The Four Territories: The Dark Assassin Book One

by Stevie Collier

  “We are talking Alchemy here. Are you asking me if the sleep trials gave you any more powers to manipulate besides the Wisp’s powers?”

  Esh nodded.

  Xep’s eyes moved rapidly in deep concentration, his hand stroking his beard as he often did when he was thinking about something difficult. “The simple answer is no, you do not seem to process any powers outside of your Wisp abilities, which I found to be rather strange because both of your parents were highly skilled in their forms of sorcery. And being that sorcery is usually hereditary, both your mentor and I find you to be a freak of nature.”

  “Thanks,” Esh said with a small amount of sarcasm.

  “You’re very welcome.”

  “Is it possible that I just haven’t come into it yet?”

  “Possible, but unlikely. Most humanoids find that they can bend things around them by the age of six.”

  Esh nodded and couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Both his parents had some sort of sorcery abilities, but he had none. He did have power, true, but his was a mistake.

  “Now, there is one more source of power, one that you are already quite aware of. The power of the Wisps is known as dark power and has never been physically bended before… well, before you came along. Yet, it has been possible for an alchemist to draw upon these dark powers through rare ingredients… mainly blood.”

  “Blood?”

  “Yes, and it must be the blood of the one creating the dark concoction, but that is way above your head for now. Usually I do not even mention the dark powers to students your age, but given your circumstances…”

  “So… Can you tell me what it is exactly that is inside me?”

  “Being that you are the first it is impossible for me to explain what is going on within you. The Master and I gave it much talk whilst you were asleep and after hearing the conclusion of your trials we have a hypothesis.”

  “And what would that be?”

  “That you are the first ever humanoid to unlock the fifth power, the sorcery power of darkness.”

  The next sun-cycle Esh did not wake up to Xep sitting on his bed, but to his mentor tipping his bed over spilling him into the sand.

  “What was that for!” cried Esh, rubbing the grains of sand out of his hair and eyes. “Are you mad!”

  “Time to train. Your Alchemy instructor may have convinced me to allow you a month’s rest, but enough is enough. You’re ready.”

  The morning was a lot different than the last time they trained together. Master Rift did a lot more instructing rather than just hitting him with a large bo staff.

  The first thing he was taught was how to stand, which he thought was ridiculous.

  “Standing is the foundation for all things,” his Master said, swiping Esh’s feet out from under him with one low attack. “One small fall like this and you’re dead! And a dead agent is useless to the Order.”

  “Why do you want me to join the Order if you’re not in it?” Esh asked, standing back up.

  “No questions! Take your stance and try to step out of my oncoming attack.”

  Four sun-cycles passed with Rift forcing Esh to go over his footwork drills over and over again. Finally, the monotony was broken when Esh was given the bo staff and they started sparring again.

  “Now, we do the footwork drills but this time I will be slowly attacking you! You must defend with the staff while you move your feet!”

  The boring foot drills now made sense. Esh had to barely think about where to move his feet when the Elder brought the staff down hard. However, he was still getting hit more than he wanted to but he could actually see himself making some progress.

  “It’s time we try to awaken that beast inside of you,” the Elder had said one sun-cycle after an intense sparring session.

  Esh’s eyes widened and realized that he had somehow forgotten all about the dark powers. He didn’t know what to think. Part of him was excited to see what he could do while the other half of him was terrified that the Wisp may figure out a way to control him again.

  “What if I’m not ready?”

  “You’re ready.”

  “But what if it controls me again?”

  “That’s impossible, lad! You already defeated the Wisp in the trials, now its powers are yours to control.”

  Esh tried to speak again but Rift hit him on the top of the head with the staff. “No more questions, let us prepare. Spread your stance and put both hands out. Do as I do.”

  The Elder put his hands out in front of him and started to mumble some sort of mantra. Trying not to laugh, Esh followed his lead.

  “Good, now imagine yourself diving deeper and deeper into your mind.”

  “What do you mean deeper into my mind?”

  Rift thought a moment and then said, “There is no right way to explain it. To awaken one’s inner power is strictly different for each humanoid. A great way to start is to forget about everything in the room.”

  Esh stared at him.

  “Well?” the Elder said, tapping his foot impatiently with the staff, “Do it!” He hit Esh on the head again. “Close your eyes, lad! Now, listen to my voice and only my voice. Let the world around you melt away. Imagine the sand and the walls disappearing leaving nothing but your thoughts.”

  Rift stopped talking and Esh took this time to try and do as he was instructed. He literally pictured everything in the room fading away and placed himself in darkness. It was hard to truly understand what his mentor was wanting from him, but he thought this was good enough.

  “Feel your heart beat and pretend to breathe through the bottom of your feet.”

  Esh couldn’t help but giggle this time and flinched, awaiting another strike from the Elder’s staff but it never came. He, again, tried to do what was being asked of him but could not hear his heart beat. As for the breathing through the feet, that was completely nonsense but he tried to imagine it anyway.

  “Now sit down,” the Elder commanded and Esh did so.

  They sat in silence for a long while before Esh opened his eyes and saw his mentor seating cross legged in front of him asleep. Esh tried to stand up but was met with the staff zooming past his face and resting on top of his head softly.

  “No, no, no,” his mentor said without opening his eyes. “I do not see any progress.”

  “But I’m hungry.”

  “Until I see some of that black stuff floating around this room there will be no food.”

  Esh’s stomach growled. “But what if I can’t do it?”

  The Elder shrugged, “Then you’ll starve, lad.”

  Esh couldn’t really tell if the Elder was kidding or not but thought it might be best to try and conjure something before losing all of his focus to his hunger.

  “So how exactly do I do this?”

  “By stopping the questions and figuring it out. I gave you a head start with the meditation but the rest is up to you.” And that was all the Elder was willing to say. Every time Esh tried to ask another question on the matter the Elder would just take a deep breath and exhale it out unnecessarily loud.

  And there Esh sat, listening to the snoring of his mentor and trying his best not to fall asleep himself. He must have dozed off after around an hour before awakening to the sound of Xep climbing down the ropes.

  “Any luck?” Xep asked, walking up to him.

  “None,” the Elder answered before Esh could. “It shouldn’t take this much concentration after the trials have been completed, not even for a complete beginner. We’re missing something.”

  “Have you tried blood?”

  Rift’s face slowly opened up into a smile that went ear to ear. “That must be it!” The Elder hopped up, his bones cracking a bit as he did so and hobbled over to the wall of weapons. He picked up the blue gem dagger and tossed it to Esh.

  Esh caught the dagger with both hands and remembered not to allow himself to gaze into the gem. “I don’t like where this is going.”

  “Remember what I said about dark a
lchemy?” Xep asked him.

  “Yeah, that it requires blood by the user for it to work. But this isn’t alchemy!”

  “Alchemy is a form of sorcery, young one. You’re gonna have to open up that brain of yours and really look around the world for what it is. If Xep is as good a teacher as I know him to be, hell I taught him everything he knows so he better be! You have to remember that the powers of sorcery flow through all beings. Some are just better than others at manipulating it.”

  “So I have to cut myself…”

  Xep and Rift nodded simultaneously.

  “Do I still need to picture the room fading and--”

  “Forget all that crap,” Rift said, flicking his hands out in front of him as if sweeping the meditation tactic into the trash. “Just think about whatever you had thought about when you had called upon the Wisp back when we had to clean me up.”

  There was excitement in Rift’s eyes. Even Xep was biting his lower lip and squinting curiously at him.

  Esh turned the dagger in his hand and held out his wrist, placing the edge of the blade on top of it.

  “What the hell are you doing!” Rift jumped at him and pulled the arm holding the dagger back away.

  “I’m gonna draw some blood like you two said!”

  “Not there you fool!”

  Rift took Esh’s arm and spun it so the top of his forearm was the target rather than the wrist.

  “If you would have cut your wrist you would have bled to death!”

  “We have far to go with him,” Xep mumbled over Rift’s shoulder. “May I?”

  “Of course.” Rift gestured towards Esh. “He’s all yours.”

  “Here, like this.” Xep grabbed Esh’s arm and mimicked a small slicing motion over his forearm. “It takes less than a centimeter to draw a drop of blood. I suggest you try that first.”

  Esh nodded and put the edge down. He looked up expecting both of them to jump at him again but they just sat and watched. He looked away, pressed down the blade and slid it slightly across his arm.

  “Ah! That hurts,” he said, looking down at his work. It was bleeding way too much, way more than just a drop. His head started to spin and it seemed as though he were stuck in a whirlwind of black gust. He felt a presence next to him and staggered sideways when he saw himself, the same dark Esh he had met in the trials.

  “What do you want!” Esh demanded. He looked around where the room had been and noticed his mentor and Xep were both moving in slow motion towards him. Both were screaming something at him.

  “What… is your command?” it asked, swaying back and forth. Its eyes were a foggy white with no pupil. Its head was hairless with a dull grey skin tone. It was naked but had no genitals. “Orders?”

  “I… ugh… what happened to that black goo stuff?”

  It didn’t respond but started to melt in response to his question. The skin turned black and soon Esh found the black goo floating in front of him, separating himself from his mentor and Xep.

  “Ok, so how do I stop all of this?”

  There was a heavy BOOM and a gigantic burst of force exploded from his body. Rift and Xep were taken from their feet and slammed hard into the back wall. The black whirlwind disappeared around him but the room did not stop spinning. His head felt suddenly very heavy and drooped until his chin touched his chest. He saw that he was standing in a puddle of blood, his blood.

  He lost his footing and fell sideways into the sand, the blood from his forearm trickling down his abdomen. He heard footsteps and felt himself being picked up and laid on a table. Once again, Esh was being force fed some vile drink followed by something very sweet.

  The spinning room slowed to a halt and Esh was able to sit up. His forearm had been tightly wrapped with a white gauze.

  “Well, I think we found the magic key,” the Elder said, patting Esh on the shoulder. “Just next time we should try for that drop of blood we talked about.”

  Xep leaned onto the table. “Master, I need to take a look at your ribs.”

  “How’d you know they were hurting?”

  “Because mine are broken.” Xep undid his robe to show off a ribcage that was clearly distorted underneath the skin.

  “Think you might be a little worse off than me,” the Elder said. “But I could go for a flask of hot slag right about now.”

  “I’m… sorry,” Esh managed to say. He had never been drunk before but he imagined this is what it would feel like.

  25 - Murderous Intent

  Months flew by as Esh grew into his dark power. Well, at least he was able to conjure up his dark twin without bursting his mentors across the room. Turns out it didn’t take even a drop of blood to awaken the darkness, more like a speck.

  As of now, Esh would prick a finger and stare at the blood until he felt the presence beside him. For the first few sun-cycles he just concentrated on getting the ability to work and then he would simply ask his evil self to go away or to disappear. Each passing sun-cycle he became more courageous until the point in which he would allow himself to meditate within the dark trance, his twin just staring out into the black void.

  There were limits to this power, the limit being the amount of blood he wished to spend. He dared not go more than a drop for fear that he may injure his mentor even more than the last time. In fact, for the first few times he was trying out his abilities the Elder had sat in the other room far away from him, observing in safety.

  Every morning started out the same way. Esh would begin with an hour of alchemy lessons followed by two hours of hand to hand and weaponry. After breakfast came one an hour of sorcery manipulation before Esh and the Elder left to go do their trash duty around Zel. Xep would also leave around this time to head back to the Order’s headquarters to do whatever it was he did. Esh had no idea.

  This sun-cycle was different.

  “Good morning,” said Xep, sitting on the edge of Esh’s bed as he did at the start of every sun-cycle.

  Esh sat up and stretched his arms out and in mid yawn he said, “Good morning.”

  “This sun-cycle we will start with this.” Xep placed a large dusty book on his lap.

  “What’s this?”

  “Every assassin needs to learn the humanoid body and how it works. An assassin who knows nothing of the body will not know where to cut and in which way.”

  “I guess that makes sense.” Esh flipped the book over. The title read ‘Essential Physiology for Murderous Intent’.

  A few hours had passed and Esh was growing very bored. “Why is this even important?” He threw the book to the side of his bed and lifted his arms above his head in a big stretch. He was midway through a yawn when Xep grabbed the book and popped him over the head with it.

  “This book covers each of the veins you must know and where they normally are placed on most humanoids. For example, the ulnar artery is a common artery assassins make use of.” Xep stuck out his arm and traced a large vein down his forearm. “Now you understand why it is important to never cut yourself around this area.”

  “Sounds interesting. But how will I practice this? It isn’t like alchemy, I can’t just go around cutting humanoids.”

  “You’re very right, practice of the concept is more important than reading about a concept. In order to practice murder, we must use dark sorcery.”

  Before Esh could ask what he meant, Xep had gracefully moved from the bed to the middle of the sandy room. He pulled out a small vial from his cloak and poured the contents onto the ground. He then stuck his thumb to his mouth and bit it. Balling a fist, Esh could see him squeezing out a small amount of blood onto the liquid he had poured into the sand. He then put both hands out in front of him and whispered a few words.

  A groaning noise echoed throughout the room. A hand crawled out from the sand followed by another. Esh jumped from underneath his sheet and grabbed a small dagger he had hidden under his pillow. Soon a small head began to make its way out the sand. This… thing shared the same eyes and complexion of Esh’s
dark twin.

  “Is it… dangerous?” Esh held the dagger out in front of him just in case the thing made for him.

  “It’s dead,” Xep replied, grabbing the thing’s head and ripping its entirety from the sand.

  Sure enough there was a dead child swaying by its hair in Xep’s grip.

  “You’re sick!”

  “I assure you that this child was never given birth and lacks a spirit. However, taking its life will feel just the same.”

  “I can’t do that!” Esh said, jumping off his bed and walking around to get a closer look. “And why should I? When will I ever have to kill a child?”

  “You would be surprised as to what the Order has to take care of.”

  Xep sat the child down and pulled back its head. Whipping out his own dagger, he slit the child’s throat in one easy motion. Red blood shot out from the gaping hole and filled the sand beneath. The kid’s hands shot up to its neck trying to stop the flow, its eyes wide with shock and horror. Xep dropped the infant into the sand. The child lay curled in the feeble position, sputtering and coughing until it went still.

  “No… How could you—”

  Xep placed his hands over the kid’s body and whispered more words Esh could not hear. The kid, along with its blood, burst into sand leaving nothing behind.

  “You see? No soul.” Xep gestured to where the child had once stood, its foot prints still visible. “Now, it is your turn.”

  Xep repeated the entire sequence and two new hands sprung out beneath the ground. Xep hoisted the body out onto its feet and Esh was now met with an ancient male humanoid who was more slumped over more than his mentor was. The male must have been in his late eighties and even its breath sounded as if he were going to keel over at any moment.

  “Kill him.”

  Esh forced himself to walk closer to the humanoid, telling himself in his mind over and over again that it was only a sand creature, a trick made from dark alchemy. But it was so real! The male even had liver spots growing on his cheeks and Esh could even see long grey strands of hair growing out of his nose and ears.