An immense open space with patterned tiles conquering the floor, I'd never seen a room of such size. This was only the first floor of the building, not to mention. There were columns wider than several people put together reaching skywards to support the ceiling, and a banquet table at the opposite end of the room. Eight banquet tables, actually, scattered around. The place was large enough that it took me some time to locate all of them. Each was themed after one of our gods and the part of the world they governed over. The earth, the sea, the sky, death, life, love, light, and darkness. For now, I'd avoid the food, as that's where most of the crowds were headed. I needed to watch the door. And the security. Several larger men in black suits not much different from my own were scattered across the massive room, looking to stop any trouble before it happened. They wouldn't be enough to stop us, but it was still something to watch. At some point, Jerric had migrated towards one of the food tables, apparently hungry. The Crystalborn didn't need to eat as much as humans, so that was a questionable excuse. He must be doing something else. I couldn't focus on both him and the wave of faces coming through the door at the same time, so I let him go. Turns out I should have been more concerned.
I made yet another mistake, allowing myself to be overly focused on one thing and not watching others. When music began playing from an elevated platform that I was sure hadn't been there before, I hardly noticed. Only when I found myself in the center of a dance floor with countless people pairing up did my attention leave the doorway. Dancing wasn't exactly part of this mission, nor was I willing to get trapped in this. Using my arms to push people aside without regard for comfort or safety, I forced an opening back to the main entrance, where the tide of bodies was just beginning to slow. Going partially out the door, I checked for the target again. He wasn't there.
Cursing myself, I sprinted back inside. Where was the target? And where was Jerric? The second of those two questions was answered quickly, as a set of arms grabbed mine and swept me onto the dance floor. I flinched and almost tossed Jerric away, but drawing attention would do us no good. Glaring at his face, I asked him very politely what was going on.
"What in earth are you doing? This is not the time nor place for jokes." Anger and frustration came through, against my efforts to withhold emotion. If we failed this, not only would Jerard, the target, live, but the Emperor would do things I didn't even want to think about.
"Relax, Vite. Just let me have this, and don't worry. I'm getting us closer to the guy anyway." As he continued to lead the dance, Jerric nodded towards the platform on which the musicians were playing. A piano, a sort of drum, a flute. All sorts of things, combining into a strange and upbeat melody. More interesting to note was the fact that Jerard had joined them on the platform, overseeing the dancers with a joyful look across his wide face. Stepping to the rhythm of the music, guided by Jerric, I made my way slowly towards the area where our target stepped down and into the crowd. The footwork of swordfighters is naturally good, so dancing wasn't too difficult. This would be our shot. Conveniently, the music kept intensifying as we neared Jerard, blending in as we danced our way across the heavily patterned floor. Around the man, people were still dancing, but they made a space for him to breathe in. As famous rich people do, he kept nodding and smiling, occasionally throwing a kind greeting to people he knew. Fortune favored me, as he turned his back at a perfect moment. Detaching myself from Jerric's arms, I swept my sword from its sheath and across the back of the target's neck, spinning back into position while concealing my weapon without breaking stride of the dance in one incredibly smooth movement. I hated that I had to sheathe the weapon without cleaning it first, but it was necessary. Much to my amusement, the current song ended right at that moment, cutting out on the instant of death. Jerric knew what he was doing and kept leading me in a circle around the scene of the crime. Running away would be too suspicious. Jerard gasped for breath, suddenly falling to the floor and not getting up again. Several people rushed to help, but most couldn't see what had happened and went about their activities without change. Grinning, Jerric obviously was enjoying this more than he should be. I didn't know if he was more excited about the dance or the murder, but both were very concerning. If he enjoyed killing, he was more than a little messed up. If he enjoyed dancing with me, well, that led to a series of new problems. We may be partnered for this task, but realistically we were against each other. One could only pretend for so long. Regardless, as we continued to slowly dance further away from the murder among the increasing panic, I found myself analyzing Jerric's face. Dark eyes, but not in a bad way. Relatively soft edges, nothing overly outstanding. Just another person. That wasn't what I was looking for, though. Emotions were more useful than base looks, and I was able to detect a fair few of those on Jerric's face. Joy and satisfaction in a slight smile, along with another unidentifiable feeling in his eyes. Fortunately, he didn't notice my gaze, as he was still glancing towards the crowd around the corpse. At this point, it was safe for me to pull away from Jerric, brush myself off as if his touch had left some sort of mark, and stride out the door. Touching people had been necessary to finish this job, but I wouldn't tolerate it any further.
Out the door, there were more people. Waiting for space to open up within the building, undoubtably. Little did they know, Jerard, their host, was dead. His friends and family would have much to grieve about later. It wasn't any of my business. I was just doing a job. One death was justifiable when compared to the genocide of my people that Yviss had threatened. I wasn't sorry.