"Don't tell me you're even considering it!" Bexley whisper-yelled at Ava as she came out of the council hall, having received a brief formal introduction of the task at hand which emphasized that they would become assassins with their consent.

"And why not? A perfectly good opportunity to do what I've always wanted to do!" Ava retaliated

"To die? To walk willingly to your own death?"

"To leave, Bex. To find the truth. I need to get out of here. Don't you see Bex? All this--this confinement and secrecy is just too much to handle."

"You have got to be bloody insane! No, no, no! You wanna know stuff? Go read the newspaper. You despise the confinement? Go out of town for a while."

Ava was growing angrier by the second at her friend's dissuading and she spat out.

"Well forgive me, but I cannot be you and sit still like a bloody coward!"

Bexley's face morphed into a mask of hurt and pain. "Oh, that is so not fair, Ava..." His voice cracked as he spoke. He turned around and left, shaking his head in exasperation. Ava badly wanted to call out to him but she was pissed at his behavior.

✘✘✘

"No! Do you understand? I will not let my little girl go out there among those nasty brutes! Not after... after him..."

"Grace I know what you've been through and I express m-"

"No! Don't you dare say that. You have absolutely no idea whatsoever of what I've been through. I lost half my family because of Barquet and you think I'm going to send the one person I have left, right into their arms? No, I cannot allow this!"

This was followed by a moment of silence and a soft thump, probably Grace sitting down on the couch after her violent outburst.

"Look here, Grace. As the Chair Councilor it is my sole duty to inform you that your daughter will be taken care of and how much the country needs her. How much we need her. Think of all the lives she could save..." Conrad Gennady prompted.

"Conrad, I have great respect for you and what you do. But Avyanna is just a little girl. She isn't ready for the disturbing actuality of the world. In her eyes, beyond the perimeters awaits freedom and prosperity, much more than what Spiritfalls can offer her. I intend to keep it that way, rather than her knowing what truly lies beyond." Grace stated, in a much calmer manner.

Ava pressed her head closer to her bedroom door, ears straining to catch each word. She could hear footsteps receding. Then her mother's sigh.

Ava flopped back on her bed, rethinking the argument between her mother and Chair Gennady, not too dissimilar from the fight she had with Bex. She desperately wanted to go and talk to him, knowing that what she said was spiteful and unnecessarily harsh, but a part of her was disappointed at his response.

Suddenly, Ava remembered the book Thalia had given her and jumped to her feet in a flash. 

Scouring through her drawers, she stopped when her fingers brushed against the rough surface of the leather cover.

Studying the book more closely, she noticed that the binding was severely damaged and hanging together by a string, quite literally. She brought it up to her nose and smelt it. The scent of old parchment and dust hit her nostrils.

Avyanna flipped it open, to see the first page covered in indecipherable scrawls. The second one was brimming with haphazardly stuck headlines, the edges of the newspaper cut-outs yellowing and fading away. On further inspection, she realized that the headlines were about the successful assassinations of Barquet politicians and rulers.

The following pages were all covered in photographs of teams of assassins who went in and came back out alive after a successful assassination. Her eyes skimmed over articles, headlines, and pictures, looking to see if she could find a sentence, word, or face that could trigger familiarity.

But page after page of that crumbling book only withheld disappointment as she couldn't comprehend a single word. It was all either blacked out with ink or written in deeply vague language. Just as she was about to give up and slam the book shut, a glimpse of black hair caught her eye.

Tilting her head so that it was in line with the diagonally stuck picture, she squinted, straining to see the face clearly in the spotted yellow-brown page. The face, though blurred, looked oddly familiar and triggered some unreachable corner of her memory

Craving to know who that was, she flipped ahead, in the hope to see the face again somewhere. Ava went on for what seemed like an eternity of random faces when she stopped dead. Her eyes widened and she let out a soft gasp as she came upon a less faded picture.

Right there, clear as day, was her father. And next to him, smiling ever so brightly was Xavier. He smiled just the way Ava remembered, his hair falling over his eyes and his ears a tad too big for his face.

Ava choked in a sob as she clamped a hand over her mouth, her eyes brimming over and threatening to spill. Her heart wrenched at the sight of him after all these years. She was just five when he had gone, but still clearly recalled the day she was sitting on the doorstep and he had kissed her forehead. She had made him promise he wouldn't die.

His last words still rang in Ava's ears as a single tear escaped her eye and fell on the photograph, smudging the face of her brother a little bit.

"I promise."

✘✘✘

"Sorry!"

"Excuse me!"

"Out of the way!"

Ava hurtled past people, shoving some aside, and ran into the Council Hall. She made a turn at the end of the passageway, almost running into someone.

"Oh hey there Sif! Would you, by any chance know where Thalia is?" Ava asked in one breath.

"Ugh who would even be looking for that deaf piece of filth?" Sif huffed, blowing a strand of brown hair out of her face.

Ava looked at the girl in surprise. "Hey, don't call her that! That 'piece of filth' happens to make sure the place you live in isn't a complete dump."

"Whatever. I think I saw her on the lawn." Sif resumed strutting off to wherever she was heading.

After a moment of staring at the retreating girl in disbelief, Avyanna bolted to the lawn. There she saw Tia silently watering the plants. Taking a breath to compose herself, she walked to the girl, tapping her shoulder lightly.

Tia jumped up, her eyes wide in alarm, but she relaxed once she saw it was Ava.

"Ava you scared me!" The girl signed.

"I'm sorry but I had to ask you something." Ava drew out the book and flipped it open to the photograph. Pointing at Xavier, she asked.

"Do you know who this is?"

Tia brought her head closer to the picture and her jaw slacked.

"Isn't that Xavier?"

Ava nodded her head, digging her nails into her palm to keep the tears reigned in.

"Do you know why his picture is in here?" Ava inquired.

"I would say he was an Assassin. But what is with the symbol on his uniform?"

"I was hoping you'd know..." Ava sighed defeatedly.

The symbol on Xavier's uniform had been the subject of Ava's concern for the past couple of hours. It was a simple mask with a sword driven through it. Under normal circumstances, Ava wouldn't have given it a second thought. But there was something very distinctive about Xavier's attire entirely. She couldn't put a finger on it, but he didn't appear like the rest of the Royal Assassins.

Tia smiled apologetically at her and then suddenly her eyebrows shot up as if she wanted to tell her something.

"Aillard was here earlier. Said he wanted to speak to you."

Ava clicked her tongue at this. She was horrible to him. She should've been the one looking for him, not the other way round. But she wasn't quite in the frame of mind to see Bexley. In fact she wasn't in the frame of mind to see anyone.

She said a quick goodbye to Thalia and went to her tree, near the valley. It was the place she felt the safest, where she could be alone with her thoughts. When the city was out of sight, she let out a shaky breath she didn't realize she was holding and unclenched her palms, now riddled with angry, red, crescent-shaped marks.

She leaned her back against the base of the tree trump and holding her knees, folded in on herself. The hollow she felt on the day the mist came was more pronounced and as she looked at the setting sun, a subtle orange compared to the bright yellow of the midday, Ava felt herself falling more and more into despair.

"What's the point?" She asked aloud to herself, her voice raspy and quivering.

"I mean what's the bloody point?! Why would you promise when you know you're gonna break it! Are they just words? Do they mean anything at all?" Ava yelled out to the valley, her sorrow escaping from her eyes and making its way down her cheeks, each droplet heavier than the last.

After numerous failed attempts at keeping it in, she let go, heaving it all out. She didn't know how long she'd stayed there, or how many times she quieted her sobs down just for her to become hysterical again. There was no specific reason what triggered it. Maybe it was the weight of the situation, maybe it was her missing Xavier, maybe it was her frustration. Or maybe she had finally gone stark, raving mad.

No. No way was she letting that town get to her. No. She was better than that, stronger than that. She hadn't lost her father in the war for nothing. She had already let him down. But not Xavier. She was going to make him proud and bring him back. She was entirely convinced he was captive, for what reason, she knew not.

Ava stood up with a newfound sense of purpose and wiped away her tears. She was not going to be the puppet of this city or the council. No, she had to show them that this girl can run damn well without strings. And to cut them off was going to be her little act of rebellion.

Ava distinctly remembered the Mage, Esmeralda, mentioning that they were to leave with the Assassins the next day at dawn for their training had to begin. The Masquerade was only but a few months away. And the Assassins were but teenagers who, never once in their life, had to hold a blade.

That, she decided, was going to be her way out. If Bexley and her mom didn't have faith in her to think she could survive out in the 'Big Bad World', so be it. She was done with people leaving her. For once, she wanted to know how it felt to be the one leaving, to not feel the pain of the void, but be the one inflicting it.

Walking home at an agonizingly slow pace, she looked up at the darkening sky and felt some reassurance in the fact that somewhere out there, a person blissfully unaware of the struggle that was life, was looking at these very stars and happily slipping into a deep slumber.

But as she inched towards her house, she felt increasingly aware that each minute brought her closer to dawn. Each minute her chance to leave was slipping away.

Entering her room through her window, Ava thought of a place with no rules or restrictions. The word Anarchy tasted good on her tongue. But there was only one way she could rebel and proclaim she was more than just a wooden puppet...

Cutting off the strings.

______________________________________

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I am so sorry for not updating since the past two days... Wasn't sure how to go on with the story but now I'm out of my writer's recluse! Yay! Also a 2K word chapter to make up for the break.

Thank you so much for reading this!

Toodles Cinnamon rolls 😘😘