Those Five: Short Story Compilation

Psalterine

[Notes: I actually went on to write about this story and I might end up telling you all about it. For now, let's take this part from where my Archean triplets had found themselves in the city of Nun. This is a recollection of the love story of the only female in the family.]

His target was in that room, through the farthest door at the very end of the corridor, and his heart was racing as he approached it with caution, which was very unusual for a member of the oldest assassin society in the world. The heir of the mythical family itself…was nervous. 

Yill’s eyes narrowed. 

Why has this happened?

Outside it was raining. The continental storm had again hit town and may last overnight. The winds howled, the trees swayed and bent as, in the wake of fearless lightning, everything was distorted. Shadows here and there as this natural chaos settled onto its current location. 

Much like how he felt inside. The utter turmoil not to mention torment. Confusion as he’s never felt before. 

For other people he could kill very easily. But this one he can’t. He definitely can’t. Five attempts had failed thus far. A sixth now, yes? But it was a destined failure as well. He just couldn’t kill her…

That rogue society of drug lords had sought the Family Gothvried’s assistance in a matter that most troubled its heads. A rather brilliant member of theirs had unwittingly cheated them and ran away with the cash. Loads of it from several transactions which happened some months ago. It was a clean steal, very much. But what was to be expected, said them. She was a powerful Wielder. 

She had the power to whisper to ghosts and make them her slaves. She traps them in bottles then releases them to do her bidding. They called her the Soul Wraith, with whom they had matched even their very best men, which she just easily eluded, slipping out of anyone’s grasp as if she were quicksilver. 

She was young. Some eleven years with the charms of an sixteen-year-old. She deceives easy, stirs disaster and gets away with it clean. And as was told, she was a skilled worker and a good asset. Until she betrayed them which they said she had always planned to do apparently.

Then they were so confident the Family could do the job for them, get rid of this female. Yill took on the assignment, always ready and available for another challenging conquest. But it wasn’t quite how he expected. The outcome he had terribly miscalculated…

The inside of the house was some isolated void. Outside, the storm beat on the mansion’s façade like a mad witch banging on doors. Within the building though there was no sound. Just the obvious presence of rain and lightning seen through the long row of floor-length windows. 

The glass wept.

Shadows like specters appeared and disappeared on the carpeted floor with every flicker from the outside. 

Yill just stood there. His mind drifted to remember the first time he’d faced her. A night very much like this one when he had tracked her to some old, abandoned suburban home one evening and thought to have had her cornered. That was the first time she had learnt her name, and now he whispered it like a prayer… 

“Psalterine…”

#

The balcony was wide open. The rain was pouring in as leaves showered the half-drenched carpet. Lightning fell in a race; shadows danced and every time the streaks descended, the room was in a grotesque glow. Furniture scattered about. She had nestled among the cushions of a chair, asleep perhaps.

Yill unsheathed the Obfuscare and slashed! 

Lightning flashed. 

The chair diagonally split in two, clean with the upper half toppling over into one heavy block of old velvet. The assassin frowned. She was gone. His hand tightened its grip around the ancient sword’s handle.