The Nameless Assassins

Promises Kept

I'd been honest when I told Sawbones that Mylera wouldn't deem broken bones just cause for delinquency, and so my cast and I showed up on time at the Red Sash Sword Academy. I even improvised a lesson on how to fence with an injured arm, which seemed like a useful life skill for both the upper echelons of street toughs and the young (non-Anixis) nobles who sometimes found themselves in duels over affairs of honor. (Living members of House Anixis never got into un-premeditated duels, especially not over ill-defined concepts such as "honor.")

What I did not do was spew Faith's kitten story at my students, who, while curious, had learned early on that Miss Glass did not tolerate prying. In any case, they were mostly hoping for a grisly story, which I invented on the spot, and that was that.

Since Ash and I had decided to blame the Hadrakin for our recent murders, I casually mentioned within earshot of my class that I'd heard Iruvian assassins were searching for General Helker's battle plans. I knew that the nobles would immediately question their parents about the rumor, and the ensuing investigation would spread it further and take some heat off our crew.

Unfortunately, Ash and I couldn't disseminate disinformation fast enough to prevent the Bluecoats from grabbing Nyryx for interrogation, an act that provoked a passionate debate over whether we were obligated to bail her out.

According to Ash, "We have to save Nyryx! She's been a good friend, and we owe it to our friends not to let them fall into – "

"She is not our friend!" I interrupted. "Anyone who would do something as horrible as buy a Hollowed body is not worth our coin."

"Nyryx is our strongest ally in the war against the Church," he pointed out, as if I cared about his and Faith's little vendetta.

"We don't need allies like her," I told him flatly. "That's not who we are."

Changing tack, he demanded, "What do you have against Nyryx anyway?"

Did he need to ask? "She bought a Hollowed body! That's – that's – that's reprehensible!"

"And what exactly is wrong with a Hollowed body?"

In the heat of the moment, I couldn't articulate any more cogent moral argument than: "It's just wrong! You can't do things like that! It's almost as bad as being a demon!"

Ash was actually taken aback. "What?" he yelped. "Okay, that is an entirely separate conversation!"

"No, it really isn't! Didn't I tell you how they make Gualim? They take perfectly good human beings and they – I mean the Demon Princes – make them dream about a spire and go there and get Hollowed and – "

Behind us, the common room door banged shut.

"Wait!" Ash cut off my lecture on the intricacies of the creation of U'Duashan City Guardians. "Wait, where did Faith go?"

While the two of us were bickering, Faith had snatched a pouchful of slugs from our coffers and slammed out of the railcar. As one of the local drunks informed me later, she popped up at the Docks precinct and (easily) bribed a Bluecoat to free Nyryx and explain why he'd targeted the prostitute in the first place. It turned out that a peddler named Malik who loitered on the eastern end of the Docks with a cartful of dubious wares had tipped off the Bluecoats about how she was "a shady character what knows things."

"Oh," tsked Faith with a sententious shake of her head. "What is the Imperium coming to? If you ask me, this Malik character needs to be taught that good citizens don't lie to officers of the law."