[center][i]Before the Attack[/i][/center]

Even in this alley, Elyria could hear the loud jeers and sometimes cheers of the people at the auction, despite it being quite a distance away from area where the noble slaves were being sold off as one would sell cattle. She did not have any real opinion of slavery, just that it was simple part of a human's desire to own other human beings, slavery was nearly as old as humanity itself and slavery would probably die along with humanity, however, upon hearing that nobles were the ones being sold made her think for a bit about her previous master, the one who had "enslaved" her and her kin and yet he trained her to become an assassin.

She wondered if her previous master had been among the nobles being sold today, or if he would be one of the slaves to be sold later, on another day, or maybe he had died in combat in this rebellion, to be honest, neither of the two options pleased her, she wanted to be the one to drive the dagger that would end his life, not some nameless soldier on a battlefield. As her thoughts wandered to battle, she thought of her contract today, the man whom she had to kill was not a soldier, he had never been a soldier and most people could have probably killed him, however, his guard, his sole guard was something different entirely.

His guard was a veteran of the war and a very skilled warrior of some renown with no fear of death, a high endurance and a high skill with the sword, he was not something to trifled with and even with her agility, she would have to be as careful as possible, even the slightest misstep could mean that she would lose her head. She took a deep breath and focused herself on her silver dagger, she could not die, not whilst the killer of her kin was still roaming alive and well, it would be her life's mission to see this man dead.

[hr]
[center][i]During the Attack[/i][/center]

As she waited, screams and shouts broke her concentration ever slightly. It seems that her informers had been correct, an attack from the rather extremist anti-slavers had come and this would be her chance to do this without anyone trying to pin this murder on her, it could have been the anti-slavers who would have killed this man, after all, anyone present at the auction would probably at least tolerate slaving if not partaking it it and she knew that these extremists would not bother to make the difference between either of the two.

In preparation to her combat with the guard, and in preparation to assassinate her target she made herself unseen and simply awaited. And sure enough, a man fitting the description of her target came through the alley escorted by tall and rather built man armed with a longsword. Whilst her target, a rather wealthy merchant was panicked and slightly out of breath, his guard was wary, probably expecting something like an ambush to arise. She knew she had only one chance to do this, so she focused completely on the merchant and prepared a simple dagger, no more than shiv with a handle, and after a second of calming herself, the threw the dagger.

The dagger connected with the soft flesh of the merchant's neck, causing blood to spurt out in large amounts as he choked on his own blood and trying to desperately grasp for air before collapsing only a few seconds later and dying a pool of his own blood. The guard did not seem fazed by either the death of his employer or her presence as she revealed herself to him, instead, he just sighed as if he had just lost a game of cards and spoke.

"Lady, I know this guy was a prick, and I don't blame you for wishing to kill him, but if you had waited until the bastard would have paid me, I wouldn't have even bothered to kill him!" he spoke with a large smile on his face. "Now do please reveal the pretty face that's under that hood!"

She raised her brow at the man's request, but she knew all to well that the cloak would only hinder her in combat, so she complied with his request and tossed her cloak aside. Much to her own surprise, the man seemed surprised to see her, as if he knew who she was. A smile formed on the man's face as he drew his sword.

"Came to get revenge on me, eh, silver hair?" the man asked. "Would it help if I said I'm sorry for killing some of your friends?" he asked as he entered a battle stance and prepared for a fight, though from his tone, an apology was not on this man's mind right now.

First, surprise came to her, this man had been present when all those soldiers had assaulted her kin and killed so many of them. Then second, anger came over her, this man had just said it himself that he was present in the assault and that he had even killed on or two of them. At first she wanted to see if she could persuade the guard to leave, but now, he would not be allowed to leave this alley alive.

Without a word, she drew her two silver daggers, took a deep breath and charged straight for the man, her agility would prevail over his own brute force, of that she was confident, and in killing him, she would at least avenge the kin that this man had ended the life of. In less than a second, she was right in front of the man, who seemed like he wasn't able to catch up with her speed. She drove her dagger forwards, towards the man's neck, to allow him to die as his employer had, however, before the dagger hit, she could feel an iron grip grasping her hand. Upon inspection, it seems that the man had removed one of his hands from the sword do stop her from stabbing him.

Without any hesitation, she tried to drive her second dagger in his throat, however, the man was faster than her in this and kneed her in the stomach. The man's kick was very powerful, and even though he had no armor on whatsoever, it was as if someone had hit her with a plate gauntlet and as a result was left stunned for a moment, but a moment was all this man needed and he delivered another knee in her stomach, the blunt force of this one, forcing her to drop her daggers. The man briefly let her go, only to grab her by the neck and holding her close to his face, as if studying her.

He sighed as he stared at her. "It's such a shame that I am yet again forced to kill one like you, you know, back then I fought another one of you, she was as beautiful as you, though she was trained to be a mage from what I saw, not a stealthy assassin." he spoke, and as he spoke, anger welled up inside her, the man spoke so casually about killing her kin, she wanted to kill, yet she could not do so, all she could do was grasp the man's hand, trying to remove it from her neck, though to no avail. "I'm really sorry for this, girl, I really am, if it makes you feel any better, I have been unable to sleep a day without seeing her face in my dreams or my nightmares and something tells me that you'll soon join her." much to her surprise, the man's tone had changed completely, he had a bitter smile on his face.

As soon as he finished his words the man started to tighten his grip as he attempted to choke her to death. Her hands clawed at his own as she tried to desperately draw breath, again, to no avail. [i]"No!"[/i] she thought. [i]"I can't die, not yet, I have to..."[/i] her consciousness started to fade. [i]"... avenge them."[/i]

As she started to lose herself, she looked at the face of his killer, his expression had changed yet again, now to a grin as if he had won something. A moment later, blood started to drip down from his mouth and his grip weakened and she could see why. The tip of a sword came right through his chest, yet even so, he still had his confident grin on his face. As he lost all the force in his hand, he dropped her down on her knees and fell down as well as death soon claimed him as well.

His killer, a large hooded man, even bigger than the guard, sighed in disappointment, though relief could be sensed in his sigh as well. "Elyria, you are an assassin first and foremost, you mustn't charge ahead like that." the man spoke, helping her up from her knees.

"I'm sorry, Enris, but the man was one of the soldiers there, he killed one of our kin." she said, looking at the guard's body once more, though know, she could not muster any hate against the man.

"I heard, but you did not see me charge ahead to decapitate the man, did you?" he asked, but instead of lecturing her any further he shook his head and helped her place her cloak back on. "Let's go, I'd rather not have to fight one of these extremists at the moment."

With one last look at the two dead bodies, she left with Enris through the dark alleys on a backdrop of screams of victims and shouts of people probably trying to put up a fight, promising herself to become stronger, both physically and mentally, but all that she wished for right now was not to train, but to drink a cup of warm wine and a good night's sleep, the next contract, whatever it would be would go to Enris, not to her.