Chapter 32 - A bloody night (Part 1)

(A/N.: The following story will contain scenes that could be revolting to some. While I understand, and I'm also against such behavior, believe me when I say the following is needed to provide a window into the mindset of some important characters. I'm not gonna say anything else, and will try to keep these graphic scenes to the absolute minimum.)

***Early morning on the same day***

As the first rays of the sun broke through the dark shroud of the night Young Master Leon woke up from his luxurious baldachin bed. He felt much better today, he finally managed to vent his frustrations.

A muffled, barely audible cry could be heard from next to him on the bed. A naked, badly bruised and violated body of one the maids serving him, was currently 'resting', clinging on to her last bits of sanity, as scenes of last night's nightmare assaulted her mind. Her face was swollen, the jawbone, both legs, arms are probably broken, and without the assistance of a qualified healer, it would never be repaired.

She could only curse her own bad luck, everyone in the mansion knew about the Young Master's violent tendencies, and with the humiliation, he received from his father something like this was bound to happen.

Young Master Leon didn't even spare a glance at his newest 'conquest', and while hopping up from the bed, and going to his wardrobe, he shouted outside the room.

"Get in and take her away. Get me a new maid and help me get dressed. NOW!" he ordered.

A few seconds later, 2 guards came in, and after saluting their master, they picked up the half-dead girl and brought him away from the room. Shortly after a maid came in greeting her master with a deep bow before she started tending to her new duties.

---

Some time later Leon was making his way through the streets of Higrove. To not stand out that much, he donned a dark robe over his regular clothes to hide his identity. He also had a black cloth wrapped over his face, with a large hood crowning his attire.

His destination was a dark alleyway a few streets away from the marketplace, to meet up with a local gang of thugs, the Red Snakes. The group was known for claiming the marketplace as their own 'turf', robbing the unwary citizen, and 'protecting' the sellers for a 'small' daily contribution. The gang operated around the marketplace for a few months now, their predecessor, were just a band of orphan's-turned-thieves, from whom they quickly integrated the talented ones and killed off the useless ones. Now the Red Snakes had an astonishing 50 members, which was considered one of the biggest bands of the city.

One other aspect that kept this group above the others was their leader, a big burly man. He was called Cyclops, which wasn't the nicest nickname, considering he had only 1 good left eye. His right one was lost sometime in the past and was covered up by a black eye patch. Adding the fact that he was a humongous 2.3 meters tall man, the nickname wasn't unfounded.

He was known for keeping contact with some of the nobles and working with them from behind the lines. One of his contacts, the Young Lord of the Leon family, the wealthiest family in the whole city has just arrived in front of him. With a creepy smile donning his face, he bowed deeply, while greeting him.

"Welcome to our humble abode, Young Master. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

Scoffing at him, the Leon curtly answered.

"I have a job for you. It has to be done tonight."

Hearing this, the leader's already creepy smile got even wider, further morphing his face to some monster straight out of a nightmare.

"I see. Please tell us the details, Young Master."

"You will have to replace the guards in my father's mansion tonight and mask yourselves as them. A group of masked individuals will arrive, you will have to let them in, and then lock down the mansion. Once you see the signal, a red flame shooting to the sky, you will start murdering everyone in the mansion. Leave no one alive. Once your job is completed, place the dead guards back, and leave the area before the guards arrive." Leon explained.

A few short minutes of silence followed his description, as the leader was pondering over everything he heard. Only after that, did he look back to the Young Master. There was no smile on his face this time, his face was serious.

"This will be... problematic, Young Master. Our relationship with the city guards are already shaky, and if we complete a job of this caliber, and they find out that we were involved, they come after us with everything they got. So…" his creepy smile crawled back up to his face, while he gave a small pause in his answer "...so the price will obviously have to cover the risk on top of a guarantee from you that our involvement will be kept a secret."

"Guarantee? What do you mean? Who are you to demand such a thing from me?" asked Leon with unmasked contempt visible on his face and in his voice.

Not minding his employer's tone, the leader answered.

"You will do a blood oath right here, right now. Once you do that, we can finalize the details and pricing."

Blood Oath. Once done, the performer could never go against the words he swore to hold, otherwise, his very soul would perish, leaving only an empty husk behind. It was a gruesome ritual, and it was mostly done to finalize dark dealings, by mostly unsavory groups.

The ritual consisted of cutting your finger and mixing a drop of your blood in a bowl over fire. The person overseeing your ritual will also add a drop of his blood into the mix, and as fire purifies them, the performer loudly exclaims what he is swearing for and saying the phrase "Bou'ra Incantatem pe zondra esta!" which roughly translates to "I swear upon my soul" in an unknown ritualistic ancient language, he drinks the mixture of blood drops. It's a very straightforward and obviously illegal ritual.

Gritting his teeth, Master Leon could only agree. He did not have the time, the deed has to be completed today, no matter what.

"Fine. Let's get this over with..."

---

An hour later Master Leon left the alleyway and was moving across town, in hurried steps. His next destination was an inn, The Hungry Bear in the depths of the slums. This was a place inhabited by the lowest scum of society. Apart from the Inn, in the depth of the district, no corner was considered safe here. You could be mugged, knifed and nobody would even bat an eye, or shed a tear. Even the guards avoided this place unless they were coming in large groups.

This particular inn was also the hideout of a notorious group of individuals, the Assassin's Guild. If you needed somebody taken care of it was this group that you hired. If you had the capital there is. The higher the target on the social ladder, the bigger the risk, the bigger the price. There were no target too high profile in their eyes, if you could afford it, they would even move against kings!

Arriving in front of the run-down wooden building, he sighed deeply. He could hear the sounds of glasses clinking against the wooden tables, laughter, and an unintelligible mix of gibberish that was the combined sound of the residents talking, laughing or arguing at the end of their days. Basically, the usual atmosphere that you could expect from such an establishment.

With one last exhale, just to calm his nerves, and appear as calm as possible, he opened the door, crossed the border, and entered inside.

Quickly making his way towards the counter, he put a golden talisman with the figure of a skull stabbed with a dagger on the counter. The innkeeper looked at him, then nodded his head pointing towards the back door, signaling him to pass through.

Not waiting for any other confirmation, Leon quickly entered the door. A dark, barely lit set of stairs greeted him, that continued down seemingly infinitely. He knew this was just illusion magic, a safety measure. He will only be able to cross the stairs once the guild has managed to verify his identity. Measures such as these are what kept them running over the centuries. While they did lose some branches every now and then, however, nobody ever managed to deal a substantial blow to them. Well apart from one organization, that is…

After a few minutes, he finally saw the end of the staircase, where a similar door that he just came in was in front of him. This door however had one slit at the upper half of it, so people on the other end could look at the new arrivals.

As the Young Master arrived in front of the door, the slit slid open, and a pair of brown eyes greeted him. The raspy voice of the owner of said eyes welcomed Leon.

"State your business."