A raw tingly warmth spread through the body of the assassin as he stared into the eyes of the matriarch. As she drew her final breath, the hope that her little hostage gambit would work was extinguished along with the light in her eyes as she fell backwards A crimson pool of slush began to form under her overweight and quickly cooling corpse. Just as Victor had predicted earlier, it had been Cho to strike the killing blow, and what a merciless kill it was.
Cho was visibly shaking, he had done well but the emperor knew that he could only push his student so far without breaking him, now he had to let the mould that had been formed today settle before the work could continue. With the anticipation of who may be under the hood being his new focus, Victor knew that it was about time to wrap up this little excursion, besides he had people to govern and a model to flirt with. His schedule for the day was starting to look cramped.
Victor’s predatory gaze scanned the battlefield as he took in the situation. The cannibals seemed more placid now, after watching their more bold fighters be utterly dismembered and the brains of their operation be smashed out over the snow. It seemed like the rest of the villagers where having second thoughts about attacking the strange men in the fancy clothes. The locksmith seemed to be the only one trying to think of a solution to the sticky situation they had ended up in, his eyes darting from Victor to the hostage again and again.
"Oh, you want to try that one again? Go ahead, I insist, not done it for a long time but I bet that if I focus enough on it, I could throw this blade and pin you to that shack before you even take a step towards that hostage. Please try it though, it will be fun!" Victor taunted as the locksmith's eyes turned downwards, staring into the snow. Victor smirked as he took a step forward, his presence demanding attention as all eyes turned to him.
"Now you may think that we have been harsh, brutal, and maybe even a little sadistic with how we dispatched those that attempted to get in our way. " Victor's hands waved towards the corpses around them with their skulls crushed, throats cut, and limbs missing.
"But let me get one thing totally clear: if anyone here decides to keep fighting after what you have just witnessed, then just for the sheer idiocy of fighting a battle that you cannot win then I will personally make sure that you, and all of your friends, family and loved ones, every single member of the village that is, suffers a death that will make what I have orchestrated here today seem peaceful and gentle. Now you can all come quietly, and face a trial, or you can fight on and I will be judge, jury and executioner. And just to add another level to your decision here, as you did with your fellow villages, I would start with your women and children first. The choice is yours, So what will it be?" Victor’s tone was calm and measured, his eyes met with each member of the village as he acknowledged his audience. Despite the calm tone to his voice, there was a fiery intensity in his stare, a zealous gaze that promised he meant everything that he proclaimed.
The sound of snow compressing as makeshift weapons were dropped filled the air as the rest of the villagers surrendered themselves to their fate, the mention of a trial giving them enough hope that they might not all be killed for their actions. Over what they perceived as a fate of watching their loved ones be tortured and killed in front of them made surrender the more palatable option in this case.
Victor leaned down and with a focused thought one at a time summoned enough handcuffs for the entire village. Looking around, the assassin made sure that the cuffs would be able to fit even the smallest malnourished child as well as the heaviest adult. Turning towards his protege he motioned towards the pile of cuffs, his hand then swaying towards the now unarmed villagers. "Well Sir Cho, you did well, now all that is left to do is to secure our prisoners and lead them back to Neo-Nippur for judgment. If you would be so kind as to do that for me whilst I check on the hostage, that would be fantastic. I advise that you not even look them in the eyes, they deserve neither your pity nor your hatred, save that energy for those that are worth it."
Cho took a deep breath to steady himself before walking over to the pile of handcuffs, a pained look on his face sprinkled with relief as the ordeal finally seemed to be over. The metallic scraping filled the air as the handcuffs locked into place around the wrists of the cannibals whilst Victor, now fully in control of the situation, let out a sigh, his shoulders slouching a little as he appeared to lose height, the stern stare being replaced with a warm smile as he skipped towards the hostage, a bag still covering their face and their hands still tied behind their back. His heart started to pound in his chest and he felt his eyes well up a little. It felt like it had been a lifetime but finally, he was going to be reunited with the most prized piece in his collection of allies, the one who had reignited the fire in his heart that drove him on in this barren, cold world.
He reached out towards the hood tentatively, his hand hovering over it.he wondered about all the possibilities that could occur; what if they didn't remember him? Would it be better or worse? if he was forgotten then his worst failures at least would be finally dead and buried, but also the years of service gone. Would everything really go back to the natural order? Or would the balance that he had worked so hard to achieve be thrown away due to a version of this person that didn't match up to the ideal ruler that Victor had aspired to for so long.
Swallowing back his hesitation Victor grabbed a hold of the hood and pulled if off the head of the prisoner. His warm smile quickly turned to shock and despair. Although the description of this stranger had been accurate, it was not the person that the Emperor so dearly longed to see. The hood came away to reveal bright, glowing red eyes, locks of shoulder-length blonde hair, and young impish feminine features. Unless this universe had a strange sense of humour this was not the great leader and hero that Victor expected, instead, a small teenage girl looked up to the assassin with shock and amazement. Although not who he was looking for Victor could not help but find something oddly familiar about the girl in front of him, it was the hostage that broke the silence first, her first word breaking the mental block on why she was so familiar.
"Vincenzo? Is that really you?" The emperor was shocked, his heart skipped a beat as he felt a burning pain in his chest. He turned his face, a single tear rolling down his cheek, wiping it away he straightened up, a stern look crossing his face once again.
"Where did you learn that name girl? And why do you speak it so freely? You should know better than anyone else what happens when you use dead names on imperial citizens!" Victor snarled, a look of contempt crossing his face. The girl gasped as she quickly bowed her head down tears filling her eyes as she noticed her mistake.
"I am so sorry Sir Victor! I forgot my place! I just, after all, that had happened to see another Aqualian face made me so relieved, please forgive me good sir." The Emperor had not heard the name of his race in so long that the word almost sounded foreign to him, her story did seem to fit with the familiar vibe that he was picking up from her, the blonde hair, the lithe builds and the most recognisable feature: the Eyes of the Reaper adorning her face gave away her ethnic identity.
"It's fine, just do not make the same mistake twice, I do not suffer the same ignorance twice after all. And just call me Victor, in our world I was never actually given a proper title, although if you want my one in this world, Emperor would be more accurate than Sir. Now, take your head out of the snow and tell me your name, calling you girl or woman has tones that I don't like too much" Victor leaned forward and cut the rope tying the girl's hands together, stretching out her wrists to get the circulation back into them she stood up stretching her arms above her head. She looked to be around fifteen years of age and stood at around five foot two, short for one of Victors race but not impossibly so. With a warm smile, she looked up into her saviour's eyes.
"I am Flavia, Flavia Ricci. I actually grew up in the same village that you did Vin...Victor." Victor looked down at the snow, he didn't have many pleasant memories of his homeland, especially not from his adult life.
"Well that explains a lot, I am surprised you are still smiling though, most of our people tend to either try to kill me, run away in fear or call me every name under the sun: imperial bootlicker, the hound of the emperor, traitorous monster. Why I cannot remember the last time I had a conversation with one of our people that didn't end in calls for my head. So why are you so, perky miss Flavia?" he asked, a confused look crossing his face.
"Not every one of our people hated you. A lot did but some of us saw it how it was, not like we were getting our country back anytime soon so may as well make the best out of it right? My daddy knew that and worked his ass off to get me into a good imperial school so that we could succeed in life, just like you did. The only people who really hated you were those fools living in a past that I was too young to even properly remember. To us young Aqualians who had to actually make our way in the empire, you where a goal to aspire to. Your missions, when reported on, were the talk of the town!” Flavia seemed to gain new energy as her eyes glowed even brighter.
“I remember when the news broke that you had wiped out the elven kings twelve elite archers! Everyone was proud that one of our own had stuck it so hard to the knife ears for the first time in centuries” Victor was taken aback, he had always wondered what would have happened if he had met one of his own people in one of these worlds, but this possibility had never crossed his mind. With a smug look on his face, his tone changed, an aura of confidence filling his voice as he straightened up his back, a proud smile crossing his face.
“Twenty four elite archers actually, I also killed their apprentices, probably did more damage to the art of archery than any other person in history, perhaps I will tell you the full story one day over some drink- actually given your age hot chocolate is probably the more likely drink of choice. It was a fun time though, most people I killed as part of my employment, that particular one was more like leisure time. Call themselves elite assassins yet needing to hide behind magic and archery, what cowards!” Victor chuckled as he reminisced on the good old days.
“So how did you find your way into this world? After all, I am pretty sure that this is about as far from our homeworld as we could get. The only man-eaters I remember in our homeland where the older ladies at court after all!” The emperor said with a grin causing the young girl to giggle as she started to answer.
“Well it all started when I got a letter from the imperial academy, I had applied for one of the harder to get into programs and despite doing well grade-wise I was pretty sure that I would be rejected for the role. But no, I got in with flying colours apparently, my test scores both mentally and physically was more than enough and they seemed to really want Aqualians involved for this year. I mostly put it down to how good of an example to the rest of the empire you were setting for us. I was about to step through the gates of the academy to attend my first day of classes to master my craft, but ended up in this icey hellhole. Not really want I intended.” Flavia said with a disappointed glance to the snow, it was clear that she had a passion for whatever it was she had been trying to learn, and probably would have made a great student had she been given the chance.
“Well Flavia, we do happen to have people with all sorts of talents in our little growing empire, so perhaps if you let me know just what it was that you were so keen to learn I could find you a suitable teacher. That way you can work towards your dream here. So what was it that you wanted to learn?” Victor leaned forward, looking into the girl’s eyes, her presence had been a breath of fresh air after the crushing disappointment of not finding his true master, and like all those around him who pleased him, she deserved a reward.
Looking up into Victor’s eyes her cheeks turned a little red as she stuttered over her words. “Uh, well, if it wouldn’t be a bother. I would really love to learn the art of assassination!”
The emperor was stunned once again, not only was one of his own people standing in front of him, but one who wanted to follow in his footsteps. A low hearty chuckle filled the throat of the assassin as his eyes gleamed. An arm went over Flavia’s shoulder as Victor walked with her. “Well miss Flavia I think that you are certainly in luck, because whilst I am sure that the imperial teachers would be able to turn you into a somewhat competent, or even maybe just a pretty good assassin. There is one man I know who can turn you into one of the best, a truly elite assassin.”
Victor turned the girl, his hands now resting on her shoulder and with a toothy grin he announced. “Me!”
Flavia’s eyes went wide with surprise as she started to hyperventilate. “You mean it? You are going to teach me all you know?”
With a laugh, Victor shook his head. “No my dear, I am going to teach you all you know, it will be up to your own ability to watch and learn, to see if you can learn everything I know. After all, it is about time that I take on a student to pass on my knowledge, and unfortunately.” Victor opened his phone and looked at the young girl on his home screen “my first choice of young red-eyed girl is not currently available. I do warn you though, I am not a gentle teacher, and if you fail too badly there is a chance that you will die, are you able to handle that?”
An outstretched hand was offered to the blonde who, without hesitation, snatched it and shook it vigorously. A sense of intrigue filled the assassin’s mind, the raw ambition and passion showed by this girl was something that drew his attention, he wondered just how far she would go with her training, and the thought of two people as crafty as he was running around for the same cause tickled the assassin.
“Well Flavia, it is probably for the best that we head back to Neo-Nippur and celebrate! I already had a feast organised to welcome some old friends back home but with the solving of this little mystery and the gaining of a new student, why I have a lot of reasons to enjoy myself tonight” He said with a grin.
“Sorry if it sounds stupid but, what is a Neo-Nippur?” Flavia asked an eyebrow raised as the name didn’t ring any bells.
“Why it's the capital of my little empire, Neo New Babylon. Some of my comrades and I took over a knife-ear settlement and are currently showing them how a real society functions, it's also under a volcano so easy to defend and pretty warm compared to the rest of this world.” Victor said with a smile.
“Ok, if it’s your empire, why is it not named in an Imperial or Aqualian style? Why does it sound like a foreign empire from the sands rather than the fertile plains of our homeland?” The more she learned about this strange city the more questions seemed to be raised.
“Well, after I was transported from our homeworld, I met an individual who changed my life. I was goalless, I had done it all, and everything had fallen to pieces. But this man had a pyre of ambition in his soul, the sparks of which reignited the fire inside me. I knew I had to do everything to progress this ambition and despite some setbacks, we always rose again from the ashes from the fire of his ambition.”
“Things where finally back on track when I stepped out of a gate and boom, here I was, once again without that warm glow to keep me going, alone and ready to give in to the despair that I would never belong. But that ember refused to go out, so I stoked the flames and decided that if I cannot be around that flame anymore, then I would be the one to carry it. I then made it my ambition to carry on that legacy and in his honour adapted the names of his Kingdom and city to be the names of my empire and capital. Of course, I didn’t just want to do what he did. I wanted to take the idea to its limits and go even further! So that is why the names sound strange, you will get used to them.” Victor had a small content half-smile as he walked the pair towards Cho.
“After all, at this point, I feel more Nippurian than I do Aqualian. I remember more of my time under that one great man than I do anything from my days as an imperial.” Whilst Victor was getting sentimental he heard a small snigger from the girl next to him. He raised an eyebrow to ask what was so funny.
“Sorry, its just that after all of that, you talked about your time under him and, it almost sounded like a relationship! I just had to laug.h” Victor’s eyes narrowed as he walked towards Cho, whispering just loud enough to be heard under his breath.
“I bloody wish!”
Cho meanwhile had managed to handcuff all of the villagers, getting them lined up and ready to march through the snow back to the capital. Cho seemed to have somewhat calmed down from his murderous rampage, enough so that he seemed intrigued at the girl that was following the assassin.
“Cho, this is Flavia, she will also be one of my students in the diplomatic branch so you two will get to know each other really close. Flavia this is Cho, he is a good guy so be nice to him and as he is your elder listen to him when he asks you to do things.” The two gave each other a nod as Victor turned to a pair of new arrivals. It was the two villagers from the previous village that had accompanied the pair through the snow to make sure that they arrived safely. The pair were taken aback by the level of gore on display, more red than white on the snow of the village, and surprised to see their former neighbours all lined up and in chains, grim looks on their faces. The sweet old lady they had known as the leader of the village laying dead in the snow.
“What the hell happened here? Where are you taking those people?” One of the villagers got rather defensive.
“Well, you can check the rest of the village if you like for the evidence, but they are cannibals, have been using the installation of locks as a way to case your villages and kidnap the vulnerable to make a meal out of them. We are taking them back to the capital for punishment. You are very welcome!” Victor gave a polite bow as the villagers started to ask more questions, confusion filling their voices.
“What do you mean cannibals? Why should we believe you? For all, we know you are just like those Dwemer you rule over and plan to put our friends into the mine to work!” The two warriors nodded to each other in agreement, from out of the line of prisoners the locksmith spoke up, falling to his knees he crawled towards the warriors.
“Yes! My brothers! They are slaver imperialists, they demanded that we give up our men to work in their mines and then when we refused they killed our sweet mother, and decided to take all of us, will someone think of the women and children! They said that if we didn’t cooperate they would kill them all, you have to help us!” He begged. Before his incessant rant could continue a knee smashed into the back of the crawling man’s head. Flavia had rushed forward, her knee clashing with the back of the locksmith’s skull knocking him cleanout. Reaching down she checked each of his pockets until she found his ring of keys, looking through them she broke a single key off and threw it into the snow in front of the pair.
“Check the second biggest hut here, second on the left and you might be surprised to see what you find!” She said with a cheeky grin before skipping back over to her new teacher. Victor cocked his head to the side like a crow looking at something new for the first time. One of the villagers decided to follow Flavias advice and check the house, the remaining one keeping a vigilant eye on the strangers.
“Oy! Get over here!” proclaimed the villager that checked the house, causing his companion to rush in after them within a few minutes of hushed, concerned arguing they returned, dragging a badly cut, bruised and beaten man with them. Their faces showed that compared to the other horrors they had witnessed in that room the heavy damage done to the person they had dragged out was light. A scarred and angry expression was all that remained, no longer suspicious about the story the emperor had given them.
“I am guessing that this is the fellow that we came here to rescue then? Looks like it was a successful mission. Now we can discuss payment!” Victor said with glee as he reached into his shirt and pulled out a letter.
“Never mind payment! We must discuss revenge, we are taking these monsters with us to be properly killed and burned so that their spirits are put to rest for good!” The mere mention of spirits made the assassin role his eyes.
“Now I know that maybe the way that your tribe deal with things like this, however, Neo New Babylon has its own rules, laws and appropriate punishment for those crimes, so I think you will find that with the nature of this crime we are going to be taking them back to the capital for proper punishment. If it makes you feel any more at peace I will promise to have the bodies cremated.” The two warriors seemed even more annoyed by this offer.
“What do you mean Neo New Babylonian laws? This is an issue between villages, why would we have to follow your laws. You were brought in as a guest to help solve this mystery and now you have done it, so come back to the village with us, let us kill these monsters and give you your payment!”
Victor’s gaze once again turned predatory as he stalked towards the villagers. “Well, it will all make sense soon enough why you have to follow our laws from now on. Deliver this letter to your chief, describe in detail just what you have seen here today!”
Victor handed over the letter and then swung his hand towards the dismembered bodies laying around.
“Then when you have done that tell him that His imperial highness Victor Wolfe demands the agreed payment in full, and it is his move on how we claim that payment. Tell him that there is a march of civilisation in progress and he better think long and hard about if he wants to just be another name crushed under the march of progress or to strap up his boots and march proudly forwards. It is all up to him, but I will get what I want one way or another, I always do!” Victor then proceeded to kick the locksmith over towards the warriors.
“Take this as a gift, he would only slow us down at this point anyway and it makes you two look more important than you actually where. Now go my little messengers, bring the good news back home and enjoy a heroes welcome! I have things to do” They didn’t like it, but knowing that what they where getting was better than nothing, and not wanting to risk the ire of the party that had caused such destruction the two warriors each carried a man over their shoulder and set off with the letter for their chief. Turning to his comrades Victor gave a cheesy smile
“Sorry about all of that, I get serious when it comes to business, shall we head home?”