The Silent Glaciers. Snow, ice, and everpresent freezing cold that covered the land in a constant blanket of white, most life staying away from the place for that simple fact alone. Plants did not dare attempt to break through the thick permafrost and layers of ice, and consequently, most animals followed their example. The region was considered remote, with only a few sparsely populated settlements dotting the land, giving it its distinct name: The Silent Glaciers. Though it seemed that something had brought trouble to this isolated land, and while The Silent Glaciers, for the most part of the year, remained silent, the occasional disturbance would plague this stretch of land ...
... and this was one such occasion.
A local community of hunters that called the Silent Glaciers their home had experienced some ... trouble. It seemed that the remoteness of their settlement and the subsequent lack of protection had attracted a group of bandits that thought the village to be easy prey, though the villagers fought back, and so, the bandits had begun the siege of the village in an attempt to starve it out.
And that was, of course, where Cassius, or rather, his Hidden Blades persona, Revenant, came in. The village elder, through a trading contact, had come into contact with another contact who knew someone and so on ... and so things began to set themselves up, as they tended to do in the world of this type of business, as Cassius had begun to learn. In his Hidden Blades armor, he had set out for the task that had been assigned to him. After all, Cassius himself would certainly be specialized for precisely this type of task: He was ordered to eradicate them all and lift the siege.
Of course, Cassius, Revenant, "Revvy", as some misguided members of the guild had come to call him, didn't lose much time. Without sleep, without rest and without stop, the Wraith had begun to make his way to his target before finally reaching it one night shortly after setting out for the contract, the village surrounded by a wooden wall that served to protect the village against wildlife more than outlaws as well as the various tents set up by the bandits that attempted to starve the village outside of it. It seemed his timing was perfect as well. A storm had been plaguing the Silent Glaciers, the relentless blizzard constricting sight to not more than a few feet. Favorable conditions. This would be routine.
As far as Revenant could tell, there was only one guard that kept out an eye, sitting by a low burning campfire that was visible through the storm. Of course, they wouldn't need more to keep the unarmed villagers in check, but this was nothing to hold back the undead inhabiting the empty armor. From the cover of the storm, the figure would step out behind its unsuspecting victim, the noise of the weather masking the sound of his movements. The other would only be alerted to Cassius' presence through the flash of arcane magic that lit up when he materialized a greataxe in his grasp, though it was already too late. The bandit whipped around only to find the blade sinking into his torso, an expression of shock and horror on his face as he fell, the life leaving his body.
The rest of the bandits were still asleep. The rest would be a walk in the park. Cassius would be certain to fulfill the conditions of his contract, and all the villagers would find in the morning would be a burnt-out campfire and the broken, mangled corpses of the besiegers, crushed while they'd slept without any trace of the one who had done this and saved their home.
Word Count: 628
