Here you go @fredhincanada and @eminerale (and everyone else, of course):
The first thing Neeku became aware of was how thirsty she was; the second was the realization that if she was thirsty, she couldn’t be dead. Her eyes felt gummy, as if she’d slept for way too long, and her lips felt so dry and stuck together she was afraid the skin would tear when she pried them open. “Guess it worked,” she thought to Sheeba, wondering if she should open her eyes or her lips first. But there was no reply; in fact, the young woman couldn’t even sense her Goddess at all, which made no sense. Even in the light of day and barely able to communicate, Sheeba was a constant presence in Neeku’s mind.
Feeling more disconcerted than when she lost her hand, Neeku finally opened her eyes, after having to exercise those muscles repeatedly to break the gummy seal as her eyelids had glued shut. She squinted as she tried to get some kind of idea about where she was, but she didn’t recognize anything about the locale. “At least I’m not stuck in a coffin,” she thought. "Although it wouldn’t be the first time I’d been trapped in one of those, I’m so glad I don’t have to experience that again!” Not having Sheeba reply was really upsetting her, so she began working next on breaking apart her lips as a distraction.
Finally, with a squishy tearing sound, her lips parted, and she took a deep breath before coughing violently. Neeku tried to sit up, but nearly fell over when she put weight on her right hand and her elbow popped out, having no real hand to support her weight. “I haven’t done something like that in years!” she gasped out bemusedly, squinting down through blurry eyes at the corpse’s hand that she’d sewn to her right wrist; she must really be discombobulated to forget not to put too much weight on her right arm when her shadow hand wasn’t summoned. Using her left hand to prop herself up, Neeku stared down at her right wrist, wondering if she could find something to cut the ties and get rid of the dead weight…literally. She felt so alone when her Goddess didn’t laugh at her witty comment.
“Would you like some scissors, to remove that gross thing you’ve sewn to yourself? I understand the need for deception, but honestly how you could stomach doing that to your own body is beyond me,” a female’s voice crashed through the silence in the room, and Neeku spun herself around as best she could to see who it was, before regretting her decision. She immediately felt like she was going to sick up. Her vision was still blurry, but she noticed a woman in a white robe leaning over to grab something before placing it between her legs and turning her torso back centered. Just in time, as Neeku vomited up into the metal bucket the woman had given her, a good minute of retching and heaving before she finally finished. The woman handed her a rag, and Neeku gratefully cleaned her mouth up as best she could. “Toss that into the bucket when you’re done, I’ll just throw the whole thing out,” the woman commanded her, and it took all of Neeku’s self-control to not deliberately throw the rag on the floor and to do as she was told. Besides, no sense in making this woman angry, as the young assassin still had no idea where she was or why Sheeba seemed to have vanished.
“Take this, you look like you could use it,” the woman said, and handed Neeku a waterskin, which she gratefully took, making sure she rinsed her mouth out and spit into the bucket before drinking every drop that the waterskin held. The robed woman took the waterskin away and placed it down next to her before taking the waste bucket and leaving the room with it. While she was gone, Neeku did her best to look around, but her blurry eyes were still preventing her from making out too many details, besides noticing that there were large glass windows above her, letting in sunlight. A large black cloth of some kind had been set up in a tent above the metal table she was laying on, keeping the light from blinding her.
At first, Neeku thought that the sunlight was why she couldn’t hear her Goddess, before remembering that sunlight was only capable of weakening her Goddess’s presence and ability to work with shadows, not strong enough to banish Her outright. “Sheeba, where are you?” Neeku whispered to herself.
“Your Goddess is not welcome here, if you’re trying to pray to Her. Just to let you know,” the woman said as she reentered the room, having heard Neeku’s words. “Here” she said, placing a wet washcloth in Neeku’s hands, “clean your face, you look a dreadful mess. Neeku hesitated, to which the woman tsked loudly. “If I wanted to hurt you, I could’ve done it while you were practically dead, making your deception a reality. Now, clean yourself or don’t, I’m not going to force you.” Begrudgingly, the young assassin used the warm wet washcloth to clean away the gummy residue from her eyes and to clean off her face and lips, finally feeling more like a living woman instead of a corpse. It helped with the blurry vision, and Neeku used the sleeve of her robe to dry her face off as best she could.
The woman sat down in the chair she must’ve been in as she was waiting for Neeku to awaken, so the young assassin swung her legs around so she was facing her and took the time to study the woman. Whether she was a captor -or an ally- remained to be seen. She was human, appearing in her mid- to late 20s, with long wavy blonde hair that seemed to have golden highlights, curvy where Neeku was slim. Her face and hands were tan, so she obviously spent time outside. Her piercing blue eyes studied Neeku studying her, and a smirk briefly appeared on her lips. Something about her seemed familiar, but Neeku couldn’t remember where she knew the woman from; the robe appeared of excellent quality, with gold designs around the wrist and collar, so she must have money. But taking care of Neeku herself either indicated that she had no servants, or that she didn’t want anyone else to know about the supposed corpse…
“So, did you kill the governor because someone paid you to, or was that for your own enjoyment?” the woman asked, and her voice finally clicked as to where Neeku knew her from.
“You’re the priestess who hired me to kill that fang two years ago!” Neeku rasped out, throat still sore despite emptying nearly a whole waterskin. “The priestess of Frea, right?”
Rolling her eyes, the woman answered sarcastically. “Oh yes, I don’t have a name, I’m just my calling! I mean, yes it’s been two years, but I remember your name Niki…”
“It’s Neeku,” the young assassin interrupted, slightly pleased.
Wincing slightly, the woman continued. “…I mean Neeku. Or should I say, the Terror of Tawnytown. That’s the name you prefer, the one that you go by when looking for work, yes?”
“It is, and I do remember your name…Angelina,” Neeku said, unable to hide her grin as the woman sat back and blinked in confusion. “That is your name, is it not?” Angelina nodded slowly, much to her apparent chagrin. “You see, in my line of work I do my research to know who’s hiring me and why. Plus, I don’t forget names. Apparently, I wasn’t as unforgettable as I’d assumed.” The blush that rushed to Angelina’s cheeks made Neeku’s victory that much sweeter. Having regained the upper hand in their discussion, the young assassin was not about to let it go. “Now, I can only assume that you didn’t turn me in to the guard for a reason. Did you happen to take the corpse that was supposed to be me, when you took me by any chance?”
Angelina shook her head and held up her hand before Neeku could speak. “No, but I did desecrate the body by taking off your ugly leathers before the authorities took it away. They had a hanging two days ago in your name. Funny how most of the people who witnessed it didn’t cheer, but the guard and the council and all their rich friends did; it’s like they were performing, but the play was only for them. Everyone else was just witness to the mummery.”
Neeku looked around and spotted her leathers in the corner of the room. Looking around, she realized this was a study, as there were numerous bookshelves, a desk, and a couple of chairs. She slowly got down from the gurney she’d been on, nearly falling but stretching out her open palm to prevent Angelina from helping her. “Need to get the feeling back in my legs anyway,” Neeku offered as an excuse, to which the young priestess just rolled her eyes again. “Although I could use those scissors; this dead weight on my right wrist is really annoying.”
“Oh, a tasteless joke, I’m shocked that an assassin would say such a thing,” Angelina drawled out as she grabbed scissors from her desk drawer and came over, ignoring Neeku’s outstretched left hand and cutting off the corpse’s right hand herself. “No offense, but I’m not sure I trust you with a sharp weapon right now.” Grimacing in disgust, Angelina put the dead hand on the gurney before walking over and putting the scissors away in her desk.
“And no offense back, but I think if you pulled that stick out of your ass you might actually be fun. Unless, that is, you like that sort of thing,” Neeku came back, scoring another point as Angelina blushed again before sputtering out some kind of refusal. Glad to have her right wrist back to normal, Neeku slowly shuffled over to the clothes in the corner and pulled the robe over her head. Hearing an indignant squeak, she looked over her shoulder at Angelina with her back turned, quivering with outrage. “What’s wrong, never seen a naked woman before?”
“Frea teaches that all bodies are beautiful, and that nudity is nothing to be ashamed of; I just didn’t know you were going to strip down right in front of me so brazenly.” Angelina snipped, her voice betraying how tightly her lips must have been pursed together.
“So,” Neeku said as she donned her comfortable wyvern leathers, “what I’m hearing is that you think I’m beautiful. Is that it?” She was relieved to see that Bloodmoon was in its sheath, and gratefully strapped it to her left leg before sitting down to pull on her boots.
“As if!” Angelina snorted. “Why would I find an assassin like you attractive?” The priestess turned back around, eyeing the dagger at Neeku’s side and gulping quietly before pointedly ignoring it and glaring at Neeku’s face. “You kill people for money,” she hissed.
“Only those who deserve it,” Neeku shot back. “You know, Your Highness, it may come as a shock to you, but I do have a code of ethics. I don’t just take any job that comes my way, I make sure that if I’m ending a life, it’s because that ending is better for people than their continued existence. I’m not the first option, I’m the final straw.”
“And who are you, to make those decisions?” Angelina said, staring down her nose at Neeku. Just like Eto used to do, all those years ago.
Even though the priestess was roughly 4 inches taller than her, Angelina still took a step back as Neeku stepped up to her. “I’m bonded to the Goddess of the Night, whose holy counsel I always take into consideration, so when I tell you that I’m completely qualified to determine whether someone deserves to live or die, you better Gods-damned believe it!” Neeku stared into Angelina’s bright blue eyes until finally the priestess blinked and then closed her eyes in defeat. The young assassin stepped out of her space, only now noticing the scent of daffodils and lilac on the priestess. “Must be coming out as I made her sweat,” Neeku theorized to herself.
Turning around, Neeku walked to the gurney and levied herself up onto it in a comfortable sitting position. “So, I ask again. You must have a reason you didn’t reveal my existence to the authorities. Can I ask why? We both know it’s not my charm that kept you from giving me up.” She winked as she said it.
Giving a little shiver, Angelina shook her head and walked back to her chair, gathering her thoughts. Ignoring Neeku’s attempts at banter, she spoke. “I think there’s something…wrong with my church, my faith. They don’t adhere to the teachings of my Goddess as they should, seemingly only concerned with gathering money and power. They allow people to go hungry while they spend fortunes on sumptuous meals, wear fancy clothes, live in large houses. And being a ‘lowly’ priestess means that every time I try and bring it up, I’m either shouted down or outright ignored. The only reason I still have this house and my position is because of how high up my father had been before he passed away five years ago. It’s his name that keeps me around, not my own deeds or abilities.” Angelina’s voice shook with a mixture of grief and rage.
“So, what does a priestess of the Goddess of the Sun want with an acolyte of the Goddess of the Night?” Neeku asked, intrigued despite her desire to appear aloof.
“It’s simple,” Angelina replied, taking a deep breath. “I want to hire you.”
