Falling Home

Kael limped to the back of the tavern. He was out of uniform, a wise decision for a soldier in this particular city. It was one of the rare times his missing leg helped him out: very few people expected an amputee to still be serving as a sergeant in the national forces. A miasma of pipe and cigarette smoke hung wisped about the ceiling, liquor fumes just below that, making one feel a bit more drunk upon standing than they had sitting down. Kael had gone to the table in the farthest corner, right next to the back door, every evening for a week, sitting and waiting for his quarry to come. Kael wasn't entirely certain that his message had reached its intended target, but he was confident that the killer for hire would show up.

As the final barflies were drifting away and Kael was about to throw in the towel, the air was suddenly sucked out of the room as everyone left sharply inhaled. A slim figure draped in black, just a hooded shape with two violet eyes gleaming out, slinked through the tables and soundlessly took a seat across from Kael. He laid his staff across his lap, a charm swinging lazily from a slim silver chain looped about the hoop at the top. The sergeant was was about to speak up, but his company beat him to it.

"No one leaves until I do," the assassin commanded just loud enough for everyone to hear, his accent easily identifiable as northern. Everyone sank into their seats and the eerie eyes settled intensely on Kael. "You have a job for me?"

Kael was nervous, he wasn't stupid after all, but his excitement overrode anything else. The assassin shifted away as Kael scooted closer.

"Remember me?" Kael asked eagerly.

The purple eyes narrowed. "Is this a trick?"

Kael laughed. "No, not really. I mean, I guess I did lure you here under false pretenses," he realized. "But it's a good thing. Really."

"You're a soldier," the assassin hissed, hands tightening on the staff. Kael held up his empty palms.

"Sure, okay, yes, that's true," he admitted. "But I owe you my life and so do a lot of other soldiers." He hesitated slightly. "Right?"

The dark figure sat stiffly, but he didn't dart away. And he could, Kael knew that. This assassin was unnaturally fast. The back door was feet away and Kael had come solo for this highly classified contact mission.

"You used to have green eyes," Kael observed, feeling out how receptive the assassin was. "When you were young, maybe ten, my squad was sent after men who had attacked us, hacked us to bits. What we found was the Twelve and by the time we realized that, we were way too close." Kael snorted. "I was, anyway. But you, you spotted me before they did and you provided a distraction for me to get away."

The bright eyes didn't blink. "You're fantasizing."

But Kael was undeterred. His own blue eyes were quite clearly on the past.

"Years later, you still had green eyes then, too, I was shot in the side of the neck. Would have been my head if I hadn't gotten a knife through my leg." Kael tapped his wooden stump on the floor and grinned. "Lesser of two evils. That was you again, I know it was. You kept the Twelve from killing soldiers for years with your interference."

The bartender didn't trust his hands to carry a fill glass to the table where Kael and his guest sat, so he set a sloshing, half-full cup of some pungent amber liquid in front of the assassin, mumbled something about on the house, then backed away, bumping into his own tables. Kael waited for the man to be out of earshot once again, then lowered his voice and leaned in a bit closer over the table.

"And I know about the very secret, very covert communications you had with Baldur Ajax concerning the movements of the Twelve." Finally, some kind of response from the killer. He glanced around the tavern and Kael heard him lick his lips, shifting slightly in his seat. Kael chuckled. "You don't have to be nervous about it. The Twelve are dead after all."

"I'm well aware," the assassin grumbled. He had dispatched with the monstrous mercenaries a little less than a year earlier and he'd been struggling to survive ever since. It seemed for every legitimate assassination job he got, there were three or four traps to eliminate him. Now this chipper soldier who knew far more than he should.

"That's why I'm here. I'm Baldur Ajax's son," Kael announced. "You got him precious information, you saved his son's skin a few times, you earned some goodwill."

"You're an Ajax?" the young man asked skeptically. Baldur Ajax had a fearsome reputation for being the toughest, bluntest, least forgiving man in the military. And this guy... was about as far from that image as one could be.

"I get that a lot," Kael grinned, shrugging. He took a good look at the fellow before him. That little boy, 9 or 10 at most, trapped with the horrible men. That was only 7 years ago. This person who froze an entire tavern, who terrified the country, was a teenager. He wouldn't even be old enough to join the army he so often protected. Kael had spent every day since he'd first seen the boy trying to save him and in the end, he'd grown up and saved himself. Kael hadn't been able to get him out of the Twelve, but he was determined to do something to help.

"I'm here with a sort of amnesty offer," Kael said.

A wrinkle formed between the black eyebrows. "A sort of offer?"

"You stop being a mercenary at large, come do projects for us- mostly less than lethal- and we take care of you."

The assassin scoffed. "Ah yes, I'm sure the soldiers would take to me so well. I wouldn't be a target everyday or anything." He shook his head and the place hushed again as he got up. "Just a new leash for the dangerous dog, hmm? No thanks."

He could be gone in an instant, that's how fast he was. That back door was so near, just a blink and Kael may never see him again.

"You'd live with me!" he burst out, causing the killer to hesitate.

"What?"

No backing out of it now. "Yeah," Kael went on like this was part of the plan and not something he had thrown out in desperation. "You're not even twenty, right? You'd live with me and my wife and our little girl." Kael's mind was whirling now. "As my nephew."

He wasn't sure what was stirring in him, that was how long he'd been without hope. He'd felt horror, despair, fury, and depletion, but not hope. Not since the day his family died. He wanted to ignore it, disappear, pretend he'd never set foot in this place, but the pull was so strong. This soldier was so convincing.

Kael could see the turmoil in those eyes. Even with no other part of him visible, the way his shoulders tightened, his knuckles paled on his staff, the sudden unsteadiness of his gaze, all of it told Kael that this was someone who desperately wanted to believe in a way out.

"You'd allow me around your family?" he asked quietly.

Kael waved his hand. "My family is eager to meet you. My wife knows you're the reason I made it home a few times." Kael was vibrating with anticipation. This was the moment he'd been waiting for. "What do you say?"

It was a very long, very silent journey to get back to the base where Kael was stationed. He'd been given permission for this special mission and he was supposed to deliver the recruited assassin to a different base along the way, but things had changed. The teenager had not spoken more than a few times since agreeing to the deal in the tavern. He disappeared every once in a while, causing Kael some minor panic, but he always reappeared again, offering no explanation for his absence. He didn't even offer a name, probably trying to limit how much Kael would talk to him.

As they approached the base on the final day of travelling, Kael noticed that the cool assassin was suddenly a bit closer and a bit jumpier than he had been. They set down to lunch with the barracks nearly in sight and he picked at his food. Kael had yet to even see what he looked like, as he lifted things up under his mask to eat and drink.

"Soooo," Kael started. "I brought you some clothes that I think you should swap into. Also, I kind of need a name, nephew."

"Dezik," he replied, still pushing food around.

Kael was elated. "Dezik! Alright! Perfect. And um... one other thing..." He tapped his teeth together hesitantly. "You're blind, right?"

The way Dezik locked onto him instantly made him doubt it. Not to mention what he'd seen while travelling with the teen. It was just a few tiny things here and there that gave him away. Dezik's gaze dropped and he rolled his shoulders unhappily.

"I am."

Kael sighed with relief. "Okay, because your eyes are kind of well known and I was going to suggest a blindfold anyway." He paused thoughtfully. "You're going to have to act a little more blind."

Dezik gritted his teeth. "Fine." He started to think he'd made a mistake coming with Ajax. Then he'd think of his parents, his brothers. They'd want him to take any exit from the life he'd lived so far. He had to give it a try.

His doubts increased triple-fold after he'd gotten changed. Dezik felt exposed in normal clothing, without his layers of black and hidden weapons. He crossed his arms tightly across his chest, clutching his staff.

Kael could hardly believe what he was seeing. Dezik appeared even younger than he imagined. He had an enormous scar from the corner of his eye to his jawline and his blueish-black hair was stick straight. He looked nothing like a notorious assassin and all of an awkward teenager. Kael was confident he could sell the whole picture, save one aspect.

"Looking good, very average, Dez"

"Dezik."

"Dezik. But people know the staff. We're going to have to get rid of it." Kael was a little surprised to see the expression on Dezik's face: a genuine apprehension. He twirled it in a nervous arch.

"Are you going to destroy it?" Dezik asked quietly. He'd made the staff with the blade hidden inside specifically so he'd have a weapon with a non-fatal option.

Kael's heart sank at Dezik's sudden meekness. He was obviously used to losing anything that meant anything to him. Tough as he was, Dezik was a young man who had been handled with unspeakable cruelty.

"No, we can just stash it," Kael promised. He watched Dezik carefully unwind the delicate silver charm from the top of the staff and slip it over his head. He tucked it beneath his shirt as he handed over the staff. Kael gestured towards it then recalled the action was wasted. "What is that? The necklace?"

Dezik glared silently, then tied on the black blindfold. It was his, his little piece of something and no one, not an enemy, not someone posing as a friend, would get near it. Kael raised his eyebrows.

"Oooookay," he mumbled.