Chapter 7
The Distance between Perception and Purpose
“Let me take that.” A voice directly behind her startled Rosaline. Turning around, she saw Ignacio smiling at her and pulling the bag from her hand. “Are you alright?”
Rosaline tried to force a smile, “Fine.”
He narrowed his eyes, “What happened?”
“Nothing.” She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “I just, you know, said goodbye to Orion.” Her eyes turned back to where the assassin had disappeared. “I’m really worried about him.”
Ignacio’s laugh echoed around the woods, “I’m sure he would be touched to hear that, but it is unnecessary. The only person who can beat him pretty much sticks to the shadows trying to be as unobtrusive as possible.”
“Darius? What about Caspian? You don’t think that he would be a more challenging fight?”
Ignacio was walking just in front of her. “Not at all.” He opened up a little space in front of him and slid her bag inside. “It’s set so you can retrieve it if needed.”
Rosaline frowned and looked where he had placed the bag, but the space was no longer there. “What did you do?”
“Here,” he picked up her hand. “Think about your bag. Do you have an image of it in your head?” She gave a little nod of her head. “Good, now just stick out your hand,” he held her hand out at her eye level, “and the space where it is should appear in front of your hand. Just slide it down.” As he moved her hand, she felt something open under her fingers, and she let out a little gasp. He released her hand and stepped by with a smile on his face. “Like that.”
Rosaline pulled down and saw her bag sitting in a little black space, almost as if it were resting in nonexistence. “It’s sitting in the middle of the air!”
“Not at all. It’s been pulled out of time so that you can retrieve it whenever you need it.”
Rosaline got her face close to the opening and peered into it. “I always thought that the area around stars was kind of like this.”
“You are partly right to think that.”
She turned to look at him to see if he was joking. Ignacio just looked at her with a gentle smile on his face, the corners of his eyes branched out, and she could imagine how he would look in a few thousand years. She smiled and turned away, a slight heat in her cheeks. Letting go of the space, Rosaline dropped her arm for a moment, then stretched out her hand again. Nothing happened.
“You have to imagine the bag. Focus on it,” Ignacio prompted nearby.
Giving her head a little nod, she reached out again. This time the space opened. Rosaline squealed and let go. “That’s so weird! How did you learn that?”
Ignacio winked at her, “Trade secret.” He put his hands in his pockets and motioned with his head, “Come on. There are people waiting for us, and we would not want to disappoint them.”
Rosaline fell in step beside him, “Do you know any of them? Besides Draven, of course.”
Ignacio looked down at her, “Yes. I am fairly well acquainted with all of them. Obviously, I’ve known Draven the longest, though. Did you ever get a chance to meet him while he was in training?”
Rosaline shook her head, “Oh no. I wasn’t all–um, we had to focus, and watching training would be an unnecessary diversion.”
“That’s too bad. He is quite impressive when he’s in action.”
A thought struck Rosaline, “Did you get to train with him?”
“Not at all,” Ignacio laughed. “We aren’t the same age.”
“Oh, you are younger than him, right?”
“Yes, by a couple of years.” He gave a feeble smile and looked down at the ground.
“Does it bother you that you are so young compared to everyone else?”
“Sometimes,” Ignacio admitted. “Sometimes my age makes people forget that I am still an assassin.”
“I’m sorry. That must be frustrating.” Rosaline looked at him, but he was avoiding looking her way.
He gave a slight shrug of his shoulders, then looked up at the canopy. “I learned to use that to my advantage.”
“Really? How so?”
His face still pointed up, but Ignacio looked at Rosaline from the corner of his eyes, “The same way that Caspian uses his good looks to take down people’s guard. Or the way Darius uses the darkness.” His eyes went back up, but Rosaline thought he looked a little sad.
“What about Orion?”
“What about him?” Ignacio tilted his head to the side and shut one of his eyes.
“How does he pass judgment? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him actually going in for the kill before.” Rosaline frowned. “Then again, I haven’t seen the others, either.”
Ignacio looked over at her, “You haven’t seen me, either.”
“Of course I have,” Rosaline waved a hand. “I was asked to monitor you on a couple of occasions. You are very different in the field, but I guess…” she thought about what it had been like to monitor him, “I never did see you before it was time to pass judgment.” She turned to look at him. “That’s weird.”
Ignacio had an eyebrow raised at he looked at her, his pace getting a little faster. “Why would you monitor me?”
“We were told that we should understand a bit about the way assassins were trained and how you worked. I guess it was a decade or so ago when a few of us watched you kill, what was his name?” She put a hand against her mouth, “Really rotund guy. Some nobleman who had killed some prince or princess. Something like that. Then there was that time you killed a group of pirates who had been burning the coast of that little country. Oh, I forget its name, but you were amazing! My heart was racing when you were shot three times. But it was like you didn’t even notice! You just kept going until you had killed all of them, and walked off without even looking back. But I think my favorite time was when you killed that trio of wild shifters. My gods, you were just so—”
“Stop.” His voice was low and threatening. “Those were lives lost. It is not something to revel in.”
Rosaline’s excitement quickly faded as she looked over at her travel companion. “What?”
“No one should be reveling in the death of others. From the lowest pirate to the worst of the Unwashed to the most corrupt druid, no life should be snuffed out if it can be helped. When an assassin is called in, that means that someone may be beyond saving. If we decide a person is beyond redemption, that is when we act—and it is nothing to be celebrated or enjoyed later.” The scowl on his face softened as Rosaline drew away from him a little. “I’m sorry. You just sounded like... Never mind. I am very sorry. That was uncalled for.”
Rosaline bit her lip, “You take your profession very seriously, don’t you?”
“Of course, just as you do.”
“Oh, right.” She looked away from him.
Ignacio wanted to ask her what was wrong but after what he had just said he felt he wasn’t in the best place to try to act as her confidant.
Instead, he offered her a story, “I’m sorry that you saw me working. If I would have known that the priestesses were using me as an instructional tool, I would have either blocked access to my mind, or would have insisted on choosing when you could watch. It’s a shame that you were asked to watch me on those occasions as it did appear like an easy dichotomy of good and bad. It is almost never like that.”
He paused to frame his thoughts. “I would have had you watch the judgment that I had to pass on this spoiled rich prince and princess. Siblings, as you will learn. The people hated them so much because those two seemed so cruel. He was 17 and she was 15 when I arrived. I was told that it would be a quick assessment, and was expected back within a couple of weeks. The kingdom was literally on the other side of the world, so they figured I would spend a week traveling, pass judgment, and leave all in the same day. But when I arrived, those two were not tormenting the servants or torturing animals as the rumors had said. Their high council had a couple of spies in the palace who were trying to steal the princess, and her brother was protecting her. Their parents were dead, and he was not old enough to take the throne, so the council was trying to turn the people against him. They used the beatings he gave the spies as evidence of his violent temper. It was the spies who maimed animals, and the princess tried to save the ones she could. Though her blood was weak, she was a seer, not that I ever told her.” He gave a little smile. “That was certainly not my place. But when she could not save the animals, she would kill them. The spies made sure that there were witnesses to this, and then they said it was her and her brother practicing for what they would do to the people.”
He looked up again, his eyes looking into the past. “The things that they did to those two were unforgiveable. It was a small kingdom, and one that could have been easily ignored if not for how horrific the rumors were. I don’t think that it was ever meant to reach our ears, they just wanted regular assassins since it was taking too long to turn the people against them, and the prince would soon be old enough to take over. I did not expect to find much resistance, or expect to be there long, but when I entered her bedroom window, the princess was crying on her brother’s shoulder. Her dress was torn so that it was hardly covering anything. Blood was everywhere, but I quickly realized it wasn’t just hers. A corpse was on the floor, his pants around his ankles, a rapier in his back. There was a bloody knife on the bed, and it was clear that he had used it to cut her all over the place. Her brother was glaring at the door, it was obvious what he was about to do. Needless to say, when I appeared and wrapped a curtain around her, they were both startled. He tried to pull the rapier out of the body, but it is not as easy as people think. Clearly killing was not something the kid was accustomed to. It took no time at all to judge the girl, broken, but not beyond hope. Her brother was harder. The years of torment had warped him. It was too late to pretend to be someone else, but given how terribly they had been treated, I felt compelled to give them an edge.”
Ignacio pulled at his collar, and pushed his hair back a little, never once taking his eyes off of the canopy. “I told him that I was there to pass judgment, which of course, he didn’t quite understand. As a human, he thought assassins were just killers, so when I said I was there to judge people, he thought I was something else entirely. Playing along with it, I told them that I would need to monitor the situation for a month or two. Of course, he did not trust me and asked if I was on their side why didn’t I just help them? He pointed toward the corpse and began to rage about what had happened to his sister. It took quite a bit of work to calm him down, but his sister managed it with a little help. Only after I promised to keep her safe did he finally stop talking about revenge. Over the next few weeks, the prince became more reserved and thoughtful, but with a little prodding, he started to think in larger terms. Not just about revenge for himself and his sister, but what he could do as king to help his people. That is the purpose of any ruler, and his sister was able to help him get there. I nudged her a little to share some of her visions, letting her believe that it was a blessing from the gods and a promise of something better if they could make it through the pain.
“There were times when I wasn’t sure that he could be saved, but his sister’s presence clearly kept his impulses in check. The final test was when I revealed one of the spies, and asked how the prince would deal with him. His sister was not around, and I offered a weapon if he thought a quick execution was the best solution for treason. It was close. So close. But after a few tense minutes, the boy dropped the weapon and punched the spy in the face. Knocked a tooth out, which was quite surprising given how gangly the prince was.” A smile flitted across Ignacio’s face. “Later he cried on my shoulder and said he was too much of a coward to kill the spy. I’m afraid he wasn’t pleased when I laughed at him for that, but after punching me a couple of times, he seemed to finally understand.”
Rosaline’s eyes widened, “You let him punch you? Knowing what he had done earlier?”
“I’m a little hardier than a human,” Ignacio chided her. “I’ve heard that the kingdom is doing well, and that the king has a little brood of children now. His sister doesn’t go out much, spending most of her time with her brother’s family.”
Rosaline smiled, “So it was a happy ending.”
“They still fight, and he still has inner demons, but he has learned how to tame them, or at least keep them from taking over his reason. Ultimately, that is what we all have to do.”
“You didn’t kill anyone?”
“It was unnecessary. I would say that more than 90% of an assassin’s job is not killing people. If most of our time was spent killing, there wouldn’t be many people left in the world.”
Rosaline couldn’t help a short laugh, “I can see what you mean. But still, all we ever heard about was how assassins are the death side, and we are life. I think that they wanted to impress that on us by showing us what they did.”
“I dare say that is exactly what they were doing, but it isn’t the full truth and never has been. You have been sent to kill, and often my missions don’t end in death. Have you never wondered why, when a druid leaves Marlyon, it means either that many people have died or will die?”
Rosaline’s expression fell, “That can’t possibly be true. We… we are meant to protect life.”
“As do we.”
“But, the primary purpose of an assassin is to judge and kill when needed.”
“Almost right. Our primary purpose is to judge. We kill when needed, just like anyone else. Druids are sometimes asked to judge. Of course, your magic sustains life, while ours helps to extinguish it, but our magic does not provide our purpose. This is something that I thought that the priestesses understood.” He was looking at Rosaline with uncertainty. “Are they really teaching a future high priestess that our primary function is death?”
Rosaline felt guilty as she looked at him, “It’s what everyone says.”
Ignacio rubbed his forehead with his hand, then stopped walking. “Rosaline, would it be alright if I spoke honestly with you?”
She turned and looked at him, not sure why he had suddenly stopped. “Is something wrong?”
“I have often thought that the other assassins might be a little harsh on the priestesses. They aren’t friends or anything. Unlike the other shifters and magic users, druids and assassins don’t tend to mix much. Sure, we come and go from where you reside, but it is almost always because of work. With the exception of Darius, assassins and druids don’t really know that much about each other. Do you think it has always been that way?”
Rosaline frowned and pushed her hair behind an ear, “I think that we interact as much as is needed. We are very different creatures, and being together may cause an imbalance.”
“What kind of imbalance?”
“I… don’t know.” She began to pick at her lip, “They just say that we should keep our distance because we don’t have the same purpose.”
Ignacio nodded, “I have heard that before, always from a druid. Do you believe it?”
“I have never thought it was wrong.” Rosaline’s frown deepened, “It never occurred to me to question it.”
He stepped toward her, “Do you think that your purpose and mine are so different?”
Rosaline looked up into his green eyes and smiled, “Of course, silly. I am supposed to become a high priestess. My path is very different than almost everyone else’s.”
“Do you feel that is right?” Ignacio’s eyes looked so earnestly into hers that Rosaline’s smile faded.
“Why are you asking, Ignacio?”
“Ever since I met you, you have seemed sad. Your smile is fake more often than not, but no one seems to notice. To me, it seems like you are trying to follow a path that you don’t see for yourself. Like you are wandering in the dark, following the words that other people tell you. Your execution is nearly flawless, but there is no joy in it.”
Rosaline covered her mouth with a fist, her long forefinger fighting to start picking at it. “Are you trying to make me start to doubt my path?”
Ignacio blinked. Before she realized it, he had taken her hand in his. “I think that you already doubt your path, but are too afraid to face it. You have fooled almost everyone, but both Darius and Orion have started to see the cracks in the façade. It has always been there, you just hid it well. Why?”
Rosaline shook her head, “I did not say you were right.” Her heart was beating quickly and she felt as if she couldn’t breathe. “It is the path I have been on for almost my entire life. Just as you took the assassin’s path.” She tried to pull her hand out of his.
“No. I chose my path because I have no parents. There was no one to put me on the path. No assassin can be put on the path by someone else. I had thought that the druids worked the same way until I met you. I don’t think that you are certain this is the life you want. I think—” He stopped talking and closed his eyes. “I won’t ask you again, but please tell me if you honestly believe that you are doing what is right for you.” He let go of her hand and stepped back.
Rosaline placed her hand on her chest and her eyes drifted toward the ground. “You are right. I have been having doubts. They are getting louder, and I don’t know if I can keep going down it. I almost… Darius risked himself.” She looked up at Ignacio. “I don’t know how he did it, but he pulled me back when I strayed too far.” Again she shoved her hair behind her ear. “Dammit. Still not long enough,” she muttered.
When she looked at Ignacio, he was smiling at her. “If you would like, I am willing to help you find a new path. I can help you find where you are meant to be.” He stepped close so that they were only a few inches apart. “I can keep you safe from whatever danger you are facing. If you will let me.”
Rosaline stared at him, then began to shake her head. “I… I can’t.”
A voice from a little further in the woods startled both of them. “Ignacio!” Both heads turned to see a woman with dark chestnut hair running towards them. As soon as she reached them, she threw her arms around Ignacio’s neck, her legs dangling as he spun her around.