ONE : SIN | edited 21/04/09 |

"See, Katelyn, there's nothing to worry about. My father keeps Fishers' Lane safe, day and night," Gerald grinned.

"But I am scared, my love. Let's go home..." Katelyn's hand was trembling under Gerald's hold.

"Don't be silly Katelyn, there is nothing to worry about. Do you not have confidence in my father, the great Captain of the City Watch?"

Gerald laced his words with a slight accusatory tone as he stared intently into Katelyn's eyes.

She was scared, Fishers' Lane was not the best place to be at night. But Katelyn did not want to upset Gerald, her love, her betrothed, and with a sigh of submission, Katelyn replied, "I do, my love."

The lovers were walking down the densely populated district of Fishers' Lane, a popular district near the town harbor, Mermaid's Landing. Gerald was a youthful and handsome lad with rich blue silks embroidered with golden falcons under a studded leather vest wrapping his slightly muscular frame. His wavy blond hair dropped down to his shoulders and a beautifully crafted sword with a pommel shaped to a falcon head hung from the scabbard on his hip. Earlier that night he had been celebrating his eighteenth birth year with his friends and Katelyn at the Drunk Dragon. He had one ale too many and when one of his friends told a story that he had been robbed at night in Fishers' lane, Gerald took it as an insult to his father's name and duty. He voiced his outrage, and announced to everyone in the tavern with drunken confidence that his father did his duty well, and he would prove it by walking down Fishers' Lane at nightfall.

Katelyn donned a beautiful turquoise dress that flowed down to her ankles for Gerald's celebration, but the skirt was dotted with dirt after walking down the damp streets of Fishers' Lane. Her long hazel hair flowed down to the small of her waist. she was very pretty by normal standards, with sharp features and a smile that would melt the hearts of men. But she was not smiling this time round, what she wore was a look of worry and despair.

Gerald appreciated Katelyn for giving in to him, and knew she was still terrified. His heart softened and started to comfort her.

"Come on now Katelyn, don't be afraid. No one would dare attack the son of the City Watch Captain. Even if they do, they will regret it the moment they strike. And Goldville is much safer than you think. My father has worked tirelessly to ensure it. You have two Esturns' words that you'd be safe. Now let us enjoy the night and each others' company. It is a beautiful night, and beside me stands a lady more beautiful than all the stars put together."

Katelyn's cheeks reddened. It is a beautiful night, she thought. The low buildings of Fishers' Lane provided a good view of the night sky above. It was studded with stars fighting for attention. The moon was almost full, and it cast a silhouette on Castle Alexia, which stood tall in the distance. Candle lights danced like faeries from the windows of the tall spires of the castle. The scene was coupled with the soothing rhythms of waves crashing into shore, the buzz, hums and croaks of beetles of the night and the sound of her own steady breathing. The smell of the sea and the rose fragrance she has put on filled the air. She also had a few drinks of wine at the Drunk Dragon, and her body was pleasantly warm in the cool night and her head felt a little light. She calmed down and relaxed her grip on the hand of her betrothed to one with more affection. Noticing the changed in her touch, Gerald turned to her and smiled gently, and resumed their night stroll.

Gerald hummed a melody he heard one of the bards singing in the Drunk Dragon. The smell of Katelyn's fragrance made his heart beat faster with excitement. He started to turn around to embrace Katelyn when his hand was forcefully separated from Katelyn's. Before his drunken senses could comprehend what had happened, both his arms were already pinned behind his back and a dagger placed under his chin.

Gerald's attacker has came up from behind and seized him. Katelyn's face white with shock, she opened her mouth to scream but the voice behind Gerald grunted

"Keep quiet or he dies."

And Katelyn kept silent, trembling like a newborn pup in winter. Gerald could not see his attacker, the thug has skillfully bound Gerald's arms with one hand such that he could not move, the dagger placed at his throat advised him against turning his head to face his enemy. There was no way Gerald could escape his assailant's bind, let alone get to the sword at his hip.

He swallowed the lump in his throat, and managed a whisper, "Everything is going to be alright, Katelyn," trying to calm his love down.

"Oh no it won't be, " the thug snorted. " It's Amazing that you dared wander the streets so late at night. Ah, I smell ale in your breath, that explains your bravado. Foolishness is punishable by death!"

With a squish the dagger sank into Gerald's throat. Blood sprayed from his neck, staining his chin and silks. The pain burned in his throat, and he tried to scream, but only fresh blood escaped his mouth. His arms were released, Gerald realized, as he was holding his throat with both his hands. Unable to hold himself up, he drop to his knees. Only the sound of Katelyn's shriek kept him conscious as he struggled to find her with his blurring vision. Finally she entered his vision, with a figure dressed in black - his assailant - covering her mouth to muffle the scream and the other binding her arms in a similar fashion to his. He reached out his bloodied hand for her, the last thing he could manage, for his body felt as heavy as an anvil. Everything turned to ebony black as his head lowered itself against his will, and he went to his eternal slumber on a bed of crimson blood.

Katelyn thrashed about in her bind, and screamed as hard as she could under the thug's hand. The sight of her lover dying in front of her was traumatizing.

"Stop resisting or you can join him too, " The ruffian commanded.

For a brief moment she wanted to join his betrothed, and struggled even harder. But the wild abandon was doused with the instinct of self preservation, and she submitted. Her strength had failed her, as grief overcame her body. She stood sobbing, with tears falling down her cheeks in endless streams.

The thug released his hand from the bind and pulled up the skirt of the lady's dress, unbuckled his pants and thrust his manhood from behind her. Katelyn felt as if her body was going to tear apart and let out a choked cry. The brute pounded repeatedly, occasionally grunting and moaning in pleasure. Each thrust renewed her pain. Warm blood trickled down between her thighs and she cried and choked.

After a few long minutes, the barbarian tensed and released his essence inside her, and pulled out. He released Katelyn and pulled up his pants, while she fell to the ground, legs numb and body in pain. She looked at her motionless beloved beside her, and caressed his face. All she could do was to weep silently, as her voice was long gone. The thug walked past her and slashed off the gold pouch from the dead body and in a few skillful leaps, disappeared into the night.

Katelyn laid helpless, with one hand reaching down between her thighs, where it still throbbed from abuse, and wiped a stream of crimson fluid and brought it in front of her. She stared blankly at her blood stained fingers. Her thoughts swirled in a sea of hopelessness. Moments later, she looked past her fingers at the falcon pommel of the sword that still laid strapped to the corpse and one solution came to her. Inching forward to her betrothed, her husband, she declared to herself, she turned him over on his back, and rested on his chest, enjoying his 'embrace'. She laid there till his body turned cold, and finally she got up and drew the sword from its' scabbard, and smiled lovingly at the steel falcon.

Turning the blade to herself, she whispered, "We'll be together for eternity, my love."
Slash. Thud.

The thug slid down the streets of Fishers' lane with catlike grace. He has no name. He is but a shadow in the night, a scum that lies in dark corners. His small but toned frame was clad in black linen, with leather straps to reduce the rustling noise of fabric when he moved about. His short dirt brown hair hung in messy rags, while his emerald green eyes and sharp countenance gave him a cat-like appearance. Stubble dotted above his upper lip and chin. It was his seventeenth year, or sixteenth, or eighteenth, he had not bothered to keep count. Behind his back were two crossed scabbards sheathing a pair of identical daggers with foot long blades, and a another pair of daggers, armor piercing rondel spikes, was fastened horizontally across the small of his back. His soft leather boots, which he pilfered off a trading caravan, padded almost noiselessly against the stone floor.

He stopped a distance from his home, an abandoned looking small square house by the old deserted harbor, New Hope. The walls were green with moss, slippery and unclimbable. The window panes covered in so much dirt it is impossible to see through it. The iron fittings on the door were so badly rusted it was obvious that the door had not been used for many years. Lying on the ground beside the wall was a broken piece of wooden plank with a short piece of rope on its head - his key. The thief propped the plank against the wall of the house. The plank was too short to reach the roof, but it provided enough to climb for the rogue to leap onto the edge of the roof and pull himself up. He reached the roof, and with the rope of the plank still in his hand, lowered the plank back into its' sleeping position. The roof tiles were also special, other than the usual tiles he used to get into the small hole in the center of the roof, the tiles were loosened and would make a noise when stepped on. Sliding through the hole in the roof he landed on the ground within the house as gracefully as a cat.

Inside, the house did not look so abandoned. The room was illuminated by a lone candle whose light could not penetrate the dirt stained window panes. The whole house had no separate rooms, only a big hall. On one side of the wall was a stack of hay covered in sheets of linen - his bed, while a quartet of crossbows mounted together on a platform sat on one of the corners, armed and pointed at the roof entrance. The thief tied the linen thread, the trigger of the crossbows, to the entrance of the roof, arming the trap, then started stripping his jet black outfit.

From one dark corner of the house a small pair of green eyes appeared, staring intently at the thief. The green orbs glowed like green flames.

"Come on out Kid, " he called out. In response, the black tomcat purred as it emerged from the shadows. The rogue took out a piece of dried bread from his garb for Kid. Eating intently, Kid let the thief stroke his fur.

"I got a virgin today Kid, " the rogue said with a half smile. The cat did not understand, but the thief liked talking to him, for Kid was his only companion. "I've been lucky lately, haven't I? If my luck would stay this good I'd soon be richer than the king and screwed more girls in my lifetime than I could ever remember," the thief tossed his new coin pouch up and down in his hands, weighing it. "Twelve gold coins, not a bad amount." The cat finished its meal, purred and stroke itself against the rogue's hand, flirting with it to get more food. The thief withdrew his hand and hushed "no more food now, be off." As if the cat understood, he slowly strut back into he dark corner it came from.

Having removed his thief outfit, the rogue looked like any commoner with a simple tan colored linen shirt and breeches. He laid his black garb and weapons neatly beside his bed, blew out the candle, and went to sleep.


Zzzz. (The rest of the chapter after this portion is drafted and will be edited later)


Kid's Caterwauling woke him from his slumber. Its' growling was unbearably loud. At first the thief turned over on his bed and tried to return to his sleep, then suddenly sprang out of bed. Kid sensed a threat, he realised. The rogue lifted a small square of linen covering the only cleaned portion of window pane and peeked outside, but saw nothing out of the ordinary in the dark streets. The dark room was only slightly illuminated from the moonlight that flowed in from the open roof. Adjusting to the darkness, the rogue found Kid. It was hissing at the hole in the roof, and its' fur was standing on ends. No noise of roof tiles, the thief listened. But as his senses shook off the sleep, he too felt a slight uneasiness. Kid must have felt it earlier and stronger. His wits told him to head for safety and he grabbed his blade daggers and leaped into dark corner of the room. As soon as the thief was in the cover of darkness, he came from the roof.

The figure was covered in a dark blue silk robe, with a hood shadowing most of his face. A grew goatee framed his exposed mouth and chin. His arms were reached in front of him, and a faint gold glow emitted from his slightly wrinkled hands. More than a dozen glowing glyphs of gold hovered around the man at his waist height in a circle. He stood on what seemed like a sapphire blue mist, as he drifted down through the open roof. The thief looked intently at the thread, the trap trigger as the man floated closer and closer to it. And it snapped! With a crackle the four bolts were unleashed from their cradle. They darted toward the intruder at lightning speed, until they stopped suddenly in mid air, apparently held in place by the thickening sapphire mist around them. When the mist dissipated, the bolts fell to the ground, lifeless. Kid has already stopped its growling and hid in a corner as well, probably sensing how powerful the intruder was. "Maegi," the rogue spat silently.

"Come out! I know you're in here." The Maege said calmly in a voice of a forty-year-old. Floating in the centre of the room, he sealed off the only escape. He did not bother to look around the room, the thief observed. So confident was the sorcerer, the rogue knew his daggers would be as useless as the crossbow bolts. The glowing glyphs and hands provided slight illumination to the room, but the thief knew full well it was still too dark to see him in the corner. And so he remained in his hiding place, mind racing for possible courses of action, but none came to him. The maege then muttered something the thief could not understand. When he was done, the glpyhs hummed and the glow on the maege's hands brightened intensely, lighting up the whole room. He knew then that he had no choice, and the rogue made a desperate attack, leaping out from the corner with his daggers aimed at the sorcerer. He too stopped in the air as the mist too wrapped around him. He felt like the air became too thick to move through and was suspended in mid jump.

"There you are, little rat." The maege mocked.

"What do you want?" the thief snapped, struggling to break free of his airy prison.

"Why so rude? Don't you know how to respect the person who has full control over you?"

The maege got a grunt for an answer.

"No matter, you will learn that you can do nothing but obey me. I'll get straight to the point. I have a few errands that will require your expertise. There are a few people I want dead. I'm too lazy to kill each of them myself, and stain my beautiful silks, so I figured I will just get an obedient dog to help me to do it."

"How did you find me?" The rogue was curious to find out. He was always cautious when returning home, always made sure he was not watched or followed. How this maege found him was a mystery. But that was not the only reason he asked that question. He also wanted to buy time to figure a way out of his situation.

"Oh I have many ways of finding things, I also found you screwing that lady tonight, but does it matter? " A touch of pride coloured his voice as he boasted his knowledge. "All you have to know is that I have you under my control, and you will do as I say."

The rogue could do nothing. He was helplessly held in the air by the cloud as the maege began muttering in a foreign tongue again, rune words, the rogue recalled the language of magik.

After the sorceror was done reciting his rune words, a part of the blue mist drifted towards the thief's face and invaded his head, entering through his ears, mouth, nostrils, and eyes. His head throbbed as he screamed. After a few moments that felt like an eternity of pain, it was over. I am inside your mind now, the voice inside his head spoke. I am able to see your every movement, hear your every thought, and if you disobey me... He felt a hold tightening from inside his head, renewing his throbbing pain... I can kill you effortlessly.

"These are the men I want dead, " the maege spoke with his own voice now. Reaching into the folds of his robe, he threw a piece of written parchment on the ground. "I want all of them dead by a month's time, you'll never wish you live to find out your fate. What is your name, dog?"

"I have no name." The thief managed to reply through his throbbing mind.

"Then you shall be called Sin, for you will commit my sins for me. And you shall call me 'my liege'. Is that understood?"

The rogue did not reply, for he was still dazed from the mental attack. But when his head tightened again, he quickly replied "Yes, my liege."

Satisfied with the thief's answer, the blue robed figure floated out of the roof and away from sight.

Good night, his liege's voice rang inside Sin's head. The mist around him faded and he crashed to the ground. Stunned from the magical attack, he did not break his fall and just laid there, gasping for breath. Kid emerged from the corner, and started licking his hands.