Celaena's First Mission

The First

She awoke to a rather rude amount of knocking on the door.

She groaned. The sun wasn't even fully up.

"Celaena," a familiar voice called, "Arobynn wants to see you. Now."

Her heart skipped a beat out of fear. But then, she reminded herself, she hadn't done anything wrong, at least not recently. Still, Arobynn was not to be trifled with.

She tossed the sheets off and dressed. Since she was rushing, she only took fifteen minutes, instead of her usual forty.

Ben, who had knocked before, stood at the end of the hall. He didn't chastise her for her liberal use of the word "now," but when she reached him, he ruffled her immaculate hair.

She made an annoyed noise at him, and he just smiled down at her.

She squinted back at him, and then turned down the stairs in the direction of Arobynn's office. She debated saying something, but for once nothing witty came to mind and she couldn't bring herself to ask if Arobynn was angry with her, because that would seem weak and cowardly. So she straightened her back and strutted, trying to psych herself up.

After another minute of walking, she and Ben reached the doors to his office. Ben, ever the gentleman, held one open for her so Celaena could walk in.

"Good morning," Arobynn said simply with a sip of his tea.

"If you could call this ungodly hour morning," she replied cheekily with confidence she never felt around the King of Assassins.

Arobynn regarded her calmly. "After how long it took you to get here, I'd say it's near afternoon."

Celaena fought the swell of embarrassment that colored her cheeks.

"If you're going to be one of my assassin's," he continued, "you're going to have to learn something: I do not like to be kept waiting. Is it truly possible that after four years you don't know this?"

It may have been phrased as a question, but it was a warning. She hung her head.

A pitiful "sorry" slipped out before she could stop it.

And it merited the standard narrowing of the eyes and clipped response of "Don't be sorry; be better."

"That aside, Celaena, you know I have high hopes for you. In fact, I was thinking we could see about that today."

Celaena's ears pricked up. Does he mean..?

"I was thinking it's time for you to have your first mission."

Celaena barely heard anything after those words. Her first mission.

Arobynn continued, giving her the details with no fanfare, but Celaena only half listened. Go to a nearby city, pose as a serving girl, Ben would accompany her, leaving tonight... Finally, finally, after four years of hard work she could prove her worth. She would show them all who Celaena Sardothien was.

Maybe the proper thing to do was go back to her room and pack, but she was glowing with energy. She nearly pranced around the Assassin's Keep, until she "ran into" her rival, Sam Cortland, in the training room. Sam had started going on missions about three months ago when he turned thirteen, though as was customary he worked only in the wings of the missions.

He wasn't Arobynn's protégé.

He was, however, attempting to beat the sand out of the punching bag with relentless kicks and punches in the corner of the large room. Celaena nearly snorted. He would be up this early to train.