Petals of Poison

One - Achlys

The streets of Caladan take on a special kind of quiet at night. It's the kind of peaceful quiet you experience right as your about to fall asleep. It never lasts long here.

Cities like Caladan can't afford to sleep. The people unfortunate enough to live here are at the bottom of the barrel, piecing together scraps just to make ends meet.

It's what makes us dangerous.

We're desperate. We have a tendency to take jobs that reflect that.

Our streets are packed with assassins and folks willing to do your dirty work. And I do mean dirty.

You got a body to hide? This is where you come. We don't have the luxury of asking questions. If you're willing to pay, we're willing to help.

Myself included.

I'm one of our infamous assassins. I'm also one of the most lethal.

These streets raised me. I'd like to say my parents did that, but they were six feet under by the time I was seven.

Still, I was one of the lucky ones. Many children will die on these streets before they're able to take on the jobs we have here. Any kid who survives their first year is forced to become everything they feared, just to survive.

Teivel took me in when I was eight, a year after my parents died. He taught me everything I know, including how to kill. And how not to get caught doing it.

I've worked under him at the assassins gild for the past decade. I've had to kill more people than I care to admit during that time. But I don't regret it. It was me or them, and I don't want to die.

Teivel gives me my assignments, I get them completed within his set amount of time, and in exchange he lets me stay. I get a cut of the profits he makes from my kills. It's enough to buy food and new weapons, but not enough to get my own place. I don't know if I'd want one anyway. I like living with Teivel. He's nicer than half the men you'll run into in this city.

He didn't have to take me in, but he did anyway and I am forever grateful for it.

Besides, other than the constant threat of loose stones falling on you, the place is pretty nice. I get my own room, and I'm near the other boys too. They're my family. Not by blood, but by choice.

Balis and I have had a lot of good memories in these halls. We'd come back from nights at the taverns stumbling and slurring to all the gods. Teivel'd storm out and rip into us before handing us each glasses of water to sober up with and walking us back to our rooms. There's enough broken windows around here and there's been more than a few drunk run ins with them.

Gregor has the rooms next to me. I've never had a problem with him, he's just so loud. There's girls here, too. Though, they're on the other side of the building.

Some of the girls have fierceness to rival a bear's. Odine, especially. That woman's someone you don't want to have to deal with. She'll play with your mind, pushing you into a rage, and use it to her own advantage. She makes you sloppy. It's not a fight you'll win, no matter how much brute strength you have backing you up.

As for my part of the job, I completed my last assignment two nights ago so I'm due to get my next tonight. I quickly throw on some shoes and straighten up before I step out of my rooms. The trek from my rooms to Teivel's study takes me through narrow staircases and past many broken windows. The state of the place is the least of his concerns, but he takes care of the people in it.

Even so, it's still not half bad. The cracks are part of the aesthetic.

When I walk in, he's sat behind his desk, diligently pouring himself over a new book.