Faux’s stiletto sank into the tender flesh and blood seeped freely.

“Drek feces Faux, you cut too deep.” Jasira winced as the kidney was pierced. She was exasperated at her partner’s heavy handedness.

The furbuck looked like a bear the size of a cat and it was their current dissection assignment.

Anatomy with Master Creed was one of Faux’s new favorite teachers. They hadn’t dissected any human’s yet, but he could only assume fresh corpses were harder to find. Faux actually felt a tinge of sadness at the poor animals that found their way onto the dissection tables

Creed was a short thin man who specialized in critical strikes. His petite frame didn’t allow for powerful blows, so he had learned where to do the most damage with the least effort. The kidneys were apparently one of the best places to cause pain. The liver is surprisingly listed as the third most important organ in the human body. The veins in the armpit that could lead to a quick bleed out. This was all fascinating information to the young and budding assassins.

“We were supposed to remove the kidney undamaged” Jasira muttered angrily. She had volunteered to be paired with Faux, it had nothing to do with Jolly and Kenosha having already paired up.

Faux frowned in annoyance. “It was closer to the surface than I expected.” He could only be happy he had Jasira and not Kenosha. Poor Jolly was not so happy recently as his partner tore into him over any mistake.

Only a small portion of the initiates hadn’t been chosen by a master, and Kenosha was working to make sure that Creed would choose him. Everyday without a master, their personal training would fall behind. Even with Faux’s original trepidation, he couldn’t argue that Lavish was an excellent teacher. Theater wasn’t just about masking one's own emotions, but also about identifying others.

Master Lavish was like the Korba plant they had learned about in a basic poisons class. It was a pretty flower that grew in the center of a mass of vines. The pollen floating in the air was a potent anesthetic, so one wouldn’t feel the thorns on the vines pierce their skin as they walked toward the plant. Blood would then cause the vines to restrict, slow pulling down whatever creature had begun the short journey toward the enticing flower. They would soon pass out and gradually die of blood loss as their body was used to fertilize the massive vine and root system.

Faux’s thoughts had wandered, but the point was, Lavish was a complex man and anyone judging him by first impressions would find himself or herself quickly at a disadvantage. Faux himself had grown to have massive respect for his eccentric teacher.

“Can you focus?” Jasira reprimanded Faux. He noticed he had almost nicked the intestine while removing the liver. This process smelled bad enough already, no need to make it worse. Faux looked at the poor emaciated creature that was on the table before them and again felt that touch of sadness. They would eventually move to human corpses, they wouldn’t be as fresh, but he would much prefer that.

A turn of the hourglass later they found themselves sitting at the table over some food. They all ate with gusto. Only a select few had been slightly green after the first few dissections, but even those weaklings had long since grown used to the sight of blood and guts.

“I heard the kingdom has finally called off of the search for the missing prince.” Kenosha whispered.

“Who cares?” muttered Faux as he shoveled more meat porridge into his mouth. Jolly gave Faux a frown but nodded his head. “Faux could have said it better, but he was not wrong Ken. The only thing you should be focusing on is poison, which in the last class you nearly killed yourself. I don’t know what’s got you so distracted lately.”

Kenosha glared at him. “Of course you don’t, all three of you have masters already. And after our shared classes you go off to train more while I sit locked in my room trying to learn from books.” Ken scoffed in disdain. “Have you ever read a book on the theory of alchemy? Well I have and it's goddess damn impossible to understand.”

Jolly looked a tad chagrined and Jasira blushed. Faux though didn’t really care, he thought they had too much free time as it was, and when he was locked in his room he practiced his changing. He could now do the faces of his three compatriots a handful of breaths. He still hadn’t gotten the voices down, but each day he felt progress was being made.

The pain of changing was still excruciating, he wasn’t sure if he would ever get used to that. But he had seen the truth of humanity under its thin veneer of civility, and the weak would always be the stepping-stones of the strong. He remembered those who had wronged him, and one day he intended to collect his due.

He was pulled by his reverie by a tap on his shoulder. “Huh?” It was an acolyte he didn’t know with a narrow face and giant eyebrows. “Are you deaf? I said that your presence is requested in the hall.” The acolyte then turned and stormed off. Faux just shrugged and took another bite of his stew. “umm Faux, you should probably go, the only one who can order and acolyte around is a master.” Jolly pointed out.

Faux nodded, took one more bite of stew and walked towards the hall. He just assumed it was Master Lavish who had grown used to Faux’s quirks. Needless to say he was surprised when he was cuffed along the ear.

“What in the void took you so long? Do you think my time is so free to be wasted by a runt like you?” Faux’s jaw dropped when he turned and saw Master Fang-Te. “Close your mouth before a ghost flies in and follow me.“ The master turned and headed away, Faux noticed that the master walked with a slight limp before he scurried after him.

“I’ve been practicing with Master Lavish, he said-“ “Silence” Fang-Te cut Faux off. “The walls have ears, never speak unless you have secured the area.” They continued down the hall in silence. Faux had never been in this particular area of the estate before, it was reserved for Master’s.

Fang-Te stopped in front of a door and pulled out a key. He turned it a few different ways which was confusing, and he muttered something Faux couldn’t hear before the door opened and they walked in. Fang-Te turned and locked the door, and pressed his hand against a carved glyph on the wall that briefly flashed.

“All right, you can speak now, the wards are active.” Faux couldn’t say why, but he felt nervous all of a sudden. He hadn’t seen Fang-Te since he had been admitted to the guild as an initiate.

“Still the quiet one eh? I thought Lavish would have trained that out of you. Well you have a few more years I suppose, but you need to start taking this seriously. Your emotions should never be real. Going forward, every day, every moment you will not be you. Who we are, what we are, is different from everyone else. We are the last of us. We are nearly extinct. Humankind as a whole will always be our enemy.”

“What of master Lavish? He knows.” Fang-Te paused his rant for a moment and pondered the question. “Those select few who do know of us, like the guild master, see us as tools to be used. I assure you he is not a benevolent man.” “And Lavish?” “Lavish is an elf, so not human. Regardless, you must be careful with everyone you meet. Have you been practicing the change?”

Faux nodded. “Does it ever get less painful?” he asked. Faux thought he saw sympathy for a brief moment in his Master’s eyes. “No, but you do gradually become numb to pain in general. This is a useful skill for an assassin. While your enemy will be crippled or stunned by pain, you will learn to persevere. Changelings were deadly enemies on a battlefield, if our people had grown as the humans did we would never have fallen to our current state.”

“What do you mean?” Faux asked. Fang-Te glanced at the young changeling. “Do you know anything about us?” He asked. Faux shook his head. Fang-Te sighed and limped over to a small credenza and poured himself a glass of brown liquid from a crystal decanter. Faux noticed his limp was a lot more pronounced as the old changeling settled into a plush chair.

“We were a tribal race. Some say we were favored by the goddess Zenut. We were able to change our appearance at will to reflect who we were inside. We live longer than humans, and we can breed faster than the elves. We were many, we were happy, young and free, everything the humans craved.”

Fang-Te pulled a long drink from his glass. “When they first turned against us, we were shocked, and yet they found we were no easy nut to crack. We devastated them in the beginning. We had an inhuman ability to endure pain, and we could change our faces on the battlefield. Imagine turning to your left and seeing your ally, so you look away, only to be stabbed in the side. We sowed chaos and discord amongst our enemies. We were chaos incarnate.”

He drained his glass and motioned for Faux to refill his glass, which he promptly did. “Humans used that defeat to scare the other humans to unite with them. Humans are easily afraid, a fearful and petty species. Now united the humans slowly ground away the tribes of changelings, we were too few and secular in the face of the great numbers that never seemed to end. By the time the tribal chiefs realized the danger it was too late.”

Fang-Te stood, wincing as he put weight on his leg. He walked to another cabinet and opened it up. He pulled out a weird looking weapon from the closet and handed it to Faux.

Faux looked it over and was confused. The weapon had a short wooden shaft with a scythe-like blade. At the base of the wooden shaft was a long chain that connected to a solid metal ball.

“This is a kusarigama, it is a tribal weapon of our people.” He raised his hand to stop the question upon Faux’s lips. “It is not so rare as to immediately out you. After we were hunted to near extinction, they became a popular weapon for those wishing to show off a high level of skill. It is incredibly difficult to master.

Faux was confused. “Then why master it?” Fang-Te gave Faux a firm look. “Because I said so. For you, that is good enough.” Faux lifted the confusing weapon and looked it over. “I would have no idea where to even begin.” Fang-Te nodded. “Which is why I will be teaching you, every evening you will come to me after your lessons with Lavish.”

Faux was startled. “No one has two masters.” Fang-Te just waved his hand in dismissal. “That’s my business, now you better hustle back, you’re already late for your class.” Faux was startled; he hadn’t realized he was indeed late. As he quickly ran from the room Fang-Te hollered after him. “Leave the weapon, fool.” Faux flustered, walked back into the room and dropped it on the floor before closing the door.

Fang-Te silently cursed his idiot disciple, and then he just rolled his eyes in resignation. For better or worse, this was the future of his race.

….

“Where were you?” Jasira asked. “Master Green was furious when you came in late and interrupted her lecture.” Faux just shrugged. He wasn’t trying to be evasive; he just didn’t think it was anyone’s business. Besides, the others might get jealous if they knew he had a second master.

Jasira scowled at him before turning away. “Fine, be that way. I’m off to see Master Shade anyway.” She turned and left as Jolly split off with a wave to see his master as well. Faux noticed Ken’s shoulders sink and part of him did feel for the boy. No one should be forced to waste time lounging around when they could be spending time training. As Faux turned to leave Ken put out a hand to stop him.

“Hey, can you come with me real quick? I wanted to get your opinion on something.” The way Ken said it sent a tingle through Faux’s sixth sense. There was something there, almost like the boy had to convince himself to involve Faux.

“What for?” Faux asked, his eyes squinting as if he could see through Ken. “I just need a second opinion on something I’m working on, and since I don’t have a master I don't have anyone else to ask.”

“Why not ask Jolly or Jasira?”

“Just because”

“Because?”

“Because I value your opinion more.”

Now Faux knew something was up, but he subtly checked behind his back and his shank was still there if he needed it. The shoddily made shank wasn’t as good as his last, and while it wouldn’t puncture a chest, it could still slash a throat.

“Alright, lead the way.” Faux said with a quick nod. He noticed when Ken’s shoulders sagged with quiet relief. “This way” Ken said as he started a quick walk down the hall.

They took a few turns and quickly came into a part of the estate Faux didn’t recognize. Faux felt a sense of déjà vu. As they moved further into the unknown, Faux gripped his shank tighter. He was sure something wasn’t right, but he didn’t understand why Kenosha would be trying anything. The only thing that he could think of was that now that he had a second master, the jealousy must have cracked the poor boy.

As Faux debated whether he should kill him, or let him off with a warning since they were fairly well acquainted, Ken abruptly stopped.

Faux quickly pulled his shank and quickly checked his surroundings, still not seeing the trap. Faux gave a confused look to the smiling Kenosha.

“When did you find out?” Faux asked. The smile dropped from Ken’s face. “What?” “What?” a confused Faux repeated back. Faux’s sixth sense kicked into high power as he felt something wasn’t right.

Ken lunged forward and Faux slashed out. Ken raised his arms in defense and screamed in pain as the flesh on his forearms was split open.

“Why are you doing this? You’re not my match.” Faux said quietly. He wasn’t sure when, but he had decided to take the other boy alive.

Ken jumped forward again, this time Faux stabbed out with his shank, and made a fist with his left. When Ken turned his body to dodge the stab, he would get him with a kidney jab.

So it surprised him when Ken made no effort to dodge or block and just accepted the stab into his abdomen with a shriek.

Faux jumped back more befuddled than fearful.

“What’s this, attacking another initiate again?” Faux felt his heart drop as he turned to look behind him. Master Skaven stood there with an evil sneer. Faux only knew him in passing as they hadn’t begun training in traps yet, but what he did know was that he was a friend of Varduk’s.

“It was self defense.” Faux said.

“Self defense?” Skaven laughed. “Show me where you were hurt.”

Faux finally felt the noose tighten. He turned and looked at the bleeding Kenosha and grimaced. He had been foolish because he had once again gotten complacent. Instead of staring at the path ahead, he had been looking at his feet.

“It’s a good thing I arrived in time, or you might have killed a fellow initiate.” Skaven said as he strode up and gripped Faux behind the neck. Faux wanted to lash out, but he knew that would be folly.

“I stopped on my own. I was just defending myself.” Faux grimaced as the words sounded hollow even to him.

Skaven only laughed again. “The council will handle you, ingrate.”

Faux was frog marched away, and never looked back at Kenosha. If he had, he might have seen the conflicted emotions passing the boy's face, before they finally settled on happiness.