by Rowan MacLeod

T'Kari watched from the rooftop as the guards changed shift in the courtyard below. She looked up as a shadow passed overhead and smiled as a large bank of clouds covered the full moon completely. She took a small crossbow bolt out of a hidden sheath in her right boot and attached a slender silken cord to a tiny ring three quarters of the way down the shaft. She knew she'd have to time her shot just right. Just a hair off her timing either way and the guards were guaranteed to catch her, and if she missed her mark... well, bad was an understatement. She shifted her position as she loaded the bolt into her small hand crossbow and took careful aim at the roof opposite her across the courtyard.

"Wait for it...", she watched quietly as the guards exchanged passwords. Smiling slightly, she gently squeezed the trigger as a loud gong sounded nearby, the noise neatly covering the sounds of both the crossbow firing and the bolt embedding itself in the wall just below the lip of the roof across the courtyard. She chuckled softly to herself, "Got to love those monks... right on the hour, as usual." She took up the slack on the cord; glad she remembered her gloves this time. The spidersilk cord could slice her hand open like a warm knife through butter, and any half-decent mage could trace a person through blood. She pulled the cord taut and tied it off to a large gargoyle built into the roof, then gingerly tested it with one foot. After stowing the crossbow in her small backpack she stepped onto the cord and began crossing the courtyard.

From her tightrope vantage point, she could easily watch the guards walking their patrols through the courtyard maze. A sudden noise to one side made her freeze in place. One guard looked up and around his area, relaxing as a large owl flew off carrying a mouse in its talons. T'Kari let her breath out slowly and began moving once more, silent as a ghost, across the courtyard and finally onto the roof on the other side. She crossed the roof to a large chimney and looked down, sighing in relief as she looked into the black hole, "Perfect! The cook's already banked the fire." She slid two grapnels from the frame of her backpack and flipped one in her hand, smiling to herself.

Pulling some slack line from the reel of spidersilk cord on her belt, she threaded the cord through the rings in the ends of both grapnels and tied it off securely. She planted the grapnels firmly on opposite sides of the chimney, then climbed and began lowering herself slowly down the center of the chimney without touching the sides. T'Kari chuckled to herself, thinking how convenient it was that the chimney had been cleaned just yesterday. She stopped just short of the gaping mouth of the fireplace, flipped a latch on the reel of cord, and slowly turned herself upside down. She pulled herself to the edge and peeked out into the kitchen.

The cook was snoring loudly on one of the long trestle tables, totally exhausted from the preparations for the Yule festival tomorrow. She pulled herself out of the fireplace and dropped lightly to her feet. T'Kari smoothly closed the lid to the cord reel, cutting it with the blade on the edge. She bent over the banked coals, touching the end of the cord to them and blowing until the brightly glowing coals caught the spidersilk on fire. She watched as it quickly burned its way up the chimney, leaving no evidence of her passing.  There was no turning back now. She would have to make her way through the temple to her target and her exit point. She walked to the large door across from the fireplace, the crepe soles of her boots making far less noise than the snoring cook did. Reaching into her black leather vest, she pulled a small flask out of a hidden pocket. Unscrewing the lid, she removed a small oil-covered brush and coated all of the hinges, ensuring that not even the slightest squeak would betray her. She closed the flask, returning it to her pocket. Then she pressed her ear to the door and listened as she sucked a drop of olive oil from her fingertip.

Hearing nothing on the other side, T'Kari quickly slipped out the door and into the hallway beyond. She knew there would be guards patrolling throughout the temple, and she couldn't count on them to be less attentive just because of tomorrow's festival. She turned left and made her way down the hall, zigzagging between pools of shadow. She froze in a dark corner as the sounds of talking approached.

"Didn't Master Teandril say that the new Adepts are being invested during tomorrow's ceremony?"

"Yep.. tomorrow's the big day. And the Adept with the highest marks will be up on the dais during the ceremony. I tell you, Misha, I'm gonna look glorious up there!"

"Oh? You really think you got the highest marks, Sarin?"

"Naturally, who else?"

"Well... what about Andrade?"

Sarin sniffed disdainfully, "The Ice Queen? I doubt she's even passed her Test."

Misha gave Sarin a dubious look out the corner of his eye as they walked along, "Hmmm, I guess..."

T'Kari watched quietly as the two Initiates crossed the hall and headed up a flight of stairs.. the same stairs she'd been heading for herself, and muttered half a dozen vile curses under her breath. Those two were likely to jabber their way up those stairs and throw her entire schedule off. She would have to get them out of her way. Slipping in behind the two young men so quietly that neither noticed they were being followed, T'Kari quickly tuned out their chatter and watched them carefully.. concentrating on their actions.

The blonde, Misha, followed along almost puppy like.. he was obviously the more timid of the two and would be more likely to call out and attract attention. The redhead, Sarin, on the other hand carried himself as though certain he could handle any threat.. perhaps too certain. He would almost certainly prefer to handle an intruder personally, to prove himself as superior as he apparently assumed himself to be. T'Kari smirked to herself, remembering her old master's admonition against assumptions, and wished her schedule allowed her the leisure to teach the puffed up little nitwit a few object lessons.

She invoked the first level disciplines that would allow her to function for a short time without breathing and reached into her beltpouch, taking out a small glass globe filled with a swirling greenish-black smoke. She hurled it at the feet of the two young men and smiled to herself as the fragile glass shattered, engulfing the men in the thick smoke for a moment before it dissipated. Misha managed to get out nothing more than a mouse like squeak before joining his friend in a lump on the stairs.

T'Kari grinned, drawing her dagger from its sheath at the small of her back. She was about to slit the throat of one, when she stopped herself. These Initiates might be found, and two dead men would definitely alert the guards to the presence of an intruder. Her target was elsewhere in the temple, but she couldn't just leave them to be found either. She quickly checked the clothes of the two snoring men and found a wineflask on Sarin. Smiling wickedly, she quickly arranged the sleeping men into a drunken sprawl and doused their tunics and faces liberally before placing the flask in Sarin's hand. "Cheap wine.." she muttered, wrinkling her nose at the smell. She left them, apparently in a drunken stupor, and continued on her way up the stairs.

She went on this way for some time, going up and down stairs and through dim, torch-lit halls, deftly avoiding guards the entire way. Finally, she came to the hall she was looking for and saw the place crawling with guards. She smiled slightly to herself. Her target was known for her paranoia, so T'Kari had expected at least this much. She pulled back into a dark cul-de-sac and took a map out of her vest pocket, unfolding it quietly and looking at it carefully for a moment. Her eyes widened in disbelief and then she grinned broadly. If the map was right, then the back wall of her target's room was right here... there had to be a catch.

T'Kari closed her eyes as she slowed her breathing, stretching her senses into the stone wall beside her. Sure enough, there were ten guards in the room and her target was asleep in her bed. She examined the room and quickly noticed that her target's head was to the wall just opposite her, and the bed curtain would obscure the guard's view just enough for what she needed to do. She pulled her senses back, grinning like a child who just got exactly what she wanted for Yule. Deepening her concentration, she felt herself slowly separate as she turned intangible. She drew her dagger and leaned through the wall, looking down at the sleeping woman. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she resolidified only her hand and dagger and quietly slit the redhead's throat as she slept. She quickly rephased both her hand and dagger and looked up at the guards that were hiding around the room keeping watch on the windows and doors.. they hadn't seen a thing.

T'Kari pulled herself out of the wall and resolidified as she sheathed her dagger. Making her way back down the hall, she took a turn and headed up a flight of stairs that led to a ladder and trapdoor opening onto a turret overlooking the deep moat. As she opened the trapdoor she heard a loud commotion behind her, "They must've checked her.." Listening for a moment, she could hear the shouts getting louder as they came closer, "Oh well.. so much for staying dry!" She climbed up and stood on the edge of the turret, diving off and hitting the water neatly just as the gong sounded again. She quickly swam to the bank and climbed out, melting into the shadows with a smirk. The monks had unknowingly hidden her escape, just as they had her entrance.

An hour later, T'Kari was let into her master's room. The old man sat quietly in his favorite chair, not looking up from the fire as she entered but speaking in his soft voice "Come in, my dear. You did well."

T'Kari bowed as she closed the door and walked over to take a seat by the fire. She looked over at the ancient seeming man as she tucked a stray raven black curl behind a delicately pointed ear "Thank you, Master."

"I am surprised that you made it through without any collateral damage. Surely you had targets of opportunity?"

T'Kari nodded slightly, a smile creasing her lips as she spoke, "I did.. but more deaths would have eventually alerted the guards, and I was only contracted for only the one hit after all. More would have been... sloppy."

The old man chuckled lightly as he nodded in approval. They both looked up as another young woman opened the door, entering silently to take a seat next to T'Kari, "What did you think, Lyrin?"

"She's good, Master. She got through without getting spotted once, and used her abilities very creatively." Lyrin chuckled lightly as she rubbed at the line of tar across her throat with a rag; "you got me good, Kari!"

T'Kari grinned, setting her tar-covered wooden dagger on the table between them and shifted her attention back to the old man as he cleared his throat. "I must admit, I was tempted to mark Sarin.."

Master Teandril chuckled lightly, "I can imagine. Well, you've passed your Test, my dear. I expect you to be on the dais at sunrise."

T'Kari's eyes widened as the meaning of his words hit her, "On.. the dais?"

"Where else would the highest scoring of the new Adepts be?"

She laughed out loud, leaping up and hugging the old man as she forgot protocol entirely in her excitement "Thank you, Master!!!"

Master Teandril laughed as she squeezed him tightly; "you've earned it, child. I'm very proud of you, Adept Andrade."

Lyrin cleared her throat delicately, "Kari, don't you think we should let Master Teandril get some rest?" T'Kari nodded, her midnight blue eyes sparkling mischievously. She rose and walked to the door, opening it for her partner, "Good night, Master, sleep well."

"Good night, children."

The two girls closed the door and ran laughing down the halls to their room. When they finally reached it, T'Kari shook out the braid in her hip-length raven black hair and opened her wardrobe, grinning wickedly "I wonder what I should wear to sit next to Dirkha at the feast?"

"Kari, dear, you'd look awful in one of my gowns!"

T'Kari turned to look at the redhead, tilting her head to the side "And why, pray tell, would I want to wear one of your gowns when I have several of my own? I'm the one with the date for the festival after all."

Lyrin arched a delicate eyebrow "Oh... are you now?"

"Well.. I did win our little side bet, you know."

"Hmmm.. really?"

"I slit your throat, Lyrin. You never laid a hand on me, nor did your guards.. so I'm the one that sits with Dirkha at the festival."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

T'Kari blinked, beginning to get irritated with her roommate's attitude "Huh? Lyrin, you know I never got touched, so why are you acting so smug?"

Lyrin smiled serenely, her emerald green eyes glittering in the glowlights "Cause I won our little side bet. Check your left wrist, Kari.."

T'Kari took off her gloves and gawked at the thin purplish-blue line around her wrist "What the!?" Lyrin smirked; "you were dead before you hit the kitchen. But your ghost did some very nice work there.."

"How?! I mean... I put out a different pair!"

"Kari, I'm surprised at you! I know you well enough to know that you're not gonna use the ones you put out for me to see! And... since you were dead before I was, I'm afraid that I'll be the one sitting with Dirkha tomorrow.."

"Will it at least come off?" T'Kari glared at the offending stain on her wrist.

"Sure enough.. it's only blueberry juice." Lyrin grinned wickedly as she opened her wardrobe to chose a gown for the festival, leaving T'Kari to stare at the glove that had betrayed her. "Just wait until next time..."