Whisper of a Shadow

[Trillian]

[reserved]

Hako had finished up in the Laboratory and let himself out, his robes swishing about at his calves as he turned and hurried out, bypassing the well-trodden path in order to walk over the well-shorn grass and lawns.  After he was mostly out of sight from the building where he\'d performed his careful alchemy, he toed off his boots and plucked them off the ground, carrying them in the crook of his arm and closing his eyes as he walked, to better enjoy the feel of the grass beneath his feet.  Blades tickled his toes, the soft earth cooled his feet previously warmed by his boots, and he listened to the crickets chirped as he practised walking as silently as possible - which was slowly, feeling blades bend beneath each step.

There was no moon tonight, and the sky was full of grey clouds, brewing together and promising a storm in a few hours.  The smell in the air wasn\'t brisk enough to warn him of impending weather, but it was fresh enough for him to open his eyes and turn his face up to the sky, smiling.

It was then that a flash of movement caught his eye and his eyes turned in their sockets, without turning his head and alerting who was close by, that he knew of their presence.  What had the movement been?  A shadow among shadows it seemed, perhaps even his senses playing tricks on him; a frog, an insect, a falling leaf.  He trusted his instincts, they were telling him that a person had passed close by.  But he was in an open lawn, there was nowhere for anyone to duck and hide!

He turned his head now, to the left, and stared hard at the place where he\'d thought he\'d seen movement, his eyes almost watering from focussing at different degrees of nothingness.  Then he saw it, because it moved.  He saw it because he was allowed to see it.  Him.

Him!

Hako saw him rarely, heard about him often.  A dark-skinned shadow among shadows, silent and wary among whispers and stares.  His curiosity was piqued, and as the other moved away from him, Hako followed.  He\'d been allowed to spot him, he\'d been offered a choice.  Give in to rumours and fear of the unknown, or continue after him and make a discovery.  Hako, being who he was, didn\'t even see one of the choices offered.  He did the only thing he could do.

He followed.

He was drawn closer to the woods, walking as silently as he could at the pace he was forced to upkeep and not lose his pursuit.  The grass whispered his presence while he held his breath, hoping the wind would cover the blades that sounded loud to him but hopefully nonexistant to the one a good number of steps away from him.

Branches began to reach out to him, to snag his robes, to tease him with soft noises as he moved past in his clumsy student attire.  Frowning, he paused only long enough to remove his robes over his head, leaving him standing shirtless with only his pants around his waist and legs, and a necklace that would\'ve caught moonlight and flashed silver, except there was no light to catch.  He dumped the robes and his boots, and continued forward, thinking that the time he\'d taken was well enough to have lost his mark.  But there he was, standing silently, his back to Hako, a glimpse of long dark hair, and then gone again.

The chase was afoot once more.  Until such time as it ended, with Hako standing in a place he had not visited before; in the woods that walled off the lawns around the school, at a creek\'s edge that he never knew existed, with no indication of where the one he followed had gone.  Disappointed beyond comprehension, he closed his eyes and turned around, willing that the other would be standing in front of him, as though dreams and wishes could come true.

Then he opened his eyes.

[deviliscious]

Shuffle, shuffle...
Slide, slide...
Shuffle, shuffle...
Slide, slide...

With every single shuffle and every single slide, the sounds were muted, cut off from any prying ears. Black robes whispered a silent noise to any who tried to listen, the crunching of grass beneath his booted feet made their soundless protests to being trampled on.

Euric was Silence; a blade slicing through the darkness, a figure shrouded in the shadows, weaving them and wearing them like a cloak about himself. And what a wonderful cloak, enabling him to hide from the world if need be, to become invisible, especially on a lightless night such as this. It was never easy to discern different shades of black.  A shadow among shadows; an apt description.

Said shadow moved with swift steps deeper into the woods, fleeting past the academy’s lawn, becoming even more like the ghostly apparition he was known for as he faded in and out of the gloom. Peeking into bushes, over portions of substratum and even glancing up each and every tree he passed by, Euric still was unable to find her. With the scent of rain in the air, the half-elf knew he had to speed up his search. Who knew where the kitten had disappeared to?

To think he had been careless and left the window open when he left his room for class that day only to discover upon his return that Pocket had gone missing. His pet snake was not helpful at all no matter how long he stared at it. The snake had let out an annoyed hiss however. If only Euric was a pure, full-blooded elf instead of being a mixed breed of indeterminable descent, he would have been able to understand the Ball Python who could have told him where the kitten might have gone to (or maybe the serpent would have given its owner a tongue-lashing for losing such a delicious... err, helpless feline).

Not to mention he could have sought help from the trees. He knew they were saying something – the trees made a humming sort of noise – but he simply could not understand them! How frustrating.

Just then, pointy ears prickled and he grew to a standstill. Being from House Confuto, recognising sounds was something in his element. He heard it and knew it for what it was – footsteps. Not even the wind could conceal it. Furthermore, there was a spike in the trees’ hum that vibrated against each other into a discordant buzz, a sound he had learned a few years before that it was nature’s way of warning him about something. If Euric was more conscientious, he would never have been spotted – being so near the school, he had let his guard down – and because of his carelessness, someone was tailing after him. But then again, why would anyone want to follow him?

Thinking that perhaps, it was just a coincidence and that no one was really in pursuit of him, he toyed with the effects of the shadow, allowing whoever it was to see him for a few instance here and there to determine whether or not he really was being followed. To realise that it was not a coincidence after all, it made Euric extremely wary and he instantly summoned the shadows to better conceal him from the other’s view once and for all.

In silence and with fluid speed, Euric pivoted upon his heels and darted past the other so as to slide in place behind  him, rather than in front. He moulded his frame near a tree, a mere feet away from the topless male he was currently observing with mistrust.

And then the stranger turned around, facing him with his eyes closed. The moment he opened his eyes, Euric dismissed some of the shadows that was embracing him so that whoever the other was could see him standing still and hunched under the tree – a distinctively sinister, shadowy form.

Euric was pressed for time. If not, he would have continued to stand there, unwavering as he stared at the stranger through the thick bangs of his hair and waiting for the other to make his move first. Thus, he decided that for just this one time, he would be the first to speak. Lips parted to produce a sibilant hiss, bending sound to make his words echo menacingly through the woods.

“Why are you following me?”

[Trillian]

Here, here was a man Hako could admire, a master in training, advanced beyond his years.  Hako was an average age for the level he was at - younger than most, not extraordinarily so, and it frustrated him to be mediocre.  He would not be lost in the crowd, however, and so he sought to make an impact upon everyone he met.  Making an impact to someone who sought him out was easy, but to leave a lasting impression on someone who was so intense (such as this shadowy being was), would be difficult, if not near impossible.

"To understand my motives, you would first have to understand who I am," Hako replied, wanting to lower his eyes and give a respectful nod but not daring to in case this omniscient being saw fit to disappear in that space of time.  Hako didn\'t even dare blink, or twitch, or flinch.  His heartrate pounding with the rush of adrenalin from meeting him.  Him!  It was like meeting a God.  He knew that this man wasn\'t even yet a Master, but Hako had the opinion that if Masters were better, they would not be Masters, they would not be known at all, too gracious with their time, a teacher was a generous soul, and how great could an assassin be, if they were generous?

He wanted to say more, oh how much more he wanted to say, but this conversation was too important to waste words.

[deviliscious]

Now how was that an answer to his extremely straightforward question?  A part of him bristled at the younger-looking one’s nerve not to simply answer him yet another part of him was mildly surprised that he had dared to follow him in the first place; as well another part of him was intrigued by the other male.  The half-elf had long abandoned hope that someone was unafraid of him. Well, not unafraid entirely but fairly brave enough to overcome that fear – if he was feeling at all fearful. So to have someone before him clearly sparking that long-dead hope somewhat to life... it left him baffled. And Euric was not at all pleased by this latest development.  

The shadowy figure did not move from his spot, maintaining his rather intimidating demeanour while not letting his eyes leave the stranger. Without his robes, Euric had no idea that the other male was in fact, a student of the Assassin Academy. Perhaps if he had known, he would be more... lenient? A laughable prospect, really. Still, he could not help but feel that he had seen this person’s face before. But where?

No matter where the half-breed thought he had seen him, it was hardly an issue. One hand made to slip into the folds of his robes so that, should he need to use his weapon, quick retrieval would not be of concern. By then, he had released more of his faithful shadows so that the younger one could see what exactly he was doing - and be warned.

“Whatever made you think I would ever want to do such a thing?” was his careful response, unconcealed wariness in his deceptively soft tone. If anything, it made him sound like a wild animal, cornered. And everyone knows that that would be most dangerous for an ignorant fool.

[Trillian]

Never mind thoughts of omniscience and God-like power - this man before him was a demon, a demon of shadows, and the more movement he saw, the less Hako liked.  This was difficult, this was fruitless, he was feeling well over his head (and this feeling was something he\'d experienced before, but not so often that it was familiar to him) and the rejection of his invitation to get to know him better left him stumbling for a reply.

Peripherally, he saw the gesture for a weapon, and his trained instincts screamed at him to run, but this wasn\'t right, this wasn\'t his setting, he would not die here, half naked, alone, in the woods with nobody to mourn his passing.  It was too tragic, he was the hero of his own tale, when he went into death, it would be with irony, it would even perhaps be a sacrifice, but not with this, not with this meaninglessness.

He dared to blink, if only to recover.  He went back to the original question, because he\'d been blocked so well in the second.

"I followed you because you let me," he challenged, hoping for importance.  Surely such a great power would not have slipped?  Surely a level five could not have surprised him or caught him off guard?  Hako was not likely to drop to his knees and worship Euric, but the elation of speaking to someone who was rarely seen and steepled in rumour, made him feel important, and therefore made this moment important, something to be revered.

Of course, it was all one-sided.

[deviliscious]

The hand in the sealed compartment where he kept his garrotte stilled, a finger hooked into the centre loop made by the circle of wire.  It had served its purpose though for the younger male opposite him was quick to answer.

However, his reply made Euric frown, hidden by the long fringe of his hair that covered half his face. “I did not let anyone follow me. I... never thought anyone would,” he said, a note of uncertainty sowing itself into his words. A slight shaking of his head as he slid one foot nearer towards the stranger. It was another move made in a bid to scare the boy away.

“Even if I did let you follow me, why would you do so? Do you enjoy the thrill knowing that you would have gotten yourself killed? Or do you have some other... devious purpose in mind?” The last bit was spoken in a hushed murmur, an unspoken threat that echoed through the woods. He was growing increasingly confused as to why the other male was still here. This time, Euric had not manipulated any of the shadows about him but the darkness seemed to thicken at the slightly turbulent flare of emotion, as though they had felt his distress and  sought to hide him from whatever that had caused it.

This had to be it, the final straw that would have the other either running away or fainting on the spot. Were that to happen, it would not be the first time though he was quite amazed that blue-eyed boy had not done so when Euric first opened his mouth.  

Perhaps this was why the half-breed had never made any friends, not with his unsociable attitude and distrusting nature. True, the half-elf came across as a frighteningly ominous being. But if he found out the real reason why the boy had followed him, he might start to panic...

[Trillian]

Hako tasted the response given to him, turning it over in his mind as a food critic might curl a sauce around on their tongue.  Not expecting to be followed meant he\'d caught his mark unaware, and no wonder the hostility.  There was a surging of pride in his chest, feeling almost as though it swelled beneath the tremendous pressure of knowing he\'d been good enough to track the best.  Of course he\'d had to be semi-meditative when he\'d done so, with eyes closed, sensing nature around him, but he\'d done it, and it was something he would relish for many years to come (if he had that long).  It was this pride that marred his otherwise sensible judgment and caused him to respond back with something akin to his usual arrogance - though he was always polite and courteous in his arrogance, masking it well.

"What purpose do you think I have, hidden up my non-existant sleeve?" he slowly spread his arms out from his body, revealing that he was weaponless (if not helpless).  "Haven\'t you ever sought answers to questions not yet asked?"

[deviliscious]

Apparently, the half-breed was not as intimidating as he was led to believe because the familiar-looking stranger before him did not appear daunted; nevermind the steadily darkening surroundings or the way even the loudest-sounding howl of a stray wind was cut off from the younger one’s ears; without doubt, the only sound he could hear was the half-elf’s voice and nothing else. Euric was very much in his element – one wrong word or move and it will all be over in a relatively short time if the Confuto student could manage it.

With the way the blue-eyed boy made that unspoken revelation that he was indeed weaponless, surely he would realise that the Shadow Caster was someone extremely dangerous to even contemplate on crossing paths with, despite the fact that he had made that (unforgivable) blunder in letting his guard down for a minute.

That was then. The situation was different now. Euric sensed that the other was feeling a tad bit too pleased that he had managed to ‘catch’ the elusive Shadow and he idly wondered if it would be impertinent of him to apply that proverb ‘Pride goeth before a fall’. Be that as it may, Euric was still thunderstruck by his supposedly minor feat – not the outcome itself but the extremely bold (or was it foolish?) act itself.

“There is no need for sleeves should one wish to hide their true objective. You keep avoiding my question; does it not imply that you are, in fact, hiding something? Why should I seek answers to questions unasked when the one I have asked have yet to be answered?” his tone suggested grave impatience as he slipped his hand out to display the seemingly harmless object he held between the index and middle finger.

He had no time for games; Pocket was still missing.

[Trillian]

If only Euric could see into Hako\'s mind, he would understand that the other was intimidated a great deal, but the youth had trained himself all his life to face those who made him feel small, and to stand big before them.  It had almost always worked, even with Masters, and because he did not believe himself to be in danger beyond what he\'d previously placed himself in, he had the kind of bravado that young men in the middle of their teen years seem to have.

"I\'ve answered your questions," Hako said, deflating, his arms lowering to his sides as he stood in the quiet darkness.  Had the woods remained as noisy as they used to be, as light as they used to be, he would not have noticed regardless, his attention on Euric was so complete.  He realised belatedly that Euric might be implying that Hako\'s previous answer was unacceptable, so he tried again.  "I followed you because I wanted to meet you, to talk with you, to look at you and touch you, and know that I\'m one of few who ever have and so we can be--"

Be what?  He faltered on the last word, for it hadn\'t seemed appropriate.
Friends?  It was laughable. His voice had faded away and his mouth went dry enough for him to lick his lips.  His gaze was the same as it had been since he\'d first laid eyes on Euric; respectful, wary, hopeful, fearful, wanting, impressed.

"I\'ve heard of you," he finished lamely, and suddenly the night grew colder, sharper, and he wanted to fold his arms over his chest but did not dare should the movement spark a negative reaction from Euric - so he stood and stared instead, his skin chilling and becoming gooseflesh, his toes icy upon the cold, moist earth.

[deviliscious]

To hear him speak those words, to finally receive in return an answer that seemed to defy all manner of logic that Euric could ever wrap his coherent mind around – whatever lucid thoughts went scattering like straws in the wind.

“...I wanted to meet you…” It seemed someone had driven a blade into his gut.

“…to talk with you…” Said blade was suddenly twisting itself in that which made up his gushy insides.

“…to look at you and touch you…” Some sick-minded monster had rammed a mallet upon the pommel, inevitably running him through.

If that was insufficient to bring about his demise, without doubt the final and highly anticipated word that was about to fall from the other’s lips would… and Euric was stunned. Not because of what that last word was, but because the half-naked male had decided to keep it to himself. Had the half-elf ever been close to throttling someone just for the sake of knowledge? Exactly what had he been about to say? Surely not… friends? The very idea was deplorable yet, that was the only word he could replace the blank in the statement with – or rather, the only word he wanted to replace it with. Would it be pathetic if Euric were to ask him if he wanted to be friends? A pained frown crossed his countenance beneath the long fringe of his hair and his mouth thinned to the point of invisibility, concealed eyes blazing confusion (and discontent) in their further narrowing.

Abruptly, he turned around, his back now facing the stranger. Rigidity was set upon his hunched frame, like a ton of bricks that had mounted onto his shoulders. If there was any lesson taught when you first became a student of an institute for assassins, it was to never turn your back on the enemy. How easy it was to lower Euric’s guard down; he needed to panic a little at the thought of making a friend. It should be simple from then on. But should the half-breed consider him an enemy in the first place?

Words seemed to lodge themselves in his throat, sinking their claws in so as not to be removed. After a hard-won struggle (with himself) he managed to somehow work his tongue in response to the other’s weak conclusion with an almost breathless “As have many”.  Nimble, suede-clad fingers idly toyed with the circlet of flexible metal, a show of nervousness. “I don’t… I’ve never… you can’t!” Talk about being articulate. Euric could tell he was not making any amount of sense but try as he might, he could not help but act like an imbecile. Oh the shame! To think he was one of the feared student in the academy!

[Trillian]

His heart was hammering in his chest and pounding in his ears as he watched the reaction his words received.  If he\'d been proud before for managing to follow this being that was untouched, unknown, unapproachable, then surely he should be proud for inspiring such a reactive display.  He had no idea, however, that Euric was choking in his presence - how could he know such a thing after the legend of Euric preceeded him?  He thought that the other was angry with him, that something bad would happen, then his back was turned and Hako stared at it, wide eyed.

Rejection came in a trio; dont, never, can\'t.  Because he was stubborn, and persistant, and impatient, he didn\'t have the desire to win Euric over with time.  There was also the pressing urgency of the fact this was likely to be his one and only opportunity.

"It must be a lonely existence," he said, "to be above everyone else."  Now, because Euric\'s back was turned, Hako succumbed to holding his upper arms, rubbing them lightly, flesh on flesh making soft noise in a noiseless forest, and though he wanted to look around, into the darkness he now realised was too dark, for the sounds he realised had disappeared or muted, he still stared at Euric as though the other might vanish before his eyes.  "Would you not wish to have anyone to... invest in?"

He was dancing around the friend/befriend language, thinking that the other would laugh at him, or be insulted at the thought of implied friendship with a mere level five.

[deviliscious]

Pointy ears pricked at the sound he could distinctly pick up, curiously coming from the stranger. He knew that drumming sound and he wondered if his heart would somehow beat its way out of the cage of his ribs. Unlikely, right? But even if that were to happen, why should he care? Should he not be pleased that this… this manifestation that spelled trouble for him were to disappear? Then, he would not be feeling at all alarmed and everything would return back to its state of normalcy – as normal as one can possibly expect his life to be.

Euric should also feel annoyed at the younger one’s persistence but how odd that he was not. Perhaps he ought to reward his refreshing determination by being civil for once and not suffocate like a fish out of water – the only thing he knew how to do when placed in a situation as such.

His head turned to face the droop of one shoulder but he did not turn back as yet. Still, it was a remarkable improvement considering he would have disappeared by then. At his words, Euric was powerless to stop the frighteningly hollow laugh – a short burst – that escaped his lips. “Lonely I might be… but not because I am above everyone else,” he said in a somewhat harsh tone, ever modest. “Besides, who would care to…\'invest\'…in me?” he added then, in the barest of whisper, his tone slightly weary. In the first place, what was he thinking to admit to such a thing to someone he did not even know?

Whatever it was, the deed was done and Euric had a sinking feeling that to bare his soul to stranger would mean to commit a huge mistake. Slowly, he turned back around to once more, face the other and for a long moment, silence stretched itself between the two. “You look cold. Next time, you might want to think again before you decide to follow anyone half-naked as you are,” he finally said with a touch of amusement. It might be that this was his way to cover up his previous pathetic confession.

[Trillian]

"I would invest in you," Hako said immediately, the answer given simply and without duplicitous intention.  Euric wasn\'t exactly a liability, who wouldn\'t wish to know him better, at least to have him on a good side rather than remain ignorant and potentially on a bad side in ignorance.

He hadn\'t felt half naked until Euric pointed out as such, and suddenly, this youth who usually had no shame of his physical presence and sometimes wielded it as a prize or a weapon, felt improper and out of place.  He would\'ve preferred to be warm, if not to refrain from drawing attention to himself.

"The robes are cumbersome, I prefer tight clothing," he explained, but did not see fit to explain that the reason he\'d shed his robes in the first place was to follow Euric.  He knew that the other already knew he\'d been followed, but to hear details might be distasteful.  He continued to hold himself, feeling vulnerable now as well as out of his league.  Hako often took risks - this was the time to take them, under the protection of the Academy, but he didn\'t take stupid risks (until now, plunging into the unknown for such was his habit).

[deviliscious]

Perhaps Euric was fortunate that the man did not outrightly say that he wanted them to be friends because if he had, the half-elf had a feeling he would just as soon have collapsed in a dead faint. Then again, his immediate answer was only a slight variation from the original version Euric had expected to hear therefore only thing he could do was to gape at the other because the tone that had carried those words was very much sincere. Unless he was good at lying.

“You… I… What?!” he finally managed to croak and then shook his head. “I don’t… understand. Why? You cannot possibly want to…” he trailed off uncertainly, the question intoned weakly. He slowly lifted a hand up, fingers gripping the side of his head – he was getting a headache. This situation was getting more and more ludicrous yet he could not help but be hopeful of the outcome.

Still reeling from his earlier words, Euric only muttered under his breath distractedly, “Cumbersome because of the need to be silent in tracking me, no doubt.” (Not that he did not look good being half-naked as he was at that moment... but that was beside the point) Speaking of robes, he wondered about this stranger, about who he was and where he had come from. There were pieces of information he had garnered from their little exchange and when he strung those pieces together, the only conjecture he could make was that he was from the Academy. “Who are you, anyway?” he queried, now curious.

[Trillian]

While Hako thought how best to answer Euric\'s first stumbling line of questions, another one came that was much simpler to respond to.  He let the previous questions go in order to answer the last, and figured that if Euric strongly wished to know the answers of the previous, he would return to them (like he had at the beginning of their meeting).

"Hako Sol\'vair, of Purificio," he declared, announcing himself quite proudly but also warily, knowing that the other before him might sneer at his chosen house.  Hako was in a diplomatic house, a house of politics and spies, of social graces and disguise.  He liked the upstanding quality of Purificio, he enjoyed the fact that many assassins from there also became people of noble standing regardless of the fact they secretly shadowed an assassin\'s career.  Ambassadors, merchants, many of these people were apparently from Purificio.  The problem was, his house was often accused of being manipulative, and therefore all of the students within it as well.  Not so strange, that a house could give away so much about his standing.  "Level Five," he added after a pause, a level that made him a little more advanced than the usual, but not as exceptional as Euric himself.  After another pause, he had a little something extra to say:  "It\'s not who I am, but it\'s a start."

He forced himself to remove his arms from their folded positions, to hang by his sides once more, staring at Euric, transfixed.