Book 3 Chapter 10

Torvus glanced down at the child-god, smiling widely, “Oh, did you need to go to the bathroom?” He asked innocently, “It's just down the hall on your right. Might not be as comfy as the water temple but Raife’s stuff is still pretty quality. He actually had this whole place built years ago…”

“Torvus…” Tirr interrupted him his face serious, “Your stalling…”

“Ah… Yeah,” Torvus replied, “I get it. But do we have to have this discussion now? Feels like we have enough work to do and It’s not really something I like talking about.

“I want to talk about it now…” Tirr said, his eyes locked on the silver-haired young man. “That joke of yours and your relationship with this old man. You’re asking us to put a lot of trust into this, and I'm not sure if I have it. If that man’s just planning on using us to take control of the city then we can just leave right now and go meet up with Nerida."

“Yeah,” Torvus muttered scratching his head, “I guess that makes sense. I can promise you the old man isn’t in it for the politics anymore, but fine… What is it you want to know?”

“Why do you seem to trust him so much?” Tirr and Maria’s confusion was obvious as he spoke, “When you talked about him in Lutel it seemed like you were talking about an old ally, yet here you act like best friends one second then talk about killing each other the next...”

“That’s just the kind of relationship we have. As far as taking down the current council… We can trust Raife… The old man wants them taken down just as much as anyone, After that it's up to you, if you don’t want him to have anything to do with the city then just say so.”

“But why do you trust him? Tirr questioned, “You said he was the one who put you through hell,”

“And that last joke about killing him didn’t seem like a joke…” Maria added

Tirr nodded in agreement “What did you mean he put you through hell? And why are you working for him?

“It’s a long story,” Torvus replied, yawning. “And it's already so late…”

“Maria and I can go without sleep for a night…” Tirr stated plainly, his eyes urging Torvus to go on.

Seeing Tirr’s determined stare, Torvus finally gave up, “Ahh! Alright, alright... Fine then. But don’t fall asleep on me, cause I wasn’t lying when I said this was a long story. Get comfortable then…”

They arranged themselves in Tirr’s quarters setting themselves down on one of the couches. Torvus let out a sigh as he started...

“So I told you right? How the Assasin’s Guild starts its training with children?”

His audience both nodded, listening silently.

“Well, Raife was the one that… Recruited me… I guess is the best way to put it. Back when I was an orphan running around the streets of the Confederation.” Torvus started speaking, looking up at the ceiling while he told his story.

“My mother was…” He stopped blinking at Tirr for a second, “An entertainer… Never knew my Father but I guess he was some random mercenary that ran into her. Lots of them tend to pass through, enjoying the city’s nightlife before their next job. Most of them didn’t much care what they left behind when they left, which is I guess why I never knew him.”

“My mother didn’t care much for me either, I was good for a pity meal once in a while from a client, but pretty sure she saw me as more of a nuisance than anything. Still, she made sure I didn’t starve to death, at least until I was about four. One of her clients had a violent side, ended up beating her to death before anyone could stop him… The owner where she worked got a gold piece in apology and I ended up on the street…”

Maria let out a quiet gasp, covering her mouth as a dampness came to her eyes. In contrast, Tirr frowned anger filling him. Torvus smiled at them both, “Well he ended up paying for it later though… He was one of my first targets once I started my work…”

“So I was on the street, with no idea on how to take care of myself… Luckily though there were more than enough kids around whose story wasn't too different from mine. The older kids would share the best spots for begging or stealing in exchange for a cut of anything you made. At night we’d gather together, sleeping in sewers or tunnels in the undercity while using the daytime run through rich merchants up top.”

“I got to be known as having the best hands amongst the kids so the bigger kids would send me to the richer streets. At the time, I had grown pretty confident… And was sure that none of those dull merchants, with heads filled with nothing but money, would be able to catch me. Until one day, I messed with someone I shouldn’t have.”

Torvus smirked, laughing at himself, “I knew right away he was different, most people on the street would either straight up ignore me or act all caring, throwing me a coin before they went off feeling good about themselves. But he… He was different, looked right at me almost as soon as I had marked him. And I mean really looked at me… Like he was looking at my soul… Well, I wasn’t gonna be scared by some rich snob, I knew I was the best pickpocket my age. So I went for it anyway, and managed to get as far as my hand in his pocket.”

“Next thing you know I’m lying on the ground and the old man is standing over me, criticizing my technique. Torvus laughed again, “He wasn’t good at holding back, Though I was going to die… Anyway, he lectures me for a while, saying I had good hands but didn’t know how to use them… That you had to have brains as well as skill you were going to survive. Well, that pisses me off, so I tell him I’m the best of all the kids in our gang.”

Torvus sighed as he recalled the event, “I think he realized it then, though he didn’t say it outright. He asked me some questions and warned me not to go back that night. I had no idea at the time, but enough merchants had complained about us that the council had decided to do something about it. Usually some street kids aren’t a big deal, but we had gotten too organized… Staking out streets in shifts and hitting multiple targets at once.”

Torvus looked down before lifting his head to look directly at Tirr. The whole thing freaked me out and the moment he let go I ran straight back to our hideout. Couldn’t sleep though, just stayed up looking at the ceiling. It was thanks to that that I heard them., Slicing their way through one sleeping kid at a time.”

“I tried to get away, but these weren’t people a scrawny malnourished kid could fight. They caught me easily, but I didn’t get the knife like the others... Cause he was there. He told them I had good hands, and to put me into training…” Torvus shook his head, still smiling as he spoke, “I thought he saved me. Now though… I think it would have been easier if they just gave me the knife…”