“Poison? How does he know what poison smells like?” Alistair asked frantically as he and Emyr crowded close to Liliana. She welcomed the crowding for once. She could feel panic on the edge of her mind and the other two teens were helping steady her.

“The element of Poison, not a specific type. I’m not sure how he can tell, but he’s always been able to differentiate the scent of someone’s main affinities. It’s probably a beast thing,” Liliana explained, her voice taking a high-pitched tone that bordered on hysteria. Someone was trying to kill her again.

This wasn’t like the poisoning, which had technically happened before she came into this world. Or the bandits who had attacked her and the others. Even the wolves, which had come closest to really ending her life here. The wolves had been driven by animalistic instincts, not twisted plots behind their actions. This was an assassin. What else could it be? Few took a Poison element, unless they had darker machinations. Poison wasn’t an element meant for face-to-face confrontations. Poison was meant to kill your prey when they couldn't see you, minutes, hours, days later when you were long gone. It felt far more personal to her than the other times she’d faced Death in this world.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Alistair muttered, and Liliana could feel him pacing behind her. Emyr was silent but so close to her she wouldn’t be able to move without brushing against the boy. Shadows around them writhed from his own anxiety and Liliana felt panic overtaking her, her breath coming faster and faster in her chest. She knew how to handle threats right in front of her. But an unknown assassin she had little idea of how to handle it. They didn’t even know the level. Lelantos couldn’t get a clear image of the assailant to [Identify] him. He could be anywhere from level 60 to level 400 for all she knew.

Should they run to the guards? But wouldn’t the assassin run then, if they roused the camp? Then the assassin would still be out there, waiting for the next chance to kill her. They couldn’t confront him, not without knowing his level. They could be running into their own death if they did.

“Emyr,” Alistair spoke up, his voice more certain and sure than Liliana had a hope of feeling. Both she and Emyr turned to him and Liliana took some solace in how assured he seemed.

“Go to Amelia, inform her of what’s happening. Help her rouse the other guards, quickly and quietly. We don’t need this scumbag to escape.” Alistair ordered, and Emyr nodded. With a last glance at Liliana, the boy vanished into the shadows. Alistair turned to Liliana next.

“Tell Lelantos to keep the assassin in sight, me and you will slip around the camp,” Alistair ordered her, and Liliana nodded. She sent the order to Lelantos, who mentally grumbled at her. Liliana could feel his rage simmering under his concern for her. He was angered that someone had come to kill her. That they had intruded upon his territory to attack his Bond. It was only his concern for her, and his need to protect her, that kept him from charging into her tent to rip the assassin apart.

“It’s done. He’ll watch the tent,” Liliana told Alistair, and he nodded, motioning for her to follow him.

She slipped into [Stealth] while activating [Borrow] and then [Vanish] hiding her form in the darkness, she quietly discarded as much of her clothing as she could while maintaining her modesty. Her leather jacket was removed, and her undershirt, leaving just a leather vest over her invisible torso. She couldn’t do much for her legs and just hoped her darker leathers would suffice. With her dark mottled cloak, a gift from Silas, it would hopefully be enough to fully hide her figure in the dark forest.

Ahead of her, she saw Alistair reach a hand back to her, and she hesitated before grasping it. As she did, he slipped from view as well, activating his own Illusion magic to hide his form. Unlike hers, his magic hid his clothes, but Liliana was too full of panic to feel jealous of his skill. Though it did answer how he had snuck out of camp. Together, they moved as quietly as they could through the forest. Liliana kept half her mind with Lelantos, where the tiger was watching the tent with the rapt attention.

The assassin seemed to have settled down, hiding in the darkness of the tent to wait for her return. Liliana wasn’t sure how long he would wait, but she hoped it was enough time for Amelia and Emyr to get the guards rallied. Liliana stumbled over deadfall in the forest and almost fell onto her face, too distracted by fear and the assassin to give proper care to where she placed her feet. It was only Alistair’s hand that kept her up, and the soft squeeze that he sent her that kept her moving. Fear was cold in her veins, trying to freeze her in place. Her mind was running in circles, terrified that the assassin wasn’t working alone and any moment now, an entire party of assassins would descend on them and end both her and her brother.

Liliana wasn’t sure when it happened, but they had gotten around the camp and Alistair was tugging her towards the posted sentry. Liliana followed him, still trying to keep tabs on the assassin that was lying in wait in her tent.

“Who go-” the sentry began, but Alistair dropped his illusion and held up a hand for the guard’s silence.

“There’s an assassin in the camp, after Lady Liliana,” Alistair informed the woman, tugging on Liliana’s hand. Liliana reluctantly let go of [Vanish] and the protection it offered her.

“Sergeant Amelia has already been informed. The other guards are being rallied to surround and capture the assassin. But we need to protect Lady Liliana until they are dealt with,” Alistair continued, and the guard straightened, offering a salute to them both.

“I’ll protect you and the lady with my life,” the woman promised, and Alistair nodded. He didn’t let go of Liliana’s hands as the guard stepped closer to them, and Liliana was grateful. She was certain if he let go she’d fall victim to the fear that was dogging her every step and clogging her throat.

The guard stomped on the ground and earth rose around them, forming hard walls and a defense against anyone trying to sneak up on them. Quickly, where there had been nothing but cleared space, a rudimentary hut stood around them.

“Earth affinity, this should at least keep us somewhat safe,” the guardswoman told them, and Liliana nodded along. It made sense, and with walls around her she felt more secure.

The guardswoman took up position at the entrance to the earth hut, her sword drawn and looking ready to do battle. Alistair gently extricated his hand from her grasp and pulled out his own armor and weapons from his storage ring. He hadn’t been wearing his clunky armor before, presumably to make it easier to sneak through the forest and find proof of her and Emyr’s ‘affair’.

How long ago that felt, though it couldn’t have been more than an hour or two past. So much had changed in such a short time. She’d gone from feeling happy for once, to being in fear for her life again. As if fate couldn’t stand to see her happy for any longer than a few precious moments, stolen under the cover of night.

With little else to do except entertain her darkening thoughts, Liliana helped Alistair put on his armor, having watched him put it on enough times during the dungeon to be of some use. Soon enough he was kitted out, his large shield before him. Liliana didn’t fail to notice that he was between her and the entrance, adding an extra wall between her and danger. She didn’t know if it was conscious, or simply in his nature as a tank, but it still warmed her, banishing some of the chill that had settled in her bones.

Liliana summoned her weapon as well, the comforting weight of steel in her hand grounding her further. Her skills and spells circled in her mind, ready to come at her call and aid her. Lelantos was still forefront in her mind, though. His eyes easily focused on the assassin in her tent. And tracked the guards slowly surrounding the tent, and the unsuspecting assassin inside of it.

“The guards are surrounding the tent,” Liliana informed Alistair and the sentry, garnering twin sighs of relief from them.

Liliana backed up until she felt the earth against her back and closed her eyes, focusing entirely on Lelantos through their bond. It wasn’t something she did often, but it was always something she’d been able to do. To let her own mind slip further down their bond until she could see through his eyes. Could sense things through him. It was overwhelming, the amount of scents and sounds he experienced every day. Her own senses were dull and pitiful in comparison. She could feel his blood lust clearer now, a burning heat in his body. He wanted to kill the assassin, and very badly, too. Liliana could feel it in his muscles that were coiled so tight they almost hurt.

Still, he held back, only keeping his baser instincts at bay because she had given him a task. A vital one. Make sure the assassin didn’t escape, and if he did, track him down so he would no longer be a threat to her. His loyalty to her, his love, was stronger than his need to rend the assassin limb from limb for threatening her.

So he sat in the shadows of the forest and watched as the guards closed their circle on the tent, Liliana spectating with him. She could see Jason and Sergeant Amelia at the forefront of the group, Jason’s face twisted in rage. She couldn’t see Emyr, but she wasn’t surprised. The teen had likely been ordered to stay back. At some signal from the sergeant, skills and spells activated.

A whirlwind surrounded the tent, closing the guards in with the assassin. Outside of the wind, vines grew, lashing out like snakes as an extra precaution if the assassin tried to flee. Inside the circle of wind and vines, Sergeant Amelia raised a sword crackling with electricity. There was a thunder crack that accompanied a lightning strike, piercing the tent and striking the hidden form of the assassin inside. A scream shattered the still night air before the guards descended on the tent, weapons held high as they rushed the stunned assassin. Liliana saw skills being activated, a rainbow of colors that denoted different abilities, but there were too many to track easily.

The fight wasn’t even a fight. In seconds, it was over, and the assassin was dragged out of the tent. Hands bound by ropes, bruised, burnt, and bloody. It was a man she saw finally as Lelantos finally got a good look at the man’s form. The assassin was clothed in dark cloth, a hood over his head that was ripped off by Jason, revealing a face that was startlingly young. Maybe seven years older than Liliana, if that. His hair was shaved so short Liliana couldn’t place the color, but it was his eyes that caught her attention. They looked… dead. As if she was looking at the eyes of a corpse.

Lelantos used [Identify] on the assassin, and the air caught in Liliana’s throat as her lungs locked up. Death flashed before her eyes as she realized this man could have very easily killed not only her, but Lelantos as well. Without anyone the wiser.

Cyrus

Age: 21

Level: 150

Rank: 4

Class: Toxic Nightstalker

“Who sent you?” Amelia asked the assassin. The trapped man grinned at Amelia, spitting a glob of blood at the sergeant’s shoes. Seconds later, the man dropped to the ground, all life gone from his body. The guards backed up almost as one, but Jason cursed, kicking at the dead body.“They caught him,” Liliana informed Alistair and the guardswoman, her voice sounding distant, with most of her mind still connected to Lelantos and watching the ongoing events.

“Fuck!” He yelled and Liliana separated herself from Lelantos, shaken by the event she’d just watched.

“Lili?” a voice asked, and she looked up through blurry eyes, not even aware that she’d been crying. Alistair was kneeling before her. When had she gotten on the ground?

“Lili? What happened?” Alistair asked, and Liliana opened her mouth but couldn’t find the words. Because she’d realized something, an answer to a question she had been too scared to ask herself. A question Amelia had voiced.

Who had sent the assassin? It was obvious, so obvious it hurt. The knowledge burned like the poison the assassin had meant to send into her own veins, and it hurt like the man had managed to rip her heart out of her chest. It shouldn’t, it really shouldn’t. A betrayal like this. Could it even be called one when she had never trusted the woman in the first place? When she’d already tried to kill her before? Yet, it still hurt.

Because there was only one person who would send an assassin after her. Imogen. Her stepmother.

Alistair’s mother.

How could she tell him that? He wouldn’t believe her. If he did, it would break him. She couldn’t tell anyone. No one would believe her. All the progress she’d made with her stepbrother, with Emyr, with society as a whole, with becoming something more than the half blood commoner mutt they all had seen her as. It would all be gone, dust in her hands if she accused Imogen of this.

Without proof, with nothing more than the knowledge she had from a past life. She’d be painted as either a mad girl, raving and not to be believed of anything. Or she’d be painted as some social climber, trying to discredit a noblewoman with a far better pedigree than her so she could become heir of the duchy.

Perhaps that was what hurt the most, knowing that she couldn’t trust the two people she had become close to. Who she had just listened to the apologies of and let go of a lifetime of resentment and hate for, she couldn’t trust. Perhaps the pain was because, with this one night, she’d gotten something she’d always wanted and had it ripped from her fingers just as quickly. She’d had somewhere she’d belonged for a few moments. Now she was once more on her own, with only her Bond that she could truly trust in this world.

She had been naïve to think it could be any other way, stupid and hopeful. How could she ever hope to belong with people who lived in an entirely different world than her? In a world where their parents loved them, in a world where their mothers didn’t try to kill them. Where goddesses didn’t rip them from death to fix the fate of a world that had never cared for them.

Alistair's hands were on his shoulders. His face panicked as he shook her, bringing her back to the present.

“Lili! What happened?!” He was practically yelling and Liliana stared at him numbly.

“The assassin is dead,” she finally spoke, the words tasteless on her numb tongue. Alistair relaxed, dropping his hands from her shoulders in relief.

“Good. Even if he wasn’t, I’d never let an assassin hurt you, Lili,” Alistair promised her, but his words fell on deaf ears.

Liliana stared at him, a dark thought wriggling in her mind. Had he known? Had he known his mother would send an assassin after her on this trip? She’d obviously been planning it for a while. Her reluctance to send Alistair on this trip revealed now as more than simple motherly concern for a dangerous quest. She’d been afraid he might get in the way of the assassin and get injured or killed as a result. So wouldn’t she have warned her own son? Was Alistair complicit, happy to see her die and his path to being the heir fully unimpeded?

Yet his actions didn’t make sense. If he’d known, why would he come find her and Emyr the same night as the assassin coming? If he hadn’t, Liliana might have been in her tent before the assassin came. Leaving her easy prey for him. And would he have worked so quickly to get her to safety and the assassin captured?

Or perhaps it was guilt that fueled his actions. Maybe he knew and felt guilty at the thought of blood on his hands. So he’d come to slow them, give enough time for Lelantos to find the assassin and begin his plan for redemption. This way, he got to be the hero of the day, saving his stepsister from an assassin and freeing him from a guilty conscience.

But he wasn’t like that in the game, Liliana thought. The Alistair from the games had been arrogant, and a bit of a jerk. But he’d also been kind and hadn’t been able to plan anything more duplicitous than a few pranks. A plan like this would require a kind of calculating nature she had never known him to have.

But this isn’t the game, another voice said in her mind and Liliana covered her face, still wet with tears. She didn’t know what to think. She didn’t want to believe Alistair had known anything about this. But she didn’t know anymore, didn’t know who she could trust. She knew she couldn’t trust him, not while his mother was still trying to kill her. But could she trust him to not kill her? Or to aid in her death? She thought so, but she didn’t know.

Liliana called to Lelantos, the one being she knew she could trust implicitly. The tiger came at her call, spurned on by her distress. He arrived at the same time Emyr did. Liliana ignored the other boy’s cries, ignored her brother’s grasping hands and darted past the protesting guard to throw herself onto Lelantos. She ordered him to run, to get away from the camp. The assassin was dealt with, and she needed to be away from this place. She had to get her thoughts in order, figure out who she could trust.

With eyes blurred by tears and a breaking heart in her chest, Liliana ignored the shouting voices trying to summon her back to the safety of the camp and let Lelantos run off into the promised relief of the still dark night.