PAST

"You don't have a plan?" Zyl asked, his expression a mix of alarm and disbelief, "how could you not have a plan? We have to kill the king, Mel!"

"Calm down, I'll figure something out, eventually," I stated, gesturing dismissively in his general direction.

He crossed his arms and glared at me. "Right, you'll figure something out. Eventually. Meanwhile, while we're both waiting for you to come up with something, we have stuff that needs to get done. Like, I don't know, killing the king before sunrise."

"Stop whining. It's distracting me," I muttered absentmindedly, "Come on, Zyl. Let's at least get to the castle. Then we'll figure it out."

That was good enough for him, I suppose, because he stopped chastising me. Instead, he muttered under his breath about how whatever scheme I would come up with would get him killed. Under normal circumstances, I would've yelled at him to shut up, but I was busy. Busy thinking of a way for us to complete the contract and not get caught.

While I did that, Zyl and I swiftly made our way through the darkened streets of Westmarche City towards the palace that loomed off in the city. In order to avoid the fairly frequent patrols of guards, we stuck to the shadows and the alleys. These were places few dared to enter, lest they be mugged by some petty thief after a few coppers. Besides petty thievery, many worse things had happened there. For example, we passed through an alley where the innards of a city guard were strewn all over the cobblestone and brick walls. I'd been the one to dismember that guardsman earlier that night. What else was I to do? The heroic idiot poked his fat nose into something he shouldn't have and there was only one way left to dispose of him. Only one fun way, anyhow. Plus it sent a very clear message to the others not to mess with me or, more importantly, the Guild of Night. For though everyone knew of us, there would always be heroic fools to get in our way, Thus we had to send messages. That was also the reason why Zyl and I didn't dare to pass through the main streets and boulevards. The guards would catch us in an instant at a time like this.

We knew the streets of the city like the backs of our hands. We knew when it was safe to pass and where the patrols were. We knew places to hide and places to avoid. We also knew the fastest route to nearly anywhere. That's how we reached the palace so quickly.

"Got that plan yet, Mel?" Wondered Zyl as we perched upon a rooftop in front of the servants' entrance to the palace.

I inhaled sharply. My plan? Well it wasn't great. Or good. Or particularly creative. But would it work? Of course. Who would I be if my hair-brained schemes didn't at least work? Some pretty, tree hugging elfy assassin employed by his kingdom? By Inferna, no.

"Yeah, I've got one," I answered, "we're just going to pull the classic 'kill him while he sleeps'."

"That is actually do-able. But how do you suppose we get into his quarters in the first place, hm?" Questioned Zyl.

A smirk, hidden by the folds of my hood, appeared on my face. Too bad Zyl was unable to see it. "Leave that to me."

Zyl raised an inquisitive eyebrow at me as he opened his mouth to speak. I did not wait for him to question how I was going to slip us into the castle though. I leapt up from the roof, diving into a pile of hay below. Somewhere behind me, Zyl also descended from the roof in a much more boring manner. Together, we approached the servants entrance.

As anyone with sense would expect, the servants' entrance was nothing special. Just a door out the back of the castle. A bridge over the moat crossed the gap between the castle grounds and the rest of the city. Two bastards, presumably royal guards, waited at the city side of the bridge. From where I was, I could hear the faintest of snoring coming from one of the two.

My, my, it seemed like the quality of the help had gone down in recent years. It wasn't even midnight and already they were having trouble staying awake? Tsk tsk tsk.

I sprang from my hiding spot, and strode on silent feet towards the guardsmen. One guard was out cold. The other guard soon wished he'd been asleep.

"Halt in the name of the la-" he yawned, making the rest of his words unintelligible, "-who are you?"

I had always favored simple, yet dramatic approach when it came to stupid questions like this.

"Your worst nightmare."

An expression of sleepy confusion appeared on the guard's face as he attempted to ask me another question. "Wha-"

The poor simpleton never got to finish.

Zyl lunged out of the shadows behind him, tackling the guard to the ground. While Zyl dealt with him, I didn't dally out in the open. Quite swiftly and smoothly, I crossed the bridge towards the castle. Once safely inside the entrance, I proceeded to walk down the corridor.

Compared to other areas of the castle, the servants' halls were expectantly bare. The stone brick walls were not draped in tapestries nor lined with artifacts and trinkets. No elaborate rugs hid the stone floor from sight. If anything, the sole rug that was provided for this lowly hall was a threadbare little thing, hardly fit to be looked at, let alone stepped on. No, this hallway was not something that was a marvel in itself. It was just a simple hallway. And precisely that was what made it so extraordinary.

"Where are we going, Mel?" asked Zyl, his voice a hoarse whisper.

"Actually. I think we're here," I answered as turned down a dead end. We passed to the far end of the hall, near the kitchens. There was a wall there, identical to all the others in this place. Except for one thing: A passage.

"I don't get it. What are we looking at?" pondered Zyl as he watched me pat down the wall.

"You'll see, you'll see," I replied.

There it was! My hand clipped straight through the wall. Past my wrist was completely gone. I took a step towards the wall and phased right through, like nothing was there.

On the other side of the wall, there was a dusty old passage. The last time it had been used was perhaps several years before, when a group of highly trained Guild operatives passed through it.

"Mel? Mel? Where'd you go?" Called Zyl from the other side of the wall.

With a look of confusion on his face, he wandered closer to the wall. Those thick brown brows of his furrowed, his lips pressed into a thin line. I found it quite amusing to watch his slow mind struggle to comprehend what I'd just done. Unfortunately, we did not have the time to mess around, otherwise I would have scared the shit out of him.

I lunged through the wall, snatched Zyl's hand, and yanked him into the dusty tunnel. For a second, an expression of terror flashed on his face. Then he realized that it was just me and the expression quickly disappeared.

"Why'd you have to pull me through like that?"

Instead of replying with something snarky, I turned away from him and pointed down the passage.

"This should lead us past all of the guards. It'll take us to the northern tower, where the king's chambers are."

"Great," he said, dusting himself off, "maybe this contract isn't so impossible after all."

I chuckled coldly. "Keep thinking that. We still have to sneak past the guards in the tower."

"Oh, right, nearly forgot about them."

---

A/N

This is certainly not my best work, but I rushed it. I'm trying to get back on schedule.

Don't worry, though, because it's going to get edited to perfection... later.

Hope you enjoyed and all that other nonsense.