Death is only a setback, a warning or punishment most times, it is very rarely the end all be all or permenant unless, made to be so... the one thing that is for certain about death is that it is costly. For those who initiate it, and those who recieve it...By now you should have realize that i know quite a bit about the the art of death dealing for i myself a a procreater of death...I myself have died 4 times, twice by assination, another time in the last revolution, and once by my own hand...again death is expensive but it is only because it is necessary if it was not my brothers of the shadow and myself would find our selves without jobs...
Death is an art that takes dedication, From a young age one must be ready to take on the physical mental, and emotional stress that such a job takes on. i was orphaned, the ebon plague swallowed my family and decided to spit me up, 9 brothers 6 sisters, my mother and father gone...Lucky for me i guess because if they had survived i was destined to starve anyway...Orphaned and alone i wandered the streets day and night searcing for shelter and ofcourse food, thats were Tulvir found me on the streets eating rats to survive...Nothing intricate about our meeting, Tulvir was a simple man it is only now that i realize that he was dying...We served eachothers ends i needed food and shelter, he needed an apprentice carry on his dark legacy...
On our first meeting he held in his hand a loaf of bread, he gave it to me, and i ate it seconds after it touched mine, whole without chewing. Tulvir then asked me to follow him i did but only if he promised more food...He nodded with a dry smirk, a smirk that i would never forget for i would be on the recieving end of it many a time after this night. We traveled threw a few alley ways until we came across another vagrant like me sleeping, he was far more emaciated than me if i had been starving for days this man had been starving for weeks. Tulvir pulled out a dagger, he then asked me if i wanted more food, I sed yes ofcourse because i was starving,
Kill him and i will feed you for the week...
I then asked this old man if he was mad,
He then asked me, Are you?
You are the one who is starving knocking on deaths door, I offer you food and possible shelter and all you have to do is send this poor fools aching belly...
Now I will ask you again are you hungry?
But it would be a sin, I spoke back
A sin? you dont know what sinning is... the act of killing without purpose that's a sin, to kill without skill thats a sin, where the loss in commiting the act far outwieghs the benefits or gains o'thats definitely a sin.
Taking this dagger to this vagrant my boy is not a sin, you are starving this vagrant if you looked closer is dying, I am promising you food and shelter...How many nights he asked do you think you can survive on these streets? It is still unknown yes, but i can tell you this my boy whatever the answer may be it is still far less than what it would be if you did what i ask...I will present my case to you no further take the instrument from my hand if you truly are starving you will make the correct decision for your benefit and your survival.
I reached for the blade hands trembling and took it out his cold coarse hands, I am sorry, I sed as i raised the dagger...
How do i make this quick i dont want him to suffer, the dry smirk again rose to the surface of his face,
Stab there, he pointed to the area between the mans eyes and ears at the side of his face.
The temple he sed stab there and a man will drop faster than a wenches clothes at the Scavengers Thickette ...
I guided my arm to his temple and struck, the dagger seemed to slip into the poor souls skull like a key into a port hole, he never knew what hit him his eyes breifly opened and his body convulse as i moved back half-shocked at what i had done...
Its only death...Life is what you should fear my boy.
He ripped the dagger out of the vagrants skull he held out the bread for me to take, I reached for it then he pulled it back as if he were holding it over my head.
Do you realize the magnitude of what you have just done? He held the held his hands out, This bread and this dagger go hand in hand, they are a pair without eachother they cannot fucntion without one another they cannot exist...Alone they are completely different from what they are together...Never commit the act of Death Dealing without proper benefit to yourself for that woud just be a sin as you decribe before, and never become so engrossed in your gain you over look your own skill for that will for certain result in your death. Remember this as unwritten in the Writ, it is the first lesson i have tought you as your master, my apprentice.
Apprentice i called back tentitively...
Yes i am in need of one and you just signed up for the job Blythe, by incriminatingin that poor fellows assasination by association...
Blythe? Thats not my name!
i am your master i name you, and from now on your name is Blythe love it or hate it Now follow me...I have much to teach you and you dont have much time to learn...and believe me when i say your life depends on it, ill kill you if you prove to be a failure...
Can i have my bread now?
No!
The next 15 years saw me inherit all that tulvir had to offer, he trained me in the art of Death Dealing to best of his ability. My body was trained daily to maximize its acrobatic potential, balance he sed was the key if you, can maintain your balance when you should not have outright have it, then you can never lose it my boy..Many broken bones insued, as mastered the art of maintaining my balance, untill i could do so while upside down it all became natural to me, flips tumbles and turns threw mid air where childs play I marveled at my transformation and my regret for meeting Tulvir lessened a bit...
Next he trained me in the art of stealth, Tulvir was by no means was a master, ofcourse he was proficient in moving without making a sound but his true prowess was that he was a master of disguises who could infiltrate anywhere posing as someone who belonged, his stealth was more about being seen but not being noticed...
My first intiial training was walking threw an alley or part of town were i didnt belong, Tulvir told me I needed to walk as though i belonged there. If done correctly no one troubled me, or even think to questioning my presence, and if mastered, those that did would questioned their own motives because of what I might be capable of walking so boldly in a place were I didnt belong... He would tell me all the time after he watched me beaten to a bloody pulp by local thugs,that stealth is not about invisibility my boy its about the masking of ones true purpose from others.
But everyone can see me thats y i have a half broken jaw.
Thats because this evolution is about outward deterance my boy, if you become someone else you must without a doubt project to everyone around you that who you are pretending to be.
Fuck for a while you must believe it aswell or disguise or not. It wouldnt matter if you used a make up kit or had a magi change you, if you do not play the role to the letter you will be found out and you will be killed...And right now you are pretending to be someone who belongs here in the worst part of town. Outward deterence my boy, even if know to yourself that you do not, make it known that if anyone challenges your presence you will take that sword on your hip and jam it threw their left eye without hesitating, now go!!!
That brings me into the sword before then we spent many our into the night where Tulvir would just pummel me with his rapier while i tried to fight off his blows with a dagger. I would ask where is the fairness in this and he would say there isnt any, but if you learn to fight at a disadvantage it will become natural to you ,and when you seldom have the upper hand you will be a formidable oppenent. I would pant back to him how many things must come natural to me, why cant i pick up things on the fly,
Because those who live life like the fly are ill prepared for this line of work and get swatted out of existence like him, Never be ill prepared or it will eventually result in your death.
I lost a the top of my finger that day i dont know whether it was because i parried wrong, or Tulvir was angry with me...i just know that at the end of day Tulvir put his deathblade on my hand after he treated the wound. Never lose this its the one and only material gift you will ever recieve from me.I think back now he had taken my finger on purpose in order to give me his deathblade it could not work any other way the blade to mask itself when extracted passes on a direct path with the top of the third finger...That meticulous bastard everything was a part of his plan even his death...
I eventually graduated to the rapier after i had become efficient in parrying and dodging his blows with the dagger, he then took out the longsword, then the broadswoard, and when i was proficent against those he pulled out the claymore for me to fend off with my thin rapier. He continually put me at a disadvantage when it came to steel versus steel. Forcing me to always search for a way to equalize the playing field, a flip to his weak side, a dodge toward the inside of his gaurd, I had become an excellent swordman under his tutolage I absorbed all he had to offer but he was always better, i have the scars to prove it... He was a scientist of swordplay amoung other things i could only emulate in the begining i could not dream of surpassing his speed and symmetry with the blade...To this day i have yet to master his famed quickstrike...mine is a mere shadow of his speed and grace. I witnessed him end many marks with it, I can best describe it as him quickly drawing his blade and sheathing it before the foe is even aware, Death before realization or Reaction that is his legacy to me.
Swordplay is not about Power or Speed my boy, its about Dexterity and intellect, think with your blade do not fight with it and you will be unmatched...
The last thing he taught me was the art of poisons, up until he revealed to me he used them i had no idea, but it made sense. For much time i had thought his quickstrike was comparable to the God Hand itself as its death count rose comparably to it, but poisons made it so the quickstrike was the perfect applicator of poisons into the marks system, before they knew it their bodies were introduced to a lethal dose of toxin.
When I had learn all that I could from Tulvir it was not long before i killed him and took his place amoung the Ravens, do not feel sympathy for him, it was the only way and its what he wanted. After all, when we are ready to die the true death none of us want to go softly into that good nite we all want to die as we lived, in shadow and their is no greater give an appentice can give his master than to recieve his Creed (tattoo) upon death. In his defense it took me four attempts he was a damn good assassin afterall, Ill give him that...
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