by Logan Jacobs
“I had a visit from a client not long after you left,” Master Abbot admitted. “Well… a representative of a client.”
“What client?” I asked.
“How much do you know about the Ardere of Ignis?” the old mage replied.
I’d heard about the Ardere of Ignis a long time ago, back when I was a boy, but I thought it was just a myth. In all my time in the kingdom, I had never heard of anyone who actually found it.
I remembered the Master speaking about the place once. The story he told me had something to do with a field made from gold, and many people wanted the glory of the gold, but nobody ever made it through the forest to get there. I wasn’t sure if I remembered the story right, since it was so many years ago, but there were times when I’d think about an entire field made of gold, and I’d wonder if there really could have been such a thing.
“I know very little besides the name,” I answered. “I thought it was just folklore.”
“It is very much real,” the Master confessed.
“Oh.” I nodded as casually as possible. “So… this is the place where the fields are made of gold, correct? That part is… real also?”
“Something of that nature,” the Master laughed. “Looks like gold, at least.”
“I see,” I said as my curiosity increased.
“The Ardere of Ignis is in the forest,” he divulged. “A few miles into the forest.”
I tried not to wince at the thought of stepping in that unforgiving territory. People of the kingdom barely survived going a few yards into the Forest of Hud without protection, and even then, they felt uneasy for days.
“If it is in the forest, is it still part of the kingdom?” I asked.
“Of course,” the Master nodded. “But let’s just say the beings from that estate are too volatile, too destructive, too… filled with fire, to integrate with other societies well. Their estate was carved out for them many centuries ago, and there they live in their own kind of peace.”
“So, the Ardere of Ignis is its own little kingdom away from our little kingdom,” I concluded.
“Exactly,” the Master returned. “But in that little kingdom is where the fire titan lives, along with the rest of his estate.”
“A titan as in a god?” I asked.
“Former god,” he corrected. “Ignis is the fire titan who is the third brother of Helios and Harvester of the Sun. Nowadays, he dwells in the physical world, and rules over his Ardere. He has probably bred many children, like they all do, and many of his associates and workers also live there under his rule. They may not be as highly regarded as Ignis, but the rest of his estate are just as powerful.”
“Deities?” I posed.
“Some deities, yes…” he trailed off. “But there are others, too, and all are creatures born of fire. The spirits and entities roam around the Ardere, and can be extremely dangerous, but I cannot say how many for certain because Ocadia has very little communication with them. What I do know is there are many fiery types in residence, and they all hail Ignis as their ruler.”
“So, Ignis is our client,” I surmised. “What is the task you want me to do for him?”
“Ah, yes, the task,” the Master muttered, and he shifted a little uncomfortably in his seat. “Ignis has asked for his niece, Cinis, to be killed.”
“His own niece?” I asked in surprise.
“Yes, she is an Ember Priestess and descendant of the holy fire deities,” Master Abbot said with another weary look.
I blinked at the old mage for a moment as the weight of his statement pressed on my shoulders.
A descendant of the deities. That was my next target.
“And… she presides in the Ardere,” I finished for him.
“In the fields of the Ardere, yes,” he corrected.
“And why are we to murder this Ember Priestess?”
“Apparently, she’s too cunning, too violent, and too chaotic,” Master Abbot proceeded to explain. “I have been told that if she is not culled soon, she could cause irreparable damage to the Kingdom of Ocadia.”
“She is going to travel here?” I clarified and narrowed my eyes. “This is confirmed?”
“I endeavored to confirm this all, but there is no water within miles of the Ardere of Ignis that I could read through,” Master Abbot replied. “Were I a hundred years younger, I would travel there myself to verify the details, however, Ignis is a former god, and I am… well, mortal. More mortal every moment, it would seem.”
“I understand,” I assured him. “I only wish to be thorough.”
“As you should be, Dex,” the Master agreed. “But to answer your question, no, I don’t know when or how Cinis intends to descend on Ocadia, only that she poses an imminent threat to our community. She has been plotting against us, and the titan has figured it out, hence why he sent a representative to tell us about it. Should she gain enough power and attack the kingdom at her leisure, the result would be too immense for us to combat without risking hundreds of lives. Ignis’ followers would be blamed, and I can confirm, at the very least, that war would break out between our king and the fire titan. By sending you, we ensure Cinis is caught off guard and dealt with swiftly. As always.”
“I can’t imagine putting a hit on your niece would be the easiest thing to do,” I hummed.
“I agree,” the Master replied, and I scruffed my hair around for a moment while I processed all this.
There were a few descendants I’d met in my lifetime. All of them resided within the kingdom’s city barriers, and all had different strengths and weaknesses. Some were descendants of Venus, who gave fertility and life to the kingdom. Another roamed in the northern quarters and was a descendant of Bacchus, the God of Wine and Ecstasy. Another stemmed from the great Hermes, who helped look after the livestock, and the other a descendant of Erebus, roamed over the eastern quarters and helped the darkness to thrive.
Though several hundred descendants of the gods didn’t live within the kingdom, there were plenty who did.
Still, a direct contact from a genuine titan meant this mission could be the difference between life and death for the masses.
And for myself.
If I wasn’t successful the first time around, I would probably bear the brunt of a thousand flames that would burn into me until I succumbed to death.
“Hmm,” I mused with a furrowed brow. “I suppose this isn’t a job I can reasonably turn down, given the imminent threat to the kingdom.”
“There is more,” the Master poised himself on the desk and looked at me.
“What is it?” I returned somewhat uneasily.
“It can’t look like Cinis was assassinated,” he explained. “Especially not with just a bow and arrow.”
“So, what am I supposed to use?” I asked.
“It’s your choice.” He smiled. “But when all is done, it has to look like you killed her in your own self-defense. Her death should appear to be an unfortunate and sudden occurrence. If the rest of the Ardere, or the fire gods in the clouds, found out she was killed for a price, life would not be worth living for either of us. The gods would have a lot to answer for from their own people, both on the ground and up in the skies. Ignis fears an uprising could occur if this isn’t handled delicately. This is why he’s hired us. We are entirely disconnected from the Ardere, and we are not so official that our actions could be pinned on the king himself. I am told this Ember Priestess has preyed on plenty of innocent passersby who got lost in the Forest of Hud. This time… the prey will win out.”
“I see.” I nodded. “A sword might be better, then.”
“I think so.” He nodded in agreement.
“Master, I have to speak my mind,” I said and stood up from my chair. “Are you certain this is a job we should really be taking on? We don’t usually do staged attacks, and I fear that if anything goes wrong, it will backfire greatly on us.”
“I have thought thoroughly about that,” Master Abbot sighed.
“We
rarely dabble with higher powers,” I continued, “especially descendants of deities.”
“There is a risk in everything we do,” the Master said, stood, and met me around my side of the desk. “But we take them anyway because it is what we have been trained to do. Where others may perish, we tread lightly with great skill to complete the perilous tasks at hand.”
He raised his hand and showed me his palm, and the strange marking reappeared before my eyes and glowed slightly.
I looked at mine, too, but there was nothing there anymore. No symbol or anything. Instead, it was blank, like a clean piece of slate.
“You hurt when I bestowed that mark on you yesterday,” the Master started again. “You trusted the process, and although you have nothing to show for it today, you will in the future. That is the same with this task. There’s a risk that the titans will hear about it, there is a chance the folks in the Ardere will also, but it is a risk we have to take if it means keeping the kingdom out of the clutches of Cinis.”
“For the Kingdom of Ocadia.” I smiled and showed him my palm.
“Everything we do is for the best of Ocadia,” he returned. “And you are the best for the job because you can disguise yourself, which means nobody will even think twice about your appearance around there.”
“I agree,” I nodded. “But I don’t have a uniform. How do we even know what the residents of the Ardere look like?”
The Master pushed his hand up his sleeve and shuffled to the desk. He reached into the last drawer and pulled out a uniform. It was bright red and had live flames that soared from it. He laid it out on the table for me to look at it more closely.
At the top there was a lapelled jacket, which had a tail that dropped to the floor and pooled out into a pit of flames, while the collar reflected a blue heat. The buttons in the middle were made from hot coals and glowed orange and gray. The trousers were fitted, and the cuffs burned just as brightly as the jacket while the top underneath was orange and made of simple fibers. It was the showiest outfit I had ever seen, but showiness had always been a trait of the descendants of gods.
“Wow,” I muttered.
“Quite the showstopper,” the Master graciously responded.
“Does it hurt to touch?” I asked and held my finger near the flame.
“It is entirely made for wearing, it will not burn you,” the Master informed me. “Though I must say, the same can’t be said for the outfits the true villagers of the Ardere wear. So, be careful they don’t touch you, and you don’t touch them.”
“I cannot mirror,” I realized. “I have to just walk in there looking as I am?”
“Not quite,” the Master told me. “Here is another uniform to wear as an alternative. Consider it your insurance, depending on the situation you find yourself in.”
The Master handed me an outfit made from chainmail and leather. It was a lot sturdier and less uncomfortable than the flaming outfit beside it, and a lot less flashy, too.
“What is this?” I asked.
“It is a knight’s uniform from the Kingdom of Altaya in the distant south,” he told me. “Before you leave this kingdom, you will mirror any person of your choosing, and at your convenience, you will don this knight’s uniform once you are on your way. This way, if you find yourself in a situation that becomes rather difficult to get out of, the fallback will lay on a kingdom that is not ours.”
I smirked at the idea and took the garments off the Master, and then I neatly folded them on the desk beside my gold payment.
“Thank you.” I nodded.
“Now, I have other meetings to attend to,” the Master sighed heavily. “Other assassins who have come back from jobs and need their payments. Sleep well this evening and embark before first light tomorrow. The sooner this business is dealt with, the better.”
“I agree,” I said with a nod, and I collected my things. “How do I find Cinis and the Ardere of Ignis?”
“You do not need a map,” the wise man said in a hushed whisper. “I have made a deal with the forest. Travel south a ways and listen to the trees. They shall guide you to where you need to go. When you arrive at the fields, avoid Ignis’ castle at all costs. His representative said Cinis lives apart from the masses in her home near the forest’s edge. It has a flaming roof.”
I bowed in gratitude before I left the Master’s office, but as I headed through the corridors to my room, I barely noticed the weight of the gold I’d just earned today.
The dragonkin felt years behind me, and directly ahead was my journey into the Forest of Hud and to the Ardere of Ignis.
Then staging the death of an Ember Priestess.
I awoke three and a half hours before sunup the following morning.
I thought I would have a restless sleep, but my body seemed determined to keep me at peak performance for my upcoming journey. I slept like a rock, and now I stood before my ivy-covered wall and considered the swords, spears, and throwing stars in front of me.
If I were to kill such a ferocious force, and in the way the Master ordered me to, then a bow and arrow was out of the question.
I thought about the other descendants of deities who lived freely in the kingdom. They were taller than most, but still only by a small part. It wasn’t as if I was killing something as big as the dragonkin, and the descendant would most likely look human like the others. It was the power and strength of this Ember Priestess that I would have to guess on.
I ambled up to the weapons and thought thoroughly about what I might need. I ruled out throwing stars on the basis that I would have to be in close combat with the target, and relying on the throwing stars would mean attacking from a distance and hoping the victim wouldn’t return the fight.
No, I needed something much more reliable than that. Something with more precision.
I filtered my eyes through the rage of pointed metals. The machete was too heavy and would draw too much attention, as with the dao. I held my hand out toward the wall and watched as the ivy retracted a little more. Now, my collection of daggers was fully revealed, and I ran my hand through the many different shapes and sizes until I found the right choice.
It was rather unextraordinary to look at, with a double-edged blade that came to a point. It was made of steel, and the handle was made of brass. It used to have the skull of a goat engraved at the base, but this dagger was my most used backup, and the carving had worn away to just a circular bobble.
I grabbed it off the rack, chose a dagger sheath from the stash in my trunk below, and secured both to my belt. Then I searched for more. This dagger wasn’t going to be my main weapon, but being prepared was the key to survival.
I scooped up another, longer dagger that had just one sharpened edge and a bamboo handle. I secured this one in a second sheath beside the previous choice, and then I looked for my short sword.
My short sword was about eighteen inches long from crossguard to point, and running down the middle of the blade was leather that had been soaked in pig’s blood and tampered with by the alchemists. I had never used it before, but I was told one incision would cause a thousand squeals to be implanted in the chest of the target. The sound would scratch away at the insides of their brains and cause them to implode. It was a rather vulgar method, especially as an assassin, but nevertheless, I unhooked it from the vines and shoved it into another sheath.
Aside from the occasionally tampered with arrowhead, I wasn’t usually apt to using other magic than my mirroring powers on the job. Others in the estate often did to satisfy their own enjoyment when it came to more unsavory targets, and I wasn’t wholly opposed to the idea. I’d actually used strange magical items and mixtures in quite a few jobs in the past, but I just preferred to rely on my raw skills in most cases. This kept me precise and clean in my execution, whereas having too many magical elements in the mix tended to make my peers a bit sloppy with their work.
Still efficient, but sloppy.
However, for such a big task as I had ahead of me, I secured t
he tampered shortsword with the rest of my weapons and went on to find the next.
My eyes caught on the throwing stars once more, and I sighed as I relented and grabbed just one. After all, I’d never been tasked to kill a descendant of the gods before, and if I wanted to ensure my success in defeating this Ember Priestess, then I would have to be more prepared than ever.
The last weapon I chose would be the biggest I brought with me, and ideally, my main tool in combat. I knew it had to be a sword of some description if my staging was to be convincing, and after sweeping through my collection a couple times, I ended up discounting most of them.
It would be either a longsword or a broadsword.
“Which one would work better?” I thought aloud as I weighed the two choices.
My longsword’s blade was black and reflective, and it had a subtle curve midway up. It was good if I needed to get my distance on the beast, but it only had a single edge to it. The curve meant I would need to slice in a certain angle for maximum efficiency, but I didn’t mind that. It was also pretty light weight for its size, and I had used it ample times before, so I was comfortable wielding it with precision. It was overall a reliable and trustworthy blade, and it allowed me to stay a few feet away and still slay my target.
But then there was a broadsword.
The one I had my eye on was gold in color, and not bright like freshly polished gold, but more like the bronzed gold of a statue that had weathered the elements for many years. The blade was both flatter and sharper than my longsword, and although it had a similar curve, it was broader in width. It was also considerably shorter, slightly heavier, and a style that might crop up anywhere in any kingdom.
Which meant I could leave it at the scene of the crime without really leaving any trace as to who it belonged to.
I sheathed the gold broadsword on my belt, adjusted my uniform, and put my garb in my satchel before I set off for the job ahead.
“Going again so early?” Mazne asked from the reception desk, and she stifled a yawn.
“Yes.” I nodded as I reached for the door with a slight urgency.
The sun wouldn’t rise for three more hours, and the forest would be dense and dark at this time of morning, but I didn’t want to waste another moment. I would need all the time I could spare today.
