Written for legend-of-the-fandoms on Tumblr; cross-posting on my Tumblr account (theoneandonlymagiscientist).

Runaan's first mission. Intentional parallels with Rayla's.

My Heart For Xadia

It's nighttime in the forest.

The grass barely whispers as three blue-clad elves glide across it.

The youngest elf darts from shadow to shadow, trying to keep up with his team. He's going too fast. He's bound to make a mistake.

He steps on a stick.

The three older elves freeze. They slowly turn to face the youngest.

"Runaan," the leader sighs. "What have I taught you?"

Runaan swallows, straightens his back, and recites, "An assassin is silent. An assassin is quick. An assassin never gets caught."

"And?"

"...slide your feet along the ground so they go under sticks instead of on top?"

The leader nods. She turns away. "Quickly, now. And try harder. We're nearly at the palace."

Runaan adjusts his hood, making sure it covers his horns and shadows his face. The edge of the shadow perfectly aligns with the markings over his nose. Good. If the mission is to go well, the alignment of his hood is a good start. A perfect day begins with one perfect moment.

"The Queen of Duren is getting too bold," the leader reminds them. "If we fail tonight, she will invade Xadia within a year. Our mission is to ensure she cannot. Do you understand? Runaan?"

Runaan sets his jaw and nods sharply. He's sixteen years old, and has yet to take a human life. But he's been practicing, on soulfang serpents and on rabid animals and other threats to the Silvergrove. He has no doubt that, if it comes to him, he will be able to kill the queen.

The leader lifts her chin. "Tonight, we bind our lives to Xadia's protection." She pulls out the enchanted ribbon, wraps one end around her left forearm.

"My breath for freedom," the second assassin swears, placing his left hand on his heart before he thrusts it into the circle. The leader winds the ribbon around his wrist.

"My strength for honor," declares the other assassin, choosing to risk her right hand.

Runaan glances at the ribbon and takes a deep breath. "My heart," he places his right hand on his chest, "for Xadia!" He holds his arm out so his leader can wrap the ribbon around his wrist.

If he were older, Runaan thinks he might ask for the ribbon to be up by his elbow. But he's only an apprentice, and until he takes a human life he's not allowed to risk more than a hand.

"Life is precious, life is valuable." In his mind, Runaan says the words along with his leader. "We take it, but we do not take it lightly." She looks at Runaan.

"Moon reflects sun, as death reflects life." Runaan keeps his voice steady, cold. He holds his breath as his leader slices through the ribbons, and watches as they glow.

He slips a finger under his ribbon, testing it. It's light as the moon, and silky soft, but at the same time he can feel the weight of the binding.

The binding marks him as an assassin. He will not fail his team.

As they approach the palace, Runaan stumbles. That on its own isn't too bad, but his stumble startles the other male assassin, and there's a scout nearby. The scout's head jerks up.

He knows. Runaan knows with every fiber of his being, this soldier knows the assassins are here.

He catches his leader's eye. A tiny jerk of her head tells him what he needs to know. His mistake. He needs to fix it.

Runaan clenches his teeth and leaps from the bushes. He will not let his team down.

It's not hard to chase the man down. Humans are so much slower than elves, especially Moonshadows at night.

He leaps onto the man, sending both of them to the ground. Runaan recovers before the human, straddling his body and pressing his blade to the human's throat.

He can see the human's eyes. Gray, and wide, and so scared.

"Please," the human begs, voice breaking.

Runaan's breath catches; his blade wobbles.

My team, he reminds himself. If I fail here, we all die. Ethari, Lain, Tiadrin. They'll be in danger if I fail and the queen invades.

Closing his eyes, he thrusts. There's resistance, then something gives way with an unpleasant sound. Something spurts onto Runaan's hand.

He opens his eyes to see the scout's corpse.

I did it. I killed someone. I am… an assassin.

The scout's death doesn't feel as good as Runaan thought it would. He thought he would feel… triumphant. He won. He's finally a full-fledged assassin. This should feel good. He should be happy.

Instead, he's only regretful.

When he walks back into camp, his leader only glances at his blades, then his face, and says softly, "I'm proud of you, Runaan."

Runaan doesn't trust himself to speak, so he only nods and gets the cloth he uses to clean his blades.

He's glad there are no more scouts.

When his leader forbids him from killing the queen, and instructs him to strike only to wound if at all possible, he protests, but his heart isn't in it.

"You are sixteen years old, Runaan. You've already taken one life tonight. You've proven yourself."

"But I bound myself!" Doesn't she believe he can do it?

She puts a hand on his shoulder. "You are sixteen. One life is more than enough at that age. I won't have my apprentice becoming a murderer before he's twenty."

Isn't he already? He killed a man who couldn't defend himself. Runaan says as much.

"His death was necessary for us to survive. You needed to kill him to prove yourself. Now that you have, if you continue to kill you will stain your soul. A life, once taken, cannot be returned, and that is more burden than any child should bear." The leader is speaking to Runaan, but her eyes look into another time, another place.

"I… understand." Runaan isn't certain he does. This, he thinks, is one of those things one simply cannot understand at sixteen.

Runaan, as instructed, stays back-to-back with another assassin at all times. He fights well, downing no fewer than six guards before something tickles against his forearm. He looks down just in time to see a soft red scrap flutter to the ground.

"The queen is dead," the female assassin murmurs. "Let's go."

Like shadows under light, the four assassins vanish. None bear more than scratches.

Runaan looks eastward, toward the rising sun. My heart for Xadia.

He knows his calling. For as long as the sun will rise and set, Runaan will bind himself. For safety. For truth. For justice. For honor. For freedom.

For Xadia.