Ch. 1; ?: Questions

As I made my way through the hallway, I asked myself the first of many questions I would ask that day, "Why would my target be in a church?" This thought, out of all the others in my head, made me pause. As I shook my head to clear the rogue thought, several others grabbed hold and refused to be shaken so easily, chief among them, "Was Terra One wrong to send me here?" After all, the type of people who would be in a church aren't the type of people to warrant an assassin.

As I moved on, I attempted to place the assassin's maxim in my head- 'Kill the target and don't get caught.' God, I hate the maxim. It assumes we're nothing but mindless killing machines. For some reason, despite my usual stoicness and indifference, something inside me doesn't sit right at the thought of killing. Thankfully, my reputation is to the point that if I say the target is out of picture, my employer will believe me, even if I neglect to mention that 'out of the picture' usually entitles life-changing but not life-threatening injuries, poisons that cause paralysis, and the like; not that I give a damn about my reputation—I get my orders, I do the job, and nothing else.

Encountering only token resistance, I arrived at the balcony above the main room. There I saw my target, kneeling in prayer in front of the dais at the back of the room. Dressed in cleric's robes, she wore said robes open, revealing simple unrestrictive clothing underneath. Looking down, a single whispered question escaped my lips, "Why am I here?" At that moment, realization struck. These weren't my first doubts of Terra One, these were simply the first that didn't get drowned out. As I stood there, contemplating the realization, I became aware of another fact; I had actually accepted this job to try and quell my doubts, yet I ended up questioning everything.

However, this all still left one question- "should I kill the girl or keep her alive?" I thought and realized that the logical choice was to kill her; however, as I stopped to consider what I wanted to do, listening to my emotions for the first time as far as I as could remember. Granted, I could only really remember from the beginning of my employment with Terra One. But I was still listening for the first time. I subsequently realized that there really was no question. I wasn't killing her.

As I slung my bow over my shoulder, getting ready to leave, she looked up in my direction.

"Whoever's up there, come down now."

Her words were surprisingly forceful. I sighed in mild irritation and hopped off the balcony onto the floor below. As I landed, I took stock of the situation; my former target, now facing me, wielded a magic tome. I recognized it as the kind that allowed the user to instantly cast a burst of attack magic. I knew enough to know it was one of the weaker tomes. Despite the fact that they were weaker than regular magic, they still packed a punch.

"Who are you, why are you here, and how did you get in here?" were the first questions out of her mouth. My response was simple: "In order, I'm an assassin, I'm an assassin, annnd I'm an assassin."

"Wait, but if you're here, then…" she trailed off, probably not wanting to say the words.

However, I had no qualms about saying them. "I was sent here to kill you." Her next words were logical given my revelation.

"And I'm still alive because..." This time I knew the trailing off was meant to be a chance for me to speak, which I did. "Simple- I quit."

Her confusion was evident. "You...quit?"

"I'd already been having my doubts, but this job sealed the deal for me. The life of an assassin isn't right for me." I explained. Her next question, however, was slightly more unexpected.

"What's your name?"

My only response to the question was the truth. "I don't have one, I never needed one." She seemed surprised.

"You don't have a name? What if I give you one?"

I indicated that I was indifferent to the idea. She then started thinking and occasionally muttering to herself.

"No, that's not right, maybe...no, not that either. Oh, I know." She clearly had an idea that she liked, so I signaled for her to say it.

"What do you think of Grey?" I thought it over. I liked the name but I was curious where she came up with it.

"Your scarf." Ah, yes my scarf, one of the two possessions I had that I actually cared for, my bow being the other. I never knew where I got the scarf, but for some reason, I cared about it a lot. As a bonus, it fit my outfit well, being a steel gray color and fairly simple, though I would have worn it regardless. "And yours?" I asked somewhat suddenly. She went right back to being confused

"Huh?"

I explained. "Your name?" She realized what I was asking.

"Oh, my name's Sara."

I mulled over that; to be honest, she seemed like a Sara, so I suppose it fit. I decided to ask the question that had been bothering me the whole time. "Why did my former employer send me here?"

She started to respond, "Well, probably because-" but was interrupted by both of us sensing a strange presence behind us. We turned around and saw a ominous cluster of shadows forming. Sara then asked the obvious question.

"What is that?"

"Unless you were performing some kind of demonic summoning ritual, we've got an unknown intruder on our hands," was my only response, followed shortly by, "You weren't performing a demonic summoning ritual. were you?" She replied with an indignant "No." I sighed. "Well then, that makes things more challenging. If you had summoned it, then we would have some clue what it is and what it can do."

Just then, a figure rose from the cluster of shadows. The figure appeared to be a knight, roughly 7-8 feet tall, cloaked in medieval armor. However this...knight was cloaked in what appeared to be a cape of shadows that seemed to almost dissolve into a dark aura of sorts; not even mentioning the fact that his armor and the shadows were so dark, it felt like you could lose your soul in them. Then the knight spoke in a deep, booming voice as he drew his blade. "I am Knightfall, hero of the Vai, and now you must perish." As both of us fell into battle stances, only one thought ran through my mind.

"Shit"

I fired off a volley of arrows to test the knight's defenses. While they didn't appear to damage the Vai hero much, it appeared that, thankfully, his armor was also made of shadows, meaning my arrows could actually hurt him. I really needed to purchase some stronger tipped arrows, maybe armor piercing. I knew my bow was powerful enough- I had practically made it myself- and I knew it to be powerful, but my arrows were standard iron-tipped ones. They're not ideal for fighting a shadow knight in a church.

As I dodged a slash from Knightfall, I saw a burst of light magic hit the shadow knight. I breathed a small sigh of relief seeing that I was right and that Sara's tome was light elemental. That was as close to perfect in this situation as we were going to get. I dodged another slash, this one more accurate, almost hitting me. Then Knightfall slashed horizontally and a wave of shadow energy was sent from his blade as he slashed. Because we lacked knowledge about our foe's abilities, we weren't expecting this attack and were sent flying into the wall. Needless to say, being sent flying into a wall by a knight who appears to be a shadow elemental hurts. I stumbled forward off the wall, and had to quickly dodge another slash.

Thankfully, before he could attack again, I heard Sara murmur the word 'Heal' and then felt my wounds disappearing. I nodded in thanks to her and fired another volley of arrows, aiming for the same spot as before. I was close, but missed by a small margin. Sara cast another burst, and then I felt myself become paralyzed. I looked down and realized that our foe had used shadows to bind me. I struggle to test the strength of the bindings, and found them to be quite strong. Knightfall then turned his attention to me and raised his blade. Knowing I would be dead, I yelled. "Sara, a little help?"

"I'm a little busy", she yelled back. I looked and saw she was dealing with some wisps that I assumed he had summoned. However, she stopped dodging for a moment and I hear her murmur 'Restore'. Just in time too, given that that Knightfall was slashing at me, having charged the blade with energy. I wasn't sure why; I wasn't wearing much in the way of armor, meaning even his normal slash would probably incapacitate me. I managed to roll out of the way, firing more shots as I recovered from the roll. Sara, having defeated the wisps, cast another burst of magic. Unfortunately, that drew our foe's attention. As he brought the blade down, I moved and caught the blade on my bow, barely holding it off. I then flipped onto his blade, firing almost half a quiver of arrows at the weak spot Sara and I had created, damaging the knight even more. He then threw me off and formed a shield out of shadows. A familiar thought rang through my head at that moment—"Shit."

Apparently, Sara felt that was great time to be snarky.

"Well, that's just great. He has a shield now. That makes things so much easier."

I sighed. "I am seriously starting to regret leaving you alive. If I'd killed you, I would have been gone by now."

"Well, then why am I still alive?"

Yeah, really regretting my choice. "You know, you weren't this sarcastic before, what happened."

"It's a battle stress thing," was the answer I received. Just great. Apparently, of all the clerics in the world, I had to get the one who knows how to fight, but becomes quite sarcastic when in combat. Just great. I then realized something important. "As weird as it is to ask someone I'm battling a question mid-fight, Knightfall, why haven't you attacked? We're pretty much defenseless."

"It would be dishonorable to attack a defenseless opponent."

I wasn't expecting that answer. We're facing a large apparently shadow elemental in the form of a knight who has tried to kill the two of us multiple times already, and he finds it dishonorable to take an opportunity to finish the fight.

I then nocked another arrow and aimed straight for the gap in his visor. I fired, but the shot was blocked by that god-damn shield of was the first time he'd used the shield, but I already hated it. Sara cast a burst of light magic. I used the opportunity to move to the side to try and hit the hand holding the shield. Sara, seeing what I was doing, cast burst after burst to draw the knight's attention, stopping only to dodge. I fired five arrows in quick succession, the first missing due to a timely swing on his part, the other four hitting dead center on his hand. But even that didn't make him drop his shield.

I growled in frustration, he has a shield, and it's annoying. Very annoying. I then, being quite irritated, grabbed an special arrow coated with poison. Unfortunately- while it wasn't strong enough to kill- if I could get one good hit in, we could stall, and wait for the poison to weaken him. Sara, seeing the arrow, which had a slight green tint, asked.

"Special arrow?"

I nodded and simply said, "Poison." She smiled and remarked, "Good to see I'm not the only one who's getting annoyed." I nocked the arrow, dodged a slash combo that he had started doing since forming the shield, flipped over him, and fired the arrow right where the shoulder guard would be.

As I landed, I fired more arrows at his back. He then spoke.

"While your poison is powerful, it has no effect on me."

I responded eloquently. "Son of a bitch."

Sara dodged another of the energy waves that were becoming more common the more we damaged our foe. I fired a shot, this time at the shoulder, still hoping to make the Vai hero drop his shield. Sara blasted the knight with more bursts of light magic, and I found myself thanking whoever made the tomes in my head because they were functionally infinite. Sara then came up beside me, and asked me a relatively simple question.

"Do you have any special arrows that can blind him?"

I nodded. "Why?" I asked as I pulled one out. She smiled and explained. "I can cast 'Flash' but it takes time, so I need you to buy me some time." I, at first, was in shock she could cast light magic- which was notoriously difficult to master- then just nodded and asked how much time was needed.

"Just 30 seconds."

I chuckled and replied, "You get a minute." I then nocked the arrow, and fired the arrow which landed at the knights feet, and then exploded in a massive cloud of smoke. I then fired two more arrows which, when they made contact with his armor, let loose a giant flash of light. I then flicked down a high-tech eyepiece I used in these types of situations. I then started strafing, making sure to stay in the smoke and keep moving. One minute later, the smoke was starting to dissipate, however there was a more pressing issue at hand. "Sara, I'm down to one arrow, take your shot and make it count."

She then walked over.

"Well, I'm going to channel the spell through the arrow, so I hope you either know where to get more or can buy some."

I sighed. "Damn." My arrow then glowed a pure white. I aimed straight for the heart. "Good knight," I muttered as I fired. He raised his shield in an attempt to block the arrow. No such luck. The arrow pierced straight through his shield and armor.

As he fell to one knee, I noted an odd change; the shadows, while still almost midnight black, seemed to lighten a little. He then spoke, this time his voice slightly rough.

"Thank you, young heroes. I was overcome by the darkness of the Aserions, but you were able to repel it. Archer, I leave thee my blade to aid on your journey. Worry not, it will shift to a form with which you can fight. If I may make one last request, if you see the Lady Summoner, tell her I have failed her."

He was overcome by what seemed to be a fit of coughing. He then tried to speak again.

"Tell M'lady that this is not her faul-"

He then coughed again and then lost his grip on his sword, which he had been using to hold himself up on one knee. He then dissolved into shadows, leaving only a small midnight black crystal behind. Sara and I gingerly stepped forward, almost afraid. I bent down and picked up the crystal. I then walked over to the sword, still embedded in the bricks in the floor. As I pulled out the blade, I found myself speaking. " Thank you, Knightfall. I will honor your legacy with this blade."

Author's Note: Well, if someone is reading this, that means someone actually found this story. Congratulations. For a bit of background, this story originated as a RPG that I planned on making, but I decided to make the story itself into a fanfiction to sort everything out. All I ask is to keep in mind that I am not a writer, that's my sibling. If there any any errors, feel free to tell me, and I'll do my best to fix things. I welcome constructive criticism, so feel free to share your thoughts. Thanks for reading.

Dusk