Dark Ages

By ZeroGavity

Prologue

The year 573 A.D.

A young baby girl was born in a small village in what is now modern day France.

Her name was Ember Rose. Her father was a Frankish man who was one of the most highly talented and recommended assassins of his time. He and his wife Rose settled down in Frankish territory shortly before the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The assassin trade was one of the highest paying jobs in the current world. Because of the constant feuds between princes, chief, and city-kings assassins were always needed. One man would hire an assassin while his enemy would try to hire a better one to take out him out first. Many leaders died from the shadowy warriors. However, Ember's father was a different assassin.

Ember's ancestor was actually from the Far East, a ninja that lived on the island of Japan he was framed for a crime and banished from his clan. Instead of joining his enemy the samurai he left Japan to explore the world. He later then married and settled in the Western Roman Empire hired for his great talent. As the generations passed, his descendants were taught the same skills and later married Europeans. Every child was taught that the secrets of the ninja were only to remain in their home and only to be taught by their descendants. If they were to have multiple descendants only the oldest was to learn the secret art.

Ember however, was an only child her mother died from a disease when she was only three. Her father did the best he could to support the young girl and never remarried. He did this to protect his family's secrets and for Ember's safety. When she was five Ember started to learn the family traits that her father possessed.
Ember was an incredible learner, she learned skills that were far beyond her age. By age eleven she could already sneak past her father's eagle eye and take down a hidden target. She could track a deer on a rainy day, she seemed like the one thing her entire family worked on for generations…the title of Ultimate Assassin.

She also had secret weapons to help her, as the years passed and the Western Roman Empire fell, Ember's family adapted to the weapons of their time. However, there was one weapon they always kept, one weapon they kept secret from the rest of the western world.

The katana.

A single edged blade that could carve through enemies like butter, what made it better for the assassins was the fact that it was light and portable. Only 29 inches long it wasn't the biggest blade but it was certainly the best. When she was training, Ember used shorter version called a ninjito. This blade was only 26 inches long but does the same things a katana could do only smaller for trainees. The knife of choice however for the assassins was the tanto. A small 4 inch blade could easily be hid in the folds of a robe, strapped underneath a sleeve or in a shoe it was also like the katana but much smaller. The assassins also had some Hun in them. They learned how to make the composite bow, a small multi-curved bow that could shoot far but with a small frame, it was perfect for long range assassination.

By the age of 14 Ember had mastered the katana, the tanto, and the composite bow. She could outshoot any archer, outfight any solider and out sneak anyone in her village.

However a Celtic raid killed many villagers, because of the remote location the village did not have many soldiers.

Many people were killed, including Ember's father.

Now she lives alone, trusting no one she is set to get money, find work, and become what her father always wanted her to be: The Ultimate Assassin.

Chapter 1

Ember sat in a tree overlooking a village, it was small and out of the way her client wanted the chief there dead. So that's what she was going to do at first her client, a chief named Calhan, was more than hesitant to hire a female assassin. But after looking over her reputation he decided to go with what he had.

Ember would not let him down, after all this was a job. Her father always taught her three basic laws of the family.

One, never harm an innocent. At first Ember thought this was a contradicting the family's work but when her father told her it meant don't kill anyone you don't have to. Keep casualties to a minimum, not only does it give her a sense of honor but it also keeps detection lower. Instead of always killing a person you come across sneak by them and eliminate the chance of someone finding a dead body and raising the alarm.

Two, always keep learning. Although he knew Ember couldn't possible know everything, he drilled into her to always come up with new original ideas, tactics that might help her in the future.

Three, trust no one outside the family. That one seemed easy enough she already had mastered that one. However her father also taught her not to always deny an offer of friendship. More allies meant more chance of success. However the more allies also meant the more chance of detection in a job. So Ember decided to eliminate any chance of trust and to keep being a solo assassin. Although on the outside she was a very attractive girl, she was only 17 she knew she turned many young male heads when she walked through a village or town in disguise as a peasant.
Somewhat short and thin she had curly blond hair that went to her shoulders it seemed to shine in the sun making more beautiful. Her face was slightly pale, but pleasant when she wanted it to be. Her blue-gray eyes shone like twin stars, but underneath they were as cold as ice. To those she knew, which was almost no one, she was hot-headed and tough as iron. Able to take down men almost twice her size Ember was a master fighter. She didn't look the part but she definitely knew how to handle herself in a tough situation.

She wore her katana on her back usually under her cloak, with her bow right next to it and her quiver making an X across her sword sheathe. She had four tanto, one on her waist in the back, one strapped to each thigh under her short skirt with the final in her shoe. She only used the shoe tanto when she was captured or when she was in disguise.

Ember dressed in a simple blue short skirt that ended just below her knees she also had black shorts underneath she wore a black short-sleeved shirt. She also always had a dark green cloak that would hide her in the night. But it was short enough so it wouldn't snag on the ground or get caught easily. She also wore a bandanna, a simple dark green piece of cloth that could be slipped over her nose to prevent anyone from knowing her face. Her shoe of choice was a simple black riding boot that went halfway up her shin.

Now Ember got down from her perch after studying her terrain it was hilly true enough but also wooded close to the fort. Most chiefs couldn't build castles due to the amount of stone needed and the time it consumed. But many built forts as a better defense. Ember walked around the village keeping an eye out for sentries, anyone would be suspicious of someone walking around at night. Although she had a million and one lies to say she still didn't want to be detected. She was about a hundred feet from the fort this would be easy she thought.

"Halt who goes there?" a sentry shouted.

Ember froze she turned to the direction of the sentry, she gulped silently she would have to dispatch him before-

"I was just out looking for my dog," a child's voice said.

Ember breathed out silently, that was close she thought.

She turned back to her destination and reached the forts pitiful palisade walls. The wooden walls were more than just pitiful she decided they were downright stupid. Anyone could set fire to them in a number of places and the sentries would be in so much confusion it would be pathetic.

Just as she finished the thought an idea sprung to her head.

She went into the forest she would need to be something from there first…

A sentry walked on the low palisade's on his chief's fort, he sighed, honestly he didn't really see why his chief wanted him here it's not like anything could get past the town sentries. After all what is there to be afraid of? He had the largest band in these parts of the country, why would anyone want to attack him?
The sentry settled on his spear, a few hours of sleep before anyone woke up wouldn't hurt.

In a few minutes he was fast asleep, but little did he realize that was the biggest mistake of his life…and his last.

Ember made six small piles of wood at the base of the walls, in two sets of three, one set was set at the east wall eight feet from each other, Ember had a long thin string-like fuse going about thirty feet. She also had another set of three at the north wall, opposite from the town, again each pile of wood eight feet away from each other, with a long string-like fuse however this one was forty feet instead of thirty.

She set the longer fuse on the pile she was currently at she did this so that each pile of wood would start burning at nearly the same time. She lit the forty foot fuse, the fuse didn't give off a bright flash or any smoke but it burned well.

She then moved like a wraith through the forest, and set off the other fuse. She then backtracked and went to the west wall watching the piles of wood at the northern side.

If she didn't know the fuses were there she would never had seen them. Because of the somewhat long grass they were hidden quite well. She smiled grimly to herself, this was too easy.

She took off her composite bow, she saw the three wood piles light at first it seemed the piles would only burn and not the walls, and then the fire caught to the palisade.

She tensed her bow, as she focused on the only sentry he was sleeping slouching on the highest point in the wall, right above the gate. At night it would have been a difficult shot but he had a torch nearby giving her some light to see him, he was barely a hundred meters away. An easy shot for someone at her skill level the bow spat the arrow at her target. The instant she released she knew it was a kill shot, she reloaded just as the sentry fell to the outside of the wooden wall with a slight thud.

Ember saw the three fires now spreading along the palisade, she was actually quite shocked that no on had smelt or heard them already.

"Fire! Fire! Someone help there's a fire!" a voice screamed from the inside.

Ember raised an eyebrow, "spoke too soon," she said quietly.

Just as Ember predicted the whole fort was in pure chaos soldiers came out of the barracks screaming, people came out of the small houses trying to put out the flames, however due to the amount of running people hardly any water made it there. All the other water was spilled due to tripping or people running into each other.

Ember's target, a man named Cashin, came out he had no armor on nor a weapon he was actually was bare from the waist up.
"An easy target" Ember said to herself.

She drew back her bow, he was barking out orders like most chiefs do but actually doing almost no work.

He was on the wall right over a fire, Ember released the arrow it pierced his chest right between he over muscled ribs and into his heart.

Cashin didn't know what hit him until he looked down with a stricken look on his face and fell right into the largest of the fires.

Ember saw him fall in despite all the chaos; she turned and walked away her mission complete.

After the fire was put out, over half the fort was ash, 42 people were killed or wounded from the fire, and Cashin wasn't found. They garrison believed he fell into the fire and was burned to death. No one even thought that an assassin not only burnt half the fort but killed their leader. One of Ember's greatest strengths was that she would use the easiest ways to take out her target and not even be suspected.