“Ah! Here it is again.”

Kali was not very amused. This man seemed to bother her almost every day now. It was another letter from Godfrey requesting her assistance with something once again. And like always, being the coward he is, his letters contain nothing more than a dry hello and ‘come see me’. “Like bitch, I’m not your dog,” Kali seethed. If it wasn’t for the generous rewards, he would have become food on her table long ago.

Anyhow, it was another day and another request by her dear client. Last few times were all about getting some item or another for whatever grand plan he has got cooking at his little shop. She got him a magic scroll, some ores, and even a strange looking gem. Kali guessed he would be close to making the item by now. Perhaps today’s request would be to get something or another, too.

151/1125

“Oh here you are, my precious customer.”

Kali stopped right on track at Godfrey’s greeting. ‘Bitch, what?’ She noticed the sudden presence of people in the shop and guessed he did not want to have any obvious interactions with her. Albeit a little annoyed, Kali played along with it. She wanted nothing to do with a mad man and his diabolical plan that could blow up in his face at any time either. In fact, first sign of something going wrong, she would make quick work of him. Dead men told nothing, after all.

“I have your letter right here,” Godfrey raised his eyes meaningfully while handing it over probably indicating that she shouldn’t open it right there inside the shop. She thanked him like a normal customer as well, quickly going out the shop and walking into a dark alleyway with the letter in hand. How bad could his request be this time?

305/1125

“This guy just gets better and better,” Kali scoffed at the contents of the letter. If killing the bandits were a subtly woven request, this one was a straight up murder request. The target was none other than Wayland, a man just as popular as Godfrey and someone he gets compared with quite often. She may have not been in Baska for long but her intelligence routes should not be underestimated.

“Was he stalking him?” Kali raised an eyebrow at the detailed report on Wayland, starting from when he woke up to even when he took a bath. Ok, maybe not thaaat detailed but it might as well be. Godfrey got almost all the things Wayland did listed in this letter and at the back of it, he specifically hinted that he would prefer her to act at night. ‘Well, what you know. We agree on something,’ Kali thought as she tore up the letter and chucked them into the nearest garbage can.

468/1500

It couldn’t get more convenient than this. All Kali had to do was wait until almost night time to sneak into Wayland’s home -she did so through the front door- and took a not too conspicuous spot in his study. She went through his books leisurely as if she owned the place while waiting for Wayland to be home. The vast collection of books of all sorts on the shelves told Kali what a sincere and driven man Wayland must be. There was no surprise as to why he was better than Godfrey and she almost felt something akin to pity for plucking such a good flower off the garden forever.

Regardless of her personal feelings, Wayland must die in her hands tonight. All she needed to consider was the money waiting for her back in Godfrey’s hands. It’s not that Kali was someone who would do anything for money but the general lack of it has made her life very inconvenient and in front of her own luxury, someone else’s life looked like dust that needed to be removed.

640/1500

Kali stayed rooted to that spot beside the shelves for a long time until she heard the sound of someone opening the door. With the help of the darkness of the night and the shadows, Kali stayed close to the wall beside the shelves and controlled her breathing to a point that it wouldn’t be very audible in an empty room. ‘It must be Wayland,’ she thought. Kali wasn’t exactly sure just how Godfrey knew all this information on Wayland so accurately that he could even pinpoint the exact time he would get home but so far almost everything about Wayland’s schedule that she received was correct.

Anyhow, she watched the tall man enter his house and take off his coat before going straight to the chair behind his large study table and sat down. He looked tired, stretching and rubbing the back of his neck with a long groan. There was a huge bundle of papers next to him that Kali guessed is work that he has to go through before tomorrow morning. ‘Hmm a hard worker…’ Kali mused. It’s too bad that he made an enemy out of someone so jealous and vain like Godfrey, however. From what she learnt, it was the people of Baska that made comparisons and Wayland himself had never been too smug in front of Godfrey but from what Kali understood of Godfrey so far, even if the people left them alone and did not compare them, that man would have gotten Wayland killed sooner or later just from sheer jealous of the obvious difference in their talent levels. Godfrey has skills but Wayland is someone who has got both skills and a drive to work hard. He did not seem like someone who would take the short road. Again, Kali felt a faint sense of pity for her prey. But what has to be done must be done.

She stalked over to him from behind, taking advantage of her soundless nature before slowly sliding her hands forward to quickly trap Wayland in his seat, grabbing his shoulders and pressing him down as she aimed at his throat, sinking her fangs into them. Kali made sure to cover his mouth with one of her hands as well so that the man could not make too much noise. She made quick work of him, draining him of all his blood -every single drop of it- before dropping his lifeless body onto the desk. “Haa…Can’t blame me for doing my job,” Kali said, stroking the man’s face faintly with her fingers before climbing out the window and once again using the darkness and shadows to hide her depart.

1083/1500

While walking back to Godfrey’s shop, Kali started thinking about the details of the letter she got earlier that day. Godfrey specifically mentioned in the letter that she should kill Wayland in a way that it shouldn’t look like murder or anything that could lead the suspicion back to the blacksmith himself. As far as she knew, her method of killing was quite natural. There weren’t too many signs of struggle as she had taken him by surprise and gave him no time to even figure out what was going on; there was also not many traces left on his body. The only thing they would find is that he had a huge loss of blood and at most they would suspect a wandering vampire looking for its prey. Kali just had to stay low for a few days. It wasn’t like the earlier days anymore. People have learnt more and more about vampires and their tells. She wouldn’t want to go out and be caught by a vigilant bunch of townsfolk. The result would not be very good. She wasn’t confident that she could escape if all of them were to gather a crowd, raise their pitchforks and come at her. Yet Kali was quite confident in her own work. They would suspect a vampire but the suspicion and vigilance won’t last too long. Besides, there would be no way of tracing any of it back to Godfrey which was one of her quest objectives.

Entering Godfrey’s shop by the front door again, Kali saw the blacksmith bent over an ancient looking scroll, no doubt the one she had gotten him a few days back, and scrambled to hide it away when he noticed her presence in the room which Kali deliberately made aware of by dragging a chair away from the wooden counter and sitting down. She gave him an amused look, playing with the ends of her dark cloak’s long tie strings. “The thing is done,” she told him, recounting the details about the murder and emphasising on the fact that this murder would never be traced back to him.

Godfrey, too, sighed in relief and looked rather happy but spewed some bullshit to her about how much he did not want to see a good man die yet it had to be done. ‘Ugh, talk about two-faced,’ Kali thought. She may like Godfrey as a source of income but as a person? Kali truly felt that this blacksmith was rather pathetic. If it wasn’t for the money that he was willing to spill so much for such shady deals, Kali probably would have turned the tables on him and feasted on him a long time ago. His vanity and cowardice knew no bounds and coupled with all that two-facedness; it made Godfrey a truly ugly man.

Anyhow, Kali wouldn’t have to deal with him for too long. She would be leaving Baska as soon as she was done milking some money off this town and whatever happened to Godfrey after that is none of her business. With the way he is going, she might just meet him in jail at some point in time. Heh.

1612/1500