Chronologically, this is one of the earliest episodes involving this character set. Karen is in her last year of guild-schooling.she has not yet met any of the other characters. This is to be in book two or three, depending on how things sort out. It helps lead off in telling about Karen and her origin, after her out-of-the-blue introduction in the final acts of book one.
Karen crept along, folding the cities shadows around her. The other was out there, somewhere. This game was getting serious. They has been playing it on and off since meeting in class all those years ago.
Then, the game was about dolls. In a way it still was. Only now the dolls were maturing boys and young men. Now there was a particular one that the other had picked out. Karen went along for the games sake, but really was not interested in the young man.
Her burgeoning psionics were a curse and a blessing socially. She could sense immediately if a man was interested in his own gratification, or hers. In her disgust she had learned that most young men, and many older ones, in this society seemed to see women as sex objects first, and all else after. On realizing this was what she was learning, her Psi-Master had immediately assigned Karen to another Psi-Instructor, who was happily married. This woman shared with Karen her own experiences of puberty and young womanhood, and of how she learned to see past the bodies drives into the heart and mind of the man, and by this how to ultimately to find love.
But at eighteen, Karen still knew she had a lot to learn in the mean time. She found dating a challenge. She stuck to learning all the social skills required of her chosen profession, and her social position. Her psionics helped a great deal, allowing her to sense when she had reacted or otherwise behaved correctly. But that did not help tonight, playing the game.
Karen had realized some time previous that her opponent/friend in this game wanted the target for herself, physically, emotionally, in all ways.
But he seemed to not be interested.
Tonight, the game changed. Her opponent had set out tonight on a dangerous path. Karen’s senses told her that her opponent was in the prime of her fertility cycle. Earlier Karen had followed the girl as she had purloined a manual from the Whore’s Guild. Socially she had been chasing the guy for long enough to know who the competition was. Karen had addressed her concern to the Guild Masters, but was not aware of anything coming of this. So she came out to play the game one more time, in earnest. But could she kill if she had to?
Karen arrived at the young man’s house, and scouted, being extra careful to conceal her presence. Then she saw her, her opponent, a black shadow in the dark, crossing roof tops carefully making less noise than a cat. The girl landed on the roof and moved to enter, as Karen was restrained by the Psi-Master putting a hand on her shoulder from the deeper shadows, slightly surprising Karen by his presence.
-Olegsdottor, do nothing.- He impressed this in her mind with more force than she had ever felt before. Then the Psi-Master was gone and was suddenly following the girl inside. Moments passed.
-Come.-
The same powerful sense now ordered. Karen moved of her own volition, but initially on instinct. Three other adult figures joined her on the balcony, and they entered. The Girl was bound and weeping on the floor. The bed chamber was empty, save for the seven Guildsmen. Karen recognized half of them as instructors, and one was The Guild Master. He had been inside the whole time. With a curt gesture he sent them all away, back to headquarters.
The Psi-Master picked up the weeping girl, slung her across his broad shoulders, and followed Karen out.
-Olegsdottor, attend me.-
Karen waited on the roof, and then followed as the man took off at such speed that Karen had to use her own psionics to keep up. They stopped halfway to the Guild. He turned to face Karen. The girl was limp, asleep or more. Now he spoke.
“Olegsdottor, what penalty does the guild impose for this one’s actions?”
“I presume death. But I do not know her full actions.”
“Her blades have innocent blood. She went to coerce a man to her bed, after killing the woman he truly loved.”
Karen sobered. She knew as an assassin she had the power to do such a thing, but they were trained from the start not to.
“Then she does face death, for the safety of society we cannot allow such to go free.”
“That’s right. Do you think you could...end her?”
Karen paused. Her emotions ran the gamut. Then something from her past and training came up. ‘A man put down his own animals. Only he loved then enough to end their suffering quickly.’ She was taught this very early on by the guild.
“If given the assignment, yes. A person puts their own down, not leaving it to others.”
He contemplated her a moment. She felt a scan go through her body and mind.
“Good. Only the Guild Master has known. This is my bastard daughter. I don’t know that I could put her down. You being her known closest friend...”
“Where’s the boy?”
He turned and they put half of their stealth aside rushing back to the Guild.
They assembled in the Guild Hall. The Psi-Master put the Girl down, and she was suddenly awake. Standing on the Guild Seal, a Guildsman at each point around it.
Karen was placed behind the girl opposite the Guild Master.
“Cassidy. You stand to center for judgment. You set out with bright blades, and stained them with innocent blood. You then sought to seduce another, where we apprehended you. What do you have to say for yourself?”
“I love him. With her out of the way, I could get him to love me.”
“You have been taught that to do such is against our bylaws, and the morals of society.”
“What good is power unused?”
“Power is to be used for the good of all. Do you freely admit to using your power for your own gain?”
Cassidy broke down at this point, and sobbed, finally choking out, “yes.”
The Guild Master softened. “You know the penalty for your actions?”
“Yes.” Tears wet the floor.
The Guild Master nodded.
A Guildsman stepped forward from Cassidy’s left and unbound her arms, leaving her legs bound.
Cassidy opened her hood and removed her head wrap.
Karen expected to see her long black hair fall free, but instead Cassidy had shorn her hair to an unruly brush cut. She removed her outer and inner layers of her costume to her leather leotard. Karen watched in fascination, feeling every thread of her own costume and every piece of gear in it, realizing that her first kill stood before her undressing from a guild sanctioned costume.
The lacing on the leotard back was opened and Cassidy pulled it off her shoulders, arms, and chest to hang with the rest at her waist. A knife was put in Karen’s hand as the tribunal stepped into the outer dark of the room. Karen walked forward silently, shifting the knife in her grip from over to underhand.
Karen reached for her compassion as she took Cassidy’s chin in her left hand, pulled her up onto the balls of her feet and against Karen’s own chest, and swiftly brought the knife around and under her left breast between the ribs and into the heart, a swift twist and she felt the knife pivot on the rib muscles, slicing heart and lungs, flooding Cassidy’s chest with her own blood.
Karen heard the air escape Cassidy’s nose when she hit her and heard her struggle for breath as life left her. The whole time Karen held Cassidy’s mouth shut and held her off her feet. Karen sent a first and last psionic message to Cassidy. ‘I loved you, Cassidy, as a friend. I’m sorry it ended this way.”
Karen held Cassidy’s body as it went limp, a little trickle of blood clotting under Cassidy’s nose. Karen felt Cassidy’s life leave her friends body. The Psi-Master was at her side, closing Cassidy’s clothes and removing the knife as a sponge was used to staunch the blood from the wound. He and others took the body away.
Karen stood there, suddenly feeling empty.
Her Psi-Instructor took Karen’s shoulders and led her to a bed.
Karen awoke. She was on a cot in the Guild Masters office; her senses told her it was midday. She opened the door, and the man standing there said she should wait to talk to The Master before leaving.
Karen used the bathroom and returned. The Master came in dressed as a local noble. He leaned against his desk. She sat on the unmade cot, her hood and balaclava open, her brown hair falling around her.
“Karen, thank you for warning us about her. First kills tell a lot about the assassin. Whether they are tempered for it, whether they should be doing this. How do you feel?”
“My friend...do we really have those here? Cassidy broke the rules, she was unstable. She should never have been allowed to get this far, and...”
He kindly interrupted her. “And now you have put her down, as any loving master does with a terminally ill animal, cutting short its suffering. Your father would be proud.”
“I felt her life leave her.”
“Yes. I don’t know what that feels like, though I’ve seen it often enough. Go home. Your sister is at the usual place waiting. By the way, you are now no longer a student, Apprentice Olegsdottor.”
“Thank you, Guild Master.”
He gave her a small insignia pin as she left.
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