I parry a Hunter's blade and block another's dagger that would have otherwise pierced my ribs. Raise my staff, block, parry, and occasionally give them a bruise. I recall my combat rhythm. At first the movements are unfamiliar, stiff. But years of training soon click into place. 

I grunt as a punch sends me crashing into a stack of crates. Black spots dance before my eyes. As I regain my footing, I sense and dodge a flying dagger.

"Why?" I ask again. "What do you have to gain in fighting me?" No answer. I grimace as I am forced to knock out a Hunter from the knees. She grunts and falls. No cry of pain. No sign of concern from the others, either. I frown and easily block a stab to my chest.

Amidst the grunts and clash of metal against wood—I have not seen any use for my blades just yet—a single thought prevails. Where is Sohel? It is not like him to not fight me himself. A sweeping glance confirms that neither him nor my jackals are in the barn anymore. 

I strike a Hunter on the shoulder and try to navigate myself through the fallen crates. The remaining Hunters wordlessly block any paths to the exit, which continues to rattle from the strong winds outside. I prepare for another round.

What is strange is their combat styles and moves. I think this through as I continue to swirl and dodge and block, stepping in a way that would not leave me cornered. I have readied myself for an onslaught of flashbacks, but their fighting techniques are so unlike from what I remember. These Hunters are less volatile, and more focused on working as a unit than individually. What is more, they feel different. Their presence is completely contradictory to the atmosphere the Hunters left behind at the Home. Is that why I am not afraid?

Enough of this. I sigh and put up my hands. "Prove that you want to kill me."

They pause for a split-second. That is all I need to escape through my hidden door behind the crates.

Once again, a monochrome world of the past greets me.  Where could my brother be? 

I take off northward towards the district's watchtower, just as the sky begins to rain once more. Objects loom in and out of the haze, appearing and disappearing behind a veil of the unknown. I try my best to avoid them, but once or twice I stumble and fall. 

"Sohel!" I call. I run past the flaming houses, ignoring the screams and cries for help that don't belong to my brother. "Sohel!"

Would the Hunters chase me? Certainly they would not think I would harm my brother. Or would they? I look back but stumble and fall again. I grit my teeth, flip over and continue to run. No use in thinking that now.

"Hey! Get back here!" I flee from the voice as fast as my wounded legs can carry me. There is no way I am letting myself get captured. Not a chance. Not when I have so much more to lose.

At one point I am running across a flat expanse of land, with little more than dirt to contend with. I pump my legs and ignore my body's plea to stop, to gather a gasp of the stagnant air as I run with an inexplicable sense of urgency.  Why am I doing this? My brother is completely fine; I saw him with my own two eyes not an hour ago. 

"Sohel!" I scream as loud as I can. I said I went to get food, but I also had the intention of seeking directions to a harbor. Did he know? Did he leave because he'd be left alone anyways?

What is this feeling of wrongness that drives me to run, to look for him, despite the fact that he left on his own accord?

Shadows loom ahead, but I do not slow down to navigate the fallen houses and sheds of past farmers. Instead my eyes search through the haze, looking for any silhouette that bears a humanoid resemblance to my brother.

"Soh-" My throat is raw from the effort. I duck behind a fence as a troop of Hunters and their crimson cloaks clash against Abandryan warriors. A limp body drops beside me. I grab its sword and escape, unnoticed.

How long has it been? I look up to the sky, but black clouds obscure the heavens. 

The rain does nothing but fuel the burning ache in my chest. 

After minutes or hours, I arrive at the inland watchtower. What remains of it, that is. As I gather my breath, I stare at the half-destroyed tower, then at the bricks that lay at my feet. Why did my instincts point here? I recall my brother saying it was his favourite place to hide during Mother and Father's shouting matches about food rations, or when the Hunters launched smaller attacks. It did not work all the time.

The commotion draws my eyes around the corner. In the grasps of a Hunter, Sohel stands with a knife at his neck.

Why would it now?

An arrow brushes my shoulder. I blink and look up again. Sohel is perched against the inside of the tower's wall with a bow and quiver. He smiles with levity. "Care to join?"

I open my mouth before taking back my initial response. "Of course." Well, it has stop raining.

I reach my brother without the tower collapsing on me. "You could fall," I say, referring to his precarious position.

He crosses his arms. "I could."

I find a stable area to...stand? Sit? I opt for the former, while trying to banish the fact that I am very high up on a very unstable structure.

Sohel sighs. "Why?"

"I could ask you the same." Depending on what the question is.

"Will you?"

I pause to think. He answers anyway.

"You may think you know everything," he says, "but that's not all. I joined because they said they would kill you otherwise."

"Stay back!" the Hunter bellows. "Or-!" He made a show of beheading several captives.

"I was stupid," my brother says with a sigh. "If my seven year-old self knew any better, I would have known that my brother did not care for me." He smiles humourlessly. I avert my eyes.

"Is that why you left?" I ask.

He looks at me. "No. They came."

What? "There...there was no sign of a struggle-!" I bite my tongue to stop the excuses from pouring out.

He stares at me with pleading eyes. My feet won't move. The sword hangs uselessly in my hand.

"Your turn." He waves his hand.

I look at my soiled Swift robes. "I...I cannot remember exactly how I ended up there. But the Swift Master took in anyone who came to them. And...and they were guardians of the Eye. I took that chance. I wanted to know that I could still be a protector."

He ponders my words then says, "You clearly failed." He pulls out the Eye and inspects it, tilting it every which way. "So this the thing that encouraged you to come here. And...ask for my forgiveness." He looks at me. I nod hesitantly.

Whatever I do, I cannot get a read on this man. Is he mad at me for lying, abandoning him, or coming back in the first place? Or is it envy? Or all of the above? Questions stir in my head like a desert storm.

He slaps the dilapidated wall, making me jump. A few bricks tumble down. "Do not look at me like that," he hisses. I can only meet his gaze of frustration with mine of bewilderment. 

"What is it that makes you look at me as if I am a monster? Is it this?" My brother brandishes his cloak with the skeletal snake insignia. I automatically step back. With a venomous hiss, he rips off the cloak and folds it in his hands. I tear my gaze off the crimson fabric to meet his eyes. 

There is an intensity in his glare that makes me falter. "I-I am sorry," I stammer, "but that symbol...frightens me." 

He grunts. The fire in his eyes dims. "Is it the symbol, or I whom wears it?"

I blink. "I...I do not know." I look at him helplessly. "I do not know who you are anymore."

Sohel pockets the Eye in exchange for his scimitar. Whirling the blade in his left hand, he says, "I could say the same with you. Out of curiosity, how many kills have you under your name?"

With no knowledge as to how this is relevant, I answer, "Eleven." All of them were from mandatory assignments while I was a pupil. Some were from team missions. All of them had posed a threat to the Swifts. "I still remember their faces." 

Sohel half-smiles. "Only eleven? I find that hard to believe, coming from an assassin. Then again, you were always like that." He tilts his head up to the sky. "I suppose that makes me even worse."

I turn to him. "The number of kills does not define-"

"Two hundred thirty."

My voice comes out strangled. "That many?" 

My brother peeks a glance at my expression. "Whatever you claim, brother, we are murderers. Our names are forever soaked with blood. Nothing will change that reality." His gaze becomes distant. "I guess this is who we always were."

"Even then, that does not equate to us being cold-blooded killers," I insist. "I did it to be accepted, to defend my partners, to survive. I am sure you are no different." But in spite of it all, my mind wanders back to the pirate captain's words.

Sohel smiles grimly. "You say that like you know me. Lying again, are you?" I bite my lip.

He sighs. "So alike, yet so different," he mutters. "I wonder how."

Again, we lapse into silence. 

"So you really did become the new Swift Master of Assassins," he says at last.

"Yes." I recall the synergy between him and the other Hunters and ask, "Are you a leader?" 

"Of a sort," he replies. "I cannot do much, but I try my best..." he trails off. "So for the last twenty years, that really was you ruling over the Swift Assassins?" He stares at me.

"Well, I would not it 'ruling'-"

"You had power," Sohel says. His voice rises. "You had power, and you waited all this time to obtain the Eye?!"

A dagger cuts my arm. I stumble and instinctively I raise my staff to block his scimitar. "Why?" I exclaim. I shift my footing to avoid the drop to my right. 

"Why not?" he asks. He twists his scimitar around my staff. I twist my staff likewise and shift my position again. "Unlike me, you always had a choice. You could have used the Eye's powers to save me, or end the Hunters back then-"

"I thought you are on the Hunters' side!" I tilt my neck away to avoid the scimitar's blade. Perspiration drips down my forehead as I struggle to keep my staff steady.

"-but instead you waited for twenty years? Just to see your pupils' bodies?" He releases his scimitar and aims for a stab. I pivot out of the way and trip him with my foot. He nimbly flips back onto his feet. 

We circle each other. I am missing something. What does he want? "After the old Master passed away, I changed the rules," I say. "No more assassinations done by my pupils. No more training that focused on killing. But one thing that could not change was the Swift covenant. Under such, I swore to protect the Eye at all costs. That meant preventing anyone from nearing the Ivory Nest."

Sohel furrows his brow.

"Even Swifts themselves have perished from visiting Saffiyah," I explain. "The Eye is unpredictable. Which is why no one can rely on the Eye for its powers."

"But you broke your own law. Why did it work for you?" he asks. 

"What makes you better than all of those who died?" 

I hesitate.

He takes that chance to rush at me. I have no time to react as he throws me on the ground. My back throbbing from the impact, I barely notice the scimitar against my neck.

"Who are you, really?" he demands, pushing the blade against my neck. "What do you want with-"

The ground rumbles. Cracks appear on the floor. Too late, I remember we are on an unstable structure. Sohel senses the alarm and rolls off me. We both dash down the stairs to the exit. Debris falls from above. Adrenaline seizes my being, honing all of my senses into hysteria. I shield my eyes and blindly make my way through, taking three steps at a time. So close, so close-

A heart-stopping groan rumbles from above. With my last ounce of strength, I push my brother to the exit as everything falls into darkness with a thunderous roar.

Thunder erupts as gunpowder clouds my vision. "Sohel!" I scream. I bolt down an alleyway that would intercept with them, but the gunpowder is like a heavy veil, slithering into my eyes and blinding me. The bombings are not enough to conceal my coughs. Alerted by my presence, two Hunters grab me by the arms. I brandish my sword and kick and bite with all my force. By the time they are struck down, the other Hunters are escaping on their horses and carriages. I try to chase them, knowing my brother is in one of those carriages. But like an illusion, they dissolve into smoke.