Sadi sighed as she slumped back in her chair. In front of her, one of her lieutenants was providing a report on the two other assassination guilds; Ascended Light and Black Claw. The former had been created a year ago by Denasti Margrove just a few days after she had spoken with Sadi. She believed that if Sadi did not wish to accept and spread her message, than she would simply do it herself. This far, she had gained around a hundred members. That was still nothing compared to the four hundred some that Crook’s End had, but the rate at which her guild had gained traction was a bit startling to Sadi.

The other guild, Black Claw, was different to the other two, being comprised entirely of dincy. It had been started by someone unaffiliated with Crook’s End, Killian Julias. She had simply taken the example that Sadi put forth and modified it a bit. The guild still took on assassination jobs, but it served primarily as a safe haven for persecuted dincy. Sadi tried to sympathize, but fond herself unable. What Killian had done, going behind the backs of both of the other active assassination guilds to create your own was a very underhanded tactic and Killian was only feeding in to what everyone already believed about the wolves.

At first, things were relatively peaceful between the Crook’s End and Ascended Light, but as Black Claw was thrown in to the mix, things quickly started to break down. Since each of the guilds were advertising exactly the same, many requests would be given to more than one of the guilds and often, two people would show up at the same time. That or upon arriving at the job, it would already be done. This all came to a head when two younger assassin’s from Crook’s End and Ascended Light met at the same job and they went berserk, tearing in to each other and causing a huge scene which was heard about all across the world.

With that first blood finally drawn, it became all out war. Any time two apprentices showed up for the same assassination job, only one of them ever left. Often the two would end up killing each other along with dozens of other people that got caught in the middle of their bout. Eventually, the attacks bled over from jobs and spies began to keep tabs on the comings and goings of the members of the guilds and attacks would happen anywhere, even at an individual’s home while they were simply resting.

Mass panic and anger began to spread across the guilds and it was clear that they were building towards a large-scale conflict, one which would threaten to tear each of the guild’s apart at the very foundation. Usually, Sadi would be cheering such a conflict on, excitedly stoking the fires from the sidelines, but this time, she was right in the thick of it all and she had no desire for her guild, which she had put so much time in to constructing, crumble to the ground around her, not while she had a say in the matter.

So, as her guild prepared for war, Sadi opened her windows and held her hands out, pleading, for the first time in her life. She didn’t care about these people, but she used the drop of emotion that she felt for this guild that she had created and she used it, wanting to sway her guild members not through fear, but through respect.

“Listen to me, my loyal members of Crook’s End. I know that we have suffered many losses in these last few months, but I will be damned if we allow something as simple as death to sway our hearts! We’re assassin’s for fuck’s sake! Death is simply an occupational hazard. Even though it may have come at the hands of other assassin’s, that does not make it any more tragic. I mourn for our fallen as much as you and I want to set things right and honor their legacy, but to do that, you first must put down your arms and allow me to come up with a peaceful solution.”

Everyone in the crowd was utterly baffled at the strange level of emotion and care that came with her words.

Sadi rolled her eyes and sighed. “And if it doesn’t work out, guess we’ll have to tear those bastards apart!”

With that, the crowd was sent cheering. Sadi returned to her office and called for two people, providing them with letters and sending them off to the location’s of the other assassination guilds. The letters were a summons to a meeting on neutral ground in two weeks. Sadi had been planning all of this time for this kind of solution, but she wasn’t quite done. In two weeks’ time, she would be done and would be able to present all of her ideas in full to the other guilds.

And so, Sadi set to work, holed away in her office for every waking hour of her life as she finished up the plans. The day after she’d sent her letters, she had received a wolf and dove with a letter of reply, agreeing to the terms, including holding off on accepting any more jobs until they had met with each other. Just as she suspected, the two she had sent to deliver the letters had died, but now she was in the position where she could put her time in to ensuring that everything would go okay at the meeting.

Two weeks later, the meeting day had come an Sadi was as ready as she could be. She gave the guild a fond look before sinking down in to a shadow, reappearing at the location of the meeting, a small stone structure in the direct center of the three guilds’ territories. Killian was the first to arrive after Sadi. Sadi had never met the woman before, but she was not entirely surprised. She was a rather short individual, though everyone seemed short to Sadi, given her rather extreme height. She had dark blue hair, caramel skin, and piercing eyes. She wore a torn black and grey dress though all of the tears seemed intentional.

A few minutes after, Denasti arrived as well, young Elusy following close behind her like a ghostly little shadow. She had grown a bit since Sadi last saw her and she still seemed just as enamored with the woman as she had been when they’d first met.

Sadi cleared her throat and stepped a little closer to the large stone table that lay in the center of the stone structure. “Alright. Now that we’re all here, I think we should get right in to the matter at hand. As it stands, currently, our three guilds are not able to coexist without a war starting. Now, we can have a sword measuring contest all day about whose guild is stronger, but in the end, no matter who wins that conflict, every single one of us will suffer considerable losses. I like having a guild that lets me make money murdering people. It makes me happy like almost nothing else does and I assume the same is true of your two as well, right?”

“Yes. I quite like the ability for me to share my light with more and more people while doing the work of our exalted lord Sengario,” Denasti replied.

“Obviously. My guild is important to the many dincy that are a part of it,” Killian added with a snarl.

“Well, since we all seem to want to keep our guilds intact and generally avoid an all-out war, I have a solution that I think you will both like.” With that, Sadi conjured a few large scrolls which she unfurled on to the table. They were covered in drawings, diagrams, and different notes.

“Wow…” Killian mused as she looked over the plans.

“These are quite… intricate…” Denasti added.

“I’m not an idiot and I also was thinking through something like this long before you two showed up. Basically, we can use the same system that the other guilds use for their jobs, but ours will be for assassination requests only. I call it… The Kill Order system. It’s going to take a good bit of time and quite a lot of apprentices working together to actually set all of the magic relays and systems up, but once its complete, requests will get sent to all three guilds and only one person will be able to pick that request. Additionally, it makes it so that people can request a kill order much more easily and covertly. That way all of the people that were too afraid to do it before, are more likely to now,” Sadi explained.

“I see… And what about this thing that you’ve called the untouchables?” Denasti asked.

“Well, we all want to keep killing people for as long as we can, right? Well, then we’re going to need to ensure that people are continuing to be alive to be killed. The untouchables are a decently large pool of people that can not be assassinated by us. Any request made against them will not be processed. And if someone kills one of them by accident… Well… let’s just say they’ll be punished,” Sadi replied with a smirk.

“What’s this thing you have over here called… Trinity Brands?” Killian asked.

Sadi’s eyes lit up as she began to discuss all of the notes on the idea. “Well, this is essentially a sort of unifying thing as well as my fee for actually setting all of this up. I think that the three of us should become sort of unified under the name, The Death Trinity. Each of us will remain completely autonomous and not really connected other than if say one of our guilds is threatened. The other two guilds will have somewhat of an obligation to assist. Additionally, and here comes my fee, I want all of you to start using these special markings I’ve designed called Trinity Brands. Any new member of the guild will get one and, if they try to leave the guild, the brand will sever a piece of their soul and send it to me. I think that’s a pretty fair price. Plus, it discourages people from leaving the guild.”

Denasti and Killian took a few steps back and continued to examine all of the different notes and ideas that Sadi had told them about and what was written all over the large scrolls. After a bit of thinking they nodded.

“Ascended Light is willing to join in with this idea, so long as all of the system-building is left up to Crook’s End.”

Sadi nodded and turned to Killian. “I’m with blondie. You set up all this and ensure it works, Black Claw is here for it.”

Sadi held an open hand out to the center of the table which was taken and shook by both of them. Sadi smiled widely and wrapped up her scrolls.

As she walked away, she called back, “Welcome to the Death Trinity!”