• Published 15th Aug 2012
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Changelings and Assassins - Delta 727



A Lone Changeling finds herself caught in a new world as a new Character takes her into interest...

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Prologue - Part 2: Sentinel and Seraffo

There he had been, directly below me. A shingled rooftop and a twenty-foot leap that led to my target. I drew my Katar from it's sheath, and held fast. My target was only a few paces from my reach before I would be able to leap down onto him. I jumped from the roof, fell the distance, and watched as he looked up in terror and surprise through his Apothecary mask. I slammed him to the ground with my knees in his collarbone, and drove my blade to his heart. He had held still for a moment, his head slightly raised and arms barely up to prevent the attack, before he collapsed altogether, dead. I stood up from the cobblestone street beneath him, and sheathed my blade.

I laughed briefly before saying, "Excellent work, Seraffo. Although, you could have attempted to dodge." I held out my hand.

I looked up to my attacker, holding my gaze to his outstretched hand. I took it in my own, and he pulled me to my feet. Giving his hand a slight shake, I responded.

"Even so, Vali, would you have been troubled to at least make yourself less noticeable? If I had a projectile that I had known how to use, I could have killed you with one swing of my arm as you fell from the roof. How would you prepare for a situation such as that?"

I chuckled, for Seraffo had a good point to his argument. "I would make it a point not to let them have time to throw their weapon, let alone draw it. Come. Walk with me." I turned and began to stroll down the cobblestone streets of Constantinople. As he began to follow me, I had asked a question that had caught him partially off-guard.

"Have you been training your Assassins of recent?"

The question had taken me by surprise. It is not often that Vali would appoint me on the mentoring of my Assassins. But, it had been a simple answer.

"They have been well," I had replied as calmly as I could manage. "As well as we have recruited a new Assassin." Our newest member, Nicolae Dragomir, had just begun his training that morning. He was proving to become a promising assassin.

I sighed. "Good, good. Crossbowman, correct?" Seraffo nodded. "Excellent. I hope that he will be able to keep an eye from above. We had already lost another assassin to a rifleman on a rooftop." We continued down the cobblestone street as a guard had stopped us. "Halt!" He said. "I recognize you from somewhere..." I turned to Seraffo, and nodded.

At his signal, I snuck past the guard, who had let me pass. It was Vali they had wanted. As he began asking a few questions, I stopped behind the guard, unsheathed my syringe from its sheath, and pressed it into his leg. The guard flinched, but I had begun to press in the Mercury poison before he had any chance to counter. I removed the syringe, and continued as if nothing had happened.

I had seen the guard begin to slightly lose his balance, and I began to stroll past him. I tapped him with my shoulder, and the guard fell. A few civilians panicked, and began to flee the area. Before I moved on, I retrieved the guard's coin pouch, and increased my pace to meet back up to Seraffo.

"27f from our target guard. I shall add it to the profit when we return to the Den." I placed the coin pouch in my belt, and we had continued on our way just as a few guards began to examine the body of the guard. We began to approach a large building with a tower rising above it, a Crow's Nest at the peak and a hay bale at the bottom. As we entered under the canopy, the door was sealed.

"Would you wish to allow us in, Seraffo?"

I nodded, and strolled up to the door. I knocked three times, when a voice came from the other side of the door, saying, "Dic Lorem," which had been Latin for, "State your Business". I responded with, "Nihil est verum omnia licet", Latin for, "Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted", the motto of the Creed. An assassin, wearing red Creed robes and a gilded mask, opened the door. A veteran assassin of mine, she had been the Den's owner. Her name was Mercina. "Greetings, Mentor", she said.

"After you," Seraffo said. I nodded, and entered the den. Seraffo followed in after, sealing the door. Another assassin, wearing emerald-green robes with a similar gilded mask resting in an armchair, stood up as I had entered.

"Mentor!" He had said, and rushed to me. The confusion in his voice was clear.

"Bartello!" I had said. "Be calm. What is troubling you?"

He responded, saying, "Mercina and I had been wandering in the forest on a guard contract, and we had come across something rather odd, impossible, if you will. Mercina, tell them what you had seen."

Mercina stood against the far wall, her arms crossed and head down. At the mention of her name, she looked up to us, and began to speak. "There had been a kind of energy mass of some sort. Large, green, and pulsing. At first, we had thought it had been a Janissary illusion to trap us into confusion for an attack, but no Janissaries had been in the area, as well, as far as we know, our truce still stands. The only explanation that we have is paranormal. We had refused to approach it, for we did not know what dangers it could possess. Our assumptions were that you would be willing to examine it for yourself."

I placed my right hand to my chin, my other arm across my chest. "How intriguing... Shall we go out and have a look?"

At Seraffo's question, I gave a slight nod, and said, "Bartello. You will be responsible for the Den while we are gone. Mercina, come with us, and lead us to where you saw this take place. Seraffo, you may come as well." As Seraffo and Mercina followed, I walked out the door, Bartello shutting it behind us.

As the door closed behind us, I turned to Mercina. "Show us where you found this entity."

---

As we remained hidden behind a small group of trees and shrubbery, Mercina had led us to the area of the activity she had spoken of. A large, green, pulsating mass had formed in a cave entrance. I began to step from behind the tree, when Seraffo had stopped me.

"Are you mad!?" I asked Vali, grasping his arm. "You do not know what sorcery this mass holds!"

I jerked my arm free from his grasp, turning directly to him. "If nothing is ventured, then what will we gain from distance examination?" I turned and began to approach the mass. As I drew close, I began to feel the energy pulsing from it, it's green glow reflecting over my body and across the brim of the cave's opening. I had lifted my arm, shielding my eyes from the energy, while keeping a view on it. I stepped up just close enough to be within arm's reach. Keeping my right arm up to shield my eyes, I stretched out my left, and my hand made contact with the force.

Vali began to reach out his arm to the force, his forearm illuminated in a green glow.

I felt a sudden jolt through my arm, losing my vision.

As he made contact with the energy, he flinched, and had been thrown a few feet backward to the ground. Mercina and I had immediately rushed to his aid.

I returned to consciousness to find myself lying on the ground with Mercina and Seraffo standing over me. I had begun to cough, my forearm feeling numb. "What happened?" I asked Seraffo sternly.

"You had made contact with the force, and it had expelled you backward," I had responded. His forearm sleeve had been slightly singed, but he seemed to be unhurt. I glanced up to see the energy had gone. "The energy has disappeared."

Mercina had said, "At least now we can counter that it had been a Janissary illusion or trap." She and I aided Vali to his feet. "Are you injured?" She asked.

"I will live," I answered. "But how can some sort of illusion cause such force, and disappea-" I had been cut off by a male voice yelling, "Halt!" in the distance. Without worrying if Mercina or Saraffo had been following, I began to rush for the source of the sound.

As Vali had heard the command, he had turned and began to pursue it. I had glanced at Mercina, and began to sprint after him.

As I approached the source, I began to hear questions. "What are you?", had been the only question I could decipher. I entered into a small clearing, locating the guard, pointing a rifle barrel at some sort of creature.

Mercina and I had managed to return to Vali on the edge of an open area of the forest as he had been staring to a guard aiming a rifle.

I dashed forward. The guard had heard my running, and began to round on me. I caught up to him, grabbed his neck in the crook of my left elbow, and threw him to the ground. Before he could recover, I drew my Katar, and sent it through his left shoulderblade, piercing his heart and killing him instantly as his grip loosened around the rifle.

As Vali dispatched the guard, I stepped forward with Mercina behind me to a creature laying on the ground. It seemed to resemble a type of mythological, winged and horned horse. Although, the creature had been a pitch black, with tough skin, a jagged horn, hole-riddled and insect-like wings, legs dashed with more holes, a muzzle with fangs protruding from its upper jaw, emerald-and-blue eyes, and dark blue hair with a single strand down the center of its face that somehow resembled a human.

I took my place next to Seraffo, and examined the creature. The only words that I had managed to utter were, "What are you?"