Hello, my lovelies. Here's chapter 2 Another person's perspective. All five chapters of Part one are in a different perspective, just so you know. Enjoy.

Chapter 2

Phantom

She'd been exiled, true, but that didn't mean that she couldn't visit her former village. Especially if called by one of the elders – and Lioness rarely asked anything of her.

She greeted the guard at the gate- Crow, she believed- before heading to the inner part of the village, where the library was, or, as it was better known, Lioness' house.

"Phantom, nice to see you again." Lioness smiled wryly at the woman… who had not aged in seventeen years. Phantom removed her mask, and jade eyes gleamed, slit-pupiled like a cat at the younger woman. She was a Meif'wa (one of the few here), it showed in her gleaming, jewel-like eyes, claws, black ears and tail… and in the bright, white, fanged smile that never failed to make a person step back.

"Lioness... Death has found you well?" Lioness snorted. "No, it has not." A black brow shot up as she observed the older woman. "Something happened?"

"Yes, and it greatly worries me, Phantom. Wyvern took two weeks to finish a job… and it seems as if someone had compromised her, or, at least, compromised the job." Lioness informed her. Phantom frowned at the thought. The implication was not lost on her, and, though it seemed fantastic- no one she knew would sell a sister out- at least in that fashion. It simply wasn't done, the consequences for it was death.

"No one but the elders know the hits we- sorry, you- don't just tell people all over the place. That's top-secret information." She slowly spoke, as if trying to pick apart her own words. Why she said was true, and Lioness knew it well. Her frown deepened. The elders said nothing to anyone not involved in a hit.

It was against their creed, which, if Phantom was any indication, you just didn't break. The sole reason that the Meif'wa was still alive, and in exile… well, they had killed her. Multiple times. She just… didn't stay dead. At least, not for long, and not by any of their doing.

She was not a shadow knight, but something else entirely, and only the great Ishtar knew what that was. Phantom didn't tell, and no one really asked. The only reason she did not attack the whole damn village was because many of the women there were still her friends… the ones to blame for what happened to her… well, they stayed well out of her sight.

"Hello, Lioness… and… Phantom… what are you doing here?" yet another villager had come to the library, and Phantom could not help but hiss. This woman was called Fox, and she was just as sly and cunning as the animal she took her name for. She had long, platinum blonde-or white hair, and pale skin, her ears were long and tapered to delicate points, marking her as what she was- an Elf.

As Fox was one of the reasons- actually, in Phantom's opinion, the main reason, for what had happened, the two were on… strenuous terms. By that, Phantom wished the other woman to suffer as much as she had, though she knew it was unlikely… not unless she went through the same thing that she, herself had, some thirty-two years before.

"I asked Phantom here, to discuss something, Fox." Lioness drawled, her blue eyes sharpened, as she looked at the elf. Fox shrugged. "None of my business." She muttered. "But the rest of the council sent me to find you, Lady Lioness." The woman nodded and got up from her seat. "Very well, I shall go." She turned to the door, and then looked at the two in the room. "Behave yourselves," was the last thing she said before she left.

The two women looked at each other. "Phantom…" Fox frowned. "I didn't know you'd be here…" Phantom said nothing. She replaced her mask on her face and nodded to the other woman. "I will take my leave now." She murmured, she would not stay in Fox's company for any more time than strictly necessary. She walked past the other woman and out into the street. "Phantom…" Fox snapped.

The Meif'wa turned and pinned Fox with her pale green eyes through her mask. "I have no interest in what you want to say to me, Fox. I swear by the six and the whole of the pantheon, if you come near me again, I will gut you like I should have done… years ago." She snarled, the rancor in her voice made the other woman take a half-step back, which only served to piss her off

"Phantom, I had to do it." She snapped, silver eyes narrowed behind the mask. "You would have done the same if it had been me."

A hollow laugh sounded as the other woman shook her head. "No, Fox. I wouldn't have. I'd have kept your secrets… I'd have helped you." She stated it with the same anger and hatred as she had before. What made Fox flinch, though, was the underlining sadness of the words. She did not follow, nor did she try and stop Phantom from leaving this time.

Deep down, Fox knew that what Phantom had said was true. If their situations had been reversed, Phantom would have done everything in her power to help her. She turned back in the other direction herself, forlorn at the thought. The black-haired woman, however, was moving towards Wyvern's house. Though she'd been an assassin- like everyone else in this village- she had discovered that she had a gift for all types of magics at a young age and had carefully cultivated them.

She wanted to help the younger assassin, and the only way to do that would be to heal her. Once more, however, she was distracted. This time, by a woman with a wolf's mask…. Along with pink-tipped ears and tail. This girl was a were-wolf, though not a pure blood. "Wolf…. Fancy seeing you here." The werewolf giggled. "Hey, kitty." She drawled. "What's up?"

"Don't call me kitty." She said. "I'm on my way to see how Wyvern is doing. You?"

"Just got back from a job." At this, the wolf frowned. "Odd, really. I thought I'd be home sooner, but the guards just wouldn't leave the guy alone…" she shrugged. "Almost as if…" Phantom frowned. "As if they knew you were coming?" Phantom finished her statement, and Wolf looked shocked. "Err, yeah, how'd you know?" Phantom looked up at Wyvern's house. "Same thing happened here… though with worse consequences, I see. You don't look too badly hurt."

Wolf shrugged. "Well, they left him alone long enough for me to do the deed…" She muttered. "I hear that was kind of like what happened to Wyvern… only they burst in at the last second and caught her." Phantom sighted. "Not unlike you…"

"Only I didn't have to fight an entire elite guard…"

Phantom frowned at the thought. "I don't know what's going on, Wolf, but be careful. There's someone who wants you lot out of the way." Phantom warned her. "Now, I'm going to go see what I can do to help Wyvern." She walked into the house.

She found Wyvern in her bedroom, laying down, sleeping. Of course, as soon as the former- assassin walked into the room, she opened her dark grey eyes. "Phantom…" she murmured. Looking at the older woman, who smirked behind the mask. "Wyvern… It's been a long time…"

"I haven't seen you since I was… eight." A truly momentous occasion for those who had been around at the time, especially for the exile- if you could really call her that. She came and went as she pleased, as she was still more powerful than any of the elders. No one could really stop her. Phantom smirked. "Yeah. It has been a while. You look pretty sorry right now, Wyvern."

The other woman snorted "I was ambushed by a shit-ton of guards. What the fuck did you expect?" Phantom snickered. "Well, you need to watch your language." She murmured. "that wasn't polite…"

Wyvern made a face. She didn't give two shits about her language- which tended to be on the more colorful side on the best of days- and neither did her targets- though, they usually died. "I'm tired and annoyed. What do you expect?"

"A little decorum would be nice, Wyvern. You're not dead." Phantom walked over to her and tisked. "I'm going to have to do a blood replenishing spell, aren't I?" she murmured, before she got to work.

As the most gifted healer to ever come from Heriotza village, Phantom made quick work of Wyvern's wounds…and blood loss. Usually, people came from everywhere to watch the woman heal. As this was Wyvern's house, and there were rules on entering people's houses unannounced (especially in an assassin's keep…. People tended to lose body parts if they popped in unannounced and/or uninvited), they were blessedly alone.

Phantom didn't like crowds around her in the first place. She tended to get kind of twitchy… and when she got twitchy… people got hurt. Well, with one glaring exception. She snorted quietly to herself as she continued to heal the other woman. When she was finished, she left Wyvern to rest, knowing what a strain it was on the body to be healed, she herself was tired from healing.

Now, she supposed, she would go back home. The other woman would be safe from infection and blood loss now, and would wake up the next day as healthy, mean, and foul-mouthed as ever. She exited the house and left the village.

She was maybe two miles from her own home when she stopped. "I told you what I'd do if I saw you, again, Fox. What the hell do you want?" she growled, her voice low. The pale haired elf stepped out of the trees.

"I forget that Meif'wa share a sense of smell akin to the werewolves and elves… and demons." She murmured. "I shouldn't have."

"No, it was not in your best interests. Now, I'll ask again, before I draw my knife. You may be immortal as well, but that doesn't mean I can't make you hurt." She snapped, turning to the other woman.

"Not long ago, we were friends, Phantom…"

"You lost the right to call me a friend seventeen years ago, Fox." Phantom cut in. "Leave me alone. I'm done talking to you." She turned and left. "There is nothing to say now. We've both gone our own ways."

"And yet you stick around here," Fox yelled, angrily. "You stay here, and you do nothing."

"I stay here, because that is what I have to do." Phantom snapped. "According to what?" Fox snarled. "Why are you still here, Phantom, if you hate it so much? If it reminds you of what you lost?" she missed the predatory glint in Phantom's eyes as she snapped. In seconds, the elf was against a tree, a knife to her throat.

"And whose fault is that, I wonder." She snarled. "I stay because that's what the fates have told me to do." She went on. "And you will not say anything to the council about it. I am needed here, though I don't know why. And you do not get to question that. Especially when any small bit of happiness I could have was ripped away… because of you."

Fox could not say a thing. She froze. "You… that was almost twenty years ago…"

"Everything." She hissed. "For seventeen years, everything I have ever wanted has been Taken. Away. Because. Of. You." The knife dug into the elf's throat until a drop of blood was glistening on the diamond blade. "I will never forget…. And I'd be damned to forgive you." Her gold eyes blazed behind the mask she wore, tears slipped unseen down her face. "The only way I can let it go is if all this is worth it. And while carving your heart out would make me feel better…. And it would certainly give you a glimmer of the pain I feel every fucking day…. It won't change that I need to stay."

She pulled the knife away, and let Fox go. The woman rubbed her now cut throat- it wasn't fatal at all, nor would it have killed her if it was fatal, but it had hurt, and Fox was starting to realize the exact extent of her actions… and what they'd done to Phantom.

As always, thanks for reading, and please, review. AOP out!