Alice's POV

Cool moonlight fell softly upon my face as Jack and I emerged from the prison. The city roared with citizens fleeing from the stone walls of our captivity, and soldiers attempting to return us to it. Despite the overwhelming odds we faced, Jack and I, bloody and covered with dust, could not have been happier. Several soldiers bearing the mark of the emperor, a dragon atop a sword, upon their tunics, finally broke through the crowd to surround us. They circled threateningly with polished weapons drawn, and demanded our immediate surrender.

"These are the Emperor's royal guard!" Jack declared. "They are handpicked from the best of the best to serve directly under the Emperor himself. You can't find a better soldier."

"Well if you're scared then you can run back into the cell, and I'll call you out when the dirty work is done." I mocked sarcastically.

Jack laughed quickly and grinned cockily, "So how do you want to divide these guys up?"

I scratched my chin to feign deep thought. "I'll take the left and you take the right." I proposed.

"That's not fair you've got more to deal with." Jack said pointing out the uneven number. "Why do you get to have all of the fun?"

"Surrender or face the Emperor's wrath!" The closest guard yelled.

"One would think that he'd be able to deliver his wrath himself" Jack whispered.

I laughed and proposed an offer. "Fine, I'll take the left, and you can have the right, plus one. " I extended my hand and he gladly shook it.

"Deal."

I turned to face the left group of soldiers and marveled at their uniformity. Each warrior held their weapons towards me at the exact same height, not one wavering. Each polished blade glinted in the moonlight, and appeared as if they thirsted to taste my blood. The men held impassive masks of routine, and stared me down with the intensity that can only be born from years in the battlefield. Jack was right, these men were professionals.

I turned my head to my right just in time to see a knife bury itself in the chest of the rightmost guard, and Jack wrestling the weapon away from his nearest foe. Turning back to see my enemies, I barely had time to react as a sword cut right through where my head had been a moment earlier. I threw my hand out in self-defense and the guard to my right bursted into flames. He grabbed his helmet and shouted a blood curdling scream that tore through the night.

I focused on the bone in between his head and his chest, and pictured it snapping violently. The guard's agony ended swiftly and his body fell to the floor. Despite my victory my two remaining guards moved towards me, unfazed by their companion's death. I clenched my fist around an imaginary knife, and was pleased to see a dagger made of ice clenched firmly in my fist. The guards were within swinging distance and I was seconds from death, when I hardened the air around them. The attempted to move their arms or their legs but were unable to break the cage I had created for them. I imagined a small hole in their air-prison at equal heights to their chests, and focused on keeping it in existence. Without breaking concentration I stepped forward and stabbed the closest guard in the heart, and took a step to the right and did the same once more. I released the air and let them fall to the ground, dead.

I turned to see how Jack was doing, and was greeted by a round of applause. Jack sat calmly with his legs crossed upon one of the guards bodies, with the others scattered around in various states of limblessness.

"Bravo, I say Bravo. What a splendid little show." He said in a false european accent.

"Why thank you my good sir." I said with a curtsy. My heart was still beating furiously and the adrenaline from the battle was still in my system, but Jack's sense of humor helped to calm me down. "Where did you learn to fight like that, no simple farm boy can take on the emperor's elite guard like that and survive."

"As much as I would love to sit and talk about how awesome I am, we need to get out of this city. These guys weren't the first, and trust me I will tell you everything once we are safely outside of the city."

"Good idea." I agreed. For the first time since the fight I looked up and noticed that the streets were deserted. Not a single straggler stayed to watch the fight, and no guards were here to prevent us from leaving.

"Well how are we going to get anywhere with ALL THIS TRAFFIC!" jack shouted into the silence. I laughed quietly, and we ran as quickly as we could to the gates of the city. There was no sound except for our bare feet hitting the stones as we sprinted. Street after street we ran until we broke through into a large open area, and I recognized the gallows standing ominously in the center.

Jack and I slowed enough to look at the woman and her daughter still hanging after god knows how long. Their pale skin was scratched and torn where angry men and women threw sharpened stones at their corpses.

"We are going to do something about this. This has to stop." I declared in panted breaths.

"Yeah." was all jack said before we started running again. Buildings enveloped us once more and after a minute of running the gate to the city became within sight.

We stopped and leaned against a wall to collect our breath. Jack gestured to his dusty blood-soaked clothes and said "Do you think they'll know it's us?"

I glanced down at my equally bloodstained tunic and pants and nodded. "Probably. It's worth a shot no matter what."

Jack and I turned heads down and slowly walked to the gate. We reached the cool metal and I leaned into the booth to my left and asked him if he could open the door. I looked up and saw the frightened man, white as a sheet, sinking into the corner of the booth shaking his head no.

I turned to Jack and said "Though not." before thrusting my arms towards the metal gate, and watching it tear from it's hinges and fly into the night. Jack leaned behind me to say to the frightened man "Thank you for your time." and we started running one more. Directly outside of the city a stable came into view. "horses." I gasped.

We reached the stable and saw a old stable hand brushing the dirt off of a horses hoof. A whistled tune hung in the air, and calmed the night. I turned to Jack and said "I don't feel right stealing from this guy. He hasn't done anything to us."

"Who said we'd be stealing?" Jack responded. He reached into his pants and pulled out a small leather pouch. He reached in and pulled out a few rubles, and balanced them in his palm. "'I'll explain later, for now let's buy a horse."

We walked as calmly as we could up to the content stable hand, and I asked as politely as I could "How much for this one?"

The stable hand looked up once, and if he was surprised he didn't show it. He simply chuckled and said "You two look like hell, but it ain't my place to judge. For a couple a' young lovers like yerselves, I can part with old Icestorm here." He said affectionately patting the white horse. "Served me well o'er the years, but the two of ya look like you could user 'er more than me. You can her 'er for ten rubles."

Jack counted out the coins and handed them to the old man. He took the money and walked over to one of the stalls to get everything we would need.

"Young lovers eh?" Jack whispered.

"Don't start with that. It's a decent enough cover to let us buy a horse."

"Why don't we sell this cover a little more with a kiss?"

"In your dreams lover boy." I laughed, and the the stable hand emerged with a saddle and a rein. He swung the saddle over the horse's back and fastened his reins with masterful precision. Once he was done he handed the reins to me and said. "You two have a nice night."

We thanked him, and swung over our newly purchased horse. I positioned myself in the front part of the saddle steering the horse, and Jack found his way behind me with his arms around my waist.

"Dont you get handsy back there or I'll be riding this horse and you will be walking alongside it." Jack chuckled, and with a snap of the reigns we were off. I guided the horse onto a main road, and sprinted along that until the city was no longer visible, and even the smoke vanished into the moonlight. Once absolutely certain that we had made it away safely, I turned to interrogating Jack.

"So where does a farm boy learn to kill soldiers like that?"

"It's a long story." He evaded.

I made a big show of looking all around me "and we have a long walk, talk."

"When I was six my father, Jack, was accused of trying to practice magic. Instead of holding trial, the appointed witch hunter at the time set fire to our entire house. My mother, father ,and two sisters died in the blaze." Jack was silent for a few moments before continuing. "I woke up the next morning covered in ash with burns all over my body, but somehow alive. The next two weeks I tried everything to fix that. I threw myself into rivers, and off of large rocks but nothing worked. In a final effort, I found waterfall and tried to drown myself in the lake below. I remember throwing myself in, but nothing past that. I woke up a few weeks later in the sanctuary for the silent hand, the most reclusive gang of assassins in the world, or so they told me all while growing up. They raised me and honed me as a perfect weapon. I had made my first kill at 8 and had my first contract at 12."

"Are you still with them?" I asked.

He looked blankly into the darkness before responding. "No."

"Well you can't be much more than 17,so what happened?"

"I crossed a line" He said sadly, all traces of his previous self gone. "I did something unspeakable, and I had to leave. They gave me the choice to do it or die, and I did it"

Like the horrible person that I am, pressed further "What did they make you do?"

"A duke wasn't cooperating with us. We cleared the way to help him rise to power, and he refused payment. The Silent Hand wanted to make an example of him, and the tasked me with my hardest assignment. The wanted me to kill the Duke's kid, and I did. I killed a baby." A tear fell down his cheek and I felt the urge to reach over and wipe it away. "After I did it, I couldn't face myself. I left the Silent Hand and haven't gone back."

We sat in silence for several more minutes and I couldn't think of anything to say. I wanted desperately to say something to make him smile, but I couldn't find the words.

"It's getting late, we should probably find somewhere to sleep the rest of the night off." Jack finally said. I slowed the horse to a stop, and we threw ourselves off of the horses back. Jack tied the horse to a tree, and I gathered sticks for a fire. With a snap of my fingers the bundle ignited, and Jack and I settled to sleep.

Author's note- I had to rush a bit to finish the final few paragraphs of this story, as my writing program kept crashing. Thank you for your continued support.