The Assassin's Scars

I kept my eyes fixated on Lyon and I could tell from the flash of concern and how his eyes flicked to Zierra that they had turned black in my anger. He placed a calming hand on my shoulder. "Hey, we'll get some answers out of him alright?"

"We're going after him," I growled through gritted teeth. "He's playing games and he thinks he's ahead of me."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I know I don't have any stake in this but I feel like you'd just be playing into his hands, I mean, he seemed to be here to provoke you." Zierra asked, adding her hand to my other shoulder.

Her touch somehow calmed me enough for my eyes to change back to their regular color. I faced her and gave her a reassuring smile. "Oh I'm sure he was but he needs to know that he can't just barge into my tavern unannounced like that," I turned back to my best friend. "How fast do you think you can get ready?"

He smirked. "Faster than you," he held his arm up and I connected my forearm to his, a small thing we do instead of handshakes or high fives. "Let's hunt this bastard down!"

He darted down the hall and I motioned for Zierra to follow me. "I don't have a room prepared for you right now. Not a proper one at least, so you can stay in mine until I get back and get one situated for you."

I held my door for her and latched it behind me before stalking to my closet to find something better suited for hunting someone down. Zierra sat on the edge of my bed a bit awkwardly and took in her surroundings. She wasn't really going to find much. My room was relatively simple with dark oak furnishings and blue grey walls. The few personal belongings I had were all small decorations adorning my walls and shelves and few weapons I had for show instead of practical use.

"How are you planning to hunt him down?" She asked to break the silence.

"The roofs," I shrugged and tossed a few clothes onto the bed next to her. "You'd be surprised how many people don't look up in this town. The nobles are too busy looking down on everyone and the poor are too scared to look them in the eyes. The roofs give us good high ground and the buildings here are close enough together that I can get from pretty much one end of Lyca to the other without touching the ground."

"Is that how you found me so quickly?"

I paused as I grabbed the hem of my shirt. I can't exactly tell her that I flew there! "Yeah I was on one of the higher roofs so I had a good view of the alleyways you were in. Plus I know this town like the back of my hand."

I pulled my shirt over my head and Zierra coughed nervously and looked away. "You aren't one for modesty are you?"

I laughed. "Not in my own room I'm not."

I turned my back to her to finish changing but the second I did she let out a small gasp. "Gods Sapphyre," I felt her fingers trace familiar lines on my back and shivered. "How did you get all of these?"

I stood very still, scared that if I moved she would stop touching me, and I didn't want her to stop. "I'm good at my job Zierra but some of my targets know their way around a blade not to mention that creatures and monstrosities are challenging in and of themselves."

Her fingers traced a familiar clawed scar down the center of my back. "Ghoul?"

"Harpy. Lyon and I took on a small flock of them where the eastern forest meets the desert about five years ago. We thought there were four of them, turns out there were five."

Without picking her fingers from my skin she moved to the scars on my shoulder blades. "These ones match but I can't place what they might be from."

"I've had them for as long as I could remember."

It wasn't a complete lie. I've had those scars my whole life, they were the only indication of my hidden wings, outside proof that I wasn't actually human, but I couldn't tell her that.

She traced a few more scars before removing her hand and stepping back so I could finish getting dressed but when I turned to face her again her hand moved to my face and found the scar over my eye. "This one has a sad story doesn't it?"

"What makes you say that?"

"People are careful with their faces. Your other scars are easily able to be hid under clothes but this one is in plain view of everybody. Somebody you trusted gave you this didn't they? Someone you normally would have let near your face."

I gently grabbed her hand and let out a sad laugh. "It's a knife wound. They came at me so suddenly that I barely got out of the way in time. I'm lucky I kept my eye but yeah," I ran my thumb lightly over her knuckles before letting her hand go, "you're right. Someone I trusted did give me this."

I expected her to ask why. Why this person I trusted attacked me but she didn't. Instead she moved her hair aside and pointed to her right ear where a small chip was missing near the tip of it. "My best friend gave me this. She was one of the best archers we had, I once saw her shoot a metal ring out of the air to prove it, but something happened and she changed. She became angry, she lashed out, and eventually we were forced to exile her. I didn't see her again for many years and when I did she had joined a small bandit gang. This," she tapped the nick in her ear, "was her warning shot."

"What happened to her?"

Zierra replaced her hair to it original position and when she met my eyes again, with tears glassing her own, I already knew the ending to her story. "I killed her."

"I'm sorry," I frowned and moved to grab my mask from my bedside table. "That must have been hard."

"It was," she huffed and leaned against my door. "I didn't tell you that for sympathy. I wanted you to know that I understand what it's like to be hurt by someone you once trusted."

I clipped my cloak into place at my shoulder and positioned myself in front of her. "You're offering bits of your story in hopes that I'll tell you mine?"

"Is it working?"

I placed my hand on the door frame next to her and leaned a little closer with a smirk. "I like to keep my aura of mystery," her face flushed and my smirk widened as I jiggled my door handle with my other hand. "If you don't mind I would like to join my best friend in hunting down a very annoyingly persistent daemonologist."

She ducked under my arm and I swung open my door, finding Lyon waiting for me at the end of the hallway. He was tapping his foot impatiently and tossed his hands in the air in exasperation as I got closer. "What took you so long? I know I said I would get done faster than you but I still thought you'd be a little more motivated than that."

"Show and tell," I laughed and tugged him towards the window at the end of the hall, our preferred escape route from the Den.

"What do you- you know what? Never mind I don't want to know."

"Sapphyre!" Zierra's voice called from my door as I was halfway out the window.

I ducked my head back in and gave her a quizzical look. "Zierra?"

Even from halfway down the hall I could see her teasing smile. "I love mysteries!"