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My assignment is to retrieve the cannon plans. Zero took a few deep breaths, then leapt from one stack of crates to another until she reached the edge of a small home. Pulling herself up, she crouched on the roof and watched the bleeding colors of the sunset fall across the sky. It is almost nightfall. she thought, blinking against the sunset's pinkish light. Soon, the guards will be switching positions. She stood with a small flourish and took a running start. She almost flew from one rooftop to another, the wind blowing her shaggy brown hair away from her face, heading towards the center of the city.
At last, she stopped. Exactly two houses away was a tall building constructed of expensive stone. Zero grinned as she felt the excitment course though her veins. The nobleman's palace. She pushed aside her bangs and pulled a short scimitar from its sheath. Nearly 50 feet below, four guards mulled about, each of them carrying long blades and torches. Lyra took a deep breath, and grabbed a robe hanging from the roof's overhang. One of the guards stirred and looked upwards. Zero froze. When the guard looked away once more, she sighed and clenched the rope with one fist. It was only a short distance to swing to the palace window, maybe 10 feet at the most. When Zero's feet landed with a noiseless thump on the wooden flooring, she immediatly ducked behind a bookcase.
Someone was at the oak study door, she could hear them breathing.

((Entering from Deep Valley))

The sound of horses' weary hoofbeats could be heard upon the road leading to Jerusalem. A white-clad man upon the first horse slowed his mount and half dismounted, half fell from the horse. Saqr stumbled over to a tree on the side of the road and leaned against it heavily. His brow was glistening with sweat as he ground his teeth together.

The assassin made to reach around to feel if he could pull out the arrow shalf but winced and stopped himself as he shifted the injured shoulder. There wass no way he was going to get it out without help. He'd have to wait for the others as he wouldn't think to ask Mari to do the task.

Thinking of the girl, he glanced back at her and saw that the horse had obediently stayed where he'd left it with the wide-eyed girl still sitting in the saddle, looking horrified and lost without her sister. He didn't blame her at all. A strange man had ridden with her sleeping form all the way from Masayaf almost to Jerusalem. Granted her sister was still riding with them, but it would be in the very least uncomfortable for anyone having freshly lost the rest of their living family members to a fire. It also didn't help when that same strange man turns out to be an assassin and gets shot with an arrow protecting her.

He could't tell how deep the wound was but it was deep enough certainly. A crimson stain was spreading across his back as he tried to keep his breathing steady and focused. He called to Anan and the others.

"Either you will need to go on from here and I'll catch up or I need one of you to pull this out. It'll be too conspicuous if I ride any closer to the city like this." He gestured vaguely to his back then hissed through his teeth. He was a lot of dense muscle and any movement jostled the arrow bolt. "I'll have to find a better way into the city though we may still be able to make it through the gates if we're very careful and lucky, ha." He laughed bitterly. The blood loss was definitely getting to his head.

Saqr opened his eyes and looked to Anan. "If you think you have the stomach for it, yes." He placed his palm against the tree to steady himself and waited to see if this was true. "She might not want to watch though..." He gestured to Mari, knowing that after her sheltered life, seeing an arrow pulled from a man's flesh would be more than scarring.

"You wouldn't happen to have any rags or bandages in the saddlebags, would you?" Sweat beaded into his eye and he wiped it away tiredly.

{I am a masochist when it comes to the fate of my characters... >___> That and I think sweaty, injured men are hot, lmao.}

The assassin let out a sustained breath. "You did well." He frowned and reached over his shoulder to put pressure on the open wound and free Anan's hands. "My thanks, but do you need to sit down perhaps?" He saw the way she almost swayed where she stood.

The rag was already beginning to become soaked with his blood but he thought it may be slowing. "We haven't much time to waste. I can have this scrape fixed once we get to the Bureau. They unfortunately won't let you or Mari in so we may have to part ways for a time once we are within the city." It did not feel right to leave the two young women without his protection within such a large city, but if the other two assassins joined them, they should not have any problems. Hopefully.

"Probably." Saqr tried standing without the tree's support and made it over to his mount, albeit slowly but without staggering. "Not sure how well I'll make it through those gates though... I'm rather conspicuous right now. The chances of us making it through saying we're seeking a doctor would be slim but might be enough?" He grunted and swung up into the saddle painfully and leaned over Maira's neck until she planced around anxiously again from her rider.

Saqr made a clicking noise with his teeth and the mare started forward, keeping an easy pace now with the black stallion Anan rode.

He continued to hold the blood soaked rag over the wound and hoped fervently that they would make it past the guards sourrounding the gates like a pack of hungry wolves. They would be just itching for a chance at catching an outlaw or a thief, or even better, an assassin to hang.

The assassin kept his hood pulled low over his eyes and tried his best to look the 'wounded traveling scholar who was attacked by a band of rogues along their journey'.

"Right, you'll have to be the one doing all of the acting. Are you up for that?"