Emerelda sighs and stood up. She follows him to the now open door, stepping into darkness. He stated descending and she realized there was a staircase. There was no light provided so she had to squint ahead of her. Emmett's white shirt was her guide as its color illuminate in the black darkness. Counting each twenty steps, they finally arrived to flat ground.
He didn't stop there; they both walked through a small hallway. Her hand reached to the wall on her right, and she felt the cold bricks under her palm and fingers. Suddenly he stopped and Emerelda had to wield herself not to bump into him. She watched his hand moved and fished something silver from within his pockets. A door in front of him opened up and light burst through.
Emerelda looked around the new place. They were in a large room, almost like the size of her chamber. There were weapons on a wall made from wood to her left. Small knives and daggers to large swords, and different pistols were hung orderly. The wall to her right had a large board with pictures, ripped pages and newspapers. A red string connected from one to another.
"Huh, is this your way on telling me that you are simply the Assassin?" she asked.
He turned to give her a smirk, "No. However I dictate my life here to become one."
She heard the sarcasm in his voice and rolled her eyes, "Hilarious."
"Aren't I?"
She crossed her arms across her chest, "Then, what is this all?"
"To train," he said striding over to the weapons wall.
She looks above and saw that the ceiling was made from concrete, a new material that was introduced just a couple of months ago. She vaguely remembers hearing that they were shipped from England to Garlin, and only a few high statuses had got their hands on it, everyone else in Garlin was still with wood flooring and roofs. She found this very interesting.
She focuses her attention back at Emmett who had he's back turned at her again. She slowly made her way to the large board, "To train for what?"
"Well, you're not the only one to kill the Assassin."
She frowned, looking at the board filled with black and white words and images, "What have the Assassin done to you?"
He chuckled, "He took the two people I loved dearly in my heart."
She looked back quickly, shock written on her face, "I'm sorry." She said, barely loud enough.
He smiled and said, "No, you're not."
She didn't say anything on that and looked back to the board, "Why work with me? What proof do you have to convince me?"
"I love this game, pounder me with questions to find a flaw within me."
"That's not quite it."
"I'm quite sure it is. I have the same gift as the Assassin, yes, go ahead and give you're self credit on guessing something correct tonight."
She ignored him.
He continued speaking loudly, "As I mentioned before, you would never be able to capture him, he's just too fast. I'm you're key for that. You also have a powerful gift quite unique and extremely valuable. The power that involves with the mind is the highest powers from all."
She nods, reading a part of a page, a handwritten journal perhaps. "If you're going to stand there telling me things I already knew of, I'll take my leave. Most of us already studied the gifts given to men."
"May I proceed?"
"Please, continue."
"I have more information then you could have gathered. Way more than anyone you would encounter, years and years of research."
'And I found myself facing eye to eye...' she read on the page. She raised her finger to the headline of a newspaper that the yarn was connected too. She scanned through the swarm of words, 'Couples found dead'.
"Therefore, you're trying to say, my gift and yours together would be unstable."
"Your lack of understanding amazes me."
She didn't turn around, "I suggest you to start telling me what you know so far."
For a second, it was silence. Emerelda was about to turn around when a flash of silver raced past her head. There was a thud indicating something heavy has struck the board. Emerelda slowly turns around, and implanted right next to her head was a dagger.
"Warning next time before you slice off my ear?" She glares at him.
He shrugs, his face oh so innocent, "I never miss a target, no warning necessary for the future." He nods to the board before she could say anything else on that matter, "As you can see, I have been a busy man."
She looked back to the board irritated. Underneath where the dagger was entrenched was a report on one of the Kings apostle. How loyal, how wonderful, and how trustworthy the man is, she read.
"Mr. Chester. A talkative man and incredibly infuriating. Nevertheless, he gets the job done."
"Correct." He said beside her.
She jumps and steps back surprised. He didn't notice or care as he leaned towards the paper, "You mention that the dear Prince is dead?"
She hated the way he causally had said that, as if it was just one of anther dead man, a man that didn't have an emotional effect on anyone.
Idiot, the only person who did truly care was you.
"Yes, such valuable information I have given you as no one else knew of this."
He gave a sideway glance at her, "Patience." He points at Mr. Chester's smiling face, "The Assassin's next target."
"That's odd, how do you know?"
His finger ran over the red yarn, "You see, to us all they seem to target at random, although if you connect the cases together." Her eyes follow his long finger connecting to each death, "Their not. It's anyone who is loyal to the king."
She frowns, understanding his point, "An important person, and not important."
"Indeed. I have a theory, this assassin works for someone who wants the king to step down. By the looks of these recent deaths, they are all but warnings."
Emerelda felt cold all over, she stood very still as Emmet stood warmly right next to her. She swallowed hard, "Meaning there would be bloodshed in the future."
He turns his head, "I pray that won't come to that."
She nods at the newspaper, ignoring his concern eyes, "Mr. Chester, how do you know he's the next target?"
"He's not the next target. When you mentioned the Prince death, I realized I looked at this all wrong. Mr. Chester is a traitor."
She looked at him with shock, "No…this… this is all going too fast. Why are you telling me all this, we only have met an hour ago?"
He sighs and slowly looked at her with those golden honeyed eyes. They were hard as stone, "I know anger when I see it. You and I have the same goal, the same drive, and the same motive that makes us wake up every morning. We have anger. We strive for revenge. Watching the Assassin life drain from his eyes is the desire we crave." He looked serious, and frustrated.
She steps back, "You laughed at me."
"I did, and yet I didn't know who I was dealing with. When you stood there yelling, looking down at me with that fuming attitude, I have thought you were just a naïve princess upset her brother was killed, a maiden who didn't know the dangers of the world, and ran away with nothing but her gift. I had no idea that you, Princess Emerelda was ready to fight and kill the assassin despite the fact knowing you might die in the process. I saw determination in you, and that was exactly what I needed."
He said it as facts, nothing more but observations he made of her. She now wondered who really had the gift of mind reading. This new stranger had dropped into her life having exactly what she needed. Someone she hadn't thought she required.
Looking at him now, she saw past the humor and saw a man who is hungry for revenge. He didn't look down at her with the same look most would give her knowing she was royal, he gazed at her as a person who would be able to fulfill his ambitions.
And all in that, he was cleaver, a fast thinker, observant, and excellent on analyzing. He observed her long enough to know what he wanted to do with her, and he wasn't going to let it go.
"Alright," she heard herself saying, "You seem eager and ready for this."
"I was ready from the very beginning" He grins, "We are now partners, with that being said, we shall trade cards on the knowledge we have on Mr. Midnight."
She raised her eyebrows, "I've noticed you directly called him male. How do you know he is a male?"
"A slight encounter," he said a little too quickly looking away, "Didn't last long, but it was enough to know that we are dealing with a male assassin."
She tilts her head, "How did the encounter happen?"
He clenched his jaw, "That would remain a secret."
She frowns, "That's not fair is it now? You mentioned 'trading cards', I traded you valuable information. The prince death isn't something anyone knew about. This information could help me, us, to know exactly why-"
"I was there when he killed my parent's right before me."
Emerelda almost gasped. She didn't say anything for a whole minute. Emmet stood staring blankly down at her, he was breathing hard. He was angry, and she felt sorry for him.
This partnership might actually work for the both of them.
"It's a good thing we are going to find him faster and finally end him." She said.
His Adam apple bombed up and down, "Yes, a reliving thought."