kimbra_ailis

~ Assassin's Game~

Assassin(switch) ^ Assassin ~Assassin's Game~ She was born to a Lord and Lady of the King's Court. Unsatisfied with the pampered life she insisted on learning self defense with a sword. Then ran away to make her own life. Learning that the world only favored those strong enough to take what was needed she slowly turned to mercenary and assassination work. Trying to keep a low profile she often appeared in public as a man, as well as the assassin being male.

Chivalry was dead, had been for a long time if it ever existed. A whimsical dream created by the bards, the poor, and the damned… Entertained by the poor, the damned, and the young daughters of Lords. At times ladies of the courts entertained the idea as they grew up prancing around the castle dreaming of prince charming coming to marry them. Dreams shattered by fathers who married their daughters to older Lords in order to gain an alliance and make a deal. Knights could not afford nor ranked high enough in society and court to marry the daughters of their Lord.

Rather they were the ones forced to watch the fair maidens from afar and come to the rescue only after some rival lord thought to hold them for ransom. Even then their time in the light was short lived and forgotten by nearly all and replaced in stories by the "valor" of the Lord, who had done nothing. Even the knights were mostly drunks and warmongering. They cared little of the delicacy of a virgin but entertained with whores and scarlets. The most many knights had conquered was in the bedroom with the daughter of some poor farmer, who thought he would lover her forever only to find him scorn her on their next meeting.

Women had lost all respect for themselves, content to live in a dream world of submission. Those who did not give in to their husbands were as adulterous as their spouse. Women gave themselves the first man who came along in hopes of a better life and marriage only to find emptiness and rejection. Children fatherless and mothers shamed. Ladies sneaked around the castles behind their fathers back with guards and servants if for no other reason than to disobey and rebel.

Knights and lords alike, all of them men thinking themselves God and above sin. Lords with brides nearly two decades their junior and knights found in some of the most dishonorable places with less then savory company. Drunks the whole lot of them. Knights murdered and plundered for no just reason though in the name of God. Blood barely dry before the hunger had returned to see the slaughter.

Well I can not say much about the killing, for I did it as everyone else, only difference is I knew better. My father had been Lord and her mother a highly respected lady though nearly 15 years younger than her husband. My mother was not the perfect women often romanced about and my father was not the loving husband idealized. And me, I was not the perfect daughter that grew up and lived happily ever after.

In truth my only save was I so much resembled her mother’s husband that there was little doubt as to who my father could be. The rest of my siblings had taken more after our mother in looks and the true father unknown to all but her. Though this fact escaped my father (because they were the children he desired, well behaved and mannered) my recklessness and outlandish behavior often brought down his wrath for all of us.

I was well educated as in the manner of the Lords children and though I often missed class I was a better study then any of my siblings. At an early age I became fluent in French, Latin, and Greek, later on I was able to learn enough of several other. My teacher swore I should have been born male and I would have made my father so proud. It really didn’t make things better for me that I was his eldest child, two girls followed me and then three younger brothers and at last one more girl.

When I was still quiet young I managed to talk the Captain of the Guards, Ian Darklin, into teaching me sword and weaponry. I was careful to hide my skill and Ian was equally careful because he knew what the cost would be. Actually he only agreed because I was able to black mail him, which did not bother my conscious any. Before my training I had learned stealth and silence and knew something important on almost everyone in the castle. It was useful at times when I really needed something.

My training lasted till I was better than my teacher. Though I was good with a sword I excelled with throwing daggers and the bow. Silent and deadly was my style, was me. Around the ending of my training I was coming of age and my father had hopes of marrying me off to some lord to make a profit for himself. In the beginning I had many suitors but I had other plans and many easily were scared away. When that failed I took more drastic measures… I left the castle and my family behind.

From time to time in the years that came I did go back of my own free will to visit. After a time my father stopped trying to keep me there, after he found none of his guards could match me and I would kill if that is what it took. Often I slipped in unnoticed and suddenly would appear for supper and disappear from my room by morning light. My mother kept my room for me and at times I went home only to sit and relax without others knowing of my presence. It was peaceful and helped calm me at times.

In the beginning life was not so hard, I was able to make rent at a little inn only a few miles from the castle and I hid there determined not to go back. My father did not let me go so easily and in a careless moment I was found and dragged back to the castle. Shortly after my escape I learned a few hard lessons fast. My first kill was a man whom had drank too much and had followed me home. I was also drunk and not aware till I found him inside my room. He wouldn’t take no for an answer and was rather determined to have me. Really to this day I don’t know exactly what happened but I found myself watching the light slowly go out of his eyes and the feeling of his warm blood running down my hand.

I fled that night to another town were no one would know me and started my life again. At first it disturbed me I had killed the man so easily and felt no guilt or shock for what I had done. It was another two towns and a year later before I was hired for the first time to kill. I was good, I was a woman and attractive. They trusted me like they would not another man and so it was an easy sport. After only a short time I used other methods and hid myself away.

So now I am found at just past 20 winters, most of the time I appear neither female nor male. Lydia is the name I have taken, though as the assassin I hold no name. I blend into the background and am the last one looked for. That allows me the chance to live a life in the light as any other woman and survive by the night as a man. I don’t drink heavily anymore, usually light wynes and occasionally whiskey. When I drink I do sometimes feel a little guilt but usually I just have a tendency to take a lover. It’s a release from the darkness and pain that fills my life, a time when I can be like any other women.

Currently I wear a black skirt that is ankle long and a slit on either side that runs up to my high. The knee-high boots, which I enjoy, hide my daggers easily. My shirt is an off the shoulder short sleeved shirt with a v-line neck, of course it is blood red. On my wrist are a pair of leather bands, that can also hold a smaller set of daggers when I am in the streets. My hair hangs loosely in my face but I have another band on my wrist in which I can have my hair pulled back in only a moment or two.

So now I sit in this small tavern waiting. My current employer does well for me but he is almost always late to meeting me. He does not know me. To him I am myself lover. I keep it a secret his assassin is a woman and let him have the illusion that I will not meet him directly but instead send a woman to get the orders. In this guise I am safe, he knows not to even think of harming me for fear of the wrath of his assassin. Few people know the truth about me but tonight I am restless. This place is not one I like to be. A handful of people know both sides of me and most of those people are from here. The chance I run into them is slim to none and even less I have anything to worry about.

But this building gives me the creeps. I sit at a corner table watching the regular patrons go in and out. A glass of wyne sits barely touched in front of me. I had one already earlier and now I barley sip at this one. My patience wears thin with annoyance. I have a meeting with my current employer but there was also suppose to be another man whom wanted my services. I can maintain two jobs at once so that is no problem. I don’t really know this second man but he knows me, at least as a woman, on site so I simply have to wait for one or the other to show up.