“Who do you want me to kill?” the assassin asked, the weariness of a thousand wind-worn headstones in her voice.
“It's not a who,” replied the client, swirling their wine around the glass, “but a what.”
“I don't do animals.” The assassin motioned to a waiter to bring her a glass. “And I charge double for conceptual. At least double.”
“I am happy to pay for exceptional work.” The client picked up the bottle and filled the assassin's glass.
The wine was dark and viscous with only the faintest tint of red; it was like someone had cut the throat of midnight and bottled its lifeblood, straight from the vein.
“There is no ‘exceptional’ work in this business. Not really. There's only here or gone.” The assassin drained the glass and tasted tannin, clay, summer fruit and ozone. “So what would you have me make gone?”
The assassin laughed. She laughed loud and slightly too long.
“That one is an easy target. Simplest thing in the world.” She nudged her glass towards the client, who refilled it silently. “If despair is your enemy, you can kill it with three words.”
“Must be powerful words.”
“The most powerful.” The assassin held up three fingers and counter out three simple syllables. “I. Need. Help.”
The assassin emptied the fresh glass of wine. She detected undernotes of rich chocolate and spent matches.
“A most efficient incantation indeed.” The client sipped from their own glass, leaving their lips and teeth coated with glossy dusk-stains. “So… why haven't you asked for help if it's so easy?”
“We're old buddies, me and Despair. If he was gone, I'd surely be lonely.” The assassin laughed again, but only a little, and her laugh was a sad, small and wriggling thing.
“Nonetheless, he is the target.” The client dropped a velvet bag on the table with a clink. “Will you take the job?”
“I… I don't know if anyone will answer me. When I ask for… y’know.”
“Then you had best create a world that will.” The client dipped a finger in their glass, then idly began to doodle on the table in wine smears. The wood sizzled as they did so. “It is said that, in this world, the best way to kill is with kindness. I wonder if the reverse could also be true?”
“Do you think that you could kill so skilfully that you make the world kind?”
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