Silent Jade

by Wanderer D

Chapter 7: A New Home

Their first stop, roughly a day and a half from their camping point, was a secluded town not quite in the outskirts of the Everfree called Marethage. The pair walked in, drawing uninterested gazes as the townsponies trod through muddy streets, focused on their own business, it being skinny-looking crops or dull-colored materials. Rarity winced internally, doing her best to disguise her horror at the drabness of it all.

It was a short visit. They walked into the inn, ate a meal and meandered around town for a bit, with Stride pointing out the main buildings and such to Rarity before they went into the less-pleasant areas of town; made of crumbling or decaying bricks and wood, where some ponies glared at them from the shadows—either not daring to come out into the light or more likely not willing to fight a capable-looking gryphon such as Gaius—while the rest stared into space morosely under old capes.

A few colts and fillies Rarity's age ran around in small groups, tumbling and wrestling and giving them both calculating looks before Gaius' glare sent them scampering away. After a few hours of this, the pair left, heading back into the forest.

They walked for days, discussing her fake past, in case it was brought up by anyone in the order, and Silent Stride insisted on randomly asking Rarity questions about Jade's past for several days, drilling a character history into her so she could immediately answer without hesitating, yet leaving it open enough that it would not seem perfect. It was a lot of little details and Rarity caught herself filling up the empty spaces with elements from her life in Ponyville.

"That is okay," Stride said, "As long as you use them as reference for a couple of things and not the whole place. Marethage is off the beaten path for most ponies; a small community with little things in common with Ponyville, which is right next to the railroad that takes ponies to and from Canterlot. It's actually hard to find on a map, unless it's local and you're travelling that particular route.

"So making references to how the books are organized inside Ponyville's library is fine if you're thinking of a reference, but you should be careful to not include the fact that it's a tree—Marethage's library is, as you saw, a rundown building."

Jade had lost sight of any sights of civilization by the end of the second day. She had been briefly upbeat when she had stepped into an actual road, only for them to leave it several hours later much to her chagrin.

They had camped and eaten rations and gone over the exact formula of the potion again, then as they left the next morning, her grandfather had taught her how to hide their camping spot. Still, in her mind and from the descriptions of the place her grandfather kept hinting at, Rarity was looking forward to seeing the grand complex where the assassins trained.

When they eventually stepped out of the deep woods to the north, she was disappointed to only see a huge mountain range ahead of them.

"It never ends," she sighed, brushing her green mane from her face.

Master Stride chuckled. "Really, Jade?" he asked. "Aren't you missing the most obvious part?"

Jade blinked and gazed at the mountain again. Her eyes followed everything about it until she realized that what she was looking at at the bottom of the mountain.

"Is that… a crevice?"

"It is," Gaius said, motioning for her to follow. "Not only are we far away from civilization, but our hideout couldn't be just there, in plain sight of a flying pegasus, gryphon or dragon."

Jade nodded. "That makes sense, I suppose." She stopped in her tracks, however, a heartbeat later. Master Stride stopped as well, glancing at her with mild amusement.

"Something bothering you, Jade?"

She glanced around. Everything seemed normal. And yet… "It feels strange… as if we're being watched."

Master Stride chuckled. "Well done. We are."

Jade looked up, then around. "Well… if we're being watched, and I figured it out, won't they come out and introduce themselves?"

Stride blinked. "And why would they do that? You might know you're being watched, but you don't know how many might be watching you or where they hide. As it is, they still have a considerable advantage."

Jade grumbled but had to acknowledge the point with a nod of her head.

Stride chuckled. "Think of it this way: if a pony senses they're being watched, they might tense up, but if nothing jumps out of the shadows to confront them immediately, they'll eventually just ignore it and blame it on paranoia." He smirked. "And trust me, ponies are paranoid. This patience could be the difference between success and failure."

Jade grimaced but finally nodded again. "I guess that makes sense." She looked curiously at him. "Do you know where they are?"

The old gryphon's grin never wavered. "Of course. These young ones need a few more years of practice before they can get a jump on this assassin. Isn't that right, Flame?"

"Perceptive as always, Stride."

Jade was about to ask what her grandfather meant when a voice behind her made her jump into the air, roll and turn, facing the voice's origin and ready to vault at the slightest chance.

An earth pony, large and muscled with a deep, crimson coat and yellow-red mane, wearing a black matted light armor grinned down at her. "She has nice reflexes. Where did you find her?"

"Really, Fire? I'm sure you'll find out eventually," Stride said, motioning to Jade to follow. The three started walking towards the crevice. "Her name is Jade… and if you really must know, I found her in the back streets of Marethage." He smirked. "As you can see she has quick reflexes and a keen eye for detail… it wasn't hard to convince her parents to let me take her for the usual fare and a promise for a better future."

"Certainly better than becoming a common thief, as so many do in those circumstances, or dying of hunger" Fire agreed. He glared at Jade. "You have been given a great opportunity, filly, make sure you're worthy of it."

"Y-yes…"

Stride chuckled. "This is the second in command of the Order of Dragons, bearing the title of Raging Flame," he explained. "It's not his actual name… did you ever tell us your real name?"

Raging Flame just snorted.

Stride continued, "Of course not. In any case, once a member of the order takes the second spot in the hierarchy of an order, the first part of their name is replaced by the order's title. In his case, Raging, in the order of the Wraiths it would be Silent, and in the order of the Sirens, the title would be Phantom."

At that point they had reached the crevice on the cliff side and Jade noticed that it had a natural protrusion all along the upper part. It was angled in such a way that she imagined a flying pegasus would not be able to spot the cave from above, and if they came low enough to investigate… well, ponies here were assassins after all.

"You can call me Master Flame," the earth pony said, nodding at her. "And I will test your mettle day in and day out. We'll burn that baby fat off of your body and make a true assassin out of you." He smiled. "If you survive."

"Come now, no need to scare the new apprentice," Stride said with some humor in his voice. "We don't get many as it is."

"We have a good number this year of fresh ones," Fire said, shrugging. "The old orphanage near Philidelphia caught fire. Tragic incident. But we did manage to save plenty of young ones to foster into the order."

Stride's brow furrowed. "That practice was abandoned for a reason."

Fire shrugged again. "It was going to be a massacre otherwise; plenty of bandits and rogue packs of Diamond Dogs had been scouting it for months."

Stride sighed. "How many?"

"Plenty. A lot of them much younger than her... the older youngsters were able to get out of the building with the adults. They'll be moved to another, newer foster home; a lot of fillies and colts will have food, roof and a future; and we get to expand our family. A winning situation all around."

"Fair enough," Stride said with a sigh. "Now, I should introduce Jade here to Velvet Blanket."

Fire snorted. "She might be busy arranging for all the new additions, but I guess she would have to make time for Silent Stride himself." He stopped and bumped a hoof on Stride's shoulder. "Good to have you back."

"G-Master Stride," Jade spoke up when they were alone in the caverns. "What did he mean about the orphanage?"

Stride sighed and motioned with his head so that they kept moving through the darkening tunnels. "Once you're part of the order, once you mingle and make friends here you'll come to regard a lot of them as good ponies or gryphons… and in a way, they might be, but you should never forget they, and you, are assassins. We are not the good guys, we'll never be. But we can, at least, be neutral."

Jade nodded a bit nervously.

"In olden times, orphanages were easy places to find new members, and generations before you or I, the order would sometimes foalnap entire groups of colts and fillies from there and bring them here. At the time, it was arguably an improvement on their lot, but as times became calmer and Celestia's influence spread, there was less predation of such places and the practice fell out of favor, as hiding these actions would be much more harder."

"Then why would they—we risk being found out by doing it this time?" Jade asked.

"A good question," a new, female voice answered, making the young filly scamper back onto Stride's flank. "And good questions are hard to find these days."

Out of the darkness, slow purple-glowing mist emerged, forming into the shape of a unicorn, before blowing away in the breeze and revealing an aging, but still beautiful mare. Her coat was a pale blue, her eyes—several shades darker—lit up with magic, giving them a glint almost like sapphire.

"Jade," Stride, said, "This is Phantom Note, second in command of the Order of the Sirens."

"A pleasure, I'm sure," Phantom Note all but purred. "I had heard you came back with a new apprentice, Stride, I didn't expect that to happen ever again."

"Times change."

"Oh," Phantom Note smiled roaming around him and Jade. "They sure do." She stopped and smirked, looking down at Jade. "To answer your question, young one, this was one of very few orphanages remaining where the authorities have neglected to act on demands to repair the building, or even to have a new one constructed. All we did was provide them some incentive and guilt over their oversight. The orphans were in real danger as it was, now they are safe." She paused. "Or safer in any case. At least now they have a chance at life and success."

Jade nodded uncertainly.

"I doubt you're here just to welcome me and Jade, Note," Stride said after a moment. "I know how hard it is to get you out of your lab."

"Oh, pish-posh, darling," Note said with a glint in her eye. "Why wouldn't I come out to greet an old friend?"

Stride just looked at her.

"Fine, fine, no need to glower. Hidden Claw wishes to speak with the masters of the three orders and their second-in-command," she said, relenting. "I was on my way to pick up Fire, but happily noticed you and your apprentice on the way."

"I see," Stride nodded. "I think we made it just in time for the new generation to be announced then?"

"Quite right, dear," Phantom Note said with a smirk. "You still have a little time to drop her off with Velvet."

"I will meet you and Fire soon then," Stride said, motioning with his claw for Jade to continue walking.

"Ta!" Phantom Note said cheerfully before becoming mist again and dispersing into the wind.

"Hidden Claw?" Jade asked.

"The Grand Master," Stride said.

"I see… wouldn't it have made sense to tell me all of this on the way here?" Jade asked.

"In a way, yes," Stride admitted, "but the names of our masters are never to be uttered outside of our home. If I had started explaining this, I would have had to break that oath."

Jade was about to make another comment when they emerged out of the tunnels, and she forgot completely about her questions. A great expanse of land opened before her, dipping down for a whole mile from the cave they had emerged from, before it became a forest that went on for miles, wrapping around several lakes and split by rivers. Above them, the cave went up, far above them, with occasional, large holes where sunlight poured into the cave below. Birds and pegasi and gryphons flew here and there, and in the center rose a large castle with a central tower so tall it reached high above their current height and merged with the top of the cave.

Jade stared at it all with slack-jawed wonder, barely managing to get her bearings back when she heard her grandfather chuckle.

"Welcome to your new home, Jade."