Chapter 27: Running a Cult 101

One was having a grand time sitting on my lap, teaching me about all the inner workings of our court of assassins. I was also having fun, but my leg was starting to fall asleep. I shifted her over to the side, and we kept going through the pile. 

Eventually, we reached the bottom and found a letter I had missed in my sorting. The seal was a simple knife dripping blood. When One saw it, she picked it up slowly and handed it to me.

"What is it?" I asked, turning the letter over in my hands.

"It's from the High Court," she replied.

I nodded in understanding. Nine had explained that I wasn't just a master of this branch. But neither was I the master of the entire Court of Shadows. I controlled all activity in my Kingdom and a decent amount in the surrounding kingdoms. There were smaller enclaves spread around that I controlled where smaller contracts could be accepted without sending them further up the chain of command.

But a High Court up in the north controlled several different smaller masters like myself. They didn't interfere with our day-to-day work as long as we did our job. Their main purpose was to settle disputes between organizations in a relatively ordered manner. 

On top of the High Court was a Grand Master. The holder of the position had the final say on disputes, kind of like a judge. Otherwise, the position just served the same purpose I did here. Shrugging, I broke the seal.

"There are only a few reasons they send messages," One muttered to herself as I unfolded the piece of paper and read through it quickly. 

I tossed it down and leaned my head back against my chair inside. "It seems I've been summoned."

One snatched the paper from the desk and scanned over it. She started tapping her fingers against her teeth in a nervous tic I'd never seen her display before. 

"There are only so many reasons they send summons," she reiterated. I could detect a significant amount of stress in her voice.

"Oh, what are those reasons?"

"Well, someone could have some sort of vendetta against you. Perhaps they think you've been taking too large of a cut of payments or not doing your job properly. Or, well, there's not much they can do to censor you, as you have pretty much full reign as long as your contracts get accomplished. So they could be going for some sort of punishment or worse. Perhaps the Grand Master has died."

"How is that worse?" I asked in bewilderment.

One looked at me. "We're a bunch of assassins. Power struggles are always bloody."

"Well, if I just stay out of it, that wouldn't be an issue." I shrugged.

"Ah, you might not be given the choice. Besides, if you become the Grand Master, you'll have much less time for us."

"I have no ambition to become the Grand Master," I replied. "I control enough from here."

One didn't look convinced. 

"It's all the way up north," she groaned. 

I looked at the letter and was unsure about how to pronounce the name. "Kharbhar? "It's a weird name." 

"It's pronounced 'Carrboro.'" One sighed. "It's a long journey. A couple weeks at least. And that's with us taking a ship." 

I rubbed my face. "I see. When do we need to leave?"

"Well, if we get there by the appointed date, we have about a week before we need to head out. But we probably want to leave a little earlier than that. I will send a runner to book passage on a ship." 

I nodded. "Do that this evening or tomorrow morning. No rush, I think."

Clearly still distracted, One grunted in agreement. 

Suddenly, something else crossed my mind. "When is Nine gonna get back?" I asked.

One frowned in concern, "At least not for two weeks, possibly three."

"So we're going to miss her." I really was not happy with that. I wanted to see her and make sure she was safe, but also, she would be an ally, especially if we told her the truth. And I would love to have brought her with me.

As we talked more about the event, One's demeanor changed completely. Instead of the relaxed person she had become as she got used to me, her tense demeanor from when I first met her was back. She was clearly running calculations in her head, half distracted. 

"Well, there's not much we can do about that. I suppose we're done here." I said, Gesturing to the empty pile.

"Now," I checked the clock and realized it was about time for lunch. "Why don't we get something to eat?"

One nodded absently and followed me from the office to a private dining room where food was served for us. Luckily, I knew the way as one was deep in thought and didn't speak until we were halfway through our main course.

"We should bring everyone," One said out of the blue. I cocked my head at her, not understanding. Seeing my confusion, she clarified. "We should bring Five and Six as well."

I shook my head. "No, we should not bring Five. Too much of a risk. Maybe Six."

One shook her head. "No, we should. I think we can call back Seven and Eight as well. They should be able to make it back in time."

"No, we don't need to do that. I don't want Seven or Five anywhere near me until I'm much more comfortable." In fact, I was already dreading tomorrow when Five would be with me all evening. If I slipped up, well, that would be bad. 

"You have a week to get to know Five," One said. "Don't rule her out just yet. She will be extremely valuable. All of us will be. What about Two and Three?" 

I looked at her. "What about them?"

"We should bring everyone. You will need as much help as you can get." One said. "We might be able to get them to meet us there."

I waved my hand. "Why are they out of my territory?"

One shrugged. "It's a bit more flexible, especially when it comes to information. You're the one who sent them. You didn't actually tell me why."

I processed that, thinking that I might have an idea. I really should talk to One about the whole invasion thing. But now wasn't a good time. I worried too much about people overhearing, even in this place. Even my secret of who I was didn't feel as important as this secret society. The fact that it was a secret society trying to spread the word was an irony not lost on me. 

We didn't reach a conclusion about who to bring. We did decide that we could bring Six as well, and Four was definitely coming. But One convinced me to wait and decide later on Five. 

Having an idea of where I was going to go and having a little bit more time to prepare this time, I decided that I needed to go back to the library. One came with me. We searched through it and found some basic tomes about the Kingdom.

I flipped through them, reading some introductory stuff about their history and politics. Hopefully, that should be utterly irrelevant to me. Still, it was good to know at least everyone spoke the same language. 

As I was searching the library, One found a book that she wanted to read. She curled up in a chair in a nook hidden away in the corner of the library and told me to ask her if I had any questions. Checking the cover, I found it was a paperback romance novel. I left her to her distraction and kept looking.

I shrugged and went around checking the library. This time, I had a new target in mind. I was looking for something about the Endless Empire. I couldn't find anything just by scanning titles, but looking at a few of the indices, I did notice something. Something about invasions. 

It was a long shot, but I found a thick book chronicling the aggressive wars in the last thousand years. The end of the book had a section about myths and unconfirmable historical accounts beyond that time horizon. One of which mentioned something about the Endless Empire. A planet-faring force that wiped out civilization so many thousands of years ago. The author didn't count that as anything real and likened it to some massive worldwide civil war that destroyed a lot of history. But I seemed to know better.

There was no mention of where they came from or anything about portals, but it gave me some idea. So, several thousand years ago, something like this had happened before, something like what my organization was working to prevent. 

Somehow, they had scouts and information from them, along with updates. I didn't know how, but I really needed to learn more. Putting the book back, I went back to the indices and looked for portals. There were apparently portal magicians in some courts. Currently, only three in the entire world that were known. And their powers were very limited. The book author didn't seem to know exactly how limited, but me portaling over to the Kingdom for the meeting didn't seem to be a possibility. That was fine. It wasn't what I was looking for.

But I did find something, not about portals, but in a book on ancient ruins. Stone arches, that were mysteriously the same, were scattered all across the world. Were these the portals that the old man had been talking about? 

I pulled open the map and cross-referenced it with the location of our destination for our trip. Pulling out the map that I had brought with me from my office, I marked a few of their locations in it. I noticed that there were several along the path and one near the capital. 

We would be staying for some time. So, I made a note to take a few detours and check them out to see if I could find anything about them. Perhaps there was some sort of magic that I could use.