Killing Agency

Somewhere in the vast manor the grandfather clock strikes 12 o’clock in the morning. A door silently opens, a small white paw appearing from the other side toward the bottom. Rosette peeks out her head into the hallway and looks around. Once she deems the coast is clear she shuts the door behind her and closes her eyes, Uno appearing right behind her. He picks her up and without a word or sound they dash down the hallway and make their way to the back of the manor, exiting through a door. Rosette shivers as the cool night air hits them, but quickly adjusts as Uno moves again swiftly through the garden. They dash up to the gate, but before Uno can reach out Rosette stops them. “Just jump over it this time. Last time was too noisy.” she whispered. They nodded and crouched low to the ground, then sprang up with all of their strength to jump the tall fence and its gate. A pair of red eyes watched them from a tower, but remained unnoticed.        

Once they were fully out of the way of the manor, Uno began to shadowstep between dimensions to make their travel quicker. Popping in and out of dimensions was not something Rosette was quite used to yet, and it always kind of scared her when Uno would do it. She knew it was necessary to get there quick, but could never shake the unease. After popping back into their dimension Rosette spoke up. “Uno, how can you tell you’re always going in the right direction?” She looks at her blankly, then looks up and points at the night sky. They puppet with one hand the word “stars”. “Ah right, star navigation. To be honest you move so quickly I didn’t think you would follow your own methods.” They make a noise that sounds like a chuckle and props her down on the ground, gesturing to the building across the road. Rosette winks up at Uno and transforms into her human state. Uno steps in time with her crossing the street and sinks into her natural shadow, leaving Rosette to handle the charismatic business.

Rosette pushes open the double glass doors and enters the oddly deserted building. She takes a turn at the lobby and heads for the stairs, descending further into the building. As the end of the stairs she is met with the sight of a burly man in a uniform of some sort standing in front of discreet door. She flashes a smile in his direction. “Laisse moi entrer!” she tells the man, opening her coat to reveal a badge on the inside. He nods and steps out of the way of the door, letting Rosette through. She pats the man’s shoulder and enters through the door, shaking herself of the weird gut feeling she always got going through the strange spell barrier the doorway had. Looking around she sees that the scene is normal like every night, or at least as normal as it can be for an assassination agency. The front desk’s queue was filled with those coming in for their night shift. A few workers passed by seemingly coming from the in-house gym, trying their best to have idle conversation without giving anything personal away. For the first time in a while Rosette saw the very back room had its door wide open and curiosity got the best of her. She walks to that door instead of the line and she can already hear Uno’s annoyed whispers.

As she steps a foot into the doorway she hears a whistling sound coming at her. She smirks and catches the dart with ease in her two fingers, walking fully into the room. “I am glad to see you too, Mistress.” She hears a laugh coming from behind the velvet curtain she is staring at. The Mistress of the agency is a mysterious being who is constantly concealed behind literal layers of fabrics. No one has ever seen the Mistress to Rosette’s knowledge, but they present themselves with high power and importance in this certain circle of business and is highly respected. All jobs go through her first before being presented to the workers, and sometimes if you are lucky you could be assigned a job specifically from her desk if they saw fit. Though their interactions have been strictly business, there was something about the Mistress that fascinated Rosette and she took any chance she could to speak directly to them, even if it was behind curtains and drapery.

“Dear one, just because my office is open that does not mean you can barge in without warning.” the Mistress spoke. “Of course I know that; couldn’t help myself is all.” She twirls the dart in her fingers and approaches the desk, placing it atop of a book. “Your aim always impresses me considering you surround yourself to the point of blindness with fabric.” Another chuckle bubbles from behind the curtain. “You are too bold, but I suppose that is why you are one of my higher ranks.” Rosette hears the sound of a book closing and some paper shuffling as the Mistress searches for something on top of their desk. “I do have a job for you two, so perhaps it was destiny for you to catch my dart. Would have been a shame if you had died at my hand just before I gave you this task.” The curtain parts minimally for the Mistress’s hand to stretch out with an envelope. Rosette’s eyes widen and she carefully takes the envelope, its edges glinting with that familiar gold she had seen from other proud workers who left this very office at times. “As always, the details of the job are contained within. I expect perfection from this one and will be highly disappointed if I hear of your failure.” Rosette nods again and again, forgetting for a moment that the Mistress couldn’t even see her right now… or perhaps she could? “Thank you Mistress. We will make sure the task is carried out to completion.” “That is all I ask for. Go.”

With that Rosette bounds out of the office with a prideful stride, holding the envelope out with just enough presentation that others can see it, but also slightly hiding it so her action doesn’t seem so boastful. She could already envision the facepalm Uno was surely doing as she marches out of the agency with the goofiest look on her face, clearly prideful of their work being recognized by the Mistress themselves. As she makes her way back up the stairs and out the double doors Uno comes out of his hiding spot, leading the both of them into the closest alleyway. Once out of sight, both they and Rosette dance around in excitement with each other. “Uno!! They recognized our efforts and us! This is huge. We are wiping out murderers and crime lords, and they are recognizing us in a sea of other assassins!” Uno excitedly nods their head, their eyes crinkling into a smile as he holds her hand and swings it around. “Woo, okay okay, I am getting a bit of an adrenaline rush. We need to reset ourselves and focus on this. Can’t let the boss down right after getting an important mission.” Uno’s eyes turn serious and they point at the envelope in her hand. Rosette slides a finger into the envelope’s fold and tears it open with a fingernail, taking its contents out to read.

“Hmm… Looks to be a ring. Directions to the headquarters are here, along with a map of the interior. Seems to be heavily guarded from the sounds of it.” She holds the paper up for Uno to read, and once they are ready she climbs up onto her back. She pulls up the hood from her cape over her head and fastens it. “Alright Uno, take us there.” Uno grunts and bends at the knee, breaking into a sprint directly into a shadow portal.