Her clothes were soaked with sweat, her breath was laboured and her legs and arms ached from the constant movement. Fear constantly niggled at the back of her head, her eyes trying to focus against the candle lit room, her concentration on the sounds that moved almost silently along the fine bamboo mat. Mai could feel her own heart pound hard against her chest, filling her ears, making it difficult for her to concentrate on every sweeping sound made in the darkness.

 There were a few seconds of absolute silence, the sweeping sounds disappearing completely and in that moment fear had taken Mai completely. Her concentration left her to speculate where the invisible student might be, her eyes darting quickly around every inch of the darkness around her. The candle in the middle of the room flickered strangely, Mai’s concentration set on the darkness surrounding the tiny flame.

Suddenly, as if a bullet had just whipped past her face by inches, Mai felt the air sweep past her cheek. Immediately, out of reflex, Mai reached out in the darkness beside her, grabbing an arm and pulling whatever was attached to it over her shoulder. There was no familiar sound of someone’s body hitting the ground, instead there was a light tap on the bamboo mat and immediately Mai took her defensive stance as she heard the familiar sweeping sound. It took a whole second before the string of multiple variations of punches and kicks met her variations of defence. Her hands and legs met the hands and legs of the attacker in perfect timing and when Mai felt that she could predict the next attack her right hand jabbed the invisible attacker’s chest, her foot met their left knee, her left hand made contact with their jaw and her left foot kicked their side. All of this happening in the span of three minutes, the end result were moans and groans of pain filling the silence.

 There was an audible click from somewhere far away, light suddenly filling every square inch of the room, revealing a body dressed in black curled against the green and pale yellow bamboo. Mai felt her stomach lurch uncomfortably as her eyes gazed at the blood that spilled from the boy’s nose and mouth. He was older than her, taller and had the largest muscles in the whole school, yet as he lay on the ground simply whimpering and crying in pain she felt the large lump of guilt silently choking her.

“Well done Mai, you have done well.” The low voice of Master Qian sliced through the silence, his feet unnaturally moving silently upon the sweat drenched bamboo mat until he stopped next to Mai and laid his hand on her shoulder. His grip on her was painful like an eagle clenching onto its pray, his fingers digging into the bone of her shoulder as he smiled encouragingly at her.

 However, his smile faded into a scowl as he looked at the boy on the ground “You should be ashamed of yourself, Shen.” Master Qian spoke in a low growl, his eyes hard upon Shen who looked up at him in shame; everyone knew what was going to happen to him for losing.

 Without a word to anyone Master Qian walked out of the room silently, his face still in a scowl as he turned a corner towards his bedroom and it took only a few moments later for Shen to build up the courage to follow him. Mai knew that tonight she would not be able to sleep; a screaming boy in pain was enough guilt to keep anyone awake and Mai had forced Shen into that punishment.

 When Shen was out of earshot the rest of the students that sat on the outer skirts of the bamboo mat got up and congratulated Mai, their whispers of encouragement and smiles softening the guilt that sat uncomfortably in her throat. However, the moment was short lived and instead in place of the whispering encouragement was cries and screams of pain. Everyone was silent as the punishment stretched out into the five minute mark and the sickening feeling grew as every minute and every second stretched.

 *****

Mai awoke quickly; her hair was damp from sweat and her breath was laboured as if she ran a marathon, yet she could not believe that she actually dreamt that. A memory that was once a reality when she was just eleven years old, Shen was only thirteen but he had an innocence that broke the day Master Li punished him. Mai thought she forgot that particular memory, it was the first time she was ever personally responsible for a punishment, that sort of memory had been her nightmare for many night after it happened.

Mai lay in bed looking up at the ceiling for what seemed like ages, her mind wandering to that night when she had been responsible for the destruction of what little innocence she had left. 

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Behind every major death in history the assassins have been behind it, the cause of it. They hide in the shadows and in the crowds, but are never seen and only some have ever heard of them.

Thousands of years of history belong to the assassins.

Note: The first two chapters are a prologue set a few years back.

updated Apr 9 by Metastopheles