Kill Your Darlings (Jaskier x Assassin!Reader)

Chapter 5

You realized as you stepped outside of the inn that you were in there overnight. Your injuries must have been pretty bad if you were knocked out that long, but you didn't feel too much pain right now. Whatever those two did to patch you up, they must have used something powerful.

You breathed in the fresh air and closed your eyes, trying to collect your thoughts. Nothing like this had ever happened to you before. An assignment gone wrong, yes — there were multiple times where your target tried to fight back, but to no avail. But never in your experience had a case been...wrong. Or at least, not proven to be. You shook the thought as soon as it entered your head. No way Rauf would slip up more than once. It must have been a small error — one that you were glad you stumbled upon before killing a possibly innocent man.

But nothing was truly set in stone. The witcher and bard could have lied with no moral intentions other than getting away with the crimes they've committed. The thought made your head spin — if they were lying, somehow knew that you would be assigned to kill the bard, planted evidence of other whereabouts...well, it was a bit crazy now that you worked through it in your head. But if they did, just if, Rauf would be severely disappointed. Rauf's disappointment was worse than his anger, as any guardians' was. But his especially...it flipped your insides and ripped them out through the gaps in your teeth.

Still, something about the two strangers was compelling to you. The witcher was harder to read, but also somewhat easier. He said things simply, promised the truth with his words but also his eyes.

The bard was a whole other story. Frantic, strange, annoying, sure — but your mind couldn't erase the way he acted before you held a knife deliberately to his throat. The kind blue eyes, curious but worrisome — that was one of the most foreign parts of the whole ordeal.

The city was already bustling as you made your way through the streets, nearly impossibly avoiding the crowds through different alleyways here and there. You stuck to the usual methods of keeping your head low and footsteps quick enough — but not too quick to draw attention to yourself. The last thing you needed right now was for a guard to stop you and push you even further away from your task.

The Novigrad Guild was actually not far from the inn. It was a quick trip, though taking many detours to avoid guards and other people made the trip longer. The path there was almost second nature, a replaying from your memory of footsteps you needed to take. It allowed you to focus more on your surroundings, to observe the city around you and think about how the hell you would explain all of this to Rauf.

You couldn't imagine him getting too mad. He seemed to always have a better mood in cities like this, especially when visiting old friends. The only reason your guild had its own space in certain cities was because of Rauf's connections. In this case, he was long time friends with the well-known guild master, Arnet. They went way back, even worked together on cases before Rauf created his own guild. You were excited to see Arnet again as well, since he knew you since you were pretty young.

You were now in a quieted alleyway, a bit aways from where a crowd had just recently passed. Suddenly, your ears perked up at a sound behind you — footsteps. Too clumsy for a guard, too obvious for another assassin. A beggar, perhaps, or a poorly trained thief. Either way, they were going to be sourly disappointed that they chose you to rob.

You picked up your pace and took different paths than usual — you went straight through a crowded square, then turned left into a path with merchants lining the walls. You continued forward and found an alleyway with multiple indented doorways. With a swift sidestep, you squeezed yourself behind one of the indents, making sure to listen for the person who was following you. Sure enough, the same sound of footsteps entered the quiet alleyway, this time more tentative than before. You slipped the knife from your sleeve as the person got closer to your spot — you only meant to scare them off, teach them to think twice about whatever it was they were doing; it was only when they walked past your spot that you let your shoulders go limp.