(no subject)

[articulatedream.livejournal.com]

Title: Breaking the habit
rating: PG13
summary:






The girl walked quietly, nothing in particular motivating her to do so. It was a habit she had picked up years ago. When you were quiet, you were less likely to be noticed. Especially when those around you wanted to pretend you didn't exist anyway. She was smoke. Dark hair and tanned skin hidden away under the folds of her dark cowl made sure that no one could see her face, and her slender body was hidden away just as well under a robe as was custom in this area. There were rules in the world.

Rules that were generally a good idea to follow. The first was don't die, quickly followed by don't get caught. There were other rules, but the one that caught in her mind the most prominently was number 7. Don't get involved. It was a good rule. Straightforward, easy to remember, logical. Granted, she'd broken it in the past, but everyone makes a few mistakes here and there.

Lurking in the shadows of a nearby booth, the woman lifted lender hands and pulled the cowl down around her shoulders, letting the breeze in the air rifle through her dark blue-black hair. She wouldn't have done it in the full light of the market place where people could see her. That would break another rule. be unremembered. It was easy enough to pass amongst the crowds with her cowl hiding her face. But the scar that ran the length of her left cheek, and a violent dark mark that only made the scar more bright. If anyone saw her, they would be unable to forget the scarred woman.

Across the street, her mark looked around furitively before walking into a dimunitive looking building. Sighing, Etiennepulled the cowl back up and over her face, hiding the scar and the bruise that marred the left side of her face, but leaving her nose and eyes free and walked toward the building. As she walked, while there was an air of assurance about what she did, it was not one that would draw the eye. There was something about the way she walked and moved that made your eye slip right past her as though she wasn't even there. It was a trick she had learned after the 'accident' that had scarred her irrevocably. If you want to be invisible, and there is no one looking for you then it is quite easy to simply not be seen. She was just another woman, un noticed, unremarkable.

At least, that was the facade. The guise. In actuality, she was more dangerous than anyone on the crowded market street would ever have recognised. She was a ball of anger and hate, and she was stalking her latest prey. She was Twenty four years old, and even at such a young age, was a formiddable stalker. She worked for whomever would pay. She bounty hunted for either team, and she worked as an assassin as well. The anger and hate of her teenage years had not left in the four years since she had left Moenin.

She seemed to glide across the street, into the small alley, and then through the small wooden door of the building. Inside she was unsuprised to find no one waiting. The entranceway of the building had been of decent make twenty years ago. A rug that had been thick and full once was now worn down, and dusty. It showed a single set of foot prints. Judging the size and distance of each, she stepped from one to another. Careful not to step outside of them or disturb the dust that laid heavy she made her way silently through long halls that had boarded windows.

The air in the building was stagnant as though no one had been through here in the last few months, and she was deafened by the silence of the place. It was opressive in its dank solitude. Light from the afternoon filtered through boards that covered all the windows, leaving the hall and the rooms ajoining it dimly lit at best. Continuing down for several hundred feet, etienne finally heard a noise.

There was a sharp crack, followed by muffled coughing and someone murmuring quietly. In the silence, she could hear each word as though it was being spoken into her ear. "How can this...No...I can't...damnit..."

Her head cocked to try and catch what she was obviously missing, Etienne edged down the hall and into the room her mark had wandered into in front of her. Her right hand slipped behind her, reaching under the folds of fabric for the knife that she kept flush against her back in a well hidden sheath. She had a job to do.

The mark, as it were, was a young man. Probably not much older than herself. Aiden Dwere, was not a large man. Lanky, with unruly copper brown hair that curled even pulled back in its pony tail. Etienne had taken the contract out because of the money involved. It was enough that she could happily buy her second cottage in the eastern mountain range. she wouldn't have to work for a year, simply on the money she would make from killing the young man in front of her.

Her hand tightened on the smooth curved handle of her knife. Still unnoticed in the room she carefully slid the ebon handled blade from its sheath and around the fabric that hid it from inquisitive eyes. No longer intent on complete secrecy she shifted her weight preparing to steal the life from the man before her. It was harsh, but so was reality. The money she would get from his death would allow her some peace. No having to hide her face when she walked on the street, no more fear of crowds that named her witch for the bruise that darkened already tan skin. For peace, she would steal the breath from this mans lips.

At least she would have. If he hadn't looked up with a box in his hands. As Etienne shifted her weight, her right arm already shifting back so that the blade would have the most strength possible he turned. In startlement he dropped the box that he had come here seeking. From inside of the box, two things fell out. A small braid of dark red-brown hair and the picture of a young girl bound, but safe, a man standing above her with his hands on her shoulders. The same man that had hired Etienne to kill Adien.

Growling at his intrusion, etienne took a step back, effectively blocking the door.

"I'm sorry but, I can't let you leave."
"What? But, I've only just found the trail again, my sister. They have my sister.." The man, the mark, Adien looked frantic. The whites of his eyes were bright next to the dark brown green of his eyes. "Help me. Please! Please, you must help me before...before they..."
"Sorry. But thats just not in the cards for you."
"What do you mean. They took her. Shes just a girl, and only god knows what they'll...they'll probably send her to a brothel or..." One of his hands covered his mouth and nose, shaking violently.

Lost in the stillness that only stalking brought to her Etienne looked over everything before her. She'd been hired by a man named Keir, who was willing to pay her enough money to kill off a young man than she had ever been offered for a single job before. He'd told her that Adien had been stalking his ward, a young girl of about 9 named Eirene. He didn't care how it happened, only that it did and that Etienne brought back some proof of the kill. Etienne had been unable to meet the girl, told that she was often sick, and a bit touched in the head.

Now before her stood Aiden. He was obviously distraught, recognising the girl in the picture and the small lock of hair. Babbling about his sister. It was possible that Keir had been lying to her, she never looked closely at her clients. Most of the time it was because her moral compass had been buried years ago in a cruel world that had no place for her. It didn't matter, he had to die. Her freedom from the people that made her hide was only available in his death.

the seventh rule echoed back through her mind. Don't get involved.


"You say shes your sister?" Adien looked up, rare hope shining on his face. And what was she doing? He was the mark. He had to die. It was the only way.
"Yes! Her name is Eirene, she was kidnapped several months ago by a name named Keir. He killed my parents in the taking of her." From his back pocket he pulled a weathered picture that showed the same small girl, with Adien to her left, and a slightly older couple standing above them.

Don't get involved.don't get involed.don't get involed.

It was a chanting mantra through Etienne's head. One that she disregarded completely. The girl was still only a girl. Etienne couldn't be responsible for killing someone who had obviously been trying so desperately to find her. to bring her home. The evidence just didn't add up correctly. Why would Keir be in a picture with his ward tied to a chair? Although why the picture and its accompanying braid of hair were in this obviously abandoned building was curious as well.

It didn't matter. If Keir was at fault, Etienne would kill him. You didn't kill or harm children. She warned all of her clients of that fact. It just wasn't the way that she did business, and if you wanted her services, and your life to continue unharmed then you didn't let her know about the harm of children either.

And if Adien was lying to her? Well, she could just kill him near Keir's place and be done with it. That way she'd have proof and her money.


It was almost a win win deal. Besides, the rules were made to be broken.