Klaven's Tower

The job took me to a crumbling tower on the edge of Westfall, Klaven’s Tower. According to the letter, someone important to the Defias was using it as a temporary base. Mathias wanted information. Names. Plans. Anything.

I went in quiet. No heroics. Just like I was taught.

The place was half-collapsed and crawling with Defias. I slipped past most of them, but when I reached the upper floor I realized I wasn’t the only one looking for something tonight.

He was already there.

Completely masked from head to toe in dark cloth. Slim, fast, and clearly trained. We both froze when we saw each other. For a second neither of us moved. Then he attacked.

It wasn’t a fair fight. He was better than me. Quicker, more precise, and clearly used to this kind of work. I took a nasty cut across my ribs and another along my forearm before I managed to turn the fight around. I fought dirty. A knee to the groin, an elbow to the throat, and a desperate throw that sent us both crashing through a rotten railing.

We hit the floor hard. I got on top of him for half a second and managed to get my dagger against his throat… but he twisted free with a speed that shouldn’t have been possible. One sharp strike to my wrist and my blade went flying.

He could have finished it.

Instead he backed away, breathing hard behind the mask.

We stared at each other across the broken room. I couldn’t see his face, but I could feel his eyes on me. Calculating. Almost… curious.

Then he turned and disappeared out a window like smoke.

I didn’t chase him. I couldn’t have even if I wanted to. My hands were shaking and blood was running down my side. I barely made it out of the tower alive.

Whoever he was, he wasn’t just another Defias thug. He was something else entirely.

And for the first time since I started this whole mess, I had the distinct feeling that I had just made a very personal enemy.