"Know only that Noroi had seen dark and terrible deeds, and that there was blood on Noroi's hands that would never wash off."

-Chapter 32 of We Four Freaks

It's cold out here. I mumble a curse as I wrap the cloak around me all the tighter. It just has to be winter. I glance at the cold, bare trees that run along the path. It's a very quiet night, and the only sound I hear is my horse's hooves clattering against the rocky path.

It does not take long for my horse and I to reach our destination. It is a little-known pub not far from the path, known as the Witch's Brew. In complete contrast to the intimidating area around us, the large wooden building looks strangely warm and inviting, with a warm light visible from the window inside of the establishment. There are only four horses standing outside the building, tied to a pole by their reigns to keep them from running away.

I soon add my horse to that pole, and walk up to the building. At the entrance are two large and clearly strong men, both of them currently eyeing me curiously. I suppose that is to be expected, I've only just turned twenty. I must look young to be visiting such an establishment. When I walk up to them, the one on the left demands to know what I am doing here.

I know what he's doing. He may have sounded cruel, but that was the point. Things could get rough in a pub, so they wouldn't let the spineless in. As such, I force myself to look directly in his eyes as I tell him that he has no right to know that information. He stares at me tensely for almost five seconds, but he eventually grins as he opens the door. "Good answer."

I have to fight my instinct to thank anyone that compliments me. 'Tough' guys wouldn't do that, so I just pass by him as if he didn't say anything.

The inside the pub is surprisingly inviting, with several round tables surrounded by empty chairs. It's clearly a slow night tonight, there's only one customer sitting by the bar. He's obviously been here for a while, as evidenced by the large beer mug in his hand and the precarious angle of his swaying body. I fight the urge to choose a seat far away from the drunk. That would be a sign of weakness. If I don't upset him, he wouldn't be any harm.

As I sit down, the barkeep enters the room. I'm surprised to see how tall this brute of a man is. He clearly doesn't need a bouncer to keep things from getting out of hand. If that happened, he looks like he would just walk over to the troublemakers and physically throw them out of the pub himself.

He looks down at me with amusement in his eyes. "Hmm, quite a scrawny young man to be in such a place."

I look him directly in the eye as I tell him I'm not here to drink, but for 'other services'. This only makes him grin wider. "Oh ho, boy. You're looking for a good time tonight then? Fortunately, there's one girl 'on duty' tonight. That'll be five thousand gillah up-"

I don't let him finish the sentence. I have to give the code before he mentions the name of the girl that's 'offering her services', otherwise there is a very slight chance the drunk next to us might realize something is up. "I prefer the girl known only as 'Bloody Mary'."

THAT gets a reaction from the barkeep. He visibly flinches, but after giving a quick glance at the drunk next to me he says what I know he will. "Oh, so she's your style?"

I nod, forcing myself to give a slight smirk. Maybe it's me being paranoid, but even the drunk knowing what was going on would probably be a bad thing. Alright, I'm supposed to say . . . "She may have a temper, but she never fails to please."

As the barkeep gives a slight grin back, the drunk next to us addresses me. "Ah, like 'em feisty now do yeh?"

I ignore him, as does the barkeep. To my relief, the barkeep then gets out from behind the counter and tells me to follow him. I get up, and he leads me down a hallway and out of the drunk's hearing range. To the drunk, it probably looked like I'm going in here for 'a good time'. Once we are sure the drunk can't hear us, he speaks quietly to me. "You're the fourth one today. Last one was about an hour ago."

I cock my head to the side. Really? "It was done in that amount of time?"

The barkeep shakes his head no. "The last one made a big mistake. You can't call an assassin a 'yellow-bellied coward what hides in a pub' and live to tell about it. Now because you're young, and because I do not enjoy picking up after one of his tempers, I want to give you some pointers. Don't mouth off to him, DO show him respect, and do not - I repeat, do not - name a price you can't pay."

I nod. It's all stuff I know, but the fact that he is warning me tells me that the assassin is likely still in a bad mood. However, there is one more thing I want to be sure about before I meet this assassin. "I got the information on him from a . . . friend of mine. My friend mentioned to not judge the assassin by his age. Am I right in assuming the assassin's younger than me?"

The man nods again, confirming what I was told. "That is correct. He's sixteen, but he's got quite a few kills under his belt. He's been trained from a very young age in his job. After all, this is his family's tradition."

I nod again. I heard that too, how this kid had been rigorously trained by both his mother and his father in this art. I had also heard how, when told to assassinate their own child, his parents accepted the job, yet the child managed to kill not only them, but also those that gave the order.

"Alright, he's in here."

I can't help but gulp as the man nods to the room in front of us. The old wooden door is closed, and the man tells me to stay back a bit before he opens the door a crack and peers inside. "Noroi? You've got a customer."

Now, if I'm going to be completely honest with myself, I may be a bit nervous by this point. I've never done anything like this before. I've never been in such dangerous territory. When I hear the boy spoke, his voice reminds me of two cold stones grating against each other.

"Send them in."

With that the man steps back from the door and gestures for me to enter the room. I gulp as I walk to the door and look in the room. In the small wooden room are two chairs, both of which looked like they had been in use for a good deal of time. I gulp as I finally see the person sitting in the chair farthest away from the door.

He is younger than I am. He's also a bit shorter than I am, but that's not what gets my attention. His red eyes, almost hidden underneath a mess of short white hair, are both boring holes into my forehead. He's wearing a simple green tunic that looks homemade, and a very short pair of tight brown trousers.

He's sitting rather unprofessionally, slouching on the chair as much as it allows. He has a large strap that goes from his right shoulder to his left side. I can very clearly see the hilt of a sword poking out from behind his shoulder. He must have attached the scabbard of the sword to the strap.

Of course, I notice this all in just a few seconds. I know well not to stare at him for too long. Instead I enter the room, forcing myself to not shudder as the barkeep closes the door behind me. I don't stand still though. Instead I walk to the empty chair and take a seat. During the time I'm doing that, the boy doesn't say or do a thing. His eyes never leave my body. He clearly won't let me out of his sight for any amount of time.

I have to say, I'm really impressed. Every time I make a move, his eyes immediately focus on whatever part of me is moving. He pays close attention to my hands, and I can tell he's taking me in. When I unconsciously grasp my cloak, he whips up his left arm and grabs the hilt of his sword. It's only when I focus and notice that I am holding my cloak that I stop, and I have to force back a sigh of relief as the boy's stance relaxes slightly.

I have to be more careful. If I make a move that appears aggressive in any way he will obviously kill me. Just that unconscious act could have gotten me killed if he hadn't restrained himself. Once I'm sitting down, the boy addresses me. "Name's Noroi. Yours?"

I inwardly gulp at the question. I didn't want to tell him that, and while I had a fake alias planned out, I'm a bit wary of lying to him. As such, for the next five seconds I give him no answer, as I try to determine how to do this. To my surprise he pushes past it, although I can already sense his disapproval of me.

"I do not like repeating myself, so listen well. First and foremost is this. I do not know why you want my services, and I do not want to know. Don't try to tell me. Are we clear?"

I gave a clear 'yes', and he shifted his position slightly in the chair. "Good. Do you have a picture of my target?"

I nod to him, but as I hastily reach into my cloak he swiftly returns his hand to the hilt of his blade. I freeze in place, and after a few seconds he speaks curtly to me. "Slower,or I will slice you in half."

I flinch, but I do comply. It makes sense after all. Being an assassin, he probably knows just how quickly someone can kill someone else. He clearly has a hair trigger, and he sees me moving too quickly as dangerous on his part. So I deliberately take my time in grabbing out the picture, trying to be careful about not making any sudden moves. The entire time I do so, he has his hand on the hilt of his blade.

I eventually grab out the picture and get it into view. His left hand slackens its grip on the sword, and as I hold the picture out he grabs it with his right hand. He quickly brings the picture to his face, and I inwardly gulp as I see his eyes widen in clear shock. I expected him to be shocked, but this is going to be the deciding factor. Is he going to refuse?

Noroi instead looks at me, and I watch as his eyes focus on mine. He's obviously suspicious of me now, even more-so than he had been before. "Is this a joke?"

I immediately shake my head no, and watch as he looks back at the picture once before looking at me. When I see the annoyance in his eyes, I shudder. Did I just sign my own death warrant? "Do you have the slightest idea what you are proposing?"

I nod, but as he frowns I cock my head to the side. "Are you saying you won't do it?"

Noroi gives me a fierce glare. As my life flashes before my eyes, he speaks to me. "I would have to be paid."

I frantically nod at that comment. "Of course, I have every intention of paying you! I-"

He cuts me off as he looks back at the picture. "Before the 'would you pay' is the 'could you pay'. I could do the job. I have no doubt in that. But I price my kills by the target, taking into account the difficulty of the job and the amount of attention my kill would bring. This would be a very difficult job, and the amount of attention this would bring . . . every last person in Astaria would be searching for the killer. You don't have the slightest idea how much this would cost you. How could you possibly expect to -"

I have heard enough. I reach up and undo the tie holding the cloak on me, and as it falls away Noroi immediately stops talking, instead looking at me in very clear shock. I grin as I show him the ring on my finger, signifying my presence in the social ladder. It takes a long time, but as I reach down for the cloak I decide to test the water. "Well, I was under the belief that the amount of gillah you would request would be very much, likely enough to live in the lap of luxury for the rest of your life. It would be the last kill you would ever need to make, and -"

While I am much more confident at this point, the instant he says 'no' all of my bravado shatters. "W-what? I can pay it, I assure you that! It would be no trouble on my end at all!"

Noroi looks at me, and I'm surprised to find he looks even more suspicious of me. "We've now established the 'could you pay'. But that fact alone makes me question the 'would you pay'. This is a very dangerous game of power you're playing, I hope you realize. If you are willing to risk the fate of our kingdom like this, the very fact that I know of your intentions makes me a big threat to you."

I sigh. So this is how it's going to be. He isn't going to agree because he thinks I'm going to betray him once he has the job done. Now that he has said it like that, it makes quite a bit of sense. But there was no way I would dare try that, it was way too risky. He will be a powerful ally if I can gain his trust. Likewise, he will be a very deadly foe if I anger him. Fortunately, I've already given myself a backup plan. "What if I paid you before you did the job?"

Noroi actually flinches before he eyes me again. "Well, I suppose that solves the 'could' and the 'would'. But . . . that would take some time, and quite a bit of careful planning. Any dolt with half a brain cell, even if drunk, can tell something big is up if bag after bag of gold is brought into the pub."

I nod, but give him a smile. "I would like to show you something, but to do that we would need to leave the pub."

Noroi looks surprised, but he soon stands up. "There is a way. Put on your cloak."

I nod, and as I put on my cloak I watch Noroi stand up. He picks up his chair, and to my surprise he sticks one of the chair legs into a hole on the floor. It's only when he forcefully pulls the chair back - causing a good portion of the floor that he had been sitting on to move - that I realize what he's doing. Soon he has picked up the large fake floor, revealing a large underground hole lit with torches. I can't help the grin that appeared on my face, and he soon returns a grin of his own.

I follow him into the hole to find the ground has quite a steep slope at first. He soon walks over to the wall of what I now know is a large underground cavern and he put on a large cloak of his own. Once he has hidden himself underneath the cloak, he looks at me again. "There are three exits we can take. Where is this 'something' of yours?"

I tell him that it's in the forest to the west of the trail, heading south. He nods to me, and soon we are traveling through a narrow tunnel. It isn't long before we start heading upwards, and soon I'm surprised as we exit into a small canyon. I remember this canyon. I had passed by it not far before I had gotten to the pub.

As such, I take the lead from here. After we exit the canyon, I have him follow me into the forest. I know the way well. I had taken it quite a few times earlier today, and even yesterday. The 'something' is just far enough into the forest that a random passerby or explorer can't find it, and after about twenty minutes of us traveling I see Noroi's eyes open wide.

I grin as he races towards the massive tree, or to be more specific, the massive pile of bags which surrounds the enormous tree. Even now, with the prize in sight, Noroi is still cautious. He checks several of the bags, choosing ones much deeper in the pile, some on the very edge, just enough of them that he can be certain I have not filled any of them with fake gold or simple stones.

It is well over half an hour before he finally stops, and I smile as I see the smirk on his face. "You and I have similar tastes in hiding places. My hideout is not far from here. If you will help me carry the bags there, we can discuss the particulars while we do so."

I immediately cross my arms and raise an eyebrow. "Hold it. I understand you are still suspicious, but there comes a point that you may try to scam me."

While he flinches, I still grin towards him. "I want you to understand that I know I'm taking a huge risk by putting this money out here. However, I have heard that you are an honest man in spite of your job. Give me your word that, in exchange for this money, you will assassinate my target."

I hold my hand out for him to shake, and soon Noroi chuckles as we shake hands. "You heard correctly. I give you my word that, in exchange for this money, I will assassinate your target."

Update 11/7/12

I agree. Worked on the placement of the quote as well.

Update 2/23/2014

Unitalicized everything. I plan to do that for the preceding chapters as well.