John contacted Ara and the rest of Team Rose to find out how they were doing. Their avatars met on the root way and discussed their situations.

“We’re mired in work everyday,” Ara sighed. “The Conglomerate really get their price’s worth. They are business people after all.”

“Eh,” said Big Crow, “they’re stinking thieves in business suits, that’s what they are.”

“We all saw videos of your fights at the Arena,” said Lin. “You were magnificent. I was biting my fingernails when watching that last one. It was so close.”

John nodded, “Yeah, well...It was tough and I made many mistakes. It was luck that saw me live through it. Where’s Rose?”

“He’s on a mission,” said Big Crow. “The Conglomerate wants to build closer relations with the treants of Grove 6. They sent Rose as their diplomat. Eh, he’ll probably burn them all to ashes, the way he goes about things.”

“Big Crow, what do you think about the Empress of Oor?”

“She’s a good leader,” Big Crow said after some consideration. “She’s an idol to the masses. She takes advantage of her popularity, and the common folk don’t even realize it. Do you know how many wars she’s waged since she took the throne?”

“How many?”

“Twenty two. And she’s won every single one of them. The dead are seen as martyrs by the general public, sacrificing themselves for the empire. Their families are treated well but money and honor cannot bring back the dead. If she wasn’t a war monger I’d approve of her wholeheartedly. She’s too desperate to expand her empire and make a name for herself.”

“Do you think she’ll wage war again?” He might be expected to fight in it. He was a baron of the Empire after all.

“Not for a decade at least. She still has to consolidate her borders. Moreover, Aroth is a troublesome planet to manage.”

They enjoyed a long conversation over the happenings of the galaxy and John ended the call late at night. He’d been talking for hours. The next few weeks went quickly. John stepped into a routine where he’d take Sher Khan for a walk in the morning, use the training room in the barracks in the afternoon and meet Sor Al to learn rune writing in the evening.

The first few days of training in the barracks had been tough. In the beginning, he’d been denied access until he called Luten and got her to settle the issue. There had been many snide remarks behind his back about being an ‘elf lover’ and so on. John just ignored those. Quite a few of them wanted to spar with him though they were just looking for an excuse to beat him up. John obliged them, beating them all into submission one by one. After that, he had still not gained much of their respect but he had gained their acceptance.

Early one morning, the Empress visited him in his room. Didn’t she have any concept of respecting someone’s privacy, John thought groggily, as he got out of bed. Her two bodyguards were staring at him with menace, as though his bedraggled appearance was his fault. How did she get in? He was sure he had locked the door. She must have had a skeleton key to all the rooms in the palace. This wasn’t the way to treat guests.

“Wild Child,” she said, “I have your first mission.”

“Back to Wild Child again, not Baron Fi?” John asked, a little disgruntled at being rudely woken up.

“When you’re my executioner you’re Wild Child, when you’re in my court you’re Baron Fi.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“House Atrexis has been growing very daring of late. They are a strong part of Pular’s camp.” She said the name Pular through clenched teeth. It was plain to see that this man had really angered her.

“Who’s Pular?”

“My chief opponent. He has gathered all those against me. For now they meet in secret. It is only a matter of time before they try something When they stage their coup a lot of people will die. The proscriptions will be unending, and civil wars will rage. I seek to prevent this from happening.”

Whenever the higher ups played their games it was always the common people who suffered. The deaths of tens of thousands was nothing to these nobles as long as they could maneuver into a better position.

“What do you want me to do?” he asked.

“The chief person responsible for the rise of House Atrexis is a man called Sandar. He is the duke’s right hand man in everything, though they’ve given him the nominal position of security adviser.”

“And you want me to kill this Sandar?”

“Yes, preferably while he’s asleep in his room. I have authorized a ship for your use. You can take it to their home world of Arax whenever you like, but you must fulfill your mission within a month.”

“What happens in a month?”

“Nothing you need concern yourself with,” she said, her distant look creeping John out a little.

He’d finally have his own space ship and he didn’t even have to pay for it. “I’ll need all the information you have on him, House Atrexis and planet Arax. The blueprints of his house,...”

“What are blueprints?”

“The layout plan,” He’d translated the word directly from English. Old habits died hard and old mother tongues died harder. “I’ll need a list of the guards, their habits,...”

The Empress interrupted, “I’ll send you everything we have. It will be sent to your shoot access by the evening.”

“I’ll also need chu daggers.”

“Why would you want those antiques?”

“The less blood the better.” Assassination was different from regular killing. He had to make sure he was inconspicuous both before and after the deed.

“I can give you more hi tech laser daggers. The imli dagger is much more deadly.”

“Very well,” said John. “I want a list of Sandar’s crimes as well. The list had better not be fabricated.” The list would help ease John’s conscience.

“Is it not enough that he plots against his suzerain? If they succeed it will be chaos.”

“I’ll feel better if I know more about him.”

“You will get his full file with nothing left out. Remember, you only have a month.”

The Empress left his room, followed by her giant body guards. Their footsteps were like drums, John thought with irritation. He wondered how they had not waken him up until they were right by his bed. He was getting too comfortable in this place, and not nearly as alert as he should be. Even Sher Khan had slept through it, that stupid tiger. At least he had known to stay quiet and not play around with the Empress. John didn’t think she’d enjoy Sher Khan’s company.

John contacted the palace’s kitchen with his implant and ate breakfast in bed. He had two eggs, bacon and buttered toast. It tasted just as good as he remembered it back on Earth. He took Sher Khan for a walk in the garden, wondering what to do with him while he was away. He could have Sor Al look after the tiger, but he didn’t want to impose on her.

They went back to their room. Sher Khan growled softly and leaped onto the ledge above the door. What was he doing? A few moments later Luten walked into the room. Sher Khan pounced on her and Luten screamed.

“Stop! Sher Khan,” John couldn’t help laugh a little. “Bad boy.” He grabbed the tiger and put him down on the ground.

“You should have him trained by the kennel master,” Luten said, rearranging her hair.

“There’s a kennel master in the palace?”

“Of course. The woodland surrounding the palace is hunting ground. The nobles like to hunt like in the days of old, with horse and dog. Some even use bows and arrows, though most use old fashioned guns.”

“The ones that use gun powder?”

“Not that old,” Luten scoffed.

“I’ll be going away for a while, Luten. Can I leave my pet with the kennel master?”

“Of course you can. Where are you going?”

“That’s a secret,” John said. Luten did not probe any further.

Towards evening John got all the information he had asked for. He even got a manual for the ship he was to pilot. He went to the port to take a look at it. The ship was tiny, enough for two people. It had a single space for a bed and some wardrobes. The pilot room was a little compartment filled with gizmos, and a single chair.

He then visited the Elven Embassy to tell Sor Al he would be away for a while. Sor Al did not ask why. She had probably guessed his reason. The next day, John handed Sher Khan to the kennel master, who seemed like a good man, and an expert at handling animals. The dogs in the kennels were all very friendly and obedient. He then boarded his space ship and set off into space. He’d read enough of the manual to figure out how to take off. Surely, he’d be able to land after a few more days of reading and experimentation. He thought he’d land on an asteroid for practice, just to be safe.

It took a week at sub-light speed to reach the hyperspace beacon. In that time John had read through the space ship’s manual three times over, and had also memorized all the important information on his target and the world Arax. Sandar was suspected of orchestrating at least a hundred murders, which made John’s heart more at ease with what he was about to do. You live by the sword, you die by the sword, or in this case an imli dagger. He played around with the dagger for a while.

His ship got attached with a hyperspace tunneler from the substation near the beacon. It was quite expensive but the Empress had sent him enough funds. The ship traveled through hyperspace without incident. John had been wondering how to fend off a demon attack in such a cramped space. Thankfully, such a situation did not arise. His ship came out of hyperspace two days later. He sold the used tunneler to the station near the Arax beacon, and bought a new one. They would scavenge the used tunneler for parts. John didn’t have to do this, but he didn’t like wasting money.

Outside Arax, his ship was scanned by a patrol fleet and allowed to go to the planet. He’d disguised himself as a precious stones merchant called Tal. He even had a few green alzar stones, rubies, electric blue onar and pearl-like jumba. The stones themselves were enough to buy a space ship like the one he was in. The Empress was very meticulous in planning things out. He was wearing a holographic face mask that could change his appearance into any form he wished. This technology might have been commonplace for the elves but it was state of the art for Oor.

He landed at the port outside the capital city and paid the docking fee with his chip. He looked for a nice hotel on the root way and booked a room as well as a speeder taxi. The ‘Executioner in the Dark’ had finally arrived to fulfill his first mission.