Things have been going great. I have temporarily shelved my primary business of nosiness and explored variety of other occupations. Have not strayed too far from my skillset, but avoided danger like an infection. Nothing that would need to end in tying off loose ends.

Not being actively pursued was a novel experience. I’ve grown accustomed to it.

I busied myself with the little things. Thievery, mostly. Sneak in for valuables, but of course seek out the documents too – even if I couldn’t sell any of it right now. It was partly habit, but I did still hope to get back to data brokering someday. Staying in the loop was mandatory.

The income was tolerable. It was more than a petty thief would make. Such sentiment somewhat calmed my restless ambition. For now. I didn’t leave Order to be some struggling nobody. But then again, I’d much rather be living than famous.

However, merely surviving wouldn’t prove anything to anyone. I was better than that. I could do so much more.

Balance was hard to find. Especially with moderation as lacking as mine.

Either way, I kept my head down and stuck to mundane until I figure out a safe way to proceed. Today that meant robbing yet another wealthy snoot – or heir high-rise apartment, in any case.

Wall-wide windows invited to peruse riches and the trappings meant to safeguard them. Few, if any. Usually. These people trusted their status to keep the riffraff out. The technology they employed usually assisted me more too. The building’s computerised eyes let me know when the owners were absent.

I ran up the disused stairs. Pretending to fuss with a handbag as if looking for keys, I disabled the electronic lock. At the same time, examined the surrounding ambience. Didn’t hear anything alarming. In fact, the quiet was overwhelming. Shrugging, stuck a pick and the wrench inside the lock. Seconds later, a click welcomed me in. I held my breath and continued listening to the unforeseen.

The only sounds of life came from the apartment behind me. Muffled speech I was not able to make out. Not unusual – normal, really – but it made my back crawl and I slipped inside. The air was grave still, as it should have been. I exhaled in relief. I must simply be restless from the sprint upstairs.

Best not dally.

Dug up the penlight as I stalked into the work room. Had barely began rummaging in the drawers when I heard a sound. Something papery. Like turning of a page.

No, it can’t be. I must have ruffled the contents without noticing. Still, the anxiety has spiked up. Fingers tried to shake and I forced myself to stop and just breathe. Four people were strolling down the lobby. It was normal. It’s just neighbours. What exactly was agitating me so?

Before I could delude myself any further, a book slammed shut. It was thundering, soul-penetrating clap of an impending doom. All comforting lies I’ve been telling myself fell away, leaving me all alone and completely unwilling to deal with reality.

Somebody has been home and lying in wait. Reading a book – in a complete darkness. As though my visit has been anticipated.

When I heard the occupant get up and move, my legs also sprung into action. There was no conscious thought. I just needed to run.

A figure stood in the opposing doorway and I shone the beam at the face. A contained hiss escaped the blinded man as he violently threw eyewear at the floor. I hoped the harm was permanent – this guy wore infrared goggles. To read. In an ambush. What a douche.

Nobody gave chase. I successfully reached the front door, yanked it open… and was faced with four brutes standing shoulder to shoulder. They completely blocked the way out. I slammed the door back up, and locked for good measure.

Window.

I just needed to bypass a man languidly juggling a sword. One-handed throws were hypnotisingly controlled. Relaxed. He was in no hurry. A deeply sickening detail.

Banking on the ambusher’s vision loss, I noiselessly stepped to the side. Point of the blade turned to follow me. Neither blinding, nor the room’s darkness impeded Kalantan highborn. Perhaps people like him had indeed been raised to fight the unfathomable beasts on an even ground. Monsters to fight monsters. The improbable myths started to seem real.

I was overthinking it. Panic and fear would do me no good here. He just had enhanced hearing or the eyes. Like me. Nothing magical about that.

Shone the beam into the man’s eyes again and dashed sideways. The fighter seamlessly mirrored my approach. I made a feint but got punched all the way back into yesterday anyway. Smashed into the wall and slumped down. Was graciously allowed to recover as though we’ve had all the time in world. Honestly, was a little surprised to not find my chest already skewered.

I grit the teeth. He said he’d remove my limbs first.

No way around it. If it was between me and him, I’ll kill the bastard and face the consequences later. It was a choice between later or right now anyhow. Still a tough call. If the junior managed to dig me out, General Raktkalis wouldn’t even struggle.

Problem for another time. I’ll go live with the radicals out back or something.

Nightly dimness was working against me. Reached up for light switch and room lit up in cold blues, accentuating Raktkalis’s sickly paleness. How someone looking that much on the deathbed could be so limber was unexplained by science.

Enigmatic soldier kept on tossing his dagger up in the air with some visible contentment about him. His thoughts were entirely transparent. Unsympathetic predator’s stare. He was deciding on a best place to start the dissection.

Man’s non-existent eyebrows shot up and he looked at the weapon as if just seeing it. The awfully low hoarseness chuckled.

“Don’t worry. There’s no way I’d kill you that quick.”

I thought I remembered how grating the cadence was, but I was wrong. Timbre has sown seeds of malice under my skin anew. The old threat has never felt so close.

He stuffed the blade back onto the belt in one swift move. Even with that out of the way, my chances did not improve. I could sneak up on people, but a fair fight? Not something I could do. Certainly not against someone who professionally annihilated wild beasts. Not in a million years.

But I always came prepared. Scrambled up to stand on my feet and both of my hands casually dove into pockets. He watched the moves fixedly. Lashless eyes were wide, engrossed. Fervent.

My thumb caressed the voice box. Should I just beg? Explain, shift the blame? Call him clingy, ridicule and demand he piss off already? Ask, just how the fuck he had found me – just in case I manage to survive this?

I should already be paying for my insolence, but the soldier stood still. Waiting. Courtesy? I suppose, in this back-and-forth game, the ball was in my court now. He wanted to see what ridiculous trick I was about to pull next. My life was but an entertainment to this bored highborn.

Curses. Why do I need to endure the weight of expectations even in this situation? I’ve already given up. This ballgame was way out of my league. I was scared shitless, and have been backed to the wall for much longer than this. I never aspired to be a common burglar, for fuck’s sake!

However, man’s arrogance has given me breathing room. Perhaps an opportunity.

I don’t even think Raktkalis was underestimating me. The opposite, and that was the problem. Cocky bastard was looking forward to something exiting. Preferably life-threatening. I could do that. I just need a little distraction. Nothing exceedingly obvious.

My thumb ran over the buttons, “If only the state affairs would be tended to so fervently.”

His head tilted to the side upon hearing the electronic noise. I pulled out the phone out of a pocket to reveal the curiosity.

“An Order assassin going around unchecked is a state business,” the officer imparted with an unpleasant grin. He must have thought himself so brilliant.

“I’m not of the Order,” I hastily typed.

The statement wasn’t questioned. Of course that’s what an assassin would say. And technically, both of us were right. I’ve left that establishment so many years ago, it hardly counted.

I began assembling words again in a new, less questionable direction, when a flash of movement and a crash discombobulated my thoughts. I must have blinked, for all I saw was Raktkalis settling back where he stood all along.

“Speak when you’re addressing me,” contemptuous lordling demanded.

I looked down and saw my fingers twisted up. He kicked the phone away with the steel-toed boot. I found the remains of the expensive device scattered around the room. Growled in anger!

This walking insult to everything of value did not deserve to keep drawing breaths. He was a disgrace of a human and had be stopped from destroying any more of my fucking things! With a cracking scream of fury, I sloshed the blight from my most secured bottle straight at the man’s face.

He dodged it gracefully. Would have, if not for the contents leisurely floating around the room and settling blackly on the surfaces. It was a wrong vial. Wrong fucking vial!

Instead of lamenting the misfortune of grabbing a simple irritant, I dashed towards the window anew through an opening. I hadn’t stopped to consider improbability of this act – the juke, the handle, the leap, the dozens of floors below. Only when an iron clasp crushingly paralysed my nape, reality started coming back.

There was no way for me to survive.

He smashed my face into the glass and it rained shards. Tiny forms of sentries waited in the yard just for such unlikely descent. There really was no chance of escape whatsoever. Obsessive asshole has been preparing just for this for years.

My healthy hand helplessly rummaged for the right vial. One that actually carried the lethal solution. If I could at least kill him...

And then what? Countless many waited me outside.

Doesn’t matter. I refuse to go out quietly like a candle.

A glove gently slid down my forearm and crumpled these frantic fingers like paper too. Bones cracked. Fragile containers fell apart. Even more shards sliced into me.

Raktkalis forced the palm upwards to examine it. To relish in the sight of a crushed enemy.

“You won’t need it anyway,” he whispered maliciously.

Pain feedback was dull, but the implications were absolutely chilling.

Darkly glistening particles decorating my cuts were gritty and distinctly lacked oiliness. The elusive poison kept on escaping me. This won’t be fast, nor will it end well.