The Eternal Assassin

Asher had been slightly concerned about finding Audrey and Sefta again within the thick forest after they'd all scattered and ran in different directions chasing down demons. But in the end, he needn't have worried.

All they needed to do was follow the sound of sobbing.

When they finally found them, Asher could only stare at the insane sight before his eyes. One of the lesser demons was frozen from the ground up in a large chunk of ice that left nothing but its head and neck exposed. There was a flimsy, flickering rope in Audrey's hand that appeared as if it were made out of solidified smoke. The clearly skill-based rope was looped around the demon's exposed head, and as a result, the demon was howling and sobbing as though they'd just witnessed something horrifically traumatic.

"I've killed so… so many people!" the demon hiccupped, its black eyes squeezed shut as it thrashed ineffectively from side to side within its icy prison, desperate to get away from the rope that was making it feel guilt for the first time. "Foul woman, release me from these… these sensations!"

"I hate demons as much as the next person, but this somehow feels wrong on multiple levels," Sefta muttered, watching the whole ordeal while leaning against a nearby tree with a frown on her face. "Feels like we're torturing it."

"We are," Audrey said bluntly, yanking on the rope and eliciting another howl from the demon. "As far as we understand, demons have a rather limited range of emotions. They feel hunger, excitement, fear, and pleasure at the expense of others, but not much else. My skill is forcing it to feel guilty for the first time in its entire existence, which could be anywhere from hundreds to thousands of years. No doubt it has plenty to feel guilty about."

"Please, make it stop!" the demon pleaded, shuddering at some invisible memory only it could see. "Please, I didn't know!"

"The guilt will stop once we have our answers," Audrey said, yanking on the rope again and ripping another sob out of the demon as the memories of it eviscerating and slaughtering humans brought it something other than pleasure for the first time in its long life. "Why were you brought to this realm? Why did you attack the caravan?"

"We were summoned to assist a powerful wizard!" the demon said, finally cracking under the mountain of guilt, desperate to do whatever it took to escape. "It's not the first time I've been summoned by this wizard, and he always lets us have a little fun in exchange for doing whatever work he needs done!"

"Is that why you went after the caravan? Was that your idea of 'a little fun?'" Audrey asked, her voice frigid and dangerous.

"No! I mean, yes, but that's not why we attacked it!" the demon hurried to add, the recent memories of what it had done to the caravan seeming to wrack its body with almost physical pain. Asher was pretty certain at this point the only reason the demon didn't have tears and snot streaming down its face was simply because its unique biology wasn't actually capable of such a feat. "The wizard knew the Interloper was in Dormaul, and he suspected he would continue moving deeper into the kingdom. He ordered us to lie in wait and launch three simultaneous attacks on caravans that headed out from that city!"

"What?" Sefta gasped, stepping forward and staring at Audrey with wide eyes. "There were other attacks?!"

"Yes, I got word of all three attacks right after they happened," Audrey confirmed, her eyes never leaving the demon. "Why do you think I reached out to you of all people? Our resources are split a bit thin at the moment."

"I've never heard of somebody summoning so many demons from the lower realms at once," Sefta said, still in shock at the news. "What could possibly call for such a large-scale invasion of demons?"

"What indeed?" Audrey asked, snapping her rope taut again. "Who is this interloper and why does your summoner want them so badly?"

"He is the Interloper!" the demon screeched, nodding directly toward Asher in a way that was impossible to try and talk his way out of. "The wizard wants him because he took-"

If the demon had been in pain before, the blood-curdling howl that erupted from its throat as a glowing violet band around its neck suddenly materialized and tightened, physically burning itself into its flesh seemed to put the pain it felt from guilt to shame. Panting, the demon finally caught its breath as the band vanished, wearily shaking its head.

"I physically can't say," it panted, looking like it had just run a marathon. "The summoning… part of it involved a binding to prevent us from revealing certain things," the demon pleaded, staring at Audrey with a look Asher couldn't quite place on its alien face.

"I figured as much," Audrey said, finally taking her eyes off the demon as she turned toward Asher and Samantha. "In that case, perhaps you can tell us why three caravans of citizens lie dead on the road. Why would someone go to all the trouble to summon dozens of demons and hundreds of imps just to try and get their hands on you? What did you take, and from who?"

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Asher matched the truthseeker's stare, debating how much he should tell the woman. He felt more than a little bad about all the trouble his actions had already caused her and Sefta, not to mention all the innocent lives that had been lost because of him, even if only indirectly. Telling her everything would probably be the right course of action at this point, she could-

"Knock it off!" he demanded, shaking his head as he realized she was using her skill on him again. "Try that on me one more time, and I won't tell you a damn thing!"

"The fact that you are resistant to my Guilty Conscience in the first place raises more questions than you could possibly imagine," Audrey frowned, cancelling her skill. "In all my years as a truthseeker, I've never once met someone who bothered to pick up the guilt resistance."

"I don't have the resistance, it's something else," Asher said, just thankful to feel that powerful guilt eating away at him dissipating. It was jarring, because he did in fact feel guilty about all those people dying because of him. But not nearly enough to spill all his secrets to the truthseeker. It was like her aura skill was capable of taking even the tiniest shred of guilt, magnifying it, and then twisting a person's reactions to said guilt in whatever way she wanted.

He hadn't even known her for an hour and already Audrey was remarkably high on the list of people he wanted to stay far, far away from if possible.

"As requested, you're free of my skill," she said, motioning for him to continue. "Now, why is there a small army of demons roaming the roads in search of you?"

"The Council of Death wants me," Asher said, deciding the truth was the simplest way to get Audrey off his back. She was a powerful warrior, and one he felt they would need at their side in order to help take down the greater demon that was still out there. Not to mention he now knew High Prince Donvath was already aware of this, and he was technically her direct boss. "One of their members is capable of summoning demons, and he's trying to hunt me down."

His declaration got the expected reaction from Sefta, whose jaw dropped as she stared at him with wide eyes.

"The Council of Death? They're real?!"

"Of course they're real," Audrey snapped, her eyes having narrowed the moment he made his declaration. While she didn't look surprised, she looked even more suspicious of him now. "What could you possibly have taken from them to result in such a response? Did you somehow get their hands on one of their phylacteries and didn't have the sense to destroy it? I'd say such a feat was impossible, but clearly you've pissed them off in a way I've never seen before."

"Nothing like that… but I can't tell you what I took," he said, his fingers tightening on his daggers as he prepared himself for anything. "Just know I'm in favor of killing those bags of bones as much as you guys are. We're fighting the same enemy here."

"Can't tell me, or won't tell me?" Audrey asked, her free hand not holding the flickering rope moving down to grip the hilt of her serrated blade.

Everything seemed to slow down for a moment, and not because Asher activated Comprehend's second tier effect. He and Audrey both stood there on hair-thin triggers, simply waiting for the other to launch the first attack. Samantha was beside him, an arrow already nocked and ready to be pointed at the truthseeker if worst came to worst. Sefta was off to the side, her eyes flicking back and forth between Asher and the truthseeker as if she didn't know what to believe anymore or who to help once the first blow was struck. Even the still quietly sobbing demon looked to be on the edge of its seat, despite being completely immobilized.

As silence stretched across the tiny clearing they were in, and everyone waited for the next person to make the first move, an all-out brawl was nearly started from the last source Asher would have suspected.

A quiet, gentle vibrating sound broke the silence, causing all of them to twitch at the unexpected noise. Asher looked around in confusion, trying to pinpoint what sounded like a cell phone vibrating in someone's pocket. From what he could tell, it seemed to be coming from Audrey.

"Uh… are you going to answer that?" Sefta asked, pointing at Audrey with her harpoon. "That's your sending stone, right?"

"I'm a little busy at the moment," Audrey snapped back, her eyes never leaving Asher as she waited for him to try something. The vibrating continued for another ten seconds or so, before finally stopping.

Well, that was-

The vibrating started up again, only this time, it was distinctly coming from Sefta instead of Audrey. With a startled look on her face, Sefta picked up the sending stone by reflex, staring at its face in confusion.

"Uh… this isn't one of my registered stones… How is that possible?"

"There's only one person with the power to reach out to any sending stone they wish," Audrey said, looking a bit caught off guard as she took a half step back. "Answer it you imbecile!"

Nodding, Sefta tapped the stone and held it up to her ear. "Hello?" She stood there for a long moment, listening to whoever was on the other line talk. The longer she listened, the more pale her face became. Once about fifteen seconds had passed, during which Asher, Audrey, Samantha, and the demon all stared at her with bated breath, she turned toward Asher and held out the stone for him with a shaky hand. "It's… it's for you."

Snatching the stone from her palm with a quick use of Distortion that earned a yelp from the already shaken warrior, Asher brought the sending stone up to his ear, already suspecting who he was going to find on the other line.

"This is Asher," he said, feeling more than a little weird talking into a rock as if it were a phone. "Dare I ask who I have the pleasure of speaking with at the moment?"

"Asher, this is High Prince Donvath," a strong, confident voice replied directly into his ear, with just a hint of frantic worry behind it. The magic of the sending stone made it sound as though Donvath was standing directly beside him, rather than his voice being carried through a receiver.

"I suspected as much," Asher said, gripping the stone just a bit more tightly. He knew Donvath had at least some sort of interest in him after the man had given Bordan a letter to deliver to him, but he didn't know just how far that interest went. Seeing as Donvath had tried to reach him through both the sending stone of a truthseeker, and then a noblewoman who was part of the head family of one of the cities, it would seem the High Prince was a bit more invested in him than he'd originally thought. "Why are you calling? No, forget that, why are you so interested in me?"

"I literally don't have time to explain," Donvath said, the sound of paper rustling in the background audible through the sending stone. "The greater demon is coming for you, and you're not ready. You need to get out of there right now, or you're all going to die."