Elias has been causing problems for the Captivating Princess, so she hires someone to deal with that. Things don't go quite how she would have hoped, though the job does get done.
featuring @thedeafprophet's charming serial killer Rory!!
Word Count: 1,247.
Major death, and violence! Stalking, stabbing, killing, and more to come!
Relationships: Elias Leroux/ Aurora 'Rory' Winn, Aurora 'Rory' Winn/The Captivating Princess (sort of. she's trying.)
“I never would have expected such an unsavory individual to be dressed so well.”
“ ‘S not all that uncommon.”
The Captivating Princess crinkled her nose in distaste. An upper-class accent lurked beneath the working-class slang. Which meant that the disrespect, and lack of manners, was intentional. Still, the Malignant Assassin was the best tool that money could buy, or so the rumors went. She wouldn’t be putting up with this otherwise.
Unfortunately, she needs to put up with it. “You weren’t the easiest to find. There were quite a few difficulties arranging this on my end. It would have been easier if you had come to the Palace in the first place.”
They snorted, but offered no reply.
The Princess studied their eyes, drew their glowing green gaze towards her. Still, nothing. Normally people would be falling over themselves to appease and apologize to her by this point. Yet she seemed to have little such affect on them. Peculiar. Or perhaps her effect was that they were co-operating at all.
Well, if they weren’t going to talk, then that gave her an opportunity. “I’m certain you know who I am, and there’s not a soul in London who doesn’t know my family,” she begins. Really, the words themselves are meaningless, but talking gives her the ability to persuade the other person, and influence them before she even brings up what is it that she wants. Manipulation is an intricate and slow waltz.
More importantly however, it gave her time to evaluate the situation, without it being made obvious that she was doing so.
The room was dimly lit, with only a few scant candles. The darkness of it made the Assassin’s eyes stand out all the more. She could see the red glow of her own eyes reflected in them, which perplexed her all the more that they were still so defiant.
They do not sit on the chair, rather they lounge across it. The improper posture clashes with their formal outfit. They even wore gloves, though their hands fiddled with a knife. They ran a thumb over the flat of the blade, or occasionally twirl it back and forth. She even watched as they cycled through a few practiced motions which she was certain they’ve used on past jobs. Twisting and twirling the knife with more grace than expected.
She focused more on the physical characteristics. Their hair was long, blond, and looked closer to unkempt than not. It wasn’t kept in any sort of up-do whatsoever, merely brushed out of their face, a few stands tied back. It further cemented in her mind the Assassin’s distaste for anything found in proper society. She noticed they tended to keep their hair from tangling around their ears at least. It showed off their jewelry, though this is not what caught her attention. No, what caught her attention was the elongated length, and pointed shape. Ears like that nearly always indicated a dangerous individual indeed.
Yet, despite these details, the Assassin commanded no audience. They sat there, twirling their knife, and looking very bored indeed.. They simply joined in to the background hum, except for those glowing eyes.
“So I-”
“You want me to kill someone,” they interrupted. “It’s the only reason someone contacts me.”
The Princess was at a loss for words for one precious moment. If persuasion was a slow waltz, then the band came to a dead halt. It was not merely that they were bad at dancing, simply that they refused, then stuck their foot out when she tried to make them join in. She continued anyways, refusing them the pleasure of seeing her stumble. “Yes, I have a job for your specific expertise.”
“Could’a said that ten minutes ago,” they grumbled.
She pretended she didn’t hear that, and continued anyway. “Just one teensy tiny little problem I need you to resolve for me.”
“And if it’s such a ‘teeny tiny little problem’ why can’t you ‘resolve’ it? ‘Fraid to get your hands dirty, your Highness?” Sarcasm dripped from every word.
Her smile tightened. “The very nature of the situation requires things cannot be traced back to me. Hence them requiring your skills.” She paused, and studied their face. A thought occurred. “Are you truly that keen to miss out on payment?”
Their eyes flicker with interest. Ah, so that’s the language they speak. She’s found the steps to this particular waltz at last, and they’re quite simple ones at that. Her face relaxers once more. Yes, she knows what to do now.
“Are you willing t’ pay my services? I ain’t cheap.”
She smirks. That was the tone she liked to hear. The Princess reached down and grabbed a small bag from the floor. The contents were muffled by the thick velvet, but the Assassin’s ears still twitched. They watched her intently, as she reached in and withdrew a large and fabulous diamond. She twisted it in her hands, allowing it to catch the candlelight. “If you
agree, I’ll pay you this one now, as a show of… good faith. You’ll receive a dozen more, all of similar value, when the deed has been done.”
Their eyes widen slightly, though their face remains neutral. “Awful lot for one job,” they mumble. Then, in a louder voice, “I’ll need a name and your conditions, Princess.”
“They’ve been a persistent little problem. Elias Leroux, do you know them?”
She watched as they considered the name for a minute, then shook their head. “Heard the name once or twice, never met ‘em.”
Despite that being what she had hoped for, the Princess was still a bit shocked. It was harder to find someone who didn’t know them, than it was to find someone who did. Still, this was very good news indeed. This Assassin was one of the rare people in London the little usurper hadn’t won over. “They wear very messy clothes. I expect they’ll be easy for you to find.”
“And the conditions?”
“Firstly, as I mentioned earlier, This needs to be done in such a way that it cannot be traced back to me. No messy loose threads, no one to see it happen, nor to discover it too soon, none of that. Isolation would be ideal, I should think. I want this done cleanly.” She paused, waiting for interjection. When none came, she continued. “Secondly, and far more importantly, I need them to miss an event. This event occurs on the first Thursday of each month, Which month you choose to do so is up to you, so long as you do it. I want them gone the whole night. If you have to keep killing them, do so, and I will pay you the money to make up for it, but they must be gone the entire night. Those are my conditions.”
The Assassin considered it for a moment as they twirled their blade. After a brief moment of thought, they seemed to come to a conclusion. They thrust an open palm in her direction. She pressed the diamond into their glove with a smile.
The Assassin flashed a sharp smirk, and narrowed their eyes. They retracted their hand quickly, twisting the diamond around now. “Alright, I’ll do it. But what’s t’ stop me from telling everyone their beloved Princess is goin’ around hiring ‘unsavory individuals’ t’ bloody their hands for her?”
She flashed her own smile. “Oh, you can try dear, but no one will believe your word over mine.”
31 notes
·
View notes