Order of Moonlight

It was when the cheer went up that Azedal, for the first time today, could say he felt that hint of happiness. There was something about being welcomed that openly that was comforting despite the whole situation. Aze looked left and right as the guild master gestured, but before he chose a direction, he scanned the tables to see if he could find Kavil quickly. It wasn't as hard as he had expected, but the man wasn't seated. Instead, he was still standing by the doors.

Well, Aze wasn't sure what that was about, but he turned to smile at the assassins to his right and took the spot they had cleared for him.

"Welcome," the one his left greeted with none of the mystery Aze had grown up associating with the word assassin.

"Thank you," he replied. He nearly introduced himself again, but held his tongue, realizing he had just done that.
 
Kavil watched as Aze took a seat, making no move to join him. No one seemed surprised by this. It was pretty typical of Kavil to not join them for food, which was already being served. Meats, vegetables, fruits... It was a delicious array.

He walked to the front of the room, exchanging a quick word with the guild master before turning and leaving the grand hall. Few took special notice of him leaving, but a man sitting across from Aze did.

"And there he goes," he remarked. "Typical." He looked to Aze. "I'd recommend avoiding him."
 
The food before them looked grand, though Aze tried to pace himself to not seem greedier than those around him. He had never had so much choice all at once. It seemed this line of business had to make a good deal of money to sustain this sort of food for this many people.

He raised his head when the man across the table from him spoke up, trying to see who he was talking about. Long hair, blue tunic, and silver trim. There could be multiple such people, though. Aze glanced back to where he had seen Kavil standing, but of course the man was no longer there, which meant that the man sitting across from him had to be speaking about his mentor. Well, that boded well for him.

Aze turned back to those he was eating with. "What's his story?" he asked as casually as he cold.
 
The man shrugged. "Long story. I don't know all of it, but I know enough to keep away from him," the man said. "He's dangerous. Hell, we all are. But he's held the title Angel of Death for a handful of years now." Realizing that Aze might have no idea what he was talking about, he clarified, "Angel of Death is the title given to the best in the guild. And Kavil's our current Angel. I was there when he got the title. Nothing quite like watching a twelve-year-old kid kill a full grown man. Slaughtered him, in fact. It was pretty impressive."

But it gave the other assassins no incentive to go near him. There was more to this that the man wasn't telling Aze, though. A lot more. He didn't want to scare the recruit, so he kept his mouth shut. For now.
 
And just as Aze opened his mouth to ask just what was so important about the Angel of Death now that he had heard the title twice, his unvoiced question was answered. If his mentor had been the best since he was twelve, then he had to have been in the guild since earlier than that. And that an assassin would call Kavil dangerous meant he had to be doubly dangerous if not more.

Rather than showing fear or surprise, though, Aze hardened his face, trying to put his earlier meeting with the guild master and the Angel of Death into context. It seemed somehow underhanded, though, to get to know his mentor like this rather than by asking Kavil, but Aze doubted that Kavil would be as open. Yet he also realized if he were to learn a trade, he'd want to be taught by the best, and it seemed life had given him just that. Just, this was a trade he never would have picked for himself.

"So is it just a title, or does he have special duties? I mean other than not eating, of course."
 
"He eats," the man said. "Just not with the rest of us. Stuck-up little bastard..." He shrugged. "And yes, he has special duties. The hardest contracts, disciplining the assassins who screw up..." He gave Aze a serious look. "Don't screw up, Azedal. It'll be the last thing you do, and the Angel of Death will be the one to make sure of that."

Okay, so maybe he was going to scare the recruit after all. He hadn't meant to, but the newbie had a right to know what would happen if he messed up.
 
Great. Most trainees would be two steps away from failing out, but he would only be one step away. Aze did his best to look unphased, but he found himself looking at his food, jabbing a piece of food more times than strictly necessary. All of it made a lot of sense. If an assassin failed and was caught, that could mean exposure of the entire guild, something that, despite being this massive operation, managed to stay a secret.

"Anything else I should know about this place or other people I should watch out for if I'm to have a chance of making it through alive?" he asked, after he finally chewed and swallowed the chunk of carrot he had been toying with. He was determined not to let what they said about his mentor drive him to distrust, but these people had cheered for him and seemed as though they wanted him to succeed here. Maybe they had advice on other topics.
 
"Keep a wary eye on Loraziah," the man said with a shrug. "Other than those two, you should be fine. Once Zane's killed Kavil and taken his place, you'll have nothing to worry about." This assassin didn't know that Kavil was Aze's mentor. No one here did, except for the guild master and maybe a few other higher-ups.
 
Azedal shoveled food into his mouth to stop himself from reacting too much. Being assassins, Azedal doubted that Loraziah and Kavil didn't know what dangers they faced, but up until that point, he had assumed Loraziah and Kavil had greeted every new recruit, but now he wasn't even sure about that. Not to mention, now he was questioning why he was given Kavil as a mentor. Maybe Loraziah realized that they needed more assassins sympathetic to their side and the only way to do that was to start early.

When finally he swallowed that food, he asked, "Who's Zane?" At that point, he wasn't sure if he would take kindly to Zane if they met or if Zane would be someone he had to watch out for, but Aze figured it would be better knowing who Zane was than not.
 
"The blond guy over there," the man answered, indicating a section of another table. There was a man there who looked to be in his late twenties with blond hair and blue eyes. He was quite handsome, and he had a pretty brunette sitting beside him as he spoke to a group that was hanging onto his every word.

"So you're the new recruit, hm?" a female voice asked from behind Aze. The voice belonged to the girl who had been sitting beside Loraziah. His daughter. "I wanted to introduce myself to you. I'm Giselle." She held out her hand to shake Aze's, giving him a friendly smile.
 
"Ah, thanks," Aze replied, commiting Zane to memory and making a mental note to figure out whether or not he liked the blond. Zane seemed charismatic, which was more than he could safely say for Kavil. Maybe the title changed people, but there couldn't have been much before if he had become the Angel of Death at twelve.

At the sound of a new voice, Aze turned around to see a girl who he recognized as being one of the ones at the long table up front. "Yeah, I guess so," he agreed. "Pleased to meet you, Giselle," he said, shaking her hand. He took a moment to remember her face better for he had only seen her across the room before. There was something somewhat familiar about her face, but he couldn't quite place it yet. Besides, there were far too many faces to remember.
 
"I hope my father wasn't too rude to you earlier," Giselle said, still smiling kindly. "He tends to scare the new recruits right off the bat, especially since he always has Kavil with him for that first visit. I know the two of them can be intimidating." She chuckled. "Anyway, it's great that Kavil's going to be your teacher! I'm sure you'll learn a lot from him. He's the best, after all."

The man across from Aze looked shocked at Giselle's words. "Kavil is his teacher?" he asked in disbelief. "Surely you're joking. Why would your father pair someone with the Angel of Death? Especially when Kavil's going to be challenged soon?"

Giselle just shrugged. "Daddy does what daddy wants," she replied. She looked over at the front table for a moment, then looked back at Aze. "It was great meeting you. Train hard!" With that, she turned and left the grand hall.
 
It took a second for Aze to piece together what Giselle was saying. Her father was the guild master? Well, she certainly looked like she could be related, but the way she smiled and talked seemed a little out of place. Then again, chances were this was the life she had grown up with. There was no other way Aze could reason a father-daughter pair in this guild.

"Yeah," he said, half agreeing with the fact that he had been intimidated when the two of them had shown up and laid out his options and half agreeing that Kavil was the best. Well, the second wasn't a fact he knew for himself, but it seemed all signs pointed that way. The man, the title, Giselle. And so much for keeping that secret. Absently, he wondered if this knowledge would change the attitude of those around him.

"I will," he said as she left. Then he turned back to the man across the table with one last question on his mind. "The challenge -- it's to the death?"
 
The assassins who had been listening to Giselle were all staring at Aze now. None of them had known that Kavil would be his teacher, obviously, and the lot of them were shocked. The man across from Aze was hesitant to keep talking about Kavil, considering that he was sitting across from the young man's student. Would Aze be telling Kavil what they said about him?

"Yes," the man answered at last. "To the death. That's the point of it, really. There can only be one best, and you had better be confident that you deserve the spot if you challenge the current Angel for it. No one enters into that challenge lightly, and Loraziah doesn't let just anyone challenge an Angel. I've only see two challenges while here, and that second one was the one that Kavil won to get the position." No one had dared to challenge Kavil since then, but someone was obviously nearing that point.
 
It was hard not to feel the stares like he had subtly betrayed them. Aze supposed he had by not quite saying the whole truth, and now he felt a little uncomfortable with it all.

"Look," he said, "I just wanted to know who my mentor was. I didn't mean to not say anything. I would've eventually. And it's not like he's telling me all about him and this. Knowing he might be dead in a bit, well, that's useful, right?" Aze looked at his food. Even that didn't look as welcoming as it had a minute ago before Giselle had dropped by.

"Well." Aze pushed his chair back and stood up. "It's been nice meeting you all," he held out his hand to those near him to shake. "Hope to see you all around." He wasn't sure where he was going -- probably his room since that was the only place he knew of.
 
The assassins bade Aze farewell for the evening, trusting that he'd find his way around without them. Besides, they were still working on their dinner. They chatted amongst themselves as Aze left, though they had the proper manners to not talk about the recruit. At least until he was out of the room. It was still a shock to them that the Guild Master would give a student to Kavil. It made sense to learn from the best, but this was Kavil. None of them thought he would be a good teacher.

Kavil had just passed through the lobby outside the dining hall as Aze exited it. A glimpse of him could be had before he started down the stretch of hallway leading toward the training areas. He'd changed out of his previous attire, wearing plainer clothes that were more suited to training in. His hair was tied back again, as well.
 
((Bump so this doesn't go to the Graveyard...))
 
As Aze exited the dining hall, he saw a figure just on the other side. He might have ignored it except there were few enough he could even begin to recognize within these walls. The hair was familiar enough though the clothes were again changed.

The thought of just returning to his room to rest was tempting, but he instead decided to follow his mentor. "Kavil," he called out, lengthening his stride to catch up. What did he want to say next? Even he wasn't entirely certain what he was uncertain about. It made it hard to form questions. "I heard over dinner you'll soon face a challenge."
 
Kavil stopped walking when he heard Aze call his name. He looked over his shoulder and waited for the recruit to catch up to him before starting to walk again. The man's question gave Kavil pause, though. So it seemed like the challenge would be coming soon, if the others were talking about it so much. That was a cause for concern, though none of Kavil's feelings on the subject were visible in his expression.

"Perhaps so," he replied flatly. He kept walking toward the training rooms, stopping once he reached the smaller of them. The room was a nice size even so, and it was set up with targets for knives and arrows. That was the main purpose of this particular room. Just target practice. Kavil spent a decent bit of time in here, when no one else was around. But seeing as Aze was his student now, Kavil would have to get used to the idea of not being alone.
 
"You simply don't care!" Aze exclaimed without much thinking what words were coming out of his mouth. That was it? Perhaps so? That Kavil didn't seem to care that he would soon be in a challenge to the death for, as far as Aze could tell, just a title was a bit disturbing. To Aze, it seemed hardly worth it, but then again, he now walked among assassins. He himself had not bled another with his own hands, but he doubted there were many such others here. "What exactly does the Angel of Death even do?"

The room Kavil led to wasn't large, but it was still larger than any room he had ever lived in. Targets were set up at one end, but most of the space was empty. Aze hesitated at the door. Kavil would have gone here even if he hadn't seen him as he exited the dining hall, which meant that likely Kavil didn't mean to start his training now. Better ask. Over dinner, Aze had come to see these guild members to be mostly as people were, and though Kavil seemed a bit more closed, perhaps it was best to ignore that. Although, truth be told, it seemed dangerous to ignore anything here. "Should I leave?"
 
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