Sanguine had little time. It was true that he needed to relieve himself, but there was more to his plan than simply taking a piss. The well-dressed blind man, moved through the hallway filled with Theiri royal guards, making sure that those who had gathered in the dining hall didn't slip off without being followed. Exactly what San intended to do.<br/><br/>San went into the servants privy, and slid the curtain closed behind himself after telling Eyes to wait outside and stand guard. The wolf did as she was told, sitting dutifully outside the stall as her master relieved himself into the chamber pot. As he did so, however, he was swiftly undressing. Removing one item of the silken suit at a time and hanging them up carefully. San stripped down to reveal a tight, black body-stocking made of thin stretchable fabric.<br/><br/>When the suit was properly stored, Sanguine added the final piece to his black body suit, by slipping a smaller stocking of the same material over his head and hair. No eye holes were cut in the mask, as San had no use for them.<br/><br/>After taking a moment to stretch, Sanguine climbed the wall of his stall and grasped the stone edges of the small window that ventilated the privy. Carefully and silently, San slipped out of the castle, finding secure hand and foot holds along the sheer edge of the castle exterior. It required a great deal of his strength to grip the cold stone, but he knew he didn't have far to go.<br/><br/>Only a few feet by wall climbing, brought San just outside the room that Lenally had rejected. Slipping past the silken curtains, San stepped silently back onto solid ground and listened for a moment to see if anyone had noticed his departure from the stall.<br/><br/>The door slid open slowly, and San sniffed the air for torches. There were several, but he could hear the guards talking, around the corner and down the hall, still guarding the dining room. Hugging the walls and sticking to the cooler shadows, he closed the door behind himself and made his way past the hallway that led to the dining room and rushed toward the guard barracks.<br/><br/>There were two guards, standing sentry outside of the barracks, but this too was factored into Sanguine's plans. Using a thick, damp cloth that he'd carried around his waist, San wrapped a nearby torch, extinguishing it with a loud hiss. He repeated this process for all the torches within the hallway, using the corners and shadows to stay out of sight from the guards around the corner.<br/><br/>"What the fuck? Why is that hallway so dark?" One guard asked the other.<br/><br/>"The damn torches... They must have gone out." The other answered. "Come on, grab that torch from the door and let's go light them back up. It ought to be a job for a servant but they're all busy with the big peace dinner, so it's just another damn thing for us to worry about."<br/><br/>San pressed his back against the wall, tucked into a small alcove just around the corner from them, standing as straight as he could and trying not to breathe. He heard their steps coming closer and smelled the smoke from the torches they carried with them.<br/><br/>The first torch to be lit was straight in front of them, but if either had looked to their left, San would have been out in the open. But the dancing shadows of the torches they carried were his friends and soon they were past him, with their backs turned.<br/><br/>"Stupid fucking Servants." The first guard muttered as they used both torches to light the first extinguished one. "They must have forgotten to soak the rags in oil, no wonder these ones went out. And now they're a pain in the ass to light again."<br/><br/>As the guard swore, Sanguine dove from his hiding spot, executing a roll across the stone floor as silent as a sigh. He moved swiftly to the barracks door, not running, more like gliding across the floor. He knew that the door would be locked, but he'd brought his tools with him and wasted no time slipping his first lockpick into the key hole.<br/><br/>There was so little time.<br/><br/>The subtle clicks and hums of tumblers were a familiar sound to Sanguine and his lock-picking abilities were infamous. With the torches that usually lit the doorway now in the hands of the disgruntled guards, Sanguine was able to work within almost perfect darkness, but if either of the guards entered the hall before San had made his way inside, all of the careful planning and practice would be for naught. Just as he was beginning to ponder what would happen if he were caught, the last tumbler clicked into place and San was able to turn the series of picks in unison and unlock the heavy wooden door.<br/><br/>San took his time, closing the door behind himself to be sure that it didn't slam. He locked it slowly as well. All around him, San could hear the sounds of steady breathing from the soldiers of the morning shift, all deep in slumber from the busy day they'd had protecting the royals from the visiting Aserits.<br/><br/>There were no torches or candles burning in this room, a welcome change from the torchlit hallway, but even the slightest sound could wake one of the slumbering guards, a mistake that would almost certainly cost San his life at this point.<br/><br/>Taking his time, making sure to roll his steps, San sniffed the air for the familiar, metallic smell of blood. He had to smell very carefully, but in the end, it was the smell of stale wine and body odor that led the assassin to his target.<br/><br/>As gently as a butterfly lands on a flower, Sanguine ran his fingers slowly over the snoring soldier's neck, feeling the cuts that he'd left behind from his razor-wire the first time their paths had crossed. This was him, the guard that had threatened Erin and Sanguine both. He'd observed the man from afar in his time at Castle Theiri, memorizing his schedule and routine.<br/><br/>In one fluid motion, San mounted the slumbering man's chest, pinning his arms under knees which bore San's full weight. In the same motion, San clapped his hand down over the man's mouth and pinched shut his nose. The guard's eyes shot open and he tried to scream, but only a muted grunting sound was able to pass through Sanguine's hand. Smiling the wicked smile of the conqueror, he lifted the stocking up from his face and leaned down close enough that his lips grazed the man's ear.<br/><br/>"<em>I warned you not to sleep.</em>" Sanguine whispered through his grin.<br/><br/>By now, the guard was in desperate need of air, unable even to breathe with San's vice grip plugging shut his mouth and nose. He flailed and kicked, as much as he could for a short while, punching Sanguine's thighs futilely until his strength waned. This too was a part of San’s plan, as exertion of this sort deoxygenated the blood more quickly and there was no time to fight with him.<br/><br/>Inside of a minute, The Guard’s flailing lost any sort of strength and his body went limp, little by little. Though San couldn’t see it, his eyes rolled back in his head and he lost consciousness. After several more seconds to ensure that The Guard wasn’t playing possum, San released his face. Sanguine knew he was going to kill the guard, but not here. The rest of this plan would be difficult enough without having his victim coated in his own bodily excrement.<br/><br/>The Assassin wrapped the unconscious guard up tightly in his own bed-sheets and used those same sheets to bundle him up and sling the larger man over his back. It was a struggle to carry him, but not impossible. The truly difficult part was going to be getting the heavy sack of dead weight up all seventy-five of those stairs...<br/><br/>San carried the guard’s body over to the far window, making certain to remain silent. He lowered the man out, over the ledge and then let him fall, making certain to hold one end of the sheet he was wrapped in. The sheet unrolled in a fraction of a second and dropped the guard heavily onto the grass of the Upper-West garden. The sheet managed to slow the man’s fall enough to keep him alive, but the fall had likely broken his arms and several ribs.<br/><br/>San went back, taking a moment to remake the Guard’s bed, lest the sheets become evidence of what had happened. Once he was satisfied that none of the other guards had awakened from their sound slumber, San went back to the window and used the stones of the wall to climb down.<br/><br/>The night was cool and the moon in it’s crescent form, allowing Sanguine freedom to move through the long shadows of the garden without fear of being seen from afar. He crouched over the unconscious and likely brain damaged guard, digging in the dirt near his body. There, he extracted a bottle of wine he’d stolen from the kitchen and hidden here for exactly this moment.<br/><br/>With the wine in one hand, and the unconscious guard slung over his shoulder, Sanguine made his way toward the Western wall of the palace. Built into a mountain- as it was, the Western wall, facing the mountain was very rarely well-guarded if at all. With the Aserits in town, none were spared to guard the impregnable back wall of Castle Theiri.<br/><br/>Once he reached the top of the wall, Sanguine was sweating and nearly exhausted. As the last steep step of the circular staircase was behind him, San pulled the cork from the bottle of wine with his teeth and spat it over the edge of the high wall. Taking a long, deep drink- Sanguine made his way to the spot on the wall where he knew the towers and spires of the castle would block them from anyone who might spot them from the garden.<br/><br/>Holding the guard up by the collar of his night-shirt, Sanguine slapped him several times about the face until he woke.<br/><br/>“Here, drink this.” San insisted, pouring the wine down the man’s throat before he had a chance to say or do anything about it. “That’s right... Good boy.”<br/><br/>The Guard came up from the bottle choking and sputtering, splashing some of it onto the wall. As he began to get his bearings, rage flashed across his face.<br/><br/>“Where the-? What did-? What the fuck is going on?” The guard demanded, drawing back to throw a punch with his broken arm.<br/><br/>“How boring...” San sighed, leaning back to effortlessly avoid the punch that he heard whistling through the air. “In case you haven’t figured it out by now. I’ve brought you here to end your life.”<br/><br/>As the Guard’s punch came up empty, the momentum turned him around, for the first time seeing how high above the mountain face they were. As panic washed over him, The Guard lost his balance and would have fallen headlong to his death, but San wasn’t finished playing with his prey just yet. San grabbed the guard by his hair, preventing the man from falling forward.<br/><br/>“Now then, the next words out of your mouth had better be some poetic, ballad worthy shit, because I guarantee they will be your last.” San whispered into The Guard’s ear, leaning forward and letting him teeter closer still to falling, his toes already over the edge of the wall. “Anything else?”<br/><br/>“Fuck you! You blind son of a-” The Guard began, but the rest of his words were cut off by his own screams as San deemed these last words unsatisfactory.<br/><br/>San listened with a gleeful smile on his lips, taking one last drink from the wine bottle. The Guard screamed for several seconds of freefall until the dull, wet, thud of his body striking the stone mountain face confirmed a clean kill.<br/><br/>Then there was silence.<br/><br/>In that moment, Sanguine pondered the words of the Gypsy and Princess Juli who had accused him, each in their own way of killing for fun. Though he was a professional, no one had paid him to kill this guard, it was for his own vengeance that this man met his death. If he was honest with himself, he had to admit, it was fun. He did enjoy killing those who deserved to die, and what’s more, he was good at it. Was it so wrong for a man to enjoy his work? To find bliss in those endeavors for which he had such a talent?<br/><br/>San didn’t believe it was.<br/><br/>Lastly, San poured the rest of the wine out, over the wall and in amongst the mess left by the guard. He then cast the glass bottle after, the faint, distant shattering- music to his ears. It would be impossible to see anything amiss in the dark of night, no one would find the Guard’s body until morning.<br/><br/>The job now finished, San crouched down, crawling across the wall for a distance of fifteen steps. He’d practiced this escape many times over, walked the routes both ways over and over when there was nothing at stake. Now, everything was at stake.<br/><br/>San leaped from the wall onto the closest spire that he’d measured days ago. Making his way carefully across the tower roofs and thin ledges of the castle’s ceiling, San found his way back to the privy window and slipped back inside. He put his suit back on in a hurry and hid the stocking from his face back into the pocket of his suit. Affixing his sword and belt last, San slid the curtain back.<br/><br/>Eyes barked gleefully, thrilled to see him safe once more.<br/><br/>“Sir LeChance? Is everything alright?” One of the guards asked from outside, his voice sounding genuinely concerned. “You were in there for over ten minutes.”<br/><br/>“Oh, yes I’m fine.” San smiled confidently. “You might want to wait a few minutes before letting anyone else in there, though.”<br/><br/><div align="center">*** Moved to Castle Theiri/ Public Rooms (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=111523.175).***</div>