Our fearless leader was miles away, tucked safely in his temple. My division was in Ashenport to assassinate their king, Lord Ashen Fearweave. Our orders had just been given hours before and there was no room for error. My brother, Nazriel, and I were part of an elite force under the command of a middle aged man named Morrg Mantus.
Morrg was like a father to Nazriel and I. He had taken us under his wing when we were at a young age. I disagreed often with him, but I honored him nonetheless. He was well into his forties, but had the fight of a younger man. His hair was long and dark like my brother’s as well as mine, which made it easy to suspect him as our father; He also had a goatee like mine. His hair was also peppered with gray; giving away his age.
Morrg was once a highly ranked general within Moy’s army. Moy had chosen Morrg to lead our group for his loyalty and skills of stealth combat. Morrg, having trained us for the most part of our lives, offered us a spot within the unit.
Moy was one of the ancient demons from the first creation. He was the self-proclaimed ruler of Vespiria. Most of the demons of our world had tried to lay claim to this title and failed. Moy, on the other hand, was very close to owning up to it. His army had conquered and destroyed many of the ancient demons. He marked his conquests with his symbol, forcing all whom traded, purchased, and worked within his territories to wear this mark.
The symbol was a downwards facing crescent with two horizontal, parallel lines underneath. The line on the bottom was slightly smaller than the one on top. Underneath the two lines was a dot, centered in the middle of the bottom line. This symbol was either worn or was usually imprinted on the skin of the upper arm.
The mark was well known among the people. Those who did not follow Moy’s teachings still wore the mark to be able to buy from the markets and work. Many of the citizens rebelled against Moy taking refuge in Ashenport, hence the severity of our mission.
The night of the attack was pitch black and perfect for our assault. My brother and I were commanded to flak the right high wall of the grand castle, housing the royal family. I pulled a sizable amount of rope from my pack and handed it to my brother. He tied a knot around a large metal hook and threw it over the castle wall, giving it a firm tug. The hook did not catch at first; he then gave it another throw, this time hooking onto the wall.
Nazriel began to climb up first. I held tightly to the rope to prevent sway. Once Nazriel was at the top, I began to climb up as well. As I climbed I heard a faint ruckus up above. I continued climbing. Then fell a body of a guard, flying down from the wall. The body smacked the ground, thumping slightly; I continued to climb. Topping over the wall, Nazriel helped me the rest of the way over.
“Left or Right?” Nazriel asked.
“Left.” I replied. I had studied the layout of the grounds for weeks.
Suddenly, an arrow darted past my face, just missing me.
“Nazriel, get down!” I shouted as low as I could. Nazriel dove behind a nearby pillar.
“How many?” he asked.
“I believe just one.” I whispered. Then the bowman shouted to his guard brethren, alerting them to our presentence.
“Morrg is going to be pissed.” said Nazriel. I rose up a bit to get some idea of what was going on. I saw a young woman appear behind the man, it was Lilith. Lilith, with dagger drawn, slashed the archer’s throat and threw the guard’s body over the tower’s edge.
Lilith was another one of The Elites. She was the only woman within Moy’s army, but she was not your average girl. She had a sexual hunger that could not be satisfied and looks to kill. She could make any person, male or female, do as she wished. If that didn’t help with the task at hand, she was extremely deadly with a dagger.
Her skin was the color of pearls and her hair was a majestic shade of black. Even without her power of seduction, it would difficult to turn her down. Not to mention, her revealing attire left nothing to the imagination.
I waved at her as a thank you. She blew me a kiss back. I won’t say I wasn’t attracted to her, but I knew what she was and stayed my distance.
“Let’s go.” I whispered to Nazriel. Nazriel kicked in the door to the guard tower and was quickly met by guards on the other side.
I swung my claymore catching one of them in the chest, cutting deep. Another lunged at me. Nazriel grabbed the guard’s arm bending it backward, making him release this sword. I noticed two more coming at each of us. I dodged one of them and tackled the other, sending us tumbling to the ground. Nazriel jabbed at the two guards, just missing them. One of the men sliced into Nazriel’s fore arm, only slightly. Nazriel swung his sword cutting into the guard’s back. I wrestled around on the ground until the other guard pulled me off his partner. I rammed my arm back, elbowing him in the face. Blood shot from his nose. I spun around, grabbed onto the man and tossed him into the other. Nazriel was bashing swords with his foe. The two tried their best to get a swing in, only to be countered by the other. The non-bloodied guard jumped to his feet and charged me. I swung my sword, but he dodged. The two of us flew backwards and to the ground. Nazriel noticed his chance and jammed his kryss into the guard’s gut. The guard on me pushed his sword down at my throat. My hands gripped his blade pushing back. Blood began to drip from my hands. Finally, Nazriel pulled him off of me and gave him a viscous right hook. I sprung to my feet and sliced the guard’s throat with one clean sweep of my blade.
We ran down the stairs of the tower. Once at the bottom I led Nazriel to a door at the right side of the room. We stood with our ears to the door listening in silence. More guards awaited us on the other side of the door. It was unclear how many there were, but they seemed to have us at a disadvantage. Nazriel and I were accustom to disadvantages and used them as bragging rights.
“1…2…3” I said, twisting the knob; sword drawn. We rushed into the room. Our swords were just about to swing when we noticed all the guards lying on the floor, bloodied beyond repair. In the pile of guards was standing Fergel Evermoore.
Fergel was the strange one of the group and yet the most powerful. He was by far the most effective wizard I had ever met.
His powers were almost greater than Moy’s. We often teased him saying one day he would rule Vespiria to which he would brush off. Fergel was also the type of person to study and train opposed to having fun, as the rest of us did in our spare time.
He was also a light weight. Fergel was the type of guy who would do well not to get into a psychical altercation, but with his spells he had no use for hand to hand combat and was more fatal than any well trained fighter. He was pale and had thinning dark hair, it was apparent he hadn’t been out much; spending days locked away in his room.
“I see you cleaned up in here.” said Nazriel, with a smirk.
“Shall we continue?” said Fergel, taking no glory in his glorious kills.
Fergel led us from that point out into the main hall, leading to the king’s throne room. There we were to meet up with Lilith and Morrg for our final assault. Lilith emerged from behind a pillar to greet us.
“About time…Was getting worried my little boy’s got lost.” said Lilith in a pouting tone. She always referred to the team as her boys. To her it seemed as though we were her pets and she was our keeper.
“Where’s Morrg?” I asked.
“We are a little early. He should be here any second.” Lilith replied, curling her hair around her finger. I shot her a glare as I walked over to a nearby door, listening for any more guards.
“You don’t like me much do you?” she asked.
“You’re everything I dislike in a woman and more. Who’s to say I don’t like you? Maybe I’m a masochist.” I replied smirking.
“Channel that hate in the right place and we may have ourselves a good time.” Lilith replied, running her tongue across her upper lip.
“Yeah, that will be the day.” I replied.
“You know I don’t even have to ask you. At any moment I could have you and there would be nothing you could do about it.” She said, glaring at me.
“Well let’s hope when that day comes, so does a cure for the multitude of diseases you carry.” I snapped back. Lilith began her rebuttal, but was interrupted by Morrg.
“We don’t have time for this back and forth nonsense. Let’s finish what we started.” said Morrg, entering from a nearby passage.
Lilith continued to glare as I walked past her. Morrg walked up to the large door, leading to the King’s Throne Room. He motioned to Fergel. Fergel stepped forward, straightening his arm outward toward the door. He then lowered his head, his arm began to shake, and then he balled his fist tightly. As he did so, the door shattered into splinters.
As the debris settled, we saw the last remaining guards, guarding their king. Several of the guard had been thrown to the floor by the blast. We began our final assault.
Morrg ran into the group, pulling out his dual daggers along the way. He rammed one dagger into a man’s neck just as another swung down on him with a mace. Morrg dissipated leaving a shadow like mist in his place, then appeared behind the man slamming his daggers down into the guard’s shoulder. The rest of us followed.
Nazriel threw several throwing knifes from afar. The knives penetrated the guard’s thick leather chest plates. I ran into the fray swinging wildly, striking multiple men. Fergel, with his hand still out toward our direction, began channeling his powers by immersing several of the men in flames. Lilith just stood in the back watching the chaos ensue.
Finally, Morrg took hold of the captain of the guard by the throat and forced his dagger into the man’s side with the other hand. The guard fell to the floor with the rest of them. We then turned our attention to the king.
“Our lord would like a word with you King Fearweave.” Morrg said, sheathing his daggers.
“I have nothing to say to him. I told him he cannot have Ashenport. He may have taken over the other cities and villages of the land, but the capital will not fall to him. As we speak our army is coming. They won’t fall so easily.” replied the king.
“I’ll let you tell him that, sire.” Morrg said, motioning Fergel forward. Fergel threw a stone at the king’s feet. Frighten by what it may do, King Fearweave quickly jumped back.
Fergel then waved his hand over the stone. It began to glow. Light shot from the stone, almost blinding to look at. Then a gate appeared. Out from it stepped Moy.
The king fell back into his throne, pushing himself up the
back of it.
“We meet at last. After all the invites, I was afraid we would never get to see one another. But here we are at last. I am standing in the throne room of Ashenport, surrounded by my men and you’re here alone with something I want. You hand over the crown and I’ll see to it you live. You don’t hand it to me I end the book that is your life, right now…” said Moy walking up to the king, getting eye to eye.
“Your time will come Moy. I won’t be here for it, but it will come.” said the king. Moy placed a hand upon King Fearweave’s shoulder; quickly the king became withered and then turned to ash.
“What gal he has threatening me…” said Moy, “Our forces are on their way to secure the city. In the meantime go see what fun you can have with the locals.”
We all bowed to Moy and proceeded out of the castle into the city. From here we could see our armies entering the city, liberating it in Moy’s name. The others went on into the city as I stayed back watching the view as the fires were lit and the lives were taken.
I sat rubbing the dry blood from my hands. I began to recall my first kill, the kill that set my brother and me on this path, into the hands of Moy. Seemed like forever ago. Had sixteen years come and gone so fast.
With hindsight I realized I made a mistake. Even then I
believed I was failing myself. I had become someone unlike my former self. Yet I was still carrying out Moy’s orders and still following my brother to protect him. I didn’t remember my birth name, because I was no longer that person. I was only to be known as Malice.