When I left the judging area, I went back to the man who directed me when I came in, and handed him the judge’s letter. He opened it, raised his eyebrows, and started writing on what appeared to be a stone tablet, though based on how he was writing it didn’t look like he was carving the words into it. It was probably a spirit tool linked to another tool elsewhere, such things, while expensive, weren’t uncommon.
After a minute or so of that, he pulled out a small wooden plaque with three connected droplets made of iron inlaid into it. He set that down on the desk and pulled out some paper, writing a few sentences on it before placing it and the judges’ original letter into an envelope. He sealed that before handing it to me alongside the plaque and some directions.
“Go to the main entrance of the compound on the Southroad, ahead and a bit to the left you’ll see a large black-walled building. Go in there, and give this envelope to the receptionist. If you can see a female receptionist in a wheelchair named Lavi, give it to her. The plaque is your identification for now, once you reach copper you can commission a new ID from our equipment crafters to fit your own style, be it embroidered on your gloves or cloak like me, or inlaid into your mask or weapon if you so desire. Any questions?”
I had none, so I thanked the man and went off in search of the black building, finding it almost instantly, and I even found the receptionist I was told to find. She had a longer line in front of her than most of the other receptionists there, but even then the wait was only about five minutes. I occupied her time for about twice as long, as she spent three minutes reading and rereading the two letters, and another eight minutes looking through a bunch of files, pulling out a dozen or so folders.
“So, here’s the deal. You’ve received the highest praise I’ve ever seen for a new recruit, good for you. However, you’ve also received the hardest introductory request guidelines I’ve ever seen, by far. That’s not so good for you, although the reward might make it worth the effort. I’ve been told to prepare several requests for you to do back to back, each significantly harder than the last. If you fail one of them, your rating won’t go down, as you’re being assigned harder requests than you’d normally be able to take without this kind of special exemption. But if you can do all of them, you’ll be promoted to a blood silver shadow. At each level besides the last, you’ll be able to choose between a few options. Would you like to look at the first set now?”
“If you don’t mind”
“Alright. Can you read, or would you like me to-”
“I can read”
She handed me five folders, each containing a handful of pages detailing tier 3 and tier 4 targets, which surprised me that that’s what they were starting me off with, but... it didn’t really matter to me. All of them conspicuously didn’t include the reward for completion, and I later learned that the introductory requests were paid at a fixed rate.
The one I decided to take was an elderly tier 3 alchemist, unaffiliated with the association, who was suspected to be creating narcotics that were competing with the requester’s own operations. The requester tried to be anonymous, but as with most ‘anonymous’ requests, the silent shadows were able to find out who was behind the request in a matter of hours.
“Very well then, I’ll reserve this one for you. Required proof is tier 3, so just an image bead showing his corpse is enough, assuming one can recognize it as the target’s corpse. Do you need to buy image beads? We sell them at a discount, 100 for 17 spirit stones”
“Sure, I’ll buy a set”
After exchanging a level 10 spirit stone and one of the cut stones I’d made earlier in the day for a small bag full of fingernail-sized crystals, I turned to leave before realizing I should ask if that was all.
“Is there anything else I should know before I head off?”
“No, that’s everything. Get going”
And get going I did. The address of the target was in the southern slums, not too far from the Shadows Guild building, so I got there in under ten minutes. Once there, I shifted into cat form, made sure my alchemist association collar was visible, and sauntered in. The alchemist didn’t bother to kick me out, assuming (correctly) that I wasn’t going to interfere with an alchemical refinement. What he didn’t account for was me waiting until he was distracted to swipe at his cheek with three solid Nothing-enhanced claws, leaving some of Snek’s venom in their wake.
The man was dead in seconds, collapsed on his refinement table with one hand fallen into his furnace and numerous restricted materials carefully arranged on the table around him, and I captured that scene with an image bead, the clawmark on his cheek fully visible. I then pilfered all the materials from his house and spatial ring - waste not want not, right? - and returned to the guild to complete the request. Even after waiting for her line to clear, the whole process still took less than half an hour, and I was given three options to choose from this time, with all three being tier 4 targets.
I eventually settled on a request to kill a tier 4 palace guard, whose standard shift schedule was included, and according to that, he was likely to be stationed at the palace’s southwest delivery gate for the next few hours. The required proof was still just an image bead - speaking of which, Lavi did comment on the proof I gave, and the lack of an obvious cause of death.
I just shrugged and told her I specialized in poison, which is how he died. She then asked why the clawmark, and I wordlessly pointed to my ears, then raised three fingers, extended my claws, and curled them inward, drawing out three nearly-parallel lines very similar to the ones on the man’s cheek.
“Ah, so you’ve already decided on a calling card”
“What’s that?”
“It’s... some blood shadows leave some trace behind, to signify that that specific shadow was the one who did it. For some, it might be a specific flower, others would carve out the target’s eyes or brand a mark into the target’s forehead. For you, it seems to be the clawmark”
“I... that wasn’t intentional, but sure, let’s have that be my calling card. I can do it to all my targets from now on, if that’s what’s needed”
“I mean, it’s not needed, but it is something most well-known blood shadows would do, as it helps their notoriety spread. And with notoriety comes more designated requests, which generally pay better, so...”
“Alright, I get it. That won’t be hard to do, though it won’t always be on the face”
Once I had the second request in hand, I left the compound and turned northwest, running through a maze of streets until I reached the palace’s southwest delivery gate, where, sure enough, one of the two guards there was a short redheaded man with a scar running across the bridge of his nose, matching the target’s description perfectly. The stated reason for the client (a nobleman, his identity was known but not disclosed to the blood shadows taking his request) wanting him dead was that the target had allegedly slept with the client’s wife.
I made my way into a deserted alley, shifted into cat form once again, and began twining around the legs of both of the guards, eventually flopping onto my side in front of the target while looking up at him as cutely as I could. He could only resist for a minute or so before he bent down to scratch my ears, presumably feeling free enough to do so as there weren’t any people around besides him and his partner on duty. After a few minutes of him petting me, I rolled over onto my back, exposing my belly. That was a trap, and as soon as he tried to rub it, I curled around his hand and started biting and scratching. My fangs and three of my paws did no damage whatsoever due to his high level making his body a lot tougher than my claws, but the claws on my right front paw did leave a trio of lines on the back of his left hand, where Snek’s venom did get in, but I made it not activate right away.
He, of course, flung me away when I did that, and I scurried away at high speeds. I then climbed up to the roof of the buildings opposite the wall, and started spying on the gate. It only took half an hour or so for me to get what I was waiting for - a delivery carriage, laden with boxes and bags. The guards worked together to inspect the driver and the goods, and then opened the gate, the target’s partner going in with the carriage as an escort. Once he was far enough away, I released my control over Snek’s venom, and my target instantly died, falling face-first to the ground, his right hand still clutching his spear and his eyes still wide open but vacant, while his left hand was awkwardly positioned with a finger in his nose.
I captured that image from three angles, one from where I’d been perched up high, another from ground level showing his face clearly, and a third showing the clawmarks on the back of his left hand. All in all, this request took a full hour, including the time I spent waiting in line to complete it. Two hours had passed since I finished the judges’ assessment, and I had already completed my first two requests. That’s a very good start to my career as a blood shadow, no?
The beginnings of the man who transcended time, part 4
My labors paid off, and I managed the extraordinarily difficult feat of changing a companionseed into a full elemental seed. It didn’t help me to escape my self-imposed prison, but I saw a glimmer of hope. I remembered the words the Azure Thearch said when asked about elemental Paths.
“There is no element that cannot become the foundation of a Path. The challenge is finding one that hasn’t been used, and from there, you’ll soon discover why it hasn’t been used. Time is an excellent example, and the only one I predict may never see a Pathholder. It is simply too hard to advance, and requires centuries of single-minded focus for an uncertain reward, and the need for talent cannot be overstressed. Contrast it with my own Tide, which has never been a popular element, its ebb and flow intuitive only to the strangest of minds, but nevertheless remains comprehensible to all who try”
Well, great-aunt, it would appear that I have some measure of talent for Time. Just to spite you, I shall advance as far as I can, from companionseed to elemental seed to even the prestigious Time root that none have ever obtained - besides the few born with one - which might be enough to find a Path.
In fact, it only took me a further 37 years to advance my Timeseed, though I didn’t obtain an elemental root - I managed to form the exalted elemental physique that... frankly, solved all of my problems, as my inadvertent absorption of Primordial Time energy over the last two hundred years had caused my body to change.
Now, if you're wondering what that clawmark calling card looks like, it's on the cover of a future book, as shown in this spoiler:
No points for guessing which one, though you will get points that have no use or value for guessing the title of the book (as in, Book of [whatever])
Meow. Thanks for the chapters.
Thank you for the chapter
Thanks for the chapter.
🍪