Perhaps (In Progress)

Chapter 1: Headache

Ryder woke up to his head pounding against his skull. Perfect, he thought, the day's barely started, and it's already ass. He groaned and stretched his aching limbs. Training everyday was taking a toll on him, but he had to do it. He supposed it made up for the fact that he wasn't very kingly on the inside, or at least that's what he managed to convince himself.

The other day, his court had lost a pretty decent assassin: Chris Knoxin. An unfortunate loss, but war required payment. Today Dristan, his second, would bring in three new assassins for Ryder to assess and hopefully hire. He didn't trust many, but he trusted Dristan enough not to waste his time with nonsense.

His bed creaked as he rose out of it. Ryder stalked over to his cabinet and threw on his fighting leathers. He raised his head to look in the mirror and was met with a familiar site: dark hair, dark eyes, and tan skin. His thoughts were interrupted by a banging at the door. Nilsa, he decided. Only a second later, three more bangs at the door occurred. Nilsa, he decided. He rolled his eyes and yanked open the door. Her angry grey eyes met his.

"You're late," she ground out, her patience obviously wearing thin.

Ryder scowled. "Fuck off, I was almost ready."

"Oh, please," she scoffed, "you resemble a princess more than a prince with how much damn time you take to pamper yourself." He just glared at her and stepped into the hallway. They walked to the training room together, probably because Nilly thought that he was going to sneak back into bed, which he probably would. She hated it when either Ryder, Dristan, or Chris called her that, but they did it anyway. If she cared that Chris had died only three days ago, she sure as hell didn't show it. But, then again, Nilsa was a trained warrior; he wasn't surprised she wasn't fazed. When they reached the training room, she stopped him.

"Dristan managed to get some pretty good candidates, but don't get your hopes up with the first two," she told him. His brow furrowed. "Just trust me," she added with a wink, "D and I have saved the best for last." Truthfully, Ryder was a bit apprehensive to meet the person that had earned Nilly's admiration, which was hard to come by.

They pushed open the black double doors, and he noticed that there were in fact only four people standing before him. Curious, he wondered to himself. What on earth could be so special about the third person?

"Listen up, don't even tell me your names, I don't want to hear them. We will administer a series of challenges. If you pass all of them, then you will be given one last test to determine your actual worth." Ryder used his magic to make sure his voice boomed across the room. He nodded to Dristan, who stood menacingly in the corner, like a predator waiting to pounce.

At Ryder's signal, Dristan pointed to the white haired boy standing at the far right of the two lined up and declared, "You're up first, kid."

Ryder and Nilsa walked to the training grounds outside and waited to observe the candidates. The first of three tests was archery, a pretty simple task. The boy managed to land all five arrows in the middle of the target, but upon further inspection by Ryder, thanks to his fae enhanced sight, he discovered that two arrows missed the center by a hair. He looked to Dristan and shook his head. Dristan waved the boy off, and a blonde haired girl walked up. Thankfully, she landed all five in the middle, and the next test commenced. Nilsa walked up to the girl, and put herself in a fighting stance. Hand-to-hand was always so fun to watch, especially when the opponent was Nilly; she had a wicked roundhouse. Ryder knew, of course, because she had demonstrated said roundhouse on him after he accidentally ate the last piece of raspberry tart. It wasn't even worth it though, Dristan had made them that day, and they tasted like cardboard. The fight began and within ten seconds Nilly had the girl pinned down on her stomach with her hand locked behind her back. Ryder was beginning to get agitated.

"Those first two were shit," Ryder growled at Dristan, who stood at his side.

"Chill, the last one is," he paused, "interesting." Well what the fuck does that mean, Ryder thought.

Soon enough, someone emerged from the double doors, closing them with a thud. Dressed toe-to-toe in black, this one looked like they were already a part of the Horde court. Standing at what he estimated to be 5 feet and 10 inches, she certainly looked formidable. She dropped her hood. Black hair was braided at the back of her head, with two smaller braids on each side of her head, joining the bigger one in the back. Her pale skin made her honey eyes pop. Ryder met her gaze, and she just stared right back, with an almost bored expression on her face. The assassin made no noise as she walked over and picked up a bow and arrow.

"You need to take the other arrows out before you can begin," Ryder said, sure that D and Nilly had lost their damn minds thinking that this girl was supposed to impress him. She just ignored him and notched an arrow. She released her arm, the arrow cutting through the air. Sure enough, she had managed to cut the arrow left by the girl before her straight down the middle. She continued down the line and did the same with the remaining four arrows. Dristan let out a low whistle.

"Told you she was impressive," he whispered to Ryder.

"Lets see how well she does against Nelly," he responded. "Surely she won't be able to best her."

"Oh no, she's not going to spar with Nilsa." Ryder looked at Dristan, clearly bewildered. He just chuckled darkly. "She's going to spar with you."

"What?" Ryder growled. "No fucking way; you've lost your goddamn mind." Nilsa somehow materialized behind him and pushed him towards the girl. Ryder decided he would just kick their asses later. He prowled up to her, and she just surveyed him as if he were just another person standing in front of her, not the future fucking Horde king.

"I won't go easy on you," he stated to her. She didn't respond. If she was intimidated in the least, it didn't show. Ryder was a bit unnerved; no one had ever dismissed him this easily. They both got into fighting stances and looked at each other. He could tell that she was waiting for him to make the first move. He sighed internally, and threw a left swing at her. She blocked it flawlessly, as if she had anticipated it. Alright, he thought, that's how this is going to go down.

He advanced with his left foot and she stood her ground, clearly not letting him back her into a corner. Smart girl. She met each one of his swings with precision, clearly not wasting any energy. After 15 minutes of him trying to aggravate her with little jabs and punches, he decided she wasn't going to get frustrated and go on offense. He stopped abruptly and waved his hand, a sword appearing in his hand. Time for the third and final test: steel against steel. She looked unfazed as she drew two twin blades from where they were crossed behind her back. Ryder struck suddenly, and the match began. If he thought she was good in hand to hand, she was twice as good with a blade in her hand. The two of them were obviously never going to stop; she still refused to go on offense, which annoyed Ryder to no end. What the hell was up with this girl? She refused to do anything other than block his blow. After ten minutes of him striking and her still refusing to get frustrated and fight back, his patience wore out. 

"Alright," he snapped, "that's enough. We don't have another damn option at the moment, so you'll have to work for now," he admitted. She just sheathed her blades and nodded. Is she fucking daft? 

"What's your name?" Ryder growled at her. 

Nilsa piped up before the girl could answer. "Cataña," she said, clearly proud of her choice. "Cataña Cordoverra." 

She began to walk away when Ryder begrudgingly asked, "Why didn't you fight back?" She stopped in her tracks and pivoted on her heel until her eyes met his.

In a surprisingly smooth voice, she simply responded, "Because I had already won." Ryder was a bit shocked at her confident, and correct, answer. "Oh," she said, "call me Cat." After her declaration, she just turned right back around and walked through the double doors as if she hadn't just been hired as an assassin for one of the deadliest courts in the world.