"Cinis, the king has a task for you, you won't be doing training with the Faerie today." Alonso said dropping the few papers of information she would need. He had entered her room moments before without knocking, he never knocked. She had been leaning back on a chair in the sitting room half asleep but trying desperately to keep her eyes open and focus on the novel in her hands.
"What does he need dead?" She set the book down on the low table.
"There are a lot of answers to that question, but today he needs you to silence some rebels claiming to know the location of one of the lost ladies of Altoness, some minor noble girl but she had some relation to the throne. He needs everyone involved dead by the end of the day." his eyes softened, "The group seems to be separate from the Altonesian rebels but the King wants them taken out before they become anymore of an issue."
"Fine whatever." Alonso gave her an almost pitying look before leaving her room. She slumped in her chair running her fingers through her loose hair. She was too tired for this sort of thing. But she could tell that this wasn't exactly optional.
She took a long bath, trying to wash away the fatigue and the dark circles under her eyes but they wouldn't budge. She was exhausted and she didn't know why. All she knew was that she was tired of it, all of it. Tired of the death and blood and suffering, tired of the nightmares that dragged her from sleep night after night after night. She was just so tired. But she wasn't allowed to be tired, she wasn't allowed to be irritated or angry, she wasn't allowed to be sad or haunted. All she was allowed to do was obey.
She got out of the bath and dressed in her fighting leathers before sitting down at the table where Alonso had left the papers. She picked up the papers flipping through them and taking in the information without any real thought. She saw the suspected location, the targets, and the method. She tied back her hair with a strip of leather, sheathing two daggers at her hips and hiding two more in her boots and strapping a bow and quiver across her back. She was about to head out when she heard,
"When you did show up to lessons I thought maybe you had overslept but clearly that's not the case." She turned and found Aspen arms folded blocking the doorway.
"I have a job you know." She was too tired to deal with him today.
"Yeah but you clearly aren't in any condition-"
"Don't tell me about my condition. I have an assignment I have to deal with."
"Just take a break-"
"I don't get breaks!" she snapped, "I don't get breaks or vacations, I don't get time off or rest. I do what I'm told or the King…" Aspen's brows furrowed and she trailed off, "Never mind it doesn't matter. I have to go, I'll see you for practice tomorrow alright?" and she must have looked so weary in that moment because he just said,
"Alright."
The papers had said that the rebels were suspected to be hiding out in an abandoned apartment complex in the slums. She scouted out the area before she went in.
There were about six rebels from what she could see. They had gathered in a room on the second floor. She was watching from where she perched on the window ledge next to the fire escape. She couldn't hear what they were talking about but her job wasn't gathering information. Still she took a moment looking side to side, there had been two rebels on the first floor seeming to act as lookouts, though they clearly weren't very good at their job. All the same it felt a little too easy. But she wasn't about to complain over an easy job, not when she was this tired. She reached for her daggers preparing to burst through the window.
Suddenly there was an arm and a knife against her throat, and a body pressed against her holding her still. Then there was a wet cloth over her mouth and then there was oblivion and it felt like she was fading away all over again.