A Song of Silence

Chapter 100: A Death in the Dark

We're at the 100th chapter!!! This achievement is amazing and I couldn't do this without each and every one of you. As a special thanks, I will be thanking 5 people in this chapter!!!
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I was stunned and shocked at the fact that I had just stabbed my own fucking father. The dagger had slid through his rib cage and then, to his heart. It was quick and painless and much less than he deserved. The blank, glazed eyes that now stares up at me had been so different moments before. Less than a minute ago they had been filled with hatred and anger. The eyes are the windows to the soul and my fathers eyes were now glassy and blank. His eyes had reflected the true evil that he was, but now, now they were blank and it was quite eerie.

My father was dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. The word replaced the one that had been repeating in my head all this time. The man that I hated more than anyone else in the world and he lay dead underneath me by my own hand. I would have laughed and kept for joy if I felt the emotion or wasn't pinned down by the broadsword in my stomach. Oh yeah. Looking down, I finally felt the pain that I should have. My dead fathers broadsword was now sticking out of my stomach and our combined blood was forming a pool around us. Pure agony swept through me as the combined pain from my missing hand and the pain in my abdomen finally caught up with me.

Leveraging myself up in my one good arm, I pulled myself off the the sword leaving the referee and the crowd to have a full view of my dead father. Stunned silence met me as the crowd paused, stunned. They had it thought I would actually be able to vanquish the Grand Assassin. I hadn't thought I could either, but here we were. The referee put her hands to her throat and announced to the silent crowd, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner!!!" Her voice echoed off the stone walls of the colosseum. Nobody spoke. Nobody made a sound. Looking up, the assassins situated in the walks above looked down at me with admiration. Maybe even respect, but they all stayed silent.

The blood loss from my wounds were starting to get to me. I swayed in my feet and did everything possible to stay upright. I could not faint. Not now. "Well? Aren't you going to kneel to your new lordess?" A voice said behind me. A small smile crept to the corners of my mouth. Turning around, Karasi stood, hands on her hips, and full of attitude. The small smile on my lips turned into a full blown grin, despite the agony I was in. Doing as they were told, everyone in the stands and within sight kneeled in reverence for their new lordess. Well, I had to be appointed first, but semantics.

Clapping her hands, Karasi gestures to my bleeding abdomen and torquineted hand, "Someone get a healer now, don't you fools realize that your new Grand Assassin is bleeding everywhere?" With my father now dead, the assassins were supposed to look to me for instruction. Instead, they and everyone in the vicinity immediately rushed to do as Karasi had ordered. It was no surprise that they had done so. Among the lower classes and especially among assassins, a seer was revered and was like a holy figure. They earned any assassins respect and obedience because a seer saw all and if Karasi decided that she wanted to end the Assassins guild by informing our targets that they were being hunted, she very easily could take down the guild.

Finally, a healer in white arrived on the sand pit and rushed towards me. I recognized her, Maia, my fathers personal healer for the keep. She had served my father, very unwillingly, for a large number of years and no doubt hated my guts because I was his blood. She was especially religious and no doubt the only reason she tended to me now was because she viewed disobeying a seer as sacrilegious.

She places her hand on my abdomen and starts her work. A breathy moan escaped my mouth before I can stop it. Damn that feels good. Her healing powers soothe away my aches and scrapes from the battle. Not to mention, the stabbing, throbbing pain in my wrist and stomach are quickly eased. Breathing immediately becomes easier as my ribs mend and my exhaustion quickly fades. Damn, I had forgotten how good it felt to be magically healed instead of stitching myself up with some thread and a needle. I grab Maia's hand before it can be on my stomach too long. "Leave the scars," I whisper to her, "I want to remember."

My body was a map of scars from my head to my toes and it was by design. Being magically healed could remove scars from the body, but I had refused to be tended by any healer in the past unless they swore to let the scars remain. They were the roadmap of my entire existence. Every scrape, bump, bruise, and scratch had a story to go along with it. It was sacrilege to try to do away with those stories and memories, no matter how painful they had been to receive. Maia nodded quickly as something appeared in her eyes, admiration perhaps? Ducking her head from my field of view, she quickly went back to work. Karasi waited next to me until Maia was done working on most of my body and grimaced as Maia moved to my hand.

The flesh around where my hand used to be smoothed over into a stump. Maia looked over to Karasi when she said, "I am sorry, my lady, but I cannot regrow her hand." I had thought this would be the case, but now that Maia confirmed that I would only have one hand for the rest of my life, I truly mourned the loss of the appendage.

Karasi looked over at my missing hand mournfully before saying, "I am sorry, Aerilynn."

I shrug my shoulders and thank Maia before dismissing her, "It is alright. I knew what might happen when I entered the duel. At least I did not lose my head." I say the last part as joke, trying to lighten the mood. Karasi only glares at me as she hears my poor attempt at a joke. Turning to the silent, watchful crowd around us, I realize that they are waiting for my next order.

The referee comes up to Karasi and I and asks, "Well, Lady Grand Assassin? What will your first order be?"

Lowering my voice, so that nobody but she can hear me, I say, "Leave my fathers body for the crows. It's more than he deserves. And get the bloodmancer. We have heritage to check." My last order puzzles her, but she places her hands to her throat and announces my wishes for the entire stadium to hear. At hearing my last order, the stadium bursts into mutters and questions. Why do I need a bloodmancer? They will soon see why. The bloodmancer is quickly brought the sand where Karasi and I stand.

He looks around nervously, "What may I do for you Lady Grand Assassin?"

I gesture to Karasi, "You may test her blood."

He looks puzzled by my request, "For what, if I may ask, my lady."

"For paternity"

Still confused, he goes to do as I say. Gesturing for Karasi to hold out her hand, he pricks it carefully and drops the blood into a vial. Turning to me, he asks, "And who's blood shall I compare it to?"

I walk over to my fathers dead body and pick up his hand. I turn it over and say, "his." Grimacing at having to be near his former lords dead body, he reluctantly pricks my fathers flesh and drips his blood into the vial as well. It glows a vivid red almost immideately. The crowd looks shocked at this predicament. Two children of the former lord? One a seer a d the other a far who had just killed him in a duel. Who would they swear allowance to? Well, I would make it easy for them, "I, Aerilynn Maeve StormBringer give up any and all claims to the Assassin throne in favor of my sister, Lady Karasi SightSeer!"