As swift as the wind, a shadowy figure emerged from behind the desecrated pillar with barely concealed smugness and pride. With long strides, the figure headed towards the other visitor of the grounds, a knife raised in one hand.
"You gave it to me too late." The figure said as the knife cut through the air, stopping only a few centimeters away from the visitor's chest. The visitor was an old man with long, thin, grey hair and a snowy white beard. His face was wrinkled and his eyes sunken- he seemed rather harmless and was the type of person nobody would ever be suspicious of.
"Is the job done?" The old man spoke, his voice hoarse.
"It's done. The king who loves rest so much will now sleep forever."
"Good job." The old man put a hand on the assassin's shoulder as if to praise her for pulling it off. "Did he find out about it in the end?"
"No, he didn't." She had surprised herself or maybe the king had surprised them all. He was not fierce or admirable- he was just another example of a failed monarch. He might even be the worst among his family with how useless and dim-witted he was. She had kept dropping hints thoughout the course of their conversation but each time, he would let the words fly over his head without ever considering their weight and power.
It was the first thing she learnt in her life- listen when someone speaks. It wasn't out of respect or politeness but because words could tell you a lot about someone, sometimes even give away crucial information that the person didn't mean to. In her case, she could listen even when they didn't speak because of her abilities but those abilities had bloomed late.
'I'm not strong because I'm a good mind reader, I'm a good mind reader because I know how to pay attention.' Was something she often told herself, not to brag but to remember the most important things in life. To remember the crushing pain of her childhood, of those years of being trapped in the darkness and of the light- the light that was people's inner voices.
Her master was one who believed people weren't inherently evil. It was because of him that she had never been harmed by her abilities and that she had become a competent assassin.
"Having a flashback now, are you?" His voice interrupted her train of thought and she laughed coldly, shaking it off. "Apologies, I was just reminiscing."
"Don't reminisce too much, you will be needed sooner or later again."
"You don't have to tell me that. And don't forget that our relationship is perfectly balanced. Do you know what that means?" She withdrew the knife that had still been pointed in his direction until then, "You don't get to order me around."
The old man smiled. His smile looked sinister on his rather weary face as if he was forcing something to contort into a shape that it was not capable of being. With a quick nod, he began to walk back to the quarters where he resided. The assassin watched him leave, opting to stay for a while herself. She had never been to the palace before and more importantly, there was something she needed to look into.
Sneaking past the rooms of the sleeping servants, she found a dilapidated old door that led to the cellar. With a gentle nudge, the door opened but in such a way that she couldn't help but feel displeased. As the door swung open, some parts of the wood had fallen to the ground leaving behind incriminating evidence. Not that it mattered though, nobody ever bothered to go down into the cellar.
The stairway was narrow and cramped. There was a musty smell in the air and the walls were damp despite there having been no rain in a while. The assassin looked carefully at each step as she walked- not looking for traps since there were none or for bumps that could cause her to trip but for a message.
"Where are you..." She muttered to herself as she reached the last step. Was it really a wild goose chase? Were those words her master told her just meaningless trivia about his old life?
She inhaled deeply- it was best not to jump to conclusions until she found evidence or the lack thereof. With the help of a luminous stone she had borrowed, she began the tedious process of looking for a message- scribbled words, numbers, places with less dust than others or too much dust. The search went on for quite a while but she found nothing of note. As she headed to only wall she hadn't yet scoured, she noticed something.
It was a large crack, a crack that started from the ceiling and extended to the bottom. At points, the crack would divide into smaller cracks and there were even some leaves poking out from behind the wall. It was an old room so there was no doubt about there being cracks but the cracks were too unnatural. They looked like someone had tried to force their way in but how?
Unable to deduce anything more, she went back upstairs. The wall in which the crack appeared faced the east. She had entered through the west. There was probably a wall joining the one below from somewhere above. Seeing as the crack started from the ceiling, there could be something she could find from above.
The air outside was cold. The king was certainly dead by then. She took a moment to grieve as she recalled why she was at the palace to begin with. The king had it coming for him. He had left himself open to attacks from within and without a strong foundation, there was nothing else to do except crumble. She suspected that he had taken the help of someone else until then to rule, maybe many others. In the end, no matter how much he tried to cover up the cracks in the wall- Winter was the biggest one. There was no stopping that.
She paused. The biggest crack in the wall? Perhaps...perhaps the message wasn't in the wine cellar after all. Perhaps it was in the room behind it. She hadn't seen anything in the layout plans of the castle but the position of the cellar itself was odd. It was an unused, insignificant space buried underground as far as anyone cared to know.
A smile formed on her face. There was no point in staying there any longer. The more time she spent, the higher the chances of getting caught. She had already overstayed her welcome for personal reasons which was something she would never have dreamed of doing in the past.
She disappeared as quickly and swiftly as she came- unseen by anyone despite staying on the premises for more than five hours and taking out hundreds of guards.