PreCursive

  I was sent flying from a blow by Hook. Twisting midair, I did my best to recover so I could nd on my feet. I ma, but I immediately colpsed to my hands and knees in exhaustion, panting. Sweat fell from my brow in rivulets as I tried to catch my breath.

  When Hook had said he was going to test me, he meant it. The sun was starting to go down, and we had been at it the entire day. While it hadn’t all been sparring as we’d just been in the middle of, that didn’t meahing else he’d had me doing had been easy.

  The dwarf had been doing his absolute best to assess every ounce of knowledge and skill that I had for bat and stealth. From trag, to sneaking, to lockpig and more. If it was relevant to his line of work, he wao know what I knew. Hell, we’d even done a few things that I hadn’t expected. I hadn’t expected the baest, or even the freerunning obstacle course.

  I had no idea how he'd set that one up so quickly.

  Not even Fade had been spared from the testing, to my surprise. Hook hadn’t even bli the idea of a wolf ag as a panion to an assassin, and had promptly included my panion. He’d…been the most help during the trag portion. As far as stealth, bat, and other things went…

  Well.

  He needed more experie was hard to remember that Fade was barely five months ht now.

  Perhaps my most pathetic showing though, had been during the archery test. I’d never really thought about seriously pursuiher the skill or the Talent for it. I mean, why would I? Right now I rimarily a melee fighter because The Stilnt Bde didn’t work with projectiles, and that ability was my biggest strength.

  I had barely been able to hit the target with the given short bow two out of ten times.

  Hook sighed, standing not far from my position. “I’ve seen enough,” He said ftly. “I think we’re done for the day.”

  I stopped trying to hold myself up on my exhausted arms and simply flopped face-first into the grass. Hearing a simir flop o my head, I tur to see a panting Fade lying spyed out o me. He noticed my stare and gave me a weak liy cheek before letting his head fall.

  “The pup is uandable,” I heard Hook say from above me. I rolled on my back to see the dwarf better. He had his arms crossed over his chest and was staring down at me with an unimpressed posture. “He’s only a few months old and doesn’t have much training, if any. Why haven’t you been w with him?”

  I winced. “We’ve been really busy, and I only found him a few months ago,” I said tiredly. “I was uhe impression that it would be better for him if I waited until he wasn’t a baby anymore to start training. His horns only grew in a few weeks ago, fod’s sake.”

  Hook crouched down, his forearms resting on his knees. “You’re wrong. It’s uandable, but you’re still wrong. Now is the best time to instill some discipline in the pup. Still, that’s easily fixable. He’s still young, and he’ll take the instru better now. You, oher hand,” He clucked his tongue, shaking his head. “You have one of the shakiest foundations I’ve ever seen in a potential recruit. Your skills and knowledge are all over the pce.”

  Hey man, I only had like six months of training and experien this kind of thing. Cut me a little sck.

  Is what I wao say, of course, but I didn’t. I had no idea what Grey had told him about me, and I didn’t want to volunteer knowledge when I didn’t have to.

  “Sit up,” Hook said firmly, standing up himself. “And pay attention. You o hear this.”

  I took a deep breath but did as he asked. I leveraged myself up with a groan and sat cross-legged in front of the grey-bearded dwarf.

  “Positives,” Hook said decisively. “You have det athleticism. Not great, but workable. You have some strong Skills and Talents suited to the work, but you’ve absolutely ed pig up General Skills. Baffling.” He shook his head. “Now for the ives. You’re...not a great fighter.”

  I sighed. “That bad, huh?” I hadn’t thought I’d been doing so badly in my practice sessions with Azarus.

  “Mostly, yes. One, you rely too mu those dagger spears of yours,” Hook said, holding up one finger. “It’s an iing gimmick, but that’s all it is. A gimmick. It shouldn’t be the erstone of yhting style. You take the surprise of that away, and what are you left with? An admittedly det bde that you don’t know how to handle. Your spear work is sloppy at best, and don’t get me started on your knifework. Two, it's baffling you've ouched a bow.”

  In my defense, even beyond the thing with The Stilnt Bde, I’d expected to have a rudimentary gun by now. You know, if that experiment had actually worked out.

  “Bow work is one of the erstones of this lifestyle, and if you ever want to get anywhere in it, you’ll practice to till your fingers bleed and your arms want to fall off. And then you’ll pop a healing potion and keep going. Three, you might be athletic, but you’re simultaneously not acrobatiough and too acrobatic at the same time. You don’t know how to move your body in the right way to aplish yoals. You’re not effit. And fod's sake, stop jumping around so much. It’s not a good thing to break your root so easily. And that’s just the start of your problems. Frankly, Hart, if it were up to me, I’d send you off for a few more tours with the regur Order forces before sidering you for the Noe Division.”

  Damn. It…didn’t feel good to have everything you’d worked on for months called into question like that.

  “But it’s not up to you, is it?” I asked resignedly. I wasn’t trying to be petty with that questioher. I just khat Grey had leaned on Hook to get him to take me on.

  Turns out, I was right.

  Hook sighed, and nodded. “Yes, yetting the special treatment. Grey insisted that I take you on and fix the issues that he should have. It’s not as if the ma have experien this field. I suppose he’s too busy helping run the war to really take the time and correct your deficies. But, look,” Surprisingly, he held a hand out in my dire. I took it gratefully and accepted the help up. “It’s not like you were unknown to us. The Noe Division keeps a for anyone among the Order that has the possibility of joining us. We’ve noticed the dire your build is moving in. We were just intending to let your abilities mature more before approag you. You do have the potential.”

  Huh. That was…ing and appreciated at the same time.

  “I never even noticed you guys,” I said, shaking my head. “When did you…?”

  Somehow, I got the impression that Hook was smirking at me behind his mask. “That’s the point, kid. I’ll say this. The problems with yhting style and knowledge base be corrected. We fix that. I fix that. So, since I don’t have much of a choice, I’ll begrudgingly wele you to the Noe Division.”

  “Okay, thanks I suppose,” I said, smiling wryly. “What hen, ‘boss’?”

  Hook surning in pce abruptly, allowio see the tight-fitted leather armor ad his stocky frame. “. I’ll take you to our current base of operation and fill you in on what we actually do on the way.”

  As Hook set off in the dire of the gates of Helstein, I hurriedly picked up my exhausted wolf and jogged wearily to catch up with him. Fade limply licked my hand, but settled into my arms for a rest afterward.

  Oh boy, I guess I had more work to look forward to.

  Lucky me.

  ……………………………………………

  The two of us, plus Fade, received some strange looks from the popuce of Helstein as we strolled through the streets. And I do mean strolled. Hook was dht casual in his gait, stig out incredibly in his dark cloak and intimidating mask.

  “Isn’t it a bit terproductive for someone from a shadowy group like yours to just walk about like this?” I said to him, a bit embarrassed by the attention.

  “Nope,” Hook replied immediately. “As far as the Division goes, I’m the public face as well as the head. And you’re misuanding what we are, anyway. I’m sure Grey filled your head with ideas about how we’re the underside of the Order or something. If you have a notion that we’re just a group of bdes in the dark, taking out the Order’s ehen you’re dead wrong.”

  “Then…you’re not a group of assassins?” I asked, surprised. Hook had certainly givehe impression that he was, from the way he had effortlessly kicked my ass for hours.

  “Some of us are,” He aowledged. “But we’re primarily the intelligence arm of the Order. Spies, scouts, infiltrators, cryptographers, hell, even the messaging service is dohrough us. We’re more than just assassins, even if there are a number of them among us.” He turned his head slightly to look at me. “We’re not some kind of bloodthirsty paurderers, kid. It’s not generally a good idea to ht kill your problems at the first sign of opportunity. It’s just…an option.”

  I was genuinely relieved to hear that. I’d been worried ever since my talk with Grey that I’d shortly be drowning in a sea of blood.

  “That being said, we are in a state of war right now,” Hook amended. My spirits fell once more. “Even people that don’t quite have the skill set are being recruited for wet work missions. Frankly, we have a bit of a personnel problem right now. It’s part of the reason I didn’t bitch too hard to Grey about taking you on. We need more warm bodies, even if it means we have to train you up before I even think of sending you on a real mission.”

  “I get it,” I said quietly, as we passed through the gates and into the open pins outside the city. I followed him through the maze of camps and wagons that the army had set up, eventually entering the portio aside for the Order. “I’m just…not good enough yet.”

  “Oh, you could probably do some of the milk runs,” Hook said dismissively. “I’m just not going to send you on anything more involved than some scouting or messaging until I’m satisfied you take the heat. For now, though, me and some of the others will be running you into the ground.”

  Finally, we came to a small, unassumi in a sea of simir-looking ones. Hook immediately moved the fp out of the way and stepped inside, with me following. Although, I nearly ran into him wheopped just passed the doorway.

  Inside…wasn’t quite what I was expeg.

  For o was almost empty in here. Empty, and nearly deserted. The only thing that was ient was a small desk with a person sitting behind it in a nondescript chair. They looked female to me, but that was one of the only things I could make out about them. Uheir cloak they were covered head to toe iher armor, leaving absolutely no skin showing. They were also wearing a grey cloak like Hook’s, and appeared human seeming to me instead of being another dwarf. They were sitting primly at the desk with their hands folded in front of them, straight-backed and attentive. Hiding their face was an expressionless wooden mask painted white, with a teardrop in blue running from their left eye. Said eyes were a strangely familiar shade of crystalline blue, peaking through the holes in the mask.

  Actually, now that I thought about it, those leathers that I could see uheir cloak were pretty reizable too…

  In my arms, Fade perked up a little, sniffing the air. He locked eyes on the female figure, and yipped at them, almost iing.

  Hook audibly groa the sight of the other person, presumably another member of the Noe Division. “Now, I know I didn’t assign you to the desk today, Whisper. So why are you sitting behind it?”

  “That would be because I traded with Spike to be here,” A familiar voiswered cooly. I felt a smile stretch its way onto my face at the sound of it, my suspis about the Agent beiainties.

  Hook sighed, and then waved a hand irritably. “Get it over with if you must, Whisper. But don’t be too long. I still o get the rookie settled in.”

  ‘Whisper’ nodded slightly at his words and then stood up from her desk to approach me. I kept a straight face as the Agent leaned in closer to my ear. “Wele to the Noe Division, Nathan,” Sylvia whispered to me, with a smile audible in her voice.

  “Happy to be here,” I said, smiling broadly. I was feelier about this already.

  Whisper leaned back, meeting my eyes. She winked, allowio see the brief shutter of a Mithril eyelid.