The Assassin watched from the dark woods as the rebels were being spanked. He had circled the keep twice he had decided where his entry would be made. Now he was just waiting for the rebel to make another push. From the visible movements and signal banners it looked like they were about to do just that. The Assassin made a quick check of his gear. Swords, dagger, poison, and more important a grappling hook with enough rope to reach the top of the wall. Slipping back into the deep shadows the Assassin disappeared.

Stepping out of the woods the Assassin moved up to the wall. Quickly he prepared the hook and in one skilled throw secured the hook to the top of the wall. Testing the grab, the Assassin moved up the wall like the word gravity didn’t exist. In a blink of an eye he was sitting on the thin cat walk that allowed the guards to patrol the tops. But the rebels had not even tried to climb the walls. They were throwing everything they had at the gate. Just like the plan was planned. Now the Assassin had to do his part. This was no battle for treasure. This was no battle for position. This was a battle for one. The death of one.

Slowly the Assassin moved from shadow to shadow until he had made his way down to the ground floor. He moved along the back edge of the court yard. The battle at the gate was raging before him. It took just a second for the Assassin to spot his target. The target was moving around the rear of his men. Yelling orders and aiding his troops when and where he could. There was a healer kinda sticking with the target but she would break away to heal the wounded and stuff. It didn’t take the Assassin long to see his chance.

Stepping from the shadows to the full view of the Kings troops the Assassin had stepped forth to complete his mission. He knew the rebel healers were watching for his death. He feared not death but only to fail in his mission. This was a suicide mission. This was what the Assassin did best. As he moved in from the rear none of the Kings men noticed. The first victim was the healer. She died by his deathly touch. From there he moved to his real target.

Death always comes at you from the left and just over your shoulder. The King died without even seeing the Assassins strike. In no time the dead kings men noticed their beloved leader falling to his knees. The look of death slowly creeping into the eyes of the crown wearer. As he fell to the ground, dead before he came to rest, the Assassin was reveled. Standing there with his sword bloody with royal blood. If any of the dead Kings troops could of seen behind the killers mask they would of seen him smiling. His last thoughts (beside wishing his teleport worked in this scenario) as the dead kings men hacked him to pieces was simply "Mission complete"
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After almost a full day of bombardment from many sides nerves inside McFadden's compound are frayed. As the sun rises and the rays blanket the earth the artillery stops.

"MAKE READY!!"

The order broke the silence in the compound. As the echo of those words died in the morning air the hills outside the the front gate seemed to break open and erupt with a force twice if not thrice the size of the of the force encountered when the king last encountered rebel forces.

As battle stations were manned and weak spots were reinforced, the opposing forces advance on the main gate. The threshold of the fortress having been blocked with many forms of magic and soldiers stood ready to repel invaders.
Amongst the forces could be seen few organized troops. The ominous grey and black banner bearing the double headed warbird and the crimson falcon were the only two banners that could be seen. The rest of the force was made up of all manner of merchant, warrior, peasants, and farmer. Persons who the king is supposed to govern and protect. Why then,Sean thought to himself, did they feel in necessary to rise up against him so. Surely an intelligent person could tell rumor from fact. The king is not their enemy yet they advance.

As the sun rose into the mid day sky, press upon press against the gates was turned back like a tide smashing upon the rock only to recede and leave the rock solid and undisturbed. The soldiers inside to well supported to suffer
to many casualties. Although soldiers inside did fall, the numbers of their casualties were far surpassed by the casualties suffered by the attacking force.

The rebels fought valiantly but could barely breech the wall. A few did break through only to be ripped to shreds by the waiting defenders. Their efforts were not enough to turn the tide of the battle in a very big way. Save one, an assassins blade found a resting place in the kings back. As the king fell to the ground the assassin was ripped into small pieces from all sides. Even that did not hurt the efforts of the defenders much. The king was healed and sent back into the fray without missing more than a few heartbeats.

As Sean released arrow after arrow into the proverbial barrel of fish and watched good man after good man fall to the ground dead his resolve in the kings position grew less and less solid yet like a good soldier he followed orders first.

At one point during the battle responding to the voice of what he thought was his conscience, he threw ropes over the wall but the rebels could never capitalize on the opportunity. Responding to the same voice on another
occasion, while attempting to subdue a rebel soldier that had managed to breech the wall, he turned his blade on Lady K'tai.

None of it mattered. As the sun set the rebels retreated into the setting sun to regroup to fight another day.
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The following morning the king calls his officers to his chambers. All could be found ,save one.

Rockhound entered the kings chamber with a somber look on his face.

"Well, where is he?"
"I know not sire. His bed appears to not have been slept in and I found this"

Rockhound hands the king a sealed scroll addressed to the king himself.
The king opens it and reads it to himself silently. He drops it on the desk, runs his fingers through his hair, stands and leaves the room without a word.

Thoron clears the room of its occupants and debates if he should attempt to console the king yet or not. Being alone in the room with the scroll, curiosity gets the better of him and he reads it.
************************************************************************

My Liege,

Know that I will NEVER WILLINGLY raise a hand against you but, events of late have brought into question things I thought were above reproach.

I do not wish for my loyalty to you to be called into question although my actions will make it an inevitability. So, before I am put in a position that will cause me to betray you ,or your crown I will take my leave of you until such time as I have resolved my problems.

As my King, Knight, Brother in arms, and friend I hope you will understand. Although you might, there are those in your service who will not be as forgiving. So, to insure my safety I have taken with me documentation that reveals the locations of your secret treasury vaults. If ANYONE in your service assaults me I will relax my resolve to safeguard this information.

Please forgive me but under the circumstances I cannot watch your back while I wrestle with these issues.

Sean C.
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The King's Army had come down from the walls and parapets, and retreated to the feast hall in celebration. The rebel army had put up a fierce fight, and casualties had been heavy on both sides, but in the end they were driven back.

His Majesty had retrieved one of the chests in the kingdom treasury, and was rummaging through it. Maybe he was paying the mercenary bands who'd joined him, or maybe he was handing out the victory bonus to his own men.
K'tai couldn't tell from where she stood, and she really didn't care.  She broke away from the throng and headed down a narrow hallway.

"Hey!" It was Stranger's voice coming toward her. "From what I hear, the party's that way. Where are *you* going?"

"Away." K'tai had no desire to chat.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." K'tai tried to walk past him, but he stubbornly continued to block her way. After a few feints at getting by, she finally seized his forearm and shoved him behind her, continuing on her way.

"What the hell was that for?"

"I said, NOTHING'S WRONG!" K'tai's stride lengthened with her anger.

"I see," Stranger said coolly. With two quick moves, he knocked K'tai's feet out from under her, and she collapsed gracelessly on the stone floor.

"What the hell was THAT for?" K'tai screeched.

Stranger had come around behind her and had her wrists in a gentle grip that belied potential ferocity. His voice was deliberately light and smooth. "Nothing personal, mind you. But you do realize everyone in the Duchy has been ordered to subdue you at once if you start acting out of sorts again. Now, I understand you could be like this just because you're angry or upset, but unless you tell me what's wrong, I have to assume the worst."

He craned his neck to see her face. No, not her face, K'tai realized. Her eyes. She considered using up her last Stun spell, but it would attract attention, and do nothing to allay anyone's fears that she might have a mental relapse. She sighed, and it sounded like a snarl.

"You want to know what's wrong? You want to be some sort of god-damned support group for me? Is that it? Fine. Take your free hand and open my pouch. It's near the top."

Stranger retrieved a piece of white cloth with streaks of blood on it.

"What's this?"

"That's blood. What do you think it is?"

"Is it yours?"

"Only by right of victory." K'tai's voice was low and bitter.

"What do you mean?"

K'tai turned her head to look Stranger full in the face. "I killed someone." She recoiled from her own words, and stared at her own feet. "I *killed* someone!"

Stranger remained silent, but it was clear that he expected her to continue talking.

"We had the castle fortified pretty well. We'd heard rumors of some secret tunnel, but that didn't check out. Still, somehow people were getting in. I died twice to assassins sent to kill the King." K'tai shivered at the memory: a gentle touch, a mocking whisper of farewell, and the cord that bound the ba-soul to the body was instantly severed.
"After that, we sent a squad on patrol. A couple recruits, myself, and this mage Aurian. And we caught one of them! He'd just come over the wall, and we caught him on the catwalk. And thank the gods, he stayed close enough for me to Stun him."

Stranger nodded, knowing well the effects of her spells.

"We reported that we had one. I was thinking maybe we'd tie him up and keep him for questioning, but the order came straight from the King that he was to die. And..." she trailed off, struggling with words.

"And?"

"I don't know. I could smell the darkness on him like you can smell the wind on someone's cloak. And something in me grew dark with it. I knew he was part of the band that had killed me twice, and probably the King at least as many times. And you know, if I hadn't brought Martello's haladie with me, everything would have been fine. But there was the knife in my hand, and I wanted vengeance. I wanted nothing more in the world than to slay that man in return for everything his comrades had done. And so when Aurian started to conjure fire to kill him, I stopped her. And I said that he was my kill. And little old sweetness and light K'tai bin R'al stabbed a man seven times in the chest." Her voice dwindled to a breathy hiss at the last sentence.

Stranger remained silent, but loosed his grip on K'tai's wrists. She straightened herself into a more comfortable sitting position, but did not attempt to get up.

A familiar clomping of footfalls made its way toward them from the feast hall. Eventually the torches illuminated the Duke's face. The smile froze on his face as he saw them.

"Um, what's going on?"

Stranger found words first. "K'tai had her first case of battle madness. She's still a bit shaken up about it. She'll be fine."

"Hmm. Need help up, K'tai?" Rayel extended his hand. She refused, but took the hint and clambered to her feet. She had hoped to do penance as soon as possible, but it looked like these guys weren't likely to leave her alone for a while. And she did feel a little better.

"Come to think of it," Rayel continued as they turned toward the feast hall, "I did hear that you'd gotten one of the guys who came over the wall."

"Oh, great. Next thing you know they'll be crying it from the town squares. Oyez, oyez, K'tai Stunned and killed someone. Details at eleven."

Rayel grinned. "Hey, don't knock your chance at a fearsome reputation. Let the rumor mill grind long enough, and folks will be saying you took out Nevron single-handedly, or something."

K'tai snorted with stifled laughter. "Yeah, right. Like *that's* ever gonna happen."
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In the dark beneath the very hills that held him captive, the Assassin was awaken after his last mission. As always he awoke on a metal table that was cold to the bare skin. Sitting up, the pains of the previous skirmish were still evident. No matter how many times he went through one of these "do then die missions" he couldn't get use to the effects of the Divine healing magic that would always call his battered soul and body back to the table of metal and thus back to this secret hideout beneath the Emerald City.

As the Assassin sat there inspecting the wounds that still hurt the most, (head and chest) He thought about how his message would be perceived. He was pretty sure that the simple minded troops of the King would just see his task as a failure but the Assassin knew better. From the look in the Kings eyes as their souls passed each other enroute to being reunited to their souless corpse's, the Assassin was pretty sure the King got the message. .

Getting to his feet proved to be no hard task and the Assassin crossed the room to get to the chest of spare clothes. As he got dressed the Assassins thoughts began to drift again. Some where above him there was still a battle going on. It would probably go on for a while longer. The kings troops had more then one way to bring their beloved ruler back from the very grave that the Assassin sent him. So while their spirit might not be broken for long, the Kings mental recovery will take more then a few (11) secret herbs and spice's.

The Assassin thoughts drifted to the people he has become to slay the leaders of all the many enemys of the Gods. They all were respectable warriors and assassin types, There had even been a few times that he possessed nobels. That was the beauty of having the Gods as allies. They would make sure all the factors were right. Some times it felt like they made his enemys blind to his intentions. Sometimes the skills of those he possesed were so perfect for the many tasks at hand that the Assassin wished the Gods would leave him inside the possesed for longer then just one task. But that was not the way the Gods wanted it. No mortal would be possesed for repeated missions. This way the rumors remained rumors. Although more then once the same person would be re-entered. Some even more then others.

Today the Assassin took over the form of one so skilled in deceptive tactics, stalking, and the art of war, that the Assassin could only wonder at why the Gods didn't use this form as their punisher more often. To question the Gods was not always the best route to follow so the Assassin just finished pulling on his boots and started back to a weapon rack on the oppisite side of the room. Soon he would use his teleport and return to the city. By then the rebel forces will of been scattered. The Assassin would assume a neutral form then blend back into populace of the Hills. Feeding off the city until the next time the Gods demand his service.
 
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