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Description
The next five days were reasonably uneventful for Tempest. Amelia Feibex flirted constantly with Claudio, who was currently the main envy of every young male in Sanctaphrax. So Tempest mainly stayed in her dormitory. She had told the professor of darkness that she would not be staying in Sanctaphax after she graduated, and had made arrangement to stay with her sister when she left the great city.
It was over breakfast that it finally happened; Tempest was writing a letter to her sister, and ignoring the huge, steaming bowl of porridge at her elbow when Claudio appeared across the table.
“You’ve got a letter,” he muttered as he sat down; he glanced at her untouched breakfast and frowned “you should be eating something you know; you’re as thin as a reed.”
“I’ve put on 3lb!” cried Tempest, but Claudio raised his eyebrows
“Temp, I’ve noticed you haven’t been eating, you’re going to make yourself ill again.”
Tempest glared at him and opened the letter he had just handed her, as she read, her jaw dropped.
“You Ok?” asked Claudio, his mouth stuffed with tilder sausages,
“What, oh, Yeah, it…it’s just, eh, from my sister,” stammered Tempest “you know, I do feel a bit tired, I think I’ll go and lie down.”
“Do you want me to take you?” Claudio was obviously concerned about her, and Tempest felt guilty for exploiting this.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind.”
“’course not.”

***

Back in the silence of her Dorm, Tempest unfolded the letter again, it was not from her sister, it was from her ‘employer’ the Leguesman August Varke. He wanted to meet with her that night at his Undertown home. This seem a little strange to Tempest, He had never wanted to meet her in person before, always sending his servants to give her her ‘assignments’ in secret. She hoped that maybe this meeting would herald and end to her career as a hit woman, as it was becoming harder and harder to keep the secret from Claudio, also, the nightmares had returned. Every night for the past 2 weeks Tempest had relived every murder she had committed in an instant, every swish of a sword, every swoosh of an arrow, every thud, crack and crunch. Every gasp. Every cry. Every scream. It was hell inside her head. Most nights she would wake up in a cold sweat, tears pouring down her face. The strange thing was, when she was actually committing these acts, she felt nothing, it was only later that guilt crept into her mind like water seeping through a faulty roof during a storm.
Not wanting to fall asleep and allow these visions into her mind, Tempest paced her dorm; she glanced at the clock that stood at the end of the long room, Oh Sky! Was it really that late? It was nearly lunch time. Perhaps she would go & find Claudio and convince him to have lunch with her in Undertown, and perhaps they would ditch their studies for the afternoon and wander around a market in the artisan’s quarter, just talking and hanging out, they hadn’t done that in ages. Smiling, Tempest picked up her bag from the foot of her bed and headed out the door.

Description
The next five days were reasonably uneventful for Tempest. Amelia Feibex flirted constantly with Claudio, who was currently the main envy of every young male in Sanctaphrax. So Tempest mainly stayed in her dormitory. She had told the professor of darkness that she would not be staying in Sanctaphax after she graduated, and had made arrangement to stay with her sister when she left the great city.
It was over breakfast that it finally happened; Tempest was writing a letter to her sister, and ignoring the huge, steaming bowl of porridge at her elbow when Claudio appeared across the table.
“You’ve got a letter,” he muttered as he sat down; he glanced at her untouched breakfast and frowned “you should be eating something you know; you’re as thin as a reed.”
“I’ve put on 3lb!” cried Tempest, but Claudio raised his eyebrows
“Temp, I’ve noticed you haven’t been eating, you’re going to make yourself ill again.”
Tempest glared at him and opened the letter he had just handed her, as she read, her jaw dropped.
“You Ok?” asked Claudio, his mouth stuffed with tilder sausages,
“What, oh, Yeah, it…it’s just, eh, from my sister,” stammered Tempest “you know, I do feel a bit tired, I think I’ll go and lie down.”
“Do you want me to take you?” Claudio was obviously concerned about her, and Tempest felt guilty for exploiting this.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind.”
“’course not.”

***

Back in the silence of her Dorm, Tempest unfolded the letter again, it was not from her sister, it was from her ‘employer’ the Leguesman August Varke. He wanted to meet with her that night at his Undertown home. This seem a little strange to Tempest, He had never wanted to meet her in person before, always sending his servants to give her her ‘assignments’ in secret. She hoped that maybe this meeting would herald and end to her career as a hit woman, as it was becoming harder and harder to keep the secret from Claudio, also, the nightmares had returned. Every night for the past 2 weeks Tempest had relived every murder she had committed in an instant, every swish of a sword, every swoosh of an arrow, every thud, crack and crunch. Every gasp. Every cry. Every scream. It was hell inside her head. Most nights she would wake up in a cold sweat, tears pouring down her face. The strange thing was, when she was actually committing these acts, she felt nothing, it was only later that guilt crept into her mind like water seeping through a faulty roof during a storm.
Not wanting to fall asleep and allow these visions into her mind, Tempest paced her dorm; she glanced at the clock that stood at the end of the long room, Oh Sky! Was it really that late? It was nearly lunch time. Perhaps she would go & find Claudio and convince him to have lunch with her in Undertown, and perhaps they would ditch their studies for the afternoon and wander around a market in the artisan’s quarter, just talking and hanging out, they hadn’t done that in ages. Smiling, Tempest picked up her bag from the foot of her bed and headed out the door.