**Rosa learned that there were two things that made you vulnerable on the streets:being alone, and being a woman, and she was both.
But it didn't bother her much, because she also learned how to protect herself, how to know when someone was following you, how to know how much they were and if they were armed or not.
She pushed once again the door of that tavern she was so used to go to.It was the worse tavern you could find, everyone here had, at least, committed three murders, along with many other crimes.
And she had just added three to her list.
It was fast, she had already spotted the one following her for five streets, and the one hidden in the alley just in behind the tavern.She already had her knife out when the third one appeared from what seemed to be nowhere, but she could tell he came from the roof.He fell heavily in front of her, and for an instant, a blink of an eye, he was unprotected.
And that's all it took to slit his throat.
He never got the chance to get up, when the blade was gone from his throat the only thing he did was touch it and look at the blood with shock, then he looked at her, and fell back.
As if he didn't expect her to defend herself, to actually kill him.
And for a second, she felt bad, maybe she didn't have to kill him, just hurt him really, really badly.
But she didn't have much time to think about it.
As the two were charging her furiously, they were clearly not happy she killed their friend, she got a second blade out, this one was hidden in her sleeve.
She always liked to say she had more than one trick in her sleeves.
And this one was extremely sharp.
As the first one tried to hit her with a furious right hook, she dodged under it and let her blade, still dripping from blood, sink into his chest, all the way to the guard, and piercing his heart.
It was just with the tip of the blade but it was enough for him to let out a scream that would freeze your blood.
But she went too deep and didn't have enough time to get out of there and dodge the kick that was coming from under.She took it right in the ribs, knocking the air out of her lungs, and throwing her several feets away.
She hit the wall behind her so hard she let go of her knives.
"You fucking bitch" said the man, clearly angry and menacing, "you just killed the only family I have, am gonna skin you alive!"
"First of all," she said, helping herself with the wall to get up, "jumping from a roof in front of someone with a knife is not really a bright idea".
The man's face deformed with anger and he answered her with a punch in the stomach, making her almost throw up.
Her eyes lit up with anger.
"You could've...left...alive"
She brought her head back and gave a head butt so strong you could hear the bones on his face crack.
He brought his hands to his face, but before they even got to his throat she was attacking again, a flurry of blows, enraged but precise, she only hit vital points, with a strength that would shake walls.
And at the end she grabbed him by the face and throw him threw the windows of the tavern, and only then, she calmed down.
She took her knives back, cleaned them on the bodies, searched their pockets for some money, but the only thing she found was a paper, with her name on it, and a price.
Someone had put a bounty on her head, once again, but right now she was too tired to try and found who it was.
They'll probably send someone else, but right now, all she wanted, was a drink.
Everyone was looking at her in the tavern, partly because of the man that just flew inside from the window, and partly because everyone here knew here, after all, finding a girl in such a place was more than rare, it was unique.
She went straight to the bar, the barman had already poured her a drink.
After all, the first time she came in here she was just a child, and since then she always took the same thing.
A glass of milk.
But with the years, the milk got mixed with always more and more alcohol.
"You know you are gonna have to pay for that window right there", said Bartolomeo, the barman and owner of the tavern.
"I'm pretty sure at least one of those guys got a bounty on their head, and even if they don't, I do, so I guess you could just take my head"
Bartolomeo smiled, but didn't say anything else.
When she was about to drag herself out of the bar a man came sitting at her side, blocking her way out.
She sighed deeply.
She was too tired for that, she always was actually, the moment were men that think they are strong look for a strong woman, not to make each other stronger, but to try and make her bend.
To have the satisfaction of being stronger than her.
She dragged her gaze out of her drink and toward the man.
He had the tan of someone that been at sea for many time.
She always wanted to go at sea, but never really had the occasion.
He was big, but not too big, not like the sailors she saw at the docks.
Those big guys, with big muscles, that were built from years of lifting heavy crates and untying big ropes.
But this man wasn't that big, so he wasn't a sailor.
A captain, that's what he was.
With his deep blue eyes, like the ocean, and his big smile, the kind of smile that charms people, that make them want to smile too.
The type of smile that belonged to man that were dangerous.
More dangerous than the two lying outside, dead.
"Hello, lady" he said, with a voice that sounded sweet, calm and at the same time loud even tho he didn't raise his voice at all.
It was the kind of voice that would enter in your mind.
"And who are you ?" she said, ready to get her knife out.
**
"Archibald"
"It's been a while Rosa"
He didn't change even a bit, the same tan, the same deep blue eyes, and the same smile.
He got a bit wider tho, and his blond hairs got a bit lighter.
"What are you doing here tho ? you missed that much that when you heard I was back you couldn't keep yourself from coming ? You always liked to be around me, when we were at sea, at land, or in my cabin"
He winked when he said the last phrase.
He didn't change, always as arrogant, always an asshole.
"Maybe, " she said, holding herself not to punch him in the face.
"But I mostly came for informations, you wouldn't have heard anything would you ?"
"As a matter a fact, someone proposed me to kill you, for a fair amount of money"
As he said that he put his arm around her shoulder and started walking.
"Oh is that why that girl have been looking at me since earlier ?"
At the same moment, a small blade went flying from Rosa's wrist toward a shadow in an alley a few feet behind them.
The blade stealed in the air, as if it was floating.
Then someone went out of the shadow.
She had mostly the same build as Rosa, thin but strong.
Her face was hidden by a hood, it wasn't until she got at their height that she took it off.
Her face looked so young, like one of a child, except it was full of scars.
Most of them didn't seem really deep, only one that was going from her lips to her ears gave her a terrible rictus.
Her hair was red, her eyes so black you would think it was a void.
Rosa chuckled at the idea.
Archibald had eyes blue like the surface of the ocean and his shadow had eyes black like the depth of it.
"What's so funny" she said as she handled back the blade.
"Nothing nothing" She said as she carefully took it back.
"As you can see, I refused" finally said Archibald
"And why is that ?" said Rosa with a grin smile on her face
"Simply because of this" He said as he showed a scar right under his collar bone
"I always knew I should've gone deeper"
He smiled, but not the type of smile he always had, it was more the kind of smile you make when you laugh too much, when it hurts.
"So" said Archibald after a moment of silence, "as I said, I declined the offer of killing you, but I wasn't the only one they proposed it to, so you should be careful"
"What do you mean, I always am, even when I was on top of you"
She winked as she said that.
She didn't change either, always sarcastic, always a bitch.
"There's a new type of assassin, you really should be careful"
Rosa didn't say a thing, she just turned around, and then in a flicker of her wrist threw another small blade toward Archibald's face, but he didn't catch it.
Gem did.
"You can keep this one, take it as a meeting gift, plus it can always be useful, one more blade"
And she then disappeared in an alley.
She saw the man following her before she even was at the docks.
As he went in the alley looking for her he didn't find her.
All he find was a wall, and then he heard a thud behind him.
He turned so fast you would believe the wind itself made him turn around.
But this speed just helped kill him faster.
Rosa's blade was already out, she was simply holding it in front of her, and he did all the work.
He cut himself on the tip of the blade from ear to ear.
"See, being too fast is never good"
She took a step back as his throat freed blood as if it was a fountain, so that it wouldn't get on her clothes.
And he felt, dead.
"Wow, that was impressive"
Rosa straightened at the voice, so familiar and yet so frightening.
She expected Archibald to come when she heard the footsteps.
But it wasn't Archibald.
This voice belonged to someone she knew way before Archibald, way before everything went sideways.
A voice that used to sing to her, that used to calm her.
A voice like crystal.
She turned around and said "Hello, sister"
Her sister walked toward her, arms wide open, as if she didn't see her in a while (that much was true) and was happy to see her again (that wasn't)
"Last time I saw you, you were on your knees, with your blood on mine, what do you want ?"
Rosa was on her guard, but her sister kept coming with the same stance.
Then she smiled, a grin, cruel, smile.
Then she charged.
Scaf have been walking around the black market for ten minutes when he realised he was being followed.
She he went in a tavern.
As soon as he got in, everyone went silent, all looking to the giant that just got in, and right behind him appeared a way smaller figure (even if he was 185 cm, he still looked like a dwarf).
And then the giant turned around in such a speed you wouldn't believe he had, and grabbed the man by the neck, lifting him up with one hand and throwing him outside, breaking the door in his way.
"Oh for fuck sake Scaf, again? " was all he heard before he got out.
The man was just getting up to his feet when he received a massive kick to the stomach.
He instantly fell to his knees, his breath totally cut and throwing up more food than what he remembered eating.
"Who sent you ?" Asked Scaf.
His voice didn't sound angry, or even mad.
Just upset, like someone you would have told them you couldn't come to your meeting, not at all like one that knew you wanted to kill them.
But the man couldn't talk.
"Oh for fuck sake, how many are you ?"
The man closed his thumb.
"So four huh, all for me ?"
The man made a no with his head, still trying to catch his breath.
"Shit"
And then he kicked the man head so hard it made a loud crack sound, but the only thing that moved was his neck.
His body stayed in the same postition, on his knees, but his head was on his chest, as if he was praying.
And then Scaf ran.
As Mike heard the voice behind him, he instantly spun around, and he had just the time to see the blade coming for his throat.
He managed to dodge it, the blade going just a few inches up from his nose, or at least tre nose of his mask.
Then he jumped in a backflip, hitting the assassin in the chest with his leg.
When he got to his feet he already had his bow in his hand and an arrow ready to be shot.
And so he shot.
It went right in the woman throat.
She went still for a second, and then fell to the ground, heavily.
"I hate fights" he muttered under his breath.
And then he remembered.
Neila.
As he turned around he didn't find her at the river.
Instead she was several feats away, a dead body at her feet.
Neila heard the footsteps behind her.
As she turned around, a dagger flew from her hand toward the person causing the sound, but the blade never hit flesh.
She didn't hit anything actually.
She was just flloating there, a few inches from the open palm of a woman.
She saw the look on Neila's face and said "Oh what now ? you never saw magic ?"
The woman was smiling.
Neila had seen magic before, but never in a fight, it was too dangerous, too uncontrollable to be efficiently used in a fight.
Or so she was told.
The circle of people who knew about this was closed, and one person had just been added, therefore one person must go.
In a flicker of the wrist, the woman sent the blade flying toward Neila with so much speed She almost wasn't able to caught it.
But she did.
And the woman had an advantage on her.
But if there was one thing she learnt from her years of living.
No, not living. Surviving.
It was that if someone had any kind of advantage on you, all you had to do was to be too fast for them to have the time to use it.
And so she did.
As she caught the blade, she spun around, just like a dancer, and sent it flying with even more speed then the first time.
The woman barely had the time to stop with her magic, but Neila was already there, and as the blade was floating in front of the woman, Neila came at full speed and gave a jumped and gave a tornado kick in the blade.
And it went right in the throat of the woman.
And the circle had been closed again.
The base of fighting is to read you adversary, his reactions.
This can change the issue of a fight.
And the woman misread Neila's reaction.
She wasn't shocked.
She was mesmerized.
Admirative.
Astonished.
But most of all, she was excited.
A new world was opening in front of her, as the woman was drowning in her own blood, before she fell to the floor.
Dead.
Mike appeared behind her, going out of the trees at her left.
He didn't talk, but she understood what he wanted to know.
But instead of telling him she was okey she said "I want to ask you a favor"
Rosa was on the floor, her nose bleeding, her chest was hurting like hell, and she couldn't get up.
Because her sister was keeping her on the floor, not using her body, but using the wind itself.
It was so fast, she didn't even see it coming.
As her sister charged her, with no guard, she was as open as someone that didn't know how to fight.
But she couldn't reach for her chest.
Her hand was suddenly heavy.
And then it came.
A fist, right in her face, it was so strong it broke her nose and made her hair fly.
Or so she thought.
Then it was a kick to the ribs.
And she fell her body fall, as if someone was pushing her, but her sister had already her hands at her side, as if the fight was over.
And now she couldn't move.
"What did you say ? ah yes, that the last time we met I was on my knees with my nose bleeding, how thing changes little sister"
Her voice was still like crystal.
She then put one knee to the floor and put her fingers under her sisters chin and lifted it up, so that she could meet her gaze.
Not that Rosa didn't try, but she couldn't do it herself, and now her head felt so light.
"What do we got here"
"Nothing that's your business, go away"
"Family problems, Archibald, it doesn't concern you"
"So you are saying I'm not family ?" as he said that he put his hand to his heart as if it hurted him.
Angelica, Rosa's sister sighed deeply, and then Rosa felt as if some weight was lifted from her as her sister looked away, but she still couldn't move.
"I think it would be better if you didn't do that".
His look got harder in a second,and even if he still looked nonchalant, he was ready to fight.
But he didn't have to.
Gem appeared from behind him, throwing a blade toward Angelica, the blade Rosa gave her.
And as she dodged the flying blade, she felt something extremely hot on her stomach, but it wasn't the kind of hot you get from a normal punch.
And it wasn't a normal punch, it was a burning punch.
"So little style" she said after backing off and getting her breath back, " wind is the element for assassin, fire is just for brute with no brain"
"I use anything I fucking want, that's why I'm a better assassin than you"
"Can you all stop this" Said Rosa, finally free, "the only person allowed to kill her is me"
"Alright then, I guess it can't be helped" finally said Archibald after some moment of silence, "Let's go Gem, this family is too crazy for me"
"What do you think you are doing ?" said Angelica when they were gone
"Making sure I'm the one that will kill you"
"Because you think they were able to kill me ?"
"Well, I mean she did hit you hard" she said, pointing at her bearned stomach.
"That was a lucky shot"
"That's all it takes, a lucky shot to the throat, or the heart, or the head, to kill someone"
After a moment of silence, Rosa walked toward the outside of the alley, but before she got in the road her sister called her back.
"You should come see me fight, in the arena under that tavern you like so much, things have changed from when we started, now people fight using magic, and it's so much fun"
"Oh and I'm the champion there" she said proudly.
"I know", said Rosa after a moment standing there, and then she flicked her finger, and a small flame appeared.
Some things never change.
Her voice didn't change.
It was still sharp.