The Adventures of Nightgirl

11: School

~

Smoke wafted through the room that Ashley stood in. The air here was thin, dry, and bitter it brought goosebumps to her arms and neck. She wore thin black clothes with no leather or steel embellishments. The ceiling was high, and the cavern was dimly lit, however her eyes could pick out the faint outlines of the other ghuls standing around the edges of the room. Her hand itched to go to the moonstone necklace that hung under her shirt, however her body was trained to remain unwavering in its stillness.

"Welcome, daughter of the night."

At the sound of her master's rasping voice Ashley bent at the waist, holding the pose until a pair of black leather shoes came into view.

"Stand child, and let me see your face."

Ashley stood slowly, meeting the face of Ra's Al Ghul. It was handsome, not at all what she had been expecting after hearing his raspy voice. This man looked regal, fatherly even. Her blue eyes met his black bottomless ones, and she could suddenly sense a great darkness within him, one that almost cost her the hard earned composure that she always maintained.

"My daughter tells me that you are the top of your class, and during the recent attack on our Nuprene strong hold, you saved her life? Is this true?"

Ashley looked him in his ghostly eyes and nodded slowly saying.

"Yes master."

A smile broke across Ras' face, and he reached a hand out to Ashley, nodding kindly, inviting her towards him.

Carefully the young woman took his hand, and waited to see what would become of her.

"Then I am indebted to you. From this day, until you enter your grave to become a member of my court, I will personally uphold your training, I am adopting you."

Ashley's knees felt weak as the gathered group of assassins gasped. Her classmates stared at her with respect, and most with a little with disdain. There had never been a child adopted by Ra's, he regarded them all as stock to be traded and trained.

Suddenly the room shifted under her feet and she was falling into a deep well of shimmering gray.

"Have you finished with your fun Shadow? The time draws near for our plans to unfold, and our father is calling you home."

Opening her mouth, she was surprised to find that her voice was strong and clear.

"I am not coming back Nys, I will never go back to that place, not after what he did to Able ."

A cold female chuckle echoed through her mind in response.

"Foolish girl, he was helping you. That human samurai was making you weak. Besides the master will not allow his little Shadow to slip away. "

~

Ashley woke before her alarm in a cold sweat, her body was coiled tight, and her hands were bloody from being scratched by her finger nails. Sitting up slowly, she took a deep breath and looked around. The room was empty, however Nyssa Al Ghul's voice was unmistakable in her mind.

The oldest daughter of Ra's Al Ghul, and her primary mentor, had called her home to the the mountain lair of the Assassins.

Standing briskly, she pulled out the neat black pile of clothes from the backpack under her bed and rifled through it until she found a small black pouch.

Upending the contents of the pouch into her hand she felt tears start too leak down her cheeks. There, sitting in the center of her palm was the moonstone necklace given to her by Abel, a green jade shard from his sword, and the note he had wrote her before leaving to infultrate the Japanese government.