Inky

Serenica blinked, only twice, but inside she felt a flame shooting up behind her eyes.

"That's not why you request me to kill her," she said. "You don't want me to do it for your amusement. You have other motives."

"I'll buy you a drink," the man said. "Talk about it when we're not inclined to kill each other."

"I think not," Serenica said, but she walked out and didn't check if he followed her.

She came up to the lady of the house.

The woman was weatherworn and fair, still beautiful.

Serenica dropped three coins in her hand. Way more than she needed to give for two tankards of ale.

"See to it that no one disturbs us," she said.

"Alright," the woman said with a smile and began to pour the drinks.

A tankard in both hands, Serenica let herself settle into the relaxed atmosphere. She carried the ale into the furthermost corner. It was a vulnerable feeling, but she liked it.

Mainly because the pale ale here was fucking delicious.

The witch sat down and threw his robe open, revealing a no-nonsense mourning shirt.

Black with blue ribbons.

That was a sure sign of grief in anyone remotely normal.

With witches, one could never be sure.

"Did someone die?" Serenica asked as she pushed the other drink to him.

"People die all the time," the witch replied and that was the end of that conversation.

She felt odd about this. One moment he was on the clock and ready to murder her. When he dropped that working attitude, he was a most amicable man.

They sipped the ale.

"I never drink any other ale," Serenica said. "Nothing else compares."

"It's the Blue Girl," the man replied. "Whores come back from the edge of death to have more of this stuff."

Serenica would have laughed, if not the memory of the threat still hanging in the air between them.

"You are tasked with doing harm to me," she finally said. "Don't think I have forgotten that."

"You don't forget, do you?" He shook his head. "I wouldn't have killed you this morning. But eventually you'll keep on stepping on the wrong toes. That's when my boss calls me and lets me have my fun."

"That's the second time you mention fun in this context."

He paused. Then he laughed a bit.

It wasn't the dry chuckle she had expected. He sounded delighted by her remark.

"It's good to have a bit of fun," he said. "Especially when the ones being killed rarely do. Someone has to compensate for that."

Serenica hated to admit that she understood. Many times she had dived so deep into her medical knowledge, the technicalities, that the pained patient had looked at her with fear.

Perhaps she wouldn't have described that as fun, but it was close enough.

"You don't want to give me your name?" she asked.

She drank more ale.

It was slowly getting to her knees. Her head would soon follow.

"Not my name," he said. "They call me the Ink Witch. I'll show you why."

He rolled up his sleeve, revealing an intricately detailed tattoo on his right wrist.

If Serenica had to say what it resembled, it was a heart.

"Ink," she said with a blank expression. She could hear her own voice, flat as always. Oh, how she hated herself for being like this.

She could have asked a question.

"It's not an ordinary tattoo," the Ink Witch said. "It's an occult sigil."

Serenica nodded, grateful that her failure to investigate hadn't mattered.

"I'd explain more, but that's of no use. Inky got his ink way back. I wouldn't recommend getting a sigil tattooed on your skin."

Inky, so that was what her mind would call him without her consent. Great.

She had barely noticed the buzz of the Blue Girl increasing in volume. No one had bothered them at all. People paid no attention to them. Serenica was a regular here. The others were so accustomed to her presence that she could have brought a small dragon and bought it a drink without anyone blinking.

"Fun to kill Helen," she muttered. "I suppose your boss told you that."

"No." Inky shook his head. "I have free reign, except for your life. Boss won't let me kill you yet. I need to profile you. She was ready to sell you to save her own life. Yet you refuse to use her as a pawn. This means I can use her as leverage against you…to a certain extent."

She was not safe here.

She was never safe.

Everything she said, he would pick apart. Everything she did was visible to someone, if not the Ink Witch, then to the city guard. He dissected her with glowing green eyes. She felt his gaze all over her brain. He drilled into her skull.

Still, she knew next to nothing about him. She was in real danger and unable to bribe or threaten the Ink Witch.

She would have to find out who employed him.

He refused to use any pronouns for his boss. This made her almost certain that the employer was female. That was something. There were so few truly powerful women in Neul, and not all of them were ready to hire assassins. The connection to the city guard was also an interesting clue.

They finished their drinks.

"I'd love to do this again," Inky said. "But the next time we meet, we'll try to kill each other. Be prepared to buy me another tankard."

"My pleasure," Serenica muttered. "Go. I will not follow right away. I'll count to fifty before I leave. To give you a head start."

He nodded, getting up with all the drama of someone who wore robes as a casual outfit.

She counted to thirty.

Thinking she'd been merciful enough, she left the Blue Girl.

As soon as she got outside, she saw a former patient and her heart jumped out of sheer joy.

This young mother had two sickly children. She also had her husband's money to spend freely. A healer or a doctor couldn't have wished for a better customer.

The concern in the woman's eyes made Serenica perk up as the patient walked up to her.

They were close enough to talk now and the healer put on her best worried expression. It was almost distinguishable from her standard frown.

"You snake ass whore!" the woman cried out.

She slapped Serenica with all her might.