Do you like the name ‘Auramancer’ as a term to call my mages? Does it sound interesting? 🤔
They’re essentially mages and are capable of performing magic in my universe. If you’ve been following any of my posts lately you’ll see that I’ve been obsessively working out the magic system for one of my WIPs. It’s been a super fun but somewhat frustrating journey! This WIP has honestly changed from a fantasy story set in modern times but has evolved into a science fantasy (which I LOVE reading and writing about. I call it Scifantasy or SciFantasy, hehe).
Anyways, I went from calling my mages ‘mages’ to calling them espers, then auramancers (my favorite term), and now that there’s a huge technology aspect with my magic I’m thinking I can conjure up other name ideas that flow with the theme/setting/overall aesthetic of the story. Magic in this universe is formally called aurana, and the only people who can interact and manipulate aurana are, of course, auramancers.
I love the Auramancers idea and it sounds SO COOL but realistically, I gotta call a spade a spade when I see it. Regardless of what they’re called, they function as the mages in my universe and the name I call them is purely a stylistic choice.
Here are the name ideas, can you please tell me which one you like best? :)
Auramancer (gender neutral)
Auron (male) & Auroness OR Aurora (female)
Aion (male) & Aioness (female)
Aurather (male) & Aurathess (female)
Archon (male) & Archoness (female)
Tbh they all sound pretty cool and flow with the setting of my story. This is also just the term for my WIP’s version of a mage. I have SO many sub-classifications for them depending on what kind of magic they can perform and how they perform it. Do they summon? Heal? Cast illusions? Shift into animals? I’ve been studiously working on it and I can’t wait to share more of my magic system and the magic technology bc I’ve really had such a blast working on it. 💕💕💕
i’m looking for more wips to follow, so tell me! rb this post and tell me all about your wips, maybe provide a link to your wip page/post, and i’ll check it out! i mainly read stuff with queer characters/relationships in it, so just keep that in mind :)
LOGLINE — Meet Laurel Gold, a young assassin who is destined for way more than she thinks, and discover what it’s like to live in the Eagles assassin guild.
Though it was early in the morning, the sun beat down on my master and I as we sparred in his secluded training yard. Sweat coated me like an extra layer of skin, causing my hair and clothes to cling to me. Additionally, I wore a thick scrap of cloth over my eyes as a blindfold, heels dug into the ground and hands tightly wrapped around the handles of my blades. Despite my current discomfort, I didn’t dare complain as I tried to tune my senses to the silence around me. My master, the notorious king of assassins, Ivan Gold, was hovering somewhere nearby. This exercise was crafted specifically to help me learn how to listen to my surroundings instead of immediately jumping in on all of the action.
“Focus, Laurel,” he hissed from behind me, so close that I could feel his breath on my neck. I whirled blindly, striking out with my blades and connecting with nothing but air. The soft rustling of footsteps on grass came from behind me and I turned again, bending my knees to stabilize myself as I prepared for his attack. Irritation gnawed at me; he’d let me hear him.
“I am focusing,” I growled, trying with all of my might to try and hear him as he maneuvered like a wraith around me. A shift in the wind is all I sensed behind me, twisting just in time to sloppily block his attack. The shock from our joined blades sent harsh vibrations down through my hands and I stumbled back from him.
“Banish your anger,” his voice ordered, “listen to the way the air around you reacts to movement.”
“How can I listen to anything when you’ve honed your own movement to that of complete silence?”
“If you can focus, my dear, then you will be able to hear the air shape itself around me,” he added. Despite my own rising anger, Ivan was annoyingly calm. I lunged for him, once again meeting nothing.
“I don’t see why I need to know how to fight blind folded when I never intend on not being able to see,” I argued.
“It’s not about not being able to see,” he spoke, metal catching my blade to draw me out. The trick worked and I swung, finding that he’d quickly moved away from the area. “It’s about being able to see better.”
“I’m not entirely sure if you know you contradict yourself or not but—“
“You will thank me for this lesson one day,” he interrupted. In one fast and smooth movement, metal was dragged down the length of my forearm. I gritted my teeth and turned once more, flailing my weapons about and finally ripping the blindfold from my face to behold him. He stood there in the morning sunlight, blond hair gleaming like a nest of gold atop his head, with an amused smirk plastered to his face.
“You’re insufferable.”
“And you’re impatient. We all have our flaws, we just need to learn to identify them.”
“Being proud of the fact that you frustrate others doesn’t make it any better,” I huffed out, discarding the blindfold on the ground and scooping up my canister of water. “And if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were extra unbearable around me.”
“But of course,” he drawled, the smirk growing into a wicked grin as he took the canister from me. “As my prodigy, it’s your duty to withstand the blunt of my most secret training. This includes tests that you don’t like or agree with.”
“How much more can you make me do before I drop dead before you?” I asked, eyes finding his own in challenge. I was more than ready to stop my training with him but I feared I’d never live to see the end of it all. We’d been at it for years, ever since I was old enough to hold a sword and not lose my balance due to its weight.
“You’ll be happy to know that this is the last taxing lesson I have planned for you.” I frowned at him, sheathing my daggers at my waist and cocking my head to the side to look at him. He huffed a laugh out through his nose as I did so and set the canister of water down.
“You’re a cruel man, Ivan,” I commented.
“It’s true,” he assured me, “after this lesson, you can almost be considered my equal. Of course, there are a few things I will never teach you… I can’t have you surpassing me.”
“I would never dream of it,” I replied, doing my best not to show any excitement. After all, what was I meant to do after my training was complete? Staying with the Eagle’s Assassin Guild would feel almost like being tied to Ivan as his shadow for the rest of my life. However, it was all I’d ever known and I doubted he’d appreciate it if I took my skills acquired by him to another guild. I was about to make another snide remark when he tensed up and then let out a low, growl-like noise.
“It would do your friend some good to remember that our lessons are private.” I whirled around at the snap of a twig, spotting Flynn Brenin standing amongst the trees that surrounded the yard. Ivan had spoken loud enough for him to hear, hence the fear in his gaze as he stood there waiting.
“I’ll remind him,” I sighed, backing away from my mentor and towards my friend.
“If he forgets again, he may find my dagger buried in his throat.”
“Understood,” I nodded, turning away from him and approaching the blond-haired boy amongst the trees. When I reached him, a smirk grew on his face and he reached for my hand, which I promptly dodged. “Ivan’s still watching.”
Flynn looked just past me and huffed out an embarrassed sigh through his nose, following me quietly through the trees. I knew my master well; it wouldn’t be safe to speak freely until we were a great distance away from him. The only sound was that of the birds singing above, both of us trained to be silent even among fallen leaves. After we were out of sight, he gently grabbed my hand and gave it a little squeeze. I couldn’t help but look over and smile, rushing him through the woods until we were far enough way.
I spun around and kissed him, which he smiled into. “Do you think Ivan noticed anything?”
I pulled away and punched him in the arm, causing him to flinch and whine in pain. “What were you thinking, trying to sneak up like that? Ivan knew you were coming before you even knew.”
“Laurel,” he breathed, grinning as he wrapped his arms around me, “that is humanly impossible.”
“You know what I mean.” He placed a kiss on my forehead before grabbing my arm and tugging me through the trees. “Where are we going?”
“I want to show you something,” he replied cryptically, reaching out with his other hand to cover my eyes. I swatted him away but he persisted. “Trust me, princess.”
I groaned, “Flynn, you know I hate when you call me that.”
“You secretly love it.”
“I don’t,” I corrected as he covered my eyes successfully. I let him start to walk me slowly through the trees, trying to hone the skills Ivan was trying to teach me along the way.
“If you hated it that much, you would’ve killed me already,” he pointed out as we trudged over fallen leaves and logs.
“I could never kill you,” I told him, “even if it’s very tempting sometimes.” He let out a laugh that sounded like pure sunlight.
“I like to think I’d at least put up a good fight.”
“Please,” I scoffed, “you’d be on the ground in a matter of seconds.”
“I would not! You may be one of the best, but—“
I reached up to grip his arm and pulled it away from my face and used all of my strength to flip him over my shoulder, knocking him into a pile of leaves and forcing the air from his lungs from the brunt force. I twisted, sitting on his abdomen to hold him there and grinning.
“You were saying?”
“That wasn’t fair,” he huffed, “I didn’t even know you were going to do that!”
“If I were going to kill you, Flynn,” I murmured, leaning forward and pinning his arms to the ground so he couldn’t throw me off, “you wouldn’t know.”
“Alright, I get your point,” he pouted. I smiled triumphantly and leaned down further to kiss him with a short laugh.
“You’re such a sore loser.” He stared up at me for a moment before he blew out a sigh.
“Look up,” he ordered. I couldn’t rein in my curiosity and as I glanced upward, I was met with a dazzling view of the open, blue sky. The trees parted to reveal a small barren area right before the edge of a cliff. I rolled off of him, immediately standing to my feet and walking out into the opening. “It would probably be prettier at night but I just thought—“
“I love it,” I interrupted, turning to face him. The sky was one of my favorite things in the world, whether it was midday, sunrise, or sunset. Unfortunately, when Ivan was placing the weight of the guild on my shoulders I didn’t have much time to stop and appreciate it. “It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah,” he smiled, staring at me, “it is.”
I rolled my eyes and shoved him, trying to distract from the blush that heated my cheeks.
“Seriously,” I replied, “it’s amazing.” I walked straight up to the edge, looking down into the seemingly endless drop that was so far down, the bottom was hidden in eternal shadow.
“Laurel,” Flynn stated, quickly pulling me back, “one wrong step and you could plummet to your death.”
“I’m not going to fall,” I shook away his worry but didn’t step back up to the edge. Instead, I dropped to the ground and looked out at the endless blue, Flynn sat down next to me.
“So, what were you and Ivan working on when I walked in?”
“He wants me to learn how to fight while blindfolded,” I rolled my eyes.
“That’s impossible,” he replied, his eyes wide.
“You’d be surprised to know that he can do it,” I grumbled, “but he told me that this was my final lesson and then I’ll be done.”
“Done?” He raised his eyebrows in question, “and what does being done entail, exactly?”
“Flynn, I know you want to leave, but—“
“Why can’t we?” His eyes found mine in a sincere gaze and I cleared my throat decidedly.
“Let’s say that we left,” I sighed, “where would we go? How would we make a living?”
“We’ll become assassins somewhere else on the continent,” he shrugged.
“If I left, I wouldn’t want to continue killing people,” I confessed, tearing my eyes away from him. I’d done it all my life and Flynn had been a part of the guild for the better part of his life. Ivan pushed us to our limits every day and we did exactly as he asked because he’d raised us since we were children and doing anything different felt like a sin in of itself.
“I never thought you had a problem with it,” Flynn muttered. “I mean, you’ve never expressed anything openly.”
“You think I enjoy killing people?”
“No,” he shook his head quickly, “not at all. I just didn’t think it bothered you.”
It wasn’t the killing that bothered me as much as it was the fact that I didn’t feel anything toward it. Any ordinary person would feel remorse for the people that they killed but all I saw was an opportunity to make a living. I grew up with blood on my knuckles and the presence of death in my gait, the idea of becoming someone else would be the only reason I would leave the guild.
“Leaving the guild is ridiculous anyway,” I waved him off, “it’s all we’ve ever known.” Flynn didn’t reply as we continued to sit there and I bit my lip, a habit that irritated Ivan to the world's end. He reached over and grabbed my hand and I turned to look at him and his smile that shone in the early afternoon light. “Just because I believe that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go somewhere.”
“Laurel, I’m not going anywhere without you. In case I don’t remind you enough, you’re my reason to keep on living,” he murmured, lifting my hand up to his lips and pressed a soft kiss to the inner part of my wrist.
I smiled at him and leaned over, giving him a quick kiss. “Is it healthy for us to put our own lives in the existence of each other?”
“Do you even care if it’s healthy?” He questioned with a little smirk. I returned the look and gave his hand a gentle squeeze.
Ignoring his previous statement, I breathed out a sigh and stood, pulling him up with me. “We better get back, Ivan will notice if we’re gone too long.”
“And it would be smart to make sure he doesn’t notice,” he grumbled, repeating the phrase that I said to him almost daily.
Our guild master and mentor was not someone to think of lightly. Though he treated me like his own child, he’d use Flynn against me if he knew how I felt about him and I was already doing everything I could to keep it a secret. Flynn wasn’t making it any easier. I’d warned him multiple times that Ivan would use his life against me if I ever disobeyed him in any way, not to mention that being publicly in love with him gave me a public weakness. Ivan never liked the idea of that either. To everyone but him, and Flynn, I was untouchable and undefeatable in all aspects; I had been all my life.
Flynn was thorough in the kisses he gave me on our way back to the camp and I had to fight him off once I could see the smoke from our fires. Excited shouts from our weekly pit fights made their way to my ears and Flynn gave me a knowing glance.
“Do you have anyone to duel this afternoon?” he questioned, hesitantly allowing my hand to drop down to my side.
“No one in mind,” I sighed, “but you know at least one person is going to challenge me before they’re over.”
“You don’t have to accept every time,” he reminded me.
“I’m afraid my pride won’t allow me to say no,” I shrugged playfully, casting him a knowing grin as our guild’s camp came into view.
“Your pride could use a couple of hits to bring you back down to the level of us little people,” he teased. “But I suppose it’s fun to watch you kick ass every once in a while.”
I rolled my eyes and spotted a colleague of ours, Emryn, leaning against one of the tent posts with her eyes on us. She was the only person in the camp who knew about our secret and that was because Flynn had told her. I’d had my words with him when I’d found out but there was nothing I could do to reverse it and, after Flynn had convinced me that killing her would only cause more trouble, I let her off with a solid threat.
“I can see you, Emryn,” I stated as we neared her. She let out an annoyed scoff and slid from the shadows and onto our path.
“Ivan just got done handing out missions,” she said, picking at her nails as if the thought of it was boring, despite no doubt receiving a very interesting job of her own. “And he has a special one for you that he asked me to deliver.”
She outstretched her hand to me, in it was an envelope with the seal of a noble house. Cocking an eyebrow, I accepted it and eased it open.
“What is it?” Flynn questioned.
Emryn spoke before I could read a single word, “a child. The eight year old daughter of Mel Viason, the head secretary at the palace.”
I clenched my jaw as I took in the details described in the letter. Most of the Eagle assassins refused to take on jobs where children were involved, one of them being Flynn, who gave me an incredulous look as I read it. Ivan had raised me to view life and death as a natural occurrence in someone’s life. We were all born into the world and at some point, we would all die. When he’d trained me, he taught me how to reel in my emotions so that I could do whatever job needed to be done. I never enjoyed killing any of my targets, unless they were on my own personal agenda, and I typically took the least painful and terrifying route when considering children.
“Please don’t tell me you’re going to accept that,” Flynn muttered, catching my eye, “she’s eight!”
“This is why Ivan asked her and not you,” Emryn pointed out, “I know you two are super involved but she’s still allowed to choose her own missions.”
I whipped my head up to look at her with a glare, “keep your voice down.”
Emryn simply shrugged, deciding to play with a strand of her long golden hair. “No one’s brave enough to eavesdrop when it concerns you and a mission. Ivan would skin them alive.”
“And he’ll skin you alive if he finds out that you were helping us keep it a secret,” I whispered, “not to mention what he’d do to Flynn.”
“Yes,” she sighed, “we’ve had this discussion before. I don’t need to tell you what to do next so just… don’t get yourself killed.”
“What’s your assignment?” Flynn pried when she attempted to leave us standing there. She smirked a little and met his gaze.
“He’s sending me up north,” she stated something gleaming in her eyes, “there’s a very important person here who wants someone of equal importance dead and since I’m from the north… who better to send?”
Emryn came from the tribes of people who lived in our northern mountain range and had joined the guild a little over four years ago after fleeing the lands long since destroyed by the twenty-year war. She’d been quick and stealthy, something that Ivan always admired in people. I’d never asked where she’d learned to move within the shadows the way she did but I had to admit that it was admirable among even our greater assassins in the guild. She ran her eyes over us again and then reached out, gently grabbing Flynn by the shoulder and moving him a few inches away from me.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Don’t stand so close to each other,” she winked, “you’ll give it away.” With that, she turned and sauntered back to her hiding spot, where she was no doubt watching the other guild members as they traversed around, sharing their missions with each other or watching the fighting that was happening. I turned my attention over to the pits, where two younger boys wrestled in the dirt. There were two options when it came to the pits: weapons or fists. You could either fight as the boys were in that moment or you could bring a weapon in with you. Both competitors had to be on the same page on how the fight was going to go and then you dueled until you were so beaten and bloody that you could barely make sense of the world around you.
The winner received bragging rights that usually lasted as long as the loser was in the medical tent, especially among the younger assassins. Flynn and I approached the small, dug out arena and I narrowed my eyes as I watched them fight. Unlike a dance between two older members, the boys were rolling over each other in a near-playful manner. If Ivan or any of the other mentors were watching, they’d be disappointed in their form. Yet, no one stopped them as they went at it, probably settling some pathetic dispute.
From across the throng of assassins, I spotted a familiar pair of cruel, green eyes. Tavryn Hespora hated me more than anyone else in the guild, he had since we were ten or so. When we were young, he and his younger sister had shown up out of nowhere, scraggly and starving. Ivan had offered for them to stay here but, after a few weeks, had told both of them that this camp was, in fact, an assassin’s guild and they couldn’t stay any longer. Rasna had been his little sister and a dear friend to me during those few measly weeks, right before he killed her to prove that he deserved to stay within the camp and train like the rest of us. I still remembered when I’d first heard of it; I’d lunged across Ivan’s tent and tried to stab him with a small pocket knife that I’d been allowed to carry around.
Ivan had been swift in apprehending me but I’d managed to make a cut over his eyebrow and infuriatingly close to his eye. My aim was better now but I’d be punished if I decided to hurt him now, way worse than what Ivan had resorted to after I’d attacked him. The brute of a man smirked at me and I closed my hands into fists as I saw him walk over to one of the refs of the matches for the day. He always challenged me when we both happened to attend; I always beat him.
I think he believed that he’d eventually learn my fighting patterns but Ivan had taught me too well. I knew how to be unpredictable and to hone my senses in a way that Tavryn didn’t. I’d beat him today and I’d continue to beat him for as long as he decided to challenge me.
“I suppose I’ll be fighting today,” I murmured in Flynn’s direction. He looked away from the boys, where one was sitting on the other, his fists flying into the other boy’s face with malice. He followed my gaze until he spotted Tavryn as well and shook his head.
“Will that man never give up?”
“It would seem that way.”
“Up next!” the ref announced as a few of our medics quickly rushed the two boys out of the ring, “Tavryn Hespora would like to challenge Laurel Gold to a duel!” Eyes turned my way and shouts of excitement filled the air. I cringed at the sound of Ivan’s surname paired with my own name. Yes, the assassin king had claimed to love me as his own daughter and had raised me up from an infant, but I absolutely despised his name. The rest of the guild ate it up.
“I accept your challenge,” I declared, “will today be with weapons, or without?”
In answer, Tavryn unsheathed a very long blade and I smirked as he stepped into the pit. I removed a pair of twin blades, the hilts carved from some ancient oak tree and set with small pieces of raw-cut sapphires. They’d been a birthday gift from Ivan when I turned fifteen and had been very loyal in every one of my duels since.
I climbed into the pit with him, ignoring the gentle squeeze that Flynn gave my shoulder as I did so. I took up a fighting position, waiting for the ref to start the match. Tavryn did the same, watching me with a careful gaze. One thing that Ivan made sure we all knew was that the smartest thing to do in a fight where your opponent is boldly facing you is to wait and see what they do first. There have been many matches where the ref calls it to start and two assassins will simply stand there and watch each other.
Behind closed doors, he’d taught me that while waiting is a handy trick to keep in an arsenal of hand to hand combat, striking fast as an injured snake was even deadlier. The ref settled himself down onto a small wooden bench and cleared his throat.
“Begin!”
I lunged, aiming with one of my blades to hit his side, which he deflected. Unfortunately for him, he’d chosen to fight with one blade and was too busy focusing on one attack to deflect another. I landed a jab to his thigh, making him hiss and stumble back from me a few steps.
“Don’t you think this is getting a little old?” I mused as he swung and I blocked. Tavryn was easy to defeat once you fueled his temper enough.
“I never imagined someone like you could ever grow tired of a fight,” he snapped back, stabbing his blade directly towards my stomach. Tavern always aimed to try and seriously wound me, more than was needed for pit fights. I brought my two knives together, catching his sword between them. The vibrations from his unsuccessful strike shook through my hands and wrists. I twisted my blades, causing him to angle down and leaving his chest wide open. I sent a kick into his rock-built body, making him stumble.
“Only when my opponent isn’t exciting enough,” I feigned a yawn and saw a slip of rage shine in his eyes. “I mean seriously, you use the same sword every time.”
I’d dueled him with a sword of my own before, even a set of twin swords. My daggers were my favorites but I’d gone through nearly all of the weapons that Ivan allowed me to have and then some with this man and, true to my words just spoken, he always fought me with his dull longsword. I wasn’t sure if there was a need to best me with this specific blade or if he truly never spoiled himself with shining new weapons in the way Ivan and I did, but it truly was boring.
“You won’t be laughing after you find it sunk into your chest,” he snarled, swinging with such a force that I nearly dropped my blades after I blocked it. Taking a few steps back, I assessed my situation. I had the abilities to beat Tavryn in as little as three quick movements, all taught and coordinated by the king of fancy sword work himself. However, everyone always wanted a show and since I was feeling up to it, I supposed I didn’t have to immediately embarrass him in front of all of these people. Again.
“Keep it coming,” I mused, ducking to miss a swing to the head. Part of me laughed at the idea of not dodging it. I would receive a scar at worst and Ivan would put Tavryn in the ground for marking my face up. It was some weird thing with him; he’d left scars all over me from lessons and fights but refused to touch my face. He was very vain himself so I could only imagine that my place as his perfect prodigy meant that I must be equally as beautiful.
Tavryn began to use all of the force left in his body and I gritted my teeth as I realized this show was going to be shorter than usual. I made my own swing and received a solid punch in the throat by his free hand. I sputtered, stumbling back and gripping my throat as I tried not to choke in surprise. He took that moment to swing at me, making a shallow cut down the outer part of my arm. I bit the inside of my lip and made a lunge of my own, trapping his sword between my two daggers and twisting them both inward, shoving his blade down and turning it in a way that made his hand twist. It clattered to the ground and I gave him a quick wink before bringing the blades up and bashing his face with the two hilts.
I quickly sent another kick into his chest, bringing my foot around the back of his leg as he stumbled to make him fall into the dirt. I pinned him to the ground, a blade at his throat. And smiled.
“How was that?” I smiled with a faulty sweetness and he spit blood up into my face.
“Bitch.”
“Come on Tavryn, I though you would’ve come up with nicknames far more clever than that by now,” I taunted. He tried to shove me off of him and I tsked, using the weight of my body to pin his arms to the ground, I took one of my daggers and, while looking him in the eye, stabbed it into the spot just below his wrist. I missed any major veins and tried to hold back a devilish grin as he yelped in pain. I then ripped it out and got off of him, leaving him to lie there and whimper at his wrist.
Upon climbing out of the pit, Flynn offered me a wet cloth to wipe my face with, which I gratefully accepted.
“The stabbing was a little much, don’t you think?” he asked as we walked away from the pits. I’d had my fill of pointless fighting for the day.
“Nothing will ever be too much when concerning Tavryn,” I replied. With a short glance in his direction, I could tell that he was still bothered by something and I let out a sigh. “Come on, the man’s a bastard. I just did what everyone wants to do.”
“Doing things like that doesn’t make you any better than he is,” Flynn tried.
“It’s not like I killed him,” I pointed out, “and if he’d had me pinned, he definitely would’ve taken that chance to drive his very long sword into my chest.”
“Yes, I suppose he feels the weight of your mercy bearing down on him so splendidly that he’ll change his attitude towards you and maybe even become your loyal servant.”
“Why are you so bothered? Rayne will patch him up and he’ll be good as new in time to challenge me next week,” I assured him. Flynn let out a breath and stopped walking.
“Don’t take this next job,” he seemed to plead. I raised my eyebrows at him and crossed my arms, hissing a little when I remembered that I still had a slice down one of them.
“Is that what’s bothering you? Flynn, I take jobs that involve children all the time, what makes this one any different?” I frowned, taking him in. Something was definitely bothering him but I wasn’t sure if it was entirely about this eight year old.
“Do you intend to kill children for the rest of your life?” he questioned.
“I don’t intend on killing for the rest of my life,” I reminded him, “so… no, I suppose not.”
“Then why not stop now?”
“Need I remind you that you’re an assassin too?” I asked, “you’re acting a little strange right now.”
“Laurel, one of these days all of these missions are going to come back to haunt you and I’m not going to be able to stop them. Do you really think you can live with the deaths of all of these kids on your hands?” he lectured, lowering his gaze. “At least think about it. Ivan never forces you to go on a mission, you always have a choice.”
It was the sincere, worried glaze in his eyes that made me nod. Flynn rarely got this serious toward me, even when we were completely alone. I wasn’t sure why he felt the need to stress this now, after I’d already been sent to kill plenty of children already. Perhaps he was just now brave enough to speak up or maybe he had grown more sensitive on the subject. Either way, the look he was giving me made me want to throw the letter with the job details into a fire and forget about them.
“I’ll think about it,” I assured him. Tension seemed to seep from his shoulders and he reached out, gently grabbing my arm.
“You should get this wrapped.”
Rayne was our head medic for the camp and was one of Ivan’s dear friends. She’d known him since he was a young man and was equally as rough and clever as he was. When Flynn and I walked into the main medical tent, I spotted her spilling some sort of tonic onto Tavryn’s own arm wound while two others held him down. He thrashed as she worked on him and I watched her dark blue eyes flicker up to me in what seemed to be a silent scolding. After a few muttered words to her assistants, she approached us as silently as any assassin would and crossed her arms as she took in my wound.
“Seems to me like Tavryn got the worst of it,” she tsked, turning and waving me over to a small table that was covered in a variety of supplies. I followed behind, plopping down onto the rotting wooden chair next to it and stretching my arm out for her to patch up. “I struggle to see how that poor boy deserved a whole dagger through his arm, Soldaat.”
A smirk played on my lips at her nickname for me, meaning soldier in the tongue native to the northwest continent. I didn’t know much of her story, only that she’d sailed to Idigia when she was very young and had immediately begun her training as a healer. She always brushed off any questions I asked and I’d learned that some people preferred to remain shrouded in mystery. She was the only one besides Flynn who’d dared to give me a nickname and sometimes I wondered if she even remembered my true one.
“Tavryn is anything but a poor boy.”
“You won’t mind me saying that you deserved this little scratch,” she scolded, “every time you fight in the pits, you send someone to me with an absurd and absolutely unnecessary wound. I have half the heart to tell Ivan to stop you from continuing in these ridiculous duels.”
“She wouldn’t be inclined to listen,” Flynn muttered. Rayne’s sharp gaze lifted to his as she applied a paste to my shallow cut and began to wrap a thick bandage around the length of it.
“Tavryn challenged me,” I glowered, “it’s not as if I make it my personal business to fight him almost weekly.”
Flynn huffed a laugh out through his nose and Rayne’s grip tightened ever so slightly, causing me to wince as she finished up. I pulled away from her grasp and stood, flexing my arm to test the wrapping and then giving her a curt nod.
“I better not see you in here for quite some time,” she warned, “stay out of trouble and keep your nose out of everyone else’s business.”
“Who do you think I am?” I asked with a little smile. She shook her head at me and turned, dark hair flowing out behind her as she approached Tavryn again. Flynn and I exited the tent as he started to shout a string of colorful curse words in my direction.
“You’re lucky she even bothers to patch you up anymore,” Flynn shook his head at me, “she’s been doing it since you could walk.”
“You’re insufferable,” I growled, giving him a playful shove. “Shouldn’t you be trying to get another job?”
“I suppose,” he shrugged, “but unlike you, I don’t spend all of my earnings in one go at the markets.”
“Keep picking on me and see what happens.” I meant it as a threat but I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my lips. “I still have some training this afternoon with Ivan… you’ll have to make yourself scarce.”
“Yeah, I know,” he waved me off and made a turn for the job board. “I’ll see you later.”
I watched as he casually made his way up to the board, beginning to browse all of the listings, before turning and heading back to mine and Ivan’s tent. It was the biggest and probably the fanciest in the entire camp. Ivan Gold was never one to dismiss luxury in any sense; his clothes were always made from the most exotic fabrics, his weapons were fashioned by foreign blacksmiths. It made sense for our tent to reflect his elaborate lifestyle that he had, unknowingly, passed along to me.
The infamous assassin was perched on a large rock that jutted out of the ground near the entrance to our tent, playing with a small throwing knife. He made no move to look at me but I knew he was following my every move. I stopped in front of him and the only expression he allowed was a subtle lift of an eyebrow.
“I heard you shoved a dagger right through Tavryn’s arm,” he spoke. It wasn’t a question, I had no doubt that his eyes and ears of the camp had been quick to report what’d happened at the pits, they always did. What I noticed most was the way the tone of his voice sounded, almost as if he were disappointed in me. “It would do my guild some good if the assassins had access to their arms in order to complete the missions assigned to them.”
“He cut my arm too,” I pointed out, though I knew it was a meager attempt at trying to brush aside the fact that he wasn’t happy about what I’d done.
“Laurel,” he breathed out, finally raising those cunning, silver eyes up to meet mine. “Despite all of the training I’ve put you through, you still tend to act carelessly either for sport or because your temper gets the best of you. As much as I enjoy seeing you bully around assassins like Tavryn, you simply must get a handle on yourself and your talents if you’re ever to be as skilled as me.”
“You told me that you would never allow me to be as skilled as you were,” I reminded him.
“I did,” he nodded, his throwing knife twirling around his fingers, “but I can only worry about keeping you below my own abilities until I’m dead.”
I hated it when he talked like this, reminding me that I’d eventually have to navigate the world on my own, without any guidance from him. It was true that Ivan was one of the cruelest people to ever walk the planet, it wasn’t just the assassins who knew that small detail. Most days I despised him, but the man had still raised me; he’d been the only father figure I’d ever known. He often talked about how, once he was dead, I would then be the most terrifying thing in the world. Only once he was dead.
“I received your mission from Emryn,” I replied instead, switching the subject to avoid talking about my future in the way that he adored. He smirked, sensing my true intentions.
“And?”
“I want to take a few days to consider it,” I added, “a child within the ranks of the palace may be not only more challenging but unwise to target.”
“I’ve never seen you back down from a challenge before,” he pointed out.
“All the same, I’ll come to my decision by next week.”
Ivan slid from the rock with the grace of a feline and stretched his long limbs before casting his gaze onto me. “Are you ready to continue with your training?”
I gave him a short nod in response, following after him as he dipped into our tent.
RULES: Post the last seven lines you wrote, then tag seven writers to do the same!
Tagged by @maggie-wolff-writes, thanks for dragging me back into the social side of tumblr! This is from the very aptly (but loosely) titled Questy McQuestface, the companion novel to Fire and Lightning, Ash and Stone (which is currently sitting at a 5-star rating!!). In this scene, our hero is approaching the first stop in his noble quest: The dwarven stronghold of Smith Haven.
“Rupert had seen the mountains surrounding Yonkarra, and the spiny peaks of the Crown where Aunt Liana had once lived. He had even glimpsed the Hinterlands and their famed ranges all the way from the deck of the passenger ferry as it rode the Stewpot’s gentle currents. He had thought that he understood them all.
But only now, with the mountain’s glory rising above him and the land between them spreading out, did he fully grasp the enormity of it. There were miles yet to go still, dotted with hairy fields and mole-sized villages and veinlike roads. And above it all, like a craggy nose, loomed the mountain that Smith Haven called home. Buildings had been carved into it as far around as he could see and nearly as high up, levels and arcades that bustled with movement and flowed down the sides of the mountain like moss down a tree.”
Thanks to @kittensartsbooks for the tag! Also - damn you had a lot of words to catch up on! It was hella impressive. Anyway, my words are sword, serene, drip and city, and I’ll be using my swords & sorcery WIP, Fire and Lightning, Ash and Stone (which I WILL have a WIP page for one day).
Sword
“Because I need a scholar, Aldwin, not another fighter!” He drew his sword and began dueling with a malformed sapling, nearly taking Aldwin's head off on the backswing.
“Aye,” the librarian said wryly. “One jackass running around swinging sharp objects is plenty.”
Serene
How do I not have this word??
Drip
Almost casually, Barnabas reached up and gripped Dae's chin in one large white hand. “Never speak my lily's name,” he breathed, poison and spite dripping from every word. “You are not worth the muck that clings to her boots.”
City
Adaya hesitated, and then reached out and gently cupped Emeri's hand around the wooden bird. “Maybe you could teach me.”
The whole company held its breath. Emeri's mouth popped open, and her blush deepened. “Oh! Oh, well, of - of course! Of course I could.” Slowly, she placed her free hand over their cupped fingers and said, “It would be easier, though, if...if we lived in the same city.”
Adaya swallowed. “We always need candlemakers in the capital.”
“Good,” Emeri stammered. “That's good. Because I am one. A candlemaker. I'm a candlemaker.”
I know that last one was a little long, but I just adore those two lovestruck dorks. Tagging @scriptcricket @power-of-ages-writeblr @zmlorenz and @waterfallwritings, your words are gladly, destroy, ruin, and lovely. Happy hunting!
Knocking out all these backlogged mentions this morning. Next up is @power-of-ages-writeblr with this straightforward premise: Describe your WIPs in one sentence! I’m sticking with the ones I’m actively working on.
A Day Out of Time: None But Us - In this thrilling and absurd conclusion, Gamma Team goes up against mind-controlling clones from the future.
Questy McQuestface - Local witch goes on a quest to claim a long-lost throne that he doesn’t even want, because of bureaucracy.
Tagging @scriptcricket @chris-the-dragonslayer and @katbwrites
