Rico and I were nearing the tower, running in the darkness through the streets. It was raining again, just like I had predicted, and I could again hear thunder in the distance, coming closer and closer with each moment. Only this time, I knew that the storm wouldn't just pass by and wander out ot sea. This time, the storm would come right over us. I just had that feeling.

I took the bottle from one of the pockets in my cloak and kept running. “stay back a little.” I said to Rico, “Don't do anything until I tell you to. We need to do this quickly before the rain gets any worse, or it won't work.

“What won't?” Rico asked. I held out the bottle.

“This is firepowder.” I said, “Got it from an acquaintance. If fire so much as touches it, there's a great explosion. Lots of fire, lots of bright lights and pain. It's ruined when wet though. I'm going to shove it down Rotty's throat, and then you'll-”

Rico stopped in mid-stride and pulled on my cloak.

“Shove it down it's throat?” Rico yelped. “Are you insane? It'll kill you.”

“I don't think so.” I said. “I don't need to kill it, I just need to get in and out.” I thought about it for a moment. “I suppose I could slice open some it's remaining skin and shove it inside, but I was thinking it would be easier for you to get a spark of flame into it's mouth.”

“Why not just use and arrow? I could make the shot!”

“With a bottle of firepowder? No, it's too heavy. And if I just throw it, it won't go inside the monster. It has to explode while it's inside him, otherwise I don't think it'll work.”

Rico shook his head, speechless.

“So, on my order, I just need a single spark of flames into his mouth, ok?”

Rico nodded. I grinned and pulled him towards Rotty, letting go of his arm as we got to the point that Rico said was the point beyond which Rotty would start moving. “No light- I don't want Almond to find us. Besides, there's enough light from the torches of the tower to let me see what I'm doing.

“Good luck.”

I snorted, and raced towards Rotty. I don't need luck.

I ran at full speed towards the still immobile corpse, getting a slightly better view of it's rotting flesh, and a deep breath of the stench of a corpse that's been standing in the sun for several long days. Flesh was falling off it's hands, it's face, it's arms, and it's mouth hung wide open, the bone too brittle to hold it's proper form, or the legiments holding it together having rotted.

I got close to it, and it turned suddenly and swiftly and slammed it's great fist into me. I was knocked away, and fell to the wet, muddy ground. Thankfully, I wasn't winded. I stood up quickly and watched the corpse starting to walk towards me.

I ran at Rotty again, but this time as he swung his great rotting fists at me, I ducked, rolling on the ground and behind him. I lept to my feet, and jumped on his back.

It had worked just as I had wanted it too, save for the terrible, crunch of the half rotted bones, and the feel, the stench of rotting flesh beneath me.

I've seen lots of nasty things, but Rotty was just foul.

I held my breath and pulled on Rotty's remaining hair, which came out in a clump in my hands. I shuddered and grabbed the hole where his nose used to be instead. I pulled his head up and shoved the bottle into his mouth, flipping the cap off as I did. Once it was in, I lept off and landed on my feet before him. That was a mistake, because then I was just in front of Rotty, who smashed me again with his balled-up fists. I staggered backwards, trying to stay standing, and to not be sick.

“Now!” I called up, turning and running away, slipping on the ground as I did. A moment passed. I turned and looked. A small flame shot from the darkness where Rico was hiding and racing towards Rotty, who didn't seem to care that there was a bottle in his mouth. I guess being dead does that to a person. The flame buried itself into Rotty's mouth and for a brief moment, I was terrified that it was smothered in rotting flesh.

Then there was the explosion. There was a flash, and a scattering of flames around the area. I covered my face as the explosion came, but turned now to look.

Rotty stood, swaying in the middle of the field. He almost looked like a normal man who had received a serious blow to the head, except for the fact that his head, shoulders, and most of his torso was scattered around the area in burning clumps of rotting flesh. Rotty fell to the ground, a sicking crunch accompanying him. Rico dashed out from the darkness and ran over to him.

“Are you alright?”

I nodded, and threw up onto the ground. “That was disgusting.” I muttered. I spat and grabbed my small wineskin. I took a drink, spat it out, and then took another, deeper drink. “Burn down the door.”

I stood up and followed Rico over to the door, and watched him carefully. He placed his hands gently on the door, and slowly, the door began to turn red and crumble from the inside. Within moments, there was nothing left but a dark opening.

I grabbed Rico by his cloak and pulled him in after me. I was still worried about Almond, and didn't want to give him a chance to see him. The explosion would have been more than enough to attract his attention.

***

The tower was dark and quiet. Normally, I would have been able to get through it without problem. However, I found Rico to be far too noisy. As an assassin, silence is survival. The simple creaks of the bones as you slowly move is enough to let people know where you are. You learn quickly how to move without letting your clothes rustle, how to step without even the smallest patter of the bottoms of leather shoes on floors. Rico, I was convinced, was half deaf, and couldn't hear the racket he made. His breath was louder than the wind outside, his footfalls like clashes of thunder seemed to stomp through the hallways.

Thankfully, he followed instructions easily. If I slid into the shadows, he attempted the same. Guards passed by, and I let them pass. It would not do to leave a trail of corpses behind me. Also, the storm was stronger now. Thunder roared in the distance, and the rain fell heavily outside. If anyone did hear us, then most likely they passed the noises off to the storm.

It felt like we were creeping around for a very long time. We walked up around a winding staircase with rooms going off to the side where prisoners were held. We heard weeping and screaming and the silent sounds of death behind locked doors.. The stench of rotting flesh was overwhelming. I checked what doors I could, looking for the Rico's sister. I came upon the mutilated corpses of grown men and women instead; starved, tortured, beaten.

“We have to help him!” Rico cried when we came to the first half-dead man we saw. He looked old, and his hair was bloody and matted to his skull. His eyes went wide in fight as he saw us, and he tried to pull free of the chains that held him to the walls. I shook my head.

“We can't.” I said. “He'll slow us down. Besides, do you want to get your sister, or him? The more people with us, the less of a chance we have to escape.”

Rico cast a sad look at the muttering, skinny man clinging to the wall as he clung to the last moment's of his life, then followed me down the hallway.

“Why are they here anyway?” I asked after a few moments. “This tower was only built a month ago, right?”

Rico nodded. “Some of the people here came with Kos. He like to... experiment with the dead and dying.”

The stairway gave way to a series of hallways. We wandered in the darkness, stopping only when we saw a light. At one end of a t-shaped hallway, we looked ahead, and saw light flickering from the left. To the right was darkness. Quietly, I crept along the wall. I singled for Rico to follow. He was noisy, as normal, but thankfully, whoever was around the corner was having a chat about one of the whores in town. I snuck a look around the corner. There were two guards, dressed in worn armor. A lantern hung from the wall.

Before I had time to decide what to do, I heard footsteps behind me. I turned and, from the hallway we had come from, I saw a flickering light, growing brighter. I thought quickly, and turned to Rico.

"The guards around this corner have a lantern" I whispered."Can you make it flare? A lot? Enough to distract them.”

Rico peeked around the corner. A moment later, there was a bright flash of light. The guards yelped, and in that quick moment, I pulled Rico with me into the right hallway, which was bathed in shadow.

"What was that?" One of the guards said. He had long black hair sticking out of his helmet. Both guards had double-axes in their hands. Worn and old, but still deadly.

"Nothing."said the other guard, wearing a breastplate with a vivid scratch down the center. "Sometimes, the fire catches a piece of wood that burns fast."

"Never saw a fire do that before!" He yelped.

"Good job" I whispered to Rico. The faint light that filtered the shadows let me see him beam with pride.

A tall man turned the corner. He wore a fine tunic under a new black silk cloak, and black leather gloves over his hands. The hood of the cloak was up, but strands of fine, silky brown hair fell out around his face, which was covered in a white porcelain mask which seemed to have no eyeholes. I felt Rico move suddenly next to me. I grabbed his arm and made sure he didn't move.

"That's Kos" Rico whispered. I nodded.

Kos stood before the two guards. “Open the door," He snapped."I want to 'talk' to our guest."

One of the guards nodded, and started rummaging for keys. The other guard with the long black hair stayed out of Kos' line of sight, preferring to glare at him instead. The other guard found the key he was looking for, and unlocked the door. Kos put his hand on the doorknob, but then stopped.

"Oh, Shane..." He said. The guard with the long black hair turned to Kos.

"Yes, milord?"

Suddenly, a blast of light struck Shane from out of nowhere. He screamed in pain and pressed himself up against the wall, nursing a gash on his cheek.

"The scar is a reminder for you to respect those more powerful then you." He said, and then he walked through the door, slamming it behind him.

As the other guard checked Shane, checking his wound, I muttered to Rico."I'm going to attack them." I said."You stay back here. I don't need you in my way."

“Alright.”

"Dammit!" Shane exclaimed."I hate that man, I can't stand working for him!"

The other guard gave his a gentle slap on the shoulder, "It's not like you have a choice.."

“Let me remedy that, then!” I said. I exploded from the darkness, dagger glinting in the light from the lamp that hung on the wall.

Shane lunged at me with his ax. He had aimed for my shoulder, but instead, he grazed my arm taking off a thin slice of skin. It hurt, but I wasn't done yet. These were not incompetent guards, and I had taken them as such.

I moved quickly, positioning myself where Shane could chop off my head. He went to do so, but I slid under the deadly ax and made a slash at the exposed flesh of his neck with my dagger. Shane was fast though, and struck the edge of my dagger with his metal gauntlet. The sound of steel on armor rang out and I fell harmlessly to the ground, but my injured arm throbbed at the impact. Shane raised his ax again, ready to chop me in half. I rolled out the way just in time. I rolled past him, and, seeing as he only had a breastplate and upper body armor, slashed at the back of his foot. He roared in pain and fell to the ground. I rose to deliver the finishing blow, but the other guard seemed at that moment to realize that his friend needed help. He smacked the head of his ax into my chest, and sent me flying down the hallway. I fell to the floor, hitting my head hard on my landing. My vision swam, but I could still see the blurry figure of the guard over me. I jumped up, and dodged around his legs, just as the ax struck the stones where I had just been. My head throbbed, and I lost my balance and ended up on the floor again. I opened my eyes to see the ax come down towards me. Quickly, I brought my hands up and caught the ax at the neck. The guard was too strong for me, and I felt the ax coming down. Soon my arms would give out, and the axs would fall.

Oh, but not on me. I moved the ax to the side, and it hit the stone floor. I punched the guard, holding my dagger blade out from my fist. I left a gash on his face. He moved away, taking his ax with him. I slowly got to my feet, and saw Shane rise to his knees and throw his ax at me. I ducked, and the ax went flying towards the other guard, but the guard moved and it missed. I ran to him so that I might slice his throat, but Shane grabbed my leg and I fell down next to him. The other guard straightened up, and came over to me, ready to finish the job. Quickly, he raised his ax. I reached over, and pulled Shane on top of me. The ax fell, and, because of the force put into the strike, cut through the other guards armor. Blood spurted up from the holes, even though only the tip of the ax had sunk in. Shane screamed. I took my dagger and quickly slit his throat, ending his misery. I pushed him off me.

The remaining guard roared in fury. He tried to chop off my head with his ax. I easily dodged this, and rolled over to the other guard's ax. I picked that up, quickly accustomed myself to it's weight, and flung it at the guard. I missed his head, but I hit his arm. He dropped his ax and howled in pain. I took that moment to fling my dagger at him. I struck him between the eyes.

The dagger sunk in, and the guard stopped. he swayed a moment, and then fell to the floor.

I sunk to the floor too. I needed to rest, if only for a moment. It had been a very long time since I had had to fight with trained guards. And now, here I was in a familiar spot: I was the victor, breathless on the ground, covered in my own blood and the blood of others.

From the shadows, Rico came out, cursing.

"Are you ok!?" he asked. I nodded, tearing off the tattered remains of my sleeve.

"My arm will be misshapen from now on, but nothing horrible."

"You're covered in blood!" Rico exclaimed. I nodded.

"Do you have a water skin with you?"I asked. Rico nodded and took from the folds of his cloak a small leather water sack. I took the bottom of my cloak, soaked it with water, and cleaned off my face and hands.

"That'll do." I said after a few moments. Blood still stained my clothes, and there was still blood on my skin, but I would just have to put up with it for a while. I went over to the guards and rummaged around. They each had a pouch of gold at their sides, which I took. The larger guard had the keys he had used to unlock the door. I snatched the keys from the guard's belt.

"Ready?" I asked. "Through the door, I guess. Your sister should be on the other side if that's the 'guest' Kos was talking about.”

I listened at the door, but heard nothing. I carefully worked my way through the keys until one let the large, heavy wooden door open. It lead to an empty hallway, with several tall windows. Quietly, I walked over to the door on the far side of the hallway, and listened at the door. I heard muttering, but couldn't make out any words.

I nodded at Rico, and pointed to the door."Burn it at the hinges" I said. Yes, I likely had the keys, but a quick entrance would be better than me trying to figure out what key to use. If I did that, then the people on the other side of the door would likely hear me.

Rico nodded and I took a few steps back. A wall of fire ate at the door. After a moment of letting the wood weaken, I ran into it. The flaming wood splintered into a thousand pieces as I leapt through, dagger drawn.

A little girl sat on a bench by the window. She was unbound, and unharmed. Kos stood before her, wielding a dagger dripping with some kind off poison. A guard, whom I guessed was in the hallway I had just passed by stood next to him. As I entered, everyone turned to look at me. I smirked, and held my dagger out.

"Greetings" I said. The guard ran at me. I threw my dagger at him, and it hit him in the throat. Running towards him, I leapt over his body as he fell, grabbing the dagger as I went. I landed, crouched, on the ground, and slid between the girl and Kos. Then, I stood to my full hight before him.

"You," Kos muttered from behind the mask."Must be Stiri. How pleasant to see you.” He sniffed loudly. “Yes, very interesting...”

I clenched my dagger, and glared at him, “I've never met you before. How is it you know me?”

“Oh, I have heard much about you, and I must admit that I am rather impressed. However.."He rose his hand slightly. "You are in my way at the moment." He then casually flicked his hand.

It felt like I was slapped out of the way by a giant hand. I fell against the wall on the other side of the room, ears ringing, vision blurred. After a moment, I opened my eyes.

Rico was approaching Kos, slowly, with fireballs in his hands. Kos laughed and rose his hands. Rico was lifted off the floor by an invisible force.

I couldn't let my employer get killed.

I struggled to my feet. My leg hurt badly, and the gash on my arm throbbed painfully. I also think I bit my tongue.

"Hey" I shouted."You think I'm already done?" I stumbled over to him. He let Rico fall to the ground.

"I really do not wish to kill you, Stiri" Kos said.

"That's good, because you're not going to!" I took a deep breath, and focused, ignoring the pain throbbing through my body. I ran at him, dagger drawn. He raised his hand again.

Suddenly, there was a crash, and a scream. I turned to the window, where a tall, cloaked man just swung into the window, shattering it into a million pieces. The little girl, who has been sitting next to the window screamed.

Behind him, another person climbed through the window, wearing hooded cloak, so I couldn't see his face.

"Almond!" The little girl cried out in joy.

"Almond?" I repeated. The man took down his hood: he was indeed Almond; he has a few burns on his face to prove it. The other man pulled his hood down as well. That was the man who had held be from behind, I assumed, as this hair was all burnt off and his face was marred.

"I'll be taking the girl now." Almond snapped. "Stiri, another time, I'll deal with you."

"No!” the man with him cried out. "Kill him now!”

"I think not" Kos said, irritated. "No one is killing him, he is my captive. Kill the boy if you wish.”

"Stiri! Kill them all!" Rico shouted.

I cursed under my breath. Then I noticed something very stupid that I should have noticed the moment Almond flew into the room. Kathryn had, when the window broke, ran away and now was standing between myself, Kos and Almond. Quickly, I grabbed her and pulled her back.

"No one touches me!"I snapped."No one does anything, or I kill her!"

Everyone stopped. Thankfully, it seemed as though they didn't want her killed, just each other, and myself. I circled them so that I could see Almond, Rico, and Kos all at the same time. Thunder crashed behind me, and I felt rain blow into the shattered window.

"Good." I said, backing up."Little girl, "I whispered." I have been hired to help you back to your bother."

"My brother?"she whispered back.

"Rico."

"... He's not my brother! I don't have a brother!”

"Oh..." I said. This was confusing, but this girl was indeed the girl that Rico wanted taken, and I was being paid. "Well, either way, I was paid to bring you to him so-" I saw Kos move his hands suddenly. "Stop it or I kill her!" I snapped.

The girl pushed against the ground with her feet suddenly, and with more power than I would have expected. It actually felt like Kos knocking me against the wall again. I fell backwards.

Thankfully, I didn't hit the wall and crack my skull open. The relief at this realization lasted only so long as it took me to realize that the little girl had pushed me out the window, and now we were both racing raindrops to the ground. Wind and thunder drowned out my initial scream.

As the roofs of houses approached, something happened. Suddenly, we veered up, and glided, over the houses, skimming, swerving. I heard the little girl whispering a series of strange words, which I, despite all my travels, had never heard before. My mind felt dizzy and cloudy, and I was pulled into unconsciousness.