Kayn, The Shadow Assassin

Chapter One

   He was sitting in an empty room, all by himself. He was not alone though, Rhaast was always with him. Always in his mind, never quiet and never blind.
"What is troubling you, Kayn?" he asked, trying to seem like he cares.
"Why would I tell you that, demon?" said Kayn.
"Because we are one now, you shouldn't hide things from me"
"You're always in my mind, can't you just read my thoughts?"
"Our...connection doesn't run that deep yet, I'm afraid"
"So you're saying it will?"
"Well, it depends on whether you'll accept me or not" Rhaast took a break. "And how much of me you'll accept" finally he said with a deep voice.
"Don't even think I will give in to you! You're just a tool which I'm going to use in order to reach my goals."
"We shall see."
   It was morning. The sun was shining bright but it wouldn't matter inside the building which was the main base of operations for The Order of Shadows. There wasn't much light inside as the students needed to accustom themselves with the darkness.
Zed was walking between the new members of The Order. He was analyzing each of them just by looking.
"You shall do well," said Zed.
Doors opened and a boy with long and braided hair entered the room.
"You are late, Kayn," Zed shouted at him.
"Yes, I'm sorry, master! I may have overslept," said Kayn.
"May have? Do I really need to teach you discipline again? Like I must do now with these pupils?"
"No, master. I'm sorry, it won't happen again"
"Actually, I'll let you handle them. Teach them the first lesson I taught you. This shall be your punishment for being late."
Kayn was silent now. He didn't think of himself as a good teacher. He never tried to teach anything to anyone. This will prove troublesome.
"All right, I will try."
"And you will succeed," said Zed before he disappeared in the shadows.

   Kayn remembered his first lesson very well. It really was about discipline. Zed taught him that discipline is the most important thing. Without discipline, you cannot accomplish anything in life...or in death.
   Kayn was about ten years old when Zed found him. All he knew back then was to kill. He lacked technique. He was killing only based on his survival instincts, which wasn't that bad for a normal human being. But he was a soldier... and a future assassin.
Zed took him to a dark cave between the mountains. A cave painted with beautiful art on the walls which he stared at more than he should.
"Here, we have arrived," said Zed.
"Here? What am I gonna learn in a cave?" asked Kayn.
"You shall see, impatient pupil."
Zed led him more deeply in the cave, in a room with a big barrel and a sack.
"Here you have food and water for three days, you will stay here a week."
"A week ?! I will die of starvation!"
"No, you will learn to control yourself. You will eat and drink only when you really need to, managing your food and water for a week that way. That is my first lesson for you: discipline."
"You can't be serious, I can't do that!" shouted Kayn.
"Well, you will have to. I have placed wards at the entrance so you won't be able to leave until a week has passed. Good luck kid."
"Wait!"
And he was gone, disappeared through the shadows like he always does.
"Three days? That is food for one day!" an unknown voice said to Zed at the entrance of the cave.
"Yes, but he doesn't know that."

   Kayn decided not to eat at all on the first day. He only drank water so he would stay hydrated.
He started analyzing the paintings on the walls. They were all so beautiful. Who could paint this way? How does an artist look? How long does it take to paint something like this? Kayn started asking himself.
After a while, he realized that he won't know when seven days passed. He cannot see the sun, everything is dark around him except for some blue candles which seemed like they're never going to burn out.
   Kayn started counting seconds, he opened his notebook and pressed his pencil on the paper, creating a dot. He will make a dot for every minute that passed.
He realized that one day passed and he never touched the food. Drinking only a bit of water every four hours kept him sane enough. So good he felt that he wouldn't touch any food the second day either.
   The third day came and Kayn was starting to feel dizzy. Did he sleep enough? Did he sleep at all? He wouldn't know.
"Maybe I don't need to eat at all," he thought.
And just seconds after, he started to see things. People that he murdered. An image formed in front of him. There was an old man taking care of his land in peace when the soldiers came. He ran away to hide in his house, but Kayn did not let him. He looked at the sickle he picked up from his field and threw it. The plowing tool went right through his chest. The old man dying in agonizing pain.
The image shattered. Kayn was alone in the cave again. Doubt started to haunt him. Did he do the right thing? Did the old man need to die? Why was he killing people in the first place?
His state of mind was about to only get worse.
   The fourth day came and Zed was having a chat with the unknown voice in a nearby house.
"He must've run away already. Most of them do," said Zed.
"But the wards you put..." said the voice.
"Wards? Hah! I never used any wards on that cave."
"Why is that?"
"Because if someone was really trying to join The Order, they wouldn't run away"
"I see, but...Master Zed, it's been four days already! The kid must be starving!"
"I will check if he's still there tomorrow. For now, let me enjoy this ale and some silence."
Meanwhile, Kayn was still making dots in his notebook, he seemed to still be sane enough to count seconds. That will change soon.
If he only saw an image yesterday, now they were all around him. Images of people he killed. The way he killed them. Kayn still had no reason as to why he did that.
It was like living a nightmare. He missed the daylight. He missed Master Zed. He wished to go outside and enjoy life again. That's when he realized, he was out of ink. His pencil won't help him count the seconds anymore, he needed something else.
Kayn scratched his skin just enough so a bit of blood would pour out. He then started making dots again, this time in blood.
As the blood was pouring out of him, he realized something. He enjoyed it. He enjoyed seeing blood and wounds. He enjoyed seeing people suffer. That was the reason he killed all those people, just for amusement. And as he was realizing that, he started making more and more cuts to his skin, he enjoyed the feeling. It was like adrenaline was coursing through his veins, but before he realized what he was doing, he fainted.

   The fifth day in the afternoon, Zed decided to go check the cave.
He was horrified at what he found. Kayn was barely breathing and full of cuts and scratches.
"What happened to you, kid?" asked Zed, but did not expect an answer.
Then he noticed something even more horrifying: the food was untouched.
"He didn't eat? Most people eat everything on the first day because it is food for a day...but this boy, he didn't even touch the food for five days straight," said Zed to himself.
The barrel which was full of water on the first day was empty now. At least he drank, Zed thought.
"You have a great future ahead, kid. I've never seen someone like you. You have great potential and maybe, just maybe, one day you will surpass me and take over The Order." Kayn was still unconscious but he seemed to smile on that last sentence.