~ShinRa~
An Assassin‘s Predicament…
It was a breezy, moonless night when horse and rider set out down the darkest ally in Rogueport. The horses hooves made no more noise as he trotted along the cobblestone than did the haunting breeze that whistled between the surrounding hovels. Cold had set in after the sunset and the rider was quickly chilled to bone. He spurred his mount into a swift gallop hoping to limit his exposure to the deteriorating temperature. He had ridden half way through the city before realizing his error and pulled back firmly on the reins. The muscles of his steed’s thick black legs tightened immediately, nearly throwing the rider form his perch. Having been jolted in the saddle the rider could not help but laugh at his stubborn horse. “You’re a real wise a**, you know that?” He spoke into the collar of his slate gray shirt hoping to gain some measure of warmth from his breath on the cotton. Digging his heels into the horses sides prompted it to continue on, though much more slowly this time. “I would rather deal with this cold a bit longer than rush off to that old fool’s side.” He muttered, retracting his former opinion of the weather.
Not more than twenty minutes later, the dark horse and rider were standing in the scarcely illuminated courtyard of Lord Voden’s Manse.
“You’re late, Lieutenant Maverick,” Came a call from the gate. “Voden’s in an uproar.”
“You would think he’d have gotten used to my tardiness by now; I have been avoiding him for a week, after all.” The dark rider, Lieutenant Maverick, breathed angrily cutting off the guard that had spoken to him. Being of the second highest rank in Voden’s thieving guild, Maverick was blessed with the freedom to ignore the lesser ranked henchmen that swarmed about the manse like maggots on a rotting carcass.
Maverick pushed past the ignorant guard, his horse close in tow. When they arrived at the front doors there was a young boy, probably no more than fourteen, with dirty blonde curls waiting to take the lieutenant’s horse. “Don’t go too far,” Maverick spoke clearly and commandingly to the boy, “I’ll not be staying long this time.” The boy nodded curtly and started off in the direction of the stables. Maverick watched incredulously as the boy stopped and turned to face him, this time with a grubby palm extended towards the lieutenant. “Well aren’t we bold one,” He laughed, taking three gold coins from a pouch on his belt and placing them in the boy‘s hand. “Lieutenant Ajira would have cut you down for that! And stay out of my saddle bags!” He shouted, shoving the boy playfully towards the stables.
Maverick glanced around at the walls of the manse’s Great Hall. There were hundreds of objects- some magic in nature, some not- strewn about everywhere in a poorly decorated fashion. Everything was jewel encrusted, gold inlaid, or upholstered in silk. It was positively repulsive.
“So much wealth for such a weasel of a man,” the lieutenant offered to the seemingly empty room.
“Better to be a weasel than the scum it employs.” Lord Voden retorted, stepping out from the shadow of a ruby-eyed statue. Maverick winced at the sound of Voden’s high-pitched and clearly aggravated tone. “We’ve been waiting quite a while for you and I’m beginning to lose patience. I’d suggest you keep your tongue in check.” With that, Voden turned and led the way into a candle lit conference room and took a seat in his ornate throne at the head of the central table. There was one other in attendance, a large man, who stood as Maverick entered and peered down his long rat like nose at the late arrival. Maverick was not a big man, by any means. He was of average height, average build, and without any bulky muscle structure. His stance was that of a warrior with both feet evenly balanced and placed perfectly for quick reactions. He was without a single memorable feature other than his piercing green eyes. The dark brown hair on his face and head was neatly trimmed and unlike the large, foul man across from him, Maverick had no smell about him other than the hint of a warm desert night‘s breeze.
The smaller man pulled his dark cloak tight about himself under the other man’s scrutinizing gaze. “It has been a while, Lieutenant Ajira,” he said as he took a seat to the right of Voden. Ajira, who resembled a rabid raccoon, sat on Voden’s left, his sunken in eyes transfixed on Maverick. His presence alone told the other lieutenant that this meeting would not end well.
“I‘ve been looking into the results of your last mission Lieutenant Maverick, and I must say: I’m not pleased,” the mole like Voden snarled, his head bobbing on a sea of multi-facetted gems. “You have failed me for the first and last time.” Maverick fought to keep any emotion- any weakness- from showing on his tanned face.
“You received the money, did you not? Then the mission was a success.” The man pleaded calmly with Voden.
“The monetary debt is cleared, yes, but I find myself soon to be lacking one lieutenant. There is no denying that you are the finest thief in my guild and probably the finest assassin in all of Rogueport, but you failed to kill the girl, Maverick, you know the punishment for failure is death. If I allow one man to cheat me once, then the rest will try and cheat me as well. Someone must serve as an example and why not have it be one of my most prominent members?” The light from the fireplace glared brilliantly on the guild master’s glasses, completely obscuring the venom in his beady eyes. Voden snapped his fingers and Ajira rose ominously from his chair. He stood over Maverick, grinning through his crooked, pointy teeth.
“Allow me to make amends, milord,” The condemned man’s eyes narrowed towards Ajira, “I will find the girl and complete the task.” Voden sensed the bluff for it was, his assassin would never kill this target, but it made no difference.
“That won’t be necessary, lieutenant. Ajira has already retrieved her and soon enough, I will kill her myself.” Voden enjoyed the look of desperation that flashed momentarily across Maverick’s face.
“She’s here then?! Where? The dungeons…” Now it was hope Voden saw gleaming in those narrowed green eyes. “I may not be able to save myself, but on my word Voden, you will not have her life.” He reached down discretely and slid a small dagger from his boot strap and threw it deftly at the still grinning Ajira. The shot missed, but it’s purpose was served as the big man turned to stare incredulously at it’s hilt quivering in the wall just inches from his brutish head. Maverick seized the opportunity to bolt through the door and burst into the corridor. He checked his bearings and ran, full out, in the direction of the dungeons. Just seconds behind him lumbered the great beast Ajira, howling as he ran, accompanied by Voden’s wailing protests.
Desperate to stop the large man’s charge, Maverick tossed anything from vases to busts from their pedestals into the hall behind him. If Ajira was bothered by the added obstacles at all, he was not showing it and the effort of throwing the items in his wake was wearing on the fleeing man. The assassin concentrated instead on images of the girl he had spared just eight days prior; her innocent eyes… her gentle smile… the way her laughter could melt his gruff exterior and take away his burdens- even if it was only for a moment. She was too important to him to lose.
He arrived at the stairwell that led to the dungeons and bounded down them with abandon. In his desperate run, he lost his footing and fell, hitting the stones hard. Ajira had him within arms reach, but Maverick would not be had so easily. He scrambled to his feet and danced away from the calloused grasp, slamming a heavy iron door shut between him and his pursuer. Ajira pounded relentlessly against the door, but it held fast. Maverick leaned against it and sighed, rubbing at his bruised shoulder which had been injured upon his impact with the floor. The beast on the other side of the door issued forth a stream of unrecognizable curses while his prey pulled himself up from the door and began searching for the girl. There were hundreds of cells in the manse’s prison and all of them seemed very much empty, but for the few that still held skeletal inhabitants. Overwhelmed and exhausted, Maverick was thrilled to hear a voice call to him from off in the distance.
“Over here! Oh, I knew you’d come!” Maverick rushed towards her voice.
“Myra! You are alive!”
“Mave, I was so scared! They said they were going to kill me! I was sure-”
“Look, they will still kill you if we do not hurry. The door will not hold that brute back forever.” He reached into the collar of his shirt and produced a fine silver chain from which hung a pendant in the form of a bone dragon. The pendant was one of his most prized possessions- each piece of it was a cleverly disguised lock pick- and he put it to work immediately on the cell door.
“Mave, you gave Voden the money, didn’t you?” Myra asked tentatively.
“Of course I did! You don’t think I would keep it or something, do you?!” Came the frustrated reply as he fumbled with the lock.
“No. But you said Voden would leave me alone if I just-”
“Well I lied, okay? He told me to kill you and I failed.”
“You spared me? But Mave, the punishment for failure is-”
“Death. I know. You think I don’t know that? I sure as Hell was not going to kill my own sister just because that old, balding, blind, control freak told me-” A clank from down the hall brought Maverick to attention. He finally succeeded in opening the cell door and pulled his sister out from within it.
“Come on. Ajira will be here any second.”
The siblings ran off toward the dungeon’s other escape, a small ventilation shaft, and made their way strategically back to the manse’s front doors. Just moments later, they found themselves running through those doors and out into the fresh air of dawn.
“Come on Myra, we need to get-” Maverick began as they rushed down the marble stairs of the courtyard.
“Horses?” Someone finished slyly. It was the boy from before. He stood clutching the reins of three horses- including Maverick’s own, Shade- in his tightly balled fists, a grin widening on his dirty face.
“I should have given you more gold.” Maverick remarked as both Voden and Ajira appeared snarling in the doorway. The siblings and their new companion mounted up and sped off from the manse, serenaded by the shouts of protest that followed.
“You’re gonna’ like this part!” The boy shouted to be heard over the wind as they rode. An explosion sounded from behind them and the three stopped and turned to regard the smoldering wreck that was now Voden’s Manse.
“Nice work, kid.” Smiling wide, Maverick reached over and tousled the boy’s dirty locks while Myra giggled in agreement. “So, what is your name, urchin?”
“Er…it’s Roy, Sir...” The boy replied stunned, having never been asked that simple question at all, let alone by the great Lieutenant Maverick, his idol. “Roy the Brave!” He added, gaining more confidence from each passing moment in the former lieutenant’s presence.
“Well, Roy the Brave,” Maverick teased, “I thought I told you stay out of my saddle bags? There might have been something explosive in them.”
