- The Plans Scheming Behind the Scenes

-Thump -Thump -Thump

The sounds of puttering, pattering, and stressed induced footsteps filled the silent room, as a woman dressed in dark blue robes, black leather beneath them brimming with elegance, paced back and forth.

One her hands were a number of rings, her chest was decorated with silver and gold items, some of which the onlookers couldn't even begin to guess their names.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the woman stopped, and slapped her hands against her side, clearly frustrated.

"I thought you said you had a plan? Why in the world are we just sitting here doing nothing, while our target is out there?"

The woman was clearly more than upset as she appeared to be, as her face was strewn by the tall trees, shadowed by their leaves as the sun pierced between the thick branches of the evergreen.

A man, who leaned against one of these very trees was sharpening his dagger against a whetstone, taking careful notice of how well the dagger was holding against the rock.

Its form was twisted and curly, but jagged and thick in others. Truly it looked more at odds in his hand, then in some trash heap.

The dagger was not beautiful, and neither was the man, who grunted and sighed at the woman's worried words.

Clearly he had heard this many times before.

"Listen Gloria, we don't have much choice in this matter."

"And why not. I hired you to take care of this situation, and yet you can't even do that?"

The man stopped sharpening his dagger, and pointed the tip in Gloria's general direction. It wasn't close, but it wasn't far. Either way the threat that was imposed behind the dagger and the man's gaze was enough to get Gloria to stop talking.

"Listen. You hired us, yes, and we will deliver. Time and patience are a woman's best perks. However…"

He returned to sharpening his blade, giving Gloria nothing more than a side glance.

"...you don't seem to have any perks with that nasty attitude of yours."

"And what's that supposed to mean then? What, are you trying to tell me that I'm not charming enough? Like I would try charming an ugly man like you. Hmp!"

She turned her back to the man, who now looked more than angered and ready to let that anger fly.

"Why you little wench!"

He pushed off the tree, but did not make it more than three steps before two men in black and gray robes stepped out from the shadows.

Though bright out that morning, the sun had only served to increase their stealth, using their shadows as a friend to their cause.

When the man saw these two step out, both holding their weapons - drawn - he stopped and held up his hands.

"Ah, put those away. Not like I'm going to hurt my client. Sheesh!"

The two men glanced at one another, before sheathing their blades and returning to the shadows, their outline just visible to the ugly man, though barley.

Gloria, however, wasn't done with the man.

"These two could do your job twice over! So don't go thinking you can get away with anything while they're around."

"Then why didn't you tell them to do this job, rather than hiring me?"

The man's snarky question didn't escape the ears of Gloria, who wished they had. She lowered her head, and turned around, away from the man, as she avoided eye contact, as well as the answer to his question.

But the man didn't care. He already had all the answers he needed.

"You didn't get them to do it because you need this done risk free. You don't want to be connected to this little task you've given me, and for that I say f*ck you."

The man returned to his tree and took up leaning against the trunk, he returned to sharpening his blade, scraping the ugly metal against stone.

"You hired us to take this risk, which means you want this little request of yours to blow over the city's head. So, let my men do their job and I'll do mine. Stop your whining and be patient, otherwise this issue can be taken to the guards."

At the mention of a betrayal, the two men redrew their swords, and began walking forward, the steel glinting off the sunlight. However, Gloria stopped them, gesturing for the blades to be put away.

Turning back to the man, she addressed him without complaints in her voice and words.

"I understand the risk you're taking. However, I think the reward should be more than enough to cover that risk. Shouldn't it?"

The man sighed, and sheathed his own blade, guessing that he would be a part of this conversation for a while.

"Yes. It is true that 500 gold pieces is enough to hire all of my order, however, that doesn't get rid of the risk. It just makes us more tolerant to deal with it."

"Then I don't understand. What's made you 'less' tolerant to deal with this? Why is it that I'm finding my request, three days late?"

The man raised three fingers, counting off one by one, he lowered a finger each time he listed a reason. He didn't appear all too happy that he had to explain this however.

"One, we're three days behind schedule because of the goblin raid - no doubt you've heard."

"I have. But what does that-"

"It has everything to do with it, considering one of the targets you talked about was on that raid. And we couldn't just go and kill them in the middle of all those Hunters, now could we?"

"Isn't that your job?"

Gloria crossed her arms, clearly showcasing her arrogance and power, though what little effect it had on the man.

"No, my job is to complete your request. Not to get killed doing so. That being said, no thank you to the idea of dying at the hands of some Hunter. Also, that presented another problem. They've become quite close to the head of the local Hunter's Post. Which means we needed to work around that as well, ensuring that they died of 'natural' circumstances. This way Radnolph wouldn't come after our heads if he ever found out."

As a way to mock Gloria, but also a way to insure she understood, the man explained in more simple words.

"Simply put, we needed to ensure our own best interest was also kept in mind. You understand?"

However , despite what the man believed had been understood between them, Gloria poured cold water on those ideas.

"No, I don't understand. One of our men could have easily done this, and they wouldn't have worried about collateral!"

"No thanks to you ma'am, but my entire order is not as 'collateral' as you think."

The man's voice was dim and cold, his eyes showing just as much , which shut Gloria up instantly.

"If you wanted this job done quickly, you should have asked someone else. Your own men might have been better for this, however, it takes us back to what you originally hired us for. No tracks left to be found. If Randolph had found us after we killed your target - his friend - right in front of him, the trail would have led to you eventually."

"I thought you covered all traces that lead to me?"

"We did, however, we like to keep certain small bits. They're small, but they can easily point someone in the right direction. Especially when we have some…"

He gestured between them.

"...misunderstandings between us. That being said, all should be fine now. We failed in doing what we had planned, but this makes it all the better."

"How so?"

"Well, since the goblin raid - or at least our plan for it - failed, your target has come under some heavy suspicion from the city, forcing her own Hunter friend - Randolph, to conduct his own investigation."

"And what does this have to do with anything?"

The man again sighed, his patience growing thin, as he held the back of his hand against his forehead.

"What this means is that we now have the opportunity to kill your target, go after the second, and have everything we do be blamed on another party. A third party is something not many people tend to expect, especially when it comes to something as big as assassination. People will look for any chance they have to point their finger and run."

Gloria nodded her head, as if she finally understood the situation at hand, much to the relief of the man, who looked half ready to throw the wet stone at her head for asking too much.

However , she wasn't done just yet.

"Wait. That's only two reasons. Where's the third?"

Gloria looked to the man to answer, her eyes prying at his hardy exterior that refused to reveal anything to her, even given her natural charm.

'I guess ugly people don't' recognize true beauty.'

The man, hearing her words, stopped fiddling with his blade. Though unable to hear her thoughts, his face turned dark nonetheless.

"The woman we sent out to keep watch on them…she hasn't responded."

"What does that mean?"

Gloria asked, crossing her arms, causing the gold and silver jewels to jingle and clank against one another, glinting in the morning sunrise.

"She was one of my own, a youngling I brought up in my order like all the rest. Like all the rest in my order, she was trained that whenever she got a message from one of us, she would respond back, in a similar code that we used to contact her. It told us that the line was secure, and she had gotten the message."

"Then what's the main problem here? She didn't respond. You've held off this mission for three days because she didn't respond?!"

"It normally takes a day, two at the latest to get the message, but she…she always responded back immediately."

Gloria scoffed, and shook her head.

"Honestly, if you had been even a little bit like us, then this wouldn't have hap-"

"She's dead."

The man interrupted her, his voice grave and filled with warning. Clearly this was a sour topic for him.

"Dead?"

Gloria was somewhat taken aback that one of them was killed.

"She's dead? How? When? A-Are you sure you haven't waited long enough? Maybe she just forgot-"

"She didn't forget. This has been trained in her since she was a kid. If you don't respond back, then those messages no longer become updates. They tell us whether you're alive or not."

Gloria's face grew dark, as she knew the implication behind this fault in their plan.

They had been discovered.

"It's been days since the message was sent out, and I just received word that almost twelve hours have passed since she got the message. Yet she hasn't responded."

"S-So this means…?"

"Yes. We've been discovered. But it doesn't mean this is over. We just have to step up our game a bit now. Katlina's death gave us a warning, and I don't intend to waste it."

Some light returned to Gloria's face, as she sighed knowing this man had everything under control.

However, just as she was about to thank him and leave, another - third voice spoke out through the small clearing.

A deep and enchanting voice that took her breath away out of fear and wonder.

"Yes. A mistake I don't intend to repeat."

Both Gloria and the man snapped their heads in the direction of the voice. Similarly her two guards raised their weapons, aiming at the shadows of the trail they had both come from, where a man now silently walked out from behind a tree trunk.

His eyes were dark red, shaded by the leaves, and casting a deep red hue over his face.

The man's smile was white as snow, and easily showed through the shade, as his glinting eyes passed over everyone present.

His look, his face, his physique.

He looked like a demon from hell.

And with his voice, that roll was filled almost entirely.

"Hello everyone. My name is Cain. A pleasure to meet you all."

He bowed, and all four of them knew it then.

They were going to die.