There was blood coating the knife…
The knife Keeper Varia had given Artemus…
There was blood coating the blade, the hilt, Artemus' hand and wrist and sleeve…
And beneath Artemus was a body, a guard, a younger man who had been walking with his fellow guardsmen…
They were all dead, Artemus had killed them, quickly…
But not the one he knelt over.
Their armor was weak and aged, flimsy, poor, the dagger Artemus wielded sliced through the leather hide they wore like moonlight on a cloudless night.
The blade tore through the guardsmen's throats, one after another until only Artemus and one survivor remained…
Artemus had killed three men and tortured a fourth…
Because the fourth had declared the city blessed with the death of the damnable 'Master Thief'
Artemus had been skulking around the shadows, waiting for the guards to pass him by so he could resume his search in peace…
But he just had to overhear the guards…
And with his three companions on the ground, throats split wide open, their blood spurting in messy fountains of red as they gurgled and choked, eyes wide, hand grasping at their wounds.
The fourth guard sang like a bird.
When Artemus demanded to know the fate of the 'Master Thief' the guard told him, sobbing the tale of how a friend of his brother had seen a lowly cretin dragging some thief through the streets. And since that night, the notorious 'Master Thief' had seemingly vanished into thin air.
Artemus had sliced the guard's ear clean off at that, and the guard howled like a hound into the night, clutching his bleeding head as he stumbled back, away from Artemus, who followed him silently.
When Artemus demanded to know the name of the guard who had seen the thief and the cretin, the wounded man refused at first, and refused again when Artemus threatened to begin taking fingers.
A pinky finger fell to the cobbled ground before Artemus very quickly learned the name of the guard…
Artemus could have stopped there… He had gotten what he needed…
But he did not...
Instead of turning, leaving, disappearing back into the shadows, the dagger Keeper Vairia had given him found its way into the guard's stomach… Again, again, again… Artemus drove the blade into the guard until there was little more than a gaping hole beneath the man's rib cage.
Only when the blade bounced off the cobble beneath the man did Artemus realize the horror he had committed…
He rose, blood drenched, from the body of the guard, and without looking at the atrocity in the street, turned and fled towards the Old Quarter where one Lorus Wright was apparently on duty…