Tali raised her head, unclasping her hands. The prayer now complete, she stood up, careful not to disturb the candles around her. Even with only the flickering light of flames to illuminate her room, her eyes still functioned near perfectly. A product of both her training, natural born ability, and her affinity for sorcery. Even on the darkest of nights, she could still find her way.
Hardly a unique ability among the Bene Dai.
Despite the order's ritualistic and dogmatic insistence on conformity, down to even the outfits they wore, Tali managed to be the darkest among a family of black sheep. She always volunteered for the most difficult and dangerous assignments, from espionage in the most secure of locations, to stealing the hardest to reach of treasures, the harder the assignment, the more likely she was to get it. Now, Tali no longer needed to volunteer for them, the missions landing in her lap like clockwork. No matter how difficult, and no matter how many attempts, she always succeeded.
Where others failed, or gave up, she persisted until success.
So, when the order came for her first assassination, she knew it had only been a matter of time. And of course, the task would not be easy.
Assassination of House Avalon's only son. The king died nearly twenty years prior, leaving the Queen, already with two daughters, alone with a lone son. Now after the Long War's conclusion, he was easily the most valuable member of the royal family.
And thus, nearly impossible to reach.
Nearly.
The party responsible for contracting the Bene Dai insisted. So long as the Prince ended up dead, they didn't particularly care how long it took. Just if he died before siring any children. No doubt a rival nation hoping to cripple Avalon in the post war ruins.
Tali cared not for their politics. The order was clear, and the task was simple.
She'd slipped into the Capitol city a few months prior, quickly connecting with the local cell that managed to avoid getting snuffed out by Avalon's ever-present security force. By necessity they were a small cell, only a few members, only existing essentially to spy and sell any information they could. Any activity beyond that would easily bring down the wrath of both the royal guard and the standing army that guarded the fortress city.
So, when Tali and her orders arrived, tensions immediately rose, though no one would countermand her, no one volunteered to help her either. No matter, she worked better alone anyway.
She always had.
Months of moving through the city, observing where she could, and gathering as much information as possible revealed a few things to her. The Prince had not been publicly in almost two years. He also had a specialized section of the royal guard dedicated to protecting him as well as a network of spies all throughout the city whose sole job was thwart any assassination attempts. And perhaps most importantly, he lived in a separate, secure wing of the castle, at the very top of the tallest spire in the complex.
She stood up, her nude body reflecting in the mirror as she moved to the window. She glanced up the mountain. It would be a long trip just to get to the fortress, let alone the climb up. Everything would need to be timed perfectly to avoid the layers of patrols and other security measures. Any number of the guards would be an immediate death sentence or worse with their magitek armor and weapons.
Not to mention the mysterious woman who guarded the Prince directly.
Tali observed her almost as rarely as the Prince himself, which was to say almost never. The few short times she'd caught a glimpse of her were always from afar and never enough to get any solid detail. She would be her most dangerous threat and likely the closest to the Prince. There was only one detail she could gleam from the mysterious bodyguard.
She was built, and perhaps more importantly, armed and armored, like a god.
A direct confrontation with her would be beyond a death sentence. Suicide likely didn't even begin to describe it. No, avoiding her at all costs would be the plan. Even if she escaped with her life, merely alerting her would be enough to warrant complete failure. Any hint at an immediate threat to the Prince would cause an immediate tightening of security. What now was difficult would become downright impossible, even for a Bene Dai.
Tali glanced at the mannequin that held her outfit. A sleeveless black and grey robe with accompanying dark grey trousers and thick obi belt holding several throwing knives, smoke bombs, and other equipment. On the back of the mannequin hung two full metal sickles, both intricately forged and sculpted to appear as minor works of art. And accompanying them both was an equally aesthetic short sword. Rounding off the entire set were a pair of black featherlight boots and a black face mask.
At the foot of the armor stand sat some hand wraps and binding tape. She sighed, casting the tape aside and wrapping her knuckles. Binding her chest became unnecessary with her breasts on the smaller side. Though not completely flat, she would never consider herself busty like the others in the order. Just enough to indicate that she did in fact possess breasts when in civilian clothes. Still, if they were any bigger, she'd need to start doing something about them.
Almost ritualistically, she began to dress herself, slipping into her slacks, then boots, tucking the legs of her pants into the shoes. Then her robe and equipment belt followed by her weapons. With a practiced swiftness she tied back her hair into a spiky tail behind her head before pulling on her mask.
She was ready.
She pulled her dual sickles off her back and stepped out of her room into the common space. Other similarly dressed assassins occupied the space with various tasks, from eating to polishing weapons to running through a few short series of exercises. All of them looked up from their activities.
Tali knew what they were thinking.
Any one of them wanted the job she was about to undertake. The fact that a relative outsider like her got it over them did not site well with them. Of course, she'd have received the same reaction no matter where she was, whether in this cell or back at the Nest. High expectations were the name of the game and
everyone
was waiting for her to slip up and fail.
Any failure would be met with abuse.
Even success could earn a similar fate.
The fact that Tali never failed at anything, even if it required multiple attempts, painted a target on her back. Even if fate forced her to attempt another run a different night, if she did not outright fail or get exposed, they would still hate her.
One of the assassins sharpening her knife stood up, moving to intercept Tali at the door. Tali stopped, gripping her weapons a little tighter.
"Leaving so soon?" the woman's voice came out cold and dead.
Tali glanced up at her, "Night's fallen. And it's a long way up."
"Best be on your way then. Wouldn't want Mother to find out her favorite pet missed her mark."
Tali's eyes hardened to a glare, "I'm not her favorite."
Her human blockade glared back, "Best get moving, pet."
Tali sneered at her beneath her mask, moving around the woman, heavily resisting the urge to cut her throat on the way out. She approached the door and stepped out into the night of the city. It would be a long way up, and hopefully she would only have to do this once.
***
Compared to River's cold, at times, almost inhuman cold professionalism, Scarlett came off as a complete guard newbie. Of course, he could blame nerves for her manners but Jax never felt the need to enforce Royal protocols as much as his family. River also wasn't exaggerating when she mentioned the longer than regulation ponytail. Still, she wouldn't have made it into the guard if she didn't have some level of competence. Perhaps River had a point. Maybe he needed to get out more.
The thing that surprised him the most though, was her height. She wasn't short by a longshot, in fact completely average. However, Jax still found himself almost instinctually angling his head up every time he turned to address her. Of course each time, he ended up speaking to the air above her head before quickly correcting himself. Months of having only River to talk to and he'd almost forgotten that the average female did not, in fact, stand at 6'1. Or in her armor, 6'4. River was the exception and not the rule.
Scratch that, he definitely needed to get out more.
Jax stared at his room. With River and Scarlett's help, they'd reorganized much of the space, moving his possessions to the side of the room and securing them for the night's coming event. Only his bed, which proved too heavy to move anyway, stayed. The rest sat cleared away for several interesting devices.
A semi padded table sat in the center of the room, secured to the floor. A series of hinges and breaks in it indicated places of articulation. A number of cuffs, chains, and ropes accompanied it, each one specially enchanted so not even a sorcerer could break out of them or use their abilities while bound. A metal bowl with an accompanying number of bottles and jars sat atop a cart, that itself was covered by a thin sheet. What lay beneath it on the other numerous shelves, only Jax knew.
And Scarlett.
Jax smirked. Off to the side, River stood in her armor, microscopically fidgeting in her metal plates as Jax inspected the set up. Rarely did River not know something about his life and right now, even the benign unknown of what the cart contained bothered her to no end. The simple act of asking Scarlett to retrieve the items and the cart himself served well to cut out the middle woman. Of course, he also found himself ordering her to keep everything about it to herself, but he gave it about 50/50 odds she followed through.
Jax glanced at the magitek clock on the wall. Almost time. River continued to fidget.
He turned to Scarlett, who's face still wore the blush she'd began sporting the moment she arrived.
