#meet rani and bricriu they're gonna be relevant

[theroseempress]

Wrote something for my current WIP and liked it a lot, so here it is! Fair warning, this is in fact quite long. (the only reason I'm not posting this in my website instead is because it's actually a section of another thing I haven't finished writing, and I'm not sure if I want it up there yet)

hey @wackus-bonkus-maximus this has nothing to do with MLB so I dunno if you're interested, but I'm quite pleased with how it came out so if you wanna read this I certainly will not object.

~

The day everything finally fell apart started like any other morning. When thinking back on it, Rani couldn’t help marveling at it. Wake up, eat some of the dreadfully bland bread provided by her landlady, (she had the money to buy better food, in theory at least, but it was free, and if she wasn’t wasting money on how things tasted, there was that much more to send back to her brothers.

And sure, maybe she had eaten less food recently than was entirely healthy, but medical school in a different country was expensive, and so was keeping her other two brothers fed and comfortable. Besides, being small was useful for making unnoticed entrances and exits, so it was fine, really) read the brown envelope that had appeared on her dresser, and leave to find today’s target.

Today’s target was a young man, according to the envelope, he was five foot nine, had strawberry blonde hair, light skin, usually wore a chain earring in his left ear, and was called Bricriu.

(Not much to know about a person, but really, even having the name in there was unusual for a target. The only other information in the envelope was the area he frequented, in the Markets)

Rani both despised and was grateful for the Markets- both because of how crowded and noisy they were- the latter opinion being because it was much easier to tail someone unnoticed when in a crowd, and the former since the same thing made it easier to lose a target.

Either way, Rani’s job wasn’t to gripe, it was to remove her target and then disappear in one way or another, so she shrugged her worn jacket tighter around her shoulders and set off down the street.

It was a cold morning, clouds blanketing the sky as they so often did over the ventral months in Solace. The chainmail Rani wore between her undershirt and thin tunic sucked up the biting air with vigor, the latticed metal icy against her skin even through the layer of cloth. Rani ignored it, instead staring down at her boots (the one piece of clothing she frequently bought new versions of instead of letting them run into the ground) as they carried her across grey cobblestones and around the remaining puddles from last night’s rain. It wasn’t a long walk to the Markets, though as she got closer the amount of mechorses and carriages the young woman had to dodge increased significantly.

Finally reaching one of the unofficial guard posts, Rani halted for a moment to study the seemingly lazy (Rani had to admit, she would have been convinced if she hadn’t seen how fast the guards could move when provoked, there was a reason they were where they were) young man leaning against the wall with his hands tucked into his coat pockets, grey eyes drifting lazily over the people meandering through the bottleneck between two buildings and into a market. Rani, who knew he wouldn’t see her as any threat, but still wasn’t one to take chances, waited until a carriage was blocking his line of sight to her and then slipped into the crowds on the other side of the ‘gate.’

It didn’t take her long to find her target, slipping through the bustling colours and noise of the Market like the shadow she was slowly becoming.

He was stepping out of a building, the sign swinging above his head bearing the same words tucked into Rani’s pocket on a carefully folded piece of paper.

‘The Howling Hound’ proclaimed the sign, creaking back and forth on rusty hooks, and for a moment Rani’s upbringing raised its head and sent a crackle of tension down her spine.

But it was only a moment,and Rani was pushing away her Talin superstitions and darting after the blonde man before she’d even fully processed the words her relatives would have instantly taken as a sign to give up right then and there.

The man strode down the cobbled road like he belonged there, head high and shoulders relaxed, coat unbuttoned despite the wind tugging at his sandy hair, moving with the kind of ease and light Rani had seen on a number of other people (and resented, people like that always got their way, almost as if they really did bring light with them, never trapped in the shadows like her, everyone eager to help them)

Rani slipped after him, ignoring how the wind nipped at her face even through the scarf pulled up around her nose and mouth and silently tailing the tap-tap-tap of his polished boots on the uneven stones below.

Finally, several wind-bitten moments of weaving through the cacophony of noise and colours that was the Markets, Rani’s target turned off into an alley. Rani followed, halting crouched behind a stack of crates and ignoring the frigid slush-water soaking from the cobbles into the right knee of her trousers.

The alley was empty, the only occupants Rani, her target, and a lone dark-feathered bird dozing on a jutting windowsill.

Rani let the cold metal of two of her daggers slip from her sleeves to her palms, slender fingers wrapping around the worn hilts. A pause to steady herself and check they were both hidden from sight, and then she was pouncing forwards with a silence so well-practiced it was almost an afterthought. One, two, three strides across the stones, avoiding a puddle that would have caused a splash, and now she was in range and both hands went up, daggers slicing through the cloudy day.

In the years that followed, Rani went through those moments time and time again, searching for what she’d done wrong, what part of the motion was sloppy, casual, loose.

(did she step too hard, move too slow, did her chainmail rustle, did light glint off the daggers, was she just not good enough)

She still didn’t know.

(she’d moved the same as always, as fast as always, she’d practiced and there was no way her mail would make a noise loud enough to alert him, it was cloudy and there was no light to hit the polished metal and she still wasn’t good enough)

Just before silvered metal met her target’s unprotected throat, the man moved.

He spun, leaning back, bright blue eyes a splash of unexpected colour against the grey skies, grey bricks, grey stones, grey coat, sandy hair dancing just around the edges of his face as if it didn’t dare to get in his way, and then Rani’s daggers were just barely barely one inch too slow touching his throat and grey wasn’t broken by red and-

-And he was smiling, blue eyes now sparkling, and Rani, still caught in the middle of her pounce, realized too late that maybe the kind of light this man carried was instead the kind that tore through shadows like her instead.

He was almost casual, one hand coming up and knocking Rani’s wrists into each-other at just the right angle for a jolt of pain to tear through her numb fingers. The following motion was involuntary, and Rani barely realized she’d let go until her daggers her defense protection safety were on the stones with a sharp ringing and spray of water droplets from the puddle they’d landed in. Rani moved on instinct, still-stinging hands going to the top of her boots and fumbling against icy buckles- damn it why hadn’t she loosened the straps earlier, stupid stupid stupid- for stiff leather, but the man in front of her- not her target now- took the opening before she realized it was there.

Rani’s back slammed up against the alley wall, rough stones digging into her spine and air huffing out of her lungs in a white cloud.

Across the alley, the crow took flight, disappearing with a rustle of feathers and a squawk.

The golden man- Rani’s mind darted back to the paper; Bricriu- didn’t look away from Rani, pale blue eyes studying her face with an almost detached curiosity.

A line of biting cold flared against Rani’s throat, and the realization that Bricriu had a long dagger resting there kicked her awareness into action too late. Both of her wrists were somehow trapped behind her against the wall, Bricriu too close and the blade’s edge too firmly against her skin for her to do anything about it.

A long moment passed, dampness soaking out of the bricks and into Rani’s tunic. Bricriu seemed content to wait, studying her face as if he was watching a particularly spectacular sunrise.

Several more minutes passed, Rani pinned in place both by the dagger at her throat and Bricriu’s piercing gaze, and then her chainmail started to become almost unbearably cold even through her shirt.

Rani shivered, and the motion seemed to break Bricriu out of whatever he’d been thinking about. Smiling, the young man tilted his head.

“Well, I wonder what you’re doing here?”

Rani stayed silent, wrists starting to ache from being pressed into the wall. Bricriu seemed unfazed by her unresponsiveness, continuing to talk as his gaze drifted down her.

“Stabbing people isn’t very polite, you know.” he scolded, almost as if he was talking to a child. “Might get stabbed back as well, I suppose. Lucky for you, I’m curious.”

Pausing, Bricriu leaned over a little and reached into Rani’s pocket, pulling the folded paper out and grinning at her.

“What’s this?”

Rani bit back the urge to lunge at him and tear the paper away. Bricriu seemed to sense her line of thought, cold metal pressing a little harder to her throat. Casually. unfolding the paper despite only having one hand available, Bricriu finally looked away from Rani.

A million thoughts and plans of action rushed through Rani’s head in that moment- he’s distracted rush him move get your daggers attack run away fight hide escape attack- but before she could put any of them into action, the paper was crumpling in Bricriu’s fist and his pale blue gaze was back on Rani.

“An assassin, huh?”

She stayed silent, another wave of shuddering breaking over her as a light drizzle began to soak through her already damp tunic. Bricriu tucked the paper into his coat pocket, eyes staying fixed on Rani’s throughout the motion.

Another long pause followed, Bricriu staring absently at the wall beside Rani’s head, Rani’s shivering escalating to the point that she couldn’t hide it any longer. She’d just determined to try and break away despite the lost feeling in her hands, when Bricriu blinked, straightening.

“Righto, little assassin, you’re coming with me.” he smiled, and maybe this time some of Rani’s shivering wasn’t because of the cold.

~

Fun fact Talin (the nation Rani's from) find dogs unlucky and howling dogs especially unlucky.

Was that sign foreshadowing or not? hmmm

i mean. it is entirely possible that bricriu's gonna give her lots of money and help her with problems!

You never know!