Halcon looked around the room that he had gotten from the Inn Keeper as his orders were to simply wait for further instructions. These were the most strenuous times. The waiting alone could make a greener infiltrator stir crazy with heightened senses, increased paranoia, and even attempting to practice sleeping with their eyes open. This was not Halcon’s first rodeo and hopefully it was going to be his last as he stepped close to the window and gently took a peek out into the busy street, noting that the guard’s horses seen before were still tied and attached to the horse racks.<br/><br/><br/><br/><i>“What are you planning...,”</i>he said as he counted the number of people walking along the street while keeping a very low profile. They were barely visible as it was well into the night with shadows leaping upon the lit lamp posts that dotted the cobble stone streets.<br/><br/><br/><br/>It was interesting to note that he knew Tanyl was just down from him either posting up within a corner ready to strike or perhaps setting her own room as a would-be death trap for some unlucky paid goon to lose their lives in. Halcon wasn’t beating around the subject at least from his perspective, despite their situation as it was now, accounting for the deadliness of _____’s blade, he missed her warmth in a secure bed and their passionate bond. It was good to see and talk to her even though she had an expectant knife waiting to collide with his throat. Perhaps it was crazy love though Halcon never expected he’d have any kind of normalcy of that kind in his life to begin with. Halcon himself made his own preparations from fine crushed glass sprinkled within the carpet fringes just outside his door to the quick-trigger wire that would set off a smoke bomb within the room. This would buy Halcon some time to either quell the invader or evacuate to a better fighting ground depending upon who it was.<br/><br/>Halleck decided he would test his courage and laid flat upon the bed, keeping the covers and blankets tucked while resting on top of them instead.<br/><br/><i>“And so the wait continues…” he said to himself as he looked up towards the ceiling. </i><br/><br/><br/><br/>*****<br/><br/><br/><br/>In the main hall way the two would never see who or what had walked there for the exception of the tiny noise heard at each person’s door with a single envelope that was passed underneath the space and skidded a quarter of the way in their own rooms. Halcon immediately had sprung into action when he heard the light crunching sound of the ground glass but as his sword was drawn for a complete and clean assassination, he was met with a single envelope resting upon the floorboards.<br/><br/>“A message…” he said out loud as he crouched down and gently inspected it with leather gloved hands, carefully sniffing it for any hint that it may be saturated with some form of a poison.<br/><br/><br/><br/>“Imperial paper --- Ink is fresh,” He then said after some inspection before digging a finger and making parting a slit to pull the message out within it.<br/><br/>It read:<br/><br/><i>Agent, </i><br/><br/><i>In the authority invested in me, King Hadrius the I, of the Kingdom of Triskelmeen, hereby request that you eliminate the Ambassador Freal’Dal Ben , the emissary of the Elf Lord. This is a mission of great importance for the preservation of your Kingdom. If you should fail, there will be great political ramifications that are irreparable and you will thus be disbanded and hunted down as a traitor to your King. If you are captured, we will void any knowledge of your mission and you will have been disbanded. I have great confidence that this edict will be carried out. </i><br/><br/><i>For the good of our people. </i><br/><br/><i>Also --- intelligence reports that the Agent is in the area. She will have to also be dealt with in a manner of your choosing. Despite the known history that I am aware, I believe this will not get in the way of the enormous responsibility that has been placed within your hands to carry out my order. </i><br/><br/>There was a lump in his throat but also an adrenaline rush, one that sent a feeling of sudden warmth from the top of his forehead and felt to the inner discs of his spine.<br/><br/>“So the dreaded ‘<i>soon’</i>has become<i>now</i>?” He said with an almost highly regretful look about his features.<br/><br/>“Damn these Kings and their shameful power plays upon the world,” he said as he shredded the message and let the bits float to the floor. “It’s hard to determine whether she’s getting the same letter in reverse as me? Will she really point her accurate bow upon my breast and shoot me down?”<br/><br/>If she did get a kill order and it did have instructions for him to be eliminated, then he she would definitely act fast upon it. Halleck quickly looked to the door and snatched his items up as clearly heard those all too familiar noises coming for him. Halcon was ready for the worst when his window shattered behind him that made his deadly muscle memory go into short order, throwing a razor sharp dagger in response only to have hit the broken window pane. Halcon looked down and saw an Elven arrow with a peculiar stone wrapped around its edge.<br/><br/>“A memory stone?” He said as he picked it up, “I wonder who it’s for… there’s no time. It’s clear there’s a move upon me --- I’ll just have to vacate and continue the damned mission…”<br/><br/>Halcon kept the arrow with the message stone attached to it and broke the rest of the window down before leaping out of it, falling upon the roof below and tumbled into the large bales of hay where the horses were. Halcon leaped upon his own that luckily remained untouched and cut the tether that was attached to the holding rack before galloping off into the night.<br/><br/><br/><br/>****<br/><br/><b>A few days prior to events…..</b><br/><br/>It was quiet within the meeting hall as the servants walked by and laid a large four pronged candle holder that brilliantly lit the dining table. King Harius I was sitting across from what their people thought would be his most hated advisory, King Raefeal Dal Kian. The two had planned this meeting several months in advance and they had already took multiple lives who inadvertently uncovered their gathering to include some that were mostly mutual agents of both The Order of the Orchid and Raefeal’s Elven Assassins. In a bit of irony, some of those kills were orchestrated by his people using Tanyl as his choice assassin to carry them out.<br/><br/>“I say..,” Hadrius said, “The roast garlic chicken tastes wonderful when it’s in season in these parts --- don’t you agree?”<br/><br/>“Mmmm…” Raefeal replied, “It’s not as exotic as what I am used to but it does seem to hold up to the flavor test,” the Elf King said, “So --- Hardrius. Did you set up our mutual problems in the right place? Do you know if he suspects anything? I think I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping my seemingly adopted daughter Tanyl in the dark. It pains me however, she is very exotic…<i>if she wasn’t so clever</i>…I could have sired a handsome heir from her…<br/><br/>“Oh enough of that,” he said, “These are pawns in a game they are unfortunately on the wrong side of the game table for….no matter how exotic, beautiful, or perhaps her gyrating hips can fancy you a nocturnal hour of entertainment, you’ll be able to replace her with 100 copies if you so choose once we have completed our mutual goal,”<br/><br/>“You make things sound so --- crass King Hardius,” he said, “ We Elvish, even during times of corruption, war planning, and the high points of gluttony prefer such events be given their proper treatment with the finer qualities of language use --- its putting character into something that would otherwise be a barbarian’s brawl,” as he took another piece of roast and began to chew softly, “My internal praetorian guard is ready to disburse around the population and commit to martial law. Once the Mystic Shadows are destroyed, the Elven Council that has been a thorn in myside will then be eliminated within that same time frame. I will then ascertain full power and relinquish this frail idea of representative clan government. I’ve paid off the barons and have been quietly installing puppet figure heads…no thanks to my fair sunburnt haired angel of death ironically. If she knew she was the knife point to the utter destruction of her culture’s way of life, I most certainly can attest she would commit to full rebellion. This is why it is very important that you execute your end of this nefarious deal of ours --- you humans are stupid, lazy, and at times, what dangles between your thighs clouds sound judgment with disastrous consequences,”<br/><br/><i>Hadrius laughed.</i><br/><br/>“And you Elvish think much too highly of yourselves, “he said, “That ego has allowed you to loose large swaths of your early kingdom. Low and lazy indeed! Don’t you worry about Halcon --- as long as you give me those supposed crack soldiers of yours, I’ll take care of our two assassins in short order! They aren’t the only ones who are prized and their more easier to control now that we have the Mage Sendrick Faylor cooking his helpful brew…,”<br/><br/>“Has the Dun Horde spoken yet?”<br/><br/>“No,”<br/><br/>“Not to me either,”<br/><br/>“Their waiting to see if we can be reliable on our end,”<br/><br/>“You believe the dark hoarde like that?” he asked laughing, “ My people have been at war with them before yours were even a memory in time,”<br/><br/>“Are we going to have another discussion as to how you are ancient as the hills and I’m the hare that has to quickly over-compensate your race’s slow-poke ways?”<br/><br/>Just then there was a sound of rustling within the room and as the two kings looked at each other with sudden concern there was a shadow that had bolted from one of the rafters.<br/><br/>“A spy!!!!,” yelled Hardius<br/><br/>“Quickly!” Raefeal spat, “They probably heard everything! This cannot reach the outside of these walls!”<br/><br/><br/><br/>****<br/><br/><i>She had trained him well.</i>Well ---<i>as much as he had learned thus far</i>. Valen leaned up against the rafters and balanced himself, using the light bending technique as a camouflage. The top part of the rafters had a mossy smell to it as the cold air the roof was attempting to keep out could be felt upon the wood planks and stone workings. At the table below were the two most powerful leaders of the kingdom enjoying a lavish dinner and speaking about the fate of their people. Valen had gotten intelligence from his human contacts that their King and his King were secretly attending a meeting in regards to some plot that had not been uncovered yet. It was not really too far from common practice that the two intelligence agencies spoke for even though their people used to be in a locked war of attrition, since the peace times, it was a mutual benefit that both would give the other a “ heads up” in order to get ahead of potentially peace-threatening plots and cataclysmic events. This self-appointed mission was extremely dangerous and had he not have been trained by Taynl herself, he probably couldn’t’ have gathered the necessary guts nor performed it as well as he was doing at that moment. Valen shifted a little and felt a fine sprinkle of stone dust had fell upon his right shoulder, stopping in mid-movement for he suddenly realized that the beams and the posts which he hung on to were probably not strong enough to hold him for long.<br/><br/>“C’mon already…,” he said to himself, “I just need some confirmation…,”<br/><br/>His teal eyes scanned the two faces of the Kings and his Elven ears perked further, listening to every word as he was practicing the Khral-Dur-Rak, a form of projection memory in which the user could convey what they saw from the record of their mind. Valen was 5”8 and 130 pounds wet and although he was not fit for a prolonged one-on-one fight, his fast flexibility and high dexterity made him perfect for such missions. Valen was no fancy swordsman so he only carried close-encounter weapons such as knifes and relied heavily upon his sought after archery skills, with Tanyl the only person that really out-matched his razor sharp accuracy and speed. The Kings then spoke what he feared was true and as they spoke about dealing with the horde in the north, the assassination attempts of both the strider and his master whom were lovers before, it was clear he had just stumbled upon the greatest danger he’d ever thought to encounter. The message that he was clearly recording got to his senses and like a learning Assassin who hadn’t mastered his emotions as much as his physical skill, lost control of his balance and came crashing down upon a table just below him.<br/><br/><i>Then things suddenly became a race against death. </i><br/><br/>Valen had made a mistake and gave away his position as the best known student under Tanyl leaped out of his shadowy camouflage and burst through the door into the hallway, avoiding the screaming plotting kings as the guards were quickly roused to their calls of alarm.<br/><br/>“ Gods!,” he cried to himself as he ran upon a group of light infantry that had already attempted to bottle neck him within the hallway by getting a running head start and using the wall to leap over them as Tanyl trained him, “She must know! This treason! They must know! The council!” He spat to himself as he dodged a few bolts that were already shot from some archers that were placed a few levels above.<br/><br/><br/><br/>“Our King!?” He still shouted in bewilderment, “Both our Kings in collusion?!”<br/><br/><br/><br/>Valen leaped down a flight of stairs only to meet an oncoming group of armored knights that were charging up the spiral stone staircase. There was a murder hole large enough for him to squeeze through as he made a long jump, making a few helmeted heads of the oncoming knights as temporary foot planks before making it to the ledge of the open cut out. There weren’t too many places to go and as he ducked his head out, an arrow shot streamed by which barely grazed his shoulder as a lookout Archer had tracked the noise to his position. Valen had one chance --- to leap into the moat down below and hope he’d live through the fall.<br/><br/>***<br/><br/><i>He had been running and evading the King’s pathfinders for days until he finally came upon the Tavern at nightfall. </i><br/><br/><br/><br/>Valen was just outside holding a severe wound to his left side that was quickly soaking his undershirt and creating a dark red stain to his forest green vest. Valen had made it to the Tavern despite fighting off multiple enemies and being trailed by one of the worst trackers that was serving under Raefeal’s ranks.<br/><br/>He probably wouldn’t be able to make it to Tanyl’s room but he did the next best thing and transferred his recorded memory into a message stone, one in which would only respond to her through telepathy as he wrapped the stone around the shaft of one his arrows. Valen could hear the trailing pathfinders in the distance with taunts for his immediate death but he couldn’t worry about that at the moment --- he would have to make this shot count and then rely on the luck of the gods to carry him through.<br/><br/>Valen knocked the arrow in his long bow and judged the distance from the tree limb he currently leaned upon and the window where Tanyl’s rented room was, known due do his connection with her and her scent. Valen steadied the bow and with a twang, the shaft sailed into the night air, performing a high curve before falling towards one of her room’s glass window panels.<br/><br/><i>Hopefully it was not in vain as the hunting pathfinders came closer. </i><br/><br/>Or at least he thought it was her room. Valen was still new to these arts and if one thing was true to form was that Tanyl covered her tracks very well, masking other rooms as if she were present within them and creating many decoys of disguise. In this case, the shot was not going to find her but Halcon’s room but whether he would even be able to comprehend what the stone could do was a mystery that would wait to the fates. It would be thought of as pretty clever if not spite-full but making Halcon’s room a decoy was something of a two-fer in her favor. If there was anyone that was looking for her they would wind up attacking him thus giving her the advantage of being alarmed. The next bonus was possibly having Halcon killed which would allow her to continue on knowing there wasn’t a skilled assassin like herself to worry about anymore. This was not known as to whether these were her intentions but would have probably run through Halcon’s methodical mind none the least.