the arrow between the unsuspecting girl's eye sockets. She would have been beautiful, if she had big eyes and cared about how she looked. But she couldn't see so she didn't care. He pulled the bowstring and fired. The arrow shot true and pierced directly between her eyes. 

He was an Assassin. He did what he he was hired to do. Kill.

Normally, he would have had regrets about killing one so young but since he had Returned, it was best for him to gather as much money as he could, for his plans.

"Kagé. Get her necklace. We have a reward to collect." The Shadow girl beside him nodded and smiled, before moving towards the girl's dead body. Xavian stood and shoved the bow in the quiver he had strapped to his back. He pulled the katana and wakizashi swords off of the floor and strapped the to his back above his quiver of swan feathered arrows. 

"I'm afraid you won't be seeing that reward of yours." A frail voice came from behind the Thorn Elf. Xavian turned slowly, hand reaching for his short sword, but another weapon flashed and the flat of the blade slapped Xavian's wrist. Kagé hissed and tried to rush to her master's side, but other men jumped from the shadows and held her back. All of them had the sickly blue pallor of the Undead. Kagé screamed and struggled, but the Undead holding her were too strong. 

Xavian looked at the creature that threatened him. 

Scarred, frail and sick looking, his hair was falling out and the right side of his face was covered in claw marks. The blank eyes lit up and Xavian grinned. He moved his hand away from his sword, but the Undead before him pointed the dagger he held to Xavian's throat, wiping the smile away with the flick of his wrist. 

"Alistaire, is this really necessary?" Xavian asked, his voice dripping with a venom that could match the cruelty in the Dark Lady's own. Xavian raised his left hand and pushed the silver blade away from his neck with his fingertips, easily over powering the weaker man. 

"Sir.. I..." Alistaire stammered, choking over his words as the dagger was thrown to the side. Xavian's left finger tips ripped black blood where the dagger had cut them.

"Goddess above, do you know how hard it is to come across new blood these days?" Xavian sighed, wiping the blood on his coat. He pulled his feathered hood down and stared blankly at the man who had failed at taking him down.

Alistaire bowed low enough for his nose to nearly touch the floor. When he straightened, he leaned heavily on his cane and waved his assistants away from Kagé. She rushed to the Thorn Elf's side and fussed over him like a worried mother when her child fell. He brushed her away with an uncaring air. "Sir--" Alistaire started, but Xavian simply waved him off and grunted, looking away from the old man. 

"She wants to kill me and ordered you to do so." He said knowingly. Alistaire nodded at the young man. "But you don't want to do this, as you were on my side before I was executed and She recruited you, yes?" Again, he nodded. Xavian sighed. "Will you join me then, old friend? We will be as strong as we once were. Maybe even more so." He smiled, flashing with teeth, whiter than his skin. Alistair sighed but found no words would form in his mouth.

He gripped his throat and Xavian laughed. Alistaire growled but no sound came out. "You know trying to deny me is futile, Alis," Xavian tilted his head to the side. "Even before my true powers had awoken in the Goddess forsake form, I could still stop the words from someone's mouth. Disagree with me and you will never speak again." A wide, but bitter smile crossed his lips. "And even your precious Lady can't overpower my magic. 

Alistaire gasped. "I was never going to disagree!" He yelled, only to flinch as he realized he could speak again. Xavian burst out laughing, doubling over in fits of giggles. "You never grow up, do you, boy?" Xavian just laughed. "Okay, okay... I'm sorry but it had to be done."

"Alis... can you.." Xavian panted, straightening up. "be a dear and join our cause? We wish to dethrone those who do not deserve it." He blinked his large, empty eyes and Kagé smiled cutely. Alistaire looked at her as if it was the first time he saw her, but immediately turned away, blushing. 

"Of course, my Lord." Alistaire bowed again and waved for his assistants to stand beside him. "But a reward will be required." 

Xavian smiled and slapped the old man on the back. "Spoken like a true mercenary. You will have you reward, old man. But only when our job is done."

A woman from the group pulled down her hood and bowed. "My Lord, if I may speak?" She asked, not looking Xavian in the eyes. Xavian nodded, and she straightened up. "If you wish to take a place in the books, will you not need a title?"

"Yes, if you with to fulfill your plans, you will need a name to counter the hopelessness of the one you wish to defeat." Xavian nodded, taking an arrow out of his quiver thoughtfully.

"Your hair is as silver as the stars and your eyes as white as the mood." Alistaire muttered under his breath, but loud enough for those around him to hear. "And you kill with the speed of poison." The group nodded, and a boy, no older than fourteen raised his hand.

"The Silver Assassin," He said. "For the way your hair and eyes gleam, and the mercilessness of you power."

Xavian smiled and raised the arrow above his head. "Then let that be it!" He cried to the heavens, "My friends, we will... we will right the wrongs they have committed!" The beginning of his army cheered, weapons raised above their heads and smiling, but many of their eyes were dull. It was hard to tell how many meant what they cried.

The second act has started and the curtains have been pulled open. The Dark Lady and the Silver Assassin square off in the sidelines as their two armies fight in the centre of it all.

But the Lady's army could span into even the void if she tried, and the Assassin had only a few spies on his side. Innocents would be hurt as the two warlords would face off. 

But no one will suspect the attack- no one would dare fight with the Dark Lady, and no one would dare create an entire army under Her nose. Not even the Lady and all of the wisdom she stole from the Goddess could help her, tell her the truth of the Leader of the army.

She assumes that Alistaire had died in the battle with the one she ordered him to kill, and a messenger had been sent to say they killed each other at the same time. 

She believe it.

She was as foolish as you filthy beings are, living up high on your human horses.

~Spiral, your final hope, your remaining truth, your one and only fault.