The Eternal Assassin

The three of them spent the rest of the evening relaxing in Draken's manor and going over their new purchases. Asher required some significant assistance getting his clothing on without his hands, but a giggling Samantha was up to the challenge. Thoroughly exhausted from a long day of roving the market, they went to bed before long, which meant they were up bright and early for day two of their shopping spree.

While Samantha didn't let Brian purchase any of the explosive arrowheads being sold by a joint alchemist and fletcher duo, much to their depressed faces, she did allow him to grab a lot of quality materials used for fletching his arrows. Brian had had his bow on him when he fled the village, but most of the arrows he'd painstakingly put together had no doubt burned down with the cabin.

Asher assumed Samantha was hoping he'd be able to busy himself crafting new ones in the coming days rather than think about Horntho village.

Other than the arrows, Brian seemed to have more fun just pointing out cool things around the market for them to look at. With his fingers halfway regenerated on his right hand and capable of at least holding a dagger again, if not very well, Asher felt confident enough to let Crush sit this shopping trip out. Thus, the three of them spent a second fun day not thinking about their home being burnt to the ground and almost everyone they'd ever known having been torn to shreds by demonic invaders.

It was obvious to him that Samantha was trying to put on a brave face for Brian, but he was curious if Samantha had picked up on the fact that Brian was largely trying to do the exact same for her. Whenever the other wasn't looking, he noticed the sudden falters of the constant smiles, or the way their expressions grew dark for the briefest of moments before they collected themselves. Asher hated seeing either of them act this way, but he had no idea what to do. He'd worked with corpses, back on Earth, he was about as far from a therapist as one could possibly get. He knew they needed to talk to one another, to come to terms with the horrible tragedy that had befallen them, but he had no idea if it was too soon to try and encourage them to do so.

For now, he decided to let them decide when it was time to finally have that conversation. Draken had agreed to shelve the issue of what they were going to do about the Guild until Owl finally returned with more details for them, which meant Asher probably still had a couple of days that he could devote wholly to trying to keep their spirits up.

Naturally, it was while he was distracted brainstorming ideas of where they might possibly want to go next within the city, that he received a rather unwelcome surprise.

While Samantha was distracted with one of the merchants, discussing the benefits of using griffin hair as a material for bowstrings with Brian at her side, Asher looked to the side and froze as he spotted a familiar face staring back at him.

Barely three dozen feet away, looking just as shocked as he was, was Bordan. Rather than his usual set of gleaming plate armor that would have caused him to stick out like a sore thumb, the truthseeker wore regular clothes that made him look like any other civilian. Other than the greatsword strapped to his back and his bulging, muscular frame, of course. Even so, carrying odd looking weapons wasn't nearly as noticeable as walking around in a full suit of armor, and the majority of people didn't spare him more than a passing glance as they went about their shopping.

Bordan spotted him at the same time he did, and the truthseeker froze mid-bite from a steaming bun he was carrying, the filling bursting out the other end and falling out onto the ground.

Neither of them seemed to know what to do for a moment, and Asher immediately triggered Comprehend's second tier ability to buy himself time to think.

Okay… That's Bordan, of all people, standing right over there. Clearly, seeing as he's sans armor, he's either undercover, or visiting the market as a civilian rather than a truthseeker. Based on the clear shock frozen on his face, it's safe to assume he wasn't actually looking for me, which is definitely a good sign.

The bad news is that I have Samantha and Brian with me. I am not about to let the truthseekers catch wind of anyone 'The Reaper' is associated with, which means I can't let him see the two of them talking to me. Not to mention I only have half a functioning hand at the moment. I can't risk taking a fight right now even if I wanted to.

The real question is, what is Bordan going to do?

The last time he'd spoken to the truthseeker, the two of them had come to a tense, shaky truce. Bordan had made it quite clear that he believed Asher needed to pay for his part in the collapse of Loratta's compound that had claimed dozens of innocent lives, but he also understood that his own skill set was a bad matchup for taking him down, and that he personally couldn't kill him. Instead of fruitlessly continuing to try, he helped Asher by letting him listen in on an interrogation of one of the senior assassins, before pointing him in the direction of the fourth ring when they discovered Eight had a connection with the most powerful noble family in the city. It seemed despite being one of the highest powers in the kingdom, the truthseekers weren't quite as all-powerful as most were led to believe. Rather than navigating the paperwork required to gain access into the Frent family estate and losing Eight's trail, Bordan had all but encouraged Asher to go after the Finger on his own instead.

All that to say, when the two of them locked eyes, Asher had no idea if Bordan would whip out his greatsword and try to cleave him in half right there in front of hundreds of happy market-goers, or if he would simply pretend like he hadn't even seen him and continue walking.

In the end, Bordan did neither.

As Asher's skill wore off and time sped back up, Bordan slowly lowered the bun from his mouth and tossed it in a nearby waste bin, before turning and making a beeline straight for him. He made no move to unsheath his sword, however, which was a good sign.

Mentally stopping himself from glancing over at Samantha and Brian as they talked to the shopkeeper, Asher made sure his arms were tucked within his cloak as he went to meet the truthseeker halfway. The last thing he wanted was Bordan catching a glimpse of the state he was in and deciding to try his luck again at killing him.

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The two of them met in the center of the crowded market, standing barely a few feet away as they stood face to face, both waiting for the other to say or do something. Asher felt like the situation should have felt far more intense, but there was something about all the loud, friendly chatter and merchants hawking their wares all around them that just made it feel like he was meeting an acquaintance he didn't quite get along with. Bordan seemed to feel the same way, as he cleared his throat.

"Shopping, are you?" he asked, peering around as if checking to ensure there wasn't a gang of hidden assassins following in his wake.

"Yep." Asher nodded, doing the same as he tried to make sure Clare wasn't sneaking up behind him or anything. "Where's Clare?"

"Surely you know I'm not going to answer that," Bordan said, blinking as he realized what words had just come out of his mouth. With a sigh, he shook his head, his eyes bouncing between all the nearby people. "We shouldn't talk here. Follow me."

"To hell with that. If you want to chat, follow me," Asher countered, turning and heading off to the edge of the market. He made sure to move away from Samantha and Brian, and he could only hope they didn't grow worried when they couldn't find him and start looking. He didn't actually know if Bordan would end up following him or not, but it seemed the truthseeker was as confident as ever in his own abilities, as he fell in line without hesitation.

Asher led them out of the crowd and into one of the nearby alleyways. The moment they turned the bend and out of sight of the public, he slipped into the astral without even looking behind him.

Narrowly dodging the massive overhead swing from Bordan's greatsword.

Rolling his eyes, Asher walked a few feet away before turning around and letting Astral Dip end.

"Was that really necessary?" he asked, nodding toward the massive gash that Bordan had inadvertently cut out of the ground. He'd almost gone to gesture with one of his hands, and barely managed to stop himself at the last second before revealing the state he was in. "We've already established you can't kill me, and now some poor city worker needs to fix that."

"Can't fault me for trying." Bordan frowned, resheathing his greatsword and crossing his arms. "And the city employs people with Earth and Stone elements. They can quite literally fix that with a wave of their hand."

Huh, I hadn't thought about that. Asher briefly wondered just what construction must look like in this world with so many unique skills and elements before putting the thought aside for the moment.

"Don't you want to know how it went with the Frent estate and Eight?" Asher asked, raising an eyebrow. "You do realize if you had managed to kill me, you'd never know, right?"

"I see you've already forgotten Clare has a Death element," Bordan said bluntly. "You have no idea what we're capable of."

"You know… Fair point." Clare had let slip earlier that she was able to see the moments leading up to a person's death, but he had no idea what her other skills were. Presumably, she didn't have a Death Aura like Draken, as he imagined she would have tried using it on him at some point by now. Maybe she did have a skill that would let her just freely chat with a dead person.

Silence stretched between them for a few seconds before Bordan sighed, letting his arms fall to his sides. "Alright… What happened with the Frent estate and Eight? Were they harboring him? I tried to gain access myself, but as I expected, they gave me the run around. Though they seemed particularly startled, as though something big had happened that they wanted to cover up."

"The lead was good. The ink Eight was using was in fact coming from someone within the Frent family. But they weren't Eight," Asher explained, enjoying the annoyed look on Bordan's face before continuing. Bordan was the only reason he'd managed to find Eight in the first place, so he didn't mind telling him the end result. "I did manage to track down Eight after speaking with them, however, and I took care of him. I can confirm, Eight died by my hand."

"You honestly managed to kill him?" Bordan asked, looking suspect. "Would you mind repeating that?"

As the words left his mouth, a familiar circle of energy spread out around him as he activated his Ring of Truth skill. Normally, the ring would force anyone standing within it to tell the truth, and the skill was even strong enough that simply remaining silent wasn't an option.

Thankfully, Asher had picked up evolved truth resistance the last time he'd met with Bordan. Combined with his evolved Complete Resilience, that meant the skill was more of an annoyance than anything. But while he wasn't compelled to speak the truth anymore, he knew Bordan could still tell if he was lying.

"I killed Eight myself," he repeated, earning a surprised look from Bordan. "The man had a really weird set of elements. Mold and Rat for sure, and most likely something like Potion or Alchemy for a third. In fact, there are a couple of mutated rats he was feeding some concoction to that are still running around within the sewer. Might want to have someone clean those up before they hurt anything."

"Thank you, I'll do that." Bordan nodded. "Anything else I should know?"

Asher hesitated, wondering if he should admit that Owl contacted him and Draken and let them know he was technically the new Finger in charge of Whikoga. He had a vague plan of hunting down and killing the remaining Fingers and the Head just because it sounded like it would be fun, and while getting the truthseekers on his side to help with that might not be the worst idea, he wanted to give it some more thought first.

"That's all I'm willing to tell you," Asher said with a shrug, ignoring the pesky sensation of Ring of Truth trying to pull the information out of him. Bordan would know if he uttered a lie, so he might as well stick with the truth. "So what now?"

"Seeing as you actually took care of Eight, and I'm not capable of killing you myself, there's only one thing I can do right now," Bordan said, narrowing his eyes. Asher prepared himself for anything, but he was still caught off guard when Bordan bowed his head almost ninety degrees.

"As a truthseeker of the Noala Kingdom, I thank you for your service in ridding this city of a monster such as Drip, and extend a message to you, from the head of our organization, High Prince Donvath himself."

Wait, what? Asher blinked, staring dumbly at the sealed envelope Bordan was holding out to him as the truthseeker continued.

"High Prince Donvath personally handed me this missive before I left the capital, with the instructions to give it to 'the man who gave up his hands for Whikoga,'" Bordan said as he stood up straight, his eyes flicking to where Asher was hiding his injuries under his cloak. "I think I can safely assume that has to be you, at this point."