Phoenix trained with the vampire every day in the morning and afternoon for a solid year. She picked up most weapons naturally. She also asked Wyvern to poison her on purpose. Wyvern thought she was insane but agreed to her demands once she threatened to poison herself instead. Phoenix sparred with the half dragons on a regular basis. She quickly beat out Lily, who had been the best besides the vampire. She also intimidated many of the other assassins in the guild especially the newer younger members including Hawk and Falcon. She did however fail entirely on ranged weapons. That inability to use them caused her to disregard them almost entirely. She was good at throwing weapons though. Throwing knives and axes became easy for her very quickly.
"Let's go again!" Phoenix smiled.
"Hold on a sec," Inferno sighed, "I need a break real fast kiddo."
Phoenix sighed, "Okay." But waiting is so boring!
"Losing your touch Inferno?" Dragon teased.
Inferno glared at him, "You take her on then. You aren't immune to her fire like I am so it'll be harder for you than for me."
"Yeah right," a very large claymore that was probably meant to be wielded by a creature twice his size appeared in Dragon's right hand. He rested it on his shoulder, "She's only been here a year. She can't be that good already."
Phoenix smiled. Dragon's sky blue wings spread from his back and he shot forward. He brought his claymore off his shoulder and held it out in front of him. Phoenix dodged faster than he could strike but didn't counter attack immediately. Dragon eventually ditched the sword in favor of lightning based magical attacks. Phoenix couldn't move fast enough to dodge the lightning bolts he threw at her. Dammit! She erupted in flames and in a stream of flames shot forward. She slammed the pommel of a knife into Dragon's stomach. She then spun and kicked him in the ribs. She couldn't reach his head without being able to fly at her current height. Dragon stumbled backwards and then was hit with a wall of scorching flames. Phoenix followed the flames and slid behind him. She grabbed his shirt, taking advantage of his lack of balance and pulled him to the ground beside her.
"Wow Pyro. That's certainly unexpected," Dragon got to his feet, "How'd you get so good so fast?"
Phoenix shrugged, "It's easy to me."
"Phoenix," Falcon walked out, "Eclipse wants to talk to you about something."
"What?" Phoenix asked.
Falcon shrugged, "Don't know."
Phoenix shot quickly up the stairs and to the vampire's room, "What?"
"I have your first job," he said simply.
"Oh really," Phoenix looked surprised, "What is it?"
"I want you to look after someone," Eclipse nodded, "Nothing complicated. Just watch them and make sure they stay out of trouble." He paused, "And stay out of trouble yourself. He cannot know what you're doing though."
"Oh," Phoenix nodded. Great. "Who am I looking after anyway?"
"Him," Eclipse showed her a recording of a boy with dark black hair and sapphire eyes. He was walking beside a brunette towards what looked to be a school. She couldn't hear what he was saying as there wasn't any audio to the recording, "Okay, who's that?"
"His name is Jace Beleren. He's a telepath that likes to think he doesn't need anyone's help which makes it even more important that he doesn't know what you're actually doing."
"Yay," Phoenix rolled her eyes. If I refuse I'll be bored out of my mind. "Sure. I'll do it."
Eclipse nodded.
Phoenix cocked her head to the side, "Where is he?"
"I've already had Wyvern put a marker on the world so you'll know. You'll arrive just outside the city. If you plan it right," Eclipse added the last part like he didn't really expect her to do so.
Phoenix nodded, "Okay." She hurried down the stairs and left the extra dimensional space that the Lotus called home. She arrived on Ravnica. So it just drops me off on the last world I was on? That's lame. She planeswalked. Locating Wyvern's marker was easier said than done and took longer than Phoenix had anticipated. Man this sucks. This is taking forever. Besides why is my first job to look after some telepath that thinks he can take care of everything himself. Or is the vampire just lying to me about that little detail. I guess I won't know until I meet him. She finally found Wyvern's marker. "There it is!" She arrived on the world in the middle of a forest. "So much for arriving outside a city. Oh well. It's the middle of the night here. Why?" It's so dark. I don't think there's a city nearby. She climbed up to the highest tree branch that could support her weight. She could see lights in the distance to the south. That looks like a city. She shrugged indifferently, "Oh well. We might as well check it out."
"Who goes there?" a guard asked as she approached.
"Me," she shrugged, "Why do you ask if there's obviously someone approaching you?"
"And you are?" the person that addressed her now appeared to have a higher ranking than his companions.
"I'm a random person that's decided to walk up to your city in the middle of the night," she smirked.
"Your name," he asked impatiently.
"What's yours?" she asked, "Answer that and I'll tell you mine."
"Kylle," he said simply.
"I'm Crystal," she lied.
"Crystal?"
"What kind of person would name their kid after an object?" one of the guards muttered.
"Mine obviously," Phoenix snapped, "Got a problem with it?"
"No," the guard said quickly.
Kylle raised his hand to silence his fellows, "And why would you be wandering up to our city in the middle of the night?"
Phoenix felt a spell be cast nearby. Come here. She glanced around.
"Where'd she go?"
"Is she a mage?"
She saw the boy she was supposed to be looking after hanging just inside an alley. What kind of city doesn't have walls around it anyway? She shot over to him. He grabbed her arm and dragged her further into the alleys. Hey! I'm supposed to be looking after you. Not the other way around, you jerk.
He stopped after rounding a corner.
"I could've handled that myself," she muttered.
"Whatever," he turned and began to walk away.
Phoenix glared after him, "And what makes you think I couldn't?"
"They wouldn't have believed your fake name," Jace explained. He sounded slightly annoyed.
"Oh really?" Phoenix followed him.
"No one around here names their kids after objects," Jace sighed, "even if they are pretty things like crystal."
"I obviously don't come from around here," Phoenix snapped.
Jace glanced at her, "Obviously."
Phoenix noticed the book in his hand for the first time, "You stole that didn't you?"
"What?" Jace stared at her, "No."
"Yeah right," Phoenix smirked, "I know a good thief when I see one. You held the book in the hand that they would never see and you knew to stay in the shadows of the alleys to cast your spell."
"That's just competence," Jace muttered.
My turn. "Whatever," Phoenix rolled her eyes.
"Can you go away? You're starting to annoy me," Jace snapped.
"Sure," Phoenix slid out of his vision and then around the corner of the building quickly. She watched him spin in a circle twice looking for her.
"Where'd she go?" he looked surprised and slightly disturbed at the same time.
Phoenix darted down through the alleys and out into the main street to keep him from hearing her laughter. That was great. He looked so confused. She wandered through the streets but was careful to avoid the guards that patrolled them. Now I have to look after this guy and make sure he doesn't get in trouble. I feel like that's a lot easier said than done. I mean he's a mage and a powerful one at that. Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully. She scaled a house and crouched on the roof. I don't think he's a planeswalker though. At least not yet. I wouldn't be surprised if he was capable of it. He's a telepath huh? Well he did get into my head. He's also a thief. I get the feeling he just does it to sate his own curiosity when he's not allowed access to what he's interested in. "That sounds like something I'd do. Of course then again I steal something from someone just to spite them," Phoenix chuckled. I mean if I saw the title properly it was basically an encyclopedia. "Boring," she sighed and glanced at the moon. I have to say nighttime is nice here though.