Chapter Text
I’ll never forget the first time that I saw him. A blur of green and scarlet chasing a wayward carriage. I can still hear the five gunshots ringing off in the air. I can clearly recall the scent of gunpowder wafting throughout the area as a barrel in the center of the square spontaneously combusted.
Red blurred against green as men, women, and children fled the area. Not me though. Because of course I didn’t.
When the fight slowed enough for me to make out his face, recognition flooded my mind. His visage was one I’d seen sketched on countless parchments calling for his immediate capture. He’d been deemed a vigilante. More than that actually.
An assassin.
A streak of blood sullied his spotless sleeve as he landed a hard strike against a bulky man’s head. Another red-clad man attempted to sneak up behind him, and he was swiftly met with a crushing blow to his sternum, delivered by the assassin’s elbow.
The rational side of me was begging and screaming for me to run. My mind incessantly reminded me that self-preservation was key. I don’t know why, but for some reason that I can’t quite place, my feet stayed firmly planted to the ground.
The agent of death plowed through his challengers with ease, cutting and hacking away at them with wild, yet precise, abandon. As the last man slumped over, the assassin turned and stared directly at me. He narrowed his eyes, seemingly assessing an invisible threat. He must have deemed me harmless, because after a brief once over, he was gone.
Whistles and the sounds of hooves clomping against pavement finally spurred my legs into motion. As I fled the area, I couldn’t help but reflect on what I’d just witnessed. Who was that man? Why was he chasing that carriage? How did he single-handedly murder an entire band of people?
I never could’ve imagined that I’d see him again, and receive answers to all of these questions, as soon as I did.