by Weyliss on April 11th, 2010, 11:57 pm
Weyliss looked down as Eris spoke. His gaze resting on the hilt of his sword. With his thumb he absently scratched at the leather cording. The brows knitted together as he chewed on his lower lip. He was still a tad drunk, but he had sworn she mentioned something about killing for money. As he listened to her speak, he put on a smile, but inside, he felt about how she acted toward his alcohol.
She's an assassin.
Slowly the fact sunk in, and the young man palmed the hilt of the sword. While he was silent, he could hear Sir Marrius.
"Son, an assassin is nothing more then a tool. Human's trained to be nothing more then a pinpoint, a sword. They are highly specialized. Whereas a blacksmith can move on to any number of things, and carries a varied and broad skillset, a killer cannot. Ignore the social stigma, and what do you have? Someone with a dagger, and more importantly the will to use it. What else? The ability to remain hidden. The ability to escape the authorities. Are any of these useful? Will any of these help raise a family? No. Morally, you are looking at a human who has decided, that their lives, and the lives of others are worth nothing. Every hired killer has accepted the fact that they will die earlier then most, that their lives will be one sided, with nothing else."
The 'talk' had been given after Weyliss had rescued a young man, a man he had later learned was an assassin. While in a past life, he might have pitied the woman's career choice, he was weathered enough to take stock of her once more. The young man didn't have any enemies that he knew of. But, what where the odds? The one place he had come, the one place he would let his guard down, the only other person here just so happened to be a trained killer. Even if she wasn't here to kill him...
He couldn't think of anything to say. What could he tell her? He couldn't change her mind about what she did. The problem wasn't who she killed. It was that she planned to kill in the first place. For money of all things. He could still see the corpses from the village. Smell the burnt flesh. What if someone had been paid to kill that person in advance? To stop the entire process before it started? Would killing be okay then? Who was he to choose? Or, in essence judge even her? Maybe she was doing the right thing. Maybe he was in the wrong in killing the men he had. After all, they had been like her, just looking for money, just trying to earn a living.
A sigh. Why didn't the gods talk about this kind of thing? He wasn't overly religious, and found little solace among the divine.
Life.
This one word echoed throughout his head, and the man exhaled, and with this output of breath, he pushed all though to the back of his mind, instead focusing on the fact that he was still a bit drunk, and it felt good. The buzz of his brain, the quiet of the garden. He even had a good looking woman to oggle, life was good.
Through half-closed eyes, Weyliss gave the woman a genuine smile.
"You could always turn to something else. With your skills, anyone would hire you for self-protection. Or mercenary work. Cannae' really give any input on the 'job' market tho' Not my expertise. My old tutor used to tell us murder was the foulest of sins, that to kill, to end years of dreams and aspirations, to destroy a family, is the most despicable act mankind could ever engage in. He also said, that if he could take one life to save ten, he would do it in the blink of an eye."
Inwardly he winced. It was all he could think of. They where very similar, but in the end, worlds apart.